A spiritual teacher's job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
In my particular case, whenever someone approaches me wanting to embark upon the spiritual journey, I do my best to discourage them. I hold that one must engage in spituality only as a last ditch resort. Only once all the other options have been thoroughly exhausted for you, should you consider joining the spiritual quest. Doing it out of curiousity, or as an idle 'interesting' activity, is very detrimental. It can be very, very dangerous for you. You need to go into it with your entire heart and soul, ready and willing to give your life away for it. There is a reason why in traditional Chan practice, they would mercilessly chase the applicant away from the monastery. I think the rule of a thumb was to chase them away three times. Only the most persistent were alowed entry (sometimes, we learn, the desperate applicants would spend days and nights kneeling in the snow before the monastery gates, pleading with the authorities to be given the rights of entry). Alex --- doug rogers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just a bunch of quotes in no particular order here� > > Fudo: > > >Maybe it is due to the nature of this list but we > get at least a Buddha > >a week to kill. > > >if you call yourself a Buddha what would you expect > to > >have happen on a list of a tradition where "If you > meet the Buddha on > >the road, kill him" is an important teaching? We > are not talking rocket > >science here..I mean ......come on ......get a > clue. If you pretend to > >have the answer a Buddha would give...I would duck > if I were you. You > >are on a list of professional assassins assigned to > smoke your ass when > >they see you. > > Rod: > > > When new people come I think it compassionate to > stop them before > >they say something they will be ashamed of later... > knowing that > >later they will be their own worst critics. > > > Fudo: > > >I do not consider it compassionate to coddle a > whiner, to take care of > >someone pretending to be an invalid, or to let a > delusion of having an > >anchor in a storm let someone wander into a real > storm armed with only a > >delusion. > > > Sebastian: > > >You guys are scaring the shit out of me! I agree > with disagreeing. I agree > >these gals are looking for Zen Lite, but is it > necessary to answer with > >such bile, such venom? > > > >We all need the stick sometimes, but do you have to > slam 'em with a sequioia? > > > I thought the 'Kill the Buddha' admonition applied > to your own self > discoveries. I am obviously not sufficiently > advanced on this zen path to > truly understand that it involves killing others'. > > If I had joined a professional assassins list, i > might have had a better > idea of what to expect. > > I hoped for a compassionate correction of mistaken > ideas rather than > abuse and slaughter. Maybe you old hands are just > fed up with folks > joining and asking the same stupid questions again > and again. I hope your > children are treated as well. > > This list seems like Tough Love Zen, or EST Zen. > Point me to a sutra > where the Buddha did this. > > AC: > > >Tilting at Windbags: A Crusade Against Rank > > >Did you read his life story? Talk about the pot > calling the kettle > >black. He was a young windbag who left his family > and joined a > >University and became a professional windbag > complaining about other > >windbags. > > Is this AC speaking about himself? > > > I don't mean to harp on my experience in Karate, but > as a black belt I > learned that you need apply no more force that is > necessary to end the > threat to yourself. No more . No less. > > > <http://home.golden.net/~samu> > < > > There's a crack in everything. That's how the > light gets in. < > > ===== No karma was produced during the composition of this letter __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ------------------------ 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/
