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  1. Because with you students, it is impossible otherwise. This is a universal reality – not only from Buddhist parables. An ancient school in any country and at any time, up to our time, is mainly run by people of the older generation. And until very recently, the development of medicine did not allow them to walk without a stick. The staff, as well as the beard, was metonymically transferred from the concept of ” old man “to the concepts of” teacher”,” wanderer”, and bearded people with staffs were ancient philosophers, Buddhist monks, European monks, and New Age gurus. You can also use a stick to point at things (a pointer) or draw something on the ground or sand. The stick is the first to come to hand when you (a mentor at the academy or an enlightened teacher at the datsan) start driving these eternal carts: “I taught…”, “And you didn't ask us…”, ” Will it be on the exam?” The stick is generally undeservedly forgotten and an excellent pedagogical tool.

    Diogenes of Laertes on Zeno of Citia:”…he became a disciple of Kratet. But for all his commitment to philosophy, he was too modest for cynical shamelessness. So Kratetos, in order to cure him of this defect, once gave him a pot of lentil soup to carry through the Pottery; and when he saw that Zeno was embarrassed and tried to keep it unnoticed, he broke the pot in his hands with his staff; the soup ran down Zeno's legs, and he ran, and Kratetos shouted: Why are you running, little Phoenician? After all, nothing terrible happened to you!

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