The finger and the moon, the river and the raft

One of the most used metaphors in Buddhism (especially Zen Buddhism) is that of the finger and the moon. It warns against mistaking the finger which points to the moon, i.e. your teacher, guru, teaching, religion, etc, and the moon, i.e. that towards which the finger points (enlightened state, Buddha-nature, God-consciousness, etc). Another popular metaphor for it is the river and the raft: once you have crossed to the other shore, you don’t need the raft anymore.

As I start to mingle with "spiritual circles" (especially Buddhists), I am actually surprised at how many of them do not seem to have integrated this most basic teaching, which says: do not cling to the teaching! To my amazement, a number of the Buddhists I meet, from this or that particular flavor of Buddhism, seem convinced that their particular chosen path (not only Buddhism but their particular school, or teacher!) is the only path -- and do not understand what I mean with my finger and moon parable.

I suppose it is not dissimilar to the phenomenon of transference in psychotherapy...

Comments

[rajiv shah]

there is a book by herman hesse called siddharth. if you haven't read it do so. in that sidharth explains to his friend who is joining the buddha's order why he (sidharth) is not joining. he (sidharth) says how many besides the buddha have attained. I guess the moral is that the moment you join an order you get conditioned and you start by following rules rather than ideas and that doesn't help in getting enlightenment.

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