OK, thanks. I'll stop looking for the line in Graves' poems! ;-)
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
>...after all we are all unique ...is that not the zen way?
As to the question, I'd say, "No". Originality is not necessary in an
expression for, say, a zen teacher to approve an utterance, say in dokusan, or
in any other testing situation when or where a teacher is testing one's (a
student's, or visitor's) realization.
Originality is not necessary; but Authenticity is.
Zen teachers just know the authentic when they hear it or see it; there's no
faking them, and guessing does will not work either.
Well, just a non-specific report from inside the room. We're cautioned against
telling details of actual happenings in our practice.
But the book Dr. Joe "prescribed" for you, THE THREE PILLARS OF ZEN, is replete
with transcriptions of interactions between students and the roshi in the
dokusan room. Kapleau, the author, made the transcriptions, with the roshi's
and the students' permission.
Kapleau had been one of the court transcriptionists during the Nuremberg
trials, and his shorthand was very good. I suppose the roshi allowed this
material to get out during a time when zen teachers were all too scarce in the
West. The reports of these encounters give a taste of dokusan, one of our many
Zen practices.
I say a taste, because, as you say, we're unique, so don't depend on them.
Just a taste, now.
Best,
--Joe
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