She knows she is not real

There is a story I am reminded of that happened at a Buddhist conference in Europe. A Tibetan lama was there, and a member of the audience was an extremely serious German student. The rinpoche had been teaching visualizations of Tara and the puja to the 21 Taras. During the course of this teaching, this student, with great sincerity, put his hands together and asked the question: “Rinpoche, Rinpoche, I have zis big doubt. You see, all day we do the puja to the 21 Tara, and you know, I am very committed to zis practice. I vant to do everything right. But I have zis doubt : Tara, does she exist or does she not? Really Rinpoche, is she zhere or not? If she is zhere, I can have a full heart. But if she’s not zhere, zen I don’t want to do zhe puja. So please, Rinpoche, once and for all, tell us, does she exist or does she not?” The lama closed his eyes for a while, then smiled and replied, “She knows she is not real.” It is not recorded how the student responded.

Ajahn Amaro, Small Boat, Great Mountain (pp 9)

Just was reading a bit of this book (so far so great), recommended by a teacher named Wystan on Twitter and came across this passage which is a funny illustration of what I’d been saying regarding ritual practice and the non-centrality of belief. You can have a full heart even if she’s “not there.” Reminds me of another old joke:

“When a Jewish atheist heard that the best school in town happened to be Catholic, he enrolled his son. Things were going very well until one day the boy came home and said he had learned all about the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost. His father, barely able to control his rage, seized his son by the shoulders and said: “David, this is very important, so listen carefully. There is only one God—and we don’t believe in Him!