dumbstruck dharma dabbling dilettante
George G Clark, 31 August 2009
Passing thought - dharma teachers, at least some of the time, will be playing a role rather than being totally genuine. Does this matter?
I extrapolate from my own experience of snapping into being Mr Clark the Science Teacher when stepping into school after a long summer holiday. After many years playing the part it came easily - but I knew it was not the real me. My self-image was as an aspiring, spiritual seeker rather than as an established, reductionist brainwasher.
But there are many tales[1] of dharma teachers finding enlightenment and then losing it again. It would appear that there are no existential safe havens - other perhaps than those that embrace change and impermanence. But the embracing has to be heartfelt. Intellectual understanding is not enough.
I have 'known' for many years that the only constant thing is change and the only certainty is doubt but this did not prevent me seeking a solid viewpoint and worldview. As a spiritual seeker I was a dabbling dilettante.
It is thus perhaps worth noting that I have recently become acutely aware of the parallels between scientific and spiritual ways of knowing. Especially about particular flowers in the garden. Botanically I note their sepals, petals and reproductive bits and I appreciate how these ensure the pollination that is but one stage in a vast life cycle. But, beyond the botany, I am also dumbstruck by the notion that each species is a vibrant example of the life force converting air, sunshine and dung into impossibly lush vegetation, stunning floral displays, and emanating oxygen as a by product! It is awe-full and wonder-full.
So the dabbling dilettante is dumbstruck and begins to get real through appreciating that 'the reality that can be described is not the real reality'. There is a new humility and a sometimes heartfelt appreciation that knowledge (science) is about 'the best working hypothesis in the light of evidence presently available' ie it is not about a 'truth' that is out there.
The humility links to being dumbstruck. 'Those who know do not speak'. All the mystic traditions agree that reality is un-speakable but yet that it is 'knowable' by those minds that are suitably in tune. And this un-speakable knowing is beyond the grasp of linear language: it is all pervading and numinous; it is rooted in the Oneness. Words cannot do it justice.
So how might we do it justice? 'Be still and know.' Withdraw the tentacles that flail in second hand time. The chatterbox mind stirs up the mental mud - be still and let it settle.
For details on how, consult a dharma teacher. Even when flawed they can still offer assistance to spiritual seekers who would be more than dumbstruck dharma dabbling dilettantes!
"Times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis and struggle. Most teachers will readily admit this truth." (Jack Kornfield (2000))
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