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Do you ever get frustrated with answering the same questions?

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And if not, how do you continue to do so and seem so patient?

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Teaching is really easy.

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There's so much happiness that comes from helping other people.

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It can actually become intoxicating.

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It can become a hindrance to the path.

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It can for sure be a hindrance

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even if you're not intoxicated in it, because it takes your time away from your meditation.

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So that's one thing, is that it's actually not as unpleasant as it seems.

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The more unpleasant thing is to sit around learning how to teach.

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when you have to sit and listen to someone teaching the same things over and over again.

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So some of you have been with me for a long time and you hear me saying the same things over and over again.

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This is more difficult.

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But what I'm thinking of more is when I do reporting,

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When I'm sitting and reporting, I can do reporting for hours and hours and hours.

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Reporting means meeting with meditators.

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I can have 20, 30 meditators and actually feel quite relaxed and refreshed afterwards.

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But people who have to sit and listen to me say the same things again and again and again and again...

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that's where the suffering comes from.

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Because they don't have the same happiness that comes from it and the same ghusla, the same wholesomeness that comes from it.

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But the other thing is there is something to be said because there is a, it's a training.

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And I've been teaching now for, I started very early.

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I was teaching when I was only two years a monk.

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So it's a skill like anything else.

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I used to give Dhamma talks.

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If there's anyone still around from Doi Suthep times, they can probably attest to the fact that when I first started giving talks and teaching,

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It was not much fun for the meditators.

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Sometimes I would give horrible talks.

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Just totally, not put people off, but put people to sleep.

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And not be able to get my point across, not be able to be interesting to people.

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So like anything, it's really a skill.

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And that helps, because when you make a misstep, when you say something inappropriate, when you lose your train of thought, when you start getting flustered,

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like in this case, are unable to come up with the words properly, then it creates stress in the mind.

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So as you get better at things like teaching, it does get a lot easier.

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But the real thing I want to say in regards to this question, which I think makes it an important question, is that teaching is not the most difficult thing.

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The most difficult thing is the practice.

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People think that teaching is actually a sign that you are enlightened.

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It's a sign that you are advanced.

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And as I said, it's really just a skill.

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People can be great teachers and not have the greatest practice on their own.

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or even be on the wrong path.

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There are examples in the scriptures of people who were great teachers but were not enlightened themselves.

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So don't get too... I wouldn't get too confident in someone.

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Don't think of me as some great...

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enlightened being just because I can teach.

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Enlightenment is something that you get from yourself, from practicing the teachings.

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It's not the same as being able to give

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convincing and clear answers.

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Even though obviously clarity of mind does help, meditation does help.

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If I wasn't meditating, I can't say that I would be able to stay patient and answer people's questions.

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For sure not.

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For sure I would try and fail miserably.

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But

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They're not exactly the same.

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And so it's important not to get too preoccupied with one's ability to teach.