There is, absolutely, the danger of getting conceited in the meditation practice. Thinking of, "How good I am,"; thinking of: "how many years I've practiced,"; thinking about: "how concentrated I can get,"; thinking about: "how I can walk back and forth and never stop", all these sorts of things. We've met a lot of people just like that. A lot of them. Conceited? Yes indeed, very conceited.
When these people come and register for the retreat, we can see quite clearly who they are, and quite frankly, we don't want to teach them. We won't turn them away, but don't really want to teach them. Why? Because we know this person isn't going to get it, because they're too big on themselves. They have too many "statistics", and they're holding on to their statistics such as, "This is me" and "I am good".
Why is it that the person, many, many years ago, when I was taking them to the dormitory, turned to me and said, "Where do the Western monks live?"? They had done lots of practice with Western monks. They were an experienced meditator. They were talking to somebody who they thought was just doing the registration, just a little helper around the place. Why was it they were so surprised to find out it was me and Rosemary who teach the retreats? Because they had fixed images, they had "statistics", they thought they knew that anyone teaching had to be a monk or a nun, and in particular, hopefully a Western monk. Their statistics blocked them, so all they could say was, "This will be interesting".
When people come and they are conceited about their statistics in particular, it's very, very hard for us to teach them.
How can we prevent conceit coming up in this way? It's all based on the compassion practice. Conceit is Dukkha. You have to see it as Dukkha, you have to note it as Dukkha. You have to say, "I don't want that".
Watch out for conceit, because conceit will take you the wrong way. One teacher coined the phrase "spiritual suicide". We've seen this with meditation teachers who became conceited, who started thinking they could basically do anything. How many have dropped away, disappeared, had sex with half their women students, because they're so conceited that they think they are something great? It's amazing how many we know by name. One that I did know personally, who tried to "hit" on a woman student on the end of the retreat. Bad news! This guy was so conceited that I didn't want to listen to his talks because I could see how conceited he was. So it was no surprise for me to find out later, that when he started doing other things that were unskillful, he got kicked out of places not wanting him to teach any more.
We have to reflect on the Dukkha of conceit. As long as we reflect on the Dukkha of it, and we believe it, then we're not going to allow conceit to come in. Again, moral shame comes in, "Uh-uh, don't want that again. Moral dread get on with it, guard me against conceit. I don't want that again". Humility, being humble. Obviously an opposite to conceit.
So we have to reflect on the dangers of conceit, and if we can see it clear enough, we are just not going to want it. We won't get into it.
One little thing extra that always helps me and Rosemary in this way, as to being teachers, is, that as much as we have interpreted the Buddha's teaching (and we've brought our own stories, our own understanding to it), as much as we have done that part, we wouldn't have done any of this without the Buddha, without the teachers that we've had. So the credit people give us for, it's not just "me, mine", it's passed on. If someone else didn't give it to me, I would not be doing it. It's just purely conditional, here. So it's not "my" teaching.
So to guard against conceit is very helpful.