There’s a Zen saying: if I point out the moon to you, be careful not to mistake my finger for the moon.
I think people get so caught up in religious texts and philosophical treatises that they mistake the writings as the goal itself. They so thoroughly lose themselves in the academic subjects that they lose sight of living the kinds of lives those subjects were trying to inspire.
How many times have I heard people quote Hegel and Nietzsche and Sartre. How many times have I heard a preacher say “your Bible tells you that…”.
But I’ve chosen to travel a different path.
I’ve studied the texts of various kinds, and have chosen the path of “discernment” over the path of intellectualization.
And I believe that people should devote themselves more to cultivating discernment and to knowing truth rather than blindly devoting themselves to the teachings of truth cultivation.
Knowing how to see and feel what is true and what is real rather than trying to intellectualize and debate over what is true and what is real.
I see this so often in Christianity. People quoting verses to back up what they suspect might be true. To bolster what they desire to be true.
But I say it is better to cultivate discernment rather than simply memorize scripture. In everything that a human being tries to learn, they should internalize that thing so pervasively that it rewrites their behavioral patterns. One should internalize the Bible so thoroughly that one’s behavior becomes an expression of the underlying truths therein.
One must cultivate one’s own discernment – and rely less upon the “authoritative” views of others.
So…
Learn to just say what is true. To live what is true.
If you’ve cultivated discernment, no one else need validate truth for you.
