“When you teach, you have to pierce the human heart and take away the flag of ego. So your compassion must extend beyond the words you use. Then your penetrating words will teach and not injure.
To teach people how to go beyond, your attitude must be soft yet stable, like the center of a ball. No matter where it rolls, the ball’s center never changes. You must always stand alone and unmoved. You can’t get carried away by the eight winds of gain and loss, public defamation and eulogy, private praise and ridicule, sorrow or joy. Most people are easily tossed about by these winds. If people praise you, you smile. My teacher often scolded me, but once he praised me, and I smiled. Immediately he said, ‘How stupid you are!’ I didn’t understand at the time how these winds can get us into trouble.”
Katagiri D. “You have to say something. Manifesting Zen insight.” Shambhala, Boston, 1998.
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