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How to Teach?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Or rather how to learn to be of service to:
- Ourselves
- Our environment (includes family and friends if available and/or squirrels, trees and Buddhas)
Our Spiritual Hour
[as usual I need all the teaching I can get if I am not to go wrongly]
In one sense we all are an expression, revelation, sharing of our knowledge/experience/karma Being. We are a teaching/warning/unique potential insight.
So we can sow ignorance or teach/express The Learned Jewels.
Thus we are at least the taut taught, coming In Peace for All … even Alla'h …
What do you know … ?
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It’s funny, I had this thought the other day, that anything that you really believe in you should be prepared to teach. I found that even the mere fact of explaining what I believed was a form of teaching, a form of passing on the dharma. So its a good idea to be prepared to do it well.
For me buddhism is about finding happiness, peace and freedom from suffering. That is usually where I start to talk, when I am talking about beliefs. Happiness is what remains when all unhappiness is cleared away. Peace comes from calm and simplicity. Freedom from suffering comes when we let go of clinging.
It’s not easy, teaching. It requires clarity of thought on what we want to pass on.
And when we should, and shouldn't. That perception, is probably a more useful skill, than the teaching itself.
Perhaps the degree to which we can manifest selflessness any time
is the same degree that the "How's" of teaching and service can equally manifest.
I find that when I look for no-self I go quiet, words desert me as does the compassion which motivates me to teach. Perhaps it means there are layers of my being where the dharma has not yet come.
For me, the most effective route to teaching is compassion and enthusiasm, when those are present in equal measure I am more receptive to other people’s states and questions.
One view of this is....
When our ego/identity or the selfish self is continually presenting a storyline of its own distinctive specialness & separateness from all others, anything that challenges that storyline will bring up whatever self-serving defensive response is most likely to nullify that challenge.
Quietism may be what presently defends your storyline, but lining up right behind it is an endless array of backup weaponry if that line of defense falters.
Meditation is simply a means of objectively observing both the storyline and our ego's response to our illumination of it. No need to look for no-self here when equanimity can just reflect what is.
But
since this thread is about teaching....
To the degree, that compassion & enthusiasm remains a reflection of one's underlying storyline, although it might feel like the most effective route,
what might one also be unintentionally teaching as well?
Tee Hee! (Also available as a mantra)
… we are a store of stories … once upon a now?
I knew it … however much I squirm, wriggle, crawl, gallop or (heaven forbid) sit and do the meditation like a goodly jewel chaser … I eventually run out of space …
https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/buddha/
Watch this space …
Anyone can share facts and knowledge
True teachers open their students, disciples, followers , to more.
True teachers enable those they instruct to open their minds to question, to seek further, to surpass the teacher.
True teachers learn from those they teach and see each as a bottomless vessel and a priceless treasure.
The mentor is the student.
The receiver is the giver
The student is the mentor
The giver is the receiver
The greatest teacher never stops learning
Peace to all
From a parents perspective, by example. Kids don't do as we tell them, they do as we do.
"Teaching is not done by talking alone. It is done by how you live your life. My life is my teaching. My life is my message."
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Even a little bit of dhamma goes a long way. Once introduced to the questions of happiness and suffering, it becomes a key to the understanding of one’s life that inevitably leads to the rest of the dhamma. The real problem is ignorance.
The western world is focussing on meditation and mindfulness, and the ‘benefits’ thereof, but the real questions are larger and existential. It will be interesting to see what form this will take in the west, the whole self-help industry has a hint of buddhist thought about it.
Teach to learn.
I recently learned of a learning-type that suits me called the "explainer" or "active learner" who learns through explaining it or teaching it themselves.
I was going to add...
....but thought better of it
Anyhow....Thus have I heard....
If one puts into practice...what one is more inclined to preach (just thinking about it)
More often than not...it's the best way to teach (actions speak louder than words)...
Was just rereading this thread and this really struck a chord with me. It reminds me of Sujata, who saved the Buddhas mortal existence by feeding him rice. He had already seen the truth of things but her act of compassion gave it its full flavour or texture or feel. Without that act of compassion, we would have lost a most precious teacher indeed.
I love Sujata.
there is a difference between mansplains, look it up ladies
Sucking eggs and right and left speech and … noble silence
Meanwhile a koanic approach …
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/zen-buddhism-koan_n_563251dce4b0631799115f3c
How to teach - First listen.
As usual some great insights
I like the ideas of example/exemplar/right action. ✅
People are different in capacity/karma and so may teach by illustrating/confessing negative traits or impediments.🤬❤️🔥⁉️
In a similar receptive response we can learn from:
teachers r us™️💬🚹
Realize that everything we see, all that we do, everyone we meet teaches us.
We are just not always open to the lesson.
The most profound lessons can not be learned if our ears are plugged and our eyes closed.
Do you breeze the breeze, the touch of a hand, the cloth upon your skin?
Do you smell all the aromas, the scents about you?
Do you taste all the flavors?
Dare to live!
Dare to laugh!
Dare to be!
Dare to explore!
The teacher is the student.
The student is the teacher.
If you can not live, you can not teach.
If you can not teach, you can not learn.
If you can not learn you can not live.
LIVE!
Peace to all
There are the Dàshī, 大师, Great Masters, who teach the fǎshī, 法师, Dharma masters, who in turn teach the fǎshì, 法士, Dharma scholars or warriors, who in turn teach the fánsúzī, 凡俗缁, the lay Buddha Dharma followers.
They in their turn, by their example, teach ordinary people, lǎobǎixìng, 老百姓, who teach the Dàshī, 大师. Thus, all are teachers and all are students in one way or another.
Sramana Johann from cambodia says..
Watch out for 'Buddhist' teacher who...
...tell that one, having found good teacher, to seek out for other...
...tell that no strong faith is required to learn...
...tell that strong "love" toward one's teacher is wrong...
...tell that no strong bond in a disciple-teacher relation is required...
...tell that to be taught, teaching, is for free, free, does not bind...
...have no firm faith in the Gems, but relay on other teacher and what they call "common sense"...
...don't make their living independent form their disciples...
...use not given third part means and power to share...
...make use and take what's not given to them...
...are after agendas in the world...
...have no shame in wrong doing...
...are not able to abound useless views and stands...
...think in terms of rights...
...avoid to let one know all of their ways and habits...
...seek privacy...
...have no gratitude toward goodness, but just toward gains...
...like to appear equal or lower...
...offer, suggest, that they will do your work...
...encourage one to seek ways to do not fulfill one's duties...
...don't praise generosity, service for people of goodness, going forth...
...suggest one to be "free and independent" where one isn't, being "worthy" where one isn't...
...make one fear firm dependency toward the Gems, giving up common refuge...
...call out for ingratitude and revolt...
...instead of Sublime Dhamma, relay on science, trends, common views...
...don't give leave when asked for...
...don't eager encourage one to abstain from unwise...
...fear lose of disciple (and disadvantages by it) more then wrong ways of disciple...
...accept wrong for gains...
...encourage to think like thieves...
...because once one has traded into a relation pleasing for defilements, like the unshakable bond toward real goodness, it's hardly ever possible to change, even if wishing, one owes debts to what one desired to be feed with.
May one not buy into lure of Mara, and such "Krabat" are common, where Mara, together with allNivaranas, appears as liberator, as common sees the low as high and the higher as low, total bind toward the unbound.
... and what do you think? Are we allowed to think or is it best not to say?
Hmmm... you may think or not. But, if you think you are thinking or not, you are still thinking. if you define "thinking" as conscious, deliberate or directed thought, than you may have a point of reference.