Crazy Mystics and Teachers

## Crazy Mystics and Teachers TERTONS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO BEING JUDGED BY THEIR BEHAVIOR One cannot judge Tertons ( A Terton is a dharma treasure discoverer; See 'The Way of the Warrior: Asia') as inauthentic because of their imperfect and mercurial character, even to the slightest extent. Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) himself has said: The hidden enlightened beings appear in uncertain form; The fool-deceivers are great hypocritical mimics of the dharmic practitioner. O people! do not take gold and dross as equal. Among the false Tertons there are many who are harmonious with people, who seem to have disciplined conduct, and are fortunate and charismatic. At the same time, among the authentic Tertons there are many who are loose in speech and behaivor and who, without the least hesitation, get involved in many activities that people will condemn. In that way the tertons take many grave obstructions of the doctrine on themselves in the form of infamy and ill repute and they use them for the practice of taking every experience in the great equal taste. Likewise, there are Tertons who are unable to discover their Treasures and who have inauspicious retinues. There have been many celebrated Tertons, as illustrated by the lives of Padma Le drel Tsal and Sum tshog, who got diseases or died in an inauspicious manner: all these things happened for the same reason [taking obstructions upon oneself for the sake of the tradition]. Such occurences are also for the purpose of demonstrating that the karmic effects are unavoidable, and that there are grave consequences involved in transgressing the slightest order of Guru Rinpoche during the present lives of beings. - "Hidden Teachings of Tibet: An Explanation of the Terma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism" by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche The stories of many of the early Christian saints often illustrate tremendous authentic presence, but even these stories include behaivor that cut through the conventional minds of the day. Saint Symeon of Emesa, a sixth-century canonized saint, was just such a "Fool for Christ." On one occasion, he was employed to sell beans for an innkeeper, and instead, he distributed them free to the people. He would throw nuts at people praying in church, walk about naked, throw stones at passersby, and associate with prostitutes. He had a mischievious sense of humour, but he also worked miracles. He was buried as a madman, but shortly afterward, when his coffin was reopened to grant him a decent burial, his corpse was not to be found. People of great authentic presence often do not fulfill the usual image of a holy man or woman. They are not bound inwardly by conventional understanding, to the extent that their contemporaries might consider them unorthodox or too outspoken. They have no need to hide their real humanity behind a veneer of specialness or holiness. Yet however outwardly unconventional 'or' gracious their appearance, they have given up grasping for personal comfort, and so without pretense or needing to crank anything up, they are able to radiate loving-knidness. - "Sacred World: The Shambhala Way to Gentleness, Bravery and Power", by Jeremy & Karen Hayward Taoism in Perspective In general, Taoist have been self-motivated individuals who have sought to function from the drives of their own inner awareness rather than external circumstances. Prevailing societal beliefs have been irrelevant to them. Being independent spirits, they might or might not follow established social conventions. Historically, many were people who had gone into life, were generally successful, and reaped the rewards, but at a certain point said to themselves. "I don't know - all the power, all these rules! Is this what life in the universe is all about?" Many got fed up with the world. It was not so much that these Taoist left the world, it was more as if the world left them. Feeling this, they lacked any concern about what conventional society considered to be important - they had come to recognize the limitations of external appearances. They didn't care if they uplifted people or upset them, and could not have cared less what people thought of them. They lost interest in physical image. Where in their pre-Taoist days they may have worn bejeweled robes of the finest silks, as Taoists they often went about in rags, completely content. As Taoists, their full focus was now directed toward comprehending the essence of being. For them, the prime question became, "What is all of this in here and out there?" These individuals were serious about studying the essential nature of their beings and the phenomenon of the universe, while at the same time not taking themselves seriously. One of the goals of every Taoist is to understand the energy of any individual, object, event, or interaction. Gaining such understanding is the basic theme of the I Ching, the oldest central text of all schools of Taoism. Taoists believe that so many different energies manifest (that is, take on a recognizable form) in the universe that we cannot easily perceive that there is a central underlying energetic process (the Tao) that fuels all manifestation. Thus we become confused by appearances and lose touch with the core reality of the Tao. In Taoism, one way of eliminating that confusion is simply to accept that any given energy is what it is, regardless of what form or shape it has or what psychological impact it is producing at the moment. Thus Taoists will involve themselves in all manner of activities where they fully assume and emanate the energy of that activity, purely to experience it for what it is. For example, in the martial arts you might witness a Taoist who when meditating is quiet and gentle but when fighting exhibits a roughness that would make the fiercest warrior seem friendly. Yet the Taoist does not judge one state of being as "better" than the other. Each state has its natural and useful time and place - one can learn from both. The energy of meditation or fighting or healing has a specific and distinct nature, as though it were a concrete thing. It is just what it is. To the Taoist, when you express the energy of a specific phenomenon, it simply means that you have manifested one specific energy that exists - you are not it, and it is not you, much the same way as when changing a shirt, you are not the shirt. Rather, the shirt is only a "something" you use. After lenghty and continuous meditative practice, the adept Taoist student gains the ability to shape energy and in the process learns how to accept any energy for what it is, not needing to make it other than what it intrinsically may be. Many people spend a good portion of their lives fighting the conditions around them, wanting people to be other than what they are, wanting life to be different from what it is, wanting to twist some aspect of life's energy into something it is not. While certainly energies can be opposed and changed (as in the case fo those energies that are destructive or evil), the capacity to recognize naturally occurring phenomena simply for what they are is one of the greatest challenges in life, one that most people do not take on. Taoist of the Right and Left As with most groups, Taoist have right and left contingents (or conservatives and liberals, if you prefer). The bulk of Taoists, however, are in the center. They go about their meditation practices by themselves or in small groups, meeting members of other groups for a variety of secular and spiritual purposes. Centrist Taoist lead normal lives. They go to school, have jobs, own businesses, and raise families. Traditionally, the right-wing or conservative Taoists in China tended to isolate themselves in the mountains, where they struggled to attain spiritual clarity and balance (that is, connection with the universal Tao) primarily by using moving and seated meditation techniques. The right-wingers attempted to achieve wisdom and peace through a highly regulated, moderate, and often celibate lifestyle that was fairly quiet. In this way, they gradually disengaged from the distractions of worldly life. They often lived in small secluded mountain communities, either alone or in groups of three or five. Lone hermits or small groups sometimes resided inside a cave or mountain hermitage, perhaps not emerging for fifty years. Less often, they banded together in monasteries one can find in the history of Buddhism and Christianity. In stark contrast, the wandering left-wing Taoists were known for being outrageous in their lifestyles and sexual behavior. There was nothing a leftist Taoist would not do. Taoists of the left frequently scorned or ignored social conventions and expectations outright. But while they often repudiated many specific aspects and values of society, they (and this is an important point) adhered to awareness in all they did, avoided causing harm, and attempted to balance all they came in contact with. Like the Taoist of the right, those of the left would do all of the sitting and moving practices but, unlike the rightists, would afterward try to bring the results of their meditation into their daily lives. They deliberately moved and refined their internal energies as they engaged in real-life activities, all with the goal of learning to transform themselves in life's swirling cauldron of unpredictability. Life's daily pleasures, sexual and otherwise, as well as disasters and turmoil, became the impetus for their meditation practice. Practitioners of the left used the situations and energies (both safe and dangerous) of real-life resources to transform their internal blockages into internal harmony. If you walk the left-hand path of Taoism, you will meditate and then will find yourself deliberately entering into situations where you continuallt risk all of your most cherished images of your self. Detached, but with the goal of acutely sharpening awareness, Taosits of the left play quite actively with the world, indulging in sex, politics, business, and so on. In China Taoists have a reputation for being reclusive. Yet the Taoists I met there were, on the whole, extremely open minded and happy to reveal their practices. In the past Taoists have tended to conceal who they were or what they were doing to avoid persecution. The tormenting of nonconformists is certainly nothing new. As it was in the Spanish Inquisition or in ancient Greece, where Socrates was forced to swallow hemlock for his independent thinking, so it was for the Taoist throughout much of Confucian Chinese history. - "Relaxing Into Your Being", B. K. Frantzis Isn't it interesting the way a lot of these spiritual teachers self-destruct? Maybe that is part of the lesson? (In some cases maybe it is the whole lesson.) "None learned the art of archery from me Who did not make me, in the end, the target." - Saadi of Shiraz Don't look at the externals but try to look into the knowledge SHe offers. Test it for yourself and if you can use it, USE it. If not, walk on. "People think that a Sheikh should show miracles and manifest illumination. The requirement in a teacher, however, is only that he should possess all that the disciple needs." - Ibn El-Arabi "Do not look at my outward shape but take what is in my hand." - Rumi Don't make the assumption that a teacher has nothing to offer others because SHe has nothing to offer you and vice versa, and don't dismiss something because you are too lazy to investigate it for yourself. You can't judge a student/teacher relationship from the outside. "I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope." - Proverb It seems to me that such teachers are not meant to be role-models, let alone objects of worship. Quite the opposite. Instead of trying to become like the teacher they offer the student the chance to become hirself. "I am a mirror and, who looks in me - Whatever good or bad he speaks, he speaks of himself." - Omar Khayyam "They say I am a wine-worshipper - I am. They say that I am an adept - I am; Do not look so much at my exterior For in my interior I am, I am. - Omar Khayyam An excellent book on such things is "Learning How To Learn - Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way" by Idries Shah: Q: ...How can a man be a teacher if he has shortcomings? A: One might put it the other way round - how can a teacher be a man 'unless' he has shortcomings? ... Ghazzali, one of the greatest Sufis, said in the 12th century that: 'The learner should know that he gains more from the mistakes of his teacher, even if the teacher makes mistakes, than he gains from his own rightness, even if he is himself right.' "Better the demon which makes you improve that the angel who threatens." - Proverb "I drink wine, and opponents from right and left say: 'Drink no drink for it is against faith.' Since I know that wine is against faith, By God let me drink - the blood of the enemy is lawful to me." - Omar Khayyam Osho is a greedy materialist. Chogyam Trungpa is a drunk and fornicator. Tim Leary is a CIA agent. Castenada is a liar. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. I don't care. Their words touch me nonetheless. Did all of Cat Stevens' songs turn into garbage when he turned into a narrow-minded Islamic fundamentalist? - Posy

Participant Comments follow below

Excellent! Often people have an image of what a "spiritual" teacher should be; how they should look, how they should behave, never realizing that the image they hold is an illusion that blinds them to the truth. www.desertmonk.com Vincent Cole 10/15/04 17:53:46 GMT

All That Glitters... Crazy Wisdom and Entrepreneurialism in the Spiritual Schools of E. J. Gold 01/23/03 19:32:00 GMT

Gandhi, my friends, was really just a super fragile calloused mystic hexed with halitosis. (note: see Mary Poppins) Memphis paolino_w@yahoo.com 01/23/03 02:10:24 GMT

Where can I learn more about the Tertons? Renee r4tennis@aol.com 01/01/03 04:26:41 GMT