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THE PRICE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
"There's a common saying in
India that if a teacher
charges money for "the
dharma" (loosely translated,
‘teachings about the truth’)
he or she will go to a
special section of hell set
aside for spiritual
entrepreneurs, an area
cornered off and designed to
be much nastier than the
areas for axe murderers,
rapists, and the like.”
Arjuna Adagh
Vedanta
This is also quite a complicated
and sometimes a sensitive
subject and conducted many
interviews to help shed
some light on whether someone
charges or not, takes dana, or
suggested donations, or by any
other means. See interviews
here.
When
I asked
Swami Dayanada Saraswati
about this.
NDM: Modern advaita
teachers today
charge money for
sitting with the
teacher. Like to sit
with a teacher like
this it would cost
maybe $35 for an
hour. So maybe they
get 100 or 150
people together in a
group. Then each
person gives the
teacher money.
Traditionally, how
do you do that?
Swamiji: (Laughs).
You know, they have
to survive, and this
is India’s
contribution to that
fellow’s life. And
so, for his
livelihood, India
has contributed
something – some
words, which are
useful for him to
earn his livelihood.
And he earns his
livelihood, and
there are always
blokes to subscribe
to all that. And
therefore, that’s
fine. There is
nothing wrong in it.
He has to live his
life. He has to pay
his bills, and
therefore he charges
what he needs to
take care. So
teaching becomes his
profession. He is an
advaita
professional.
(Laughter).
What I say is that
there is nothing
wrong in it as long
as he teaches
properly. If the
teaching is alright,
what he does is
fine, it’s okay. But
if the teaching is
not alright, then I
don’t know what
people pay money
for.
But generally
teachers don’t deny
people – teachers in
India, they don’t
deny people who want
to know. They don’t
bring money
in-between. Money is
required perhaps,
but money is never
brought in between a
true student and a
teacher, no.
NDM: Why not?
Swamiji: “You give
me this much money
and I will give
you…” Then you are
trading
ātmā – and you
are not giving
anything to that
fellow. What you are
giving is himself –
for a price – and
it’s not
quantifiable. What
is involved here is
infinite. For
infinite, you have
to charge infinite.
Therefore the value
of this knowledge is
not understood. If
the value of this
knowledge is
understood, you will
not trade. You will
not make it a
commodity – a
tradable commodity.
When you teach a
discipline of
knowledge like
astrology or yoga or
something, you can
charge. There is
something you are
giving, and so you
can charge.
But everything will
pass if the teaching
is proper.
The truth is – if
the teaching is
proper, you won’t
charge. Now you can
figure out what’s
going on. (Laughter)
End of quote.
What is very
interesting is that most of the
famous Indian Advaita teachers
such as Ramana Maharshi, Papaji,
Atmananda Krishna Menon never
charged their western disciples
and Krisha Menon stipulated his direct path
teachings were not to be
franchised, commercialized or
marketed in any way.
However I was told by two of
Papajis
disciples that he
told them that its alright if
they charge in the west, since
its not the same set up over
here as it is in India. People
do not understand dana, or the
way that it works and will abuse
it.
One of them who told me was this very high profile teacher but
wished to remain anonymous.
Theravada Buddhism
While I was conducting my
research, I came across a
very old Buddhist magazine from
the 1950s that had an article
about a serious problem in South
Asia, at the turn of the
century, (a hundred years
ago) As a result of the
poverty and economy, many lay
people began saying that they
had attained
sottapana
"stream entry" the first stage
of enlightenment in order to be
given money for the teachings.
It got out of control and the
government had to step in and
threaten anyone doing this would
have their hands cut off. This
put an immediate end to it.
The same thing would happen
in the Zen tradition, people
would want to become monks,
but not to become
enlightened, but to escape
their harsh jobs. However
they soon would discover
that living as a Zen monk
was even more difficult
because they also had to
meditate and work as well
and after some time many of
them would get up and leave,
and say its torture.
Today, in New York city,
some crafty Asians will
dress up as monks
and ask for money in the
streets for this same
reason. Again its due
to the same reasons and
people are desperately
looking to ways to get
around this painful samsara.
The Buddhist tradition, the
Pali Canon, clearly says
that generosity (dana) was
the first virtue the Buddha
mentioned, since it is the
opposite of one of the three
main obstacles to nibanna,
nirvana in Sanskrit.
These three main obstacles
are greed, hatred, and
delusion. Generosity or
giving unconditionally is
the opposite and is a way
and a test to overcoming
greed or stinginess,
tightfistedness,
attachment and more.
Giving
is a counter-intuitive
instinct, since the first
instinct that generally
arises is to get. The
attitude of ‘what’s in it
for me’ "this teaching
is mine" "I own it,
therefore I can sell it" and is a very difficult
obstacle for many people to
overcome. For example, in
the Anguttara Nikaya V.159,
Udayi Sutra, the Buddha
said, “The Dhamma should be
taught with the thought, I
will speak not for the
purpose of material reward.”
This does not apply to lay
teachers, but it does for
the monastics and just as
well to his teachings. There
are no rules for lay people
if they want to teach
outside the traditional
sangha.
There is no
authority over a lay
teacher. They can charge or
not charge, or ask for
suggested donation or
dana.
SUGGESTED DONATIONS
‘Suggested donations’ seem
to be a relatively recent
invention and more of a
Westernized method of lay
Buddhism. This may seem fair, logical, and
reasonable, for a lay
teacher in the west, but I have
spoken with Theravadin monks
about this, and some of them
say it is dana, a donation,
but that it’s more of a
distortion of dana, not
exactly pure dana.
The problem with it is that
its sort of a clever or
indirect way of charging, by
changing the language.
Its also kind of vague and
bending the persons arm a
little, or making them feel
obligated to do so. Some
even go around with a
basket, the way they do in
churches and hold the basket
right in front of you and
wont move on until you put
something in it,
embarrassing or shaming you
into giving. Others may
hint, cough or nudge you
with the elbow, or give you
a disapproving look.
Theravada Buddhists
don’t ask for suggested
donations, yet other kinds
of Buddhists do. I have seen
this mostly with Tibetan and
Zen Buddhists and Mahayana
and Vajrayana traditions,
but not the Theravada
tradition, though some lay
teachers in the Theravada
tradition do ask for
suggested donations.
The ‘suggested donation’
model of dana seems to work
in the West, but only in
some not-for-profit meditation centers run by
very skillful lay people and
independent jhana/vipassana teachers.
These seem to be the times
when its most useful, since
its very difficult to have
access to monastics at times
who can teach the jhanas.
However, I’ve heard that
some often
misunderstand and abuse this
dana or suggested donations model. Some lay
teachers say that the
problem they have
experienced in giving
something for free is
can be seen as
unprofessional or foolish to
others, or that you have low
self-esteem or that you are
inexperienced or
proselytizing. These are
some of the obstacles that
they have run into.
They say that some people will abuse this
generosity and will not
respect you for being so
generous with your time.
They also say that there are some jaded people
out there who find it hard
to believe in altruistic joy,
genuine compassion that there is
no such thing as a free
lunch or sharing without some kind of hidden agenda.
The important distinction
that is often made is
whether someone is endorsed within a particular
tradition and has the proper
credentials and experience
and know how to teach. Who their
teachers were says a lot
about the way they will
probably teach others.
In either case, there are many
skillful traditional
Buddhist, Vedanta, yoga and tantric lay teachers out
there with
a wealth of knowledge,
experience and attainment. Offering them dana,
a gift, a thank you letter,
to
show respect, or express
genuine appreciation, or the
practice of generosity can be
beneficial in
terms of attaining good
karmic merit, as well as for
learning and overcoming
being a taker and not a
giver. The problem with all
of this is that a teacher
may get dependant on this
and is right back on the
hook. Money is a very
powerful narcotic.
For example a teacher
once complained to me and
was very upset with his
students and about doing a
week long meditation retreat
and only getting 300
dollar's for it. He was used
to getting so much more ,
two or 3,000 per week and
said that 300 dollars wasn't
even worth getting out of
bed in the morning.
This brings to mind one time
in New York city when I came
across a homeless man with a
card board sign saying I'm
homeless and hungry",
so I went and bought him a
ham and cheese sandwich,
lettuce tomato and
mayonnaise with a soda and
he got very upset and threw
it in the garbage.
What he really wanted was
the cash so he could go and
buy crack cocaine and
alcohol.
GURU DAKSHINA
In Vedanta they refer
to this as guru dakshina.
The Indian tradition of a
student repaying his
teacher, his
guru in some way.
These offerings or gifts
were made in many ways ,
such as gold, silver,
cattle, grains, clothing, a
plot of land, or other
material goods. It can be
any amount at all, what ever
feels appropriate or is
within the means of the
disciple. Some who are very wealthy have repaid their
guru by purchasing them a
house, or a car and even
more.
Where it can get tricky is
if this is
misused, or
exploited when someone's
intention is wrong, and is
not to help others but to
turn it into a "holy
business", as U G
Krishnamurti used to say, or doesn't belong to
a tradition, has no
oversight from a greater
community, sangha, or peers
to answer to and doesn't
follow a traditional dharma,
lineage, or makes up their
own teaching.
This is where it can become
cult like or even dangerous
if unchecked and also what
gives contemporary non
duality a bad name.
So if looking for a teacher,
its wise to proceed with
caution and
take all this into
consideration. See
three types of teachers.
Continue
to
Part 8
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