All that can be said are beautiful lies…
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
“Truth cannot be said, so whatever can be said is going to be a beautiful lie — beautiful because it can lead towards truth.”
— Osho, ‘Beyond Enlightenment’
It seems to me that words are a game of continuously going around in circles. Consider a dictionary, every word in there is defined in terms of other words. There is a limited set of ideas expressed in those words, and we keep recycling them to make fascinating patterns which keep the mind busy.
The Tao that can be told is not the Tao. The ultimate truth cannot be expressed in words, and so what Osho says, that all you can say is a beautiful lie because it can point towards truth, seems to me to be so. It is in poetry, in evoking the indirect experience, that we can find hints at the truth.
The quest for expressing those things which come close to truth is also difficult… Osho once said “it happens when you try to explain something which is unexplainable. You bring it into the cage of language, of words — beautiful words, but the soul has disappeared.” It is better to house the living principle in your being, than to kill it by trying to explain it. I feel strongly that he is right.
Comments
Words and concepts - how easily they can become delusions. Call them lies or myths or metaphors - anything but the keys to the universe. Perhaps they are just tools - very useful if applied mindfully, apt to cause injury if swallowed.
Delusion I think is caused by attachment, the words themselves are ephemeral and fleeting, just like dreams. It depends on how much importance you attach to the words and the concepts they form in your mind. People have a tendency to become obsessed, to think things are very important, not just to themselves but that they’ve discovered something of universal importance.
So again it comes down to clinging, a distortion of views caused by too much focus on some idea which has taken root. Truly all of the Buddha’s teachings are available in just one, if one looks deeply.
What is beneficial is to untangle the pointers to the truth from just words, and to let that sink in. Truth is beyond words, at the most we can be motivated to extend our journey along the path by a few paces by the right words.
Osho said that he was trying to create an atmosphere where people would celebrate, be joyful, meditative, light, free. In a way the communes were his attempt to go there.
A cloudless sky holds no secrets. It's the clouds on which the kingdoms of heaven rests.
Obfuscation of the full sight to take enjoyment in the distorted image. Bored minds make stuff up for fun.
All the world's a stage and the Buddha teaches us how to stop the show.
But it's still on us to let go for keeps.
Which reminds me of this Zen poem...
"You can't catch hold of it
nor can you get rid of it
In not being able to get it, you get it
When you speak it's silent_
When you are silent it speaks"
But still the question is, has Buddhism brought you a lasting change in your being? Have you been transformed by it?
Generally in spiritual circles if people have a goal at all, if they know what they are after, it is usually some measure of peace or bliss or truth.
Excellent!
Today while watching how politics cause people to demonise one side, while glorifying another, or like in the current war (pick your side of the culling). To break such patterns and to see the entrapment of opinions and automatism. They say objetivity does not exist. That is true, having biases is human after all. To overcome them? To witness Reality clearly and neatly...
Well, that is part of the Buddha's path!
Well-said!
Me personally? I'm here by accident. Peta realm was calling my name and Buddha reached out to me through a combination of my broken heart, desire for annihilation, seeking a sign, and random listening to the Buddha's words. That night everything became unmistakably clear. The words caught and I gave myself fully to what I heard. I didn't care if I lived or died so I let go and let be. I don't need to have that clarity right now to have established unshakable conviction in what was experienced. Most of my life since then has been an attempt to understand and connect to those that understand. That and continue to convince myself I need to keep going and not rest in what I'd experienced.
You ask if it's brought me lasting change, whether I've been transformed by it. Buddha's kindness revealed my life to me. Right in my face. I've been slow-walking my way down the mountain all my life in a twisted desire to die and Buddha showed me in one moment all of my foolishness but also all of the wholesome efforts I'd already been performing. Helped me process all my unprocessed guilt and shame from my actions and thoughts. I've been to hell. Maybe my neighbors can attest if their windows had been open some of those stormy nights. But it wasn't about punishment. It was the Buddha's lesson on dependent origination, cause and effect. It was hell but it flowed through me like pure water. The Buddha showed me the truth of the goodness in my heart that was already there and how to go with that goodness. He revealed heaven to me. Innocence and the beauty of an innocent mind. Love in its released form. The Buddha showed me the interconnectedness of all things through anicca, anatta, and dependent origination in one mind moment then he let me go again to process and decide what to do about it.
Kids go to school most their lives and have no idea why and parents hope when the kid reaches college, the why becomes more clear. No such thing just happens. A catalyst is needed. Something that clearly reaches them and connects with them and they go "THAT!" THAT is my path. That is my unmistakable truth. And they see how all the interests, all the activities, all the hobbies, even the difficulties leading up to then were related to that. It becomes crystal clear that's the way to go. A terrible comparison but the Buddha's words were my catalyst. A life had been lived to that point and the Buddha's words gave it clarity, connected the scattered dots into an image of it all. There IS no other way for me to be but on this path. There is nothing as significant as this and certainly nothing as beautiful.
So I started walking back up the mountain. I still turn around frequently out of habit but the deed is done. Like someone who's outgrown their old toys still picks them up to see if any wonder is still there, they know it's just not as good any more and eventually leave it be. The rest will happen of its own accord. At best all I can do is postpone and drag my feet which I'm still very much attached to...a delight in becoming and unbecoming still. Like splashing around in the moonlit pool of some desert oasis I'm sure once I've drank my fill I'll find a comfortable seat, sit down, and grow still.
Great post @FleaMarket
"I don't need to have that clarity right now to have established unshakable conviction in what was experienced."
In many ways finding the attributes or unfolding the experience is on going ... and may change the nature and direction.
The Christian Mystic Thomas Merton put it this way
“Innocence.
Experience.
Innocence.”
Similar to mountain, no mountain, mountain
When you speak it's silent_
When you are silent it speaks
So where is the silence?