If you don’t understand by yourself, you’ll have to find a teacher to get to the bottom of life and death. But unless he sees his nature, such a person isn’t a teacher.— Bodhidharma
Superior students look deeply within and seek the sublime path to pure Mind. They put aside mental images and opinions, lifting the veil of conditioned existence to see the unconditioned Mind. Their merit is extraordinary because they understand what is to be realized and what to be rejected.
Mediocre students look inward but find that their mind is only a jumble of confusion and nerves. They don’t understand that the little mind of thoughts hides the big pure Mind. They are constantly plagued by fears and doubts. As a consequence, they seek out an excellent teacher whom they believe will help them learn to turn inward; to find the right inner path to pure Mind. Their merit is average. They often go astray but return more times than they leave.
Inferior students never look inward because they are always living on the outside. They have no idea what pure Mind means or that Buddha Mind is pure and free from extraneous thoughts and ambitions. Their mind is a confused mind which is dull, easy to anger, and unsatisfied. Such students are drawn to inferior teachers who have never seen even a hint the Buddha-nature; who impose external practices, and rules. Spending many years with such teachers, these students have no idea what the Buddha taught.
The more a beginner engages with introspection, as it were, peeling away the occulted layers of mental images, mental chatter, and the emotions, the better chances they have of finding a good teacher. In fact, they may only visit this teacher once in their lives. But this is all it takes if they have been looking within for a long time.
Overall, what we are dealing with is a profound mystery. We are looking for the source of our being which is the animative power of all life. But just remember that it can be found. Bodhidharma used it to go to China and Joshu used it when he put his sandals on his head. It moves all of us as we practice to find the true source of our practice! To the extent we are out of touch with this radiant source the more we require good teachers. But not all teachers are good.
The greatest problem in Zen today is that there are too many inferior students and too many bad teachers. It is almost as difficult to enlighten oneself as it is to find a good teacher whose body is surrounded by an aura of compassion which opens the undying door. Zen master Ch'ih-chueh had it right when he said the following:
"The fact that this path has not been flourishing in recent times is because teachers and disciples give each other approval and recognition, ignoring cause and effect, duping the people, claiming themselves able to uphold this school. It is like sculpting a sandalwood icon out of dung - no matter how long a time passes, it simply stinks. You should get away from such people as soon as possible. Apply your own concentrated attention, apply your own eyes and brains, develop yourself, stand on your own. One day your own eyes will clear and will radiate light shining through the whole world. Only then will you live up to the aim of your journey."
In one respect, searching for the perfect teacher can a way of putting off what we should being doing right now. It short, it can be a dodge. It is better to follow Zen master Ch'ih-chueh’s advice. And here is the reason. Our Buddha-nature fundamentally knows itself. This is to say, it verifies itself. The only reason it doesn’t know itself at the moment is because our minds are not looking within where this bright nature is found. Our minds are elsewhere. On our own, we can at least break this bad habit of using our mind to seek externally.
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