WHERE THE LAND TOUCHED THE SKY: A Key to Wisdom
by Alex Lamas

I once had a meditation teacher who was a Buddhist monk from Thailand and one night he gave us a wonderful Dharma talk in the form of a story from his childhood. When he was four years old he dreamed of going to that distant place on the horizon where the land touched the sky. So one day he and a few of his friends decided to do just that.

They set off from their village to find this magical place. Through the forest, across farm fields and into wilderness they traveled but the farther they walked, the farther away their destination appeared to be. They couldn’t understand why that place kept moving away while they kept walking toward it. They were frustrated because they kept chasing something they could never reach.

The kids soon noticed that they were hopelessly lost and the sun was beginning to go down. My teacher and his friends saw a farmer in the distance and they all ran to him for help. The farmer informed them that they were more than 10 miles away from their village but he could help them get home.

A year or two later, like most children his age, my teacher learned in school about geography, astronomy, the planets and the solar system. Through knowledge he gained wisdom about the curvature of the earth and how what he saw was an illusion. From his story I realized what he was trying to tell us, that you can’t always trust what you see and if you want to have wisdom and insight you first must drop your assumptions.

Assumptions are the lies we tell ourselves to strengthen our attachment to false beliefs and ideas. Assumptions feed delusion and cause needless suffering. Think of how many times we’ve assumed something only to find out we were completely mistaken. How many times have we imagined how someone will react to a situation or confrontation only to be surprised or disappointed by the reality of the event?

True wisdom comes from the awareness of what is and not from anticipating, judging or assuming. Insight is to see things as they truly are and not to be clouded by the false judgments of our busy minds. In martial arts one must never over-estimate or under-estimate an opponent, just deal with what is in front of you. To assume someone is powerful because of their large size is not to take into account that they may be slow, or not. This creates a false fear. To judge someone because of there gender is not to take into account their skill and accuracy in aim, or not. This can create false confidence. The key is not assume or judge but just be ready. Be in a state of readiness is the ideal of all martial artists and is important in all aspects of life.

Bruce Lee had the perfect philosophy when he once said, "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

Wisdom begins when we drop our assumptions; otherwise insight becomes as illusive as that far off place where the land touches the sky.

Copyright  2007 Alex Lamas, All rights reserved.