2007 Winter (Chenrezig) Retreat: Week Five

Venerable Thubten Chodron

January 25, 2007
Sravasti Abbey

Motivation
How we think of experiences determines how we think of them. And maybe I should say
how we think of events, or situations, determines how we experience them. The idea
behind thought training is to change how we interpret things and thus we will experience
them in different ways.

For example, instead of describing a situation to ourselves as so-and-so did this to me, in
which case we get angry; we describe it as “Karma ripened. How fortunate I am.” The
base, the situation that we are describing is the same. But depending upon how we look
at it, we will experience it differently.

We have to see here that when we practice thought training and see things in a different
way, we are not painting a nice way to look at things onto a situation that actually is
really rotten. Don’t think like that when you are doing thought training. Don’t think that
actually this person is really such an idiot but I’m going to think that they are nice
because that’s how I am going to be a good Buddhist. Not like that, but rather see the
actual situation, the person that's there is empty of being all of the things that we are
projecting onto them.

It is possible to do thought training because things are actually empty of inherent

existence. If they weren’t empty, then thought training would simply be painting
something nice on a rotten base. But it's not that. It’s that things are empty and our new
way of thinking about them is valid. And actually it's more valid than the old way
because the old way, when we had anger and attachment, was based on so much anger
and attachment. That’s based on ignorance. So if we are able to see that things are empty
then we let go of our anger and attachment then we can see the situation in a new way
according to the variety of methods that the thought training teaches us and in that way
change our attitude towards them and generate compassion.

Did you get what I was just saying? Because I think that is important. Because sometimes
we can tend to think “I am just practicing Shantideva’s techniques because I am supposed
to or that’s the “goody two-shoes” way to do it. But, actually, this person is a jerk. I am
just seeing them as not a jerk so that I don’t create negative karma. But, they are really a
jerk. No. To actually see them as being empty of being a jerk and the situation is
completely empty. And then we can see this as, " Here’s my karma ripening." Or, here is
somebody who is trying to be happy and they are having difficulty doing it. Or, here is
somebody with an incredible opportunity and they cannot take that opportunity because
they have so much karma that is preventing them from using their good opportunity.
That way, we can actually see things as genuinely in a different light.
Questions and Answers
How are you doing this week? What's happening?

Your doubt was, is it possible to be free from cyclic existence? I think that a lot of us
have that doubt. They just never put it into words. And I think it is an important one to
explore. I would recommend thinking about “what is the nature of mind” and how mind
is clarity and awareness and it has the nature of being able to perceive. Well, what
obscures it from perceiving? When our sense organs cannot contact something, but also
our mental sense, our mind, gets obscured by karma, gets obscured by afflictions. If it’s
possible to remove afflictions, then this natural ability of the mind to perceive, it’s just
going to perceive. It can transform into the omniscient mind. And then you have to ask:
Is it possible to eliminate the afflictions? Well, what’s the root of the afflictions? It’s the
ignorance. If you spend some time in your meditation seeing how the afflictions come
from ignorance, don’t just say that, but actually do some analysis, and then check up to
see if it is possible to remove ignorance. And ignorance is based on a false premise. So if
you …the way ignorance grasps something, there can be a wisdom mind that grasps the
actual opposite of it. Because what ignorance perceives isn’t real, so wisdom can
perceive how things actually exist. So, then it is possible for wisdom to overpower the
ignorance and then you remove the ignorance, you remove the afflictions, you remove the
things that obscure the mind from perceiving

Wisdom apprehends. Grasp doesn’t mean grasp at inherent existence. It can also mean
apprehend, it apprehends things how they are. You can’t have a mind that apprehends
things how they are and a mind that apprehends the opposite at the same time.

That doubt that comes in your mind...that’s good because it throws you back to really
checking up “what is the root of samsara, how does samsara come about” and I think that
what you said about really thinking about causes, that’s a very good way to go about
doing it, because what are the causes of samsara?

Don’t be afraid of periods of uncertainty, because when you are uncertain, what is
happening is that you are ready to go deeper. When your mind starts to have that kind of
uncertainty, instead of saying “Oh, my faith is gone!!! Oh, I am going backwards!!! I’m
in crisis, this is terrible!!! Say, “no, actually, I am ready to go deeper”. Because, like you
said, whatever your “standbys” were, were not working now, because you are ready to go
deeper.
Q

Yes, exactly, you are ready to look deeper.

Q

The skeptical doubt, the niggling doubt, that's just useless. But this other one is like “Wait
a minute, do I really believe that? Or, how does that work? Before, I said those words
{of a specific prayer} and it made sense and it was fine, you know I never actually
thought about what those words meant before, and now I am ready to think about what
those words really mean.”

Yes, you have to be able to see in your own experience. But especially thinking along the
line of dependent arising is very good.

That is. Exactly. Are they difficult to look at, because we're stuck and we have to let those
things go?

This is what I think is so important about having the Buddhist worldview, because then
we can look on our past experiences and conceptualize them according to the Buddhist
worldview, instead of according to ego’s worldview. A lot of times we have these
worldviews and conceptions about things that we didn’t even realize we had them, we
just thought that was just the way things were. We never even looked at those things as
conceptions. And then all of a sudden there is a little bit of friction and your going, “I
have this whole worldview here”.

Actually, when you can get to that part where you can feel in your mind the difference
between when you are thinking through it and when you are fighting with yourself, that’s
making a lot of progress.

Yes, because then you know what it’s like to be fighting inside and then you know every
time you have that feeling, “Oh, my mind is filled with affliction right now”. So that
when you’re feeling that feeling of fighting with yourself you see “Oh, my mind is filled
with affliction right now. This is what affliction is. Whereas when maybe there is some
affliction in your mind, but you have realized it is affliction, and you are trying to think
through the situation more from/with a Dharma perspective, then there's completely
different mental energy. Learning to differentiate all of these different things in your mind
and to be able to see the flavor of your mind when one thing is going on versus when
another thing is going on, that's quite incredible, because then you can see things so much
more clearly….just identify…”Oh, that’s affliction.”
What is happening with everybody else?

This is how boredom sometimes comes in our practice. If you feel bored with your
Dharma practice it is because the mind of attachment wants something exciting to
happen. My practice isn’t exciting so maybe I’m doing the wrong practice and I better do
something else. But it’s just the mind of attachment.

So, you are learning to make friends with the various deities and Buddhas? I think that
ability to make the Buddhas our friends is something important because otherwise we can
stress a lot about our relationships in life and how they left us dissatisfied and they
weren’t all that we wanted them to be. Oh poor me I just never met the right person and
on and on. And then to actually say who is it that is the most trustworthy one in my life?
And who is always really going to be there for me? Well, it’s the Buddha. And forming
that kind of relationship with the Buddhas and seeing them as our friends and then we
stop needing so many things from other people which makes our relationships with them
actually much smoother.

Bodhicitta is a primary mind with two mental factors. One mental factor is the
compassion for sentient beings, the great compassion, and the wish for them to be free of
all suffering. And the other is the intention or the motivation, the aspiration to become a
Buddha in order to best benefit them. It is a primary mind with those two intentions. The
first is the welfare of others and the second one is wanting to be a Buddha in order to
accomplish that.

Sharing News From Other Retreatants

We have some news from some of our fellow retreatants from the prisons who have
written, I thought I would read a little bit. This one is from Terrell. He was in last year’s
retreat. He has had a tough last few months. He got in a fight. He got thrown in the hole.
And then he came out and they put him and the guy he had the fight with in same unit.
So, you know what happened. They had another fight. And he got thrown in the hole
again. This time with a broken hand. So he is really having to look at his anger and what
is happening. But he also wrote a letter to the retreatants.

He said the process of freeing yourself from arrogance and cutting your habitual
tendencies is a very drastic measure but it is necessary in order to help others in this
world.
“Dharma greetings, Venerable Teacher and retreatants, Thank you for all of your kind
considerations, your friendship and prayers. I too daily think about each of you in turn
and I pray that you always turn the wheel of the Dharma for us sentient beings. I am
happy to be again sharing with you in retreat this experience and meditating on thousand-
armed Chenrezig. My current living conditions now offer me a lot of alone time which is
good right now. I can really place my concentration on my practice. Venerable perhaps
shall update you on my living conditions but pretty much it’s about the size of Venerable
Tenzin Palmo’s cave. And where the cave was cold my dungeon is extremely hot and
oftentimes flooded. But I am alive and still finding the lamas close to my funny bone. I
truly love their methods in saying practice. Practice is what I shall spend this time doing.”
And then he wrote some messages for Tom and Patricio who corresponded with him
during the last retreat.

Then there was something from Dale. Do you know in the Chenrezig practice how there
were the four things that a practitioner of Chenrezig really focuses on? If someone beats
you, you don’t beat them in return. If they are made at you then you don’t get mad at
them. He is really thinking about this. He said “not hitting others when hit” is easy. Fault
finding is where I am weakest. The other two getting mad and insulting are hit and miss.
I am observant, very observant. prior training by living in a prison environment most of
my life. My problem is I analyze and judge other peoples actions and words. Lately I am
trying to see them as blank and it's my karma and habits and tendencies that force me to
see them that way. OK, so now that stupid person doing that stupid thing may not be
correct. I have been trying to see it this way. "He did not succeed in doing that
correctly." At some point I still have to make a judgment call even around …actions
versus right action. But it’s a start and I will develop this a little more.”

Then he was saying ‘the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation is hard to put in
pictures or remember or imagine that verse. I can see its value. It’s difficult because I
have never been a very compassionate man; mostly self-centered. Anyway, I try to make
the Eight Verses the mainstay of this. These eight are where I say the words and then
imagine myself performing or expressing that idea; much much better than just saying the
words. Can’t say whether 90 days is long enough to form these habitual actions, but it’s a
good start and keeps me aware of my words and actions. It’s watching and not acting on
my thoughts; that is hard. I have been told that in time these thoughts that are not acted
on will die out, and will lose their strength to make me do things.

So that’s exactly true, if we don’t feed those thoughts they do die out. But his way of
saying it while meditating on the Eight Verses is really spot-on. You say the verse and
then you stop and pause and you imagine yourself feeling like that. You imagine yourself
acting like that in specific situations. You try it on. And then if your mind is saying “no
way, see myself as the lowest of all, I can’t do that!” Then you go back and go why can’t
I?” Why is it hard for me to see this? But really imagining yourself in the situation.
That’s a very good thing to do.

Then there’s one from Leighton. “Greetings in the Dharma to all attending the retreat at
Sravasti Abbey. I am writing to share with you how my practice is going as I share the
retreat in the Yoga Method of Chenrezig here at Snake River Prison in Oregon. This is
the first time that I have made a commitment to practice retreat and stuck with it with
sincerity even though I have attempted two other retreats in the past. This year I have
really opened up my heart to being filled with compassion for others and to put their
happiness before my own grasping at the things I am attached to and thereby learning to
let go a little of the things that cause me suffering. My first week of the retreat was the
hardest for me. The mantra was hard to pronounce and I found myself wanting to quit the
first night.

Actually another inmate wrote me the same thing.

“That was my ego rebelling against something good for me. My life has been one self-
sabotage after another. But I stuck with it and the mantra, the long mantra got clearer for
me and I memorized it and now at the start of the fifth week of the retreat I wonder how it
could have been that hard during that first sitting. In the second and third week I have
had some vivid dreams about issues that I have had with my parents for many years. It is
kind of like some of the foulness I have held onto since childhood came bubbling up to
the surface as I sleep. I am learning to let them go as they come up just like we do
random thoughts in meditation on our breathing. I see these things now as just a part of
the rising and falling of life and not something to devastate me emotionally anymore. In
the fourth week and in this fifth week I am concentrating on feeling and seeing
Chenrezig’s compassion move into me as I recite the mantra. I also visualize all of you at
the abbey as you practice with me and I send you all well-being and prayers that you
share in Chenrezig’s compassion. Be well and anyone who wishes to write and share the
Dharma and practice with me may get my address from Venerable Chodron. With metta,
Leighton.”

Q (Regarding the location of the arms of Chenrezig)

We always think that one should be in front of us and then two, three, four and they
should go down like that. But they don’t. They go from the top, to the bottom, to the
middle. And I think that does wake us up a little bit. All of the symbols are also quite
important. They are all important. But it’s just getting us out of our normal way of
thinking, that one, two, three, four, to be in that order. Why can’t one, two, three, four be
in be in a different pattern?

I think it is important that we share. You can leave that out if you want to. It’s very
helpful to hear the situations that the inmates are in and how they really persevere with
their practice.

If someone can type up that letter? It was quite a beautiful letter and I would like to send
that to Rinpoche and, like you said, the guys always talk about him. And Rinpoche was
there completely unassuming. And you can see the power of just being unassuming.
Because in the prison environment, everybody is trying to put themselves out there. It’s a
very macho kind of environment. “Here I am and I’m powerful and nobody is going to
mess with me. Rinpoche came in there with the exact opposite energy, didn’t he? He is in
his mid-70. He’s older. He just sits down. These guys don’t know who he is and he
doesn’t know who they are. He’s just himself. And that was a very powerful statement,
more powerful than when you try and present yourself: “Here I am”.

So shall we do the Dalai Lama’s text?

Chanting Mandala Offering

Lam Rim Teachings

Last week we reviewed the part about these four great qualities of the lam rim and it’s
nice to think about those, it gives us some inspiration in studying the lam rim because we
see the benefit. And, hopefully that fourth one about not criticizing other traditions that
we learn to see the value of other people’s spiritual practice even if they have views that
we might consider wrong views. We can still see that what they're doing is beneficial in
the sense of teaching them to practice ethical discipline and kindness and so on. His
Holiness has said in many situations that because Buddhas can manifest as anyone, so
they can manifest as non-Buddhists. They can manifest as somebody from another
religion, as that religion’s teacher, teaching these people certain views because that is
according to the dispositions and the tendencies and interests of those people and it is a
skillful way to lead them. When you see it that way then it can really help us respect other
religious traditions without feeling like we have to criticize them or their practitioners in
order to feel what we are doing is good. But instead we hold our own views because we
see that the Buddhas teachings, when you investigate them with reason and logic, they
make sense and they help us in terms of our experience. But we don’t have to criticize
other people or other traditions. Whether they're other Buddhist traditions or other
religious traditions, the thing is to see what is beneficial in them. But then, like I said the
last time, in terms of the ideas and concepts, you can debate those with the mind that
wants to understand how things actually are and what holds up through reasoning. But we
don’t debate in order to come out victorious or in order to demolish somebody else’s
belief system just for the sake of demolishing it. Because that does not do anybody any
good.

I am going to continue reading the text. The next part says:

Consider the beneficial effects of hearing or teaching the Dharma even once: an
understanding of Buddha and his teachings arises and, by means of pure attitudes and
application, the person who is a suitable vessel for Dharma collects benefits equivalent to
those gained by having heard all the words of Buddha. Therefore abandon the three
wrong attitudes—likened to a dirty pot, a pot with a whole in its bottom, and an upturned
pot—and generate the six recognitions. In this way you will be able to gather the wealth
of having approached the subject properly. Whether you are studying or teaching a Lam-
rim text, do so purely and with intensity.

To quote Je Rin-po-che:

One session of hearing or teaching

This tradition embodying the essence of all
Buddha’s words,
Collects waves of merit equivalent
To hearing or teaching all Buddhadharma.

Here the Third Dalai Lama is talking about the benefits of listening to the Dharma and
the benefits of teaching the Dharma: To really appreciate that and think of those benefits.
That’s important when we live in a Dharma community because it can be easy to take
these things for granted. "Oh, here's another teaching to go to. Oh, I got to go give
another teaching.” instead of really thinking of the benefits of listening or of speaking the
teachings. The imprint it has on your own mind, how you are sharing the Dharma and the
long-term consequences of it and therefore when we either teach or listen to do so with
attention and with a very pure motivation and in a very correct way.

He said to abandon the three wrong attitudes, likened to a dirty pot, a pot with a hole in
the bottom, and an upturned pot.

So a dirty pot, that’s somebody who comes to the teachings with the wrong motivation.
They come to teachings with motivation of “Oh, OK I’m going to learn some Buddhist
stuff and then I’m going to be able to teach it and then people are going to think that I’m
holy, they’re going to think I’m spiritual, I might even be able to make a livelihood out of
teaching the Dharma because these people will give me offerings and they will give me
respect and they will do stuff for me.” Your mind, which is like a vessel ready to have the
Dharma poured into it, because of this wrong motivation, our mind becomes a dirty
vessel so that any Dharma we hear our mind completely pollutes it by having the wrong
motivation. That’s why it is so important that before coming to teachings, we always start
out the beginning of a teaching session, thinking about our motivation and setting it. Even
if you are in a situation where your teacher does not lead you through setting your
motivation, we should just be habituated and automatically do that ourselves.

Then the next kind of thing we want to avoid is being like a pot with a hole in the bottom.
That person comes to the teachings, but they can’t retain anything. It goes in one ear and
out the other. They hear the teachings and they nod because they understand, and they're
getting it, but afterwards they cannot retain anything. So when they sit down to meditate,
their mind is a total blank.

That’s why I found for myself that taking notes can be very helpful, to stop the mind
that's like a sieve because not only do I have something to go back to but also when I take
notes it makes me pay attention better because I have to write something down. But this
is completely up to the individual. Some times you know the outline very well already
and don’t take notes or sometimes you really want to spend your time listening and taking
it in and having it as an experience. And the nice thing now is that because things are
taped you can go back and listen to them again and then taking notes the second or third
times. But we do want to make sure that we have some intention of what was said.

The third kind of pot is the upside down pot. This is somebody who comes to teachings
and it doesn’t even go in, because they're falling asleep or their mind is totally or
completely distracted. They are thinking about where they came from or where they
want to go or they are worrying about something and so the Dharma is not even going in
at all. Their body is in the room, but their mind is elsewhere.

We want to make sure that we listen with full attention and with the correct motivation
and that we review the teachings that we have heard later on. I think that this can be very
very helpful. I have been doing it in some of the teachings that I have been listening to
here and then in the morning reviewing and contemplating the major points of the
teaching that I listened to the previous evening. I have found that to be very very
effective because when you are listening to teachings, you cannot necessarily take it all
in. You are getting a lot of information and there's a lot of information to think about and
therefore reviewing it in the subsequent days is very helpful.

Next he advised us to practice the six recognitions. I’ll just go through them and then
come back and explain them. The first one is seeing ourselves as the patient. The second
is seeing the Buddha as the doctor. The third is the Dharma as the medicine. Four,
practicing as the way to get cured. Five is seeing the Buddha as a holy being whose
Dharma method is non-deceptive. Six is praying that the Dharma exists long.

We want to have these six recognitions when we come to the Dharma. The first one,
seeing that we're the patient, the Buddhas is the doctor, the Dharma is the medicine and
practicing is the way to get cured. I remember very clearly last year Andy sitting here and
when we were talking about what we got out of the retreat he said, "The big thing for me
is that I figured out that I am the patient." Because it is possible to study the Dharma for
quite a long time and know many different “this and that’s” and different categories of
different things but you don’t see yourself as the patient and the Dharma as something to
practice. It’s something interesting. It could be entertaining. It can be fascinating,
especially when you get into the different logical arguments and the different categories
of this and that and the different explanations of different things it can be very
intellectually stimulating, but if we don’t see ourselves as the patient, then, coming to
Dharma class is like going to school, we are just there for the academic information.
Nothing really goes into our heart and benefits us. But when we realize that we are sick,
what’s our disease; it’s ignorance, anger and attachment, and when we really feel the pain
of the disease, the pain of being born in a body that gets old, and gets sick and dies, the
pain of having a mind that is overwhelmed by ignorance, anger, clinging attachment,
arrogance, laziness, when we really see our situation as something painful the way that a
person who is sick sees their disease as something painful, then we really take the
Dharma into our hearts.

There we can see why the Buddha taught the First Noble Truth first. Why did he teach
about dukkha at the very beginning? Because we have to look at what our situation is and
own up to it because unless we do that then we don’t see ourselves as a patient and we
don’t get any real benefit from the teachings.

We are the patient and the Buddha is the doctor. It’s not like we are sitting there saying
“Oh my stomach hurts from ignorance, anger and attachment, but I am listening to this
doctor who's not doctor; they are just a Hollywood entertainer, what they are saying has
no meaning, if you don’t see the Buddha as the doctor who understands the disease, then
we are not going to take the teachings seriously. We are just going to sit there and
whimper because we are sick. We really have to see the Buddha as a doctor who has
studied and knows these diseases and the ways to cure them inside and out, not just
because he has studied them but because he has been sick with them and has managed to
cure himself. Seeing the Buddha as the doctor and seeing the Dharma as the medicine.
The Dharma is not just nice things to write down in our notebooks so we could say we
heard these Buddhist teachings or we heard these far out methods, blah, blah, blah, but
really seeing the Dharma as the medicine. And the same way, when you are really sick,
when you are really miserable sick and you go to the doctor and the doctor prescribes
some medicine, you go and get that medicine as soon as you leave the doctors office.
Don’t you? And as soon as you can, you tell them, don’t even put it in the bag because
you open the thing and pop a pill before you even get back in the car because you are so
miserable that you want that medicine as soon as possible.

That’s the way we need to feel about the Dharma. That the Dharma is this medicine that
is going to cure us. Here I have this teaching, I have this medicine, I need to take it and
use it in my life and this is really precious. Why is it precious? Because it is going to cure
me. That is the fourth recognition. That taking the medicine is going to cure you. You
don’t go buy the medicine at the pharmacy, come home, leave it on the counter, put some
magazines over it, let it sit around, maybe go back next week and get another
prescription, buy some more medicine, and that sits around the house too. And pretty
soon your house is just a bunch of pills but all the bottles are unopened because you
haven’t taken anything. And yet your stomach still hurts. That kind of person we would
say is being very foolish.

It’s the same way if we go and receive teachings but we don’t practice we are just
collecting. Geshe Ngwang Dhargey used to tease us that “You have notebooks full of
teachings on the shelf in your room, but when you have a problem do you ever practice
the Dharma?" We have to really see that practice is the way to cure ourselves of the
disease of ignorance, anger and attachment and stop the suffering.

You might remember when Khensur Rinpoche taught the 12 links and he was teaching
the three (unclear) reflections, two of them were karma and seven of them were their
results. Well, if I am suffering from these results right now and I am creating more of the
afflictions and more of the karma which are the causes to have these results and the
Dharma is really the medicine to start practicing so that I can I cut constantly creating
more and more sets of the 12 links of dependent arising that produce samsara.

The fifth one is to see the Buddha as a holy being whose Dharma medicine is non-
deceptive. That’s kind of clear. If you don’t respect the doctor and you don’t think that
the medicine is any good then you're only hurting yourself. Or, even if you take the
medicine and you think that the medicine is good and if you don’t see the Buddha as holy
being and have some gratitude then what kind of human being are we? If we're suffering
from an illness and the doctor cures us we go back and say thank you. Or at least we
should have some appreciation for what somebody did for us. And so here it is also
feeling an appreciation for the Buddha and seeing him as a holy being and having that
kind of reverence because that really makes our mind quite happy. It really uplifts the
mind.

And then because of that we do the sixth one which is praying that the Dharma exists
long. Because we found the Dharma valuable we want it to exist in this world not only so
that we can benefit but so that other people will have the opportunity to hear the
teachings and to benefit. And we don’t just pray that the Dharma exists long but I think
that we should actively try and do something in our lives to contribute to the Dharma
existing long. So instead of just taking things for granted, "Oh yeah, there’s monasteries,
there’s Dharma centers, there’s books, after everybody else does all of the hard work of
getting it all set up and running I will come and buy the book or I’ll go to the Dharma
center or do something else, but don’t ask me to do any work." But instead, really feeling
the preciousness of the Dharma, then from our heart wanting to not only pray that the
Dharma exists forever, but contributing our energy to it.

Goenka ji when he leads courses he does things the way we do in the sense that
everything is done a dana basis. He is a little bit stricter because unless you stay until the
end of the course you aren’t allowed to give dana. If you leave early, they will not accept
your dana. You have to stay until the end of the course. And, all of the people who are the
cooks and the staff, they are all people who have done the retreats before and it is
considered an honor and a privilege to serve a retreat. They won’t just take anybody as a
volunteer. You have to have done a retreat so that you really see the value of the Dharma
and you really want to make it available to other people. And because you want other
people to benefit from the teachings, then you want to cook so that they can go to the
retreat. And you want to clean so that they can go to the retreat. And you want to work in
the office so that they can go to the retreat. The volunteers have that kind of attitude. It’s
really quite beautiful to see that because they have a very good motivation when they are
serving. Like Flora; she did the Vajrasattva retreat the first year and last year she came
back to cook so that other people could come to the retreat because she wanted other
people to have an experience like she had. This is kind of what the sixth one is. Pray for
the longevity of the Dharma, but we put our energy into it too. Because we really want to
make it accessible for other people. So, that’s that topic.
Now we are into the topic the qualities of a spiritual master and a disciple. We all fancy
ourselves to be great spiritual practitioners. "I am certainly a very well qualified
disciple." And then also, people in this country, because Buddhism is new, they don’t
know what qualities to look for in a spiritual mentor. So anybody who has the title
“teacher”, they think has gone through some kind of certification process or is a qualified
teacher. But there is no kind of certification process. You can get an educational degree,
but your Dharma understandings, how do you ever certify that? There is no actual way to
do it. It’s really up to the students to check the qualities of the people and to decide if
they want those people to be their teachers. We are the ones who chose our own teachers.

Here is what the Third Dalai Lama said:

However, although merely hearing the Dharma teachings with the proper attitude is an
extremely dynamic experience, it is important to say something about the qualities of a
lam rim teacher.

In general, the qualities of the various masters of the fundamental vehicle, Mahayana and
Vajrayana vehicle/methods are manifold, and any Buddhist master is a worthy teacher;
yet the specific qualities required of one who gives a discourse upon the jewel-like Lam-
rim tradition are described in The Ornament of Mahayana Sutras: he(or she) should have
realization, i.e., his (or her) midstream should be (1) tamed with realization of the higher
training in ethical conduct, (2) stilled with realization of the higher training in meditative
concentration, and (3) completely tempered with realization of the higher training in
wisdom; (4) … have authoritative scriptural learning, i.e., …should have heard many
teachings on the Three Baskets of Scriptures and so forth from competent masters; (5) ….
be in possession of an awareness that can perceive emptiness; and (6) … should have
more learning and realization than does the disciple.

Let’s look at these.

He says here that any Buddhist master is a worthy teacher. In the time of the Third Dalai
Lama he was living in old Tibet and maybe that was the case. You had a very insular
situation. If people did not behave properly they could not keep their status as a teacher.
People weren’t sent out to a foreign country to live on their own without any support or
supervision or with the force of social pressure to keep people going. So maybe that was
true in his time. But now with Buddhism spreading to different countries it is really very
important to pay attention to the qualities of somebody before we take them as our
teacher.

For that reason His Holiness advises people to go and study with somebody for a while
before we actually form that student-teacher relationship. I think that's very wise because
then we know the teacher and we know their qualities and we know what we're doing. I
have seen often that if a student forms a relationship too soon, even if the teacher is a
very qualified teacher, because the student jumped into it, then their own mind wasn’t
very stable. And they don’t have the ability to form a good relationship even though the
teacher themselves happens to be very qualified. So it's good to really check things out,
especially in the West we tend to be very impressed with glitter, you know what I mean?
We are a Hollywood culture. Actually this is true for old Tibet also, you want a teacher
who has a high throne, that wants a lot of brocade, that wears a big hat, that says a lot of
things in a language that you don’t understand because then they must really be holy. We
want somebody who has a lot of titles, who has a lot of status so you can say I studied
with so-and-so; they are a big high lama: somebody who is recognized as an incarnation
of so-and-so. But His Holiness is always telling the Tibetans and the Westerners that
these things are just superficial and a lot of them are societal conventions and just
because somebody has a title as a Rinpoche or as a lama it doesn't mean that they have
Dharma realizations.

I remember many years ago somebody did their doctoral thesis by interviewing a lot of
the tulkus. This must have been in the late 70’s, early 80’s, because I read the book in the
early 80’s. I remember being so shocked in one of the introductory essays where His
Holiness is saying that not everyone who is recognized as an incarnate lama is necessarily
a bodhisattva or a Buddha. He said that some people have that title because they
accumulated the good karma to have that kind of social prestige. I remember being so
shocked. This isn't said to make us skeptical of people. It is said so that we can really,
ourselves, the process of looking for a qualified teacher makes us into a qualified student.
Because if we are the kind of student who just looks for the glitter, how qualified of a
spiritual seeker are we? Whereas if we're somebody who is willing to slow down and ask
what is this person’s ethical conduct like? How do they relate to other people? What did
they study? Do they have a good relationship with their own teacher? How do they
practice? Are we willing to take the time to look into real, live Dharma instead of
superficial glitter then that is already making us a more serious Dharma student, isn’t it?
It is a process of maturation on our part to start to know what to look for.

Maitreya in Ornament of Mahayana Sutras set out these ten qualities, the six first ones
that we just read; being tamed with the realization of higher reasoning of ethical conduct.
Whatever level of vows a person has, they should be keeping those vows. If they are a
monastic they should be celibate. If they are a lay person then they should be keeping the
lay person’s vows that they took because the higher training in ethical conduct that tames
your mind, even though it's oriented to the non-virtues of body and speech, in order to
abandon those seven, you have to work with your mind. It is one level of calming to
practice the higher training of ethical conduct. Another level of calming is to practice the
higher training in concentration, to begin to suppress the manifest afflictions so that they
aren’t in the mind. The higher training in ethical conduct, we might still have a lot of
negative thoughts, but it’s not coming out verbally and physically. But with the higher
training in concentration, then the negative thoughts have been temporarily suppressed.
They have not been abandoned, but by the power of one’s concentration, then those
thoughts are not in the mind running the show.

And the third is to be completely tempered with the realization of the higher training in
wisdom. It is the higher training in wisdom that actually cuts the afflictions from the roots
so that they can no longer arise in the mind.
We are looking at the highest qualities and the highest quality teacher to find: Somebody
with those three higher trainings. In addition they have authoritative scriptural learning.
They have heard many teachings on the three baskets of scripture and so forth from
competent masters. It's somebody who has studied a lot. They are not just making up
their own Dharma. They are not just teaching one text or one practice because that is the
only one that they know. Rather, they have a wide depth and breadth of understanding of
the Dharma because this gives them the ability then to teach other sentient beings
according to what those sentient beings need and to explain the Dharma from a diversity
of viewpoints and to bring in lots of different teachings that can help somebody. Whereas
if somebody has not studied much, then they don’t know how to explain things and can’t
direct you to where you can learn more about topics that might be of great importance to
you.

They have heard teachings on the three baskets. That’s the Vinaya, the Sutra and the
Abhidharma baskets. The Vinaya is associated with higher training in ethical conduct.
The sutra basket is associated with the higher training in concentration. The abhidharma
is associated with the higher training in wisdom. They have studied this from competent
masters. So that the person you are studying from, they didn’t just receive a teaching
because they woke up one morning with a thunderbolt or they read it in a magazine or
had a great, profound realization or because of one thing or another. Rather, they really
have transmissions from competent teachers. I would add to that they have good
relationships with their own teachers. They have not just kind of learned something and
then turned around and criticized their teachers or thrown their teachers out like a dog
throwing out old meat. They often talk like that. It was like what we were talking about
earlier, of knowing somebody and we sponge everything out and we just throw them
away afterwards. Not having that kind of attitude.

Our teacher should be in possession of an awareness that can perceive emptiness because
clearly if they can they are better qualified to lead us on that same path. And they should
have more learning and realizations than the disciple. Sometimes we may want teaching
on a particular topic and some teacher, maybe they don’t have wide knowledge, but they
have a lot of breadth in a particular topic, or they have received a transmission of a
particular topic that’s important for us. In whatever we are studying from somebody we
want to make sure that they have more knowledge than we do.

The Third Dalai Lama says

“These are the six necessary qualifications of a lam-rim teacher. As well he should have
four altruistic attitudes [these four make up the ten of the common list]: (1) skill and
spontaneous creativity in his [or her] application of the methods for generating progress
within his disciples, whom he [or she] teaches out of a pure motivation free from
grasping for wealth, fame or power; (2) enthusiasm and joy in giving his [or her] time
and energy to teaching; (3) diligence and perseverance in teaching; and (4) he [or she]
should be beyond losing patience with disciples who practice poorly.”
These are very important qualities for a teacher to have. They need to be skilful and
creative in being able to teach us and to be able to give us the right teaching at the right
time. This does not necessarily mean the right teaching in a formal setting, a teaching
setting like this. It could also mean that right teaching in a day-to-day life, pointing out
something that you need to hear at that particular time. They need to be skillful like that.

And they need to teach the students out of a pure motivation, free from grasping at
wealth, fame or power. That is actually very difficult. Because you could be teaching
somebody and then you think I am putting all of this energy into teaching and this person
doesn’t even treat me very nice as a result of this. Or they don’t give any offerings. Or
they don’t say thank-you. Or they don’t ask if they can do something for me. And, here I
am teaching so hard and they treat me like this lump of old meat. It is very easy to get
into that frame of mind. Or it could be that somebody has a lot of attachment to wealth
and they want to collect a whole range of disciples because then all those disciples give
them money and they have a nice situation and live well. There is also a lot of status from
having a lot of students. You walk in and all of your students are there and they are all
bowing down to you and they are all talking to their friends about how wonderful you are
and when you go somewhere they are all trotting behind you obediently. It can be very
easy sometimes to get a little twinge of arrogance. Or, power, somebody who wants
power over other people, all of these students are so dedicated to me I must be really
wonderful I can tell them to do this and they will absolutely do it and this feeling of “I
have power over these other people.” You want someone who is really teaching out of a
good motivation, not having thoughts of the eight worldly dharmas.

Second is somebody who has enthusiasm and joy in giving time and energy to the
teachings; they like teaching, they like helping you. When you are full of doubts and
questions, they don’t say go away and call me in three months. Rather, they want to help
you figure your way out of it; they like teaching, they are not saying: Oh, I taught you
two weeks ago, go away and come back in another three weeks and I will give you
another fifteen minutes; rather, somebody who really enjoys teaching.

Three, they are diligent and perseverant in teaching; they try to teach you a whole subject
or they try to give you the whole transmission; they don’t just teach a little bit and get
bored and says that’s enough.

Fourth, and this one’s really important, they are beyond losing patience with disciples
who practice poorly. This one is really important. I’m seeing this very clearly in the
transcribing that I am doing of the interviews that I have had with my teachers and
sometimes how it seems that what I am saying that I am just a total idiot and yet my
teacher just happily keeps on answering the questions and doing the things. The
translator, I think he was giving me a hint one day, he said," I just watch and he is just so
compassionate because if somebody kept asking me questions that I had already
answered, I would just get really impatient." “Are you giving me a hint?” Maybe I'm a
slow student, Sometimes we really need to have teachers who when we practice poorly
and our teachers give us some instructions and do the opposite. When they say, when we
come and ask for advice and they say meditate on this and we don’t meditate on that and
we do something else. Or they say be really careful with your anger and we go out and
splash our anger out over everybody. Or we criticize our teacher or we pick faults with
them or we request a teaching and then we don’t show up for the teaching that we
requested. We do all sorts of really horrible behavior. Or we think that our teacher should
adjust their schedule to make time to see us and that we shouldn’t have to adjust our
schedule to go and see them. We really need to have teachers that have an incredible
amount of patience to put up with us sometimes.

He says if you can find a personal guru possessing these six and four altruistic qualities
request him or her for teachings and then follow them well.

If you find a teacher like that request teachings and then don’t just sit there and listen; but
follow the teachings. I think it is important now in this life to do that and to make very
important prayers to meet fully qualified teachers in future lives and not just meet them
but to have the sense to request them for teachings and not just to have the teachings, but
for us to have the sense to follow the teachings well when we do receive them.

Finding a teacher with all ten qualities is difficult. They say that if you can’t find a
teacher with all ten qualities, then find a teacher with as many qualities, as many of the
ten, as you possibly can. If you still cannot do that, then at least find a teacher who
considers future lives more important than this life and somebody who considers other’s
happiness more important than their own and somebody who doubts the perception of
inherent existence. At least have a teacher like that. Because if your teacher considers this
life more important than future ones, then they are not going to be a very ethical person.
If they consider that their own happiness is more important than others, then they are not
going to have the endurance to teach us. If they don’t doubt the vision of inherent
existence that we perceive, then they are not going to be able to get us to question it or to
teach us the path of wisdom.

It may take us some time to get to know somebody and to see if they have these qualities.
The time to check out somebody, to see if they have these qualities, is before we make
the relationship with them as our teacher. After we accept somebody as our teacher, that
is not the time to go back and analyze whether they have these qualities or not. If I can
use a very gross and inappropriate example, you read Consumer Reports before you buy
a washing machine. You don’t buy the washing machine and then read Consumer Reports
afterwards. You do your research beforehand. That’s the time to ask the questions. After
we take somebody as our teacher, that’s the time to then appreciate their good qualities
and listen to the Dharma that they teach us and put that Dharma into practice and have a
sense of respect and appreciation for what they do.

Let’s dedicate.