Finding a Buddhist Teacher
At Shambhala Sun, Karen Maezen Miller has some great advice for finding a teacher. Here are some highlights:
- "Teachers can be charming, entertaining and provocative, but if you choose based on anything other than the vigor and authenticity of their practice, you will surely be misled."
Most of us seek out teachers because we're looking for someone to give us something we think we don't have. Second-rate teachers and charlatans encourage their followers to think that way. My first teacher, the late John Daido Loori, used to tell us he had nothing to give us. But Daido was a walking manifestation of vigorous practice. Daido was a great teacher.
- "Choose a teacher who has time for you and a practice center you can get to, or your spiritual life might be little more than intellectual tourism."
On one hand, everything and everyone you encounter in your life are your teachers. But your true spiritual teacher is not someone whose books you have read or whose lectures you have attended. Instead, your teacher is the one who knows you and shows you where you are sticking.
- "The teacher you find reflects your own sincerity and aspiration, so you will always get the teacher you are looking for."
Maezen goes on to say "Sadly, there seems no end to seekers who sell themselves -- their capacity and commitment -- so short." This ties back to the first bullet point, about authenticity of practice. Don't settle for being charmed.
- "Finally, you will have your own hunch about all these things, and it will be right."
This is really hard to see at first. Because we don't trust ourselves, we want someone else to validate our choices. Don't sell yourself short. Trust yourself. Trust your life. Your own sincerity and aspiration will guide you.
See also "Finding Your Teacher."
I came accross a book called Joyful Path at a Buddhist centre called Madhyamaka. It has a very good section on finding a qualified teacher.
Best post so far Barbara,
The teacher must be a fully enlightened one. Yes fully! And he must declare that.
The Buddha never taught until he became fully enlightened. He waited until all his followers become fully enlightened to let them go for teaching the Dharma.
“fully enlightened” — what does this mean, really?
To realize the very same state of mind as did Shakyamuni Buddha? There are certainly many places where it is written that all the Buddhas share the “same” mind — a kind of meeting in the “space” of Dharmakya, perhaps?
Yet also I’ve heard, more than once, that there are actually levels of Enlightenment — and that there is a whole process, a kind of unfolding, or deepening, that happens after an initial Enlightenment experience (satori).
It makes sense to me that even for someone who is irreversibly stable in the basic insights that define “Enlightenment” — there would still be room for an expanding & deepening of Enlightened Wisdom, Enlightened Compassion & Enlightened Power — at least as long as that being continued to appear, as a form, in the perception of beings to be liberated.
Is there ever a time when the process is, so to speak, “done”? Seems this is part of Buddhist teaching, but when I really examine what that might mean — some kind of unchanging, permanent (?!) state — I can’t quite grok ….
Is there ever a time when the process is, so to speak, “done”?
My understanding is that it is never “done.” My first teacher used to speak of the “hazy moon” of enlightenment; even one who has realized deep enlightenment can realize deeper enlightenment. And of course in Mahayana we have to ask, where is the self that is enlightened? The Diamond Sutra teaches us that if there is one being not enlightened, then no beings are enlightened.
Keerthi, not sure where you got the idea that a teacher MUST be a fully enlightened one. There are various grades of teacher. Have you read Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation? That explains about the differences. Besides, I would have doubts about anyone claiming to be fully enlightened. Even the Dalai Lama doesn’t do that!
Enlightenment is one. That is the realisation of four noble truths or rather the realisation through Prajna “how to avoid attachment”. Attachment can be avoided only by the enlightened persons.
There is no enlightenment beyond that. But, enlightenment differs among individuals with their level of realisations. Buddha is the supreme in that. Even there is difference among Arhaths according to level of realisation. Having attained enlightenment The Buddha put Dharma (detachment) as his teacher and continued to practice non-attachment every day and came up with new realisations and taught them to the followers. Today, they are found as Suthras. In Therawada there are nearly 18,000 such Suthras.
Having climbed to a top of the hill all come to the same level. But, what individuals see from there may differ according to their eye sight and level of attention etc.
The Buddha once said I told everything – meaning I told the common Path, The Noble Eightfold Path (NEP), for enlightenment in full detail.
He again said what I told is like the leaves in my hand and what I did not is like those in the forest – meaning what I told from all what I have realised from the Path is neglegible.
There are many cross-roads, junctions on the path you encounter when you travel it. One who arrived at the destination only could guide another on that path accurately. Therefore, you need to find a teacher who has completed the journey. Otherwise you will be mis-led.
In Mahayana it is well told that the words never give their meaning. But all Mahayana followers take meanings of words as they are!
Barbara, a being is a combination of mind and matter. There are infinite possibilities of such combinations in our body. Whole Dharma is limited to our one fathomed body according to the Budhha and he called the body as the “world”. The attachment gives life to all such combinations at a rapid rate when we are alive. Therefore, when one attains enlightenment the whole body or all beings attain enlightenment. This can be experienced in practical NEP only!Therefore, what Barbara mentioned is something definitely told by The Buddha!
If one knows the practical NEP anything found in any form of Buddhism can be put to test and decided whether it is right or wrong, correct and original, wrong and added later etc.
Therefore, you need to find a teacher who has completed the journey.
This is a Theravada view; in Mahayana, no one individual completes the journey.
Therefore, when one attains enlightenment the whole body or all beings attain enlightenment.
Yes, and in that sense all beings are enlightened. However, the Diamond Sutra (Mahayana) tells us “when vast, uncountable, immeasurable numbers of beings have thus been liberated, verily no being has been liberated.” This is true because nothing is separate.
Hui-ching said, “Because bodhisattvas possess great wisdom in which the mind and the world both vanish, they do not share the common view of truth and thus harbor no ignorance. And because they possess great compassion by means of which they teach other beings, they do not enter nirvana and thus do not put an end to ignorance.”
In Mahayana it is well told that the words never give their meaning. But all Mahayana followers take meanings of words as they are!
You don’t know Zen.