..续本文上一页y and said, "Speak! Speak!" YŸn-men didn”t say anything so he threw him out and slammed the gate, but YŸn-men didn”t get his leg out quick enough and it broke in gate. But at that moment YŸn-men had great enlightenment. As he screamed with pain, he began laughing. So, while his methods were unorthodox, his results were good.

　　This is really the way the Tao works in us. Sometimes it will come with something very difficult. And we will realize that a great pain has come upon us, but it is a good thing. A marriage breaks up or we get in a car wreck and get thrown into the hospital. We get sick. Something happens that is very disappointing. We fail on the exam. I remember how useful it was to me to fail an exam. How much it helped me. And that this is the voice of the Tao sort of speaking to us and opening us and changing our hearts, really, so that we can persevere in dark times as well as good. And it gives us compassion, that sort of thing.

　　And yet, at the same time, it”s very good not to be harsh with others, not to try and imitate in this way. And some people do. There”s actually a famous teacher gave a presentation that I heard about on the dharma in front of a lot of business people. And he had a student sitting there and the student asked, "What is Buddha

　　", something like that. And his teacher peeled a banana and began eating it. Which is sort of okay, but a bit flashy, I think. And then the student said, "Well, I don”t understand." So he pushed the banana into the student”s face. That”s not the dharma. That”s just disrespectful. Nothing”s happening there. Nothing”s going to flower there. Stephen Mitchell told me this story and we thereafter always refer to that teacher as the Banana Roshi.

　　There”s another interesting legend like this about another younger dharma teacher who was having problems with his older dharma teacher and didn”t feel like he understood him. He was going through that stage that people go through with their teachers. But he kept trying to address it with his teacher and his teacher wasn”t interested. So he decided to talk to a psychotherapist who was part of that zendo. So he made an appointment and came along. It was a woman. She was apparently a senior zen person, too. He was already a teacher in this zendo. And he said, "Well, I”m having trouble with the roshi." And before he quite finished she slapped him. When his head cleared he said, "Well, the problem is that he doesn”t really listen. . ." and she slapped him again. Three times this happened and he said afterwards, "Well, I don”t really think I had a problem after that." But again I think that that was too quick and too easy and wasn”t quite right. It”s an attempt to imitate the way the Tao kind of will give us harsh lessons and a great beauty can come from them, but I don”t think this was right either. It doesn”t feel true to me. Again, it”s like the banana. So it”s very important, I think, to be most respectful with each other. And when something like Mu-chou”s slamming the gate comes up it”s just a great action that comes out of the Tao and there”s not even a person there doing it. You don”t have to make these things up. And actually what is emphasized in the tradition is his kindness. The way he made straw sandals secretly for pilgrims because he worried about people”s feet getting hurt as they tramped on pilgrimage.

　　Lin-chi waited and he had a friend. So it”s good to do both those things. And he listened to his friend and his friend was sincere. And you may notice that when somebody comes to you for advice in the dharma, it”s very important to give them the best advice you can. If you know a little bit, don”t claim to know a lot. But if you know a little bit, don”t claim to know nothing either and don”t just give up. Give th…

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