Chris,
Don't confuse crazy with compassionate! ;-)
I know you don't.
I've gotten swift swats from Sheng Yen on occasion, in Interview (dokusan).
Sometimes to compliment, and sometimes to chastise, but usually to encourage.
You know how it goes. Or I hope so.
Especially with a teacher from an Old Country, often a physical communication
is very meaningful, and ...lasting. My teacher was not proficient in English,
for example. Often, we used sign language, together. I once had an entire
interview with him where I used a pocket full of stones and moved them around
on the floor, to ask him a question! His answer was meaningful and decisive.
It "made" the 7-day retreat, for me (another minor awakening, after the first
big one).
I stay, lovingly, in that lineage. They're training me in Florida and Taiwan
to act as a lay, un-transmitted "Dharma Teacher", especially in the details of
holding 7-day Ch'an retreat, so important to our practice. I won't let them
down. Shih Fu is gone, but not really. I will never let the Old Man down. He
knew this.
Sheng Yen was Chinese, but, BTW, in Japan, "Roshi" just means "Old Man". He
never seemed old to me, not even when he was old.
Blessings to you and the family. You ARE blessed. Me, I just have "fur-kids":
Cats!
Please take great care of yourself and the fam.!
--Joe
> Chris Austin-Lane <chris@...> wrote:
>
> I've never heard you describe your lineage as crazy, Joe.
>
> My practise at the moment - reading a Percy Jackson book to a very tired 8.5
> year old who is fighting the bed time ritual with upset and so on.
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