“No affirmation is more than a finger pointing to the moon.”
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.
My Life in Court (1961), p. 115.
Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (1973); In a training session with one of the temple students.
Variant: Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Dont concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
Source: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
Source: The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)
Liguori, A. M. (1882). Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity: In What True Wisdom Consists. In N. Callan (Trans.), Sermons for All the Sundays in the Year (Eighth Edition, p. 43). Dublin; London: James Duffy & Sons.
“O but it is a fine thing to have a finger pointed at one, and to hear people say, "That's the man!"”
At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier "hic est".
Satire I, line 28.
The Satires
“And so, pointing fingers become pointing guns, because nobody listens to fingers.”
Source: Gods and Generals
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections
