What Did You Expect?

People never see things as they are. They only see through a lens of interpretation, through a lens full of concepts.

This applies even to their views on spirituality and enlightenment. They look for the teachers who confirm their beliefs, who fit with their image of enlightenment. Whether or not such teachers have actually found enlightenment is irrelevant.

The problem with expectations is they distract from reality. And I don’t mean expectations in the probabilistic sense. There is nothing wrong or false about expecting a pen to fall to the earth when you release it from your hand. The problem comes when you expect reality to conform to your wishes. The problem is expectations that take the form of a demand.

When you expect a certain answer to a question, when you demand that it be so, you limit yourself. You limit your understanding. You end up only accepting those answers which confirm your biases.

This is no way to search for truth. This is no way to seek enlightenment.

Such things cannot possibly fit into your preconceived notions. If they did, you would have already found that which you are seeking.

There is an old, too-often-repeated parable from Zen about pouring tea into a cup that is already full. The point is that if your mind is too full, if you already ‘know’ what you are going to see, you never really look in the first place. So knowledge itself becomes a barrier to enlightenment, a barrier to true understanding.

The things you ‘know’ can do a lot more damage than the things you don’t.