The Buddha once said that all of his teachings were like a finger pointing at the moon.
Just an orienting tool.
Orienting your attention in a certain direction and if you stay looking,
Attending in that direction for long enough.
Then you'll get it.
You'll get what the Buddha got.
Enlightenment.
The other day I was looking at the moon in the sky and thinking,
Maybe that's not quite right.
Is at least from my perspective what the Buddha was pointing toward and continues to point toward.
Cannot ever be witnessed as something separate from you.
And if you point at the moon in the sky,
You can look at it.
And if it was that easy,
I think we would have more enlightened consciousness.
You could say,
Hey,
No,
It's right there,
The moon.
Look.
Oh,
Yeah,
I see it.
I get it.
Now I'm enlightened.
But I think what the Buddha was pointing to maybe is a bit more like the sun.
The energy of the sun.
That you can point to the sun.
And the sun is what illuminates the pointing finger.
But you can never quite look directly at it.
It's too powerful.
And I think that's what this practice is like.
You can kind of get close to it.
And you can certainly feel its energy.
And you can remember that it is the center.
Of everything it's the center of the solar system but really it's the center you,
Which is also the center of the universe,
The micro and the macro.
So that's maybe another way of considering it.
Orienting your attention,
Pointing back.
At what is pointing?
Who is the you who is pointing?
Maybe I could do it like this.
I don't know if it'll focus.
On my finger What happens,
You could try it right now with me,
If you point out as if you were trying to look at the moon or look at where the Buddha was pointing with all of his teachings,
Or look at the sun,
Look out,
Look out,
Look out,
And then suddenly.
.
.
Look back.
And maybe catch a glimpse of what is looking.
What is it?
Or who is it?
That is looking.
