Webster’s describes the truth as a body of real things, events and facts, a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality, a judgment, proposition or idea that is true or accepted as true.

In Zen Buddhism, we believe that it is impossible for our reasoning or discriminating mind to grasp the truth because it results in an imperfect understanding of the world as it really is.

The Buddha used a parable about eight blind men to highlight this point. A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, "Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you say concerning them?"

The Buddha answered, "Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, �Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind ... and show them an elephant.’ �Very good, sire,’ replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, �Here is an elephant,’ and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant. When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, �Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?’ There upon the men who were presented with the head answered, �Sire, an elephant is like a pot.’ And the men who had observed the ear replied, �An elephant is like a winnowing basket.’ Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle; the tuft of the tail, a brush. Then they began to quarrel, shouting, �Yes it is!’ �No, it is not!’ �An elephant is not that!’ �Yes, it’s like that!’ and so on, till they all began a physical fight over the matter. Just so are these blind men holding various views. In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling and disputatious, each maintaining their idea is the truth."

When searching for the truth, we must accept that what we perceive to be the truth may not be the truth. This is called Great Question. This realization of untruth may then be used as a path to perceive the truth. In Zen we strive to attain Great Faith, Great Courage and Great Question. We meditate by paying attention moment by moment to what is. By cutting off our discriminating minds it is possible to find these great things and free ourselves from the constant thoughts of the past and the desires for things in the future.

So meditation (which is not limited to sitting on a cushion) is a way to discover your true self. Until you have done this it is not so easy to help others. When we don’t keep a clear mind we can not reflect the truth. We normally just follow our thinking and let it drag us into the suffering zone. Our minds get pulled here and there by the constant coming and going of things. When you keep a clear mind you return to the truth "your true self" (a compassionate loving self).

Zen Master Seung Sahn used a great teaching story to show this to us. In a movie theater, the audience is watching a good character battling a villain. The good person is being beaten badly; maybe he or she is about to die. It looks like the villain is going to win! That’s not good! So everybody in the movie theater is thinking, "Get up! Get the bad person!" If the good character and the others suffer a lot at the hands of the scoundrel, then everybody watching the movie feels upset. Nobody wants the good person to die.

The anxiety we feel is the innate goodness we already have in us. "Get up! Get up! Get the bad person!" This mind appears. So that’s goodness. This goodness comes from where? It comes from our nature, our true nature. Our habitual thinking and conceptual thought cloud the truth. By completely cutting off all thinking, the mind becomes like a mirror _ as clouds come, the clouds and you become one. When you see the mountain, the mountain and you become one. "Oh, the mountain is blue." Your mind becomes one with the appearing and disappearing of everything.

The name for that is truth. If you find truth, you have already attained the correct way.

Spring comes grass grows by itself.

The Blue Mountain does not move.

White clouds float back and forth.

_ Zen Master Seung Sahn

Michael O’Sullivan is abbot of The Three Treasures Zen Center in Oneonta.