What is Real? Continuing thoughts on the nature of truth

    Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

    Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

    The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

    "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"   

(From "101 Zen Stories," a 1919 compilation of 19th and early 20th century anecdotes compiled by Nyogen Senzak)

I’ve spent years trying to empty my cup, all the while seeking perspectives on the world, society and the meaning of life from as many directions as possible. At some point in the past I took the first step, as noted by Pastor Mark Smiley in his sermon yesterday where he cited the admonition of Isaiah to seekers of truth: "Lift up your eyes and see!" (Isaiah 60:4)

One thing I know for sure, I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand the core reality of life’s truth to any completeness within the years I’ll spend here in this current, earthly existence. But what I do know is that, like a sculptor who walks around his subject to gauge the complex shape before him from as many directions as possible, it’s impossible to keep my feet firmly planted and expect to understand fully what I’m seeing.

Over the weekend I was listening to a speech by renowned author Dr. Wayne Dyer.  As he wove a wonderfully entertaining approach to life from the writings of a diverse universe of very thoughtful people, I recalled the ubiquitous fable of the blind men who, each holding a single part of an elephant, were then asked to describe it.  The one holding the trunk said it was a serpent.  The one hold the leg described the trunk of a tree.  And the one standing at the tusk relayed his view that an elephant was like a spear.  And so on.  The bottom line is that they were quite certain they fully understood the reality of their subject, but in fact they were only seeing a small part of the truth. Like Dr. Dyer, I thought, the better approach would be to seek those opinions of truth from a number of sources and after time, begin to form an image of that reality.

So I intend to keep looking and moving and looking again, and sculpting as I go along.  But I can say that one of the first tasks for me is to define reality itself—not what it is, but how I’ll know when I find it.  

Indian religious leader and Hindu saint, Swami Krishnananda (1922-2001) offered a hint when he wrote, “What is Reality? Reality is that which never changes, which is absolute, unlimited, and is never contradicted by any other thing or experience.”

Fascinating concept. But that's fodder for another day.