Buddhism As Education

We have to be aware of how people tend to imitate their teachers. They become copies, prints, castings and it is like the story of the king's horse trainer. The old trainer died, so the king hired a new trainer. Unfortunately, this man limped when he walked. New and beautiful horses were brought to him and he trained them exquisitely, to run, to canter, to pull carriages. But each of the new stallions developed a limp. Finally, the king summoned the trainer and seeing him limp as he entered the court, he understood everything and immediately hired a new trainer. As teachers, you must be aware of the force of the examples you set. And even more important, as students, you must not follow the image, the outer form, of your teacher. He is pointing you back to your own inner perfection. Take the inner wisdom as your model and do not imitate his limp. Know your own mind and body and you will know others' as well. One's facial expressions, speech, gestures, actions, all ...

The Buddha taught that those who wish to know must realise the truth for themselves. Then it makes no difference whether others criticise or praise you., whatever you say, you will be undisturbed. If a person has no trust in himself, when someone calls him bad, he will feel he is bad accordingly. What a waste of time! If people call you bad, you must examine yourself. If they are not correct, then just ignore them. Then, if they are correct, you will have to learn from them. In either case, why do you have to get angry over it? If you can see things this way, you will definitely be in peace. There will be nothing wrong, there will be only Dharma. If you really use the tools the Buddha had given to us, you will never envy others. Whereas, lazy people want to just listen and believe, you will be self-sufficient, able to earn your living by your own efforts. To practice using only the resources of your own is troublesome because they are your own. You once thought practice was diff...

Three basic points of practice to work with are sense, restraint, which means taking care not to indulge and attach to sensations; moderation in eating and wakefulness. Sense restraint: We can easily recognize physical irregularities such as blindness, deafness, deformed limbs but irregularities of mind are another matter. When you begin to meditate, you see thing differently. You can see the mental distortions that previously you did not see it before. This brings sense of restraint. You become sensitive, like one who enters a forest or jungle and become aware of danger from poisonous creatures, thorns and so on. One with a raw wound is likewise more aware of danger from flies and gnats. For one who meditates, the danger is from sense objects. Sense restraint is this necessary; in fact, it is the highest kind of virtue. Moderation in eating: It is easy to fast, more difficult to eat little or in moderation in a meditation. Instead of frequent fasting, learn to eat with mindfu...