With palms together,
Teaching for nearly two decades has been a course in reality I deeply cherish, but have ambivalent feelings about. Students have come to me from around the world and throughout the United States each with their own agenda, their own motivation, and their own capacity for study and practice. Most do not have the dedication to be a true student of Zen. Most seem to allow their agendas to get in the way of their practice and, most importantly, continued practice.
My students often come wanting something a teacher cannot offer: answers. They become frustrated or disillusioned and leave the practice hall. The something that drove them to seek a teacher is often self-centered: "I want to be less stressed, less angry, more compassionate" and so on. My answer does not satisfy: "You already possess these attributes, now sit and discover them."
It would seem the student wishes an answer, precisely to their need and their need is an answer, a concrete solution to what drove them to me. This I cannot give and would not even if it were possible.The reason is actually quite simple: each of us is unique and my "answers" are not your answers.
To be an effective student of "the Way" is to be willing to sit with yourself gradually peeling away the layers that separate us from ourselves. The layers upon layers of assumption, rationalization, and ideas we hold about ourselves and our true nature.
A teacher cannot do this; the student must. What the teacher can do is support the practice.
Teaching for nearly two decades has been a course in reality I deeply cherish, but have ambivalent feelings about. Students have come to me from around the world and throughout the United States each with their own agenda, their own motivation, and their own capacity for study and practice. Most do not have the dedication to be a true student of Zen. Most seem to allow their agendas to get in the way of their practice and, most importantly, continued practice.
My students often come wanting something a teacher cannot offer: answers. They become frustrated or disillusioned and leave the practice hall. The something that drove them to seek a teacher is often self-centered: "I want to be less stressed, less angry, more compassionate" and so on. My answer does not satisfy: "You already possess these attributes, now sit and discover them."
It would seem the student wishes an answer, precisely to their need and their need is an answer, a concrete solution to what drove them to me. This I cannot give and would not even if it were possible.The reason is actually quite simple: each of us is unique and my "answers" are not your answers.
To be an effective student of "the Way" is to be willing to sit with yourself gradually peeling away the layers that separate us from ourselves. The layers upon layers of assumption, rationalization, and ideas we hold about ourselves and our true nature.
A teacher cannot do this; the student must. What the teacher can do is support the practice.
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