With respect,
Yesterday I posted a note that included information about my personal life. A member replied saying politely that my personal life was none of his business. Those who have been reading my posts over the last 12 years or so know that I frequently use events in my personal life as exemplars of the challenges of Zen living. While this is useful to students, I think there is another more fundamental reason for such postings.
In the world of Zen there have been far too many examples of secrecy among teachers leading to the very real possibility of harm to their sanghas. I have always felt I should be as transparent as possible so as to avoid this. But more importantly, I see personal and professional as an artificial dualism. My life has been an open book. Seamless, if you will. I believe strongly in self disclosure as both a teaching tool and method of insuring authenticity.
Clearly I have made mistakes, but I see these as teaching tools both for myself and my readers. We cannot live our lives without error. And as this is so, why not use error as a teacher rather than something to retreat from or hide?
Students should know their teachers are human beings and titles and degrees are not guarantees of infallibility.
May we each be well and make ourselves a blessing in the universe.
Yesterday I posted a note that included information about my personal life. A member replied saying politely that my personal life was none of his business. Those who have been reading my posts over the last 12 years or so know that I frequently use events in my personal life as exemplars of the challenges of Zen living. While this is useful to students, I think there is another more fundamental reason for such postings.
In the world of Zen there have been far too many examples of secrecy among teachers leading to the very real possibility of harm to their sanghas. I have always felt I should be as transparent as possible so as to avoid this. But more importantly, I see personal and professional as an artificial dualism. My life has been an open book. Seamless, if you will. I believe strongly in self disclosure as both a teaching tool and method of insuring authenticity.
Clearly I have made mistakes, but I see these as teaching tools both for myself and my readers. We cannot live our lives without error. And as this is so, why not use error as a teacher rather than something to retreat from or hide?
Students should know their teachers are human beings and titles and degrees are not guarantees of infallibility.
May we each be well and make ourselves a blessing in the universe.
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