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The Finger Pointing at the Moon

Posted on Aug 20, 2011 by Trevor in Religion

There is a simple proverb from the Zen school of Buddhism that compares the relationship between spiritual instructors and the ultimate truth that they seek to teach to a finger pointing at the moon:

“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?”

Many times when we seek religious truths, we insist on easy, simple, and immediate answers. Ideas and concepts that are more complex, that require more effort to understand, or that are abstract often receive less consideration than inferior ideas that are within arm’s reach.

I think there is some value in comparing the institutions of organized religions to the old man pointing towards the moon. Since I am a Mormon, in my case the moon represents the undefiled, pure truth of the Gospel, and the old man represents the LDS Church and/or its leaders, missionaries, and teachers. The role of the old man is to point us towards the truth and help us understand it. Sometimes, however, we as truth-seekers find that peering up at the moon strains our neck too much and that it’s simply easier to focus on the old man instead and remain content with being spoon-fed by him. Sometimes the old man gains an inflated sense of self-importance and becomes fixated on self-preservation and self-promotion. Sometimes we forget about, lose interest in, or disregard the moon because they discover the old man’s frailties and imperfections and cannot move past them.

Religion represents man’s best attempt at seeking the mind of God, and we must never become satisfied that we have all the truth or that we know the full story. Apostles, missionaries, and teachers may all be earnestly seeking to acquire and disseminate these eternal truths, but as mere mortals, we are all afflicted by our own biases and limitations. When people fixate too much on the old man, they will inevitably discover his shortcomings and unfortunately, this can often lead to disaffection and disappointment.

When a person becomes converted to a missionary, to a prophet, to a Church program, or even to the Church itself, instead of becoming converted to those abstract, eternal principles behind it all, this is akin to converting to the old man pointing towards the moon instead of converting to the truth of the moon itself. It is important to realize the inherent perils of this approach and reassess whether one’s faith may need to be slightly re-adjusted.

This caution also applies on the other side, whether you are an apostle, a missionary, or a seminary teacher. As such, your role is to be the messenger, not to get caught up in self-importance and become the object of worship. When we hold a calling that places us in a position of responsibility to teach eternal truths to others, we would do well to respect the influence these positions can wield and remind our audience that the moon should be the ultimate object of our faith and devotion.

Tags: Buddhism, featured, organized religion, post-modernism, zen