Mentor and Diciple Relationship
A few weeks ago, I had a ceremonial meeting for a Buddhist organization to which I belong.
There was a discussion and the topic was Mentor and Diciple Relationship.
Because of the nature of the topic, the discussion went a little bit emotional.
Everybody has experienced unreasonable treatment from somebody above them in their social hierarchies, such as boss, supervisor, professor, lecturer, executives and so on.
The notion of hierarchy and domination have already rooted into our society.
As Marshall Rosenberg stated in his book "Speak Peace", in domination structure, relationships between people become to which between dominate and being dominated, punish and being punished. People get rewarded only as they obey rulers. He also said the history of dominant hierarchy has begun since approximately 8000 years ago.
On the other hand, mentor and diciple relationship is a different type of relationship.
Although it depends on personal interpretation, I believe anyone can be mentor of anyone else, and anybody can be diciple of anybody else.
For example, Phil Jackson might be one of the best mentor as a basketball coach. Kobe Bryant might be one of the best mentor as a player. Lady Gaga might be one of the best mentor to be famous. Steve Jobs might be one of the best mentor to be successful in business.
Well, but not only those famous guys, but also we can be somebody else's mentor as well as diciple, and learn each other. Just after I arrived in New Zealand from Japan, my partner I hope taught me a lot of local stories and information. She is my mentor in terms of the history of New Zealand.
To make the relationship happen and function, we need to respect and try to find others' strengths and wonderful nature instead of weak points. Everybody has both weaknesses and strengths, and they are quite situational. Cooks can not be themselves where there is no utensils, programmers can not function without computers, basketball players can not function without the court.
There was a discussion and the topic was Mentor and Diciple Relationship.
Because of the nature of the topic, the discussion went a little bit emotional.
Everybody has experienced unreasonable treatment from somebody above them in their social hierarchies, such as boss, supervisor, professor, lecturer, executives and so on.
The notion of hierarchy and domination have already rooted into our society.
As Marshall Rosenberg stated in his book "Speak Peace", in domination structure, relationships between people become to which between dominate and being dominated, punish and being punished. People get rewarded only as they obey rulers. He also said the history of dominant hierarchy has begun since approximately 8000 years ago.
On the other hand, mentor and diciple relationship is a different type of relationship.
Although it depends on personal interpretation, I believe anyone can be mentor of anyone else, and anybody can be diciple of anybody else.
For example, Phil Jackson might be one of the best mentor as a basketball coach. Kobe Bryant might be one of the best mentor as a player. Lady Gaga might be one of the best mentor to be famous. Steve Jobs might be one of the best mentor to be successful in business.
Well, but not only those famous guys, but also we can be somebody else's mentor as well as diciple, and learn each other. Just after I arrived in New Zealand from Japan, my partner I hope taught me a lot of local stories and information. She is my mentor in terms of the history of New Zealand.
To make the relationship happen and function, we need to respect and try to find others' strengths and wonderful nature instead of weak points. Everybody has both weaknesses and strengths, and they are quite situational. Cooks can not be themselves where there is no utensils, programmers can not function without computers, basketball players can not function without the court.
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