Who is ready to be a teacher

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I dont have time to searching all replies. But I just wanted to remind of that sutta where he says who is ready to be teacher.

Sir, Venerable Udāyī is teaching Dhamma, surrounded by a large assembly of laypeople.”

Ānanda, it’s not easy to teach Dhamma to others. You should establish five things in yourself before teaching Dhamma to others. What five?

You should teach Dhamma to others thinking: ‘I will teach step by step.’ …

‘I will teach explaining my methods.’ …

‘I will teach out of kindness.’ …

‘I will not teach while secretly hoping to profit.’ …

‘I will teach without hurting myself or others.’

It’s not easy to teach Dhamma to others. You should establish these five things in yourself before teaching Dhamma to others."

Teaching Dhamma to Others

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Thanks, this is a really nice summary.

In addition, I would say a teacher should:

  • keep precepts
  • be educated in the suttas
  • have a solid meditation practice
  • have a good connection with an experienced teacher
  • be a part of a living Dhamma community

And no:

  • sex
  • drugs
  • power
  • money
  • Jordan Peterson

I’m serious: a teacher should have the discernment to see who is speaking delusional nonsense.

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I think “time” could also be added to that list as another factor.

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Can you expand on that?

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Well although time in itself does not indicate wisdom I think it does often create the opportunity for deeper layers of understanding and also shows a strong level of commitment. Commitment to keeping precepts/maintaining practice for example.

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Bhante, what is it about Jordan Peterson? I’m asking because I’ve no idea: haven’t read his books nor heard his talks.

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I mention him because he has become popular in certain Buddhist circles. He’s a misogynist and transphobe, who gained a reputation early in career for being some kind of genius in his field of clinical psychology. But it turns out he was just rehashing better people; Jung and Girard. His reputation was based on his ability to make trivial ideas sound portentous. I think I find him especially grating because I have the same talent, but I’m properly ashamed of it.

He is the non-psychologist’s psychologist. In his field no-one cites him or takes him seriously, and when called as an expert witness in a murder case, the judge made an extraordinarily scathing dismissal of the quality of his testimony.

Yet he has carved out a major following as a kind of alt-right self help guru of masculinity. This, despite that fact that his addictions, mental illness, and beef-only diet (oh how I wish I was making this up) ended up with him in a coma for eight days.

He was banned from Twitter for his transphobia—not easy to do may I add, you have to really try hard for a long time—then reinstated, along with various nazis and other lowlifes, under Musk’s new pro-hate policies.

Peterson is, like Musk and Trump, a narcissist who is ruled by his own self-importance and thin-skinned grievance at anyone who fails to recognize his genius.

But there are still plenty of people who flock to hear his words of wisdom, such as this bon mot:

Up yours, woke moralists. We’ll see who cancels who.

In fact he recently visited Australia, where he evidently found his people.

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On his rambling

You may say, ‘Well, dragons don’t exist’. It’s, like, yes they do — the category predator and the category dragon are the same category. It absolutely exists. It’s a superordinate category. It exists absolutely more than anything else. In fact, it really exists. What exists is not obvious. You say, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as witches.’ Yeah, I know what you mean, but that isn’t what you think when you go see a movie about them. You can’t help but fall into these categories. There’s no escape from them.

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Well for one thing I can look at that and can’t help but not stop laughing, so at least it’s not all a negative effect.

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There is the sutta where Buddha mentions that the one teaching needs to be lustless or celibate or else he will have mixed feeling.

May I add this, please read rest in sutta, which I find important is the insights the teacher got already.

Lohicca, there are three kinds of teachers in the world who deserve to be reprimanded. When someone reprimands such teachers, the reprimand is true, substantive, legitimate, and blameless. What three?

Firstly, take a teacher who has not reached the goal of the ascetic life for which they went forth from the lay life to homelessness. They teach their disciples: ‘This is for your welfare. This is for your happiness.’ But their disciples don’t want to listen. They don’t pay attention or apply their minds to understand. They proceed having turned away from the teacher’s instruction. That teacher deserves to be reprimanded: ‘Venerable, you haven’t reached the goal of the ascetic life; and when you teach disciples they proceed having turned away from the teacher’s instruction. It’s like a man who makes advances on a woman though she pulls away, or embraces her though she turns her back. That’s the consequence of such a wicked, greedy deed, I say. For what can one do for another?’ This is the first kind of teacher who deserves to be reprimanded.

That can happen but then…

Furthermore, take a teacher who has reached the goal of the ascetic life for which they went forth from the lay life to homelessness. They teach their disciples: ‘This is for your welfare. This is for your happiness.’ But their disciples don’t want to listen. They don’t pay attention or apply their minds to understand. They proceed having turned away from the teacher’s instruction. That teacher deserves to be reprimanded: ‘Venerable, you have reached the goal of the ascetic life; yet when you teach disciples they proceed having turned away from the teacher’s instruction. Suppose someone cut off an old bond, only to create another new bond. That’s the consequence of such a wicked, greedy deed, I say. For what can one person do for another?’ This is the third kind of teacher who deserves to be reprimanded.

:speak_no_evil: that means it takes skill in many things

I believe your own Vibe I call it.

I can listen Australian monks the whole Dhamma talk but others for me, I tend to look for another video. Or it can be if the Dhamma talk has meaning etc

So accent. Playfulness. Articulation. Tone. Sound

Alot more factors influence. Your own self-esteem. Etc People feel if its low etc

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Medicine for each a certain ailment the Suttas are.

Sometimes Teachers cannot push around shopping carts and fill trash bags up with water bottles like the modern homeless people do. Sometimes monestaries, temples, and monks and nuns quarters are needed for many Teachers in the modern world. The Buddha is Wise, Sagacious, but you must understand that though His words are meant for everyone, the Teaching given may be meant for those many years ago. Not Realizing this it is difficult to make progress. Om.

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I believe this is referring to the founder of a school, not just to anyone who is teaching. There are plenty of examples of folk in the Buddha’s day who taught Dhamma but were not free of lust; Ānanda for one.

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Hello, I started to look for guidance after a massive breakdown and was allured by Jordan Peterson. I quite quickly gave it up when he said if you are 40 with no job and no intimate partner “youre done”. I really stopped when i realized the mental suffering which was being caused by his teachings.

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Sorry about your experience. There are plenty of good people out there, just take your time and keep your wits about you.

Well I guess that’s me done then!

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Thanks for clarifying Bhante!

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Even those from Mahayana tradition need to be strict when searching for teacher. It was written:

teacher1
teacher1621×829 153 KB

  1. Disciplined means keeping precept.
  2. Serene means achieved jhana
  3. Thoroughly pacified means doing samatha- vipassana union.
  4. clear
  5. Energetic means “constant delight in others’ welfare”
  6. wealth of scriptural knowledge = learned in the three baskets. (tripitaka)
  7. Possesing loving concern = pure motivation for giving teaching.
  8. thorough knowledge of reality. “knowledge about selflessness of phenomena”. Simply said, it is about emptiness. Best if teacher had direct perception. But at least they had theoretical knowledge.
  9. skilled in instructing disciples. clear
  10. has abandoned dispiritedness = not tiring of explaining again and again.

Ideally teacher should possess all these qualities. If not, they should possess half. If half is still difficult, at least three.

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I was wondering if it would be fair to add to : Who is ready to be a teacher?
“Someone - with something to teach”…?
Meaning, possibly “Stream Entry”?
Not sure how this fits into The Suttas…?

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Yeah. Enough insight I think.

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The first speculation is that Luang Por had realized at least the first of
the four levels of liberation – stream-entry – before establishing Wat Pah
Pong in 1954. The reasoning behind this assertion is that Luang Por was
strongly influenced by teachings of Luang Pu Mun and of the Buddha
himself, cautioning monks from teaching before they were truly ready
to do so. A Dhammapada verse, for example, states:

One should first establish oneself in what is proper, then only should one
instruct others. Such a wise person is not liable to be reproached. As he
instructs others, so should he act himself.
Dhp 158-9

The Buddha taught that unenlightened beings are severely restricted in
the degree to which they may offer spiritual sustenance to others. On
one occasion, he compared it to a person mired in a cesspit trying to
pull another person free. Only when the compassionate person is on firm
footing himself can he truly help anyone else.
Luang Pu Mun would sometimes speak of the bad kamma that can be
created by one still prey to defilements who teaches others. Amongst
his disciples, the most common interpretation of this warning was that
only stream-entry provides a monk with the unshakeable Right View that
will guard against him leading students astray. In practice, this did not
mean that Luang Pu Mun forbade unenlightened monks from all kinds
of teaching. Indeed, he encouraged his monks to give Dhamma talks
to the villagers they met with on their tudong wanderings. It was the
establishment of a monastery, and the formalization of the teaching role,
that seems to have been the step too far.
The idea of a monk completing the final three stages of his own practice
while fulfilling the role of a teacher was, however, sanctioned by the Buddha. He compared such a monk to the leader of a herd of animals, who
is able to take care of his herd without neglecting his own need for grazing.

From the book “Stillness Flowing”

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