In Buddhism we have the concept of a kalayāṇa mitra. Mitra means a “friend”, kalayāṇa mitra is a “skillful friend”. Anybody who helps you to walk the Dharma path, to deepen your practice, to increase your faith, the person who brings you to the Buddha, helps you to take refuge, this is a kalayāṇa mitra; and the Buddha says in a sutra, that if we have such a person, we’re immensely privileged and this is something to be immensely grateful for. We should give reverence to such a person.
In the Amida Sangha we have a system of mentoring. Members of the Sangha each have a mentor who acts as a kalayāṇa mitra for them, who supports them and takes care to see that their participation in the Sangha is made easier, is facilitated.
The idea of mentoring, of a mentor: The term mentor actually comes from ancient Greece. In the Odyssey, the great classic by the poet Homer, Odysseus is the king of one of the small kingdoms in Greece; and when the Trojan war comes along, Odysseus has to go and fight. So, he has to go away to fight in the war in Troy and this goes on for many years. Odysseus is rather reluctant to go away and leave his family and his homeland and his kingdom to fight in this war, but he has sworn an oath in the past that he will support such an effort; and so, he has to go.
Odysseus has an old friend who is called Mentor, and he says to Mentor: “While I’m away, please look after my son. Please make sure that he does not come to any great harm. Please guide him as he grows up because I may be away for some years and this is an important time of his life.” And so, Mentor takes on that responsibility, so Mentor is looking after the son on behalf of Odysseus, while Odysseus is away fighting in the war.
There are further twists to the story because the situation back home in his country becomes difficult because while Odysseus is away other men pay court to his wife who is now all alone, Penelope; Penelope is in a vulnerable situation and so the dynamics of the situation become difficult; and the son, Telemachus, is put in a difficult position; and, according to the story, the goddess Athena wants to come and protect him, wants to come and advise him, but she doesn’t want to be seen by all theses other people who are besieging Penelope. So, she appears in the form of Mentor, so that she can talk to Telemachus and advise him.
So, we have this idea from Greek mythology of the patron goddess of the mentor being Athena, the goddess of wisdom. This is quite close to the Buddhist idea, too. The mentor, kalayāṇa mitra, is a person who is a skilful friend, a wise friend, a friend who is, in a sense, the goddess of wisdom in disguise, who helps a person along the spiritual path and who gives them strength, who gives them courage to face the difficulties in their life, the obstacles that they must overcome.
This is the idea of a kalayāṇa mitra; and I’m very enthusiastic to make this system that we have of mentoring within the Sangha as warm and effective as it can be because it’s upon this that the strength of the Sangha in the future will depend. Just as the future of Telemachus depended upon Mentor and the goddess Athena.
Namo Amida Bu
Thank you very much
Dharmavidya
David
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