"Rely on the teachings to evaluate a guru:
Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism."
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
WHAT IS A SPIRITUAL TEACHER?
The role of a spiritual teacher or guru is often misunderstood in the West.
For one thing, we lost the ancient system of studying under one teacher for
many years to learn a craft like carpentry or masonry, and we are not used to
this system anymore.
There is a lot of confusion about spiritual teachers; some people may believe
that a guru will take over the entire responsibility of a disciple's life,
leaving the pupil more like an obedient, mindless puppy.
"It seems that most students actually want to remain little children
and idolize their holy daddy, and holy mommy."
Scott Mandelker
But nobody can take over our own responsibility for the way we live our life
(see the page on karma). Even if we leave some decisions over to someone else,
we are still responsible for our actions - including shifting the decisions to
someone else.
As Sogyal Rinpoche warns in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying:
"The West has become a heaven for spiritual charlatans. ...
without the guidelines and criteria of a thriving and full-fledged
wisdom culture,
the authenticity of so-called "Masters" is almost impossible to
establish."
We need to be realistic about spiritual teachers: if we want to learn
something, a teacher is needed, or is at least very useful. How far would we
have come with learning to read and write without a teacher?
"If you are only studying Dharma for the sake of study, sake of
development of your understanding of Dharma, if you are only studying Dharma
intellectually, just intellectually on intellectual level, then I don't think
you need a guru-disciple relationship. And also you can study with all kinds of
teachers. It's like going to university. You study with different teachers or
professors, and you go on, you move on. But if you wish to commit yourself to
the path, then it is necessary, because one needs to know how to accomplish the
realization, how to practice the Dharma."
Zasep Tulku Rinpoche
In Buddhism it is essential to realise that the teacher is ultimately
important because he/she can lead us to our own inner wisdom - our own 'inner
guru'. We need to develop our own wisdom and insight to become a teacher and in
the end, even a Buddha ourselves. In that sense, a guru is like our spiritual
mother; in the beginning of the path, we are pretty helpless and need much help
and guidance; but in the end, we should be able to stand on our own feet and be
self-sufficient.
"A guru is a person who can really show you the true nature of your
mind and who knows the perfect remedies for your psychological problems.
Someone who doesn't know his own mind can never know others' minds and
therefore cannot be a guru."
Lama Thubten Yeshe
"A good spiritual friend who will help us to stay on the path, with
whom we can discuss our difficulties frankly, sure of a compassionate response,
provides an important support system which is often lacking. Although people
live and practice together, one-upmanship often comes between them. A really
good friend is like a mountain guide. The spiritual path is like climbing a
mountain: we don't really know what we will find at the summit. We have only
heard that it is beautiful, everybody is happy there, the view is magnificent
and the air unpolluted. If we have a guide who has already climbed the
mountain, he can help us avoid falling into a crevasse, or slipping on loose
stones, or getting off the path. The one common antidote for all our hindrances
is noble friends and noble conversations, which are health food for the mind."
Ayya Khema
"To find a Buddha, all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is
the Buddha. And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of
cares. If you don't see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere
else, you'll never find a Buddha. The truth is, there's nothing to find. But to
reach such an understanding you need a teacher and you need to struggle to make
yourself understand..."
Bodidharma
Before you decide to follow a spiritual teacher, it is extremely important to
check him or her: there are quite a number of cheats around... In the old
Indian tradition, teachers were often checked for 12 years or more before a
student fully entrusted a teacher the spiritual guidance. It is easy to follow
people blindly, especially the ones who are smooth talkers and are good
salespeople. The reason why gurus are getting such bad names is because people
should not have blindly trusted most of them to begin with!
Do take your responsibility serious to check your own feelings; there should
be some personal connection; verify if their behaviour concords with their
words; are they putting more emphasis on worldly matters than their spiritual
path; see what the other disciples say, and of course what other teachers
think.
Question: "How does one choose a teacher of spiritual subjects or know a
teacher to be reliable?"
His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
"This should be done in accordance with your interest and disposition, but
you should analyze well. You must investigate before accepting a lama or
teacher to see whether that person is really qualified or not. It is said in a
scripture that just as fish that are hidden under the water can be seen through
the movement of the ripples from above, so also a teacher's inner qualities
can, over time, be seen a little through that person's behavior.
We need to look into the person's scholarship -- the ability to explain
topics -- and whether the person implements those teachings in his or her
conduct and experience."
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye from The Teacher-Student Relationship:
"...it is difficult to recognize an authentic teacher, because these
qualities are internal. We can not depend upon external factors, but external
factors are what we see. It is very difficult to see the inner qualities of
another person. A businessman might be friendlier to us than our best friend,
while his unseen motivation is merely to make a sale. Likewise, if a "teacher"
acts in a very kind and loving manner towards us it does not necessarily mean
that he is compassionate and selfless, because we cannot see his motivation. We
also cannot determine a teacher's qualifications based upon her fame, or
whether she has thousands of students. So the seeker is left with this paradox.
There is no simple solution, but there are things we can do. First, it is
important that we familiarize ourselves with the characteristics [of a
spiritual teacher] discussed by Kongtrul Rinpoche. Second, we must maintain
awareness of our own motivation during the process of finding a teacher. Am I
seeking a teacher in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all
sentient beings, or am I seeking to fulfill my need to acquire the prestige
associated with a famous teacher, or am I merely attracted to a lama's
beautiful retreat land or the social scene of a hip sangha, and so on.
These motivations need to be acknowledged if we are to recognize an
authentic wisdom teacher, because the teacher you find is related to your
karma, and your karma is intimately connected to your motivation. Fortunately,
there are methods that help us purify our motivation and create the proper
conditions for finding a wisdom teacher, such as bringing our awareness to our
motivations as much as possible, doing daily meditation practice, and praying
to the Triple Gem [Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha] that we will meet and recognize
an authentic wisdom teacher."
In tantric Buddhism, a guru is absolutely essential for the initiation,
practice and guidance along the path. Having a tantric teacher and practising
"guru devotion" was actually a secret practice for a long time, as the
teacher-disciple relationship is very close in order to achieve the best
results. So close in fact, that it can easily lead to misunderstanding in the
outside world. More information on a tantric guru can be found on the tantra
page.
^Top of Page
REASONS FOR FOLLOWING A GURU
We need help on the spiritual path to guide us finding the right way.
Obviously the best person to accompany us as a tour-guide is someone who has
already successfully travelled the path. This person can help to quicken our
progress and avoid obstacles.
Why do we need an experienced guide? I like the following story with a
cynical undertone from Rama Krishna:
"Tapobana the Master, had a disciple who served him with diligence. The
master kept him solely because of this diligence and the services he rendered,
for he found the disciple rather stupid. One day, the rumour spread throughout
the whole region that Tapobana's disciple had walked on water. He had crossed
the river as if he crossed a street. Tapobana called his disciple and
questioned him. 'Is it true what people say? Did you actually walk over the
water?'
'What could be more natural?' answered the disciple, 'It is thanks to you,
blessed one, that I walked over the water. At every step I repeated Your Holy
Name, and that is what upheld me.'
Tapobana then thought by himself: 'If my disciple can walk over water using
my name, what would be impossible for me, his master? If in my name miracles
take place, I must possess powers I did not suspect, and I must be more holy
than I was aware of. After all, I never tried to walk on water.'
Without delay he ran to the river bank. With unshakeable faith in himself,
Tapobana repeated: 'I, I, I .....' And sank..."
The Buddha compared his teachings to medicine, and the teacher to the doctor
who can accurately prescribe the correct medicine for the disciple/patient.
Of course we can have many different teachers, each in some aspect possibly
quite important for us. If fact even the school-teacher who taught us to read
and write is very important - also in our spiritual life. How else could we
read about Buddhism? Every teacher in our life is important, but there may be
one specific spiritual teacher who we may call our 'Root Guru', who inspired us
most, and who's advice we really respect and try to follow.
To have a root Guru is especially important if we wish to practice tantra,
simply because the methods used are so advanced that we need proper guidance.
Not heeding the advice of one's teacher in tantra is important, as wrongly
applied techniques can actually lead to serious consequences for ourselves and
others, see also the page on Preliminaries to Tantra Practice.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR A SPIRITUAL TEACHER OF BASIC PHILOSOPHY
1. Proper ethical behaviour - a guru should not harm others but try to help
2. Single pointed concentration
3. No self-grasping or egoistic thoughts
4. Having love and compassion as main motivations to teach
5. Realised emptiness, at least have a proper intellectual understanding
6. Perseverance in teaching
7. Wealth of scriptural knowledge
8. More learned and realised than student
9. Skilled speaker
10. Given up disappointment in the performance of the students
If possible, try to find a guru who possesses all these qualities, but at
least the first 5. This may be difficult enough...
QUALIFICATIONS FOR A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLE
Just like a teacher requires certain qualifications, so should a proper
disciple fulfil some criteria.
A disciple should consider him/herself as a patient, the teacher as a doctor,
the Dharma as medicine and should take the medicine by practicing. Like His
Holiness the Dalai Lama says: "There is no substitute for hard work"
A proper disciple should avoid the so-called 3 faulty attitudes:
- being like an upside down vessel: refusing to learn and scepticism
- being like a leaking vessel: forgetting everything and showing no
interest
- being like a polluted vessel: being very prejudiced and believing to know
everything better than the teacher
A proper disciple should fulfil the 3 requisites:
- lack of prejudice, being open-minded
- intelligence and a critical mind: not blindly following orders
- aspiration: wanting to practice and experience results (not just
scholarly study)
As Lama Govinda writes in 'A Living Buddhism for the West':
"If a chela (disciple) is accepted by a Guru, he has to approach the
teacher with trustful openness and devotion; these are the two basic conditions
without which spiritual guidance is impossible. It is just here that many
Western chelas make it hard for themselves, because they cannot bring
themselves to bow to their teacher, and become upset when their prejudices and
opinions are criticised. Even when they profess to love the teacher, they
defend their position and defend their standpoint. ... A true guru is not
concerned with imposing conformity of thoughts and feelings. He wants to arouse
personal recognition and experience in the chela - not to teach him, but
inspire him. But he also wants to liberate his chela from the attachments to
opinions, prejudices, and dogmas - and this is often a painful process."
But, as Lowenthal and Short comment in 'Opening the Heart of Compassion':
"While respect for and openness to the teacher are important for our growth
and freedom, blind devotion fixates us on the person of the teacher. We then
become confined by the limitation of the teacher's personality rather than
liberated by the teachings."
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