Teacher's or Student's Issues Impeding Spiritual Progress

The main thing to look for in either of those circumstances. Whatever the causality whether the teacher is inducing it or whether you're creating it all on your own.

The main thing to look for that's going to get in the way of your spiritual progress is developing a dependency on a teacher.

Now, some teachers foster that dependency.

Through some mixture of altruistic and selfish motivations, perhaps.

But also students have a tendency whether the teacher has issues, or not students have a tendency to develop dependence on the teacher. So I would say that's the main thing to look for whatever the cause. Maybe MI developing a dependence on the teacher.

If so well, then you want to take measures to militate against that because the name of the game in the spiritual path is.

Happiness independent of conditions independence, a competent liberation teacher does not want students.

A competent liberation teacher wants colleagues.

Once peers.

Once People that are independent and free free of that whole sort of investment with the individual teacher.

So, sometimes People ask me oceans. Then you've given me so much. What can I do to repay you and so forth and the impetus cited me just blurts out?

Forget about me that's the biggest favor you could do. Forget I ever existed. Just take what you have learned take the principles.

Take the skill set and run with it on your own. Forget about the person that taught you those things, the way I look at it. There's actually only one teacher in the universe throughout all time, and space and it's not a person. It's a doing all the individual teachers are just.

Reflections of that one teacher activity mythologically or archetypally. We could say that that would be represented by the 1000 headed 2000 armed goddess of compassion and the individual.

I mean don't take the math, literally right. Maybe there's 10,000 heads to historically some bigger than others. But all sort of appendages on the same activity, even that that goddess is not a person. It's just an activity called teaching, which should grow an improve with time, like science does, I would hope dependency on the teacher I would say is.

Can impede your progress so watch for that? That's why I sort of like the Zen tradition way of working when you do sons. Uh at least the Rinzai Zen way actually true of Soto Zen, too. But specifically in Rinzai. Zen during a session or intense meditation practice period that typically lasts a week. You have what's called Sunzen Wordoku San.

Which is one on one interaction with the roshi depending on the temple or the center that can be?

2 or 3 times a day or it can be up to 5 times a day for most of his teaching career before he got very old Sasaki Roshi used to see his students every single student, 5 times a day. Now I think he's down to 3 or 4 times a day at 102 and there could be 60 students. There so do the math. So they're coming in for the interview, the interviews, though, are not like.

Be possamai interviews, where we talk about your practice it explain things in a linear way they're very nonlinear transfer of.

On Energie of emptiness from the Roshi to you. You might say when Catholics take communion they experience. The true presence of Christ. When you go in for sons and with a Rinzai Zen Master, you experience the true absence of that master.

Which is a kind of dynamic doing a bouncy emptiness?

And some of that is transferred onto you by the intense interaction that you have with that. Roshi they never talk about it in explicit terms, but it is a kind of Shakti pot if I were to use the Hindu terminology but.

Unlike Chuck Teapot, where it's formalized and they talk about OK. The Guru is going to ZAP. You never talked about in wrens eyes at you, either develop the sensitivity to capitalize apartment or you don't.

Also, either figure it out or you don't figure it out, but that's mostly what you're going in there for it's not to pass these koans gets to internalize.

The passage the freedom of the Roshi by merging with him or her.

So you get this ZAP.

But then you have to go back to the zendo to the meditation Hall. What follows the transfer from the teacher is not a big celebration of how great the teacher is.

What follows from the transmission of from the teacher is you go back to the meditation Hall, where it's always either too hot or too cold. There's bugs biting you, your buttons are being pushed People are abusing you they're hitting you there yelling at you, you're exhausted you're confused now.

Can you apply?

That.

Hit that you got from.

Maroshi can you apply that can you truly internalize it and make it yours by applying it to the nitty gritty of the real world right now?

So you're thrown back on your own resources.

You don't waste time glorifying the teacher even thinking about the teacher. Whatever you got now you gotta make it yours.

And the goal in this training.

Is to produce peers? It's to produce colleagues? It's to produce People that are completely confident there confident in themselves so this way of training. The reason I like it is, you sort of get the book best of both worlds because you do get a transfer. But it set up in such a way to make it impossible for you to develop a dependency. At least if it works right whatever that teacher is given. You you have also had to work.

On your own very, very, very hard to internalize and apply that.

Your spiritual.

Path is not a path of dependency on the teacher.