“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
Matthew 11:25
Dear members and friends,
There is a classic story from Zen Speaks about a young, ambitious monk named Tesshu. Tesshu traveled the land, visiting the most respected masters to showcase his spiritual progress. One day, he arrived at Shokoku Temple and met the master Dokuon.
Hoping to impress him, Tesshu proclaimed: “The mind, the Buddha, and all beings are empty. The true nature of all things is emptiness. There is no enlightenment, no delusion, no sages, and no toil.”
Dokuon listened quietly, then suddenly picked up his wooden staff and struck Tesshu over the head.
Furious, Tesshu shouted, “What was that for?!”
Dokuon smiled gently. “If everything is empty,” he asked, “where did that temper come from?”
Spiritual cultivation remains the most difficult human endeavor for two distinct reasons:
- It is slow. In an era of AI, high-speed internet, and instant results, spiritual growth still moves at the pace of a changing tide.
- It is invisible. There is no “metric” for grace. You cannot “post” your level of cultivation for others to see, because the moment you try to show it off, you’ve lost it.
The heart of this journey is about shifting our internal “operating system.” We are naturally programmed to judge our lives by materialistic and worldly standards. Spiritual growth asks us to pivot, valuing the quiet, non-material characteristics of the soul instead. The young monk Tesshu understood the literal meaning of enlightenment, but he hadn’t been enlightened by it. He fell into a trap many of us face: mistaking intellectual affirmation for spiritual transformation. He could recite the doctrine of “emptiness,” but he still possessed a full, reactive ego. If Tesshu had truly integrated the teaching, he wouldn’t have felt the need to brag. He would have known that the act of proclamation is empty if it isn’t accompanied by a transformed life.
This is a universal theme across faiths: truth is not captured by the “intelligent” mind, but by the “pure” heart. Purity of heart isn’t just about being “nice” or “charitable.” It is the cultivation of two specific qualities: humility and innocence. This is exactly what Jesus pointed to in Matthew when he spoke of things being revealed to “infants.” An infant has no curated self-image to protect and no ego to stroke. They simply are. Our challenge as adults is to return to that state—not by accident of birth, but through the intentional, voluntary work of spiritual practice. We aren’t called to be childish, but to be “child-like”: letting go of our need to be “wise” in the eyes of the world so we can finally see the truth.
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a moment of prayer this week. Let us bring our hearts to the calmness of tranquility by surrendering our desires to react or pour out our emotions. Instead let us enter the spiritual space where our Creator is present. May the blissful grace and guidance of the Creator be present in your hearts.
Blessings,
Rev. Junchol Lee