Being a Teacher
See also: Dealing with young students; Locations of teaching; Teaching resources and training; Teaching responsibilities and Being a Teacher.
When I was a student at university, I took a philosophy course in ethics.（道德规范） ‘ Ethics’ describes a standard by which we decide if different actions are morally right or wrong. One of the assigned texts for this course was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance .（禅宗与摩托车养护） Being a diligent student, I read this book a few times before we took it up in class, and it made a great impression upon me. I was young, enthusiastic, (极感兴趣）and easily influenced,（被影响） and so I felt that I had found in this book a code（道德准则，行为规范） by which to live.
When we dealt with this book in class, the professor dismissed（不在考虑或谈论） it as rubbish, and said that he had assigned it to us as an example of bad philosophy. His objection to the book was that it had conflated （混合） Eastern and Western philosophy, the philosophy of Zen Buddhism（佛教） and Aristotle, (亚里士多德) in much the way, I suppose, that we conflate Eastern and Western culture here at Aihua. For several years I felt like a fool for having fallen for this book, but since then I have come across the ideas that I found inspiring in this book again and again: in Hegel (黑格尔), Kant (康德), Heidegger (海德格尔), Sartre(萨特), Kierkegaard(克尔凯郭尔), Plato (柏拉图) and Lao Zi (老子), to name but a few names.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a father and son ride their motorbikes across America. They repair and maintain their motorbikes by themselves. Repairing and maintaining their bikes becomes a spiritual discipline (精神磨练) for them, and when engaged in this task, they may free their minds from the bonds (镣铐\监禁) of worldly concerns: from vanity (自负), pettiness (小气), jealousy (嫉妒), regret, lust (欲望) and avarice (贪婪). They work on their motorbikes like Japanese monks (僧侣) work on their rock gardens, or like the ‘karate kid’ waxing on (上蜡) with one hand, and waxing off with the other. Working at their bikes is a way for them to clear their minds, and strip themselves of all that is superficial, (表面上的,肤浅的) in order to discover the pure essence (本质) of themselves within.
As they proceed on their journey, they become more and more in tune (协调\合适) with their motorbikes, and they learn to listen. Every buzz, squeak, hiss, whir, whizz or rumble communicates to them the needs of their machines. Of course, the analogy (类似) that I am driving at here is that these motorbikes are your classes, and you need to listen to your classes in the way that the father and son learn to listen to their bikes.
I am not suggesting that teaching is the best job in the world. I am not assuming that you have all chosen teaching as your life work. I am however stating that any job you do, you should do to the best of your ability. Again and again, in disparate philosophies, we come across the ideal of a life that is lived with authenticity. (真实性) Again and again, in disparate philosophies, the key to this ideal of an authentically lived life is the contrast between something done as a mean to an end, and something done as an end in itself. All philosophers agree that when you perform a task as an end in itself you are behaving authentically, and living in a fashion that is morally laudable (值得赞美的). When you perform a task as a means to an end, you are putting your life on hold, and working as a slave.
Let us all be free men and women here. Let us all teach because we are teachers; maybe not forever, but certainly for today. While you are a teacher, commit (委托) yourself to teaching. Forget your wages while you are in the class, and attain the spiritual silence, the spiritual purity, necessary to listen to your class in the way that the father and son in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance listen to their motorbikes. Any job that you do, you should do to the best of your ability. While you are a teacher, you have a moral and spiritual obligation (责任\义务) to consider teaching as an end in itself.