This last section of the manuscript for The Book of Chen Jen is broken down into several posts. To see all the posts in chronological order, go to the Book of Chen Jen Index Page (scroll down to Section 3). For the sake of these posts, the questions posed by the interviewer, Sue-tzu, will be in bold and the answers by the author will appear as regular text.
Are you a sage?
I am a walrus.
Meaning?
Meaning that ‘sage’ is a word and a word cannot describe being — I would prefer not to attach titles to my experience of being. If we say someone is a sage, does that tell us what his experience is? ‘Sage’ is a concept like any other — when we use it we necessarily objectify what is indescribable.
Yet we cannot live without concepts. And I sense in you so many of the qualities which you have Chen Jen enunciate.
Do you really!? Be careful not to put too much trust in your ‘senses’! Shall I become your guru, then? This is the very thing we both need most to avoid.
“You will know your teacher when she arises from within,” as Chen Jen says. You are saying that my only real teacher can be my own inner self?
Exactly. Eschew all adoration of others; whatever their reality, it is not your reality, nor can they impart it to you. But wait, I have said too much. There are those, I know, who think otherwise and I do not wish to contend with them. Let me just say then that it is not my way.
Are you a sage?
I am a walrus.
Meaning?
Meaning that ‘sage’ is a word and a word cannot describe being — I would prefer not to attach titles to my experience of being. If we say someone is a sage, does that tell us what his experience is? ‘Sage’ is a concept like any other — when we use it we necessarily objectify what is indescribable.
Yet we cannot live without concepts. And I sense in you so many of the qualities which you have Chen Jen enunciate.
Do you really!? Be careful not to put too much trust in your ‘senses’! Shall I become your guru, then? This is the very thing we both need most to avoid.
“You will know your teacher when she arises from within,” as Chen Jen says. You are saying that my only real teacher can be my own inner self?
Exactly. Eschew all adoration of others; whatever their reality, it is not your reality, nor can they impart it to you. But wait, I have said too much. There are those, I know, who think otherwise and I do not wish to contend with them. Let me just say then that it is not my way.
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