Toll-Free Dharma
By Michael Erlewine
The kindness of offering free dharma instructions
The world of dharma teaching seems to be turning more and more into a toll road; one we cannot travel without paying as we go. Everything costs money these days, and the emphasis on money overpowers the original intent, which was to offer the dharma instructions and to raise what money we could to support that work.
Pay-to-play is the theme of our modern world, and coves or eddies of anything free are hard to find in this river of monetary exchange.
Let me say exactly what bothers me, because it is not money itself. Teachers, centers, and the people who keep them going all need support, and I have gone out of my way to sponsor and provide funds for what I believe makes spiritual learning possible. What rubs me the wrong way is the toll booth: money demanded up front, as the price of admission, before a student can possibly know whether the instruction is worth anything to them.
It is true that Americans are not used to donating money for spiritual knowledge, other than dropping something in the basket passed around at Sunday services. What worked on me was spiritual instruction so valuable that I could not help but want to support it. I have given and given with no regret, but my giving was always voluntary. When voluntary donations are replaced by a toll booth on the way to spiritual knowledge, my hackles come up.
I know the usual response: spiritual knowledge itself is free, and we are only paying to have it made available to us. I know, too, that many centers, in my own tradition and in others, charge fees to cover their costs, and I understand why.
Someone has to pay for the rooms, the food, and the teachers’ livelihood, and I have often been that someone. But look at who carries the risk. With a toll, the student carries it, paying first and hoping the instruction turns out to be worth it. With a gift offered after the benefit, the giver carries it, and the teaching has to earn its support.
It can be done. The Vipassana courses taught by S.N. Goenka’s students charge nothing, not even for food and lodging. The teachers and organizers are volunteers. At the end of a course, students who have benefited may give what they wish, and those gifts pay for the next student’s course. The courses are run this way at centers around the world.
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“The gift of the dharma excels all gifts,” says the Dhammapada. A gift not with a fee.
What I would rather see is the older way: teachers offering instruction freely, and students giving, as they are moved to give, once they have received something of value. Let the gift come after the benefit, not before it.
That is not a toll. It is thanks.
I have seen various dharma organizations dancing around this problem and coming up with this or that solution, most of which I reject. Providing value and ask for a donation is the only way I will pay. Trust in what you offer that will encourage donations.
I don’t need more dharma teaching, but newcomers to dharma do. I hate to see authentic dharma become a toll road.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net Note: If you would like to have access to other free books, articles, and videos on these topics, here is the link: SpiritGrooves.net.
As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
