Meeting truth

Once again, I found in Thich Nhat Hanh that wise Buddhist man something to feed my mind and heart. He is speaking about the obstacles that we put - or that can be - in the way of our truly meeting one another. I think it has to do with the concept of inter-being that Buddhists speak of often. Here is what he says in this instance:

                In Buddhism knowledge is regarded as an obstacle to
                understanding...It is said that if we take one thing to be 
                the truth and cling to it, even if truth itself comes in person
                and knocks at our door, we won't open it. For things to 
                reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon
                our views about them.*

I struggled with this but I think I understand what he means because I have experienced in my own life the effect of thinking I understand someone or something and have found that I was indeed, blind to the reality of the person or thing. For one thing, I trust too much in my own judgment (one might say too, why am I making a judgment at all?).

I can recall the first time this question really touched me. It was early in my time in the monastery and we were having a class in scripture. There in several places were passages that said that people refused to believe Jesus because a) they knew him and therefore he couldn't be special b) they knew that someone from God was to come from a certain town and he didn't and c) they knew his parents and they certainly couldn't be the parents of someone who speaks truth. My understanding here is that people were blinded by their preconceptions and couldn't hear or see the person before them.

I was thinking too about my early days in l'Arche when I felt myself, I am saddened to say, somewhat superior to the men and women with whom I was living and so I did not 'hear' or 'see' their wisdom. It took many months and many times of battered ego (mine) to begin to realize that I was missing enormous wisdom and love offered from people whom I had in some horrible way 'written off'.

I do try now to listen better and to be open to what seems to me to be odd or not 'sensible' to my way of thinking. Or, something that comes from someone I don't like or don't know. I certainly still miss a lot but I am hopeful that it is a work in progress so that each day in the very person I expect nothing of I will, in some wonderful way, meet truth and there will be in some mysterious way a mutual revelation of two human souls on a journey. 

*The Everyday wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, compiled and edited by Melvin McLeod, Shambhala Press, Boston, 2011