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Talk: 19960708-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-vipassana_retreat_part_8_of_8-43312 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 00:36:47 Display_question: How important is it to have a teacher? Keyword_search: teacher, student, India, spiritual tradition, guru-oriented tradition, Buddha, self-reliance, Krishnamurti, Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen, zazen Question_content: Questioner: I’m just wondering how important a teacher is, in this practice, as some people can't really get to one? Larry: How important is a teacher? I have a bias. The bias is just based on my experience. Teachers have been incredibly helpful to me. There are about, I would say almost all of them. There was one, took me a while to recover from him. One of these really corrupt ones. The first, early on, almost anyone from India, with a beard we thought was... didn't matter. They could… Questioner: (inaudible)It’s a specific question because it would be wonderful to be with a teacher if you can… Larry: Yes, I understand. Well, I think I just let me speak to about the teacher in this particular tradition, because the role of the teacher is different, from spiritual tradition to spiritual tradition. This is not a guru-oriented tradition. I'm not saying that guru is bad, because if you have a genuine guru, and a genuine student, some beautiful things can come out of that. I don't see that happening too often, unfortunately. It's very often exploited, it seems. But that's not the fault of the system. Break_line: The Buddha’s teachings puts a tremendous emphasis on self-reliance. The Buddha is famous for saying, be a light unto yourself. So that sounds like, great. Thank you very much for these five days, and I'll just go and do it. But it turns out that we all need help. And even in the Buddha’s time, he suggested that the practitioners stay with him, for about five years. But what he was trying to help them do was stand on their own two feet. Break_line: Now, my first teacher was, some of you have heard of Krishnamurti. He's the extreme on that. And he was, and even from his grave, continues to be immensely helpful to me. And he was extreme in the sense of not spoon feeding, yet he was a very loving, very compassionate, very generous, affectionate, wonderful human being. But if he saw you trying to make him into something, in other words, use him to render yourself four years old and turn yourself into a thumbsucking child, he would undercut that. In short, transference, and counter transference, all of that stuff. He didn't force using the teacher to build dependence out of, unless you were really desperate. Then of course he would really do his best to hold you up. Break_line: So, in this tradition, I think I know in my own training, we're encouraged to not… To help the student stand on their own two feet, as soon as they can. So, if somebody's been very damaged by life, of course you're providing more support. But it's like bringing a child up, as the child gets stronger, I think a healthy parent wants a healthy child to flap their wings, and fly away, and to have love that way, rather than dependent, and crippled, and so forth. So, teachers can be helpful. But if you don't have a teacher, and right now there aren't very many, so probably you don't. It's not fatal because, as I said, the real teacher's life anyway. Break_line: So, the question is, are you willing to learn from your experience? So, what can you…you can substitute for a teacher. Sometimes we get discouraged. Books can help. In Cambridge, people seem to devour tapes, for some reason. Sometimes you just feel, I can't sit, if it kills me. And you just hear a tape, or you just read a line from Thich Nhat Hanh, or whoever it is that helps you, okay. And you get your butt on the cushion again, and it turns out to be not so difficult, or so bad. But that's why friendship is important, spiritual friendship. Break_line: It's not fatal. When you're not with a teacher, that can make you strong, because you'll really have to learn how to take care of yourself. If there's a genuine teacher available, I think you'd be foolish not to take advantage of it. It's somebody who's practiced longer than you, who's made all the mistakes, who can see them in you, who can point that out, and help you learn how to walk. Isn't it good to have a good parent? So, it's something like that. So, everyone's situation is different, and also people's temperament is different. Some people need more help than other people. It's not a judgment, it's just true. So, we have to work with the way it is. And the way it is, is, I don't know. It's different for each of you. But if you don't have a teacher, here's the main point it's not fatal. Start practicing. Break_line: Finally, to me, the most important teacher, is the practice. If you get, for example, in some Zen traditions, they'll say zazen is the real teacher. Zazen means sitting. For me, it's more comprehensive than sitting. It includes all of life. But if you want to limit it to sitting, that's fine, because you'll learn so much from if you sit with yourself every day. End_time: 00:42:09
