Dharma Teachers Should Be Paid A Shit Load, Or At Least Something
Dharma teachers should be paid a fair amount of money for their expertise and their abilities.
Why isn’t meditation taught in schools? Why not in police stations and hospitals? Why isn’t it offered in corporations or government administrations? Why not in the military?
It is simply not valued enough, not as a religion, but as a practical way to foster peace and serenity, not to mention spiritual awakening.
I believe it would shift the planets energy towards peace if it were valued, implemented and supported for its full potential. Compassion and wisdom are priceless. This is because they are more valuable than any price we could pay, not because they are impractical or not valuable enough.
There is a sort of “free dharma” movement who’s members think Dharma teachers should not be compensated financially for their teachings. These voices, in my experience, are usually practitioners who are not authorized teachers themselves.
So what are we talking about? Well, the teachings for example include “introductions” to meditation, perhaps extended workshops, dharma talks, face to face teachings, books, articles or blogs, or “just” holding the space for meditation to happen. These are offered by teachers who must pay for utilities, maintenance, insurance, food, etc.
As i understand the complaint, since the Buddha didn’t charge set fees for his teachings no students seeking teachings should ever be asked to contribute to any of these teachings or activities. But, since the Buddha accepted offerings it is ok for teachers to accept their money as long as it is not asked for.
Let me be clear about my perspective, in our modern American culture, expecting the teacher to cover the overhead for you to come and be taught for free is ludicrous. Not to mention I don’t hear anyone pining for the good old celibate days. Things have changed, but the teachings are still pure, in their impurity.
The closest thing i can approximate this mentality to, which is in fact very different, is the 12 step model for support and guidance, I have been sober over 9 years and have done a lot of volunteer service work for free when I could afford it. I also sponsored people to work the steps with no expectation of payment. But when I had my daughter, as a single parent, I could not afford to pay $30 babysitting each time I wanted to go help others. Since no one was going to pay me to help troubled kids I dropped it. I did not expect to be paid because it was a service that kept me sober foremost. Plus I never officially studied or trained in how to lead such groups or be an effective leader. My only skill or quality was that I managed not to use drugs or get arrested for a year or so.
(However, there are paid positions in the 12 step organization to cover administration and salary expenses, and circuit speakers often get paid.)
Compare this to my training to be a Dharma teacher. This took 15 years of consistent weekly participation where I learned all the training positions, how to hold the space for groups and individuals in pain, I learned how to lead ceremonies that mark important life events and how to answer koans and teach the precepts. But most importantly I learned how to accept myself with compassion and realize that I am intimately connected to everyone else.
This is a skill that is hard to appraise. If I could teach you how to play the guitar we would both expect you to pay $30 an hour. But to teach you how to accept your life and find peace is trickier. In my experience learning to let go of attachments is a skill that requires very subtle feedback. Learning how to answer koans or discern emptiness is just as tangible as learning how to act with authentic emotion or be a martial artist, or develop the subtle sensitivity needed to move and balance qi. These latter examples all cost a great deal to perfect and no one expects to learn these life enhancing qualities for free.
I don’t know why anyone would expect to learn how to end suffering for free, all I can really say is that I need a certain amount of resources to be able to offer this support.
Money is empty, it is not good or bad, asking for it is not good or bad, giving it is not good or bad. Renunciation also is empty, it is not valuable or ethical in itself. It does not really exist and we cannot absolutely renunciate the basic necessities of life. The buddha never turned down a meal and he accepted offerings, this is not renunciation, this is modesty. He simply took what he needed and didn’t ask for more. Of course when he expected others to dedicate their entire lives to his path and support his cause full time was no modest compensation.
Of course we all want teachers to have modest appetites. Most dharma teachers are very modest, I don’t know any Zen teachers first hand who have more than 2 luxury cars or excessive profits in their personal bank account from teaching. The teachers that have charged exorbitant amounts for basic teachings are basically shunned by the dharma community and not referred students anymore. This is exceptional and we have learned better how to identify these behaviors and how to warn people against them.
We should not use such poor examples to judge the value of teaching in general. In my “monastic” experience it takes about 15 years of training to begin teaching and 20 to be “certified”. Of course we begin with teaching introduction classes, then teaching basics classes, and so on. Most of these beginning teaching opportunities are voluntary and any money given goes to the temple fund. This general fund feeds the temples utilities, maintenance and the teachers salaries or stipends. the standards are generally high for fully authorized teachers.
No doubt we should have standards. Teachers should be transparent about their finances, they should not be greedy, and they should never charge fees based on a promise that “enlightenment” will happen any faster than usual, or present themselves as giving students anything they don’t already have.
These standards are quite profound and so the value of authentic Buddhist teachings is great. Most people who practice know its value in todays culture, and many donate as generously as they can. We all want to give and we don’t want to be stingy. And we want sincerity and authenticity from the teachers we entrust this generosity. This is not too much to ask.
Today we have many ways to invite support. Whether we have a donation basket in sight, or we openly ask for donations in person, in emails or fundraisers the message is sent passively or actively.
To complicate it further, asking for money is an art of sorts. Some personalities find it more natural and some don’t. Teachers have issues with money just like anyone. I personally struggle with self worth and find it very hard to ask for fair compensation for my time. I make under 20k a year for managing and bookkeeping a temple and we decided to stop asking for teacher dana. I am not complaining about this because I’m very happy with my life and feel I have enough and I feel rich. I have never charged for daisan or dharma talks and I dont plan to. But I would love to teach meditation in schools or hospitals or corporations and make enough money to pay for my basic needs. Why should this be unethical to hope for?
I can’t say I have easy answers. Perhaps people should be asked to tithe, or give 10% of their profit. Public and private corporations might give 10% of their profits to a “peace of mind” fund for meditation for their employees. There could be teachers for classes in secondary schools to teach this to kids, between the arts and music classes that got cut? Maybe the military could offer meditation to our troops to help them manage PTSD and stress before it goes too far? In my perfect world this would be the case.
We should appreciate full time teachers and try to create a culture of support for them, we should help them fill these important needs in our society. If teachers are expected to support themselves they won’t be available to fill such needs. We have a clear need for meditation. Most schools, non-profits and businesses welcome free meditation. There just aren’t enough independently wealthy certified teachers to do the job for free.
This is not about me as a teacher trying to defend the money I need to teach. This is about us as a culture seeing the desperate need for meditation in our mainstream ending the suffering of our wold. We have an amazing opportunity to help meditation to be embraced by our mass market culture. We can all begin creating a mentality and spirit of generosity and abundance with the Dharma that starts with taking care of our Dharma teachers.
Otherwise, if you want to play a game where I pretend not to need money for food and shelter and you pretend you’re not expected to contribute to this then just ignore the dana coffer strategically stationed at the exit. And if you hope meditation is never budgeted into schools or corporations or the military please start by throwing out all of your dharma books that compensated some kind teacher to sweat it out.
The Dharma is so important to continue. Claiming it is in a special category that is unethical to monetize only makes it harder to integrate into our mainstream awareness. We should be talking about how to support teachers better than we do rather than why we should not pay them anything.
So let’s talk about it.
