The Teacher Doesn't Teach Us

What teaches us is a particular state of mind, a present mind which we already have but don't know how to enter. It is not only a mind of the buddhas of the past, a vertical lineage—but a present mind, a horizontal lineage. So the teacher doesn't teach us, so much as shows us how to realize and cultivate this state of mind and then this state of mind teaches us. The present Mind—the present ancient Mind—teaches us, if we know how o embed ourselves in it. One way to do that is to turn dead words into living words. Ordinary life into the living Path.

-Richard Baker Roshi, "The Long Learning Curve"