Practising Vipassana meditation for long years, many have been appointed as assistant teachers and senior assistant teachers. In spite of this, in quite a few of them there is no equanimity and humbleness in their behaviour or in their speech. In fact their ego has multiplied because of their knowledge and practice. What is the reason for this? Where is the mistake and how can it be rectified? A person who has multiplied his or her ego has no knowledge of Dhamma, is not practising Vipassana. If one is practising Vipassana, one has the wisdom of Vipassana, one understands Vipassana, then the ego has to get deflated, it has to get dissolved. These two—the practice of Dhamma and ego—cannot go together. If one is progressing in Dhamma, this means one is progressing in the understanding of anicca. The understanding of anicca will take one to the understanding of dukkha, and then to the understanding of anattā. More and more as one practises, the experience and the understanding of anattā becomes stronger. No attā, no ego. Anattā—egolessness. This is the yardstick to measure whether one is really progressing on the path of Dhamma or not—for a teacher or a student—but a teacher has more responsibility because he is sitting on the Dhamma seat.At times it is quite possible that a student may have developed some negativity towards the teacher due to another reason. Then one starts seeing with the coloured glasses of negativity and finding fault with the teacher.Everyone who sits on the Dhamma seat must always remain prepared: There will be people who will admire you, and those who will condemn you. Smilingly accept both. Keep your equanimity. Whenever admiration comes, understand, Oh, they are admiring Dhamma. I am the same as before, but Dhamma has entered into me, and they are admiring Dhamma. And if somebody condemns you, first examine yourself, Am I committing this mistake for which I am being condemned? If the mistake is there, remove it. This is your job. In your own interest, remove it.If you find that the mistake is not there, if you have examined yourself properly and still somebody is abusing you, denouncing you, then smile, give mettā to this person. Don’t have any kind of reaction of aversion. This is how one keeps growing on the path of Dhamma. Teacher or student—whoever one may be—if you are to progress on the path of Dhamma, one important yardstick is, Is my ego increasing or decreasing? If the ego is decreasing, I am on the right path. If it is increasing, I am not on the right path. - SNG @ vridhamma.org/uploadedfiles/BenefitofMany.pdf
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:06:04 +0000
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