The Plank of Preference

When you meet one who is lost in the game of 'like' and 'dislike,' 'right' and 'wrong,' you see the speck in your brother's eye.

Do you then feel the urge to correct him, to judge him, or to wish he were different? That is the plank in your own eye. It is your preference, your distinction.

In that short time, first remove the plank. Let go of your preference for him to be otherwise. Be the peacemaker in your own mind, holding no opinion for or against, and the Inner Kingdom is revealed to you both, right where you stand.

Reflection - The Peacemaker in Your Own Mind

(The reflection begins, warmly, with a knowing smile.)

Grace and peace to you.

I see you. I see you sitting there. And I know... I know... that you are an expert speck-spotter. (A small chuckle.) You are. We all are.

You’re walking through your day, minding your own business, and suddenly... there it is. A speck. Your co-worker says something... unbelievably foolish at a meeting. Speck. Your spouse, for the thousandth time, leaves the cupboard door open. Speck. You turn on the news, or, let’s be honest, you pick up your phone and open that little app—the one you love and hate. And what do you find? An avalanche of specks!

You see that political commentator, that rival party, that entire group of people who just... don't... get it. And you see their specks. They are huge specks. They are obvious. They are 'wrong.' And what happens in that moment?

Ah, yes. The urge.

The delicious, righteous, powerful urge to correct. The urge to judge. The urge to fix. The urge to type! (Another laugh.) The urge to point at the speck and say, "Look! A speck!" It feels so good, doesn't it? For a moment, it feels like standing on solid rock. "I see the speck, I see the 'wrong,' therefore... I must be 'right.'"

And in that moment of "rightness," the mind, as the Hsin Hsin Ming says, "is lost in confusion."

Our text for today is a mirror. It is a sharp, uncomfortable, and unbelievably liberating mirror.

"When you meet one who is lost in the game of 'like' and 'dislike,' 'right' and 'wrong,' you see the speck in your brother's eye.

Do you then feel the urge to correct him, to judge him, or to wish he were different? That is the plank in your own eye. It is your preference, your distinction.

In that short time, first remove the plank. Let go of your preference for him to be otherwise... and the Inner Kingdom is revealed to you both, right where you stand."

Did you catch it? The teaching doesn't say the speck isn't there. It doesn't say the foolish comment wasn't foolish. It doesn't say the world's 'wrong' isn't causing harm.

It says your reaction is the plank.

The plank is not the other person's action. The plank is your preference. The plank is that knot in your stomach. The plank is your sudden loss of peace. The plank is your addiction to the game of "right and wrong." The plank is your deeply held belief that the world must conform to your map of it in order for you to be okay.

And that plank... it's heavy, isn't it? It is exhausting carrying that thing around all day. Trying to fix every speck you see, all while you're peering around this giant, splintery beam of wood stuck to your own face. It’s... well, it’s also faintly ridiculous.

This "disease of the mind," as the Zen masters call it, this habit of splitting reality into 'like' and 'dislike,' is the root of all our suffering. We think the suffering comes from the "bad" things. But the Hsin Hsin Ming says no: "Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind." The suffering comes from the distinction.

This isn't just a Zen idea. This is the secret wisdom hidden in plain sight, in all the world's great spiritual traditions.

Think of the great Sufi mystic, Rumi. He writes: "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about."

What is this "field"? It is the Inner Kingdom! It is the Great Way! It is the world before we chop it up with our preferences. Rumi isn't saying that harmful actions don't have consequences. He's saying that our identity—our sense of "I am right and you are wrong"—is the very fence that keeps us out of the field. The plank is the idea of "wrongdoing." The plank is the idea of "rightdoing." To remove the plank is to let go of your need for these categories, and to simply... meet... what is.

In Buddhism, the Dhammapada states it with beautiful, blunt clarity: "‘He abused me, he struck me, he defeated me, he robbed me’ — in those who harbor such thoughts, hatreds never cease. ‘He abused me, he struck me, he defeated me, he robbed me’ — in those who do not harbor such thoughts, hatreds cease. Hatreds never cease through hatred in this world; through love alone they cease."

This is not a sentimental "love." This is the "love" of the Hsin Hsin Ming: non-preference. How do you "love your enemy," as the Sermon on the Mount commands? You let go of your preference for them to be your friend. You let go of your preference for them to be different than they are. You stop harboring the thought, "He abused me." Not because it didn't happen, but because you see that clinging to that thought, watering it, feeding it... that is the plank. That is the hatred that will never cease.

Rumi invites us to a place beyond the plank. The Buddha gives us the method for dropping it: stop harboring the thoughts of grievance.

But how do we live this? Especially now. We live in a world that is designed to manufacture planks.

You pick up your phone. You are now scrolling through an infinite feed of specks. Every post, every article, every comment is an invitation to form a preference. "Like." "Dislike." "Angry face." "Love." We are training ourselves, hour by hour, to be the world's most efficient judges. We are building massive, industrial-sized planks and calling it "being informed," or "having a strong opinion," or even "moral clarity."

And we are so tired. We are so anxious. We are so divided. We are walking around, all of us, with these massive beams sticking out of our eyes, bumping into each other, and yelling, "Hey! Watch where you're going! Can't you see I'm right?"

The teaching of Jesus the Zennist is a radical intervention. It says: Stop.

Just for a moment. You see the speck. You feel the urge. Now... stop.

Don't act. Don't correct. Don't judge. Don't even wish for the person to be different.

Instead, turn your attention. Turn it from the "speck" (out there) to the "urge" (in here). Feel that tightness in your chest. That heat in your face. That beautiful, terrible, righteous energy.

That is the plank.

And now, do nothing. Just be with it. Watch it. Don't become it. Don't believe it. Just see it. "Ah. There is the plank. There is my preference. There is my desire for the world to be different."

And in that seeing, in that spacious, non-judgmental awareness of your own judgment... the plank begins to dissolve. It's made of nothing but thought, after all.

"First remove the plank... and then you will see clearly to remove the speck."

This is the key. This is not a teaching of apathy. It's not about letting the world burn. It's the exact opposite. It's a teaching about true clarity. You cannot possibly help your brother with his speck while you have a two-by-four in your own eye. You'll just poke his eye out! You will respond to anger with more anger. You will meet "wrong" with more "right," and the war of dualities will continue forever.

But when you remove the plank first... what happens?

Your inner world becomes still. You become, as the Beatitude says, a "peacemaker." Where? Not in the world, not yet. In your own mind. You have made peace between "what is" and "what I want."

And from that place of peace, from that clarity, you will see. And you will know exactly what to do. Maybe the answer is a compassionate word. Maybe the answer is silence. Maybe the answer is a firm boundary. But it will come from the Inner Kingdom, from love—which is non-preference—not from the disease of the mind.

Let's apply this. Think about the biggest, most impactful news story of this past week. The great drama on the world's stage. The thing everyone is arguing about. The ultimate "us vs. them."

You've read about it. You've felt the outrage, or the fear, or the despair. You have felt the massive urge to pick a side, to condemn the 'other,' to wish it were all different.

That urge is the plank.

The world is not healed by your preference. It is not healed by your outrage. That is just more "like and dislike," as far from the Way "as heaven is from earth."

The world is healed by the one who has first removed the plank. The one who can look at the "wrongdoing" and the "rightdoing" and see, beyond both, the suffering, the confusion, the shared humanity. The one who can, in their own heart, find Rumi's field.

This is the work. It is the only work.

When you meet that person today—and you will, I promise—the one lost in the game, the one with the obvious speck... rejoice. It is not a trial. It is a holy opportunity. An opportunity to find your own plank.

Do not try to fix them. Do not wish them away. Stand still. Let go of your preference for them to be otherwise. Be the peacemaker in your own mind.

And in that silence, in that stillness, in that sudden, shocking, beautiful clarity... the Kingdom of Heaven is revealed. Right where you stand. Amen.