When students are ready

There is a saying that when a student is ready, a teacher will appear. Many relate it to modern day commercial relationships (paying students), but not so in this blog.

Whatever shared here on Tao and/or the Zhouyi is for free. Whatever discussed and the pointing to; is for fellow students to follow up, learn, and to improve themselves.

If they are enthusiastic in learning the profound subjects, they can become earnest; if they are earnest to investigate, they can become sincere when they acquire deep knowledge of these subjects or doctrine. With sincerity, the way of heaven, they can develop and heighten their spiritual awareness. With a heightened spiritual awareness, they may get to know what divinities do and can even assist them. (Refer to the Great Learning and the Great Treatise.)

If students possess talent they need to cultivate virtues. Those without talent may still obtain something if they have virtues.

However with no talent and virtue, it would be difficult for those who want to study and comprehend profound subjects like the Tao and/or the Zhouyi. Many down the ages have tried and failed.

For without talent and virtue, as indicated by Tze-Kung in the Analects, students, ‘experts’, and ‘masters’ can only absorb the smaller and not the greater principles of profound subjects or doctrines. [19. 22 Legge] Sooner or later you may realized the truth in this statement, if you look around long enough in the web or in what was written by so called masters.

While I am honored by several requests over more than a decade, including a recent request, to teach the Zhouyi and/or neidan (inner alchemy); compared to the ancients, one knows almost next to nothing.

If truths are written in the form of cryptic messages in their ancient classics meant only for those who possess talent and virtue, how dare I reveal these Yi and neidan secrets to others? Even the Zhen Ren or realized persons do not disclose them directly, speaking only in metaphors, similar to those of Daoist heavenly immortals and Buddhas who come back to teach their students from time to time.

If students already possess talent and virtue, what can I teach? If students do not possess either/or it is best to learn from the ancients including the holy sages. They still are the greatest teachers on Tao and the Zhouyi that ever walked on earth. They and their respective teachings are the ones, I often point to.

Therefore when students are ready and having attained some clarity, they can absorb the greater principles of Tao and the Zhouyi from the ancients and some from the Zhen Ren (realized persons). They are the teachers including Daoist heavenly immortals and Buddhas who will appear, and not me.

Cheerio!