All language subtitles for Discovering Buddhism Module 04 - The Spiritual Teacher

Discovering Buddhism

The Spiritual Teacher

If you want to learn anything well,

you look for a teacher who has
mastered the subject you want to learn.

Why should you think differently
when it comes to your spiritual life?

To find a way out of suffering,

you must find a guide who
has already found the way out

and can show you how to do it yourself.

To find a spiritual teacher

is the most fundamental
aspect of the Buddhist path.

It is not possible to learn to
be enlightened from books alone.

You need a living teacher
to personally guide you.

Je Tsong Khapa attained enlightenment

and because of his great compassion

gave teachings on the
Graduated Path to Enlightenment

so others could be free.

He taught the first step on
the path is to devote yourself

to a teacher who can properly guide you.

In this program,

we will learn how to recognize
a perfectly qualified teacher

and how rare it is to be able
to take them as your guide.

MOTIVATION

In the Mahayana Buddhist teachings

it is said that the spiritual
mentor is the key to the path,

a guide to the perfect and
ultimate state of enlightenment.

Therefore, ones motivation,

both in seeking a spiritual teacher

as well as in cultivating and
developing a relationship with one,

is of fundamental importance.

In this program we will explore together

the importance of the
spiritual teacher to achieving

ultimate success on the spiritual path.

Therefore, as you listen
to these teachings,

generate in your mind a particularly
strong altruistic motivation

seeking to attain enlightenment
as quickly as possible

in order to bring to enlightenment
all other living beings.

TEACHERS

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
has lived in India as the exiled

Head of State and Spiritual Leader of the Tibetan people
since the Chinese occupation in1959.

His Holiness, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
is one of the most renowned and beloved
spiritual leaders in the world

and has traveled over 46 nations as a major
proponent of human rights and world peace.

In the context of engaging
in a spiritual transformation,

bringing about a change
within one's hearts and minds,

at the initial stage we do need
to rely upon experienced teacher,

who can show us the path,

who can introduce us
to the subject matter.

Since the role of spiritual
teacher in one's practice

becomes so important,

we find that in Lama Tsong
Khapa's Great Exposition

of the Stages of the Path

he discusses the issue of
reliance on a spiritual teacher.

The qualifications that are necessary

on the part of the
teachers are presented

in Maitreya's Mahayanasutraalamkara

Ornament of Mahayana Sutras

where he lists ten principle qualities

or qualifications of
a spiritual teacher.

The first is someone
with a disciplined mind.

This refers to the quality of
having an ethical discipline.

Second is having a calmed mind,

which refers to the
quality of having mastered

the higher training in
meditation and concentration.

The third is being thoroughly calmed

which refers to the
quality of having mastered

the higher training in wisdom,

here particularly referring to
the wisdom of no-self, Anatman.

And then number four is
that having the knowledge

and the experience of the three higher

trainings alone is not adequate,

you need to have a knowledge

that exceeds the
knowledge of the students.

Whatever subject matter
that is being taught,

the teacher must have a knowledge

that exceeds the level of
the students' knowledge.

This is the fourth quality.

The fifth is that the
teacher must have a vigor

and enthusiasm for teaching the student.

So this is the fifth
one that's enthusiasm.

Number six is that the teacher
must have a vast learning

so that he or she
will have the resources

from where the teacher will
be able to draw the metaphors,

the examples, the
citations and all of this.

So vast learning is this number six.

Number seven is who has a
realization of emptiness.

If possible genuine
realization of emptiness,

if not at least having a deep commitment

to the practice of emptiness

on the basis of having a deep admiration

to the teachings on emptiness.

And then number eight is that
the teacher must be eloquent

and skillful in his or her
means of presenting the Dharma.

Having knowledge and
experience alone is not adequate

if the teacher is not skillful
in presenting the Dharma

then the Dharma teaching
would not be effective.

So number eight is eloquent speech.

Number nine is probably the
most important quality here,

having a deep compassion
towards the student

to whom the teaching is being given,

someone who has a
genuine sort of concern

for the well-being of the student.

So this compassionate
mind is number nine.

And number ten is that

the teacher should have
the ability of resilience,

so that no matter how many times

the teacher has to repeat
in his or her teaching,

he or she should have
the resilience to continue

to maintain his or her enthusiasm

and commitment to the student

so that he or she is not discouraged

or loses enthusiasm.

So these are the ten qualities
recommended in Maitreya's text.

And then Tsong Khapa concludes
that section by making an emphasis,

that those practitioners who
wish to seek a spiritual teacher

should familiarize themselves
with these qualities,

qualifications of a spiritual master,

and then search for these
qualities in the person

in whom you wish to entrust.

Ten Qualifications of a Teacher
1. Exceptional morality
2. Exceptional concentration

3. Exceptional wisdom
4. More knowledge than students
5. Enthusiasm

Ten Qualifications of a Teacher
6. Vast scriptural Knowledge
7. Understanding of emptiness

8. Skillful speech
9. Great compassion for students
10.Unending patience

Venerable Ribur Rinpoche was born
in Eastern Tibet in 1923.

At the age of five, he was recognized
by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama as the sixth
incarnation of Sera-mae Ribur Rinpoche.

He entered Sera Monastic University in Lhasa
and became a Geshe at age twenty-four.

He meditated and taught Dharma until 1959,
after which he suffered under intense Chinese
oppression for twenty-one years.

In 1980 he was allowed to perform
some religious activities and he helped build
a new stupa for Pabongka Rinpoche at Sera.

Rinpoche teaches throughout
the United States, Asia, and Europe

So such a thought may
come into your mind:

well, do I really need to rely on a
qualified Guru to travel on the path?

There are so many books
that are being translated.

I can just take those
books and study those books.

And on the basis of that
I will be able to travel the path

and achieve the realizations.

This is a wrong conception.
This is a mistaken conception.

Why? Because those teachings
have been, are alive.

Why? Because those teachings
have been, are alive.
The teachings are alive.
They need to be alive in order

to have the strength of generating
the realization in the mind

of the one who practices it.

That’s why we have an
uninterrupted lineage,

which comes from Buddha Shakyamuni,

down to your root Guru,

which the teachings have
been received, practiced,

and passed to the next
Guru, up to your root Guru.

So that is the meaning of possessing
the blessing of the lineage.

That is what makes it work in the mind.

Just the book in itself, it won’t do it.

First you have to receive
it from a live Guru.

Whether the Lama possesses
all the qualities or not,

at least he possesses the qualities
of having the blessing of the lineage,

having received the
blessings of the lineage,

and the qualities of being
capable of passing through

that particular lineage blessing.

That’s what makes it.

Think in this way:

now, because I want to achieve
the supreme enlightenment

for the benefit of all sentient beings,

I need a Guru, I need someone
who is able to show me the path,

how to travel this path, in
order to achieve the purpose

that I have in my mind.

If I need even for worldly
methods, for worldly education,

someone who’s on the top of
that particular knowledge,

who is able to show me how to
get that particular knowledge,

that much more, I need a qualified Guru

who’s able to show me
the path to enlightenment.

And not only do I need a Guru,

I need a Guru who is
qualified, perfectly qualified,

and I need to rely on this perfectly
qualified Guru in the correct way,

without reversing my devotion,

without abandoning that reliance
because that very reliance

is the root of all the goodness
that I am seeking for.

Venerable Sarah Thresher was born in England in 1960.
She met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa in 1982.

Venerable Sarah was ordained by
His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986.

She began teaching in 1992 and
is a respected Dharma teacher throughout FPMT.

There are many paths to enlightenment.

The most profound one, the fastest one,

the quickest one, the swiftest one,

is devotion to spiritual guide.

By correctly devoting
to spiritual guide,

you can get enlightened in one
lifetime. It is so powerful.

First you say what is a guru?
So I’m going to explain.

Guru is someone heavy in
qualities, nothing higher.

So, then why do we need a guru?

And I kind of more or less said
that, it’s the root to the path.

What are the reasons for this?

If you want to learn
any kind of a skill,

you need a teacher.

Even a worldly skill,
you need a teacher.

So definitely, the
path to enlightenment,

where we’ve never been before,

where it’s unknown to us,

in Lama Tsong Kapa’s Lam Rim Chen Mo,

there’s a quote from one
of the Kadampa Geshe’s

that says, you know,
“Here we are, we just emerged

from eons spent in the lower realm,

and we want to get enlightened,
we want to travel the path,

I mean, definitely we need a guide.

Definitely we need a guide.”

So, whether or not you
get the realizations,

or on how deeply you
get those realizations,

how stably you get those
realizations, and not,

and not just that, in fact,
it’s explained in the teachings,

not just realizations, but they say,

whether or not your life
becomes success or not,

it depends on the strength of
your devotion to spiritual guide.

It becomes a big thing.

So, this is the first thing that
we have to become convinced of.

That we definitely need
a qualified teacher,

in order to travel the
path to enlightenment.

Even if we were going to go to India,
we would need a guide.

We need it because the goal
is not just intellectual

it’s to transform the mind.
So that’s clear.

You need a guru who can
teach the whole path, right?

You need a guru, you need
a perfectly qualified guru

who can teach you the whole path,
and you need to devote yourself correctly.

It’s kind of like that, you have
some hardship to get your guru,

and you really check.
Once you’ve got them,

you think you’re going to be completely like,

“Ok, this is what I’m going to devote,
and I’m going to devote really well.”

Now, what are the benefits
of correctly devoting?

So now we come to these eight benefits.

And the point is, that if you
think about these benefits,

then this amazing
energy’s going to come,

and your practice is going to burst out,

because you’ll want to do
nothing but to devote yourself.

You really want to devote
yourself to your guru,

you want to do it in a very good way.

The Eight Benefits
1. Closer to Buddhahood and Enlightenment
2. Please the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas

3. Overcome evil influences
4. Avoid improper activities and thoughts
5. Reach high realizations

6. Always meet teachers
7. Never fall into lower realms
8. Attain temporary and ultimate goals with ease

You'd better choose your gurus carefully

because you are going to end up like them.
- Pabonka Rinpoche

STUDENTS

What does a Spiritual Teacher mean to you?

When I first heard about guru devotion,

I wasn’t very attracted to it.

I thought it sounded a bit cult like.

And also, I was used to having one God

that was above everything else.

And to think that a person
with God like qualities

could be in a human form,
a guru in a human form,

I kind of thought of cults
and maybe I’d find a wrong guru

that would lead me down a wrong track.

But then as I was involved
with Buddhism, with Tibetan Buddhism,

and I started seeing the Lamas qualities,

His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

And at first you’re not sure,
and you find some qualities,

and then you have to open your heart,

and then you start to feel some devotion.

And then through this devotion,

you see how guru devotion, the teachings say,

is the root of the path, and
you need teachers to guide you,

to inspire you, and to protect you.
And the way they protect you,

there’s not some kind of
magical powers necessarily,

although there is this blessing power

that does come with devotion.

But it’s more like they protect you
by teaching you the Dharma,

and therefore, through your own actions,

you learn to train your mind,
which protects your mind.

Then you start thinking,
I want to react less with anger

and I want to practice patience

and you get inspired through their example.

And you get guidance,
they will tell you if you request.

And, then if you have the
karma to receive advice,

and hopefully if you practice Dharma and
eventually you create the good fortune

to be able to receive direct advise,
on an individual basis from your teacher.

And because our guru’s
have more wisdom than we do,

they can see more appropriately

the best practice for us, to help us.

Because their only aim is to want
to help to lead us to enlightenment.

So their advise is always,

with this wanting
to lead us to enlightenment,

and how to do this
in the most effective way.

So we can follow their
advice with great assurance

that it is coming from
the most pure place.

And therefore if we follow
their advice, purely,

we are going to progress
towards enlightenment.

I left school and home when I was fifteen.

I took quite a lot of drugs after I left home,
and I was partying all the time,

and I was pretty much almost,
I mean, I didn’t live on the streets,

but I was just hanging out on
the streets for about a year

and I met Rinpoche for the first time.

So, this is probably
the sweet part of my life.

There is no question in my life.

And, that the only thing that I want to do
is offer my life to Rinpoche.

And it was very, very, very strong.
I mean, you just watch Rinpoche,

and for like every single
act he does is so perfect,

and you just want to be like that,

you just know that this
is what you want to do.

I just knew, like one hundred percent,

if I offered myself to this being

that he would direct me in
a way that would be useful,

because I can’t figure it out myself.

I mean, because I have so many past imprints
I mean, because I have so many past imprints

that’s making me continually think,

continually making me believe that
samsara is going bring me happiness.

it’s going to work if I fall in love again,
it’s going to give me happiness, or whatever.

I just a hundred percent trusted

that Rinpoche could definitely
direct my life and guide me,

and show me how to do it.

I mean, especially looking
at Rinpoche as the guru,

as the Yidam, as the Buddha, then definitely,

I mean, there’s nothing higher than that.
We don’t have anything higher than that,

and there’s nothing more precious to do.

It’s not like once you have
a relationship with a guru

then it’s really easy after that.

In fact, it’s even more difficult
because Rinpoche confronts,

ultimately he confronts your ego.

So, that is a really painful experience.

Very, very painful, because it’s the
one thing that we protect very well.

So, I’m still trying to deal with that.

And I’m amazed at how
Rinpoche cuts my ego down,

like every time I’m in front of him,

every time, he very subtly,
very individually.

He’s basically taming my mind,
and it’s very precious.

Just to see Rinpoche and
especially now I’ve been able

to serve Rinpoche quite
closely for nearly three years.

And, this just reconfirmed my life

that it’s unbelievably perfect.

Rinpoche’s actions are amazing,

everything he does comes from bodhicitta,
he’s always trying to help people.

I just pray that I can
keep being able to serve Rinpoche,

and doing this,
because it feels really good.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is,
one of his names is ‘the presence’, Kundun,

so that, there’s something you can experience

that makes you believe that it’s possible.

Because you see examples of persons,

so I, by meeting Lama Yeshe,
and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Geshe Darge

His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and other teachers,

they’re human beings, and they’re saying:

this is how, Lord Buddha
said this is how it is.

I practiced it, I think this is how it is,

if you practice it,
it can be that way for you.

So even if they all deny
they have any realization,

or any power of mind,
you know, anything,

so I’m not special,
His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

‘I’m just a simple monk’

But you spend any time
with him, any time near him,

there’s an affect he has on
your mind that isn’t just based

on his intellectual
understanding of Buddhism.

There’s an affect you can experience

by being near a realized teacher
that affects your own mind.

So now, we can imagine,

maybe, a being like
His Holiness the Dalai Lama

or Lama Yeshe, or Lama Zopa, Geshe Dorge,

who actually removed all the afflictions.

The mind has these qualities of
love, compassion, wisdom,

that can have a profound affect
on your mind just by being near them.

So for me, that’s what gave me,

besides my own little experiments
with meditation and practice

and seeing what affect
I could have in my mind.

Being near people who obviously, to me,

even though they deny it, have done it.

So if they’ve done it, they’re human beings,

I’m a human being, I did this practice,

what Buddha said, you’re a human being

you can do this practice and
you can remove the afflictions.

So that’s what I think
having had the good fortune

to be near those beings,

and at the same time try
to put into some small way,

the practice, so the combination
of those two experiences,

so for me there’s no doubt.

Spending some time with
Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche,

being near His Holiness.
I mean His Holiness is just amazing.

I saw this film I think in Los Angeles,
he was going to meet the press core.

You know, the hardened reporters who think

everything is basically bad I think anyway.

So just as he went
down the line touching them,

they sort of lit up like light bulbs.

As he passed, everyone
became momentarily happy.

Their cares went away.
They were smiling.

And maybe thirty seconds later, it was gone,

or ten minutes later it was gone.

But it has an effect.

So I think the idea of
the blessings of the Lama,

the blessings of the guru,
the blessings of the Buddha,

it doesn’t have to be so mystical.

You put the big magnet
next to the small magnet,

so the polarities become
the same for a little bit

until the big magnet moves away.

So you see some possibility,
the blessings of the guru,

the blessings of the teacher.

And within Buddhism,
I think, that’s the key,

then we have a qualified teacher,

and then follow the
authentic, qualified teaching,

and then you make the experiment yourself.

And if it works, you do it more.

If it doesn’t work, do something else.

Please dedicate the positive energy generated
by listening to these teachings,

so you can quickly attain Enlightenment
for the benefit of all beings.