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A Pier and Twilight
Old Orchard Beach, Maine
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Two tales ...
A spiritual seeker, a Christian, to the Sage -
I feel God is trying to show me something, but no matter how hard I try, I can't see what God is trying to show me. Do you have any advice to help me with this?
Winter hides much that springtime makes visible. Insight arises, likewise.
Another spiritual aspirant to the Sage -
I have heard so many good things about your teachings. So, I finally decided to come today. Yet - and I don't mean to be rude - but I didn't understand a single thing of what you said. None of it made any sense.
Larger pictures don't fit in smaller frames. What about a picture too large to fit in any frame? So, "I don't understand" is a good beginning, and it's a good ending, too.
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To understand beyond the mind, we become what can receive beyond the mind. We grow new ears. Then, we realize anything spoken from the Heart-of-hearts is a hint, an echo. Then, we know what it means for spirit to speak with spirit.
An intuitive understanding arises naturally, spontaneously. We discover truth is obvious. Truth never hides. We were hiding. Truth only needs the right environment to be seen. You are the environment.
You being the environment indicates why many Zen Buddhists teach polishing the mirror. All we receive communicates itself through consciousness. The degree of cleanliness of a mirror affects the degree to which it reflects truthfully.
Accordingly, while consciousness itself is primordially clear, as a mirror is clear, it can be covered to varied degrees with hindrances to its full potential to mirror. One of those hindrances is, "I already know." This is a form of ignorance posing as intelligence. Another is, "I'm too afraid of what the mirror will show me." This latter responds to the question, "Am I willing to see the truth?"
The Way, then, is a polishing of the mirror. Yet, we do not turn this into an aggressive endeavor. We do our practice, we live our lives, and the cleaning happens mostly unselfconsciously. That is, we do not focus on this. We do our work day by day, even when it seems like no progress is happening.
Rarely do we see growth on the Way until we look back and see where we were and where we are now. Sometimes, something happens, and we are alerted to how we responded differently than we once would have. We are surprised by the contrast. We may see beauty we once did not see. We may love more deeply than we once did. Life mirrors back to us where we were and are, and, so, where we are walking toward - though that can never been known but in shadow form.
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The spiritual life is like planting a garden. You plant and tend. You do not set up a chair in the garden and sit down looking for the growth. You do your part, you trust the natural Way. No matter what you do, you do not make a flower become a flower; you only assist in setting up the conditions to encourage the flower to become a flower. All you can be is already present in you. You set up the conditions for insight to flower. Yet, when insight does arise, you cannot fathom how it did. All you did did not make insight arise. Yet, it did, and it would not have if you chose not to engage the flowering Way.
What is the intangible aspect without which the growth would not occur, regardless of what you do or do not do? Some call it grace. Whatever you say, it is not. It is okay not to call it anything. It happens, regardless.
(C) brian k wilcox, 2025
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