Here is the thing: the two classes I teach now (The Mirror of Zen and The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment) already cover anything one really needs to know about waking up. That is not to say you can simply read those books and you will wake up. It is to say, if you study those words, putting into practice the teachings discussed, you will have everything you need to cut through the delusion that is keeping you from seeing your true nature.
If everything is already there, why do we need any other classes? Why does the world even need the book I wrote on Zen and waking up? To muddy the waters a bit more, it gets even simpler. When I was working on the book and the lectures for the classes, it felt like all teachings were beginning to melt into a single mantra: return to present moment.
The role of a Zen teacher is to help people to wake up, to help people continue to return to the truth that is this very moment. And since not all teachings will resonate with all people, that also becomes part of the gig. We must continue to help people by finding that which will resonate with them.
Here is a poem I wrote one time when I was studying Buddha's first response in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment. When I wrote this I was sitting outside on the deck of a house I was renting in Austin, TX.
Maitreya's Question in the SPE
In Buddha's answer to
Maitreya Bodhisattva
Buddha says
Attached love and
Desire
are hinderances
So I started to make a
list of attachments
list of desires
So many attachments
So many desires
How do I get rid of them all?
It seems impossible.
Oh Shit!
I bit the hook!
What am I?
Don't know.
Right here
right now
this very moment
If I must use words
The sun is out
The sky is blue
with a few puffy white clouds
