Spiritual Transmission. Amir Freimann

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ be about rice and beans or about the subtlest and most delicate movements in consciousness. Everything that was put in there came back out spontaneously, immediately, with no obvious thought behind it, emerging like an echo from this expanded awareness.

      He’s not my teacher and I did not see him before or after that, but we had something very powerful, intimate and unforgettable that went on between us. I was clearly in the role of student and he was in the role of teacher. Maybe in another time it could have been reversed, where I might’ve helped him, but that was the framework we chose and kind of agreed on without words, and we were both happy with that.

      AMIR: You’re really giving a few very different examples or models of the teacher-student relationship.

      STEPHEN: Yes, teaching can be much more existential than sitting on a stage and giving talks. It can be with the eyes, with body language, with the way you are with people, with how you sing to a baby or how you relate to a dog or a cat in the street—and that’s teaching. On a subtle level, it is teaching because it’s coming from that expanded awareness and clarity and wisdom that I was talking about, manifesting naturally within ordinary life. I feel that people who are quite developed teach that way. They don’t always teach as intentionally and consistently, it might be quite spontaneous and actually they can’t do anything else. This doesn’t need a label—but it is teaching.

      AMIR: I think you’re saying that for some people the formality of a defined teacher-student interrelation can enhance their ability, pull out of them greater depth, responsibility, care, etc., while for others, it may do the opposite and actually be an obstacle.

      STEPHEN: That’s right. In many cases, it is really needed to start off, as it sets the scene, defines the territory of teaching and is familiar to students, a bit like going back to school. Thus it is an agreement that reduces the concerns and insecurities of the unknown. But indeed, there are some students who don’t really need this theatre and for whom the projections and roles of teacher and student are just a nuisance. More than that, it may trigger psychological resistance and friction, perhaps because of some previous pain connected with their relationship with “father.” In any case, the formality and the separation and the roles gradually break down along the way, and then the word “teacher” becomes irrelevant. When you talk about a deeper level, the roles, concepts and words tend to break down and cease to function as a medium of teaching. One should be aware of that. The teaching then happens naturally because nothing else can happen, and it is expressed in speech, body and mind. There isn’t anything that a teacher needs to do, he or she is manifesting their spirituality through themselves. The role vanishes, and there is no thought that says: “I’m going to teach now. Look at the way I’m walking down the corridor.”

      AMIR: And yet you seem okay with being called a teacher, you seem comfortable being in that position and fulfilling that function—why is that? Are there any benefits, psychological or spiritual, that you get from being a teacher?

      STEPHEN: For sure. The importance is in the doing of it, not in the label, which is not interesting. If I am called a teacher or not called a teacher, it doesn’t turn a hair. One benefit for me is that the expression or teaching of the dharma releases more of the stream. Teaching moves through me and out, so I feel the flow and that’s joyful, and that’s one reason why I keep teaching. Another reason is that there is nothing more interesting for me to do in life.

      What else is there? Go to the office every day and do an ordinary job? It’s so joyful to be in the environment of the teaching situation and to be creative and playful. It brings out of me qualities that are needed in this struggling world, so I think it’s what I can do to help the world. Another benefit I feel is that teaching simply opens the heart in the present moment meetings with an individual or even a group. In the last year I have been going ’round pubs and bars, under the title “Buddha at the Bar,” giving talks and meditations to large numbers of people, and it warms the heart to bring a different message to young people who are often so much in need of a more hopeful and meaningful view beyond the usual diet of conflict, materialism, competitiveness, pressure and agitation.

      AMIR: I think you’re saying that to have the right relationship to what comes out of you as a teacher means that you have to let go of any sense of possessing the teaching.

      STEPHEN: Yes, definitely. You let go of possessing the teaching, of owning the role, and in the same way you let go of you possessing yourself—the self that’s on stage. You have to let go of that. The Dalai Lama expresses this very beautifully before giving teachings by symbolically bowing down to the seat before sitting on it. It’s a ritual that says, “I’m going to sit on that seat and honor the role given to me, but I wear the role like clothes, and then come down and take the clothes off.” Someone once told me that being a Dharma teacher is not about giving the most charismatic and wonderful talk you can give; but if you give the worst talk ever, you get up from your seat and have no more thoughts about it.

      AMIR: Do you think that, as the Dalai Lama sits on his seat and wears those clothes, he also activates in himself certain human qualities that are required of anyone in that role? Is that something you experience when you sit on the stage in front of people asking you questions, that certain human qualities manifest in you that don’t manifest in other situations?

      STEPHEN: No, I don’t think there are qualities I don’t have in other situations too, but certainly conditions will pull out of you and emphasize particular qualities that are needed and fitting to that situation. For example, the condition of running—I run every couple of days—pulls out of me qualities of perseverance. Teaching enhances sensitivity in a few dimensions. It invites me to be particularly caring and very watchful, and not to talk unkindly or unwisely; [to be] more watchful or mindful than perhaps I am with my grandchildren. Then, it encourages me to develop qualities of steadiness and confidence as well as fine-tuned ethics and care, clarity of mind, kindness, confidence and a little bit of authority. I’m given the authority and I am aware of that and appreciate it so I hold it with tenderness and some respect. Maybe there’s also a lift in energy that comes from being on the stage—a lift of the heart, I would say.

      AMIR: Would you say that you are spiritually elevated as you step into that position?

      STEPHEN: In a way, yes, but there are many other situations in life when I also feel that. So it’s definitely not the only one. I might feel that also in the deep silence of early morning before sunrise, when everything is quiet and I can only hear the jackals far away. So it’s not only in the teacher role, but the conditions of the teaching do tend to elevate you to the best you can be. Yes, I do feel that.

      AMIR: How do you feel or respond when people say to you that you are their teacher, or they ask you to be their teacher?

      STEPHEN: I don’t prevent it. I don’t tell people they must not say that about me—I can’t. But I don’t at all encourage it. I don’t support exclusivity in today’s modern culture, and I suggest to students to learn from many teachers. Sometimes when people say to me, “I want you to be my teacher,” I say to them, “Okay, I don’t mind you regarding me as being the main teacher for the moment, but I don’t really like the label, and eventually you should have other teachers as well.” I tend to discourage exclusivity whether in relation to myself or other teachers because I think it reduces the autonomy, the independence of mind and the authenticity and confidence of the student.

      The other thing is that I don’t want to be constantly available for those who expect me to be in that role all the time. The role of personal teacher would carry with it an obligation. I just don’t want to be disturbed when I’m not teaching, like when I’m in my vegetable garden. I actually don’t want people calling me with questions like, “Should I go to India?” or “Should I get married?” or “Should I change jobs?” I am fine if they ask me those questions in the context of retreats and teaching, and then I’d relate to them, but that’s it, СКАЧАТЬ