“No affirmation is more than a finger pointing to the moon.”

—  Huston Smith, book The World's Religions

The World's Religions (1991)
Context: Signposts are not the destination, maps are not the terrain. Life is too rich and textured to be fitted into pigeonholes, let alone equated with them. No affirmation is more than a finger pointing to the moon. And, lest attention turn to the finger, Zen will point, only to withdraw its finger at once.

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Huston Smith29
Religious studies scholar 1919–2016

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