Disciples Who Behave Towards The Teacher with Hostility and with Friendliness

And how do disciples behave towards The Teacher with hostility, not with friendliness?

Here, Ānanda, compassionate and seeking their welfare, The Teacher teaches The Teachings to the disciples out of compassion: This is for your welfare, this is for your peacefulness. His disciples do not want to hear or give ear or apply effort with their minds to understand; they stray and turn away from the Teacher’s Teachings.

Thus do disciples behave towards The Teacher with hostility, not with friendliness.

And how do disciples behave towards The Teacher with friendliness, not with hostility?

Here, Ānanda, compassionate and seeking their welfare, The Teacher teaches The Teachings to the disciples out of compassion: This is for your welfare, this is for your peacefulness. His disciples are interested to hear and give ear and apply effort with their minds to understand; they do not stray and turn away from The Teacher’s Teachings.

Thus do disciples behave towards The Teacher with friendliness, not with hostility.

Therefore, Ānanda, behave towards me with friendliness, not with hostility. That will lead to your welfare and peacefulness for a long time.

I shall not treat you as the potter treats the raw damp clay. Repeatedly restraining you, I shall speak to you, Ānanda. Repeatedly guiding you of what to avoid, I shall speak to you, Ānanda. The truly dedicated will stand [the test].

(Reference: MN 122)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares how Students should not behave towards their Teacher with hostility, as this would be the opposite of how one aspiring to attain Enlightenment or an Enlightened being would function.

Instead, he guides Students to behave towards their Teacher with friendliness as this “will lead to your welfare and peacefulness for a long time”.

The Buddha shares with one of his closest Students Ānanda that he will not “repeatedly restrain” him, but instead he will guide him in what to avoid in regards to unwholesome mental, verbal, and bodily conduct along with all the other Teachings that are needed to experience Enlightenment.

The Buddha shares that “I shall not treat you as the potter treats the raw damp clay”. “Raw damp clay” would need to be constantly shaped and molded by “the potter” (i.e. Teacher). The potter would need to form the clay into the ideal object. So The Buddha is sharing that he is not going to “repeatedly restrain” Ānanda attempting to shape him into the ideal person. Instead, he will speak to him and guide him letting him make his own decisions rather than being constantly shaped by The Teacher.

It is a real “test” of the Student’s mind to understand, acknowledge, and improve their life practice based on a Teacher’s guidance pointing out areas of improvement. The unEnlightened mind typically is only interested in hearing pleasing and agreeable words and the ego does not typically enjoy understanding unpleasing and disagreeable words from others. So, hearing a Teacher’s guidance to improve one’s life practice needs to be openly understood by the Student rather than allowing the ego of the unEnlightened mind to feel rejected or disheartened by a Teacher’s guidance. The Teacher points out areas they see for a Student to improve and further progress towards the attainment of Enlightenment.

The “test” is that the Student will need to develop the determination, dedication, and diligence to actively seek guidance for improvement of their life practice. Without conscious choices to learn, reflect, and practice The Teachings while seeking guidance, a Student would have no ability to attain Enlightenment. Without understanding the unwholesome qualities that exist in the Student’s mind to eliminate and the wholesome qualities to cultivate through a Teacher’s guidance, a Student would have no ability to progress in their practice to the ultimate attainment of a liberated mind.

A Student will need to be inviting and accepting of a Teacher’s guidance in order to identify areas of improvement and then learn, reflect, and practice Teachings to improve their life practice. If a Student allows the ego to block the guidance from the Teacher while feeling displeasure in the Teacher “pointing out treasure”, they will not “stand the test” of receiving guidance from the Teacher to progress towards Enlightenment.

A Teacher would need to exert a significant amount of time, effort, energy, and resources to guide a Student to Enlightenment. A Teacher should not ask for any benefits from their Students, but instead, await what is given as offerings. A Teacher’s only goal should be to guide a Student to Enlightenment without any personal gain for themselves whatsoever.