Salt * Wet * Fish

Old LJ entries posted on Jan. 7th, 2004 @ 12:10 am

I am currently reading this Buddhist book by Joseph Goldstein called One Dharma. Its a book about how or what form Buddhism can emerge from the Western countries.

One common theme, that I realised, among most of the Buddhist books from Western authors and even non-Western authors is the liberally and unashamed use of useful examples of stories and experiences of other religions. So it is quite common to read in Buddhist books examples of stories and experiences from other religious person to illustrate a point.

Mind you, these are not bad example, rather, they are insightful experiences and stories and it always gladden me to know how non-judgemental and non-segregating these Buddhist authors can be.

I wonder if such abundance can be found in books by other religious authors…

Anyway, this is not what I want to talk about today. In another Buddhist book, Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart, that I was re-reading, I came upon a beautiful passage:

There is an old story about a famous rabbi living in Europe who was visited one day by a man who had traveled by ship from New York to see him. The man came to the great rabbi’s dwelling, a large house on a street in a European city, and was directed to the rabbi’s room, which was in the attic.

He entered to find the master living in a room with a bed, a chair, and a few books. The man had expected much more. After greetings, he asked, “Rabbi, where are your things?” the rabbi asked in return, “Well, where are yours?” His visitor replied, “But, Rabbi, I’m only passing through,” and the master answered, “So am I, so am I.”

For me, it serves as a reminder that in the midst of our career struggles, maybe difficult bosses, family troubles, love relationships, our gains and our loses and our wants and don’t wants, we are only here to stay for a short time, a sort of tourist or traveller. What is important to us at the end of our journey is never that urgent project that we spent 48 hours rushing out, the luxurious car we have, whom we bedded, which high class friends we have or who won the arguement.

When we have such an insight, eventually our hearts becomes lighter and more spacious, our mind becomes clearer and we can weather even the most difficult times of our lives.

Nothing is really worth clinging on, tooth and nail, when we know that we are just passing through.