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Message |
| Posted By: |
UT |
| Response to: |
Teaching,
Posted by: Lotus Laugh |
| Date: |
12-Jun-2001-23:34:38 |
| Subject: |
Cool teaching story, for me at least |
For some reason, rereading this thread, I remembered a favorite section from Roger Zelazny's "Lord Of Light." As I remember it, Mahasamatman, who prefers to drop the Maha- and the -atman and call himself Sam, is the Buddha figure. He goes about teaching, on this faraway science-fiction world, even though he knows that he is not really a Buddha, not really anything but a flawed human being. Teaching, for him, is a way to subvert the power of the "gods," who in this story are just as human and just as flawed as he is. The gods get pissed and send an assassin after him. Sam tricks the assassin into having to stand still and listen to him for a while, long enough that the assassin changes sides, becoming one of Sam's followers. Sam knows that even though he teaches about enlightenment, he is not enlightened himself. Far from it. But the new disciple's faith is so strong that he becomes enlightened.
Fiction, but to me, cool. Because it captures a great thing about teaching. Even if the teacher doesn't feel qualified, if the teaching is true, truth is the result.
It's a great book, if you've never read it...
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