Teacher, pupil Relationship as the Foundation of Spiritual Guidance; in the light of the Selected Khandhaka-s.

Abstract

The word teacher means a person who is involved in a certain process of teaching or disciplining someone. The student or disciple is the one who is receiving the teaching or disciplining. The word ‘ācariya’ used in Buddhist teachings is used to denote the teacher. There are two persons mentioned as teachers in the code of Buddhist monastic discipline as the ‘upajjhāya (preceptor) and ācariya (teacher). The teacher disciplines the student in the absence of the preceptor. The student disciplined by the preceptor is called saddhivihārika (co-resident monk), whereas the one who is disciplined by the teacher is known as the antevāsika (monk who live with his master/ attendant monk) or the one who resides with his master. The teacher who guides the disciple by correcting his small and big mistakes is called the upajjhāya.1 The monk who lives away from the upajjhāya has to live with a ācariya who belongs to four kinds as Nissayācariyo, pabbajjācariyo, upasampadācariyo, dhammācariyo. 2 The sāmaṇera or upasampadā bhikkhu-s who live under the patronage of an upajjhāya is called the saddhivihārika.3 The person who has taken advices (nisa) from a certain a senior monk who has spent 10 years from his antevāsika (sthavira) is called nissantevāsika; if he has ordained after taking advice from a sthavira, he is called a pabbajjantevāsika; one who given higher ordination by a monk after reciting (vinayakamma) sentences the by a monk is called a upasampadantevāsia; one who has learnt dhamma from a monk is called dhammantevāsika.4 The Buddha has preached equaling the relationship between a teacher and the disciple to that of the father-son relationship.5 When Upaka ājīvaka inquired from the Buddha who his teacher was, the Buddha was said to have replied that he has no teacher.6 Therefore, the Buddha’s true dhamma, realized through his own wisdom. In the mahāparinibbāṇasutta the Buddha advised his followers to keep dhamma and vinaya in the place of the founder-teacher (satthu).7 According to the mahāvaggapāli of the Vinayapiţaka, the Buddha during his life time had allowed to have teacher, because of the unruly behavior of the bikkhu-s. First, an upajjhāya was allowed, and in the case of his loss due to some reason, a ācariya was allowed as a second teacher. The well learned and disciplined monks were allowed to live under the preceptor or acharya only for five years, whereas the unlearned, unskilled and undisciplined monks were asked to live their whole lives under the guidance of one. The Buddha preached that the bikkhu after five years or more since ordination, knowing those divisions, having by hearted them, who can judge the vinaya well, will no longer need a teacher.8 In addition, the preceptor who disciplines the monk should be a thera with more than ten years after ordination with knowledge and skills.