Mike,
quoting:
"A teacher is only a guide and friend."
You've jogged (loose...) a memory in me.
Thinking about teachers. Well, thinking about a guru, actually.
It's a statement that was made by a Lama, a Tibetan, and sometimes they call a
teacher a "guru", even though they are of a stripe of Buddhism called
"Lama-ism", or Lamaism, or simply "Tibetan Buddhism", and are not Hindu yogis.
They are Tibetan Buddhist yogis.
This was the Tibetan Lama, Lama Chogyam Trungpa. He became popular in the West
(1960s-70s), and was able to publish some books, to very great acclaim.
Trungpa was a bit of a wildman, and, although perhaps many Lamas are considered
a bit wild -- although still effective teachers -- Trungpa was perhaps a
stand-out example of a pretty wild character, and liked to live large, and live
rich.
Yet, I think his training and his practice, and his teaching, were extremely
rigorous.
So, he was able to call the "guru", ...to define the guru, ...such:
"The guru is a dangerous friend".
This line may even appear in his most popular book, I don't know: CUTTING
THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM. It may even be a chapter-title.
I mention it, because the teacher-student relationship in Zen practice does not
seem to me usually to be as Trungpa describes. But, on the other hand, I think
we can all think of ways in which a teacher could be "dangerous" to "us", in
the best ways. Or, shall I say, to the "ego"; the ego could well be
threatened, and threatened with death, if not extinction, by our association
with a good teacher, and with our effective practice. And of course it is.
So, I lift my glass of carrot juice to my dangerous friends! Hail!
--Joe
> uerusuboyo@... wrote:
>
> Merle,<br/><br/>Depends what you mean by "you". If 'you' means your ego, then
> absolutely not because the mind will colour things to suit itself. If by
> 'you' you mean reality, then absolutely yes! And by reality I mean the
> immediacy of direct experience. Buddha said, "Be a lamp unto yourself". Only
> you will know if the tea is hot or cold (remember that topic!). A teacher is
> only a guide and friend. Ultimately only you can workout your own salvation.
------------------------------------
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