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"Though masters may have faults, students have many more. Frequently, they
wrongfully blame their masters for their own shortcomings. Among the faults of the students are the following:
"Faithlessness: Many parts of spiritual inquiry require enough faith in your master to at least practice what is presented. If you have insufficient trust and confidence, or are perhaps too sceptical, then you will never succeed. No one is telling you to be unquestioning. But unless you respect the system and master you are with, you will not give either one enough of a chance to take root in your life.
"Commitment is of utmost importance. Commitment means that you are willing to invest yourself absolutely in your practice. This uncompromising quality isn't for the sake of your master, it is for your own sake. You are not surrendering to your master but committing yourself wholeheartedly to your own endeavours.
"Immaturity: This is the opposite condition of faithlessness. There is absolutely no good reason for the type of stupid and unquestioning loyalty that has been recently seen in religious faiths. This is personal immaturity and a wish for a return of the time when parents, lord, teacher, or god was infallible and would tell you everything to do - thereby sparing you all personal responsibility. You have to have faith, but stupidity is not a virtue.
"Students like these put all their trust and responsibility for spiritual growth
into the hands of the master. They don't try enough for themselves. They want their teachers to do it all for them. Spiritual progress comes only from effort.
"Laziness: Spirituality takes diligence, discipline, and direction. Spirituality is only as real as you make it - and you have to make it real every day. How can you do that without perseverance and effort? ...
"Fantasy: Another type of student is one who becomes involved with spirituality out of fairy-tale notions. Don't they realise that all that matters is their own true accomplishment? And don't they realise that some of the most thrilling tales are mere metaphors?
"Poor memory: Don't laugh. Poor memory is a real problem. What good is anything you learn if you fail to remember it and practice it?"
Deng Ming-Dao (1990, 219f.):
"Perhaps the most difficult task for any master is breaking down a student's
egotism. This is a very delicate matter, for all
vestiges of arrogance, laziness, selfishness, and partiality to oneself must be eliminated without destroying the sense of self-worth, and without warping the personality. This arduous task must be accomplished without the teacher demonstrating any of his or her own egotism.
"Many people are arrogant in their
own way. Some have predatorial, even sadistic impulses. They have learned to survive by being aggressive to the point that this has become their primary mode of behaviour. Others are so eager to point out the bad habits of others that they overlook their own. Still others are desperate to assert their authority on any subject available, though their knowledge and opinion is almost wholly derived from the daily newspaper. In arrogance, people sacrifice sensitivity to others, to their surroundings, and to their own inner nature. Sooner or later, the arrogant person will fail to maintain whatever achievements he or she has made at their height and will begin a downward slide. Often, they are too blind or too unwilling to change. A certain sloppiness of character emerges, and it often becomes a fundamental laziness. Laziness is a part of egotism because important tasks are put off. "It's too hard," one reasons, or, "I know better." Straightforward laziness is almost better than the type that is accompanied by elaborate rationalisation. For people who cloak their laziness in tedious arguments, the task of instilling discipline and knowledge is almost hopeless."
Deng Ming-Dao (1990, 220):
"The partiality toward oneself is fundamentally dangerous to an aspiring Scholar Warrior. As long
as you refuse to let anyone
else into your life, as long as you refuse to accept the authority of a competent master, as long as you refuse to acknowledge your limits while trying to expand them, and as long as you continue to reject modesty and humility as virtues in your life, you will never succeed in following the Tao."
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