03.  DHARMA GUIDANCE

The object of this course is to enter into the apparently simple practices which are used daily as part of larger practices which have been reduced to mere ritual dogma and ceremony. These are not explained as a profound teaching and as such, actually generate a subtle virus of intellectual indifference towards the practices themselves.

THE GUIDE AND LINEAGE

I want you each to look at this article and consider carefully what is presented:

“We want Buddhist Masters to be something special, something apart from the rest of humanity. The idea that "someone -- anyone" could become a Master is appalling to us. We want to believe that there are Great Enlightened Beings out there who can guide and protect us along the Path of Awakening, who can confirm or deny our own understanding for us, who know us better than we know ourselves. We want Big Masters who can give us the Big Answers. It's scary as Hell to think that maybe, just maybe, there is no one at all like that anywhere. If "someone -- anyone" can become a Buddhist Master we're left with no one to look up to. There's no one who's more qualified than little old us to judge good and bad. There's no one onto whom we can defer responsibility for our own actions, no one who can take responsibility for our mistakes.

"If "someone -- anyone" can become a Buddhist Master we're completely on our own. Kicked out of the nest and forced to fly solo with no other option than to go splat on the hard cold ground. But the fact is that every single "Buddhist Master" out there is "someone - anyone" just like this poor excuse for a monk sitting in an office at a company that makes bad monster movies writing this silly little webpage. And just like all you poor unfortunate people out there who have nothing better to do than read it.

"One of the major reasons I wrote Hardcore Zen came out of the shock of discovering that even a butthead like me could get Dharma Transmission. The moment my teacher offered to recognize me -- of all people -- as having attained the same realization as the Buddha him-self was terrifying. I did not want that kind of responsibility. I did not deserve it. What made it even worse was my teacher's insistence that I already had his transmission whether I wanted it or not. There was no escape, no hope of ever going back again.

"I was forced to re-examine all my attitudes towards the Great Masters both contemporary and ancient. Even my attitude towards my own teacher. What if -- oh, dear Lord -- what if all of them all the way back to the Buddha his very self were just schmucks like me? Not Supermen, not Saviors, not even Great Enlightened Masters. Just regular people who'd accepted what being a regular person really was (it ain't what you think it is, by the way). Accepting Dharma Transmission was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. Accepting such a thing meant that I would forever be left with no one at all to turn to, no refuge in which to hide. I would no longer have anyone to believe in, no authority figure who could tell me what was right and what was wrong. I would be totally on my own.

"Think about all the nonsense we see in America these days. Like people suing fast-food restaurants because they were too stupid to leave the lid on the paper coffee cup in their laps when they skidded away from the drive-thru. Look at the way we constantly look for someone else to blame for everything we don't like about our lives -- our parents, our teachers, society, the NRA, the KKK, the CIA. This isn't restricted to Americans by any means. The Japanese have refined the blame game to a science. The only reason they don't sue each other like we do is they have even more sinister methods at their disposal to do the same thing (if you want to know how sinister look at their suicide rate). Every culture does it.

"Can you accept responsibility for every God damned thing in this whole wide world? If you can manage this one little trick you'll become the King or Queen of All Creation and the Master of All You Survey. When you blame no one else for the situation in which you find yourself, you find that no one else can ever blame you for theirs either. You're invincible. There's a kind of power there which is so astounding it almost seems supernatural. But it's not at all. It's simply your own natural state uncovered and allowed to shine as it always should have.

"To qualify for Dharma Transmission you simply have to demonstrate that you are ready to take full and complete responsibility for the whole Universe all the time -- every single second of every single day.

"Go ahead. Try it sometime.”