Truth Is Only One

On a mountaintop, in the stillness of the open air, a monastic teacher was sitting in meditation when he heard heavy footsteps approaching. A fellow practitioner arrived, looking distressed: "Venerable teacher, I have something weighing on my heart. My mother was the one who first brought me to the Buddha's teachings (Dharma), encouraging me to practice. But now she has abandoned Buddhism to follow another religion. I don't know what to do."

The teacher asked, "What religion does she follow?" The fellow practitioner replied, "The Diêu Trì Mother Goddess religion." The teacher fell silent, and the practitioner brought his mother up the mountain.

The woman walked in, her eyes full of confidence. The teacher looked at her and saw that guiding her would not be easy, but because the practitioner pleaded with him, he had to try. He taught about cause and effect (karmic law), about conditions (dependent origination), and about the path of practice.

She listened for a while, then suddenly asked, her voice sharp and defiant: "Then who created the Buddha?"

The question was like a direct challenge. The teacher understood that this was the very reason she had left Buddhism — she believed in a creator higher than the Buddha.

He answered, his voice firm: "The Buddha attained Buddhahood through his own merit, cultivated over countless lifetimes. No one created him. To claim that some being created the Buddha is an insolent statement."

The woman was stunned, but she remained stubborn: "But the Diêu Trì Mother created all things, including the Buddha."

The teacher shook his head: "Any teacher who follows a path claiming that some being created the Buddha will see his merit crumble. Follow him for a while, and you will find your life losing its dignity."

She fell silent, then walked away. The practitioner watched his mother leave, his eyes full of worry. The teacher sat there alone, reflecting on the differences between religions — there are points of similarity, but there are points that can never be reconciled.

The meaning of the story: Truth is only one; there cannot be many different kinds of truth that are all correct at the same time. Among religions, there are common points such as love and kindness, but there are also fundamental differences, such as the origin of the universe. We need to discern clearly and choose based on reason, for we cannot reconcile things that contradict each other.

Compiled from a dharma talk by the Venerable Thích Chân Quang.