Than Hsiang Mudita Vihara _19.9.2021

In this age of doom, if a teacher would like to train his students to be a five star distinction achiever (120%) , then the teacher has to instruct the student to run around “jiang hu”! In the ancient era,those who would like to learn by wandering school，that is the meaning of running around “jiang hu” ！

This idiom, “one lives in “jiang hu”,you can't always do as you like”，it carries very profound meaning. As the title goes “one lives in “jiang hu”,you can't always do as you like”Some students, especially those young monastic trainees，when he is on bad terms with the teacher, like the reaction of a little child ，he tries to escape from the teacher. This scenario is very common in this era ！Nevertheless, due to the impulsive acts of the stubbornness, can the students indeed achieve the target of 120% distinction star level? I would say many a time he hardly can achieve 30%.

In Avatamsaka Sutra, the child Sudhanakumāra experienced 53 lessons, the sutra describes how Sudhanakumāra had followed 53 teachers in his courses of wandering schools. In this modern time，of course many students mistakenly follow Sudhanakumāra’s story,this is because of their ignorance and lack of wisdom！In fact, the real meaning of the idiom is that the students will follow the teachers’ instruction to follow another teacher in the course of wandering schools. The meaning of wondering schools, indeed, is not based on the dispute between the student and the teacher, then the student decided to follow another teacher. Nowadays, the youth is very stubborn. When the students receive disciplinary actions from the teacher very strictly, he gets annoyance and tries to escape the teacher. He is actually following a good teacher. As a result, he escapes to follow a bad teacher, this brings him to the dead end of the road！

A real teacher definitely has no selfishness. He will recommend a suitable teacher to his student in the right time. Therefore, the right of selecting the next teacher lies in the hand of the first teacher. When the first teacher decides that the student has thoroughly learned under him, he will recommend the student to another teacher for the student’s further learning course. For students with extremely good root，then he can have 50 teachers. We know that Venerable Atisha even learned from 100 teachers. As students, you should know your capability and limitation before blindly follows the examples from the sutra. In fact, it would be adequate if a student can learn from 2-3 teachers, it will be sad if the student’s luck is bad, he might end up following bad teachers. You might be wondering : “Why a stubborn student cannot decide correctly himself?” It is because he is lack of knowledge and wisdom, so he simply follows any teacher he likes.

In the Chinese Colloquialism(colloquial speech)“严师出高徒”， “yan shi chu gao tu” a strict teacher can produce a good student! A good teacher will definitely skillfully torture or scold the students for good. On the other hand, he racks his brain to train and guide his students. The teacher will not easily give up on his students’ learning！

“One lives in ‘jiang hu’”means one is going on wandering schools, “you can't always do as you like” means that one should follow the decision of the first teacher to choose one’s next teacher.

Nowadays, we rarely encounter students with good roots like Sudhanakumāra or Venerable Atisha. Their practice have been there for very long duration of time, may be as long as hundreds lives, or even thousands lives！Comparatively, in this era, students have lower quality of root base, naturally they should not try to learn from too many teachers. In fact，even the teacher tries his best to teach the students, the students might not be able to absorb all the lessons. A student must recognize his own root base as shallow，he should honestly and be committed to learn from a teacher, he should not be stubborn，likewise he must not be overconfident. After learning from a teacher for a period of time, a student mistakenly thought that he masters the knowledge from the teacher. Therefore, he resolutely laid off！Shifu has seen many monastic youths in these conditions, it is really sad！Some students （monastic）initially follow and learn very well under a teacher, after they decided on giving up their learning of the first teacher，they decided to change their costume, they shifted to other tradition，what is the point！Wasn't he joyous and inspiring in the beginning of his learning？The student answered with overconfidence：“I have understood almost all the teacher‘s lessons.” Hey, this is only a little honey on your tongue, this is absolutely presumptuous！What a pity！

As a conclusion, without cherishing the value of a teacher, keep window shopping, the result will be “Jack of all trades, master of none” ！In the real meaning of religious practice one should not be greedy, always remember to deeply entering one door .