"I have to find out"

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It doesn't happen often, but this morning ... ahh! As the old Indian chief said in the 1970 movie, "Little Big Man," ... "My heart soars like a hawk!"

It began yesterday when I got a note out of the blue from someone who had come upon a book about Shin Buddhism and wanted to find out more about it. He wrote to me because my name popped up in his Internet searching for more information. I know thimble-sized amounts about Shin Buddhism and wrote back saying so. But I also made a couple of suggestions about where he might look.

There were several little notes back and forth until this morning when I got up and received his latest. And there, rising up off the computer screen like mist over some quiet forest pool it was ... a line that opened me up like a kumquat ... the alpha and omega of serious spiritual endeavor ... a line that anyone might say, but when they mean it and act on it ... ahhh, here is the heart of the matter. Never mind teachers and gurus and vast texts and compelling rituals and intricate philosophies and soaring temples and incense curling into the sky ... the line was this:

"I have to find out."

It doesn't matter if what this fellow wants to find out is whether people wear blue hats or red, whether there is a god in heaven, whether there is life after death, whether he can afford a new refrigerator ... still, the spiritual truth remains ...

"I have to find out."

If there are blessings in this life, this morning I felt utterly blessed.
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