People who are curious about Zen and Buddhism are not without a lot of assumptions about both. In my way of looking at what it means to be curious, it is about and individual searching out information about Zen that agrees with their particular ideas which contain a lot of starry-eyed assumptions about Zen that are thoroughly unrealistic and don’t really chime with Zen. The same goes with Buddhism.
The minute the curious find out that their assumptions are wrong this is when their anger beings to well up, this is also when they ask probing questions which are really disguised assertions. Questions, for example, about rebirth mean that the questioner, most likely, does not accept it, and will never accept it no matter how eloquent the teacher’s answer. The curious want to believe what they want to believe.
The curious shouldn’t be treated like students. Students are willing to be corrected who also safeguard the truth in the sense of having an open and faithful mind to truth although they have not yet personally realized it yet. Zen is not an easy subject. There is more failure in Zen than success.
But being a student is the only way one is going to come close to mastering Zen, even if they don’t have a teacher. It’s the attitude that matters. Especially in Zen or Tibetan Buddhism one has to psychically link with their teacher. This is first done by observing them closely and listening to them. It is heart to heart you could say but not because you want it, but because the teacher also likes you and senses that you are willing to take a long journey to win enlightenment and can take the ups and downs that come with such a journey.
There are far more who are curious than students. Most Zen centers are filled with the curious many of whom and been there for many years. One good indication that you are a student if Zen find you quite by accident which prompts you to learn more and more about it. In my case, that is exactly what happened. Zen found me and what an adventure it has been.
Just as there is an instantaneous moment of awakening ... is there also a moment where the student becomes a master?
Posted by: Coyote | May 26, 2019 at 05:51 AM