“The courageous/heroic teacher and student, since they would stray from the same samaya, first should examine the connection between the master and disciple.”
“Individuals should not evaluate individuals. If an individual evaluates another individual they will be destroyed. Only someone like me who is able to evaluate an individual can do that.” –Shakyamuni Buddha
“The guru needs to care for a student with love and compassion. That is why examining the teacher’s thinking is very important. If the student checks whether that guru has a pure intention, love and compassion, and they discover they do not have pure intention, love and compassion, then they should not make any connection with them.” –17th Karmapa (Day 6)
Introduction
In Day Six (the final day) of this year’s teachings on the Fifty Verses on the Guru, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, discusses the 6th and 7th Verses of the root text on the reason why both the guru and student have to examine well each other before making a Vajrayana connection, otherwise if they make the connection with an unqualified person/vessel, whoever has an impure intention, they will both stray from and violate samaya, which would lead both the student and guru to the lower realms and not getting good results in this and future lives. The 17th Karmapa looked visibly moved to tears when talking about the importance of a teacher first knowing and examining well a potential student’s main motivation for requesting the Dharma.
The 17th Karmapa then cited the advice by the Buddha to a King that one can never really know the inner qualities or faults of a person, unless one is a Buddha and so one should be very careful before coming to any judgements about a person. But then how can someone examine the guru or student?
The Karmapa cited a text called the Hundred Deeds, which contains eight signs by which one can examine the character of an individual if necessary to do so. These are ‘external’ things both guru and student can check about a person, such as their daily habits, what they are interested in studying or listening to, the places they regularly visit and people they spend a lot of time with, do they drink alcohol, take drugs, smoke, their livelihood etc. For example, what do they do for a living? Do they hang out or are close with negative-minded, dishonest and unvirtuous people (e.g. criminals)? These are also ways to examine the guru or student. For a short clip of this part of the teaching in the original Tibetan with English captions, see here.
The teaching ended by citing scriptures that state it would be very rare, if not impossible for a guru in this kind of era to have all the qualities, and so as long as they have more qualities (at least an eighth of them), compassion being the first and foremost, then we could rely on them. The 17th Karmapa cited Marpa Lotsawa as a guru who was highly qualified and realised, but never really lost his short-temper, as an example of how gurus are human beings and not gods. He joked that some people look up to the Karmapa so much that they wonder if he is human and needs to go to the toilet!
On a personal note, listening to this teaching, I was struck by how so many people taking (and giving) Vajrayana online empowerments, have not examined each other at all so have no idea if they are qualified or not. Personally, I myself have been fortunate to ‘get to know’ teachers more directly and personally, and I know how important and valuable that is. Sometimes a teacher’s public and private persona are very different (like a Jekyll and Hyde character). One very quick way to check a teacher before relying on them in my experience is to ask them some challenging questions about the Buddha Dharma, or about their personal habits or lives, if they react in an angry, aggressive, unfriendly, unkind way etc., even worse blocking you access to them or the community, it is probably safe to say they lack the necessary qualities of love, compassion and patience. After all, unless one is doing or saying something highly unethical or disruptive to a group or people, there is no reason at all for a Buddhist teacher to react that way to a sentient being interested in attaining full awakening, right? There are so few of them after all.
May we all have the heroic courage to examine a guru well and not settle for mere crumbs out of our precious and rare hunger for the Dharma, and may we meet a courageous, heroic guru who is not concerned with the worldly dharmas of fame, praise, fortune, power and so on. Offered to the long-life and health of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and the flourishing of Buddha Dharma and the Vajrayana teachings.
Music? Heroes by David Bowie, and Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler, and for a little light-heartedness, Getting to Know You from the King and I, “getting to know you are precisely my cup of tea……”.
Transcribed and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 3rd March 2024.
Fifty Verses on the Guru transcript
17th Karmapa, Day 6
“Today is the last day of the Arya Kshema Spring Teachings. If we follow the outline of Drogon Chophag’s Concise Summary, there are the points on the composition, the points regarding the text and the concluding summary. These are three main sections and we are on the middle one, the points regarding the text.
This part has two sub-topics:
1) what should be done before you take a master, and
2) what should be done after you take a master.
So we are on the first one, what should be done before you take a master, which has three subtopics:
1) how to request them to be your vajra master/guru
2) in particular, how to request a householder or a junior/new monastic to be your master
3) how to examine them in order to have mutual confidence in each other
Today, we are now speaking about 3) examining the connection to have confidence in each other. This has two subtopics:
1) The reason to examine the connection
2) The qualifications/characteristics
1) The reason to examine the connection/each other
If we look at it according to Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary, in the brief explanation how to follow the Guru in general. Within that there are two main topics, and we are on the reason why they should examine each other.
Why it is Logically Necessary to Venerate the Guru: Verse 6 of Fifty Verses on the Guru
So today, we are on the reason to examine the mutual connection/each other.
“The teacher and student, since they would stray from the same samaya,
The courageous/heroic ones first should examine
the connection between the master and disciple.”
This teaches the reason why they should examine each other.
[Translator’s note: I have changed the order and words of some of this verse. For some reason, the translator did not translate the word ‘pawo’ as hero/courageous and used the word ‘wise’ instead. For me, this does not fit the meaning/feel of that Tibetan word.]
Yesterday, I read a quotation from the Kālacakra tantra commentary, Stainless Light, which says that some people say when you practice the mantra Vajrayāna, the guru or master from whom you receive the tantric empowerment, transmission and instructions and the way you should follow them is according to the tantras it says, the master’s qualities should be adopted and their faults should never be adopted. So some say that Vajra masters who have received the supreme empowerment, whether the guru is qualified or has faults is not something we should examine, we should follow them as they are. If we do that and follow them like that, then it will be alright they say. However, the people who say this are actually fools who do not know how to practice the secret mantra Vajrayāna. The reason for this is in the Vajrayāna, the Buddha himself said we need to examine the guru who gives us the empowerment, transmission and instructions. The Guru Vajradhara taught this.
It is also said in the Fifty Verses that we should not take someone who is cruel, arrogant, uncompassionate and so on. So it is very important for us to examine the guru before we take them. Once we have started to rely on them, after that, if we realise the guru does not have the qualities, then we should speak nicely to them. One should not immediately say: “Oh you do not have the qualifications!”. You should make an offering of a little bit of money or something, and then skilfully show them some respect and extract and distance yourself from them. Instead of continuing to rely on them.
Once you have started to follow them, if you understand that the guru does not have qualifications then you need to distance yourself in a skillful way. If one did not need to examine the teacher, then there would be no need for the Buddha to say that, as it is quoted in the Stainless Light.
We cannot know if someone has actual faults or not, unless we are a Buddha
It is possible we may have a doubt here, which is that, when it says we have to examine the guru, how can we really estimate and know the qualities or faults in someone else’s being? Is this something we can really know for ourselves? When we look at whether someone has faults or qualities, we are mainly looking at them from their external expressions of body and speech but these are actual inner, mental qualities. So, we cannot say the faults and qualities are just the external appearances. It is possible they may have no faults on the outer level but have faults on the inner level and vice versa. So, we cannot just consider the qualities we can see of their external actions of body and speech. We have to examine the character and nature of that person, to see if they have qualities or faults.
If we try to examine someone else, can we really do that? If we think about it logically this is a really crucial question. If we say we can understand them, that we can really tell whether someone else has faults or qualities, then there are quotations where Buddha says:
“Individuals should not evaluate individuals. If an individual evaluates another individual they will be destroyed. Only someone like me who is able to evaluate an individual can do it. “
We cannot really rely on a person’s external appearances of body and speech, or how they appear to us for a short period. We cannot really say “this person is good or bad”. If we are bold and immediately make the decision that “this person is like that”, unless one is like the Buddha, this is very dangerous.
As the Buddha said, “Someone like me can evaluate an individual”, if a Buddha or someone like that is able to evaluate beings, but ordinary people cannot, then individuals should not evaluate individuals.
The four things one should not ignore/disregard: The Buddha’s advice to a King
Likewise, there is also a commentary by Arya Nagārjuna on the Prajnaparamita in One Hundred Thousand Lines, preserved in Chinese, which is not in Tibetan. There are the Vinaya texts and the Sutra texts, this is in the Sutra texts, in which there is quotation from the four Agama scriptures, the Buddha is saying to the King Ajatashatra (Magyedra), there are four things that you must not scorn/disregard.
The first analogy is even a young Prince will become the King, when they are little they have the hope that they will become the King, so you should not belittle or scorn them. This is something that King Ajashastra would understand because he was a King. Even a young Prince should not be scorned, because they will take care of you in the future. That is the first analogy.
The second was if you have avenomous snake, like in India, a small snake like an asp. Because even a small amount of poison from them can kill a person, one should not scorn/disregard them. That is the second analogy.
The third is a spark of fire, that could be the condition that makes an entire mountain burn, it has that capacity to do that. Even a tiny spark should not be disregarded or ignored.
Likewise, if you have a young novice monk or nun, in Lhasa language we say “little monks”. Even such a young monk should not be disregarded because in the future they may achieve the powers of a miraculous being. So, they may be able to gain powers and produce miracles and so one should not belittle or disregard them.
Likewise, if you have a young novice monk or nun, in Lhasa language we say “little monks”, even such a young monk should not be disregarded because in the future they may achieve the powers of a miraculous being. So, they may be able to gain powers and produce miracles and so one should not belittle or ignore that.
Thus, in brief, when we look at the words of the Buddha, the main topic he is speaking about is that we should not disregard, ignore, or underestimate a person saying ‘This person is like that.” We should not judge other people saying: “This person is good, this person is bad.” We should not decide who they are ourselves. What other people are thinking, or what qualities they have in their mindstreams, or powers they have, or even if they are an emanation of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, we just cannot know.
When we look at someone who seems poor and they have nothing to eat and no clothes to wear, in the future, that person might become a very rich person or even the leader of a country. So we should not ignore them. These days, in shops and stores, no matter who comes in they say you should treat them all properly whether they have good clothes, or it looks like they have a nice complexion and we think they are better. Someone who is wearing poor clothes, it seems like they do not look so good but we should not disregard them or look down on them. Sometimes, rich people often wear poor clothes, when you look at them you would never think they are rich, but then in the end, when they buy something then you know that person has a lot of money and are very rich. Before they buy anything though, you have no way of knowing. You might think they are just some ordinary materially poor person. Even in big stores, people need to view all people the same because it is impossible to know who is rich or not.
Likewise, in the Ascertainment of Validity (Pramāṇaviniścaya; ཚད་མ་རྣམ་ངེས་ by Dharmakirti) it says:
“There is no evidence/sign from which one can ascertain another’s faults or qualities.”
There is quite a bit on this subject. The main thing and the intent of this, is that there is no inference based on facts that could tell you 100 percent if someone has qualities or faults. Just from the power of facts alone, we cannot see or say. If one asks, can you see it from another person’s expressions of body and speech? You can infer it in terms of their conduct of body and speech but we cannot actually see their inner qualities. We can only infer from their behaviour but it is not certain. The reason is because from most expressions of body and speech it is difficult to say whether they have faults or qualities. Because most of our actions of body and speech are made up by the mind. We plan them and think I will do this. As our acts and speech are preceded by mental fabrication, even if someone has greed or hatred they might act as if they do not. Even if they are free of greed and desire, they may seem as if they have it. So, as we can think about things in different ways, we cannot really say with total certainty that their conduct is bad based only on their expressions of body and speech and that they are totally horrible people. Also, we might think someone is a really great and upstanding person, a good person with qualities, but actually they have a really dark and negative heart. Thus, we cannot hold the expressions of their body and speech as authoritative ways to examine their characteristics.
The opposite of that is instead of just looking at their expressions of body and speech, we need to examine the signs of their behaviour, which means once you get to know them, you examine them over and over again. If you watch them for a long time, only then you might get an idea of what they are like. However, most of us, only look briefly and superficially at another person’s conduct or their outer expressions and regard our immediate feelings as more important. So it becomes difficult for us to really get to know people and familiarise ourselves with them again and again.
The Eight Signs to evaluate someone’s character in the Hundred Deeds: their deeds, habits, livelihood, places, friends, companions, interests etc.
What it says in the Sutras, is that you should not judge others and we should not be very arrogant and say a person is like this, or that. However, if we have some need that we have to judge another person, then we can evaluate them through the eight signs (Tagpa Nampa Gye) that are taught in the Hundred Deeds (Karmaśataka). As is taught in the Vinaya Sutras, you have to examine people through the eight signs of their normal/regular conduct.
What are the eight signs? One must examine a person’s virtuous and non-virtuous conduct. For example, what is that person’s sphere like? What places do they usually go to? For example, some people like to go to restaurants, some to bars and drink alcohol, some like to go gambling and so on. You need to see their sphere and the places they ordinarily go. Are their loved ones and relatives negative or unethical people? Are their friends negative and unethical people? Are their acts of body and speech unethical or not? Also, what is their livelihood? How do they earn their money/living to support themselves? One must examine if it is a wrong livelihood or a good one. Also, what do they listen to? This is difficult to explain, perhaps this means what do they study or watch? Do they usually listen to Dharma, not unethical things? Some people like to listen to and study various different things, that needs to be checked.
In any case, through these eight different signs we can examine a person. We need to look at them from all different directions, then one can come to know them and only then can you really begin to get a good idea about who they are, and see what they are like. Otherwise, if we see just some slight fault in another person and we look down on them for that, that is not good.
The reason is because individuals have many faults but merely because one has a few faults you cannot say that they are that kind of a person categorically, just like that. So in that way we cannot really measure a person and tell if it is good or bad behaviour or not. We cannot really judge people, but sometimes you do have to make a judgement about them and you have to be careful how you think about them, and look at them through the eight different ways of examining them and think about them from many different perspectives.
Primarily, we need to become well-acquainted with them and not just immediately look at a few of their minor faults and actions and decide they are a certain kind of person categorically. That is the main point here. [For video clip of this section of the teaching in original Tibetan with English captions, see here].
The ‘courageous/heroic’ learned expert way of examining
The text says we have to examine the connection between the guru and disciple. If the student wants to follow and go along together with the guru, they have to examine them first. Who is doing this examination? The hero [here the Tibetan says hero/courageous]. So, here ‘hero’ essentially means people who are intelligent, who are learned experts. Someone who has courage and intelligence. Such learned experts should examine them.
The person should not just be following them out of ignorance and blind faith. It has to be an individual who knows what needs to be abandoned and adopted. They need to examine the person’s possessions, clothing, speech and conduct and see if it is good or not. Their intentions must be good their motivations must be pure. Likewise, they should also check the people who are connected to that student what they are like. Then, if the teacher checks them thoroughly in that way, they will get an idea of who the student is and their motivation . Then, the motivation and aim of the student for requesting the Dharma from the teacher, we will know that. The most important thing is if the student wants to follow a guru, and requests Dharma from them, their motivation and primary aim for doing that need to be examined and clearly understood. That is the most important thing. [The 17th Karmapa looks visibly moved to tears here when talking about this].
Why is it necessary to examine people thoroughly and well? Because most worldly people have impure intentions, and there are a huge amount of people who come with impure intentions . They do not want to serve the guru at all. They feel they should not have to attend to, or serve the guru in any way. Or they think they do not have to meditate or practice much and will immediately get a result without making effort. There are many people like that. They are like a King, who has power and money, who think by using their power and money they can get whatever they want, and everything comes to them. That is the sort of person talking about here. Most worldly people have impure intentions and their motivations are not that pure. They don’t want to work too hard yet they want to achieve a great purpose and immediately gain special powers. There are many people who request the Dharma with that kind of impure, worldly intention. For that reason, the student must be examined and checked to see if their motivation is pure or not. If we understand that their motivation is pure, then we make the connection. If it is not pure, then one should not make the connection, it is taught. That is when the guru examines the student.
There is also a time before the student relies on the guru, that the student needs to examine the guru. They need to check if it is appropriate to make a connection with this guru, and will the connection bring benefit or not? What is the reason for checking the guru? As there are many worldly people with not so good intentions, some people who may not be qualified gurus or masters, pretend to be qualified masters. They speak the authentic Dharma and say nice words that they think people want them to say and hear. They are like charlatans and say all sorts of things that they think people want to hear and say and deceive them. That is why the student must examine the if the teacher’s motivation is pure or not. If the student checks whether that guru has a pure intention or not, and has real love and compassion, and discover they do not have pure intention, love and compassion, then they should not make any connection with them.
Both guru and student will break samaya if they make an impure Vajrayana connection
So if there is a student who has impure intentions and they make a connection with a guru with impure intentions, what happens? The samaya will be violated. Both the student and teacher both are equal if having the same violation. This means the guru will violate samaya and the student will violate the samaya. There is a lot to say about samaya. This is not the point to talk about all the details of samaya. The guru will break samaya and the student will break it too. Because of that both guru and student will have bad results in the future and this can become the cause for falling to the lower realms. Thus, if a student has impure intentions then the guru should not make a connection with them. if the guru has impure intentions then the student should not make a connection with them. If you make a connection to someone with impure intentions it is difficult for the student and for the master, and vice versa. Thus, it is very important that they have pure intentions. [Here is a short video clip I made of this part of the teaching, in Tibetan with English captions.]
The reason for this, when you are looking for a guru, you think what sort of guru you want or need and have this idea about what sort of lama you want. You might think “I want a guru like this”, and different people have different ideas and thinking is not the same. Some people think a guru should be someone who does a lot of practice, maybe someone who is a little bit strict about practice. Some people want a guru who is really compassionate who is not too strict, who is kind of spacious. In the world , if we are looking for a partner, people have different ideas about what sort of partner we want right? You might think you want someone who looks good, or who is tall, or who is very stable. They might have many different hopes in a partner, right? No matter what sort of hope you have then using that hope as your basis you go looking for that person. So your motivation is what is important. Then naturally, you can see whether you will meet someone who matched your ideal and motivation. So the motivation is very important and then you will become closer.
In Jetsun Dragpa Gyeltsen’s commentary, it is basically the same. Before making a connection with a teacher you have to examine them. If you make the connection of master-disciple before examining them, the problem or danger is that you may violate samaya. Therefore, one must examine the connection.
Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary is basically the same. The guru who is worthy of respect and the student who pays respect, before they both make a mutual connection of guru and disciple, it is important they first examine each other before doing that. The person who is receiving the Vajrayana Dharma and the person who is giving it, the giver should look at whether the recipient is going to be a receptive vessel or not. The receiver needs to look at whether the giver of the Dharma has the qualifications/characteristics or not.
If you make a connection with anyone at all, there is a danger that the guru will give the Dharma to people who are not appropriately qualified. If the guru does this, then they will violate their samaya. if the guru is unable to keep the samaya, then the student will violate their samaya. It is not only the guru who will violate the samaya but the student will also break it. So for this reason, prior examination is very important.
The question of being an appropriate vessel and the Dharma is given to a student
Likewise, when we think about Buddhism, we think about a person’s inclinations, capacities and interests. Once you know that, you cannot just say that the Dharma is going to benefit someone. we believe the Dharma is important, but is it appropriate for everyone? It is difficult to say that. Even within Buddhists, if we ask is Mahayana Dharma appropriate for everyone? That is also difficult to say. There are people for whom the foundation Hinayana Vehicle is more appropriate than the Mahayana Dharma. The same with the Vajrayana Dharma, this is very important and sacred, but that does not mean we should insist to others it is very sacred and important. You cannot ignore whether the person is an appropriate vessel for Vajrayana Dharma or not and insist they study it and so on. So when we are giving teachings on the Buddha Dharma, we need to think about this. Should we say it is important and appropriate for everyone? It is difficult to say that, right? If we say that, then it does not matter what people’s capacities and inclinations are.
Those who to avoid and who to follow after examination
The Sanskrit is a little bit different than in the Tibetan, the difference is the Tibetan words are: “The wise one does not take them as a guru”: There is no question of them taking them as a guru. In the Samodaya Sutra , it says those who are intelligent, when they see an individual who has these seven faults, they should not follow them as a guru, nor should they accept them as a student. This is how it is understood. The Sanskrit is a bit different, but I won’t speak about this in detail.
If we discuss this as to how it is described in the Sanskrit commentary, it discusses it in terms of the seven faults. When it says the ‘intelligent’, it means someone who has flawless intelligence of a learned person. A person who has these seven qualities should not be followed as a guru, nor should they be accepted as a student. If we go through each of the faults:
1) Uncompassionate
According to the Sanskrit commentary, compassion is the characteristic of the wish beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Anyone who goes outside of that is lacking compassion. Someone who does not have the compassion at all of wanting to extract people from suffering.
2) Angry
This is someone who is always aggressive and negative and cannot bear anything and cannot practice any patience. If someone says a bad word to them, or does something bad to them, they immediately try to harm that person,. They are a short-tempered person.
3) Cruel
Means a harsh mind, someone with malice who has really evil intentions.
4) Arrogant
Full of themselves. They have a few minor qualities, or are good looking, then they get proud about it. Or they have a bit of money, then they get full of themselves because of that,
5) Greedy
Means wanting other’s things. When other people have things you don’t have, so they think “if I could only get that for myself” etc.
6) Unrestrained
Means someone who is not careful and who is not even-keeled. Someone whose conduct has not much awareness or carefulness.
7) Self-aggrandizing
Means praising oneself thinking “I am the greatest”. Praising yourself and criticising everyone else. You are always criticising other people and saying “I am the best, I have the best discipline, I am a really great person.
The Intent of Padmavati: Explanation of the seven faults
There is also a textual commentary on the Intent of Padmavati. This is probably a commentary on the Chakrasamvara Sambharadaya Tantra. In any case, there is commentary on the Intent of Padmavati, which says that someone who is lacking compassion, angry, cruel, arrogant, unrestrained, greedy or self-aggrandizing, when it explains the meaning of these, when it gives the words of the tantras, it says:
“The uncompassionate are like field workers. The angry are overcome by words. The cruel have harsh and pitiless minds. The arrogant are full of themselves. The greedy wants to consume what they should not consume.”
It explains each of these words. He gives more detailed explanation from the tantras. I thought this was very nice. So here, if we think about it in terms of the Intent of Padmavati’s commentary.
Uncompassionate means like field or farm workers. How should we understand that? it is not saying all farm workers lack compassion, but what it means is there is a way they are uncompassionate. Here it is saying the way they are uncompassionate. Normally, even the tiniest insects if one does not consider them and just kill them and don’t care at all, they are very annoying right? They bite you, and if one immediately smashes and kills them with your hands, and kill them all the time. Someone like that, who even the smallest insect do not think about the life of even the tiniest insect, and they don’t give it any value and kill it at the slightest provocation. that is what is meant by the uncompassionate. With humans, it is rarer to find humans that kill other humans. But the people who really value the lives of small insects and creatures, that sort of person has compassion, the opposite is people who do not value their lives at all and kill them.
Angry means people whose minds are disturbed and they are not patient and they cannot bear anything and they immediately say harsh things and insult people. Even if they don’t fight with them, they speak meanly to them.
Cruel means someone who is harsh with a pitiless mind. A really malicious minds, They think whatever will harm the other person that is exactly what they will do. They do whatever they can to harm the other person. That is what is meant by cruel. Especially those who are cruel to monastics. When they see a monastic they can hardly bear to look at them,
Arrogant means being full of yourself because of your own lesser qualities. So you have something like being a from a good family, and you feel arrogant about that. Or maybe you are good looking and have nice hair and you feel arrogant about that and special. So there is a little something that makes you think you are really great. That is what is arrogant means.
Greed is as I said before, wanting to consume things of others. If there are other people’s things that we should not consume but get really greedy and think if I could only have that and get greedy for it.
Unrestrained means careless like when you are drunk. If you have a lot of alcohol you are unable to control your conduct and direct it, and are careless with body, speech and mind and cannot control it.
Self-aggrandizing is criticising other people’s qualities and praising yourself.
This applies to both the wise guru and the wise student: Jetsun Dragpa’s Commentary
In Jetsun Dragpa Gyeltsen’s commentary, it says when talking about the qualities, first is the qualities to be avoided and the second is the qualities to be taken. First he teachers the qualities of someone to avoid. So he says that the it goes both ways, the wise guru and the wise student should not take up anyone with these qualities. Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary is saying exactly the same thing.
In any case, when we are talking about being uncompassionate, if you do not have the wish to free all sentient beings from their suffering, Then you are not appropriate to be a Mahayana Dharma, because it is most important for the guru to have the compassion first. Angry, cruel and arrogant. Greed is clinging to possessions tightly. Unrestrained is being loose about engaging in the precepts and the three gates. Self-aggrandizing is boasting about even the slightest lesser qualities. These are not good.
However, from another perspective, if we think about the qualities of someone to be avoided, we can get a basic idea of them from that, one thing we need to consider is, these days in a degenerate time. To see someone who is free of all faults and possesses all the qualities, it is difficult to find a vajra master who is like that.
So in Approaching the Ultimate by Padmakara it says:
“As it is an age of strife, the gurus have the qualities and faults mixed, they are not entirely free of unethical actions in all ways. Whoever has greater qualities and behaves well is one whom disciples should follow.”
So if one weighs up the faults and the qualities, if the qualities are a little bit heavier then that is OK. It also says in the Tantra Subhava’s Questions that:
“Those with all qualities are extremely rare in times of strife. Someone who has half or a quarter or an eighth of the qualities should be followed as a friend of the mantra practitioner.”
At the very least, the minimum they should have an eighth of the qualities. Other Kadampa masters have written in their writings, is that the minimum qualification for a guru, is between this life and the next life, they consider the next one to be more important. Between the world and the Dharma, they should consider the Dharma more important. It has to be from their hearts. Who really works hard at practising the Dharma for the sake of future lives. Who is diligent for the sake of future lives.
Also, there is Tsongkhapa’s Great Stage of Mantra what it says is absolutely necessary for a guru to have three qualities, summarising the words of great Tibetan Buddhist masters. The qualifications of a Tantric guru is someone
- who has received the complete empowerment and abides in vows and samaya.
- someone who has seen the practice of the gurus and lineages, knows the ten suchnesses and is well-versed in the empowerment rituals.
- Has done the approach practice and is not being forbidden to do it by their deity.
They have to have these three qualities. So how shall we say it? The way we need to think is that, the guru whom we are looking for, when we say guru, it is a person. We are looking for a person, not a god. That is important to understand. We think they have to be free of all faults and have all qualities and so must be like some sort of a god. We don’t see them as being a human.
The example of Marpa Lotsawa and his short-temper
Like if we make a list of all the faults and qualities and we are checking them off on a checklist, and if we do that, it is difficult to find a guru with no faults. For example, there are many authoritative gurus who have these faults, who are short-tempered like Marpa Lotsawa. His character he was very short-tempered. Even when he was very young, he was very easily angered. He drank a lot, and liked to fight and so his father said, I have to send my child to get some education to see if he can calm down a bit, otherwise there is a danger he will kill someone, or someone else will kill him. He is not going to turn out well otherwise. So he sent him to Drogmi lotsawa to study. And he had to insist on him going, because he was incorrigible and difficult. Later, Marpa himself became a great master, scholar and siddha. But he didn’t change his short temper.
Milarepa followed Marpa who gave him a hard time. It was well-known in the area of Lhodrag, they would say “that guy from Lato has driven Marpa crazy. He is going to treat him so badly it will kill him.” People would say that in the area. So from one perspective, the guru is a person, they are a human not a god. If we want someone has no faults and all the qualities, exactly as they are described in the texts, that is very difficult to find.
Remembering the guru is a human and the benefits of a guru seeming to have some faults
Not only is it difficult but from another perspective, maybe it is actually because they have faults that it is more beneficial for us, because when we see we they have faults, we can see it is someone we can go with, and many people used to think this way.
For example, the Karmapa is considered very important and people looked up to the Karmapa too much and wondered if he was actually human. They think he could not be human. There were people who asked me if I actually went to the toilet or not! They thought he must be like a god and cannot be like a human. Some people thought the Karmapa did not go to the toilet. Sometimes it is too extreme when thinking about a guru, we think they have to like some sort of a god who has all the qualities and none of the faults. However, if you are looking for a friend, what sort of a friend do you want? When following a spiritual friend, it is someone who will show us the path. That is like the bare minimum we are looking for. So we need to be earnest about it. We cannot make friends with everyone, we need to see what is important. The main thing is the more interest you take in it the more value you give it. That is what it depends on, your motivation.
So with the Guru it is not so easy to take care of students, the guru has to show the students, this is the path for this and future lifetimes, just doing it to get well being for yourself is not enough, you have to do it with compassion , that is the way they need to care for students. Both the guru and the student have to have that way of thinking, otherwise, when you think about many qualities it is like something that can never come down to earth, there’s so much to say, but when we actually want to put it into practice and you have to come to that point where you have to do that, you cannot. If that is how it is, then that is not alright. It has to be someone who we can actually bring into our practice in our actual human life. Something we can work with in this lifetime. Otherwise, it is just dry words and will not help us, it is like a kind of half understanding the Dharma that is of no benefit to ourselves. So it is important for us to understand that.
The Arya Kshema event and reasons for its institution
Now I will give a summary. This year for the Arya Kshema teachings it was good that we were able to begin the teachings on this. However, at the beginning I got a bad flu, even worse then when I had COVID-19. I got COVID I was cured in two to three days. But this time it was really bad flu and a very bad obstacle. So for this reason, there were many days when I was unable to give teachings, so i would like to apologise for that.
That’s one thing. I want to say a few words about the Arya Khshema teachings was started a few years after I arrived in India. The reason for starting it is that in our Kagyu, our nuns should have just as the Kagyu Guncho, we need to have a similar format for the nuns. So the main reason was to increase the enthusiasm and courage of the nuns. So the main thing is for the nuns from your own side, to become more courageous and have enthusiasm in your mind. The actual thing is you get a little bit discouraged, then no matter how much the people around you say things then it is not going to make much difference. You need to become more courageous, this is a good opportunity and stage for this and you use the powers of your body, speech and mind to spread the teachings of the Buddha in general, In particular, so that the nuns community may flourish.