When Wisdom Speaks

it always says the same thing! The name common thread is an image to illustrate that, and this post will give you a very clear example.

If you know anything at all about the Bible and Jesus, you probably have heard this verse: (if you are anti-jesus or Christian, don’t stop reading, its just good info, no proselytizing or preaching or anything)

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

I have never seen it pointed out that the verse explicitly says that YOU CAN remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Read it again if you didn’t notice that. That is of huge importance, but to understand we need to look at more of the chapter. The verse just prior to this says:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

This tells us that, we are judging to point out the speck, we all kind of knew that already. When we realize we can remove the speck by seeing clearly, and we are being told there is a plank blocking our view, what other could the plank be than judging itself. And what will we see when we no longer judge? How to remove your brothers speck. You will see wisdom, you will know.

Before I get carried away here, lets now look at a quote from Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching. He says:

“He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.”

If we apply this to the wisdom we gained by removing the plank from our eye, we find out that when we know how to remove the plank from the others eye, that we just do it, we don’t talk about it, we don’t tell them to, warn them, explain it to them, we just do it.

He also says:

"One who knows others is clever, but one who knows himself is enlightened.

which furthers the point that we need to look at ourself first, and if we go back yet again, what are we looking for? When we are judging!

If I circle around to some buddhist themes, namely the five hindrances, these are the states of mind that block us from seeing clearly, in other words,  stop us from seeing the plank.

The five hindrances are Desire (want), Anger (not-want), Anxiety/restlessness/remorse, Sloth and torpor (depression), and doubt. When we look at the first two of these, we can see how judging out experience, or judging anothers participation in our experience as something we want or don’t want, as something good or bad, can lead us to pointing out the speck in their eye. If you would or wouldn’t do or be like this or that, then this would be better. Judgement1

We can bring in some zen, or even Eckhart Tolle, and say that when you are in the state of mind as described above, you are not accepting what is, therefore you are not present. If someone just said or did something you don’t like, and you try to change it, it is unchangeable. Immediately, something that happened, IS. So to want or not-want it is pointless, to have remorse, or anxiety, these things are outside of your control now. The feelings will just block your view on how to wisely deal with what is, whether it is immediately or what is when it is.

With that we can loop back to the bible and reference several places where we are told not to worry, that it is a waste of our time and energy. It is.

So what about someone who is trying to take your speck out? We’ve all encountered the discomfort of that at some point. The advice holds true across the gamut of experience. Do not judge. Take the plank from your eye. You will see how to remove theirs once you can see. The Buddhist texts say the first thing any Buddha did was eliminate the five hindrances, aka take the plank from their eye. As far as I can see, this is the task of utmost importance. The only task. The one we can trust and return to over and over and over, because in my experience, stuff keeps getting in my eye, and its better to know its getting in there then to walk around with it clueless.