Choosing a Path/Becoming Yourself

I was touched by these words from Rev Daizui McPhillamy, excerpted from a broader (and very helpful) discussion in Northwest Dharma News, which can be found online at:

http://www.nwdharma.org/guidance.html

Buddhism, when properly taught, cuts away at the roots of the things that make people strange, aloof, proud, etcetera. What typically arises when these roots are cut is a warmth, gentleness, generosity, empathy, and genuineness that make someone a pleasure to be around. These qualities are the only outward signs of enlightenment, and they are a long way from the penetrating stares, self-important speeches, demonstrations of personal or psychic power, and other magic tricks which the misguided occasionally come up with.

...

Once you have found a suitable tradition, group, and teacher, stay with them. Things will not always go well, and not everything will please you or be as you think it should be. That is inevitable for two reasons. First, because each of us brings to Buddhist training our own set of attachments and delusions, they are bound to ‘rub the wrong way’ against parts of a genuine practice. Second, even the best teacher and group are human and they will make mistakes from time to time. The fact that they sometimes ‘mess things up’ does not mean that they are unworthy of being your teacher and fellow students: it simply means that their personal training is ongoing. Since enlightenment is not a finished thing but rather an ongoing process, and since even the continuous enlightenment of the arahant does not confer omniscience or infallibility, mistakes are going to be made. If seekers after Buddha’s Way require that their teachers or religious groups meet the ideals floating around inside their own heads, they will never find what they are looking for.

from Buddhism From Within: An Intuitive Introduction to Buddhism, by Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy, Mount Shasta, California: Shasta Abbey Press, 2003.
© 2003 Order of Buddhist Contemplatives.

Rev Oswin Hollenbeck of Eugene Buddhist Priory adds:

There is nothing that does not resolve itself through continued meditation, faith, and training.

"AMEN" say I-- and three cheers for the Shasta Abbey Lineage.