In the woods I came on an old friend fishing
and I asked him a question
and he said Wait

Fish were rising in the deep stream
but his line was not stirring
but I waited
it was a question about the sun
about my two eyes
my ears my mouth
my heart the earth with its four seasons
my feet where I was standing
where I was going

It slipped through my hands
as thought it were water
into the river
it flowed under the trees
it sank under hulls far away
and was gone without me
then where I stood night fell

I no longer knew what to  ask
I could tell that his line had no hook
I understood that I was to stay and eat with him

---by W.S. Merwin

The portrait of a Taoist teacher is one who fishes without any hook.  In another word, he/she is not interested in hooking the students to study.  Rather, the student comes to her own learning from observing the teacher in action, how he deals with the world.  In this case, fishing without a hook.

Indeed, such a teacher is rare and sometime for certain type A student becomes very frustrating.  But, how can one approach the non-doing practice of Taoist with acute anxiety of achievement and worldly success.  As my master once said, that is like trying to cool oneself by drinking alcohol.

But if a student has the patience and good fortune to meet such a teacher, the true practice of Tao unfolds in its own time.  That has been my personal experience.  Now, of course, we do not have the similar time and period.  Since I started my training when I was only a few years old, I can grow with the Tao.  However, other student may not have the same extended time to just groove with the natural unfolding.  Then my suggestion is to pick and choose one pointed practice to really focus on it, to gain mastery.

Too often, I have students from other school came to observe and want to start their study with me.  As I interviewed them, they told me in a mere few years they have learned the Taiji form, Qigong, and Taiji sword and a smattering of other martial arts style.  Not a good sign.  As I watch their movements, not a single gesture is done with harmony, balance and sensitivity.  They move through the form from memory and imitation rather than from true understanding and self expression.  I could not see who they are from their form, all I see is their dysfunction and habits.

I usually ended up politely saying to them that they are way too advance and learned for me to offer any further studies.  Their cup is full to the rim.  I could not have possibly added anything new and fresh.  But sometime, there are one or two individuals who are willing to surrender everything that they know and start new again.  Those are some of my best students.

A Taoist teacher does not act out of his own internal need, either for monetary or power.  He teaches as an act of self expression and the force of heaven and earth.  A student can always leave such master without any form of rancor.  A teacher like that is as if a cool sparkling stream which one can submerge and quench one's thirst.  But do not attempt to own the stream, it will not be inhibited nor possessed.  A modern example of such living Taoist master is Gurdjiff who is impossible to be pin down.  As soon as his students thought they figured him out, he changed.

When a student is rejected, I also observe how they react to rejection, if they acted out with righteousness, anger and projection than there is really not much hope.  Remember, even as a TAoist teacher rejects the student, he will pay attention to how the student's reaction.  Sometime, a rejection is their first act of teaching.  It is also a probe to see the qualities of the student.  How often under a slight rejection, a potential student went ballistic and acted out with anger, hurt and accusation.  I just smiled and secretly thank the Buddha that I do not have to deal with such students.  For in the long journey between teacher and students, conflict will arise.  Different perspective and opinion and individual preference creates friction.  And such a student will become abusive and actually negative, thereby, damaging both herself and the teacher.