Joe has expressed below my understanding of inca.  It is a permission to teach, 
and does imply that the recipient both wants to and is able (in the opinion of 
his teacher)to teach.

...Bill!

--- In [email protected], "Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote:
>
> RAF,
> 
> > and what did they or their heirs say in regard to their awards of inka?
> 
> By the way, when it comes to _inka_, a thought comes to mind about what it 
> signifies.
> 
> Inka is given to a student who has awakened, and who has finished the formal 
> part of training in the Master's lineage.  But there are two other conditions 
> which must obtain.  These are, that the student must want to teach; and, that 
> the student must be ABLE to teach.  The student's feeling able to teach 
> sometimes depends on the student having a place to teach, a space, a setting, 
> in which to teach (rather than just out in the open air, for example).
> 
> So, Inka is a seal of approval of a student's realization and worth, and an 
> acknowledgement that the teacher knows that the student wants to teach and 
> that he/she CAN teach.  On the latter point, the student has probably served 
> as an apprentice teacher under the master, and been trained in teaching, and 
> has demonstrated ability, there, and been accepted by students training under 
> him/her.
> 
> I've just given a little fleshing-out of what I've gathered over the years 
> that inka "means".
> 
> Yet, I find no answer to your question arising in me over the past days.
> 
> Now, *these* "answers" are publicly available: my teacher Sheng Yen writes 
> something of his training and experience and his being given authority to 
> teach in two lineages of China, in his autobiography, FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW 
> -- THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CHINESE BUDDHIST MONK, 2008, Doubleday.  It's a 
> small book, 208 pages, and he calls this account of his life 
> "impressionistic, and not a perfect record"  (I don't think I've known 
> another autobiographer ever to admit that).
> 
> --Joe
> 
> 
> > R A Fonda <rafonda@> wrote:
> >
> > On 12/9/2012 11:10 AM, Joe wrote:
> > > There are confirmatory signs which a teacher can recognize
> > 
> > I find myself more interested in the occasions when a /teacher/ emits a 
> > sign of /their/ illumination. Might you, or Bill, share with us some 
> > instances you have encountered in your time immersed in the American zen 
> > scene? You have mentioned Bernie whatshisname and Aitken, for instance; 
> > what did they do or say that stands out in your memory? Of course, I 
> > don't mean to confine such observations to them, and what did they or 
> > their heirs say in regard to their awards of inka?
>




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