UrbanMonk.net: The life that has gone on before: The Perils of Compassion, Part 2

From UrbanMonk.net:



The word “Sensei”, to the western mind, brings up an image of a great master, a teacher of the esoteric arts.


I have heard that in its native Japan, the connotations of this word are very different. Any teacher of any sort, from the most ordinary to the most renowned, is called a sensei. A kindergarten schoolteacher is a sensei; a professor at a university is also a sensei.


Perhaps the word has lost some of its grandeur. Perhaps the western interpretation is more suitable; for the two characters that are used to write the word combine to form something most striking: the life that has gone before. A sensei is not merely a teacher, someone who parrots from a textbook - but someone who has walked the way before you, someone who has trodden the path you are seeking, been through the same forge, climbed out of the same valleys and laughed on top of the same mountains. Common teachers are everywhere – but Sensei, in the true sense of the word – they are so hard to find.



This will sound harsh – but until we move out of our own sorrow, perhaps it is better to keep quiet.
Until then, it is merely the blind leading the blind. Everybody is just parroting what they got from other parrots, they’re just repeating what they got from books. They don’t even know if it works, for they’re not happy themselves. Everyone else is just listening to everyone else, and it goes around in a circle. Yes – a very bold thing to say – but until you have found peace, it is better to keep quiet.



The forge of experience


And this is yet another reason we have to begin with ourselves. [1] Understanding is one of the foundations towards a soft heart; and understanding comes from having trodden the exact same path, having cried the same tears and shouted in the same joy. Is there a better way – no, is there even another way – to find this understanding?

Words are just words. Whatever you say, there will be disagreements. Sometimes they come from people who have experienced differently, or have read different books. Sometimes they will come from people who try to prove themselves better, who try to satisfy their ego. Words are empty; they mean nothing. Everyone can argue with words, and so they will.


But who can argue with who you are? It is possible, to be sure – but so much harder.


When an unhappy man says: Do this and you will be happy – who will listen? When a poor woman says: Follow this metaphysical Law, think this way, recite this affirmation, and you will achieve abundance – who listens? It is no different from a fat man telling you how to lose weight, or a girl who has never been fat in her life – it is absurd. But this is what is happening all over the world.


Unhappy people are telling others how to be happy. They are going around spreading their advice. I remember the first time someone told me how to solve our sorrows. He was a professional athlete; he told me to simply to train to the point of exhaustion – and then I would simply come home and slump into bed, too tired to think about my sadness. And for the rest of my life – just push my body until I can think about nothing else but sleep. And I was only a teen – I listened!


This is happening on a wider scale - people who are still in the depths of their own sorrow are talking to others; becoming a friendly shoulder to cry on. Others become psychologists, therapists, teachers. Please don’t misunderstand - there are so many wonderful women and men in these roles; but there are many who aren’t.


It is better to remain silent



This will sound harsh – but until we move out of our own sorrow, perhaps it is better to keep quiet.

Until then, it is merely the blind leading the blind. Everybody is just parroting what they got from other parrots, they’re just repeating what they got from books. They don’t even know if it works, for they’re not happy themselves. Everyone else is just listening to everyone else, and it goes around in a circle. Yes – a very bold thing to say – but until you have found peace, it is better to keep quiet.


For the blind leader has caused so much damage. He is leading others down the wrong path, and everyone who follows will be even more messed up. She falls down a hole, and everyone who is holding on to her will fall down the same hole.


When I first decided to move out of my suffering, I followed all the different teachers I could find. Everyone recommended positive thinking, so I tried it for months, only to discover that it led to [2] repression. And so I tried NLP, I took on this method and that system, only to find most of them were no different - they were just more sophisticated ways of doing the same thing: pushing your pains downwards and keeping it there.


This is the reason I am only sharing what has worked for me. Never as someone who holds all the answers, only as someone who is walking right besides you. Never – never – as someone who has reached the end. My writings are focused on a narrow area of the human experience - the inner world. It is one of the few areas I feel qualified to write on, the only area I have made significant progress in. Everything else is pure book knowledge, and book knowledge is just words.



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