Stirling Campbell:
Carse actually argues that being a teacher should not be a vocation with the dharma - that we should all "chop wood, carry water" and when a student comes to ask you a question, you take a pause, answer, and get back to work. No payment accepted.
Teaching is what I am driven to do, and would love to do full time, but I can't help feeling like he is right.
Both options are available, you know. Carse chose according to what he sees best. I have no idea what he teaches. What teachers teach, what their methods and techniques are and how they do it, varies a lot. There is not one right way to go about it. If you get your job done by answering a question among chopping fire wood, great. Like I said I have no idea what Carse teachers or who he is. However, I'm sure any professional teacher with several years of teaching experience, being committed to their students, knows that you don't become a great teacher overnight, you have to learn the skill of it and that it is a job with many facets and tones to it.
In my case I didn't see it reasonable or possible option to do two kinds of works full time at the same time. Some here might have trouble me talking about "teachers and students" but being a teacher, to more than one or two students, requires commitment, time and energy, and it is a relationship where know-how and experiences are passed on from a more experienced person to a less experienced person, like it or not. I get asked a lot of questions, everyday. All kinds of questions. It's not like you get asked one question a day or a week if you have more than a handful of students. It's hard work and sometimes you can't help thinking if the grass was greener on the other side of the fence (different job), just liek anyone thinks of their own jobs.
Personally I feel that I can best contribute to the common good by doing what I do. I think about it every now and then. To me everything what is concerned with my job is chopping wood and carrying water. It's a tough job that allows no idealism when you really do it straighforwardly and honestly.