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A Dharma Teacher and a CEO

Dharma Reflections / /

A Dharma Teacher and a CEO

 

A comparison of a Dharma Teacher with a CEO (Chief Ego Officer, oops Chief Executive Officer). A CEO is the head of a corporation or company:

  • A Dharma Teacher welcomes those who engage in deep inquiry into wisdom and compassion. A CEO welcomes those who engage in the strategies and goals of the company.
  • A Dharma teacher emphasises right livelihood. A CEO emphasises career.
  • A Dharma Teacher shows the way to depths of experience. A CEO shows the way to maximise profits.
  • A Dharma Teacher points to the ultimate security.  A CEO offers temporary security.
  • A Dharma Teacher reveals the power of co-operation.  A CEO’s fears the power of competition.
  • A Dharma Teacher teaches rise and fall. A CEO resists rise and fall.
  • A Dharma Teacher sees the path and goal as equally important. A CEO sees achievement of the company’s goals as important.
  • A Dharma Teacher sees the here and now as an opportunity for discovery. A CEO sees the present as an opportunity for future achievement of company goals.
  • A Dharma teacher offers practises for the complete destruction of stress. A CEO thinks that staff works better under stress or through a degree of stress reduction.
  • A Dharma Teacher shows the emptiness of the mental constructs of success and failure. A CEO views reality in terms of success and failure.
  • A Dharma Teacher applies mindfulness to ethics, wholesome action and marks of existence. A CEO hires mindfulness coaches for management to stay focussed, relaxed and co-operative to support the objectives of the company.
  • A Dharma Teacher sees loyalty as an emotion deserving inquiry. A CEO sees loyalty as a virtue.
  • A Dharma Teacher sees freedom as positionless. A CEO wants to hold to his/her position
  • A Dharma Teacher sees holding onto a position as entrapment.  A CEO thinks s/he has reached the top of the ladder.
  • A Dharma Teacher ranks wisdom as highly significant. A CEO ranks cleverness as highly significant.
  • A  Dharma Teacher points to a vast range of realisations. A CEO points to narrow objectives.
  • A Dharma teacher contributes to inner wealth. A CEO points to outer wealth.
  • A Dharma Teacher sees a life spent wanting and getting as a waste of an existence. A CEO values wanting and getting as a primary reason for existence
  • A Dharma Teacher uses his or her authority to show letting go. A CEO uses his/her authority to get what s/he wants.
  • A Dharma Teacher takes a deep interest in your inner life. A CEO has little interest in your personal life.
  • A Dharma Teacher takes a deep interest in your life outside the company. A CEO has little interest in your life outside the company.
  • A Dharma Teacher explores solutions to problems. A CEO expects solutions to problems.
  • A Dharma Teacher refers to the immediate experience of the practitioners.  A CEO refers to the track record of the staff.
  • A Dharma Teacher develops trust between him/herself and practitioners. A CEO expects his staff to follow him/her even if they do not trust him/her.
  • A Dharma Teacher sees what is common in the means and the end. A CEO sees the means as expedient to reach an end.
  • A Dharma teacher addresses every area of life. A CEO addresses the working day.
  • A Dharma teacher explores the immeasurable and unquantifiable. A CEO lives in measurement and quantifiable.
  • A Dharma teacher explores the immediate reality. The CEO sees the reality in sales charts and profit/loss margins.
  • A Dharma Teacher teaches wise action. A CEO sets targets.
  • A Dharma teacher addresses the deathless liberation. A CEO has to cope with ageing, pain and death.
  • A Dharma Teacher sits in the front of the practitioners. A CEO sits in his personal office.
  • A Dharma Teacher offers teachings and practices on dana (donation). A CEO receives a salary according to the market.
  • A Dharma Teacher represents a 2600 year old Dharma tradition.  A CEO lives vulnerable to a takeover.
  • A Dharma Teacher has much to offer.  A CEO has …….
  • A Dharma Teacher is a CEO (Chief Enlightenment Officer) for the worldwide Sangha. A CEO is a CEO.

MAY ALL BEINGS BE FREE FROM CLINGING TO ANY IDENTITY.

MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE WITH WISDOM

MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE WITH COMPASSION

A Dharma Teacher and a CEO Read More »

Eckhart Tolle is on the Rich Man’s List. Is this the price of enlightenment?

Communications, Dharma Reflections / /

In August 2000, a meditator at the Spirit Rock Meditation Centre, Marin, California, kindly gave me a copy of The Power of Now (price $21.95) by Eckhart Tolle that had been published the year before. She told me she had bought a dozen copies to give to her friends. She wrote on the inside cover:

“Thank you, Christopher. I am grateful for your guidance and your support in my awakening.  May this book be a blessing to you.  It is changing my life.” …

Eckhart Tolle is on the Rich Man’s List. Is this the price of enlightenment?Read More »

Eckhart Tolle is on the Rich Man’s List. Is this the price of enlightenment? Read More »

A RELIGION/PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM. LOVE MUCH AND WANT LITTLE

Dharma Reflections, Political / /

A RELIGION/PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM.

LOVE MUCH AND WANT LITTLE

 

  1. Develop mindfulness and meditation to open consciousness to go beyond mind’s conditioning and restricted perceptions.
  2. Enlighten and liberate our life. Realise the web of inter-connection and relationship of all forms of life with each other. Give protection to bio-diversity and a holistic view rather than a reductionist view as science often advocates. See science as a mixture of theories and facts.
  3. Use education to develop the heart as well as the mind. Explore the resources of ancient and contemporary spiritual traditions. Develop awareness and insights to end suffering and bring happiness and security for everyone.
  4. Commitment to Right Livelihood (through love for others and environment as much as oneself) rather than selfish pursuit of a career.
  5. Be mindful of ‘us and them’ without sacrificing the critique or polemic.
  6. Inquire into  the dualism of separation. Admit as a species, we cannot control our fate, nor are masters of our destiny, nor grasp onto belief in an omnipotentl Agent.
  7. Cultivate the sense of community and collective friendship instead of living in self-obsession and self-hate.
  8. Develop mindfulness and reflection about lifestyle, diet and worthwhile commitments. Develop constructive engagement and facilitation processes to resolve conflict whether personal, social or international.
  9. Prioritise wisdom over knowledge, compassion over cleverness, humility over arrogance. Take power away from centralised authority, such as politics, science and religion, and develop networks of wisdom. Seek the counsel of the wise.
  10. Replace competition with co-operation. Develop sharing of knowledge and goods and skilful use of resources instead of exploitation.
  11. Develop a vision of a sustainable world through respect for all species and protection of land, water and air. Acknowledge issues, events and things arise owing to causes and conditions.
  12. End the manufacture and dealing in arms and convert all such factories and laboratories for constructive use.    PS. Remember to reflect on what we are going to do with our free and precious life!

MAY ALL BEINGS LOVE MUCH AND WANT LITTLE

A RELIGION/PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM. LOVE MUCH AND WANT LITTLE Read More »

Forgive me. I don’t believe in God. Here are 12 reasons.

Dharma Reflections / /

Forgive me. I don’t believe in God. Here are 12 reasons.

 1.              GOD THE CREATOR. A piece of graffiti on a wall in London read: “God hasn’t forgotten the world. But He’s now working on less ambitious projects.”  Cool. If God created the world, then all responsibility for the state and the fate of the world rests with God. If this God takes some responsibility for the state of the Earth, then we need to know what His responsibility is. We also need to know our responsibility. Can God increase his level of responsibility and decrease our level of responsibility or vice versa. How will we find out if there is a change in levels of responsibility or if it always remains the same.  If His creation started in a particular way, then is God helpless to change it? If there is God, then perhaps humanity has to practice to forgive God for what He created and what He permits to happen in His creation. …

Forgive me. I don’t believe in God. Here are 12 reasons.Read More »

Forgive me. I don’t believe in God. Here are 12 reasons. Read More »

Do our Dharma retreats in India differ from the West? Oh Yes!

Dharma Reflections / /

I first arrived in India in 1967 six or seven months after travelling overland from that wet and windy island off the west coast of mainland Europe. This February, 2014, it will be 40 years of teaching in India. We have moved our silent retreat from the Royal Thai Monastery in Bodh Gaya to the Thai Monastery, Sarnath, near Varanasi. …

Do our Dharma retreats in India differ from the West? Oh Yes!Read More »

Do our Dharma retreats in India differ from the West? Oh Yes! Read More »

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