What is a teacher? I’ll tell you:
it isn’t someone who teaches something,
but someone who inspires the student to give of her best
in order to discover what she already knows.
- The Witch of Portobello

Thankyou God.

With Love and Gratitude,
Jane

The absolutely only true test of the mastery of the sword is actual combat.
I guess that’s where zen comes in handy – though I think it’s less spiritual perfection than being able to come to terms that once combat is engaged, one could very easily lose one’s life to a razor blade wielded by a stronger, more skillfull, more cunning, or luckier opponent.
The catch is that you simply cannot wield a daitou properly if you’re afraid to be cut by your opponent’s sword – the Japanese blade wasn’t designed to deflect or hold another blade – it’s designed to cut quickly, efficiently. The only way to wield a sword is to lose or submerge the organismic fear of death – essentially promoting a brusque, fatalistic lifestyle.
The ability to control this fear is linked with the ability to control or submerge imagination, and focus on one’s immediate surroundings: essentially the emphasis is in reacting to the world at large – rather than trying to predict or control it.
The mind-set promoted above, of course, is bad for invention and innovation – which is why , though no doubt the samurai are skillful and brave chaps, they nonetheless decimated when they had to go against guns and cannonfire. (Yes – Guns and Strategy unified Japan.)
Here we can link the value judgement of which view is better by the simple expedience of interviewing the survivors of the conflict between mindsets. Since nature seems to favor the technical inventive mind, I guess that pretty much solves that issue.

SO to get back to the question, I have two conceptions attached to the word master: One is someone who simply has managed to survive long enough to learn cunning. It is to the master’s interest to titillate the initiate with high ideas, to gain more apprentices (who are historically undercompensated when calculated over the whole length of his training period) and economic power. Doubtless, one can learn much from these persons, but one has to be wary that they all inevitably have ulterior motives that may not run parallel with your own.
My second conception of master is someone who brings various elements of Being together (in armies, soldiers, in science, great innovators gathered round, in religion, great priest-kings fighting to save their people, for revolutions, martyrs to the cause marching forth…) creating greater and at times more efficient organization to society and the world about. (I’ll talk more about this on my next post – assuming I ever get around to doing it, hehehehe…)

But finding true master who would lead you to the truth is not so simple. Because “when student is ready, master comes to him.” Firstly we have to climb up to high (eneough) level to understand the value of potential master.

Nobody can expect from child to know the value of platinium, it is only a piece of “metal” that does not interest him. But when this child grows, gets knowledge and becomes a scientist, he starts to seek for platinium, because he knows that it is very valuable.

In Sufism, it is important to have a master, because without a “lead”er nobody can pass through valley of knowledge. It is important to listen to your heart to understand if this master is the one whom you are searching for.

There are many Sufi stories where a student comes to master and takes knowledge for a long time. But one day his master says to him: “I am not your real master. I only prepared you for your real master. Now you are ready and should go to him, because he said me to send you to him. He lives (e.g.) in Egypt, go and find him there.”

Actually, real master is not the aim, but a compass which will direct us to the way that leads to the aim. So it is important for student to (1) prepare himself, (2) find the master, (3) pass the way and (4) reach the truth.

So, inevitably, there is that moment when the progression exceeds the reach of the teacher or mentor, and it is time to look for the next step to take.

The best of fortunes to you in your search.

Love,
Savita

We continue to live in a consumerist culture. We spend much energy seeking a master, when it is the lesson that is important. We constantly look outside of ourselves for people, technology, etc., to solve our problems.

Perhaps once in a while we should look inwards, and realise we are stronger, more intelligent, and more capable than we give ourselves credit for. It is when the student realises that he has everything he needs to overcome life’s problems, that he becomes the master. He no longer tries, he does.

-Chris

At any rate, for all that the Ashram and my Guru had to offer me, there came a day when I knew that it was time for me to leave. I had no idea what came next, but I knew that it was time to move on. Now a funny thing happens in such a situation, and I feel certain that my experience was not unique. A dear friend of mine also left from the Ashram, about a year before I did, and a similar phenomenon surrounded her departure: As soon as I announced that I was leaving, moving on to someplace else, everyone that I knew in the Ashram, all of my former comrades, quickly split into two camps – those who were supportive of my decision, and those who were highly critical. Because I had heard everything that was said when my friend left – witnessed many of the conversations that went on behind her back – I quickly caught on to the whirlwind of responses surrounding my own decision to depart.

Some people held that this was a good thing, a natural development – that I should some day leave my guru and move on. Still others held that this decision to leave must denote a “spiritual failing” on my part – in other words, I had somehow “fallen from the grace” of the spiritual path and was now being sucked out into the evil darkness of the material world. I can only assume that such arguments occur in many diverse environments – when some member decides to leave a particular church, for example. The nature of the spiritual group or organization does not matter. There is the tendency of those who remain to split into two camps – those supportive of the individual departing, assuming that this person has to move on in order to discover their own path, in order to continue to grow spiritually; and those who declare that such a departure is representative of a “falling away” from the “one true path.”

This split in opinion among those who remain in the group, I think, reveals the devision between those who are “true seekers” and those who are merely fundamentalists. The True Seeker understands that there is a time to move on, that each must inevitably find their own path, and that each individual must decide for themselves when it is time to move beyond the teachings of a certain religion or a certain guru. The True Seeker supports and is happy for others when they move on. The fundamentalist, on the other hand, sees only one belief system, only one path, only one guru or one religion as the one right way. Thus they label anyone who departs from this one path as “fallen.” They do not understand that there are indeed multiple paths, all leading to the Divine. Likewise, they do not understand that the True Seeker can never be a coward, simply clinging to some pre-established path or pre-defined order. The True Seeker must be brave enough to set out on their own when the time comes – willing to move beyond the known into the unknown, and beyond. The fundamentalist is closed and fearful, believing that anything that lies outside this tightly defined circle – this one religion or one path – is “evil” and to be avoided at all costs. The fundamentalist stands frozen in fear. The True Seeker steps out into the unknown, driven by the desire to know ever more of the Divine.

Thank you!
Savita Vega

Sorry ’bout my misleading writings.

With palms together,
Uku

That just remind me of what Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher wrote in Shobogenzo, essay Gakudo Yojin-shu (“Guidelines for Studying the Way”):

“A teacher of old said, ‘If the beginning is not right, myriad practices will be useless.’

How true these words are! Practice of the way depends on whether the guiding master is a true teacher or not.

The disciple is like wood, and the teacher resembles a craftsman. Even if the wood is good, without a skilled craftsman its extraordinary beauty is not revealed. Even if the wood is bent, placed in skilled hands its splendid merits immediately appear.”
- Dogen Zenji

I agree that a true teacher always shows the many paths for his/her pupil. But whenever I try to teach someone something, there is always this feeling that wants to show off and dominate the other person. And I don’t know what to do about it. Is there something I can do to turn myself from a manipulator to a friend?

Sincerely,
Lewis