(Half-Bell)
(Bell)
(French) Why do you form only students and not spiritual masters like yourself?
(Translator) Why do you form only students and not spiritual masters like yourself?
Every student is a master.
When you are a student,
you play the role of being your own master.
You don't rely entirely on your teacher.
You have to make the teacher that is outside of yourself
to be inside of you.
It is possible to train yourself
so that your teacher is not outside but always inside of you.
So that even when you are physically separated from your teacher,
your teacher is still with you inside.
Suppose you are confronting a situation,
and you don't know how to react, how to act,
and if your teacher is not there, for you to ask,
then you can tell yourself,
if this happened to my teacher, how would he act or react.
If you ask the question, then the teacher becomes "inside",
and the teacher inside is always available.
If you are your own teacher, you can be the teacher of others,
you can be a disciple and a teacher at the same time.
Suppose your hear from your teacher,
the practice of mindful walking,
and if you practice well, enjoy every step that you make,
you walk so that every step can be healing,
and nourishing, joyful, peaceful,
you are practicing as a good disciple.
But people around you,
monks, nuns, lay practitioners,
when they see you walking like that,
your solidity, your freedom and joy,
they can learn from you.
They can learn from your way of walking,
so you walk as a teacher also.
You practice as a student, and you practice as a spiritual teacher.
Even if you don't say anything,
you are teaching people how to do it.
So don't think that the teacher and the student are two things,
that can be taken out of each other.
A good student is at the same time a good teacher.
So it it is not true that I am not training teachers.
When I train students, I train teachers,
because all students have to be teachers.
(Half-Bell)
(Bell)