The Path by Khenpo Sherab Zangpo

Author:Khenpo Sherab Zangpo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

The One Who Inspires

As we take refuge in the Three Jewels, we hear, contemplate, and practice the Buddhist teachings, making efforts in generating and developing both renunciation and bodhichitta and trying to understand the view of emptiness. The path appears to unfold smoothly, but one issue always stands before us: How do we navigate our relationship with our spiritual teachers?

It seems impossible for us to find a path to liberation without the guidance of an authentic teacher. The fact that we remain deluded in this painful cyclic existence serves as evidence: searching alone, we are like blind men in the middle of a deserted plain. The wisdom of the Buddha is a beacon that allows us to see in the long dark nights of our quest for liberation. When the Buddha achieved complete enlightenment in India’s Bodh Gaya some twenty-five hundred years ago, we were wandering somewhere else in samsara and missed the chance to follow him. And we have missed the chance of liberation again and again since then, due to our arrogance, bias, obstinacy, clinging, and cowardice. Nevertheless, there is someone out there waiting for endless nights to lighten our path with Buddhist wisdom. If we miss them again, they say they will wait until the day when we finally meet them. Such is the compassion of a spiritual teacher.

A spiritual teacher is called a lama in Tibetan, a term similar to guru in Sanskrit. When we start to turn our minds inward instead of looking outward, we are ready to meet our spiritual teachers. We can certainly read, contemplate, or practice according to written instructions on our own. But we have long been used to interpreting words subjectively, and our thinking is constrained by self-centeredness. Without the aid of our teachers, we will not be able to achieve direct experience and complete realization of the innate nature of the mind. Spiritual teachers provoke thinking and transmit suitable methods of practice. Thus they are essential on our spiritual path. If a teacher is the one who is spiritually accomplished, they can assist the student in progressing not only properly but also quickly and directly to bring about realization. Shakyamuni Buddha once said that no buddha of the past attained Buddhahood without the guidance of authentic teachers. And it is with the help of their teachers that all the one thousand buddhas in the Fortunate Aeon to which we belong have achieved or will achieve complete enlightenment. If we had the same insight as that of a buddha, we would understand the central significance of having a spiritual teacher.

The fourteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist text The Wish-Fulfilling Treasure composed by the omniscient Longchenpa says that it is through the blessing of a qualified master that a practitioner develops the merit and wisdom necessary for attaining enlightenment. Longchenpa, who was the abbot of Samye Monastery, Tibet’s first Buddhist monastery, was one of the most brilliant masters of the Nyingma school, and is regarded as an earthly manifestation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.