Faith, Teachability and Counselling...

Bodhidharma went to China and would sit facing the wall and then preach. He used to say- when a real student comes, I’ll turn and face him - talking to you folks and talking to a wall is anyways the same thing. 

And then came along a guy called Huineng - he kept standing behind him for 24 hours. He said- “Please look towards me...” and when he didn’t, he cut one hand off - and said if you don’t, I’ll cut my head too. Bodhidharma said, “I don’t need this head of yours...I want you to cut off that head...”. For the first time in 9 years, he faced and talked to someone - and Huineng became his successor.

The moment you think you know a lot, or know anything at all for that matter, it’s impossible to learn. The moment you listen with your brain, you are interpreting every word that you’re hearing. And you are coloring it with your belief. You cannot really be listening to the teacher while evaluating at every moment whether he’s right or wrong. To really learn you need to have faith. Real learning can start only when you’ve given up on what you already know. When you are willing to have 100% faith on what is being taught. Go Diamond 2008, I was in that state of mind- ready to believe all that was being taught. And one function did the magic.