We all seek approval from others and if we are students of the way it is natural to seek the approval of our teacher. The prerequisite for our teacher’s approval is that we have earned our own approval.
A good teacher will show you how to win your own approval. It requires effort, commitment,determination and sincerity. If that work is done properly your teacher will give you his or her approval, which is a very special kind of empowerment. It is the empowerment of the lineage.
To do this it is often necessary to give up a great deal of self deceit, complacency and self- soothing.
Aside from approval and empowerment when we let go of our pretended self-satisfaction we can really hear the Dharma. We hear it with the whole body and mind. We see it with the the ear. We hear it with the eye.
Then we can manifest with the whole body and mind. With the wind of our own understanding and that of the lineage at our backs we can blow into the Dharma trumpet that is our life with a breath that comes not from the lungs, nor from the abdomen but from our feet.
photo credit: Tom Marcello
Wonderfully clarifying! Relinquishing self-deception and self-soothing are prerequisites for receiving your own approval.
The above two practices, as you suggest, fill the ears and eyes with self-images which distort the transmission of Dharma.
Thank you for this gem of a post.
Hello Eric. Thank you for this response. I feel like you really agreed with and understood the essential part of what I was saying. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Having integrity relinquishes self deception and self soothing doesn’t it? Being true inside and out and blowing from the feet.
Thank you, you are wonderful.