[ANNUAL MEETING: DHAMMA THALI JANUARY 3, 1993 Q&A]
The best contribution is to help yourself. Get established in Dhamma, and see that people start appreciating Dhamma by seeing your way of life: Look, before going to Dhamma, this person was one way, and now what a big change has come! A change for the better has come! If they find that there is no change in this person, or he or she has become worse, and started generating ego now, thinking, I am a grand Vipassana meditator; I am a very purified person! then they will run away from Dhamma. In trying to spread Dhamma, no purpose will be served.
Each individual is a representative of Dhamma, so each individual has to be very careful. If one is a Vipassana meditator, or somebody in the Vipassana organization with more responsibility, then one is in the limelight now. People will look at you, at your behaviour, your way of life, your way of dealing with things. And if they find defects in you, this will make people run away from Dhamma. To encourage people, the best thing is to become an ideal person yourself. People will get encouragement from this.
Giving information to people that there is something like this going on, that there is a technique which can help us to come out of our misery this information is very important. In the West you have started to have public talks, showing video tapes a few people gather, and there are people to answer questions. In this way also, people should hear about Dhamma. A large number of people the vast majority do not even know that there is something like this going on. This information should be offered in a very humble way. This will help.