thank you joe..very much appreciated... let us not put "the idiot down" though...who is the idiot and who is not is not for us to judge as you say we continue to practise merle Well, the Old Man was teaching us, and he used those words as a hammer. He had our attention. He was the teacher and we were the students, and he knew how to guide us.
Sheng Yen also used to mention that it seemed to him that he had a lot of college students and people with advanced degrees as students of his. He told us that, through history, the Zen sect has always attracted intellectuals, moreso than other schools of practice. (Well, in Hinduism, it is Vedanta that is filled with thinkers). But he made sure to mention, too, that intellectuals tend to have the most trouble with Zen practice, mostly because they often cannot just learn something and APPLY it, but because their tendency is to think about it (I mean, like methods of practice, for example). The idiot, on the other hand, may appear happy and giggling, but on the other hand such a person may be unable to awaken. Awakening is important, it's not just our state of happiness that counts. But many really smart people have been unable to awaken, too, not because of a lack of potential, but often because of a lack of opportunity. "Causes and conditions" -- cooperating causes, ...teachers, friends, spouses, strangers, bird calls, the sound of vegetables frying, being burned when pouring tea... all these things can help us awaken if the time is ripe. And conditions, ...our upbringing, background, education, personality, experience, environment, our health, our age... all these can help too. Or not. It's a crap-shoot (I mean, it seems dependent on "chance", sometimes). There's no alternative but to practice, if you trust that practice can lead to awakening, or if you are simply drawn to it by some inclination. And by practicing, even if you do not awaken rapidly, at least you are becoming very healthy, and doing some good gardening, house-cleaning, woodworking, etc. I think, after a while, we forget any reasons for practicing, and we practice because it has really become a part of our lives, and is becoming something of an expression of our nature. After awakening, of course it is more an expression of our nature than before (but we have to go on practicing because we could otherwise quickly fall asleep again; maybe we practice differently now, though). Usually an "idiot" is not aware of practice, nor of what it can lead to, and is unfortunately cheated by causes and conditions. It may not seem fair. Maybe it's "karma" that's put the poor fellow in such a state, who knows. Sheng Yen also used to say that, "We live this life in order to receive the retribution for past lives." I hope I don't do a dis-service by sharing these fond recollections of my old teacher, because, who knows, he might teach differently now if he were still living. I'll be careful. --Joe > Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote: > Â many a time the "idiot" speaks..and all the..."know alls"... realise they > know nothing.. [snip... to conserve bandwidth]
