The Zen of Advaita - Stephen H. Wolinsky Ph. D.

Many Zen stories of teachersdemonstrate these culturalmetaphors that relate to earliertimes in history and which do not“hit the mark” in the Post-ModernWorld. Pain oftentimes followsfor students when the cultureand time are not appreciated andare superimposed like a templateor a map or a belief system uponsomeone, or a group, that it isnot appropriate for.Krsna:”It is better to do your ownpath imperfectly, than another’sperfectly.”From a relative point of view,arguably much of the pain thatis felt within “spiritual”communities is because there isa tendency by teachers to givespiritual practices as a onesize-fits-all.In other words,everyone automatically gets thesame mantra, yantra, tantra, i.e.spiritual practice. This leads astudent for whom the approach hasbeen given inappropriately to feel“there must be something wrongwith me”.13