It is naturally very difficult for us beginners to see the teacher as having exhausted all faults and perfected all good qualities. When the teacher is actually present, conditions can easily make wrong thoughts come up, and they may be very strong. We might think, “This teacher is very short-tempered, he’s so tight-fisted, he only likes new people . . .”
You must resist such thoughts and think, “This is impossible, it is my own impure perception and way of seeing things.” Part from your disrespectful attitude immediately, or within four hours, or at least within twenty-four hours. The Great Omniscient One has said:
Constantly dwell on the teacher’s good qualities,
Don’t think of faults, and even if you see any, consider them as good qualities:
“They are surely my own perception, for the teacher has no faults.”
Think this sincerely, and use the antidote of parting and restraint.
Moreover, should you have a disrespectful thought in a dream with regard to the teacher’s conduct, you must part from it as soon as you wake up, as is explained in the Display of the Perfected Wheel:
If in the course of a dream
You see faults in the teacher,
Part from that the moment you awake.
Should you fail to part from it, it will grow into
The cause for rebirth in the Hell of Ultimate Torment.
If you hear others speaking of faults in the teacher, do your best to find a way to stop them, and if you cannot do so, block your ears with your fingers and reflect on the teacher’s good qualities. You should not keep the company of such people or relax with them. As the Source of Nectar Tantra says,
If they criticize the diamond master,
Stop them by peaceful means or wrathful.
If you do not have the ability,
Mindfully block your ears.
Do not associate with them or talk to them;
If you frequent them
You will cook in the lower realms.
Nowadays there are many people who talk about the qualities of, say, a good dog: they extol its fine pedigree and loud bark, they claim how much fiercer it is than the most savage carnivores, and so forth; and they praise the excellence of their horses and cattle, saying how indebted they are to them.
But when it comes to the excellent qualities of a master who teaches the Dharma, rarer than a star in the daytime, it seems, are those who think about all the qualities their teachers have and all the kindness they have shown.
Point at yourself, now, and think carefully: we do not even have as much regard for our teacher as for our horses and cattle and dogs; how could we ever attain accomplishment that way?
Reflect and call to mind even the smallest of your teachers’ good qualities. Think of their kindness — even just a single verse of a scripture that they have transmitted to you, or a cup of tea, or simply an approving look. By thinking about this, not just once, but again and again, your devotion will grow.
In this manner, work hard at the different ways to please your teachers: by serving them with material offerings, you will fill the measure of the two accumulations; by serving them with your body and speech, you will purify the obscurations of your body, speech, and mind; and, most importantly, by serving them with your practice, you will hold the teachings of the practice lineage. The benefits of so doing are described in the Sutra Requested by Maitreya:
Know that all attainment—all the mass of perfect liberation and vision of primal wisdom of the Listeners, Solitary Realizers, and Unsurpassable Buddhas — all of it arises from having perfectly followed a spiritual friend. Maitreya, you should also know that the benefit and happiness of sentient beings all arises from one’s own sources of good, and those too arise from the spiritual friend.
In the Sutra Requested by Ratnacuda we read:
Child of the gods, by following and venerating a spiritual friend, you will see everything as a pure Buddhafield, you will obtain thesupreme concentration of great compassion, you will never be without transcendent wisdom, you will bring sentient beings to full maturity, and all your hopes will be perfectly fulfilled.
And the Great Omniscient One says:
As a result, unbiased pure perception arises,
One is trained in loving kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta,
Experiences and realization naturally grow,
One acts on an infinite scale for others’ good
And accomplishes all their wishes in accordance with the Dharma.
And so on—all this is widely dealt with in numerous texts.
This completes a brief account of how to follow the spiritual friend, who is the root of the path.
- Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom
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