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B

The student returns in a few months.

"Master, I have meditated on your words. Yet I still am unsure what I have learned. Until I approached you, my only teacher was my uncle."

"Tell me of your uncle."

"My uncle was a fool. He told me to respect the ladies, but he was a selfish womanizer. He told me to eat healthy food, but he was a glutton himself. He told me to kill animals only for food, but he regaled in killing for sport and throwing the meat in the rubbish. And all I have learned from him, I learned not from his words and only from his lifestyle and behavior."

"So, then, if a fool can teach you so well, then a wise man, who when merely drawing in the sand is mindful of how he expresses his own essential truth, shall truly teach you well. And so you must understand that mind follows body, and body follows mind. What you commit in action is what is real in your heart. If you wish to change your heart, develop your body; if you wish to become stronger, develop your mind."

"Master, then I have learned that there need be no lesson. The teaching done by a teacher is unrelated to the words of the teacher, when the words are not supported by the lifestyle and actions of the teacher. All one must do is observe the actions of a fool to understand how to be a fool, and to observe the actions of a master to understand how to be a master."