Truth… Isn’t truth one of the primary points of focus for someone who walks the Spiritual Path? In fact, shouldn’t, “Truth,” be one of the primary components of anyone’s life?
 
I know, very early into my emergence in the Film Making Game, I realized that everyone was lying, exaggerating, and generally not telling the truth. From this understanding, I coined the phrase, “What is the Number One Rule of Filmmaking?” “Everybody lies.”
 
But, should life, especially the life of someone who is walking a positive path, be like that?
 
I don’t really know how we got on the subject, but my lady and I were driving home from having breakfast this AM, and we got to speaking about the first class(s) we took at the college level. She spoke of her experiences in the O.C. Me, I told her about a class on Eastern Philosophy I took at my one semester at L.A.C.C. before I move onto another school.  
 
The class was taught by a Buddhist monk. For me, someone who was very consciously walking the Spiritual Path, I thought that was pretty cool. Being taught, at the college level, by an actual monk.
 
One day, he said that he was not going to be there for our next class session. He said he would have someone else come in to teach. As my lady and I discussed, this was very unusual on the college or the university level. If a teacher got sick or couldn’t make it in or something, the class was just usually cancelled. Sometimes the students would be called, sometimes there was just a note on the board. But, in this case, the monk/teacher was very adamant that he didn’t want anyone else but the students to know that he was not going to be there. He made us agree to tell no one.
 
My young, naïve mind really questioned what was taking place. “A monk lying…” How could that be right?
 
As I was the only student in that class, (obviously), walking the Spiritual Path, I was the only one to give this subject any level of deep thought. But, it did make me question.

I guess I will never know the man’s motivation for doing this, as he passed away many-many years ago, and I never asked him prior to that. But, he did ask me to come and teach yoga at his center after the class concluded, which I did for a time.
 
In any case, as it went, one of the monk/professor’s students came to teach the next class, and it went along fine. But, the question of a monk lying, that truly made me question the entire reality of the path. At least the path that man was walking. If the teacher can’t be the prime example of whatever Spiritual Truth they teach, then what are they truly teaching?