[Buddha-l] The way the wind blows

[Mike Austin]

When assessing modern teachers and their supposed realisations, I wonder 
what part pride plays. For example, I find I have a reluctance to accept 
that some westerner, like myself, has achieved anything remarkable. Now, 
on the one hand, I suppose the chances may be very small.  But I suspect 
my reluctance to accept it is largely due to the pride of competition. I 
cannot imagine that they have achieved anything more than I have.

Then I find myself thinking that only eastern adepts - Tibetan monks and 
'high lamas' for example - are the only authentic realised beings. Could 
this also be pride because I associate with them? For example, I think I 
tend to believe more of a Tibetan monk than a Japanese monk. Why?

It is in my arrogant nature to consider myself better than others. Where 
others come up with the same sort of views as myself, I can either think 
of them as 'good' because they think like me, or as 'ordinary' because I 
got to that view before they had. Either way, I sit in state of conceit.

Then, rather than thinking western people have reached realisations that 
are as profound as, say, Tibetan lamas, I can tend to think that Tibetan 
lamas are nothing special.  Why should they be able to achieve something 
more than western practitioners?

With all this dross going on inside my head,  those judgements I tend to 
make of others and their realisations are nothing more than pissing into 
the wind.

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin