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Welcome to our blog! The articles here are contributed by both teachers and students in the StoneWater sangha and from invited guests from other groups. If you have any queries, or would like to contribute an article yourself, please contact the editor, Alasdair, at editor@stonewaterzen.org.
We encourage readers to leave comments on the articles in StoneWater Notes, but please remember to abide by the principle of Right Speech and the spirit of the precepts in the comments.

StoneWater Notes

Student and Teacher: A Zen Perspective
By Andrew Tanzan Scott on Friday 13 January 2012
Filed under: General

Sensei asked me to do a reading this week and I used the opening part of the essay by Nicolee Jikyo McMahon Roshi, Student and Teacher: A Zen Perspective.

It led to an interesting discussion, not least because the relationship between student and teacher is an important part of contemporary Zen practice which can raise difficulties for both parties, as well as being one of the most important relationships we have in Zen which can really bring the practice alive.

Among the concerns Jikyo Roshi addresses are:

  • What are the desires and needs that a student may hope to fulfill in the relationship?

  • How can projection, that is when student or teacher brings their hopes, beliefs and expectations into the relationship, be used to play a positive role?

  • When the relationship doesn't seem to work, what insights may be gained and what can be done?

  • When it does work, what stages may the learning process go through, both for the student and the teacher?

As John Gage Sensei says in his preface:

Not only does it help us understand the nature of the student-teacher relationship, but it elucidates our entire practice as Zen students. As students we are on a path which potentially leads to transformation and liberation. Jikyo Roshi gives us a clear and concise description of how these potentials can be realized and what the processes involved require of both the student and the teacher. As such, what is presented here is as valuable for the advanced Zen student as it is for those setting foot on the path for the first time.

One member asked how to get hold of a copy and I found that Student and Teacher: A Zen Perspective is available in PDF form from the White Plum Sanga website: http://www.ttzc.org/books/student_and_teacher.htm

I would strongly recommend this short and clearly written work for all sangha members.

Andrew Tanzan Scott

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