Mel: Many people (including myself) face alike problems when it comes where to go to receive and be trained in zen. It doesn't bother me much at present, though. Perhaps you may be finding much easier to search for a group to just sit down with and nothing else and dropping in that way the rest of expectations.
I've found facebook great as a direct contact with genuine and not as genuine groups and practitioners from all over the world and from time to time interact with a few monastics coming from reliable zen institutions. The good thing about facebook is that one chooses what and who to have and not to have. Plus there is also this the forum where we also interact with each others and we have amongst us some skillful experienced and practitioners giving support all the time. All the rest is up to us and practising, practising....and as Dogen said: "Practise as your hair were of fire". We have to learn to make the best from what we have. That is also part of art of living in the present moment. Don't get discouraged. You're not alone ^_^ Mayka --- On Tue, 26/4/11, Mel <[email protected]> wrote: From: Mel <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Zen] Re: Sai Baba To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, 26 April, 2011, 5:28 I hold back on someone supposedly holy and take a 'wait and see' attitude, as soon as the issues of sexual abuse and/or corrupt, back-room financial dealings comes up, but that's just me. At the risk of being accused of being one of Yahweh's flock and therefore a hypocrite, I post below.... ..'You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money'... - MATTHEW 6: 24, GoodNews Translation I tried to join a Soto congregation once here DownUnder(Australia), until I found out that the Zen sermons and other teachings as such only comes up during those expensive Buddhist 'courses'(???). A monk I held in regard a little too early and quickly is now a businessman of sorts. That's fine. After all, he has wife and kids to support..and petrol and car maintenance does get expensive when travelling back and forth between the city and the countryside. However, this temple of sorts is no longer my cup of tea(and I hate too much ceremonies and rituals) Just my thoughts Buddha be praised Mel --- On Tue, 26/4/11, ED <[email protected]> wrote: From: ED <[email protected]> Subject: [Zen] Re: Sai Baba To: [email protected] Received: Tuesday, 26 April, 2011, 1:37 AM Anthony, One solution to any such-like problem is not to exclude holy men and religious leaders from pursuing money, sex and power legally. I think that only one Great Religion posesses the wisdom to realize the intelligence of such an attitude. --ED --- In [email protected], Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote: > > Sai Baba just died. He was a great philanthropist with morality, and had > millions of followers. But among large amounts of good comments, there are a > few that insist he molested men sexually and performed fake miracles. > > If the bad deeds are true, is he excused for doing them, while thousands of > good deeds benefit human beings? > > Anthony
