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Should you worship the Buddha or see if you can find the same Truth that he found?

Vic Shayne
Curated Newsletters
4 min readDec 13, 2024

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Vic Shayne
author
The Enduring Myth of the Buddha: a hero’s journey into enlightenment

Photo by Vic Shayne, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California 2024

There is an oft-used quote that I frequently cite: “Don’t stare at the finger pointing at the moon.” In other words, don’t become distracted by the personage instead of what s/he has to say. By and large, people tend to worship their leaders instead of appreciating them as guides for self-improvement or transformation. Of course, it’s easier to worship someone than to take his or her message to heart, but for more sincere spiritual seekers there is a personal and unquenchable drive to explore a teaching as a means to uncover their own truth.

A ZEN POEM:
Relying upon a finger, we see the moon
Relying upon the moon, we understand the finger.
Moon and finger
Are neither the same nor different.
This expedient analogy is for guiding beginners.
Having seen reality as it is,
There is neither moon nor finger.
(from Okumura Roshi’s book Ryōkan Interpreted)

Finding what Siddhartha hath found
Though I am neither a Buddhist, nor a Buddhist scholar, I have spent a great deal of time considering what the myth of the Buddha reveals in terms of enlightenment and insight into a reality, or truth, that goes unnoticed by most people. And…

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Vic Shayne
Vic Shayne

Written by Vic Shayne

NY Times bestselling author writing about reality beyond thought, consciousness, and the self to uncover what is fundamental. https://shorturl.at/mrAS6

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