Seriously, good work, Mr. Warner.
Good points Mr. Cohen re: Mr. Warner's book:
Yes, even a Zen teacher can lose his balance, let emotions run to excess, get trapped in greed anger or ignorance, get flooded by panic. A Zen teacher can sometimes fall off the addiction wagon, get taken over by pettiness or resentments, get trapped in all kinds of harmful behaviors. Great Point! Yes, it has happened to many teachers, maybe most teachers at some point. They are people, and people can lose their balance...
Buddhist practice done right can free us from (not depression, fear, anger, etc.) but being PRISONERS trapped by those things, who cannot escape from that...
It is like a bicycle rider who can't keep balance on his bike, panics, loses control, runs into the bushes and falls off the bike. It is not that such a person has discovered the "secret" of bike riding. It is that such a person is a BAD BIKE RIDER!
Our Zen practice is about riding with grace no matter what bumps and turns the road throws at us. No matter what logs or potholes there are in the road, we go forth.
Sure, sometimes even the best bike rider will go tumbling off his seat. We should honor that fact, and when you fall ... fall.
But beware any "bike master" who tries to sell the public that riding his bike like an ass, and running into ditch after ditch, is expert riding!
Which relates to something I said somewhere else: it's got to do with skill.
One does not need to throw up a lot of ideology into one's brain, one needs instead to cultivate the skill and grace of being able to deal wisely and compassionately with those who are not privy to what's in your brain.
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