Bodhidharma was once asked: “Who can be called a smart student and who can be called a stupid student?”
Bodhidharma replied: “The intelligent student is not attached to the words of the teacher, he uses his own experience to find the Truth. The foolish student expects that understanding will gradually come to him through the words of the teacher. The teacher has two types of students. Some listen to the words of the teacher, without clinging to the material or immaterial, without clinging to form and non-form, without thinking about the living and the inanimate, these are the intelligent students. Others who crave understanding, accumulating knowledge and mixing good and evil are foolish disciples.
The intelligent student understands instantly: he does not use the lower mind when he listens to the teaching, but he does not follow the mind of the wise, he transcends both wisdom and ignorance.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru