The Practice of Being Scolded: a Talk with Chris Jay

A special event with Siddhartha’s Intent instructor Chris Jay on the practice of scolding. During his talk, Chris explored how Buddhist teachers have long used blunt, unsparing language as a deliberate tool—not to diagnose a defect in the student, but to clear away what obscures who they already are.

Drawing on Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo’s Words of a Young Sage and a self-admonition prayer from the Longchen Nyingtik Ngöndro, Chris discussed separates a sharp word that energizes practice from one that produces only guilt—and of course, share stories of scoldings received, witnessed, and perhaps given.