Humbled Rather Than Humiliated

Over the past few days I've been reading and re-reading a vibrant teisho given by Genjo Marinello Osho and I thought it might prove invaluable as a point of practice well worth sharing. This text is from The Blue Cliff Record, Case 66, "Ganto Laughed Loudly." This glimpse appeared in the most recent edition of the Newsletter for the Zen Studies Society, Winter/Spring 2010.

"Our this last full day of Summer Sesshin, we almost had teisho a half-hour early. Genko sent the inji [attendant] upstairs with the unenviable task of telling the Abbot that he was a half-hour early [laughter]...

We all make mistakes and are, from time to time, distracted. Ideally we should be humbled, rather than humiliated by such a revelation. When we feel humiliation, it is nearly always left over from some childhood trauma that is stimulated by our current circumstances, most often some sort of error on our part. The extent that we feel humiliated is probably directly proportional to how much baggage we're carrying from our own troubled childhood. Alternatively, to the extent that we feel humbled by an error and say, "Oh, that's right," then this is probably a good measure of how well we have processed or digested our childhood traumas. The Inji said, "Do you intend to have teisho early?" And I said, "No, there's no need to have teisho early." That's it. No more need be said.

We think that, in the process of so-called mastery, we're going to become someone we're not, or that we'll realize something that will change us. We may believe that we will in some permanent way transcend our monkey mind, get forever past prsonal history, or never make a mistake again. And, of course, all this is impossible! We'll never be without our childhood, our monkey mind, or what we call our bumpkin nature.

What our Zen practice does do for us is help us realize that we are so much more than our bumpkin nature. In the readiness of time, we begin to come to terms with the vastness of our True nature..."

So precise, so direct, so beautiful. I am ever grateful to Genjo Osho. I have a lot of appreciation and gratitude that such a point can be so well articulated and shared. It connects deeply with my heart-mind. It begs to be studied and examined closely, to see what's inside the boxes that we've constructed with our mind. I genuinely hope that you benefit from this teaching. Coming to the truth of ourselves, is an amazing gift to receive.

May Your Life Go Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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