Classroom Talk
Fall 2002 Archive
Re: When reconciliation lies at hand. Posted by Student John on October 27, 2002 at 12:22:49:
In Reply to: When reconciliation lies at hand. posted by John on October 25, 2002 at 17:49:08:
Hi all. Coach, what a heartfelt posting! I had an odd experience
a couple of years ago when on a 10-day segregated silent retreat, I
came to recognize how much I miss the feminine when I’m alone with my
thoughts and feelings. I too have been missing Pauline, Deidre and
Sally. There is much that seems to me “feminine” in your coaching of
putting aside differences (misunderstandings) and staying connected.
Is that what Sally and Deidre have to teach us with what they have
been and are doing?
As for my penchant to ask questions, I served ten years as a
paraprofessional volunteer counselor at a community health care clinic
where I counseled individuals, led a men’s group, counseled in the
high schools, and with my wife taught parenting classes. Oh yeah, I
was also trained as a lawyer in an earlier life. Heh! Heh!
Perhaps training has sharpened some instinct. If it was helpful, all
and good. If it hadn’t been, I would have sat with that as well.
I’m no theologian either (although Paul Tillich is a favorite read).
You wrote in response to my not wanting to speculate whether Jesus’
rebuke of Peter came from Essence or Personality:
My own experience is that Jesus and other masters use both Personality
and Essence as I understand you to mean them to teach, and their
teaching from Personality is no less striking or relevant than that
from Essence. A Zen master seeing his disciple nodding off during
meditation “angrily” orders him stuck hard on the shoulders with a
slatted bamboo stick. Personality or Essence? Does it matter? What
is the purpose of the act? To benefit the student or the master? To
the money changers in the Temple and to the weary disciple the acts
probably seem to come from Personality. Perhaps Spirit or
Enlightenment uses Personality on those occasions when to reach the
student through Essence would have been difficult if not impossible.
Both the money changers and the disciple were *asleep*. I don’t
believe either the Zen master nor Jesus were. I here return to the
*question* which has been before me (put there initially by Douglas
who I also miss) since before the summer break. He asked, “What is
the purpose, here?” It is toward this that my self-observation
moves: not to improve Self but to uncover the purpose of Self when
it's *asleep* by waking up to it when I can.
Looking forward to your next posting.
Student John
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