Accounting for Something Being Validly Knowable

Accounting for Validly Knowing Objects as Being This or That

How do we account for something being validly knowable as this or that? We can’t account for it by means of some self-establishing nature inside something that makes it this or that. We can only account for it dependently on other factors. That fact about things is known as “dependent arising.” The object arises and is known as this or that dependently on other factors, not just independently by itself, by its own power.

For instance, in Buddhism we have a great emphasis on the spiritual teacher. We need to rely on a spiritual teacher and we need to be a proper disciple or student. What makes somebody a spiritual teacher? And what would make us a student?

How do we account for someone being validly knowable as a teacher of Buddhism? First of all, they need to have students – how can a person who has no students be a teacher? Someone can advertize that they’re a teacher, but if they have no students, what makes them a teacher? This is a clear indication of this false way of thinking, that something inside of them makes them a teacher by its own power, even without their having any students. But nobody can be a teacher without students – student and teacher are dependent on each other. The person might have had students in the past, and dependently on that, they were previously a teacher. But if they have no students now, they aren’t presently a teacher.

Even if they have students now, if they’re not teaching them anything, are they still a teacher? No, they need to actually be teaching something. But do they need to be teaching that every moment of the day and night to still be a teacher? What about when they’re sleeping, are they still a teacher? And even if they are teaching something to other people at the moment, if the students don’t learn anything, are they still a teacher? These are questions we need to analyse in meditation.

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