Personally, one of the excuses I often use for not
getting on with the
serious business in my life is:
but I don’t have a teacher! Where is the sensei, the all-wise master who will help me through this...{insert
Life Crisis here}...?
In the first place, I should know by now that when one truly needs help, a guide, a teacher, a sensei will appear. It’s some sort of karmic rule. Always was, always will be.
In the second place, when I am terminally impatient and it seems like the sensei has missed his bus or something and is nowhere to be found, I eventually manage to remind myself that the most important life lessons I’ve learned, I’ve taught myself. And that, too, ultimately is the Way of it.
There is a famous Zen story:
In the 15th century the Japanese Zen master Ikkyu was asked by one of his slower students, "Can you write down on this parchment the highest teaching of Zen?"
Sensei Ikkyu picked up his brush and wrote the word:
Attention
The student frowned disappointedly. "But surely there is something more!" he said.
Sensei nodded and replied, "Yes there is," and he picked up his brush and wrote again:
Attention
Whereupon the student, still dissatisfied, demanded "Is that it?"
Sensei Ikkyu responded, "No, there’s more," and he picked up his brush for the third time and wrote:
Attention
At which point the completed parchment read:
Attention
Attention
Attention