[mkirkpatrick]

Many years ago,on my wanderings in the far east,I "happened" upon a very
elderly man,who informed me,in quite good english,that he was over 90 years
old,he said with much prompting from me,that he was a Zen-Buddist teacher,
and had been practising and teaching meditation for over 75 years,with this
statement from him,my ears pricked up,for I had just began to practise it
myself,it is what he said after that,which flattened me,"he said that after 75
years of practising meditation,he was just "scratching the surface" of it,and
that he still had muchto learn!I felt that this was not some statement of false
modesty,or trying to impress me with his apparent humility,but rather this was
a matter of fact statement of what he felt was true!Which then caused me to
ponder,that where the heck am I then,it was truly an ego deflating experiance
for me,and no doubt a needed one at that!
So the point I am some what laborously trying to make here is this,what do
anyone of us "fully understand" I would suspect the answer to be,ifwe are
honest with ourselves,isnotvery much at all!

kind regards michael.