Yet still you have not founded Placebo Zendo?
Never discount the placebo effect! *L*
A story worth repeating, just for the joke - screw the punchline. ;)
K
On 7/16/2012 7:50 PM, Joe wrote:
A couple years ago, just before I resigned from Zen Desert Sangha
after 24 years with that group, and while I was President of the
Board, many people would come to me with complaints.
It was not my job to hear complaints, really, but people freely came
to me with them, especially the newest people to join us, and
newcomers. I did what I could, especially if the complaint was not
merely one about relations between two people, or merely complaints to
the effect that "So-and-so chants too loudly", etc.
One Saturday, a newcomer came to me after the sits and the
socializing, and "complained" to me that he had sat for 20 years with
various teachers, and was still working on the first koan. I told him
that I thought that could be GOOD, in my opinion, and that I had heard
of people who stayed with one koan for all their practice career, even
after awakening, if they did not want to pursue (undertake; undergo)
the entire koan curriculum.
Koans like, "Wu", or "Mu", which are really hua-tous, are good ones,
in that case. If you ask "What" is Wu... then it's just the "What...",
which never forms a fully-formed syllable as we ask it. It stops
everything and we turn into a lump of extremely heavy iron for hours.
It's "Wh...".
But his complaint was more fundamental.
He "complained" that he had sat for 20 years, and had not had an
Awakening.
I kidded him (I thought), and asked him: "Did you ever consider that
you might be part of the Placebo group?"
At that moment, he had GREAT Awakening.
Fortunately, our Roshi was still in the building. They went off to the
dokusan room, and shut the door. Thanks be.
I got out of there as soon as I could.
Zendo was walking-distance from home. I had a good walk!
--Joe
