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12 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

be things that our ordinary mundane consciousness meaning, and we can only understand those concepts
cannot experience directly. But that does not mean that are accessible to our present level of mind.
these things do not exist.
I think people have different sticking points. I know
Here again, it is important to keep an open mind. If that things some people find very difficult to grasp
other people with deeper experiences and vaster were extremely simple for me. I already believed many
minds say they have experienced something, then we of the teachings before I came to the buddhadharma.
should at least be able to say, “Perhaps it might be so.” On the other hand, some things that were difficult for
We should not take our limited, ignorant minds as me, others find simple to understand and accept. We
the norm. But we must remember that these limited, are all coming from different backgrounds, and so we
ignorant minds of ours can be transformed. each have our own special problems. But the important
thing is to realize that this is no big deal. It doesn’t
That’s what the path is all about. Our minds do become matter. Our doubting and questioning spur us on and
more open and increasingly vast as we progress. keep us intellectually alert.
We do begin to see things more clearly, and as a
result they slowly begin to fit into place. We need to Our doubting and questioning spur us on and keep us
be patient. We should not expect to understand the intellectually alert.
profound expositions of an enlightened mind in our
first encounter with them. I’m sure we all know certain There have been times when my whole spiritual
books of wisdom that we can read and reread over the life was one great big question mark. But instead of
years, and each time it seems like we are reading them suppressing the questions, I brought up the things I
for the first time. This is because as our minds open questioned and examined them one by one. When I
up, we begin to discover deeper and deeper layers of came out the other end, I realized that it simply didn’t
meaning we couldn’t see the time before. It’s like that matter. We can be quite happy with a question mark.
with a true spiritual path. It has layer upon layer of It’s not a problem at all, actually, as long as we don’t