I cringe when I read a scholarly treatment of Buddhism. It amazes me that so-called enlightened or practicing folks spend endless hours debating the details of a system of beliefs, when they are supposed to be practicing non-belief. The passions in these debates are as passionate as in politcial or other debate in our society.  Those that are “experts” what to be seen as knowing it all.

I’ve also recently had conversations with people that have been around, know, or read about other gurus that profess to teach awakening, but are living their life completely in the opposite direction. They now see themselves as more important than others. They live duality. Their egos have taken back over their day to day lives. This is not meant to judge, but rather to wonder. How does one prevent that back slide when one becomes a teacher. 

I guess it means you need to stay awake, but the trappings of power, fame, and/or worship make reality fall away again.

This is an inspiring piece at the NY Times Magazine. 

“I felt saved by Zen,” he told me. “The Humpty Dumpty image is corny, but it’s right. Meditation put me back together. It helped me overcome the split between the body and the mind. The question that remained was what to do with emotions and the self.”

The story of a man confronting his buddhism in conjunction with his emotional baggage despite being a Zen master.

If he hadn’t been so distraught, he might have laughed at the absurdity of it: a Zen master in the waiting room of a psychoanalyst. He was a connoisseur of contradictions, an unsentimental man with a “Zen noir” temperament and an un-self-sparing wit. “Anywhere I hang myself is home,” he liked to say.

via Enlightenment Therapy – NYTimes.com.