Yes, most of the Zen practitioners I know have come to this practice broken upon life's jagged rocks. I've only met a couple who came because they were just curious.
It is tempting and a great fault to lay blame. And at the same time we must hold ourselves and others responsible for the effects of their actions. Just because someone had a tough life does not excuse exploiting students for sexual or financial gratification. If we are attentive, we know the difference between blame and responsibility when we feel it in our heart/mind. Just because one practices Zen doesn't mean one should be rude to others. A number of times I have seen students fall away into clever Zen wit, and blow off a sincere junior. I have not witnessed a genuine teacher be so flip to new and junior students. Such apparent callousness, just as the Zen blow, is reserved for senior disciples. Over and over again Buddha and Nagarjuna stressed training in the discipline, the precepts. It is our fundamental training in compassion. It guides and sustains us beginning, middle, and end. Without great compassion, there is no enlightenment. It is the watershed of the Mahayana: until one has generated at least the sincere wish to attain great compassion, one has not even entered the path. One is still playing in the parking lot. May we all cultivate bodhichitta thoroughly, Blessings, Ryunen --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "AC" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've been studying the wisdom teachings of the Tibetan Gelugpa School for 7 years and never met anyone who sounds like Alex. >> > > I think Angry or Hostile would be one way to describe him. His response seem to unleash rhetoric which may make him feel empowered but the diatribes offer border on comedy. > > I read one of his messages and I imagined it coming from a great comic book super-villain named DOCTOR DOOM. Dr. Doom is always on a mission to conquer the world in order to achieve Justice. Dr. Doom was a brilliant young scientist who was horribly disfigured as a result of a botched laboratory experiment; and he blames the jealousy of his best friend for the accident. Every evil deed the Dr. Doom does is therefore the fault of others; and Dr. Doom can never rest until he has proven to the entire world that he really is much more brilliant than his former best friend, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic). > > Perhaps Alex is a person whose heart was badly broken. Whose trust was seriously betrayed. A person who feels so small that he must project his personality to the size of a large wall in order to walk among others. > > I am not sure, but I feel sad for Alex. I hope that someone can touch his soul and his mind and his heart. So many of us, including me; are broken people. We have been crushed or beaten down by others, by circumstances, by accidents, or by life itself. Sometimes it is hard to understand life. > > It is much harder to get up off the bottom of the floor and to try again than it is > to see others and the rest of the world as being wrong. A person fails because he did not measure up to the standard or he can believe that others conspired against him. Is there anyone here who has never failed at something? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
