Morning Reflection: Cutting Through Delusion

There is a difference between encountering a mean-spirited person and encountering reality. One challenges your patience. The other challenges your honesty.

In practice, people often confuse the two. When someone points out a truth we do not want to face, it is easier to label them unkind than to examine why the truth stings. We retreat into comforting language about staying peaceful, avoiding negativity, or rising above conflict. But peace built on avoidance is not peace. It is fear wearing soft clothes.

In the actual Zen and Daoist traditions, clarity is compassion. To see things as they are is not an act of aggression. It is an act of courage. When delusion harms others, or when deception is used to elevate oneself, it is not “mean-spirited” to speak plainly. It is necessary.

Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, is always shown holding a single tool: the sword that cuts through illusion. He does not wield it in anger. He uses it to separate truth from pretense, reality from wishful thinking. His teaching is simple. A person cannot reach clarity while protecting their own fabrications.

It is not unkind to see clearly. It is unkind to insist others participate in your illusion.

True equanimity is not pretending everything is fine. It is meeting the present moment without the armor of excuses, without the fog of self-deception, and without blaming others for the discomfort that truth brings.

May we all cultivate a mind sharp enough to cut through illusion, and a heart steady enough to hold the truth when it arrives.

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