This brief anthology of excerpts from the Pali texts on the subject of teaching the dhamma are offered as a modest contribution to the contemporary debate on how the teachings of the Buddha are transmitted.
As we can see, the word “dhamma” in these passages seems to refer to a very carefully crafted curriculum of teachings, and that there was a great concern that this body of material be accurately and precisely communicated from teacher to student.
The realization in personal experience and the integrity of intention also seem to be areas of particular concern in the ancient context, as they are today.
Teaching the Dhamma
It is not easy to teach dhamma to others.
Concerning the teaching of dhamma to others, only after five things have been internally established is dhamma to be taught to others. What five?
- “I shall speak a graduated discourse…”
- “I shall speak a discourse that is insightfully-arranged…”
- “I shall speak a discourse grounded upon caring…”
- “I shall speak a discourse without motivation for personal gain…”
- “I shall speak a discourse without disparaging myself or others…”
…thus is dhamma to be taught to others.
Aṅguttara Nikāya 5:159
Confusing the True Dhamma
These five things, monks, incline toward the confusion and the disappearance of the true dhamma. What five?
When the monks:
- do not carefully hear the dhamma,
- do not carefully learn the dhamma,
- do not carefully retain the dhamma,
- do not carefully investigate the significance of the retained dhamma, and
- do not carefully know what is significant and practice the dhamma according to dhamma.
Aṅguttara Nikāya 5:154
These five things, monks, incline toward the confusion and the disappearance of the true dhamma. What five?
When the monks:
- do not learn the dhamma: [i.e., the] discourses, poems, refrains, verses, utterances, stories, birth-tales, marvels, expositions;
- do not teach to others in detail the dhamma as they have heard it and as they have understood it;
- do not make others speak in detail the dhamma as they have heard it and as they have understood it;
- do not recite together in detail the dhamma as they have heard it and as they have understood it;
- do not mentally think about and ponder upon, do not consider with the mind, the dhamma as they have heard it and as they have understood it.
Aṅguttara Nikāya 5:155
These five things, monks, incline toward the confusion and the disappearance of the true dhamma. What five?
- When monks misunderstand the discourses they have learned, mis-arranging the words and letters, and then misconstrue the meaning of the mis-arranged words and letters.
- When monks mis-speak, do things that constitute mis-behavior, are endowed with a lack of patience/forbearance, and possess little talent for grasping the teaching.
- When the monks who have learned much, who have received what has been passed down, who have retained the dhamma, the vinaya and the manuals,—they do not make others carefully speak the discourses; and because of their lapse the discourses become something with its roots severed, without a refuge.
- When the senior monks live in luxury, take the lead in falling into laxity, lay aside the responsibility of dwelling in seclusion, and no longer put forth effort: to attain what has not yet been attained, to achieve what has not yet been achieved, to experience what has not yet been experienced.
- When the community is divided. When the community is divided, then there is shouting at one another, there is blaming one another, there is closing in on one another, there is giving up on one another. Those who are not clear do not get clear there, and the few who are clear become otherwise.
Aṅguttara Nikāya 5:156
