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<\/a><\/div>\nI think most Zen students would agree that following a teacher is a delicate task for us modern people. <\/span><\/span>However, I\u2019ll suggest here that most of our reactions to the practice of following a teacher are based on misconstrued images and projective distortions rather than the real deal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Americans tend to overtly over-emphasize the horizontal dimension and rigidly refuse to sit in the student seat, clinging to our specialness and rigid but fragile sense of self.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n At the same time, Americans covertly tend to disrespect ourselves and deify the person in the teacher seat, putting them way up on the <\/span><\/span>vertical axis so that a real relationship isn\u2019t happening.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Or we frantically flip-flop between these two, finally throwing out the kitty with the kitty litter, the teacher with the relationship \u2026 and the Zen practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Monday night at our study group we provisionally unpacked Dogen\u2019s Self-Realization Samadhi<\/i>, addressing the practice of following a teacher. There are a number of other work-throughs on this theme in the Shobogenzo<\/i> but this one is probably the most poetic and deliciously nuanced.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Despite what you might read in the cyberwhirl<\/i>, <\/span><\/span>Zen is a relational undertaking. Therefore, <\/span><\/span>to authentically be engaged in Zen practice,<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>it is simply necessary to be engaged in a teacher-student relationship.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Unless we are involved in following a teacher, we can\u2019t be fairly said to be practicing Zen. Saying that you\u2019re a Zen student without a teacher is like telling your friends that you are doing psychotherapy and then sitting alone in your room and talking to yourself about your problems.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So what is the \u201cvital activity,\u201d as Dogen calls it, of following a teacher?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Dogen puts it this way (and you might need to slow down in order for what follows to penetrate):\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt the very moment of following a teacher, we encounter half a face or half a body. We encounter with the entire face and entire body. We realize a spirit\u2019s hairy head and practice a demon\u2019s horned face. At times we follow others while traveling in the midst of different beings. At other times we travel differently while being born with those who have the same kind of birth.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The first point that jumps out from this passage is what isn\u2019t <\/i>present \u2013 including most things we associate with following a teacher and have reactions about like doing what we\u2019re told because the teacher knows best, sitting zazen with them according to their instructions, studying Buddha\u2019s teaching, volunteering to support their center, and giving money.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n