The Twirling Wind Of Hypocrisy

Empty-handed I go and behold the spade is in my hands; I walk on foot, and yet on the back of an ox I am riding; When I pass over the bridge, Lo the water floweth not, but the bridge doth flow.

Nothing can be more illogical and contrary to common sense than those four lines.

D.T. Suzuki, the 20th century professor of Zen Buddhism, translated those Zen thoughts in English. His objective was to make us aware of the folly of logic. Logic is a valuable tool for the ego, but it is worthless when trying to understand the nature of consciousness. The common sense approach to solving the mystery within us is not logical expression. Common sense is just a stepping stone to the comprehensive truth that exists without logic.

.In order to sense the Zen within us, we must escape every day phraseology, and the tyranny of logic. When we adhere to logical explanation for non-logical truths, we find the self in the twirling wind of hypocrisy. We give our power to that wind, and expect logic to guide us. We forget that logic, like our perception of time, only has validity in this reality. Other realities have other means of expressive knowing. We are capable of understanding those expressions once we recognize that empty-handed we travel through time, but we can still see the spade of another reality in our hands.