I got on Twitter with the primary goal of communicating with Zen and other Buddhist teachers. Unfortunately, some teachers collect followers but don’t follow back so they live on a one way street where there is no communication flowing to them. For example, Venerable Ajahn Brahm, arguably the most famous monk on the planet, has a huge following but follows no one.
My motive in trying to enter into a dialog with teachers is obvious to anyone who has visited my website.
I see mindfulness teachers teaching mindfulness and then neglecting to advise their students to turn that mindfulness onto Zen koans. There are many Theravada monks in the Tampa Bay area and I have spoken in person with many of them. When I suggest that they add koan practice to their mindfulness practice, I get two responses.
“What is a koan?” is the most common response. It seems that monks and nuns from Sri Lanka and Thailand are quite oblivious when it comes to Zen practice.
The second, less common response is: “I am not qualified to teach koans because I have not passed koans myself.”
My response to both of these responses is that qualified Zen teachers can tell them what koan practice is, and qualified Zen teachers can assign koans to them and certify them to be teachers of Zen upon passing the requisite number of koans. I assure them that with their mindfulness training, they will quickly rise to Sensei/Zen teacher status.
As far as I know, none of them has yet contacted a certified Zen teacher.
And I see Zen teachers assigning koans to students without teaching them how to develop the mindfulness that koan study requires. When I suggest to them that they add Theravada mindfulness practice to their own and to their student’s practices, their response mirrors that of the Theravada teachers.
“What is The Anapanasati Sutta?” is a common response. Another one is: “How can I teach the Anapanasati Sutta when I have never practiced it myself?”
And of course my response is: There are many qualified Theravada teachers who could bring you up to speed quickly.
I have found a paucity of Buddhist teachers on Twitter. The few that I have found are awesome.
So if you have a good teacher who is on Twitter, please let me know their handle so that I can follow them. If they are not on Twitter, ask them to join and ask them to follow back those who follow them.
If you know of any lists for Buddhist teachers on Twitter, please pass them along to me. I will compile a list as well and if many of us can collaborate, we should be able to bring Theravada and Zen teachers together for the benefit of their students.
And please join the effort to persuade teachers of mindfulness to add koan study to their teachings, and teachers of koans to add mindfulness to theirs. Thank you!
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English
