Hi Joe,
Thank you. I meant to write "originally enlightened", not "already
enlightened"..
Thank you for pointed it.
JM
On 5/24/2013 10:50 AM, Joe wrote:
JMJM,
Most kind of you, too; thanks.
And/But...
I would not repeat those words, "We all are already enlightened". It's
misleading.
(I know you say, "originally", and I agree with you: it's more
technically correct. BUT... it does NOT make a practical difference,
which is what COUNTS. Pls. see below).
It's like saying:
"Sick people all came from a state of being WELL. Therefore, they need
NO DOCTOR and no medicine. Their sickness is just a modified state of
WELLness, so no one needs to do anything. They just need to snap out
of it".
First of all, the Doctors' and Nurses' unions would all complain.
Second, many people would die quickly.
Let's forget about people being "enlightened". It's not a helpful or
skilful application of the word, and nobody knows what it means.
Let's emphasize BEHAVIOR, as we do in Ch'an and Zen. Is everyone's
behavior enlightened, yet? No. Then, people need methods in order to
awaken, and they need to rub shoulders with Shifu and Sangha, at least
for a while, in order to learn correct practice. That's the way it's
always been done.
When we have one eye open to Wisdom, then of course everything teaches
and preaches the Dharma, and Shifu is just one among other things, and
a very kindly one, who is quite easy to relate to. ;-)
But of course everything is one's Shifu, then. Including Shifu.
--Joe
> <chan.jmjm@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Joe,
>
> Agreed with your emphasis about the role of a teacher.
>
> I would say, "Everyone and everyone thing is our teacher, because there
> are Chan in everyone and everything." Yet, "no one and none needs to be
> our teacher, because we were originally enlightened."
>
> Having a teacher on one hand creates an external attachment, though the
> teacher does provide guidance. Once awakened, with high spiritual
> sensitivity, we'll KNOW, we don't need a particular teacher, because we
> see Chan in everything and everyone around us.
>
> Just some response to your heart-felt perspective.
>
> Thank you for pointing out..
