What is a Dharma Teacher For? Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship

Instructor(s): nico hase and devon hase

Program Description:

Most Buddhist traditions consider the teacher-student relationship central to the path of awakening. Yet different traditions understand the teacher-student relationship in radically disparate ways. In this program, we will examine the similarities and differences of teacher-student relationships in the Mahasi tradition, Soto Zen, and Kagyu Vajrayana as a context for exploring our own thoughts, emotions, and experiences as students walking the Buddhist path.

Topics will include:

The teacher-student relationship in the Mahasi tradition as an opportunity for precise instruction

The teacher-student relationship in Soto Zen as an expression of commitment

The teacher-student relationship in Kagyu Vajrayana as a path of devotion

Contemporary trends in the teacher-student relationship 

Help and harm in the teacher-student relationship 

Through a weave of lecture, reflection, dialogue, and storytelling, participants will explore their own histories, feelings, beliefs, and biases in relation to being a student, studying with teachers, and walking the path of awakening.

Watch an invitation by nico on YouTube.

About the Instructor(s):
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  nico hase

  nico hase lived in a monastery for six years before earning a PhD in counseling psychology and becoming an Insight Meditation teacher full time. He currently mentors mindfulness teachers, teaches online and in-person retreats, and speaks with students in one-on-one sessions. He and his beloved life partner devon are the authors of How Not to Be a Hot Mess: A Survival Guide for Modern Life. Find out more at www.devonandnicohase.com

• 

  devon hase

  devon hase loves long retreats. Cumulatively, she’s spent four years in silent practice in the Insight and Vajrayana traditions. Since discovering meditation in 2000, she has put dharma and community at the center of her life: she spent a decade bringing mindfulness to high school and college classrooms and now teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, and other centers around the world. She enjoys supporting practitioners with personal mentoring, and her friendly, conversational approach centers on relational practice and the natural world. Along with her life partner nico, devon co-authored How Not to Be a Hot Mess: A Buddhist Survival Guide for Modern Life. She continues to spend a good part of the time in wilderness retreat in Oregon, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. For more, visit devonandnicohase.com.