Breaking through is up to you

One look at this planet will tell anyone with two eyes that it is not a happy place. The human condition is ruled by greed, anger and delusion. In order to change, individuality must be removed. Greed, anger and delusion must be pacified. Change is difficult and most people are not really interested in change if it means giving something up. It is easy to give up the bad, but it is much harder to give up the good and you can’t have one without the other. To change means to give up good and bad, likes and dislikes.

To be involved with Justin, you have to change and go beyond the human condition. Justin is very critical of his students, many times openly critical of them in front of others. There are many teachers who will tell us what we want to hear and make us feel good about our lives, but will this bring about change? Criticism, though difficult to deal with, is a very effective and expeditious way to bring about meaningful change in a short time frame. There are countless Zen teachers in the past who would absolutely agree. Hakuin, P’ai Chang, Huang Po, Yunman are just some of the great Zen teachers who were terribly hard on their students in order to bring about change, remove individuality and elevate the student beyond the human condition.

The truth is that most people really don’t want to change and it is very easy to walk away from the criticism of a true teacher. Some students, however, don’t simply walk away. They lack honesty to admit their shortcomings and, instead, blame Justin. “It is not my unwillingness to change that is the problem; rather it is Justin’s inability to teach.” This is a typical defensive reaction created by a student’s lack of honesty. There have been some who have taken this reaction to an extreme and attempted to harm T’ai Chi Chih and discredit Justin within the community.

As Justin is critical of students in Albuquerque, he is also critical of students he has placed in positions of importance within T’ai Chi Chih, sometimes critical in public forums such as this newsletter. Always remember that when he is critical of someone, he is trying to help him or her and it does not matter what responsibility or role the student has within T’ai Chi Chih. Justin will use any and all means to help that student break through.

Most people in the community do not understand what Justin is doing. Some believe that his recent criticisms over this last year are the result of his unwillingness to let go of T’ai Chi Chih. When I hear this, I can only laugh. When he is critical of someone in a public forum, he is risking everything, including T’ai Chi Chih. He is risking his reputation, credibility, a negative reaction from the community, or extreme reaction of someone harming T’ai Chi Chih. Does this sound like the actions of someone not willing to let go, or like the actions of someone risking everything to help us break through? We should be very grateful we have someone willing to go these lengths to help us.