On Teaching

With palms together,


Hello Everyone,



This morning came in fits and starts. Up and down with barking dogs: wanting out, wanting in, wanting to eat Pete-kitty. Thank goodness I fell asleep after dinner last night which allowed for an extra hour or two of sleep. I did take my disciple, Dai Shugyo’s advice, and drank a cup of hot chocolate. It helped. Since there is nothing we can control, I resolved to accept what was, dogs and all.



I have been re-reading Kennet-roshi’s famous text, “Zen is Eternal Life” and want to say that every time I read that book I gain something of useful value. While a serious and quite strict Master, Kennet-roshi was thoroughly grounded in the Buddha’s teaching. Moreover, she took on the Bodhisattva ideal from the inside out. In writing about the rise of Mahayana practice from its “Hinayana” roots, she claims, quite obviously, that the Buddha’s life itself is evidence of his manifestation of the Bodhisattva ideal.



Just there, living purely in thusness, Buddha decided to teach and cure rather than enter Nirvana. She argues with the parable of the father and three sons in a burning house, the notion that skillful means may include teaching using differing means and levels of understanding, and that this practice is not deception. We must teach to what we understand our student may accept.



Such a practice does take us on a rough ride, however. We teach form first, explore its meaning second. We practice first, explore its teaching second. We do not put the cart in front of the horse, which is where many of us sit all the while wondering why we aren’t “getting anywhere.” Moreover, a cart without a horse is as useful as a horse without a cart. Both are essential for the horse-drawn cart to manifest its function.



Teachers are given authority to teach only after considerable practice. Practice is the horse; teaching is the cart. Too often, it seems to me, those coming to Zen come in through a book, which is fine, but then they stay there. Coming to the Way through a book or magazine is a good thing, but staying there is not. Any text on Zen, if it does not admonish the reader to practice, is misleading the reader. We cannot “know” Zen in the intellectual sense. Zen must be intuited through practice. Our practice may be through rigorous koan work or silent illumination meditation.



Lastly, Zen is not a word game. Get the drift of the teacher then sit down and shut up. The true teaching comes from your practice and you cannot practice when picking at words.



Be well.