The Mystery of Our Practice
So here the sangha is your big teacher. It’s not necessarily the teacher at a kong-an interview, though they might help a bit, but you see them only every couple of days, so your real teacher is sangha and together-action—this wave you cannot resist, because ultimately our true self is all other beings and our small self cannot withstand this pressure. Every single one of us is ourself, but at the same time we are all one. Zen Master Huang Po compared us to mercury. If you break one droplet, [hits floor] it makes a lot of droplets and each one of them is separate and individual. Every one of them seems to have its individual being, yet they are all elements of one big droplet of mercury. If you don’t believe it then try to get them together—they will connect—become one. So we are all one and everyone individually is complete, and this is the mystery of our practice.