I could see the defects of character my teacher had—he was a womanizer who cheated on his wife, had compulsive behavior and could only hold a conversation if it was about martial arts. Years later, I had to take care of him when he had a mental breakdown. But I wasn’t in training because of the personal qualities he had.
By Angel Roberto Puente
I saw the manifestation of the starry-eyed syndrome for the first time when I went to the main school in New York, then called, Yun- Mu- Kwan Karate school.
Until then I had been training in Puerto Rico with one of the advanced students of Master Min Q. Pai. He was completely devoted to him. I was just a boy without a father figure so I latched on to my teacher in a relationship that lasted for decades.
I credit my Christian education for the inoculation against the starry-eyed syndrome. I like to say that I prefer dead teachers.
I could see the defects of character my teacher had—he was a womanizer who cheated on his wife, had compulsive behavior and could only hold a conversation if it was about martial arts. Years later, I had to take care of him when he had a mental breakdown.
But I wasn’t in training because of the personal qualities he had. What I wanted was his proficiency in fighting, and that I got. So when he went to New York, I followed him. I took off the brown belt I had earned and started from scratch.
Master Min Q. Pai, from Korea, was a force of nature.
He had combat boots lined with lead on the soles. I tried to pick them off the floor and couldn’t hold on to them. Master Pai would put them on and do kicks. He took advantage of all the teachers that were present in New York in the golden era of the 60s and 70s and mastered the forms of Japanese Shotokan, Okinawan Kenpo, Chinese Shaolin, and Tai Chi Chuan.
He also studied Zen. He passed all this on to us. I’m in the Eido Shimano Roshi pictures at 20 years old.
It’s no surprise that he was surrounded by starry-eyed students. So much that he started a Zen monastery that essentially became a cult. One of his successors wrote, “OK, OK, it did become a cult—not a Jonestown or Buddhafield, but it did evolve into something that could arguably check off more than a few boxes in the ICSA’s ‘Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups’ list.”
All this came back to me because of a recent video on YouTube of an interview with two teachers. I won’t go into details. I don’t want to disparage or criticize these teachers.
I will let each person reach their own conclusions if the subject is of their interest. My interest is the shape the Dharma will take in America.
Both of these teachers spent a lot of time with their teachers, and the way they describe their interactions is amazing. The effect of wearing their teachers’ robe, they express, is jaw dropping; in my view, starry-eyed syndrome at its peak. They seem to believe that this is the way practice is supposed to be.
I’ve been using starry-eyed in a colloquial way to mean that, “you have a lot of thoughts and opinions that are unreasonably positive, so you do not understand things as they really are.”
In psychology, there is a phenomena called transference and counter transference,
“In Person-centred psychology, the terms transference and counter-transference help us understand how people interact and why they respond in certain ways. Transference refers to when someone’s emotions and thoughts are unconsciously transferred to another person, and counter-transference occurs when the second person also experiences a similar emotional response. Both these concepts help us comprehend emotional reactions in human interactions.”
Watch the video. Listen to the way they speak of the power of their teachers (43:16, the resonant field of a master), and ask: Do they think they have that same power?
“Transmission in this sense is not something a “someone” gives or receives from a “someone else.” It is the way the silent awake Presence that we are meets itself, gives and receives itself in its apparent manifestations. In actuality, everyone is continually transmitting what is true in the moment—be it conflict or peace, love or division, confusion or enlightened Being.”
I hope that discussions around this theme will help build a truly helpful mode of practice. One that will raise it’s level and integrate it into our culture. And above all, that teachers who contradict the goals of practice will be called out immediately.
The lies of “enlightened freedom” and “crazy wisdom” used by so many in the past have to be seen as what they are: misguided teachers taking advantage of starry eyed students.
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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El amor de Ángel Roberto Puente por la investigación comenzó desde su infancia cuando desarmaba los juguetes que recibía en Navidad. Lo único que consiguió después fueron juegos de montaje. Una experiencia temprana de lo no conceptual lo llevó a un viaje para reconciliar una educación cristiana con la práctica de Zazen y los estudios de Psicología. Habiendo logrado una solución cómoda, ahora se sienta con Morning Star Zendo. Un grupo zen dirigido por un sacerdote jesuita/Roshi. Como introvertido maduro, todavía separa las cosas, y ahora los conceptos y las creencias. Check out his site here.
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