ZEN: A Pearl In a Pile of Shit

"It's not that I'm not joyful." The future Zen mater Tung-shan said to his teacher, after his inner eye opened. "But it's as though I have grasped a pearl in a pile of shit."

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I'm weird, no question about that.

Weird, because I have not lived my life according to "normal". I didn't go to university; I didn't even go to school in my last years. In Japan, they would have called me a "hikikomori" and tolerated my behaviour.

In Australia, I just had to be sneaky.

I would get dressed, go down and have breakfast, say:

"Bye! BYE!"

and head towards the bus.

Except instead I would sneak around the side of the house, go upstairs and lock my Self in my room - and stay in there for the rest of the day. I would write, talk to my Self in the mirror, listen to music, sleep. No internet, no phone - nothing like that then. Mostly just my mind and time to think.

Around the time I was supposed to be coming home from school, same thing.

Sneak out, walk in:

 "Hi! I'm home!!!"

It was my training time, for self-thinking, self-deciding - living the life I wanted to live, not the life everyone said I should be living.

I can't say I enjoyed my life - it was not joyful. I sought something to escape it; I didn't know what. And then I found Alexander's discovery - that was the pearl hiding in a shitty world.

Move up - light-hearted.

Move down - depressed.

Open up - love.

Close down - fear.

Can it be this simple?

Yes, who said freedom had to be complicated?

Marj Barstow put it beautifully:

"This is simple; it's your old habits that make it hard."

I applied my same self-directed "weirdness" to the way I explored Alexander's discovery. I got sick of chairwork, tablework and doing all these physical exercises like "monkey" and "hands on back of chair".

Don't get me wrong - I am sure they can be profound. I have experienced these teaching procedures that way on occasion. But I resist templating people. I oppose imposing my idea of what to do on what it is YOU want to do.

That is the essence of my group teaching approach, and I have finally gathered all these thoughts into a comprehensive online course.

It's available now, together with weekly live coaching with me. As the holidays approach us, it is an excellent time to refresh, learn and nurture your ideas about teaching.

https://atsuccess.com/groupteaching

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