Behind The Mask ~ I WILL LET YOU
DOWN
We often hear people
say things like: "Don’t worry; I won’t
let you down! You can rely on me!", but this
is frequently just a prelude to doing the very thing
that they say they won’t do! This is not to
imply that nobody keeps their word nowadays, because
this is also not so; there are still people who regard
giving their word or promise as something serious
and important, but compared with those who think lightly
of such things, they are in a minority—a small
minority. Many of us think nothing of breaking our
word when it is inconvenient for us to keep it, or
we simply forget. While we don’t like others
to let us down, we are often guilty of doing that
to others.
Now, rather than saying to people who listen
to me speak or read what I write: "I won’t
let you down", I will say, on the contrary: "I
will let you down", in order to make it as clear
as possible that if we are sincere in our pursuit
of Dharma we should beware of the unreliability of
personality—our own as well as that of others—and
not use it as a foundation; we should realize that
Dharma is impersonal.
Personality-cults abound and flourish in
the world, from major religions like Christianity
(with the person of Jesus indispensably at the center)
to small groups like that which coalesced around David
Koresh in Waco, Texas recently, and the stir among
expatriate Vietnamese Buddhists by the bogus nun named
Thanh Hai (Ching Hai, in Chinese), who sometimes dresses
like a movie-star or a fairy-tale princess and claims
to be not only a ‘Living Buddha’ but ‘supreme’
and even higher than the founder of Buddhism Himself,
the historical Gotama Buddha! The gullibility of humans
is truly marvelous; there is nothing so preposterous
and foolish that some people will not eagerly accept
and believe! And although it is true that, by closing
their eyes and living in a dream-world, they derive
a certain amount of comfort and assurance, they are
eventually let down (unless they die under their illusions)
and find themselves worse off than before, being older
and less-able to make a new start.
We have come a long way since the time of
the Buddha, and the movement that He started has been
considerably corrupted and distorted, both from within
and without. Just as Buddhism had a great impact on
the religious life of India during the centuries of
its ascendancy, so too, it was greatly influenced
by Hinduism during its period of affluence and decline,
and was eventually swallowed up by it, so that what
we have today is a mixture of what the Buddha taught,
Hindu influence, and the cultural barnacles that it
gathered as it spread outwards from the land of is
birth. This is clearly seen in the role of priest
that many Buddhist monks have assumed—unknowingly,
in most cases, it must be said, but nonetheless that
is the role they have taken—and the ceremonies
they perform, together with what the Buddha termed
‘low arts’ like palmistry, astrology,
geomancy and other forms of divination, which He forbade
His monks to engage in as such practices attract people
for the wrong reasons, and are not the work of monks.
Today, more—far more—monks are involved
in such things than in propagating Dharma, so much
so that it is commonly expected of monks to ‘tell
fortunes’ and calculate/predict ‘lucky
days’ and so on.
Given the propensity of people to fall at
the feet of ‘savior-figures’, it seems
that the simple and clear message of the Buddha to
"Be an island unto yourself, be a lamp unto yourself,
be a refuge unto yourself" will never be widely
accepted, but even so, there are always some people
who will rejoice in hearing this clarion-call to develop
self-reliance and throw off the chains of psychological
dependence upon others. If it is only for the few,
so be it. The fact that it might not be accepted by
the majority of people does not invalidate it.
Although I will try not to deliberately
let anyone down, the nature of personality makes it
likely that I will do so, in one way or another. Therefore,
I will warn people about this first, so that they
will be able to listen to what I say without attaching
much importance to me personally—either negatively
or positively—and will not be too disappointed
when I unintentionally and inevitably let them down.
I feel that what I write and talk about can—or
should be able to—stand on its own, and not
upon my personality. This is because I take seriously
the Buddha’s advice and exhortation to test
His Teachings as a goldsmith would test gold, instead
of merely believing; if this applies to His Teachings,
how much more does it apply to my mumblings?!
I have stuck my neck out to say this not
just about myself but about anyone and everyone. What
we should be seeking is not a person but the unshakeable
facts of life that do not change and will not let
us down: Universal Dharma. If I have pointed my finger
at anyone in this or other writings, it is done not
with the desire to camouflage myself or distract attention
away from my own shortcomings or gloss over my faults—like
a thief being pursued might shout "Stop, thief!",
to create the impression among bystanders that he
is one of the pursuers rather than the pursued—but
to indicate something more firm, reliable and true
than personality.
It is a commonly-held belief that unless
a person is enlightened himself, he is not in a position
to help anyone else to become enlightened, but I do
not share this view. It would be much like seeing
someone injured and bleeding and saying to him: "I’m
so sorry; I would like to help you, but I’m
not a doctor". Every mother—and most other
people, too, for that matter—knows what it is
to treat minor injuries; there is no need to go to
a doctor for every little wound or pain. Likewise,
we all have the capacity—in varying degrees—to
help others along the way; we don’t need to
be fully-enlightened for that. And, in doing so, we
express the enlightenment that we already have—in
whatever small amount—and thereby increase it.
If we were to hold back and refuse to help others
until we are fully-enlightened, nobody—including
ourselves—would get any help at all! That would
be just as foolish as making it a condition that someone
must be enlightened before we listen to or learn from
him/her. |