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<\/a><\/p>\nRecently a student has become aware of how he has been doing his practice \u2013 in part \u2013 in an effort to please me. This is something students often go through, including myself with Katagiri-roshi. It can be an important part of finding one\u2019s own feet and then standing up and walking as a free person.<\/p>\n
Zen is meant to help us break our chains, sometimes through the skillful means of tightening them so that they catch our attention. Sometimes by illuminating those that can be broken only through becoming one with them \u2013 life and death, for example.<\/p>\n
In Soto Zen the teacher-student relationship is much like the master-apprentice relationship in the arts or building trades. Only through closely following the master\u2019s way and then going beyond it can we ourselves \u201c\u2026walk free with even steps across the blue sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many years ago I heard a story on tape by Bobbi Rhodes, now the head of the Kwan Um Zen School (pictured above), that points to one important movement in the teacher-student relationship. The story stuck with me and goes something like this:<\/p>\n