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教學有三明，自知之明、所教之明、與知人之明，具此三明，會幫助老師作一個更好的老師，而不在於我們給學生灌輸什麼知識訊息。要幫助我們成為更好更慈悲的老師，我們需要遵循教師道德職業守則。這些守則能幫我們得具慈悲、恆持慈悲。
教師猶如別的行會成員和職業成員一樣。他們需要一種職業操守––一系列的行為規範，他們應該謹守的。在「美好的往昔」，正如人們喜歡那樣形容的，任何一個職業或行會都有一部道德規則—一如「騎士道」。「騎士」源自於「馬」和「騎手」，含有尊貴，比人優秀這一層意思。每一種行業都有它的騎士道—一不管是教師、補鞋匠、還是清道夫，都要宣誓遵守這些規範。同行業者形成一個同業公會。這些規範意在使公會成員言行更加高尚。
另外一個形容尊貴者的詞是「貴族」；「貴族」一詞源於梵文「阿利亞」。所以，比如說尊貴之道又叫「阿利亞」道。「阿利亞」一詞又與「空氣」有關？是指輕揚之意。
今天我們生活在現代和超現代的社會；那些騎士道、古老的傳統以及道德規約對我們來說已經有些太僵化了，失去了其真實的意義，也可以說貴族的風儀和生活方式，已經從現代生活中被淘汰掉了。就這一方面而言，現今在我們所處這個時代，這些老方法，舊規約，已經土崩瓦解了，所剩下的只是一些片段殘跡而已。
在世界上許多地方，這些傳統也已經撤底粉碎了，留下的也只不過是一些粉末塵埃；這種現象的存在已非常久了。作為佛教徒，我們知道這種情形還會不斷地持連續下去。這種現象以前也發生過。現在是末法時代，我們應該去適應這個時代；要看清楚，現在對於整個世界，什麼才是至為重要的。
我們有點像考古學家，發現了一小塊古柱石而自豪不已，將它珍藏在博物館裡。我們得一而忘整；忘記這塊古柱石所可能代表的是地下的一整座古廟，那可遠比這一塊小石頭來得重要得多；或者這座古廟曾經是一座古城的中心；而這座古城又曾是一個古國之中心等等。我們看得很重的這一小塊古柱石，對於我們所要做的事而言，其實只不過是一件裝飾品而已，沒有多大的意義。
現在我講一講在我來這演講之前所發生的一件事情，來說明這一點。今天下午我在想今晚要講些什麼時，我打在我的電腦裡，心想：「打好後，我存在磁碟片裡，然後送去辦公室印出來；那樣一來，我手上就有一份清楚的版本給翻譯的人看，此事不難。」
別提一千年以前，就是幾年以前，一個要上課的老師絕不會想到這些事情。這些事，不管怎麼說，都是多餘的事。湊巧的是我的磁碟片在辦公室的電腦上打不開，計劃因此失敗。我心想：「算了。我還是在我自己的電腦上打開，再抄下來！」可是我電腦螢光幕上打出來的竟是希臘字母！因為我懂希臘字母，所以看得懂；但是文章是英文寫的，字母卻是希臘字母！簡單的一篇講稿，竟有如此多的混淆周章：我們現在生活的世界就是這樣子的。
能意識到這是末法時代、古風不再的好老師就得去找一個能適應此時代的方法；若能如此，則他可以在教某一門課的具體知識時在學生的腦海裡勾畫出一幅更廣闊的背景畫。
那麼學生究竟所得到的是什麼呢？在萬佛聖城，我們稱之為道德。其實不只此處，現代社會的人已開始強調道德教育和道德風尚。給道德下定義不難，不過這不是我現在的話題。道德風尚，我說過，是人們應遵循的守則。「道德風尚」一詞，在拉丁文裡，即「已成風俗之尚」。所以，一個好的道德規範，即一個好風俗，人們知善而從，約定俗成，共同遵守。這些風俗有助人們恆住於道。它是一種雅尚規約。我們都知道還有超出這些規範的東西––那也就是我所要講的。
待續
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This kind of awareness of what the truth really is—who we are, what we need to teach, and who our students are—will help teachers to be better people. It does not necessarily rest on information that we have to impart. To help us become better and more compassionate human beings, we need to have a kind of moral code for being teachers. That is what will help us achieve and maintain an attitude of compassion.
Teachers are like members of any other trade or profession. They all need to have a code, a set of rules that they have to abide by. In the "good old days"—as people like to think of them—any profession or trade had a moral code—a code of chivalry, as it's called. "Chivalry"comes from the word "horse," and a chevalier, or someone who has chivalry, is a horseman, which implies a noble person, someone who is superior to others. Any profession had its code of chivalry, and those who would enter the profession—be they teachers, cobblers, or even street-sweepers—had to swear that they would abide by this code. The people who were members of that profession would form a guild—a society or union. The codes that applied to a certain guild were meant to make the members of that guild more noble people.
Another word for "nobleman" is "Aristocrat" comes from the Sanskrit word arya. So the noble path, for example, is called the Aryan path. The word arya also has to do with air; it is something that is light and buoyant.
Today, we live in the modern and postmodern world, and these old habits of chivalry and traditions and moral codes have become a little bit too rigid for us. They lost their true meaning. The air and the life of the aristocracy or nobility was somehow sucked out of them, so to speak. At this point in our age, these old methods— these old codes—seem to be shattered, and we see bits and pieces of them flying around—that's all that's left.
In many parts of the world, they have completely shattered, and all we have is dust. This phenomena, though, in itself is very old, and it is a continuous process, as Buddhists know. This has happened before. It is the Dharma-ending age. That is why, at present, we must adapt ourselves to the conditions of this day and age, and see what is relevant and important for the whole world right now.
We're sort of like archaeologists, who find a little piece of a column and are very proud of it, and so they hold onto it and put it in a museum. But they tend to forget that there is a bigger picture, that this particular little piece of a column was probably holding something very important—a temple that was much more important than this little piece. Or that the temple was the center of a big city, or that the big city was at the center of a big country, and so on. We may look at that little piece and think that it's very important, but it is just a silly little piece of decoration which has very little consequence for what we are trying to do.
Now I will illustrate this with a story that happened to me right now before I came to this lecture. This afternoon as I was thinking of what to say for this lecture, I wrote it on my little computer and thought, "Well, I'll just put it on a floppy disk and take it to the office and have it printed, so that I will have a cleaner example of what I'm going to say and I can give it to the translator. That is a simple enough thing to do."
I'm sure that just a couple of years ago even, not to mention a thousand years ago, a teacher who was going to lecture wouldn't have thought of all these things. These are extras that are just coming from every which way and floating in the air. Well, it just so happened that my floppy disk didn't match with the office computer, so my plan failed. "Never mind,"I thought, "I can go back and read my file on the screen of my own computer and then just copy it down on paper." And so I took the floppy back and put it in my computer, and the file came on the screen, but— it was in Greek! I could understand it, since I can read the Greek alphabet, but it was English words written in the Greek alphabet. Can you imagine the confusion we have to go through just to do a very simple talk? That's the world we live in.
A good teacher who is aware of the Dharma-ending Age and of all of these pieces floating all over has to find a way of adapting to the new age, so that he or she can impart to their students the bigger picture along with the specific knowledge of their subject.
But what is it exactly that the student gets from all of this? Here, in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, we can call it morality. Not only here, but in this modern world people are trying to stress moral education and morality. And we have no problem defining morality—that is not the issue. Morality, as I have said, is a code that we have to follow. "Moral" comes from a Latin word that means something that is custom. So, a moral code is a code of good customs, of things that have been proven to be good and that people have agreed to follow—something that helps them stay on the Path. It is a code of honor. But we all know that there is something that goes beyond the moral code, and that is what I would like to talk about.
To be continued
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