...
My smoking buddy, in a snit, as per most usual, said something spectacularly rude to me about "Eastern Philosophy"... which I'm pretty sure didn't do much to ease his mood... or, if it did, it didn't cost me anything because it's all too apparent to me why he'd say such a thing.
So I just went over to the website of a "Zen" "teacher" and plucked out the last afternoon talk of some supposed intensive of one sort or another on Dòngshān's mirror samadhi song. The whole thing is about forty minutes long and I made myself listen to it all, and I think you have to download it to listen to more than a snippet, but I only linked the page so you could check.
Definitely not to recommend you listen.
This guy's been a muckity-muck bald guy in a dress for decades and still sits with suffering sentient beings and bullshits them into either a nice fuzzy muddle... or a frenzied outrage, if they are lucky.
I don't mean to pick on this one guy. Really, it could've been any of them. One only needs the desire to be a spiritual leader and a penchant for glib casuistry and... and throngs of idiots are in your thrall, call you, even, a Zen Master. Reb's just a bit better at the student mystification game than most. The others rely more on ordinary sophistry instead of balls-to-the-wall gobbledygook, paced by imperious pauses for effect.
In truth, I was hoping to find him improved, or less self-indulgent... any little thing, I guess... but such a profound lack of understanding posing as a teacher is no way to realization... and that's about all there is out there for people looking into Zen.
I sure hope I don't die before I've left something to repay the buddhas for the mercy they've taken on me.
always and any time....
