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The Dog and the Finger
I’m back after an unplanned absence from blogging. The reasons I was away include a bout of ill health, a short retreat and a bit more work at my job than usual. But the main reason was simply to stop using words for a while.
I once read a book about the Heart Sutra where the author proposed that its lesson isn’t found in the words but rather in what the words point to. Any dog lover has the experience of pointing a finger at something of interest to his faithful pooch and the dog just looks at the finger. Sometimes I think I have spent the bulk of my life looking at the finger. Now that I have entered old age I’ve learned the value of silence. With no noise from within me or outside of me I have an opportunity to experience the dharma instead of talking or reading or writing about it. Now that I’ve returned to the words, I’ll try not to get caught up with looking at the end of my own finger. Woof!
