One night at sea on the fantail of a warship, I stood in the company of a kindred spirit that would forever change my life. The seemingly never-ending time at sea surrounded by Poseidon's endless body of unforgiving wrath was made bearable only by the presence of a single like-mind. Our thoughts would intertwine in endless synergy as we respectively fulfilled our naive commitment of servitude. On this particular night, there was an illustration painted in my mind that shook the very foundation of everything that I had been taught to believe. On this night, I saw the moon as I had never seen it before.
The open fantail was the best place available to escape the reality of being a gear in a machine. My friend and I would spend our off-time (what little we had) gazing into the open water sharing our stories, ideas, and dreams. For a moment in time the reflection of two lit cigarettes side by side mixed with the countless stars that pervaded our vision as the stars in the sky rested on the calm water beneath us.
You see, being confined to a ship for months at a time offers the opportunity to get to know a person in a way that is indescribable. It was not uncommon for my friend and I to discuss spirituality and religious concepts, and eventually that is where we landed on this night. We began to talk about the fact that there are so many religions, but yet so many assert that their faith is THE faith. Each thought connected to the next as if guided to align all of the pieces together into a single image. That's when he pointed to the moon.
"Imagine that my hand is religion. Imagine that it is the Bible or the Quran, or maybe a spiritual relic. Now imagine that the moon is God/Allah/YHWH/Jehovah...(Insert your preference). You see, all of these things are meant to point us to the Divine; but the problem is that most people keep looking at the hand and miss what it's pointing to."
It all made perfect sense. We all look at the same moon, but yet different cultures develop different words, portrayals, and metaphors to describe it. We are subjectively discovering that which is infinite. Our disagreement is not on concept; it's our interpretation of it.
I later studied Buddhism and learned that this concept is certainly not an original one, although I truly believe that the moment in time that I've solidified through this story was orchestrated by the divine spirit. In summary, what really matters is that we become a reflection of the divine light no matter what we call it. We feel the same love, and that is the bridge that unites us. He who is a reflection of love cannot hate, and therefore we will no longer fight about imaginary differences. We will love and accept one another as another fragment of the infinite light that is within us all.
You see, being confined to a ship for months at a time offers the opportunity to get to know a person in a way that is indescribable. It was not uncommon for my friend and I to discuss spirituality and religious concepts, and eventually that is where we landed on this night. We began to talk about the fact that there are so many religions, but yet so many assert that their faith is THE faith. Each thought connected to the next as if guided to align all of the pieces together into a single image. That's when he pointed to the moon.
"Imagine that my hand is religion. Imagine that it is the Bible or the Quran, or maybe a spiritual relic. Now imagine that the moon is God/Allah/YHWH/Jehovah...(Insert your preference). You see, all of these things are meant to point us to the Divine; but the problem is that most people keep looking at the hand and miss what it's pointing to."
It all made perfect sense. We all look at the same moon, but yet different cultures develop different words, portrayals, and metaphors to describe it. We are subjectively discovering that which is infinite. Our disagreement is not on concept; it's our interpretation of it.
I later studied Buddhism and learned that this concept is certainly not an original one, although I truly believe that the moment in time that I've solidified through this story was orchestrated by the divine spirit. In summary, what really matters is that we become a reflection of the divine light no matter what we call it. We feel the same love, and that is the bridge that unites us. He who is a reflection of love cannot hate, and therefore we will no longer fight about imaginary differences. We will love and accept one another as another fragment of the infinite light that is within us all.
"Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?" ― Hui-Neng
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