On the Qualities of a Teacher and a Student: An Eastern perspective based on Buddhism,Vedanta and Sufism

This essay looks at the requirements and qualities of a student and a teacher as seen from Eastern traditions such as Vedanta, Zen Buddhism and Sufism. The objective is to show or to propose that the same qualities are also needed in our present-day education system, no matter what the subject of study is. Though the emphasis is on these three particular systems, it is understood that one can find the same or similar qualities in other spiritual traditions. At the end of the essay, a heat transfer model is developed whereby the different aspects of an "ideal" teacher, sometimes also referred to as the real teacher, or the true teacher, can be obtained from such a model.     

A system theory approach to interfaith dialogue

Dialogue is an encounter between two or more human beings. We will consider how some scientists, philosophers and religious scholars have looked at dialogue and attempt to learn from each tradition while seeing this encounter under the umbrella of ‘Systems theory’, related to thermodynamics and flavored with Buddhist philosophy. The process of dialogue consists of three stages or phases: (1) pre‐dialogue; (2) dialogue; (3) post‐dialogue. Suggestions and techniques are offered for each phase and as to how to synthesize the three stages into a ‘whole’ dialogue.