[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

Hi Dan, I read your post with interest. The phrase that popped into my mind was The Tao can be shared but not divided.

Stepping out of the troubled waters elsewhere, the little phrase above has for me much to do with any "God", jealous or not.

"Truth is one, sages call it by various names."

As I see it confusion can arise between "sharing" and "dividing". The subtle difference can be obscured. It is not division to call Truth by various names....Logos, Tao, Christ, Allah/God, Word or whatever.

Getting back to my own Pure Land path, as I have posted before, within it is a wide spectrum of understanding. From Amida as him/her "up there" or "out to the West" who comes to us at death to carry us off to the Pure Land, to those who see Amida as a personification of Reality-as-is and the Pure Land as here, now when seen "in faith". And all points inbetween (where, I tend to think, I stumble along somewhere)

What matters is not our symbols but the authenticity of practice. An analogy would be of the theoretical physicist who cannot boil an egg. In the so called "spiritual" field some can have a very refined understanding yet in facing another human being they still see the "other", and sadly, still see others as those awaiting/in need of, the "refinements" of understanding that they have. For me, this is to divide and not to share.

When we share, our own darkness can be part of the "exchange", and therefore the possibility of learning from another. All part of the beauty of difference. As Pema Chodron has said:- "Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognise our shared humanity."

So, as I see it, authenticity is the key. Getting back to the Pure Land spectrum, if those who see Amida as "up there" etc insist that only such an understanding is the "way" then in effect they divide the Tao, they do not share it.