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20060309GRAANYALSGuiding Light

JHNY

“Entertaining the Spiritual Path”

“Guiding Light: Value of Spiritual Teacher”

Gehlek Rimpoche

GR: Welcome here tonight. The subject what I have to talk to you tonight actually has to be two. That was last Thursday’s subject, called “Entertaining the Spiritual Path.” Then also we have tonight’s subject, which is “Guiding Light: The Value of a Spiritual Teacher.” These two come out separately, I think they are based on basic principles of Tsongkhapa’s teaching of Lam Rim. So, the first one is dharma. We’re going to call it spiritual path or dharma too. Generally, a spiritual path is necessary for us today. From the Buddha onwards, that question is raised. Tsonghkhapa emphasized this very strongly. If you do not have the spiritual path in our life something is missing. Not only something is missing but some very important thing is missing.

The metaphor I get is very Tibetan, very sorry to be using that, it may not be very relevant, not only may not be very relevant, people may not even like it, so anyway it is popping up on my head, and I am going to use it. We the Tibetans, in the olden times, had something nice, called “tu”, which is cheesecake, the dry Tibetan cheese, mixed with butter, and dry honey. So mix them up and make it sort of into a cheesecake. This used to be a treat in old Tibet. Without butter the cheesecake will be not really worth it. They did not have any other substitutes in those days. There was no margarine or olive oil, or any of those ingredients, and if you use the sesame seed oil it will smell terrible, so what makes the “tu” great is the butter.The main ingredient is the cheese, but it is the butter that brings moisture. Otherwise, you just have this Tibetan dry cheese, from which mostly the cheese cakes are made, although they have fresh cheese too. So without the butter they can only add water and that does not really taste good and three days later it will go bad. So the cheese cake becomes so great because of the butter. Good butter makes great cheese cake. Likewise, what makes our life great is our spiritual path. If we do not have that, then it is just a handful of dry, smelly Tibetan cheese, which does not become good cheesecake at all.

Likewise, our life, in order to become good, has to have a spiritual path, otherwise it is mere business, or moneymaking or worldly pleasure, or whatever, with lots of physical, mental, emotional troubles and that’s how we end our life. That is what normally happens. So what makes life worthwhile is the spiritual path. That not only makes the life worthwhile within our lifetime, it gives us hope and a chance for our lives thereafter, so there are lots of other reasons.

So also, if you do not have a spiritual path, what happens? There are a lot of difficulties with our American life today. 90% of the people, including ourselves, have a lot of difficulties: mental, physical, emotional. These are the sufferings of dissatisfaction in life. The sufferings of jealousy, hatred, and all others, you name it. All negative emotions. We all have them. Not only we have them, they control our life. They control our life and bring tremendous pains and sufferings. And no matter what pains we have, we can only do one thing: take pills. Take aspirin. And that is all. That is all we can do to that conclusion. Lately we have taken to seeing the psychologists, and psychotherapists and they will make you half crazy anyway. It is not that I am criticizing therapists. But everybody is walking through the water up to here and then when you begin to find out something a little more than others, you begin to understand half.

That is exactly what Kyabje Ling Rimpoche told me, because he was urging me to teach the Three Principles of the Path in the FPMT center in Dharamsala. I said, “I know nothing about it.” He said, “I know as much as you. I have no experience.” He said, “If you go into the water, get yourself soaked up to here, and you will begin to understand halfway through.” And that is exactly what we do. All the therapists are doing the same thing. We really do not know. We are all going through that. Sometimes there is great help. Sometimes it goes OK. Sometimes we do some more damage. So that is what it is. Without a spiritual path we have no other thing to do, except that. With a spiritual path one can do something spiritually, either help or ease our pain, mentally, emotionally, maybe physically. But mentally, emotionally, we can really ease it, as you all know. At least take advantage of the sufferings. The tong len, the meditation on give and take, where we take our own sufferings and all those sufferings that others may be suffering in future, etcetera, like great bodhisattva activities, are also coming out of the spiritual path. Without all this, we do not have anything else to do, except just bear it, and learn how to live with it or take some pills and cut into pieces. So that is all we do. So it is necessary, there is no doubt spiritual path is necessary.

Once you establish that spiritual path is necessary, then either you entertain the spiritual path or the spiritual path entertains you. The title is interesting, “Entertaining the Spiritual Path.” You know, I thought that last Tuesday in Ann Arbor, I have the same title, which was supposed to be here last Thursday, somehow because of the snow I did not make it, right? That was the one. Plane did not fly, that is right. So I was here for the weekend for the wisdom teaching but I could not do the Thursday. So anyway, entertaining the spiritual path, I do not know if the spiritual path is performing dances and we are all there watching the concert of the spiritual path, or we are the one who is performing the concert and the spiritual path is watching and entertaining, whatever it is. Anyways, as long as it is a good spiritual path, a good spiritual path, then it does not matter whatever the tradition it might be: Judea-Chrisitian, Hindu-Buddhist, or whatever.

I mean, yes, do I have a preference personally, yes I do. My preference is Buddhism. And within the Buddhist, do I have preference, yes I do. My preference is the Gelugpa tradition, and Tsongkhapa’s tradition. And somehow I feel this is the most stainless sort of pure gold, refined pure gold, and that is me, my personal feeling. It does not mean it is what everybody else has to do that. No way. So what is really is good spiritual path, whatever it may be, Judea-Christian tradition, Hindu-Buddhist tradition, whatever it may be, it is OK. It needs to help the individual. That is what is needed. And that spiritual path has to be able to deliver the goods and has to be good one. Without which, you will be very limited, like if you have tiny little whatever, you know, spirit worshipping, or even ancestor worshipping, or voodoo, or whatever, all of those type is not that great. But something going beyond that, something going beyond the great traditions, no matter whatever it is, is fine. But first and foremost for us, how do we pick up what is right for me. Which does not mean we have to become scholar or professor, but we really have to learn what is all about it.

Without learning a little bit, you will not be able to know anything. Whatever you know will be only someone has told you. “Oh, it is good.” Or, “Oh, it is not that good, it is bad.” You know, that is somebody’s word. It is not a valid reason at all. And they are not good for us at all. Truly. They are not good for us. Because we are all educated, have a great mind, all of you, are great intelligent person here, you have a great mind, and if you cannot utilize your great common sense and understanding, utilize your mind, then it becomes extremely sad thing, because not only you have great mind, no matter whatever it is, or most of you, all of you, have gone through with great education, and education makes people educated. When you are educated you do not make stupid decision. That is education is all about it. And so the learning picks up what is in there, whether that is right for me or not. So the learning is extremely important. You have to learn it. If you do not learn it, then you have no power at all. The power what you can make decision, on the basis you can make decision, is the information power. Information you have to get it. That is from learning.

Learning requires, well I talked very in detail last Tuesday. I am not going to repeat here. However learning requires, looks like, open-mindedness. I did discuss that last Tuesday. I remember quite clearly. My thought came, do we need open-mindedness for a person to be a good spiritual path. It is a big question. Our tendency is yes. For me, yes, where I come from the Buddhism, Buddha emphasizes so much for learning, learning is like [Tibetan…..] the light that disappears the darkness of ignorance. It is the wealth, the great wealth that no one can take away, no thief can take away, no robbers can rob from you. It is one of the best wealth you can have. Information, learning. [Tibetan…] Best friend, that will never change, no matter how low you will become. Mentally, emotionally, financially, physically. No matter how low you become. Your friend of the information, learning, will never let you down. It is the weapon that can destroy and cut the ignorance. It is the best friend who can give you lot of suggestions and ideas. These are countless. If you read Tsom, there is a thing called Tsom, collection of the Buddha’s quality of learning. It is a huge volume. What I repeat a few of them, what I repeated at the beginning of the Lam Rim Chenmo, if you read it, it is all there. Did you read it? You did not read it? You only read the wisdom part of it. Yeah, if you really read it, it is there at the beginning of the Lam Rim Chenmo, so the learning is becomes very important. Without learning, what else can you do? You cannot even meditate.

People do meditate in this country. To my big surprise, in my personal experience, when I first came here in eighties, mid-eighties, I was not even sure, I do not speak English well, number one, and I was not even sure what is happening, everyone is talk about meditation, and Aura and Sandy told me you have to talk about meditation, so I said, “OK.” So I started saying meditation, the moment I said meditation, there is about twenty people in Ann Arbor, maybe less, ten people, maybe less. You know, everybody moved or said, or did something, “Oh.” So that is very good. Interesting. But open mind may be. But what every each and everyone of them think I have no idea. You know what, it is looking at the other person, and copying, and how to say it. That is fine, anybody can do. Look at the right-sided person, and look at the left-sided person, however they are sitting so you can do that. That is not a problem. The problem is what you think. That is the problem. You cannot copy, you can look at the person, person will be sitting like this, whatever it is, they are sitting, but we have no idea what they are thinking. Since you have no idea what they are thinking, so then, that is it. So this need to be learned.

So the Buddha has given three, sort of very funny message here, not very interesting, I have to make this short because that is not today’s subject. Suppposed to be last Thursday. So the metaphor here is the cup. If you want to pour water or nectar, both are t-a-r anyway, nectar or water, so if you want to put water in the cup, it has to be cup that should not have hole in the middle of the cup. And if you have the hole in the middle it will go down through the table and the floor and through everywhere else. So it is not right, right? So, likewise, you may pick up so many informations, and you may think, I heard this, I heard this, I know about it, I heard this, what is happening is you are just letting go, letting it go, you are not keeping it, you are just letting it go. Letting it go, you are hearing, hearing, letting it go, “I heard this, I heard this.” That does not help the individual at all. Whatever you have learned, purpose of learning is something they have to make difference to ourself. That is not there. It just goes away. And without having , without keeping it in mind, without effecting it, sometimes hearing so many things, even it can even be not so helpful. What we call it, people get kind of, it becomes everyday thing, it becomes usual thing, “Oh, I know, I know, I know,” it is daily chore, it does not matter, it is sort of something whatever is over there. It is sort of, you know, I do not know whatever you think, unnecessary or necessary, but sort of chore, it does not affect the individual, not only it does not effect the individual, it harms the person.

You know the example by the Tibetan teachers given earlier, the raw leather. Leather that is completely raw can be treated. And in Tibet there is no chemical or anything, old Tibet, I am talking about, you know, three, four hundred years ago, two, three hundred years ago. There is no chemical. Only what they treat leather is through butter again. The butter is what they apply, and treat the water, treat the leather. So when you treat the leather. So any raw leather, no matter how raw it is, frozen, raw, completely freezed for six months, even then it can be treated by butter. The leather what you use to keep butter, you cannot do anything. So buddha has given example. So the dharma and spiritual information can help people who may be very, sort of, sinful person, which is the normal language. Sinful person, can be very helpful, can help them. But people who heard so many things, but never do anything, sort of “I heard everything, I heard, I heard, I heard,” that will be like the leather used to keep butter. So that is, I am not saying, it, Buddha is saying it. Great earlier Tibetan masters used this metaphor to interpret what the Buddha is saying it. That is, can you switch off that, because that is constantly going to say it. So learning is good, but whatever you learn, you have to keep it, analyze it, do something with it. If you do not do it, keep on letting go, letting go, letting go, it will be cup with hole. Cup with hole will not only not maintain it, but it can be harmful too.

Second, if the cup is upside down, no matter how much you pour in, you are never going to listen, you are never going to listen because it is not going to go anything inside. It is upside down. You may sit in the place, you may read book, you may read information, but you already have pre-fabricated idea. You know exactly what it is. Not really rightly, if you know it rightly, exactly what you are going to do, that is great. But you made up some mind, you think, aha, that should be way. So you have a pre-fabricated mind, so you can see it in your face. When I am looking at you, when you have a pre-fabricated mind, when it meets with your idea, you go, “Oh, right, right.” But when it does not meet with your mind, it goes the other way around, that is what we do. So that means you are not really listening. It is upside down. The cup is upside down. No matter how much you pour, not much is going in. OK? That is number two.

Number three is yes it is open, yes you are going to pour it, whatever it is, but it is not clean, the cup is dirty, something else in there, unthinkable, maybe out of inner offering. Something, whatever it is. Something unthinkable is over here. So no matter what you pour in here, maybe you pour lion’s milk, in there, but still it is not going to be useable, drinkable, because it is dirty. And that is, even you collect the information, but you do not have a good motivation for it. You have the wrong motivation. Doing it for wrong purposes. And all of those. And in that case, even you pour, even you let the information in, it is not going to be useful. That is one thing. Another thing is, another thing is, over-analyzed. Over-analyzed, over-categorized, nothing really correct. People over-categorize everything, over-analyze, put into boxes, and called situation is under control. Which in the west we do very much. We pick up all this spiritual path, we pick up one box called, “Christian.” Then another box called, “Catholics.” Label it. Another box comes, “Jews.” Another box comes, “Hindus.” Another box comes, “Buddhist.” And then you say, “Ah. Situation is under control.” Right? There is no more messy. It is all organized. Right in their boxes. So anything that comes in, you start throwing in their boxes, you know, bu, bu, bu, bu, bu. So it becomes completely external, nothing is internal. And that is as good as, it falls in between the cup upside down and the cup dirty. In between that.

So that is why, whatever it is, it is, now, for this last two days, what we have drawn a conclusion for ourself, in other words, what you are going to take home for this last two days talk is: A: spiritual path is necessary for this person, that you can draw the conclusion by yourself. You remember that funny Tibetan joke, the cheesecake without butter is not going to be good. If it is cheesecake made by water, water and dry cheese, three days later it will be blue. Four days later it will grow hair. Five days later it will smell. Seven days later you cannot even look at it. So the spiritual path is like lubrication in the machine. And that is what the spiritual path will do. I am sorry to use that funny language. However. It is necessary. When it is necessary, first step is picking up the information. Information is the power on which you make the decisions. So picking up the information. In order to pick up the information, like the example of three different posture of cups.

I do not know why they do not use the fourth one, over-flowing. There is also over-flowing too, there is a problem, but first, let us use the three. And free of those three, with open mind, pick up information. That does not mean you have to agree and follow. Picking up information is one thing. Making decisions is another one. I mean, really, I mean maybe it is a different culture, the culture I was brought up, you listen to people, and people give you suggestions.That does not mean you have to do it. Suggestions been given by people, you go and ask people suggestions, some have great ideas, some have funny suggestions, and it is our mind that has to make the decision that is right to be taken or not to be taken, and some are taking in, some are through out. That is our own discretion. We have to have that. If we do not have it, we have to listen to everybody else, how are you going to function. We have ten people, have ten different ideas, and what are you going to do, have ten different personalities? So that is not going to happen. So therefore learning does not necessarily mean you have to do it. Learning gives you material to analyze. When you analyze you draw some conclusions. Not because he said so or she said so. Or even Buddha said so. I do not know whether you can say God said so.

Jerry Falwell will tell you, God told me. So God told Bush, God called up Bush in Oval Office and told him to kneel down and told him to invade Iraq. I do not know if they are going to listen to that or not. Other than that, just somebody said so is most invalid reason, Buddha included. Buddha himself said, “Do not buy because I said so. Check like gold, cut, burn, rub. When you are convinced it is pure gold, buy it. Otherwise throw it in the garbage.” That is what Buddhia himself said. Do not buy because I, Buddha, said so. So because so-and-so said so is very invalid reason. As a matter of fact it is quite pathetic. No matter who ever the person is. You are not using your mind. It is a wonderful mind. Intelligent, educated. And that is best tool what we have. Leave that on the back-burner of the stove and listen to some crazy guy who tells you what to do. I do not think it makes any sense at all. Information is power. Take it in. Analyze. Draw your conclusion. Meditate. It effects you. That is not stupid work. It is intelligence work. And that will be intelligence faith, not blind faith. Anyway. And listen, and analyze, and meditate, is the quality and it is what is meant, entertaining the spiritual path.

Today is my topic. When it came to the time I have to stop, I came to my actual topic today. It is “Guiding Light: Value of a Spiritual Teacher.” That means you have to examine me. Because I am sitting here claiming to be a spiritual teacher. So it is the time for you to perform operation to your spiritual teacher. That is it. Really true. If not, if you do not do it, what is wrong? There are tremendous amount of problem we have been through with the sixties, and thereafter. Even today, we have a problem. Remember. So it is very important. Number one, one has to know what qualifies the person to be a spiritual teacher. What does spiritual teacher mean. What is the responsibility of a spiritual teacher, and what is the relationship of me, the spiritual practitioner and my spiritual teacher. I was wondering if they were using guru or teacher but it is teacher. These are the questions we have to deal with. Yes, it is true, in the Buddhist teachings they tell you, look at your guru like Buddha. That is true. That does not mean you have to take every teacher, everybody, every teacher has to go through the scrutiny of my mind.

When I look at it, myself, honestly, I had now almost 42 different teachers I had in my life. Except Dalai Lama, everybody else I chose by myself. Except my first teacher, first two or three teachers, when I was a kid, they were there, whoever they may be. They may be named as a tutor or teacher or something, they are there. Except that, everybody, I talk about it, analyze, think about it, whether I want to take teaching from this person or that person, no matter how famous they might be. But for His Holiness it is different, because he has been His Holiness, temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet, and everybody else has been expected to be taking teaching from His Holiness. And especially the young His Holiness was giving his first teaching, and was assisted by both Ling Rimpoche and Trijang Rimpoche, both right and left hand side, standing near the throne, and giving help and everything, and who is not going to take it. Except that, everybody is, including Kyabje Ling Rimpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche, everybody. They are very famous, no doubt about it. But whether I wanted to take teaching from them or not went through with a lot of analysis. And whether number one I go through with my present teacher available, are they agree, or do they have different viewpoints, and I did not check the quality of Ling Rimpoche and Trijang Rimpoche, I did not. But I did check my present teachers, with their ideas or right or wrong.

Then I have one teacher, a great one, Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche, from whom I get the teachings of the Tara, White Tara particularly, that lineage is coming through. And Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche very famous by his own standard, maybe not so famous like Kyabje Ling Rimpoche or Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche, but he is very famous of his own. Then sometimes during the teachings some lamas will throw little arrow here and there, you know, so I heard Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche threw some arrows to Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche, before I was taking the teaching, so I was wondering what was going to happen, I had already taken the teaching from Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche, so I was waiting what is going to happen. And just next teaching of Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche, he started throwing little arrows back to Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche, and that happens in Tibet. Then when they get together they are the best of friends. There is nothing personally, whether Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche is throwing the arrows to Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche and is saying, someone is saying, someone, bring a tremendous amount of teaching traditions which is missing here, are going to Mongolia and are bringing, and we have no idea how Mongols have traced their lineage. That is what he is throwing the arrow. And Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche replying back and saying, I am not stupid, and I traced the lineage back properly and I do not take unbroken lineage but you people are great in Tibet, but does not have the initiation of the four tantras, it is me who went all the way to Mongolia and brought this yoga tantras initiation, there is a deity called Nam??, sort of throwing that back and forth, but later there is no problem for whatsoever. So then I have taken teaching from Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche. And then Kyabje Ling Rimpoche started taking teaching from Kyabje Labsang Rimpoche, and then both are, all three are the student of Pabongka. And so that sort of thing sometimes happens, so you sort of watch for a little bit, and if both are your teacher you cannot cite one against another, you have to be real straight. What happens if you start citing it creates more trouble and anyway, so that is what I analyze, so also most important thing, do they mean what they say? That is most important point.

And then the Buddha has given basic qualities of the teachers. Are they morally OK? There are ten qualities. If you want to know those ten qualities it is in the Lama Chopa, the Praise to the Guru, they are all ten qualities. If the vajrayana master, ten plus ten, twenty qualities. But you are always allowed to give fifty percent discount. Always. Even Buddha said so. But even that time, they say it is degenerated age, you can give, degenerated age must have been going for long time, anyway. Fifty percent discount. But what can you not give discount is three things. The first three: [Tibetan…] well-behaved, peaceful, very well-behaved. Those three are relating to morality and concentration and wisdom. These are the three things you cannot give discount on that. Morality counts. Morality has value is morality. It is needed. Anyway you do not want immoral teacher anyway. That is how draw the conclusion anyway. Quite clearly.

And if the spiritual master is not focused then it is a problem. It is funny. There is a young, very bright Tibetan teacher who is in the United States for a little while, very bright, learned Geshe, and I was talking to him a few years ago, sitting with him, and we are talking about another Tibetan teacher, and he told me, “Oh, that person is attention deficit or something.” He use in English attention deficit or something, which means no concentration. That person whether has attention deficit or not, but he is learned so he is giving me the answer why the person is attention deficit. Meaning, he has no concentration. I mean you do not have to say in so many words. When they person cannot focus on the subject, on the person, whatever you are doing, and your practice, and then no concentration, is definitely not going to be helpful. Out.

And if you do not have wisdom, whether the person has seen emptiness or has not seen emptiness it is different issue. But the person does not have wisdom. Wisdom here applies to the personal wisdom, gained by whatever you learned, and whatever you share out, it is coming out from your heart, and with art of presentation, and if you have that, that is great, that is the wisdom aspect of it. If the person does not have a personal experience, even you do not have personal experience, if you are very strongly focused on it for a long time, even you do not have personal experience, you can always let it go. Let it go. It is OK. Because the long-term focusing is as good as the personal experience is a matter of some obstacles otherwise personal experience be there. And that is why it is OK. But art of presentation is also necessary. If you do not have the art of presentation then it is not that good. I always think here the Japanese way of serving a piece of daikon radish and carrot, you know, Japanese will cut them into, shred them into very small pieces and put them nicely with a little decorations, and when you look at it you would like to eat it. But somebody else who has more quality than that of carrot of daikon, maybe big thick pieces, cut them into pieces, maybe boiled, maybe not boiled, put in the plate or put on your table, and say, “Eat it.” I do not think you want to eat it. I do not think you want to eat it. There is no art of presentation. When they made into such a beautiful thing, you like to eat, even you are not hungry, you like to eat it, it looks very nice.

So these are the three, three moralities. That is, morality, concentration, wisdom, that is the fundamental basis on which you cannot give discount. It is quality of teacher. When you are operating the teacher, you have to see what you are looking for, you are looking for these three qualities within the person. Morality includes tremendous, when the person says whatever he says, and he does not mean what he says, that is a problem. That is a problem. There may be contradictions. That is different. Many variety of reasons. Sometimes vajrayana level, sometimes sutrayana level, there may be different things. Might not be consistent. Consistent. And that is not the thing. But whatever the person says, if he does not mean it, then it is a problem, it is a morality problem. It is a morality problem. One has to be really, see, number one, if you, whatever you say, if you do not mean it, why should anyone listen to you. Better spend the time listening to Johnny Carson. Oh, he is gone. Oh, Jay Leno. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, better listen to Jay Leno. So that is the very important point.

And then two, it has to come from the heart of the teacher, not from the head of the teacher. If you are reading book, reading book and commenting on book, yes. You are reading the book. You have to comment the book. Other than that, it is plus book knowledge, you need something coming from the heart. Plus something coming from the heart, you need book knowledge. Both are needed. If you do not have book knowledge, you cannot prove what you are saying. The way to prove, is we prove from the quotations of earlier masters and earlier teachers, and so you have to prove it, what you say, at least you can point a finger, this is my source. If you need to make footnote, you should be able to make it. So if it does not come from heart, then it is just from the head, might well as go to the university. Just dry academic teachings, it will become. It does not become spiritual teaching. Spiritual teaching has to be more than dry academic teachings. Because person is supposed to be giving a transmission of whatever that person is teaching. That transmission is supposed to work with the individual students who are taking, and that transmission within individual student, has to give fruit for that student. So dry academic teaching alone will not qualify to be spiritual teaching. It is teaching, no doubt. But academic teaching. And there are many other things. But three points, morality, concentration, wisdom, that is where you cannot give discount. Why? It is very simple. Very simple. If the teacher has a problem with morality, the student will also have a problem with morality. So you do not want to create an immoral practitioner. It is very simple. If you are looking at an alcoholic person, an alcoholic person can make another person alcoholic is very easy. But if you have to make an alcoholic to a non-alcoholic, it is difficult. Right, we know that. So that is why the morality issues are very, very important, in this case. Extremely.

Concentration, if you do not, attention deficit becomes a problem. And without wisdom, you know, it is not organized, whatever you teach it is not organized, it does not suit, it does not sound right, there may be very good things here and there but you have no idea what it is, and what will that help. And then, plus, most important thing, on top of that, compassion. Caring, compassion. If the master does not have compassion, the master is not fit to be master. It is sort of a basic disqualification of being a spiritual master. The compassion. And knowledge of whatever you are teaching. You may not get total enlightened one, but person must have knowledge of what you are teaching. Otherwise, why the heck are they doing it. So basically these are the needs of the spiritual teachers. When you are observing to your spiritual master, who you want to be your spiritual master, you have to look through that basis. And then the vajrayana masters have additional ten qualities. But again, out of the ten qualities, it is again what is necessary is continuation of the lineage. Knowledge of the person, whoever is teaching, is knowledge. If the person does not know whatever he or she is doing, so what then.

[Tibetan] Also art of presentation. Art of presentation is really needed. Otherwise, you know, it is sort of normally, commonly known story here, some Tibetan geshe was invited, very good geshe, Geshe Sogala, good geshe, was invited by some group in Indiana, and he was giving some Lam Rim teaching, and I was told from the, not from the Indiana people, the monastery people told me, first there was twenty people, so this geshe, Geshe-la was Abbot of Sera Monastery, somewhere big, and he was giving a teaching, and he said, Second day there is about five people only, and that day he was talking and he was telling some monk, you know, it’s in the Lam Rim, some monk who has been accused of stealing some kind of calf, somewhere, and the monk denies, and then the local authorities came and checked, and he was boiling something, that monk was boiling something, not this monk who was in Indiana, ancient Buddha’s time, the monk was boiling something and they asked the monk, “What are you cooking if you did not steal the calf, what are you cooking?” He said, “I am coloring my robe.” And then they open that thing, and it actually happens to be a little meat they are cooking. So Buddha said he was telling truth, and there was no meat in there but because of his karma this has happened and that has happened. That time, next day, nobody is coming, the person who has invited him said, “Gehshe-la, you can go home.” So that is what happens if you do not have art of presentation, you are supposed to be teaching ten days and then good-bye. That is what happens, OK? So art of presentation is necessary. Not only necessary, because it does not help the other person. It does not entertain spiritual path. OK, I am going to stop here. And I will be here next Thursday. Anything you have to announce, anybody?

( Gehlek Rimpoche 2006