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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF DHAMMA SERVICE

My dear Dhamma children:

Giving Dhamma service is a great responsibility. While fulfilling it, you must understand you have your own limitations and work within them. A Dhamma server should help students with management problems but should not give them meditation advice. Only those who have been authorized may teach Dhamma. When you are developed enough to give such instructions, I will happily make you assistant teachers, but it takes time to ripen in Dhamma; until then continue to work within the limitations set for you.

When a student is in trouble, you might feel you could say the same thing the teachers would say, for example, "Have slightly hard breathing. Bring your attention to the extremities." But you must never give instructions because there is a danger that although you might be helpful, you might also give guidance that goes totally against Vipassana. This is what happened last night when a student complained of intense pain and an experienced Dhamma server said, "I will give you acupressure to relieve your pain." What a serious mistake!

A few months back I got a call saying someone on a course in the Himalayas had practised Reiki on a student who was in a great deal of pain. These two events were serious errors. In both cases I had to take strong action in order to protect the purity of the technique.

Understand why this is so important: Impurities are brought to the surface by the practice of Vipassana, and only Vipassana can eradicate them—no other technique. If you mix another technique with Vipassana, it will become predominant and Vipassana will be forgotten.

In the past this happened in India. Our research tells us that for the five hundred years following the Buddha, Vipassana was taught in its pristine purity. Then unscrupulous people started to add to it, and whatever was added became predominant and Vipassana faded away. Even during the short time I have been teaching, some people who had benefited after taking several courses decided to use this wonderful technique in their own religion. But if they had taught it exactly as we do, their sectarian views would have had no place, so they added the instruction to observe the soul. The result was that within ten years their students came to me and said, "Now we don’t observe sensations, we only observe the soul." They have totally lost Vipassana. And the same thing will happen here in centres if anything is added. The Dhamma has returned to India after two thousand years and is now spreading around the world. My responsibility as the Teacher is to see it is maintained in its pristine purity for the benefit of future generations. One who is at the helm has to be very careful; therefore I cannot tolerate certain activities that harm the spread of Dhamma. The first such activity is sexual misbehaviour, and the second is instructing students to add anything to Vipassana.

I know most of you would never make such mistakes, but you should learn from yesterday’s incident and ensure such things never happen in the future, wherever you give service.

My teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, wouldn’t allow me to take my first course because I had told him I intended to join it in order to rid myself of migraine. Even though I was a leader of the Indian community in Rangoon, a leader of the business community, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, a multi-millionaire, Sayagyi said, "No, I can’t teach you. If you wish to learn a high spiritual path I will help you, but if you come for relief from a physical disease then leave; you are devaluing Dhamma."

If a student is in pain and we start using acupressure, Reiki or anything else, we would harm the students; we would devalue Dhamma. Be careful. This advice is given with mettā to help you understand: Wherever you give any Dhamma service, you must ensure that no server ever gives meditation instructions to students and nobody advises students to mix anything else with Vipassana. I am sure you yourselves won’t do such things.

Bhavatu sabba mangalam

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