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Quotations on:
Spiritual Master, Teacher, Guru, Lama
Even if you can recite the whole Tripitaka by heart, even if you
know the entire Dharma, if you don’t have the guru’s advice, there
will be a gap between you and the Dharma when you practice.
Atisha, from Collection of Advice from Here and There
In criticizing, the teacher is hoping to teach. That's all.
Bankei
The Buddhist teachings differentiate between flash insights (nyam, nyams),
and stable realizations (togpa, rtogs-pa). A flash insight does not make a significant
change in one's life, but may lead in that direction. A stable realization,
on the other hand, whether it be partial or complete, actually produces a noticeable
improvement that lasts. The distinction we are drawing here between Dharma instructors
and spiritual mentors derives from this difference. Dharma instructors may have
either insight or realization, whereas spiritual mentors need to have some level
of stable realization.
Alexander Berzin, from Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy Relationship
If, though, by the conjunction of conditions, someone understands
what the Buddha meant, that person doesn't need a teacher. Such a
person
has a natural awareness superior to anything taught. But
unless you're so
blessed, study hard, and by means of instruction
you'll understand.
Bodhidharma
The Buddha |
If you were to follow the Dharma purely out
of love for me or because you respect me, I would not accept you
as disciple.
But if you follow the Dharma because you have yourself
experienced its truth, because you understand and act accordingly
- only under these conditions have you the right to call yourself
a disciple of the Exalted One.
From: Old
Path, White Clouds by Thich Nath Hanh |
Ajahn Chah |
Actually in my own practice I didn't have a teacher to give as much teachings
as all of you get from me. I didn't have many teachers. I ordained in an ordinary
village temple and lived in village temples for quite a few years. In my mind
I conceived the desire to practice, I wanted to be proficient, I wanted to train.
There wasn't anybody giving any teaching in those monasteries but the inspiration
to practice arose. I traveled and I looked around. I had ears so I listened,
I had eyes so I looked. Whatever I heard people say, I'd tell myself, 'Not sure.'
Whatever I saw, I told myself, 'Not sure,' or when the tongue contacted sweet,
sour, salty, pleasant or unpleasant flavors, or feelings of comfort or pain
arose in the body, I'd tell myself, 'This is not a sure thing'! And so I lived
with Dhamma.
Once a visitor asked Ajahn Chah if he was an arahant. He said, I am like
a tree in a forest. Birds come to the tree, they sit on its branches and eat
its fruits. To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. The birds
say sweet or they say sour, but from the trees point of view, this is just the
chattering of birds. |
When the sun of fierce devotion shines on the snow mountain of the master, the stream of his blessing will pour down.
Drikung Kyobpa
From the blossoming lotus of devotion, at the center of my being,
Rise up, O compassionate master, my only refuge!
I am plagued by past actions and turbulent emotions:
To protect me in my misfortune
Remain as the jewel-ornament on the crown of my head, the mandala of great bliss,
Arousing all my mindfulness and awareness, l pray!
Jikme Lingpa
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche |
Devotion is the essence of the path, and if we have in mind nothing but
the guru and feel nothing but fervent devotion, whatever occurs is
perceived as his blessing. If we simply practice with this constantly
present devotion, this is prayer itself.
When all thoughts are imbued with devotion to the guru, there is a
natural confidence that this will take care of whatever may happen. All
forms are the guru, all sounds are prayer, and all gross and subtle
thoughts arise as devotion. Everything is spontaneously liberated in the
absolute nature, like knots untied in the sky.
There is only one way of attaining liberation and of obtaining the omniscience of enlightenment: following an authentic spiritual master. He is the guide that will help you to cross the ocean of samsara.
The sun and the moon are reflected in clear, still water instantly. Similarly, the blessings of all the buddhas are always present for those who have complete confidence in them. The sun’s rays fall everywhere uniformly, but only where they are focused through a magnifying glass can they set dry grass on fire. When the all-pervading rays of the Buddha’s compassion are focused through the magnifying glass of your faith and devotion, the flame of blessings blazes up in your being.
I have made the point in the past that it is not necessary to consider someone
one's guru from the very outset simply because one has heard the explanation
of the Buddha's teachings from that person. At first, it is much better if one
does not have that kind of attitude toward them, simply regarding them as a
Dharma-friend. One gets teachings, and time goes by. Then, when one feels that
one knows that person quite well, and can take them as one's guru without any
danger of transgressing the commitments that accompany such a relationship,
when one has that kind of confidence, then one can go ahead and take him or
her as one's guru. The Lord Buddha himself made it quite clear in both the Vinaya
sutras and in the Mahayana scriptures, and even in the Tantrayana, in a very
detailed fashion, what the qualities of a teacher should be. This is why I often
criticize the Tibetan attitude of seeing whatever the guru does as good, of
respecting everything that the guru does right from the start without the initial
period of examination. Of course, if the guru is really qualified, then to have
such an attitude is very worthwhile.
Take the cases of Naropa and Marpa, for example. Sometimes it appears as though
some of the things Tilopa asked of Naropa, or Naropa of Marpa, were unreasonable.
Deep down, however, these requests had great meaning. Because of their great
faith in their gurus, Naropa and Marpa did as instructed. Despite the fact that
they appeared to be unreasonable, because the teachers were qualified, their
actions had some meaning. In such situations, it is necessary that from the
disciple's side all of the actions of the teacher be respected. But this cannot
be compared to the case of ordinary people. Broadly speaking, I feel that the
Buddha gave us complete freedom of choice to thoroughly examine the person who
is to be our guru. This is very important. Unless one is definite, one should
not take them as a guru. This preliminary examination is a kind of precautionary
measure.
Answers:
Discussions with Western Buddhists
The master is like a great ship for beings to cross the perilous ocean of existence, an unerring captain who guides them to the dry land of liberation, a rain that extinguishes the fire of the passions, a bright sun and moon that dispel the darkness of ignorance, a firm ground that can bear the weight of both good and bad, a wish-fulfilling tree that bestows temporal happiness and ultimate bliss, a treasury of vast and deep instructions, a wish-fulfilling jewel granting all the qualities of realization, a father and a mother giving their love equally to all sentient beings, a great river of compassion, a mountain rising above worldly concerns unshaken by the winds of emotions, and a great cloud filled with rain to soothe the torments of the passions.
In brief, he is the equal of all the buddhas. To make any connection with him, whether through seeing him, hearing his voice, remembering him, or being touched by his hand, will lead us toward liberation. To have full confidence in him is the sure way to progress toward enlightenment. The warmth of his wisdom and compassion will melt the core of our being and release the gold of the buddha-nature within.
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His Holiness the Dalai Lama |
...what happens when the guru gives us advice that we do not wish to follow or that contradicts Dharma and reason? The yardstick must always be logical reasoning and Dharma reason. Any advice that contradicts these is to be rejected. This was said by Buddha himself. If one doubts the validity of what is being said, one should gently push the point and clear all doubts. This task becomes somewhat more sensitive in Highest Tantra, where total surrender to the guru is a prerequisite; but even here this surrender must be made only in a particular sense. If the guru points to the east and tells you to go west, there is little alternative for the student but to make a complaint. This should be done with respect and humility, however, for to show any negativity towards a teacher is not a noble way of repaying his or her kindness.
The Path to Enlightenment
It is frequently said that the essence of the training in guru yoga is to cultivate the art of seeing everything the guru does as perfect. Personally I myself do not like this to be taken too far. Often we see written in the scriptures, "Every action seen as perfect." However, this phrase must be seen in the light of Buddha Shaky-muni's own words: "Accept my teachings only after examining them as an analyst buys gold. Accept nothing out of mere faith in me." The problem with the practice of seeing everything the guru does as perfect is that it very easily turns to poison for both the guru and the disciple. Therefore, whenever I teach this practice, I always advocate that the tradition of "every action seen as perfect" not be stressed. Should the guru manifest unDharmic qualities or give teachings contradicting Dharma, the instruction on seeing the spiritual master as perfect must give way to reason and Dharma wisdom.
The Path to Enlightenment
The disciple must always keep reason and knowledge of Dharma as principal guidelines. Without this approach it is difficult to digest one's Dharma experiences. Make a thorough examination before accepting someone as a guru, and even then follow that teacher within the conventions of reason as presented by Buddha. The teachings on seeing the guru's actions as perfect should largely be left for the practice of Highest Tantra, wherein they take on a new meaning. One of the principal yogas in the tantric vehicle is to see the world as a mandala of great bliss and to see oneself and all others as Buddhas. Under these circumstances it becomes absurd to think that you and everyone else are Buddhas, but your guru is not!
The Path to Enlightenment
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The extraordinary qualities of great beings who hide their nature escapes ordinary people like us, despite our best efforts in examining them. On the other hand, even ordinary charlatans are expert at deceiving others by behaving like saints.
Patrul Rinpoche
Even to learn worldly crafts, things we can understand by seeing
them with our eyes, we need a teacher to show us. So how is it
possible that we, who have just come from the lower realms and
are entering a path where we have never been before, could travel
it without a guide?
Geshe Potowa
When I consider my own teachers, one thing I particularly value is their capacity
to be authentically themselves. They each have their unique personality and
quality that is a genuine expression of their individuality. There is no contradiction
between our Western need to be individuals and the Buddhist path. Buddhism does
not demand that we become clones of some ideal. Rather, it asks us to respond
to who we are and awaken our full potential, expressing it within our particular
individual capacity. My Tibetan teachers have supremely individualistic personalities,
something I love and value deeply. They respond to me as an individual with
my own personality, which they would never ask me to relinquish. The fact that
they were each on their own unique journey within the Buddhist path was, for
me, a sublime example of the bodhisattva as an individuated person who has truly
responded to the inner call to awaken.
Rob Preece, The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist
Life
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One method of meditation that many people find useful is to rest the mind lightly on an object. You can use an object of natural beauty that invokes a special feeling of inspiration for you, such as a flower or a crystal. But something that embodies the truth, such as an image of Buddha, or Christ, or particularly your master, is even more powerful.
Your master is your living link with the truth, and because of your personal connection to your master, just seeing his or her face connects you to the inspiration and truth of your own nature.
It may be surprising for the West to learn how very many incarnations there have been in Tibet, and how the majority have been great masters, scholars, authors, mystics, and saints who made an outstanding contribution both to the teaching of Buddhism and to society. They played a central role in the history of Tibet.
I believe that this process of incarnation is not limited to Tibet but can occur in all countries and at all times. Throughout history there have been people of artistic genius, spiritual strength, and humanitarian vision who have helped the human race to go forward. I think of Gandhi, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, of Shakespeare, of Saint Francis, of Beethoven and Michelangelo.
When Tibetans hear of such people, they immediately say they are bodhisattvas. And whenever I hear of them, of their work and vision, I am moved by the majesty of the vast evolutionary process of the buddhas and masters that emanate to liberate beings and better the world.
Sit quietly. From the depths of your heart, invoke in the sky in front of you the embodiment of the truth in the person of your master, a saint, or an enlightened being.
Try to visualize the master or buddha as alive and as radiant and translucent as a rainbow.
If you have difficulty visualizing the master, imagine the embodiment of truth simply as light, or try to feel his or her perfect presence there in the sky before you. Let all the inspiration, joy, and awe you then feel take the place of visualization. My master Dudjom Rinpoche used to say that it does not matter if you cannot visualize; what is more important is to feel the presence in your heart, and to know that this presence embodies the blessings, compassion, energy, and wisdom of all the buddhas.
With deep devotion, merge your mind with the master’s, then rest your mind in his or her wisdom mind.
When we have prayed and aspired and hungered for the truth for a long time, for many, many lives, and when our karma has become sufficiently purified, a kind of miracle takes place. And this miracle, if we can understand and use it, can lead to the ending of ignorance forever: The inner teacher, who has been with us always, manifests in the form of the “outer teacher,” who, almost as if by magic, we actually encounter. This is the most important encounter of any lifetime.
Feeling the living presence of Buddha, of Padmasambhava, of your master, and simply opening your heart and mind to the embodiment of truth, really does bless and transform your mind. As you invoke Buddha, your own buddha nature is inspired to awaken and blossom, as naturally as a flower in sunlight.
When you have explored the great mystical traditions, choose one master and follow him or her. It’s one thing to set out on the spiritual journey; it’s quite another to find the patience and endurance, the wisdom, courage, and humility to follow it to the end. You may have the karma to find a teacher, but you must then create the karma to follow your teacher. For very few of us know how truly to follow a master, which is an art in itself. So however great the teaching or master may be, what is essential is that you find in yourself the insight and skill to learn how to love and follow the master and the teaching.
When we have prayed and aspired and hungered
for the truth for a long time, for many, many lives, and when
our karma has become sufficiently purified, a kind of miracle
takes place. And this miracle, if we can understand and use it,
can lead to the end of ignorance forever: The inner teacher, who
has been with us always, manifests in the form of the "outer
teacher," whom, almost as if by magic, we actually encounter..
Patrul Rinpoche’s teacher was called Jikmé Gyalwe Nyugu. For many years, he
had been doing a solitary retreat in a cave in the mountains. One day when he
came outside, the sun was pouring down; he gazed out into the sky and saw a
cloud moving in the direction of where his master, Jikmé Lingpa, lived. The
thought rose in his mind: “Over there is where my master is,” and with that
thought a tremendous feeling of longing and devotion surged up in him. It was
so strong, so shattering, that he fainted.
When Jikmé Gyalwe Nyugu came to, the entire blessing of his master’s wisdom
mind had been transmitted to him, and he had reached the highest stage of realization,
what we call “the exhaustion of phenomenal reality.”
Gampopa, Milarepa’s greatest disciple, asked him at the moment of their parting:
“When will be the time for me to start guiding students?” Milarepa replied:
“When you are not like you are now, when your whole perception has been transformed,
and you are able to see, really see, this old man before you as nothing less
than the Buddha himself. When devotion has brought you to that moment of recognition,
that moment will be the sign that the time for you to teach has come.
It is my devotion to my masters that gives me the strength
to teach, and the openness and receptivity to learn, and go on learning. Dilgo
Khyentse Rinpoche himself never stopped humbly receiving teachings from other
masters, and often from those who were his own disciples. The devotion that
gives the inspiration to teach, then, is also the devotion that gives the humility
to go on learning.
There is no swifter, more moving, or more powerful practice for invoking the
help of the enlightened beings, for arousing devotion and realizing the nature
of mind, than the practice of Guru Yoga. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
wrote: “The words Guru Yoga mean ‘union with the nature of the guru,’” and in
this practice we are given methods by which we can blend our own minds with
the enlightened mind of the master.
The master—the guru—embodies the crystallization of the blessings of all buddhas,
masters, and enlightened beings. So to invoke him or her is to invoke them all;
and to merge your mind and heart with your master’s wisdom mind is to merge
your mind with the truth and very embodiment of enlightenment.
In my tradition we revere the masters for being even kinder
than the buddhas themselves. Although the compassion and power of the buddhas
are always present, our obscurations prevent us from meeting the buddhas face
to face. But we can meet the masters; they are here, living, breathing, speaking,
and acting before us to show us, in all the ways possible, the path of the buddhas:
the way to liberation.
For me, my masters have been the embodiment of living truth, undeniable signs
that enlightenment is possible in a body, in this life, in this world, even
here and even now, the supreme inspirations in my practice, in my work, in my
life, and in my journey toward liberation. My masters are for me the embodiments
of my sacred commitment to keep enlightenment foremost in my mind until I actually
achieve it. I know enough to know that only when I reach enlightenment will
I have a complete understanding of who they really are and of their infinite
generosity, love, and wisdom.
Who is the outer teacher? None other than the embodiment and voice and representative of our inner teacher. The master whose human shape and human voice and wisdom we come to love with a love deeper than any other in our lives is none other than the external manifestation of the mystery of our own inner truth. What else could explain why we feel so strongly connected to him or her?
If, at the moment of death, you can unite your mind confidently with the wisdom mind of the master and die in that peace, then all, I promise and assure you, will be well.
Our task in life is to practice this merging with the wisdom mind of the master again and again, so that it becomes so natural that every activity—sitting, walking, eating, drinking, sleeping, dreaming and waking—starts to be increasingly permeated by the master’s living presence. Slowly, over years of focused devotion, you begin to know and realize all appearances to be the display of the wisdom of the master. All the situations of life, even those that once seemed tragic, meaningless, or terrifying, reveal themselves more and more transparently to be the direct teaching and blessing of the master, and the inner teacher.
Feeling the living presence of Buddha, of Padmasambhava, of your master, and simply opening your heart and mind to the embodiment of truth, really does bless and transform your mind. As you invoke Buddha, your own buddha nature is inspired to awaken and blossom, as naturally as a flower in sunlight. |
...by respecting and serving your teachers you exhaust karma whose effects
you would otherwise experience in the miserable realms. Your action of serving
the teacher expends these miserable effects and replaces them with only slight
harm to your body and mind in this lifetime, either in actuality or in dreams.
In addition, the benefits of respecting and serving your teachers are tremendous,
such as a collection of virtue which surpasses even the roots of virtue that
you derive from making offerings to limitless buddhas, and so forth. As the
Sutra of Ksitigarbha says:
"Those whom the teachers care for will purify the karma that would otherwise
cause them to wander through the miserable realms for ten million limitless
eons. They purify this karma with harm to their bodies and minds in this lifetime.
This harm includes sickness such as an infectious disease with fever and calamities
such as famine. They may purify their karma by merely undergoing something as
little as a dream or a scolding. They produce more roots of virtue in one morning
than those who give gifts to, worship, or observe precepts from limitless tens
of millions of buddhas. Those who respect and serve their gurus are endowed
with unimaginable good qualities."
Tsong-kha-pa, from 'The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: Lam
Rim Chen Mo'
Don't worry. When the time is right, you'll
meet your teacher. Buddhism doesn't believe that you can push
other people: ' everybody should learn to meditate; everybody
should become Buddhists.' That's stupid. Pushing people is unwise.
When you're ready, some kind of magnetic energy will bring you
together with your teacher. About going to the East, it depends
on your personal situation. Check up. The important thing is to
search with wisdom and not blind faith. Sometimes, even if you
go to the East, you still can't find a teacher. It takes time."
Lama Yeshe
Even if we can recite by heart all the sutras and tantras or have studied them
at university and can explain them all intellectually, it doesn’t mean much in
terms of realization because generating within our mind the paths revealed
by the teachings has to depend on receiving the blessings of the guru. Receiving
the nectar of the guru’s blessings depends on our having the devotion
that sees the guru as a buddha. Without the blessings of the guru, there is
no way we can have realizations, no way we can actualize the three principal paths and the two stages of tantra. ... We need a guru for a special
reason, to receive the blessings that enable us to develop our mind in the
path to enlightenment. ....
The ultimate request is, recalling the qualities of the guru,
praying for our own body, speech and mind to become one with the guru’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind. The main way to receive blessings is
to request to receive all the qualities that the guru has.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from The Heart of the Path
Last
updated:
August 23, 2010
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