Best Of

A beginning Zen student once asked, “Master, how long will it take me to reach enlightenment?” The master replied, “Ten years.” The student then asked, “And if I really applied myself, working very hard?” The master answered, “Twenty years.”

The very idea of ‘maximum presence’ is likely to set you off on the wrong foot. My experiences have been more in the trend of gradual unfolding, taking every unsatisfactory experience in my life as a teacher which tells me more about myself and allows me to come closer to living happily and authentically.

I would say, surround yourself with the spiritual. Imbibe it, breathe it, live it, if that’s what you really want to do. Don’t avoid life, because life is your best teacher.

“Truth is a pathless land.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

One thing that’s impossible is to be the next Eckhart Tolle. You can’t imitate all the things that happened to him to become just like him, or like Jesus, or like the Buddha. We all have a unique path through life, and the best we can do is live it in the best way we know how.

You could say, my life involves ten years of hardship as a Buddhist monk. Or you could say, I’m going to study with the shamans of South America. Those are life paths which you could choose, depending on what inspires you on your spiritual quest. Either way, I’d suggest some time learning how to learn from life.

Awakening is a peculiar thing. Many people meditate for years and nothing happens. And some have all kinds of colourful experiences which convince them they’ve found ‘it’, and for some people nothing happens. Others have a psychosis and take ten years to recover. So be gentle with yourself, learn compassion for your body and mind.

To some extent you're barking up the wrong tree. On the one hand the spiritual path is a lifelong pursuit, progress is usually pretty incremental with the occasional breakthrough. At another level, it becomes hard to actually make progress with an attitude of striving.

“If you let go a little, you will find a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will find a lot of peace. If you let go absolutely, you will find absolute peace and tranquility.” ~ Ajahn Chah

Also, pain and suffering often make some of the best fertilizer for our practice and growth.

"No mud, no lotus" ~Thich Naht Hahn

I imagine that's not quite the answer you were hoping for. It gets asked fairly regularly and my response I think resembles the response experienced teachers give. If you really wanted to go fast, perhaps something like joining a retreat community as a practitioner if you can afford it or as staff working for room and board?

Regarding skipping aspects of the path (I'm not sure this fits completely here), there is something called spiritual bypassing where one moves past certain things without addressing them. Down the road these buried things become unburied or continue to impact us in ways we lack awareness of because we deny or ignore them.

@Dakini said:

@ollaimh said:

the big lesson is to remember that many teachers can teach good, well tried practices but be unenlightened. best to not get too close. learn the practice and stay at arms length.

in the sakyas i used to hear the saying."sit only close enough to the teacher to hear the teaching"

This is a good one. I haven't heard that before. One thing that impressed me with the Sakyas in Seattle is that they run a clean show. No funny business. They got a very good orientation from the Tibetan Studies professor who brought them to the US in the 60's, and their monastery has an insurance policy that requires the avoidance of anything, including behavior, that could lead to a lawsuit. One of the Sakya matrons would gather together newbies to the sangha, and teach a little mini-course as an orientation to proper dress and behavior during teachings, and so forth. It was a good introduction to Tibetan culture and behavioral norms in a religious context, too.

i can't say enough good things about sakyas in seattle vancouver and vancouver island. they are all great. i may ditch my present practices some day and go back to jeston kushock's v.y.. it's deep full rich and transcendnt.

now i have to deal with too many trungpa students. i like a lot of what the group i'm in does but the trungpa students are taxing.

my greater concern is the sexual abuse. trungpa had sex with a lot of students, many undrr ge while in canada. in canada the age of consent with a person who stands in a position of authority is twenty one years of age. moreover there had to be senior students who knew what was up and covered up from authorities. both are unethical. i have tried to discuss this with people and they can often go ballistic. i have been tols this is wrong speech. i think defending the vunerable is never wrong speech. i now quote such people dudjom rimpoche's saying:"ethics are the highest dharma".

@ollaimh said:

the big lesson is to remember that many teachers can teach good, well tried practices but be unenlightened. best to not get too close. learn the practice and stay at arms length.

in the sakyas i used to hear the saying."sit only close enough to the teacher to hear the teaching"

This is a good one. I haven't heard that before. One thing that impressed me with the Sakyas in Seattle is that they run a clean show. No funny business. They got a very good orientation from the Tibetan Studies professor who brought them to the US in the 60's, and their monastery has an insurance policy that requires the avoidance of anything, including behavior, that could lead to a lawsuit. One of the Sakya matrons would gather together newbies to the sangha, and teach a little mini-course as an orientation to proper dress and behavior during teachings, and so forth. It was a good introduction to Tibetan culture and behavioral norms in a religious context, too.

Everyone has responsibility and accountability. That includes students to know what they are getting into and to discern and ask questions and seek out other understanding if they are unsure. That is really easy to do now, thank goodness. In the 70s and before with no internet, it was a different story and many Eastern gurus of all sorts of disciplines ran into problems with students. Some of them rightfully. Some of them because of a lack of understanding of politicians and others who created problems where they didn't exist because of their own religious beliefs and fears. The timeline of the whole peace and love hippie revolution during the same time Trungpa was teaching no doubt blurred those lines more.