Anonymous response to Stuart Lachs' articles (2)

Thank you for posting Stuart Lachs' articles on your website. I find it unusual that any Buddhist order would be so inclined to dissiminate his writings as they seem to me to categorically denegrate the whole Zen institution. But your order is Chinese Chan which maybe is different from the Japanese Zen that Lachs writes about.

I find Lach's words refreshing and very much needed. It was after reading his articles for the first time some years ago that I realized that I really wasn't crazy. I had been in and out of various Zen groups for many years and, while I liked the practice, there was this sense of ego power trips all around me. Not so much with the people like me who were new and trying to learn to do Zen, but by the people who were leading the groups, and the people who had been there for a while and wanted to lead the groups. I finally gave the whole thing up, because I didn't want to end up like that. If that's where Zen practice would lead a person, I didn't want to have anything to do with it.

People would tell me to not let my ego get in the way of my practice and that if I worked hard I could be enlightened too (implying to me, in no uncertain terms, that THEY were truly enlightened and thus could act however they wanted). I fell for these lines for a long time. I knew something wasn't right but didn't trust myself. Until I found Mr. Lachs' articles!

I guess the important thing is to trust your own self and not to idolize anyone.

I hope Mr. Lachs keeps writing.