Question
Thank you for this online mondo. I read it from time to time and
think it is very good.
I have a question (forgive the “direct” tone):
It just occurred to me that finding your master, as it is called,
might simply mean being your own master.
I also think looking for a master can be beneficial, but I also
think the true master doesn’t exist: he is everywhere, the absolute,
life…
I don’t know whether I am right or wrong, but that is what I just thought
on September 27, 2007, around 10:30 p.m…
Thank you for your answer, and thank you again for giving us this online
mondo.
Nicolas B.
Answer from Master Kosen
It is only a matter of words. I will try to choose mine to make things easier for you.
I am only a teacher who transmits knowledge you do not have, or whose instruction manual you have lost.
But your goal (even if we say there isn’t one) is to master your reality, which means becoming the master of your own destiny. No one can do that for you.
So even if I am a Zen master and I am in charge of my sangha, I am not your master; I am only your teacher. And it is natural for you to love me, because what I teach you is priceless. What you call the absolute, universal master is the analogical mind, called the one mind in Zen. This one mind does not teach, but it knows.
Kosen