Joe, I suggest you use the same investigative intelligence you used to debunk the hurricane Sandy photos to debunk your teacher's story.
No human being could live on only wild potato leaves and rice for 6 years. That's quite obvious. It's a nice story but quite obviously untrue. Right? Edgar On Nov 19, 2012, at 8:19 PM, Joe wrote: > Edgar, > > Of course I mean at a practice center, with a teacher and sangha. I gather > you've done that, say, for lengthy retreats. > > My teacher did a 6-year solo retreat in a shack on a mountain in Taiwan, > after his awakening. He grew a species of wild potatoes outside the hut, and > lived on their (cooked) leaves, and someone brought him a bag of rice once > per month, leaving it at an arranged place about a kilometer from the hut > (so, my teacher Sheng Yen never saw another person for six years). The > rice-bringer had to cross three rivers to get to the delivery stashing-place. > It was isolated. > > Shakyamuni left the society of his family, and practiced. We don't have to do > that, but we can still remove ourselves from the larger society and practice > with the sangha in the traditional way, of sesshin. I assume you've done a > share of this, or maybe a lot of it. > > --Joe > > > Edgar Owen <edgarowen@...> wrote: > > > > Well I have for extended periods of time at least partly, but it's very > > difficult for human beings who as a species are so wimpy compared to wild > > animals... > >
