What I Have Been Doing

Then the Blessed One, having understood Brahma's invitation, out of compassion for beings, surveyed the world with the eye of an Awakened One. As he did so, he saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace and danger in the other world. Just as in a pond of blue or red or white lotuses, some lotuses — born and growing in the water — might flourish while immersed in the water, without rising up from the water; some might stand at an even level with the water; while some might rise up from the water and stand without being smeared by the water — so too, surveying the world with the eye of an Awakened One, the Blessed One saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace and danger in the other world.~Ayacana Sutta

My abilities to speak Tamazight, the local dialect, are still at intermediate level. The men in my site travel a lot for work, and because of this, the site is considered one of migrant workers. I talk to the women sometimes, but, as I have described before, talking with them about maternal health issues haven't been very successful. This inability of mine to teach this issue is due to my inadequacies, not theirs. Nevertheless, it makes working in my site more difficult. I am able to impart some cultural exchange, notably, issues regarding religion. Obviously, I cannot speak of all of my personal experiences there, so even that is somewhat limited. This leads to the question, "What have I been doing in Morocco this past year?"

I have been working a lot, actually, but it has been in the big city, Errachidia, where I teach SIDA and general health issues at a Dar Chebab to local teenagers. This is what I feel competent teaching. Because they speak English, I feel more comfortable teaching these topics, as well. This is where I am. I had requested a site change, but was denied, due to the paperwork involved and the need for a cultural exchange at my own site. I am happy with this, and have, in fact, turned my home into a makeshift "Buddhist retreat center" for travel-weary volunteers.

The story of the Ayacana Sutta, or, The Sutta of the Request, speaks of Buddha not wanting to teach due to the difficulty of the teachings. It is Brahma who requests that he teach the dharma to the world - without Brahma, we would have no dharma. The analogy of the lotus is used in regards to his ability to teach. There are some lotuses whose petals are still submerged, and some whose petals are still within the mud. But there are some lotuses whose petals have just broken the surface and are able to understand the dharma. It is these beings who the Buddha must reach out to and teach.

Likewise, the circumstances in which I have found myself compel me to continue to work in Errachidia, because of my students ability to understand me, and my understanding of the topics that I teach. I did not receive training in America to teach maternal health. What I do know is HIV/AIDS awareness, STI awareness, and stress relief techniques through meditation and basic yoga. To act as though I am an expert in any other topic would be both unwise and immoral on my part.

The question remains, however, whether or not my continuing to travel to Errachidia will continue to benefit my students, and whether or not I will be able to expand my language abilities to feel better trained speaking about this topic in my own site. After all, the words "meditation", "karma", and "chakra", don't exactly translate easily into Tamazight, as I have also noted in prior blogs. The attempt I made before didn't turn out very well, but I must continue to work on it. As long as I feel that I can contribute something new to the community of Morocco, I will stay here.

Soemtimes, I like to think of the story of Brahma and Buddha from a different point-of-view; that of the lotus flower. I am not the Buddha, but a lotus. Because of what I have learned and trained for, the pollen inside of me is unique. The environment in which I find myself, however, contributes greatly to whether or not I can open the petals and reveal the pollen inside. It is here, in Errachidia, that I truly feel that I can open and spread my knowledge. Maybe, one day, I will rise up in my own site and feel comfortable opening up to the villagers there. But for now, I hope that teaching the English class here is enough.