“The Zen master Gutei made a practice of raising his finger whenever he explained a question about Zen. A very young disciple began to imitate him, and whenever anyone asked the disciple what his master had been preaching about, the boy would raise his finger.
Gutei got to hear about this, and when he came upon the boy as he was doing it one day, he seized the boy, whipped out a knife, cut off his finger, and threw it away.
As the boy ran off howling Gutei shouted, “Stop!” The boy stopped, turned round, and looked at his master through his tears.
Gutei was holding up his own finger. The boy went to hold up his finger, and when he realized it wasn’t there he bowed. In that instant he became enlightened.”
This is one of my favourite Zen stories
“oh it so unZen to have a favourite”- shut up weakminded buffoon and listen…
In any filed of human endeavour, or indeed anywhere where humans get together, people will be very quickly assigned taks and roles and a pecking order will be quickly established. This is necessary, it is itrinsic to our genetics as pack animals.
In martial arts and in psychology I see this kind of imitation going on all the time. Watch out for it. Not in other people. In yourself.
In martial arts you will get guys teaching the same techniques as their teacher for the skae of it. They dont know what they are for, they dont really understand them. But teacher does it… so will I.
Have you ever noticed in martila rts clubs how often the head student develops the same hairdo, facial hair and dress sense as the teacher?
There is nothing wrong with this in and of itself some things are worth modelling and some things arent. It is making the distinction that is important.
The distinction between “form” and “essence”. Gosh, doesnt that sound a bit grand?
Essence means that which is essential, that which is absolutely necessary.
Form is just the packaging it comes in.
Its easy to get the two confused and that is where some people start to do some criminal damage. Mindlessly pumping out the form whilst having no idea of the essence is far worse than just shunning the teaching all together.
The form of the Zen master Gutei’s actions are absolute violent cruelty.
But the essence is absolute kindness and compassion. Takes a lot of bravery to be that kind.
Idiots will say “that means that you can chop off peoples fingers to enlighten them”… No… you have confused essence with form and you are no better than the kid imitating Gutei.
Why is it criminal to engage in this kind of imitation. Because you will be believed by people who are gullible and want leadership. That is called “ripping people off” where I am from.
I know plenty of psychologists who fall into the same trap.
Do you know anyone who is into NLP?
If you do… do they change when they start to talk about the subject?
Not all people who are into NLP, but some people really change when they talk about it in a way that is quite unpleasant. Same as when people discuss Zen. Why? Because these subjects, these words impress people. So some naughty characters will shamefully use these teachings as a crutch to prop up a flagging sense of self and to dazzle people with cheap, shallow imitation.
This will then be copied by another nitwit and the bad photocopying process goes on… till most of what is in circulation is a load of shit.
Then everytime you come into contact with someone who is into NLP or Zen (in your world view now: a load of bollocks propagated by a bunch of wankers) would you be at fault for switching off?
Speaking of NLP… fans of Richard Bandler. I can spot so called would- be NLP trainers who are Bandler fans straight away by the mediocre half assed way they “model” (copy/imitate/ape- in their case that is what these idjits reduce modelling to) Bandler… usually taking all the Form but none of the Essence
i.e. they swear a lot, some brits even affect a slightly american twang (this makes my soul curl in on itself with shame), they are rude and provocative to their clients, off hand and dirsepcetful about the clients situation, overly familiar and slightly nasty
what they miss is: compassion and skill
Bandler has it by the bagful and if you just APE his demeanour without putting in the time and dedication and work (work? yes work, the fucker has been at it his whole life!!!!! you think youre going to get that good after a weekend course? hahaha!) you are just coming across as a bit of twat with a superiorty complex
Frank Farelly when asked about his strategy for doing provcative therapy:
first line “I move straight into my heart chakra and generate love theiriwhich i let pour out of my eyes and smile…”
I dont know exactly what that means for him, but Im going to go out on a limb and guess that when he seems to be ridiculing his clients and being mean to them… something else may be occuring at the same time… I mean Im not a mind reader, Im really just guessing…
Authenticity
the opposite of Imitation
Osho’s comment on the story:
“Now, imitation cannot lead you anywhere. Imitation means that the ideal comes from without, it is not something happening within you. You have a seed within you; if you are imitating others that seed will remain dead.
Gutei must have been very, very compassionate. Only out of compassion you can be so hard–the imitation has to be cut severely. The finger is just symbolic. The boy has to be shocked severely, and the suffering must go to the very root of his being. A very intense moment of awareness, a very great device…
Gutei shouted, “Stop!” In the moment of stopping there was no more pain. Just out of old habit, when the master raises his finger the boy raises his–which is not there. And for the first time he realizes that he is not the body–he is awareness, consciousness. He is a soul, and the body is just the house. ”
Anything we do just for show… or to please otheres… or to try to meet other peoples needs… or to work to get a pat on the head from some mentally projected parental/authority figure…… will be cheap and hollow.
It either is yours or it isnt.
But dont fucking copy me or I’ll chop off something more valuable than your finger
;0)
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