Humility is the Foundation of Truth

I’ve been a “guru” for about 10 years now and admit without reservation that the communication of internal experiences to another is about the most absurd exercise one can undertake and yet it is the core of what I’ve agreed to do by request of my teacher.

It is commonly understood among teachers and masters that I respect that the doling out of wisdom to someone who is “not ready to hear it” is a terrible injustice to that person because they will convince themselves that they have heard the wisdom when in fact they were not able to hear it in its entirety and drew fallacious conclusions about it to their own detriment.  However, if heard at the “right” time, the information would be so important and life changing that it would be worth withholding from them until such a time.

It is my direct experience that that warning is completely true and very important (and is the core of my teacher’s suggestion to “not preach” and to present truth but not try to gather students.)

The primary impediment to truth in a beginning student has become very clear to me over time.  And while it is primary, it is not the only barrier, and I want to state that before revealing it.  There are other factors than what I’m about to discuss that can bar someone from seeing clearly life-changing truths.  But this factor is the biggest I have identified and so the focus of this essay.

The biggest barrier between a student and the truth is a lack of humility.

There are many ways to find humility.  Some find it early in childhood when they are constantly left behind other children in academics or physical activities.  Other people always score better on tests or run faster or hit a ball better etc. and the truth of that is so clear that it allows them to see that they have limitations and humility is often a result of such insight.  Sadly this humility can be quite selective, (like “I may not know but my Uncle knows stuff and I trust him” or other fallacious conclusions that lack the humility of a global view, etc.) however because in these cases the sense of humility happened quite young it is often in the psyche enough that it can be coaxed out by a skillful teacher.

Another way to find humility is to fail at a very determined task that was once assumed to be surmountable and is found to be not so.  I experienced this when I was shown chess at a young age and assumed it couldn’t be more complicated than I could solve one day.  And then, after many years of playing and studying it, I had to be humble enough to admit that I was unable to solve it like some Rubic’s Cube or Tic-Tac-Toe…

Similarly, another common way is through science or academia when we venture into it and find the subject greater than our capacity to absorb it all.

The last I will mention, and possibly the most profound, is when our survival strategies and life choices ultimately lead us to pain, depression, and misery.  This is often called “rock bottom” by those who have experienced it and I can say, having spent time there that it will indeed create a foundation of humility that can’t be ignored.

Eckhart Tolle suggests that one can reach such humility if one has suffered enough.  I agree with his assessment.

I couldn’t possibly list all the ways that humility can arise in someone’s character but suffice it to say there is a portion of the population that has either very little of it or virtually none at all.  They believe something, or have been told it is true by an authority figure that they admire, and it is then fact without fear of contradiction.  A personal “fact” without humility to challenge it can be quite dangerous, and very blinding. 

A complete absence of humility pervades this kind of person and it is this that Lao Tzu was referring to when he said:

“The wise student hears of the Tao and practices it diligently.
The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again.
The foolish student hears of the Tao and laughs aloud.
If there were no laughter, the Tao would not be what it is.”

(“Tao Te Ching” from passage 41 translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English)

When Lao Tzu mentioned “the foolish” he was discussing just such a person and their lack of humility.

This phenomenon is also what is being referred to when Zen Roshi’s admonish students to keep a “beginner’s mind.”  The foundation of a beginner who is ready to hear and embrace the truth is indeed humility and to lose that humility is to lose touch with the truth itself.

I can say with great humility that without this kind of humility one is not ready for a real spiritual teaching. 

It is almost solely on this measure of a student, humility or lack of, that I attempt not to dole out teaching to anyone not ready for it.

This is also why in Zen a student candidate is made to sit outside the monastery for days, even weeks, until the Roshi senses humility from them.  For without it, to let them in the monastery, would be a terrible injustice to the student.

“Come back when you are ready” the master might say.

And we are ready when we are finally, truly, vulnerably, humble.