Thank you for the supportive responses, also some that I have received by email.

U Aung Koe gets right to the heart of a primary concern in my life. I was acutely aware that Arthur had many faulty values, ambitions, behavioral patterns, conceptualizations that had to cause him a lot of pain even if he did not express the pain. But I see that in most people. My task as a Buddhist teacher is indeed to shine the light of wisdom in these dark places. One might think that this would naturally begin with my immediate family. But what can I do when someone’s heart and mind are already shut to such an influence?

You can take a horse to water but you cannot make him drink it. Religious teaching, or any teaching, beginning with potty training, is a collaborative endeavor. The student has to be ready to receive the teaching. That is why the Three Refuges are so important and that is why I write so much about Buddhist faith for a Western audience. It takes preparation merely to be able to receive the teachings. U Aung Koe is fortunate to have been born in one of the most devout Buddhist cultures in the world, in which that preparation is as common as potty training. I’ve offered instruction to Westerners and I’ve offered instruction to Burmese and I have to say teaching in the West is far more challenging, even among Westerners who call themselves Buddhists.

Maybe this weekend I will post some more thoughts on this issue: Where is it that the teacher and the student meet? Almost everyone in my readership is either or a student or a teacher or most likely, like me, some combination of the two. It would be nice to elicit views on how far the teacher should reach out to the student and how far the student should reach out to the teacher in Buddhism.