38

SEE FOR YOURSELF

WE CAN BE so easily fooled by appearances. I look around. My eyes see the room I’m sitting in. Is the room real? My eyes tell me it is, that it is real and solid. But when I take away its pieces—the beams, the timber, the walls—it doesn’t exist. Does that mean the room is also unreal? No. It is also not unreal.

Chan teaches us that we shouldn’t fall too far into either extreme—existing or not existing. Our consciousness should not become fixed or attached to the way things seem to be.

There is a story of a turtle and a fish. They were very good friends and lived in the middle of a big ocean. Each day they went together for a coffee break and had a nice chat.

Then one day the fish didn’t see the turtle. Where is the turtle, he wondered? It was very odd.

After about a week, the turtle returned.

“Why haven’t I seen you this past week?” said the fish.

“I went on holiday,” said the turtle.

“Where did you go?”

“A place called land.”

“What was it like? Please describe it to me.”

“There is no water and there were people everywhere, walking around on two legs instead of swimming!”

The fish was flabbergasted. “I don’t believe it!” he exclaimed. “How can there be a land with no water? And how can these things called ‘people’ walk on two legs?”

The fish couldn’t conceive of land because he was attached to his consciousness—the aggregate of thoughts, emotions, perceptions, memories, everything that is going on in his mind. But in Chan we shouldn’t deny experiences we have not had for ourselves.

Chan is all about experience. People try to use their intelligence and knowledge to find out what meditation is all about. But a fish cannot experience dry land.

Always have an open heart and mind. Try for yourself. Your own experience is the best—really the only—teacher.

This is the message of the Kalama Sutra. Buddha came to the village of Kalama. The villagers asked: “Why should we listen to what you have to say. Lots of teachers and sages come through here and tell us they have some special insight into reality or they’ve found the ultimate truth.”

To which the Buddha replied: “Do not follow my teachings because it’s tradition or because some outside authority says that’s what you should do. Neither follow what I have to say because everyone is doing it or because you have heard that it’s beneficial. You should have your own experience and then decide.”

This is Buddha’s teaching of Ehipassiko, which literally means “come and see for yourself.”