-All of these texts, create the discourse of that makes the shape of fingers pointing moon. However they are are helpful in the sense that they invite us to be a part of the truth, to be a part of the process. Later language will be shown to be a failing enterprise, but even so, the call these books put out, and the call the human condition demands is for us to sacrifice our egoic selves in the face of the two journeys (which are really 1 journey). The two journeys being the journey for accomplishment as the story of Gilgamesh puts forth, the journey for truth, with Self-sacrifice being a major function at all points. The zen teaching of bodhidharma states “AT every moment, where language can’t go, that’s your mind (23) and follows up with “either life nor death can restrain this mind. Nothing can. It’s also called the unstoppable tathagata, the incomprehensible, the sacred Self, the immortal, the great sage. Its names vary but not its essence (23). ” An essential concept may be to use language and not to be used by it. Zen teaching: “The true way is sublime. It can’t be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures?” (29) While acting as fingers pointing at the moon, each of these books act as essential signposts for humanity constructing a discourse for how to address transcend suffering. Funnily enough though that discourse should be understood as simply the way to become aware of the moon, and the platform of discourse should be put down in after it is recognized. These seemingly essential teachings have developed in response to humanity’s condition of suffering. As such, their overall message is one of transcendence of particular things and, in relation, of attachment. The tao perhaps puts it the most bluntly, as it states: “The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The man that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things.” Within those stanzas, our first finger points at the moon and elaborates about how it cannot actually point truly at the moon. In the Bhagavad Gita, the ineffable is described similarly, “it cannot be pierced or singed, moistened or withered; it is vast, perfect and all-pervading, calm, immovable, timeless. It is called the inconceivable, the unmanifest, the unchanging. If you understand it in this way you will have no reason for your sorrow” (50 Bhagavad Gita). Within both, we find that language attempts its very best to do what it can to name things and relegate things to structural hierarchies, but what we are left with is only part of the equation. To relegate the infinite to the particular is to not have a holistic understanding; it is however helpful in the construction of a subjective understanding. However subject-object relations fail in the face of the true light that is, as they are based out of context and attachment As Bodhidharma would have said, “Unless you see your mind, reciting so much prose is useless (13).” Allusion to the ineffable is quite difficult for most people in all cultures without language. However, language is also the thing that builds the structure of our experience, crafting the steps that lead us to our beliefs and values. All of these texts talk about that which cannot be said and only be known, but each of the texts help guide people to the experience of knowing rather than simply talking about it. While the eternal tao cannot be named or described in any of the texts, each of the texts set the stage for experiencing transcendence and thus infinity. They are thus very helpful in leading to understanding, but if we don’t leave them behind, if we fall into attachment to the language or the meaning of the text then we would be doing understanding a disservice. Consider for a moment that “The tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present. I don’t know who gave birth to it. It is older than god” (4 tao te ching). These texts really give us the idea that any talk of god is a finger pointing at the the moon and thus are important insofar as they help us realize that the actuality of the way existed before we could even point the finger at the moon. The eternal nature of what the texts allude to keeps it from ever being understood within a non-infinite realm [language]. Attempting to understand the language of these texts asserts words, which also puts us the realm of particular things. In concert with this idea, the tao states “When you have names and forms, know that they are provisional. When you have institutions know where their functions should end.” (32 tao te ching) Here we may understand institutions as systems of interpretation, namely through language as shown through scriptures. However the Bhagavad Gita would mention, “as unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth” (54 Bhagavad Gita). In the Gospel of Thomas, the same idea makes itself appear stating “When your understanding has passed beyond the thicket of delusions there is nothing you need to learn from even the most sacred scripture” (55 Gospel of Thomas). So part of the point of these texts is to help us transcend the texts. In similar circumstances, when Jesus appealed to his disciples by asking them to compare him to someone and tell him who he is like, only Thomas could answer correctly in saying “Master my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like” (13 Gospel of thomas). The question was to show them how the infinite is unable to be compared or stated. Only Thomas was given an understanding through that experience because he knew that whatever words he would have used would have simply existed as fingers pointing at the moon. Similarly, the analects of confucius would comment on language and it’s limitations in speaking how “A man may be able to recite all three hundred odes, but if you assign him as an envoy to some neighboring state and he can’t give his answers unassisted, then no matter how many odes he might know, what good is he? (89 Analects of Confucius). If the man doesn’t have the understanding necessary, what is the point of using words, a failing enterprise in the subject, if you don’t even know what they mean? Following that in conjunction with the tao’s statement that “the tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces’ the more you talk of it, the less you understand” we may arrive at the conclusion that we cannot understand what they are talking about by simply talking about it or reading these texts. Remember too, the zen teaching of bodhidharma as it states “Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who meditate on walls, the absence of self and other, the oneness of mortal and sage, and who remain unmoved even by scriptures are in complete and unspoken agreement with reason (3).” So if words are unable to tell us what all of this about, how can we know? While all of these texts may function as the finger pointing at the moon knowing that they are talking about ungraspable subjects, they all also plead wholeheartedly that we not get stuck on them. The tao states this by saying the “Tao is ungraspable. How can her mind be at one with it? Because she doesn’t cling to ideas” which is essentially showing how the tao doesn’t get stuck on the finger pointing at the moon. We know by using the texts to become aware, but we must embark on our own inner process and confront the interior world as it is to truly understand. How then are we to interpret these scriptures if we are unable to understand the teaching without words? The tao would comment that “Teaching without words, performing without actions: that is the master’s way” (43 tao te ching). We may only progress if we get out of our own way, and instead let the practice teach us. There is little we can ever do for the practice but a massive amount that practice and direct experience can impart to us. “The master allows things to happen. She shapes events as they come. She steps out of the way and lets the tao speak for itself. (45).” The tao asks “How do I know this to be true?” and answers “By looking inside myself (54).” How do we know that ourselves? Through the direct application of experience. If we are too not interpret these teachings without using words then, what should we be like in order to move forward in right action? The Gospel of Thomas would answer saying “the man old in days will not hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live.” The dao would include the stanzas “know the male, yet keep to the female: recieve the world in your arms. If you receive the world the tao will never leave you and you will be like a little child.” We should strive to allow ourselves to be as non-judgemental as a child to experience the purity of the moment. It goes on to say “all of them embody the virtue of non-competition. Not that they don’t love to compete, but they do it in the spirit of play.” So to should we be like, completely immersed in the dao and in non-thinking in order to be free of the realm of suffering. In an invitation to transcend context Rumi invites us to “Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo. You might say, the world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheatfields and mountain passes, and orchards in bloom...You ask the embryo why, or she, stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer.” Rumi calls us to not be just like children, but goes one step further in an invitation to be even less contextual than a child. Both Rumi and the embryo seem to know “Ignorance is God’s prison. Knowing is God’s palace.” Just as Rumi seeks to know the divine, Gilgamesh voices his desires: “life and death I wish to know,” and as heroes it is part of humanity’s journey to do just that. The goal of the journey is to confront one’s self, and that can only happen when you understand not knowing. As the tao speaks, “The more you know, the less you understand“ (47 TAO). If we are to speak of knowledge from the point of the texts, we find the ideas that “not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease. First realize that you are sick; then you can move towards health. The master is her own physician She has healed herself of all knowing. Thus she is truly whole.” (71 tao te ching). Similarly in the Zen teaching of Bodhidharma, we find “the sutras tell us to move without moving, to travel without traveling, to see without seeing, to laugh without laughing, to hear without hearing, to know without knowing, to be happy without being happy, to walk without walking, to stand without standing (zen teaching of bodhidharma). Therefore, the master steps back so that people won’t be confused. He teaches without a teaching, so that people will have nothing to learn (72 analects of confucious). Rumi speaks on knowing, saying “I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.” This is essentially the same teaching that Utnapishtim transferred unto Gilgamesh speaking “the sleep and the dead, how alike they are! yet the sleeper wakes up and opens his eyes, while no one returns from death. And who can know when the last of his days will come? when the gods assemble, they decide your fate, they establish both life and death for you, but the time of death they do not reveal.” Both were Knocking for answer, but they had the knowledge all along. The way to fall into not knowing is to sacrifice the self at all conjuncts, and the texts most commonly speak of this as yoga or union. Consider that “there are two types on the path. Those who come against their will, the blindly religious people, and those who obey out of love. The later disappear into whatever draws them to god” (175 Rumi). The significance to these words is that union sacrifices the self in a such a way that wholeness is found. It is a sort of sacred vulnerability that makes itself manifest. In Yoga, the Gita would tell us how “the resolute in yoga surrender results and gain perfect peace; the irresolute, attached to results are bound by everything they do.” There is only one attachment in this sense, an attachment to ego and union allowing for the negation of that as much as we will allow ourselves. The sacrifice of self negates separation. How does this work? Confucius might respond “the gentleman makes rightness the substance, practices it through ritual (yoga), displays it with humility, brings it to completion with trustworthiness. That is the gentleman.” Why is union essential? The gospel of thomas answers “whoever is undivided will be full of light but whoever is divided will be full of darkness.” Light in this sense is akin to understanding, and darkness likens itself towards sleep and indolence. “Come, let us pray today and let us fast.” Jesus said, “What sin have I committed, or how have I been undone? Rather when the groom leaves the bridal chamber, then let people pray and fast.” This is an important notion to recognize because the true sin is the falling out of union of that Self. The texts question that, if you are always in union, what wrong could be done? Union with the moon....is union with the eternal non-doer. The Gita speaks how “the man who has seen the truth thinks, ‘I am not the doer’ at all times”. But who is the doer? Or specifically, what do the texts say about the Eternal non-doer? The tao trickles forth with the answer “The tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? it was never born; thus it can never die. why is it infinite? It has no desires for itself; thus it is present for all beings.” Bodhidharma describes the phenomena as the mind and entrusts us with the knowledge that “Neither life nor death can restrain this mind. Nothing can. It’s also called the unstoppable tathagata, the incomprehensible, the sacred Self, the immortal, the great sage. Its names vary but not its essence” (23). It is called the eternal non-doer because no words could ever describe it. The following description even hearkens to it being transcendent of being god, which is still just signifying a finger pointing at the moon: “The tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present. I don’t know who gave birth to it. It is older than god” (4 tao te ching). The moon continues to elude description as the zen teachings state “A tathagata’s forms are endless. And so is his awareness.“ Krishna however bluntly states “I founded the four-caste-system with the gunas appropriate to each’ although I did this, know that I am the eternal non-doer.” Rumi loses himself in union with the eternal non-doer as well. He quietly questions “Do you think that I know what I’m doing? That for one breath or half breath I belong to myself? As much as a pen knows what it’s writing, or the ball can guess where its going next” (Rumi 16). Continuing this thought later, he asserts, “Every holy person seems to have a different doctrine and practice, but there’s really only one work” (88). It is all within the macroscopic process that engulfs and pushes all of the universe forward to experience itself. In conjunction with the notion of the eternal non-doer, there is of course the concept within these texts positing doing non-doing or wu wei wu, as a method for navigating life as the eternal non-doer does. On page 75 of the Gita we find krishna’s asking us to recognize the wisdom in doing non-doing in the statement “he who can see inaction in the midst of action, and action in the midst of inaction, is wise and can act in the spirit of yoga.” Continuing this thought Krishna speaks “surrendering all thoughts of outcome, unperturbed, self-reliant, he does nothing at all, even when fully engaged in actions.” What does the eternal non doer do or compel us to do, or does itself as it were is act. Simply act. The tao calls for us to do our work, then step back. Or, more fully stated, “If you want to accord with the tao, just do your job, then let go.” This brings up the idea of renunciation, not in the sense of forgoing all action, but in releasing the fruit of action. Being reminded of the Eternal non-doer and the actions it performs the tao tells us “When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.” In letting go of the results the work becomes the process that isn’t self-conscious, thus having no identity finds itself eternal. The gita espouses that “the teaching to do one’s job is to recognize there is no doer.” It is a call to let help the process go on, by getting out of its way and allowing the eternal non-doer to do its thing. There is a constant question that comes along with doing non-doing. How do you let go of the self, and how can you let go of the results? The Gita would state that “right action itself is renunciation arjuna, in the yoga of action, you first renounce your own selfish will.” 62; not by avoiding actions does a man gain freedom from action, and not by renunciation alone, can he reach the goal. Arjuna states this alongside the stanza “he who fails to keep turning the wheel thus set in motion has damaged the working of the world and wasted his life, arjuna.” This imparts the understanding that when you do your job, you keep the wheel of the universe turning. 74; actions cannot defile me, since i am indifferent to results; all those who understand this will not be bound by their actions. This is how actions were done by the ancient seekers of freedom’ follow their example : act, surrendering the fruits of action; actions are really performed by the workings of the three gunas; but a man deluded by the I-sense images , “I am the doer.” The texts show us how we delude ourselves into thinking that we are actually the doer, but truly other things are acting through what we are to make a circuit of experience. To act freely and be as krishna invites us to be when he asks arjuna to act. the whole world becomes a slave to its own inactivity, arjuna; if you want to be truly free, PERFORM ALL ACTIONS AS WORSHIP. Do any actions you must do, but since action is better than inaction (bhagavad gita). Similarly stanza 6 of the Gospel of Thomas, “Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, because all things are revealed before heaven. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered.” But we are not simply called to act, but to renounce the results of our action. In gilgamesh we find a similar situation of renouncing, and what it leads to. On page 155; Gilgamesh states “I will roam the wilderness with matted hair, in a lion skin.” This begins his new journey, in renouncing the world of accomplishments and physicality Gilgamesh is able to begin the second journey to know himself. Through the renunciation the seeker is humbled. Where gilgamesh was once arrogant [arrogance = ego/attachment to ego] he kept himself from true wisdom. Now being humbled he is ready to start anew. One of the things that keeps us from apprehending the moon as it is are the three poisons, described analogously throughout the texts. We are cautioned through Bodhidharma’s warning “When the three poisons are present in your mind, you live in a land of filth. When the three poisons are absent from your mind, you live in a land of purity.” The three poisons thus being: greed anger and delusion. The Gospel of Thomas speaks on greed in stanza 7 stating; “Blessed is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. Cursed is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion will become human.” The lion here is representative of desire and how our humanity might be eaten up by its constant gnawing. For a human to fall prey to desire, would be for it to fall into a self-created hell, where nothing is ever enough. But these poisons aren’t necessarily bad or good. Bodhidharma would teach us that “Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to buddhahood. You can't say that suffering is buddhahood (63).” These poisons give rise to awareness, and through awareness and understanding we can take back the ground the ego gave up unto itself. If it weren’t for affliction, Bodhidharma comments, “there would be nothing to create awareness” (69). But When you overcome these poisons, you create three sets of limitless virtue (87). How then can we know peace in the face of the three poisons? By abandoning all desires, and doing as the gita says “acting without craving, free from all thoughts of “I” and “mine”” that man finds utter peace. This is the divine state Arjuna. Absorbed in it, everywhere, always even at the moment of death, he vanishes, into gods bliss” (59). The Gita teaches us that through Yoga we may overcome such poisons as it states “He controls his sense and his mind, intent upon liberation’ when desire, fear, and anger have left him, that man is forever free. Knowing me as the enjoyer of all worship, the lord of all worlds, the dearest friend of all beings, that man gains perfect peace.” Essentially by giving the experiences their own space and knowing how to not bend to the self rather than the eternal non-doer we are able to understand ways to stop feeding the engine of the three poisons, until one day. The tao describes that day saying “Where there is no desire there will be peace.” There is a sort of balance born of the polarity spoken of in each of the book. In understanding polarity the tao asks for humanity to “Know the white, yet keep to the black: be a pattern for the world. If you are a pattern for the world, the tao will be strong inside you and there will be nothing you can’t do” (28). Attempting to find balance within one’s Self requires a sacrifice of self. However that sacrifice allows for infinite possibility as you merge the polarities into the process of the eternal non-doer. The tao goes on to discuss how “being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other” (2). This concept allies itself with the Zen teaching of bodhidharma as it says “When you’re deluded, this shore exists. When you wake up it doesn’t exist. Mortals stay on this shore. But those who discover the greatest of all vehicles stay on neither this shore nor the other shore. They’re able to leave both shores. Those who see the other shore as different from this shore don’t understand zen (51).” Ying and yang are seemingly polar opposites, however to transcend both is to find balance. For in the world we find definitions and relegate things to their “appropriate” shelf in the mind. However Bodhidharma would caution us against such relationships stating “according to the world there is no male or female, rich and poor. According to the way there’s no male or female, no rich or poor.” Interestingly enough polarity follows with the constant theme of movement and rest found throughout the pieces. When queried about the sign of divinity within Jesus, he states “It is movement and rest. Yin and Yang. The tao states “Return is the movement of the tao . Yielding is the way of the tao. All things are born of being. Being is born of non-being.” The poles give rise to one another in the face of one another and keep the universe in a constant readjusting process. This readjustment is a change from homeostasis and thus creates what the tao speaks of as suffering. We suffer because we create Identities that place systems of values upon the experience we are having. As such, the texts speak of identity as something to do away with. They speak to our hearts to have less attachment to ego, and thus everything else. Both aversion and craving lead to eventual suffering. As the Zen teaching of bodhidharma makes reference to “Wherever you find delight, you find bondage. But once you awaken to your original body and mind, you’re no longer bound by attachments” (31). knowing this the story of Gilgamesh portrays the hero “pacing in front of him, back and forth like a lioness whose cubs are trapped in a pit, he tore out clumps of his hair, tore off his magnificent robes as though they were cursed. (154) ” knowing his identity was the root of his attachment caused him to do whatever he could to strip it from himself. Continuing with the motif of non-attachment the tao relates that “The master’s mind is like space. People don’t understand her. They look to her and wait. She treats them like her own children.” I understand this as the master’s mind being like a mirror. It reflects, but doesn’t grasp or cling. This is one of the essential teachings of all these books, be a still reflection with no set of values, understanding simply that everything is. this parallels the notion that “when people see something as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad” (2). While all of these texts have been important in the transmission of the above messages, if humanity turns toward seeing all action as worship or devotion towards the whole, then these truths would be realized even not having read any of the texts. Even though we find non-being related in the texts, through such avenues as the tao’s statement that “Every being in the universe is an expression of the Tao. It springs into existence, uncionscious, perfect, free, takes on a physical body, lets circumstances complete it. That is why every being spontaneously honors the tao.” Direct apprehension of such words could very well happen without the text, through somebody who innately just allows things to be, or someone who has come to the conclusion that things are not good or bad, but simply are. Nothing that we do can really be outside of the process or way, and all of these things will be understood in time by all things as they need to. Essentialy secrets can stay secret only for so long before the light again sets itself to the task of illuminating facets of the universe and for thsoe to be recognized for what they are. All of these books are simply templates for understanding and relating to different aspects of the whole experience of being and non-being as they are. These book are simply helping us extend our story into union with the ever present story as it is continually told. Even without the texts, life calls us to find equanimity, and it is our ego selves that keep us from experiencing things as they are. Similarly the moon is something to be experienced, not something to be talked about. IT was my duty to think about these things and present them in textual format, but it is time for union. Some parting words from our friend and part of our Self, Rumi: Rumi: That’s enough for now. Shhhh. silence is an ocean. Speech a river. Words are ways we add up breath, counting stress and syllable without exacting musical knack that takes us farther and farther from zero. Sasha Skelobich