Sharing Dhamma.

For many years I worked in a factory. It was, in the end, a good place to train myself, to watch the mind and its endless resentment and complaining. It was during my time there that I truly understood one of the most important lessons in Dhamma.

One day I received a hand written note from another department with instructions about a certain piece of work that need to be completed. However, the writing on this note was illegible!

I showed it to my colleagues but none of us could decipher it. The only thing that I could do was to cross the whole factory, find the person who wrote it and ask what it meant. This is what I did, and the insight from this particular moment, of standing with an illegible note in my hand in front of the person who had written it, has stayed with me forever and shaped a huge part of my life.

Communication is about sharing ideas and information. If the other person cannot understand or at least grasp the feeling of what is being said, how is it helping ? If we cannot read the words, the note has no value !

To try to promote Love, compassion and liberation, does not serve the other if we continually speak in jargon.

The Buddha shared the Dhamma by his presence and by speaking in his own language, commonly called Pali, to his own countrymen and women, using terms and references that were familiar and relevant to their ordinary, everyday lives.

This then, was the Pure Dhamma, the way to show that liberation is not something special and outside the bounds of human possibility, but is available to all in this very moment.

He reminded us that the Dhamma discourse should rouse and inspire the disciple to further practice. It should lift and support the disciple in practice. How can this be achieved if the disciple does not know what the teacher is really speaking about ? When confusion and misunderstanding is present, Dhamma is lost – religion, politics and social standing is born.

Once we cultivate a special way of speaking, we have missed the point of language and are no longer communicating honestly. We are no longer sharing ourselves with others, we are presenting something special, something exclusive something outside our ordinary human experience. This is only a place for ego enhancement, not the true humility of the teacher.

Dhamma cannot be taught, it can only be shared. It manifests from the heart that is not confused by appearances or language. It is a communication beyond words, and is shown in every moment by the quality of our life. When Dhamma is well established there is nothing to say and nothing to do. The delusion of a separate and independent self has dissolved and only ‘beingness,’ is present.

How will we now speak about this ?

Live with love and be aware. Beyond that there are just more noises in the air, more scratches on a piece of paper.

May all beings be happy.