No Teacher of Zen In Zen, wisdom comes from personal experience. Everyone is a One of my favorite Zen stories is about teachers. The great Zen teacher Huangbo all of China, there are no teachers of Zen?” what about all those people like you who set up Zen places that students flock to like birds?” Huangbo “I don’t say there is no Zen, only that there are no teachers.” story appealing. I have never been attracted to Zen masters or gurus, powerful and charismatic spiritual guides. When I began my Zen study, I wanted to learn how to do zaZen so I could find out firsthand what Zen was all about. I was happy to listen to the practice. But the idea that following a Zen teacher and hanging on his every word and deed (in those days, Zen teachers were men) would somehow help me become enlightened thoughts resonated with Huangbo’s: there is Zen, but there are no teachers of Zen. Of America. Though I first came to San Francisco Zen Center in the summer of 1970, about a year the installation of his successor, the first American Zen master, that preceded it. Looking back at this All this might imply that I was a rebellious Zen student. But I wasn’t. I had probably because you actually do believe in an idealized almighty Zen master. I had no such belief and no such compulsion. I was at the Zen Center to study Zen. I had my reasons for a sense of how I was thinking about teachers and Zen practice in my early years. I certainly did not think that I would become a Zen teacher myself. My thought was simply to get what , Kathie, and I were ordained as Zen priests in 1980 because our teacher required us to either which would give me full ordination as a Soto Zen priest, I was surprised. In those days in American Zen, shiho was rare (though it was not I went ahead with the process and became a Zen teacher, a role I found at first disturbing, , I came to accept the social designation “Zen priest” or “Zen teacher,” and There is more to “no teachers of Zen” than meets the eye. I still believe that own life. On the other hand, Zen is not Lone Ranger practice. Zen teachers are important experience proves. Yes, there are no Zen teachers because Zen isn’t a teachable subject matter There are things to be learned, such as Zen liturgy, how to comport one’s self in a Zendo, and how to strike a proper bell at a proper time, but it is clear that Zen itself, while not exactly something other than these things isn’t the same as them. Zen is much more slippery than that. The Heart Sutra , “All dharmas are empty.” Zen is empty—empty of content, empty of doctrine own life. On the other hand, Zen is not But yes, there are Zen teachers because Zen practice is not nothing: real transformation occurs. Zen certifies the educational process. While in some ways Zen might look like this, in fact Zen is not product is produced, in this case a seasoned Zen practitioner who embodies, in his or her own unique ’s just as Huangbo says: there is Zen but, strictly speaking, no teachers, although yes for a teacher to have experienced, but any Zen teacher will have experienced many such things. Sit there is not sufficient. Ideally, a Zen teacher is also willing and able to share life completely , and surprises of all sorts. A Zen teacher will eventually live through with others almost everything human The more the teacher has an idea of “Zen” that students must conform to, the more everyone doubt there are many important skills people would like their Zen teachers to have, but deep faith and a willingness a long time. But I have also seen Zen teachers who seem seriously lacking in these capacities still be . There seem to be no universal prescriptions in Zen or in life. Zen practice is dialogic, interactive. Compared to other forms “together practice.” In a formal Zen meal, for instance, everyone starts and ends together . In Zen walking meditation, everyone walks together in single file, possible. And one of the characteristic and essential Zen practices is the one-on-one meeting with style, it’s clear that a Zen teacher has to be ready, all the time, . This deep mutuality is the essence of the Zen process. It’s been wonderful training for a a while in the net of my unacknowledged preconceptions about Zen teachers. I found it very upsetting because it seemed here I was, one of the few American Zen people in those days with full dharma transmission, and seat. (And being a so-called Zen teacher is, in many ways, literally that, facing the altar, at the front of the Zendo.) For a while I was unconsciously caught A formal Zen talk isn’t conceived of as a lecture on Zen; it’s called “presenting the shout have always appreciated the fact that when you give a Zen talk, you make three prostrations to the Buddha before see that this applied to anything I did as a Zen teacher: if I was honest, tried my best will certainly go wrong. Maybe another capacity a Zen teacher should develop is the resilience and breadth of view experience. Occupying the teacher gear in the whirling Zen machine requires that you receive everything with an open heart People come to Zen practice, as they do to any spiritual practice, and hidden expectations. Of course, the Zen teacher, an imperfect human being, is going to I have spoken to many Zen teachers who are trying hard to get better at what my many mistakes. Ultimately, I think Zen teachers can no more learn than teach. Each situation you practice with. The secret ingredient in teaching Zen, it turns out, is the brilliant spark of Norman Fischer is the founder of the Everyday Zen Foundation. His most recent book is The World Could 14, Norman Fischer, Teachings, Zen