"Elroy Berdahl remained quiet. ... His eyes were flat and impassive. He didn't speak. He was simply there, like the river and the late-summer sun. And yet by his presence, his mute watchfulness, he made it real. He was the true audience. He was the witness, like God, or like the gods, who look on in absolute silence as we live our lives, as we make our choices or fail to make them."
O'Brien T. "The things they carried." Mariner Books, Boston, 1990.
... Zen "teachers who are capable of sitting skillfully (and humbly) in the role
of teacher, teachers who can navigate their own impulses as well as the
projections of their students. One of my favorite stories is of a female
student who went to Shunryu Suzuki-roshi and admitted an attraction to
him — he replied with something like, “It’s OK. I have enough willpower
for both of us.” When that’s real — when nothing you throw at the teacher
undermines the teacher’s center of gravity — then teacher and student can
really explore that dynamic to its depths." Koun Franz