Gurus for Hire | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

What It Means to Be Sectarian: by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

May 10, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Gurus for Hire Enlightenment for Sale” by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche:

If you are a member of the royalty of one country and you criticize your own royalty, its okay because inadvertently, you include yourself. For example, if I were in the royal family of a certain country and I criticized the royalty of my country, some people in our country or i the royal house may be a little unhappy, but it is generally acceptable because I have included myself in the criticism. I am showing humility and not pointing fingers at other people.

However, it would not be acceptable if I started saying that our royalty was very good, but the royalty of another country was excessive, stupid, not educated, spoiled and did not do anything for their country. Some people who are fanatical in our country might agree but the people who can think will see that it is not a very good policy and not very diplomatic. They will say that we do not have the full information, that we are just looking at things in the media and that we do not know the inside story. They will question our right to criticize another royal family of another country that people respect. Once we start saying those kinds of things, we invite criticism of our own royal family and we open the doors for other people to criticize us also.

Similarly, we have four sects of Buddhism in Tibet. Each sect has its own head but the four sects have the same goal, priorities and requirements for Enlightenment. All their teachings are textually and scripturally sound, based on reliable sources that come from India, stemming back to Lord Buddha himself.

I have not studied other lineages. I have read a little here and there but I can never claim to know anything about other lineages. However, i can tell you from observing the other lineages and erudite Gurus that I do not see a difference between them and the erudite masters of my lineage. They are compassionate, just as the ones in my lineage are. If a master of another lineage becomes a Buddha or becomes highly attained, I do not see them as different from a master of my lineage. Once he attains Enlightenment, a Buddha is a Buddha, without any lineage. Once we climb to the top of the mountain, it is what flag we put on the top of that mountain that identifies who we are. Actually, the person who climbs to the top is just a mountain climber who go to the top!

I can only say that the other lineages (besides Gelugpa) are definitely valid because I have checked out their masters, their students and disciples. I can say they are good because I look at the results. Just as in my own lineage (Gelugpa), they also have great practitioners and practitioners who do not really practice. It is the same. (I do not say this politically. If I say this politically, I can see through my motive and so can you.)

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has mentioned this during teachings. What His Holiness says is correct. I believe it, but I am a critical person and will still check it out and think about it.

When one sect criticizes another sect, it is very, very serious. One sect has no right to criticize another sect. One sect has not fully studied another sect’s or another school’s tenets in order to have the knowledge to criticize or to say anything. That is why I would not ever criticize, even if I had studied it; and dare not since I have never studied it. I would not even go in that direction.

Prejudice and bias toward another sect or another form of Buddhism is dangerous, as explained in the Lamrim Chenmo. The karmic effect of saying negative things about other lineages is very damaging.

Let’s consider how dangerous it is to kill an animal; how bad the karma is to kill a person or a monk. We cannot kill a Buddha because a Buddha does not have the karma to be killed, but if we could kill a Buddha, imagine the incredible amount of negative karma that would arise from that action. The Lamrim says that if we spread sectarian views, it is understood, the other person accepts and we rejoice, the four completing actions or the four factors of intention are complete: the demerit of spreading sectarian views is equivalent to killing 1,000 Buddhas. That is what His Holiness Pabongkha Rinpoche explained in the Lamrim Chenmo.

If other people dare spread sectarian views, we should have great compassion for them, never listen and just cut their talk off. We should not entertain or listen to them. Remember, we are trying to gain merit! If the demerit of spreading sectarian views is equivalent to killing 1,000 Buddhas, then all the merit we create from doing prostrations, making offerings and meditating will down the drain! Symbolically, the amount of practice we do can fill up one bathtub. If we were to put that bathtub into the ocean, it becomes nothing. The karma of killing 1,000 Buddhas is like the ocean. When we engage in sectarian talk, it is like putting our little bathtub of merit into the ocean and wondering what happened!

If we were to judge another school or sect of Buddhism and say they are not as good as ours, then we are also presupposing that no attainments can be gained from their practice. It is saying that in their lineage, there are no enlightened Gurus, no high-level, attained teachers or practitioners. It is impossible. It cannot be!

Every lineage and every school of Buddhism in every country, everywhere, has elite, erudite, practiced masters who prove to us that if we practice each school individually and correctly, we will get the results. The techniques and the way the different schools are formed may differ a bit due to time, place, geography and culture but that does not mean they are not complete paths in themselves.

It is sectarianism to have biased views against another lineage, another school or another form, based on prejudice, ego, self-centeredness, insecurity, fear and ignorance; or to think that it might not be good if someone is not practicing what we are practicing.

You will never see, feel, hear or sense one bit of sectarianism in a real practitioner of Buddhism who wishes to become a fully enlightened Buddha for the benefit of others. Why would a real Dharma practitioner speak about something that was never on their mind? Why would they dwell on or express things that are not true? Real Buddhist practitioners do not lie or have baseless bias.

We cannot even be biased against other religions, as spoken by the perfect Buddha and as taught by the perfect Dalai Lama. If we cannot be biased against other religions, how can we be biased against different sects within our own religion?

Staying Away from Harmful Companions: Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

April 18, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Gurus for Hire Enlightenment for Sale” by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche:

Staying away from harmful companions

Most of us have more negative dispositions than positive, otherwise we would not be in samsara. When the negative dispositions from our previous lives open, we cannot do Dharma practice. In the tantric vows, we are not even allowed to talk to those who scourge, scorn and dislike our Guru. We are not allowed to share food with them, share our instruments or our vajras and bells, or talk about tantric secrets or tantric practice with them anymore. We cannot perform certain prayers or rituals with them anymore because their energy can pollute us, bring us down and trigger the opening of negative energy, negative karma.

You might be thinking that Buddha is not very compassionate. Of course he is compassionate! If, at this level, we allow someone to disturb our practice, how will we become a Buddha to help them? By avoiding them, we are being very compassionate. We send a message to them that we are not happy with what they are doing and unless they reform, we cannot support them and their actions. On a spiritual level, if someone disturbs our practices and pushes us off, how will we become an attained being or a Buddha to benefit them?

At our level, these people’s disturbance and broken samaya can push us off the path, influence us and make us think negatively. There might even be other disciples of the teacher that these people always say negative things to and push them away from the Guru. When these people push disciples away from the teacher, who suffers? The teacher or these people who push others away? Of course it is the people who suffer.

Staying around, associating, communicating with or being close to people who have broken their samaya, against their teachers or our teacher is very dangerous if we do not know how to handle them. We have to be advanced to handle them. After all, if our teacher cannot tame them and control them, how can we?

If we allow them to continue their negative talk or actions, we are not being very compassionate. If we think we can handle them and turn them around, we would have been able to turn them around by now. If we allow them to continue their little games, they will go on for years and years and years. They do not have merits to dig themselves out, and we would actually be helping them to create even heavier negative karma for themselves.

They present a danger to us and to themselves and this is why this text specifically tells us to avoid harmful companions who might try to split us from our teachers.

3) With an attitude like earth: That carries all burdens without ever becoming tired.

The Guru may give us a very small assignment or work designed to help us, push us to become better and better (not better in our view, but better in terms of Dharma, for our future lives). The Guru might make us do something that is very difficult but is that we we are concerned about?

We have checked out the Guru and sworn our refuge with the Guru. Then after the big refuge ceremony and the big offerings, the feelings, the pictures, the lights, candles, incense and effort, when the Guru asks us to please cut our hair about two inches shorter, we reply that we cannot and give 25 reasons why not.

What happened to the whole ceremony, the vows, the allegiance? What happened to the Guru devotion? Do we follow Guru devotion only when it is convenient for us? Does the practice of Guru devotion only apply during a certain time of the month, when we do not have friends, when things are going well for us or when we are not angry?

The whole point of the Guru giving us work — no matter how difficult it is — and us actually doing it, is to break through our ego. When the Guru helps us break through our ego, then when he gives us a higher level of practice, such as practices for controlling our death, we will be able to achieve everything that is included within that practice.

But if we cannot even control our devotion to our Guru, how are we going to control something much higher? If we find it so difficult controlling our speech, our body, and the minor assignments that the Guru asks us to do, how will we be able to do those practices that require us to be free of the ego, to have Bodhicitta and to practice the six paramitas?

A real Guru, who is compassionate and cares, will be very careful to give us assignments and work. The Guru thinks very carefully — he considers our aptitude, who we are, what we can and cannot do. He then gives us all types of work, duties and jobs to develop the six paramitas, such that we can purify our karma and break our ego, our level of perception and our wrong perception of reality. This is for us to reach the next level. Then we he confers higher practices on us, we will get results.

The Guru might also give us jobs or assignments to help us avoid something negative that might happen later on. If we do not believe it and we go against it, we will suffer the result. The guru will not be happy and he will keep trying to find other ways lessen what will happen to us later. If we do what he says the first time, the bad effects may be lessened by 100%. However, even if the Guru cannot help us avoid the bad incident fully, he would still try to lessen the result for us by ten percent.

Our Guru might tell us to work in the center once a month. We say we cannot do that but at the same time, we ask for initiations, retreats, 10 million mantras, and we can actually do these retreats and mantras. There is no difference! Why are we able to do 10 million mantras but unable to work once a month in the center?

If we do not cooperate, why do we need a Guru or a teacher? A Guru or a teacher is someone who is suppose to be compassionate and kind and is out to serve and help us. When we always reject everything the Guru tells us, we have excuses, we are late for everything we are assigned and we never finish anything we are given, that reflects on us and our practice.

Yes, the Guru is a human being who will be disappointed, feel sad and angry and shout at us or tell us off, but the ultimate person who is disappointed is ourselves. The Guru will have even more and greater wisdom than our own mothers and fathers to set us on the right path. The whole point of having a Guru is that the Guru is suppose to have more wisdom to see our past weaknesses, see into our gifts, understand our karma and what is happening to us so he can give us specific practices — both meditative and active — to help us overcome our personal problems, difficulties and sufferings.

However, when assignments are given and out of habit, we immediately say, “No, I can’t do it. I don’t think I can do it,” it is very bad. It is precisely because we think we cannot do it that we are given that assignment! The Guru can see something more.

For example, the Guru might tell us to be generous,to give and not to be miserly. The Guru might tell us to buy silver bowls and to offer them to the Buddhas but we have 101 excuses why we cannot. It is not because we cannot afford the silver bowls but because we are extremely miserly and have many lifetimes of habituation. The Guru can see the result of that and he does his best to break it because no one else can. If other people could have, they would have already done so.

It is like seeing a therapist. First, we check out the reputation of the therapist. We listen and we see some of the results of her clients. When we see that this therapist is wonderful and we hear that she has results, we walk in, pay the fees and we submit, open, surrender and tell her everything, week after week. After a few processes, depending on our problem, we start to find healing. If we resist all the way and do not let go or submit to the therapist, why would we even go for therapy and how would we get the result of therapy? It is the same thing with the Guru.

If we resist, fight, we do not do the assignments the Guru gives us and we covertly cover, or we try to make up things, use sweet words and go round and round, we may have been able to trick our Guru but we cannot trick ourselves and we fail our service, our devotion, and ultimately our own spiritual practice.

Submitting to the Guru is gaining independence, gaining freedom from our ego, samsara and ourselves. That is what a real and qualified Guru helps us to do. When we find such a Guru, we should devote ourselves with folded hands to him. Whatever work he gives us and whatever sufferings there may be, we should endure the work he gives us. We have to be accepting.

The Courage of Dharma Teachers: from “Gurus for Hire Enlightenment for Sale” by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

April 13, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Gurus for Hire Enlightenment for Sale” by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche (@tsemtulku on twitter):

His Holiness 101st Gaden Tri Rinpoche has told us that teachers who teach the Dharma today are very brave, very courageous and have compassion for the world because they dare tell the truth, kindly, without harming.

If you want to hear nice words, you can get that anywhere. You can pay a nice pretty girl to tell you all types of nice things. If you shout loud enough, you can get your partners to tell you nice things too, because they want you to stop shouting.

If I were really interested in just extorting things from you, if I were the type of person that was here solely for the motivation of getting material gains, finances and self-gratification, then I would never scold anyone, never tell anyone off, not criticize, not ostracize, not ignore; If students missed a commitment, I would not say a word. I would say it is okay. Let them think that they are doing Dharma and never say anything if they are not.

Some students complain, “Rinpoche’s not compassionate, he doesn’t talk to me!” If I wanted things from you, wouldn’t I talk to you? I want those cheques! I want the nice things! I want more cars, I want more buildings, I want another diamond ring!!! So wouldn’t it behove me to be nice to you? To write you nice e-mails that say you are wonderful, you are fabulous, you are reaching the third level Bodhisattvahood?

If you want to extort money from your students, here’s the recipe: do not shout at them, do not tell them they are going the wrong way, do not slap them, do not scream at them and do not ignore them for more than one hour. Tell them they are fabulous and they are advanced. The biggest secret is to tell people that they are a reincarnation of something. That is the secret ingredient to becoming a high, famous Rinpoche anywhere in the world!

Why would I tell you to do your sadhana if you did not wan to do it? Why would I criticize people, tell them off, give them dirty looks if they do not come for teachings or force them to go to prayers? Why should I (or any Guru) do that to you if I wanted money, respect and help from you?

If a Guru has big sponsors and he ignores them, he does not see them, call them, talk to them or eat with them, is that the right way to get more money from his big sponsors? Or is it that he is trying to impart the Dharma to them? You must check if it matches.

Also, to talk nicely and eloquently in a class situation is great but I believe in “after-sales service”! That is to make sure the students are doing their mantras and their visualizations, to make sure the students are holding their commitments and vows, to make sure that when they slip I can get them back on the path, be it by jokes, fun, scolding, fears, wrath, peace or any other way.

A lot of people find that to be very comforting, caring and very nice. One or two people feel that the after-sales service is pressure, that it is focusing on them, nitpicking or pointing out their mistakes but that is not my intention. We can soothe people’s minds and teach their minds, but we have to realize their level, understand their minds and where they are right now. Then we slowly take care of them, nurture them, give them love and care.

Sometimes love and care can be wrathful and fierce. Sometimes I run the risk that the people to whom I am wrathful, fierce and direct with will retaliate, fight back, ignore, avoid, or dislike me. I feel very sorry if they do that but if I have used a fierce and wrathful method, it means that I must have used the peaceful method many times and it did not work.

If you are hanging off the edge of a cliff and I need help to get you off, I will need to scream very loudly for help. In that way, if you are breaking your commitments, you samaya or your practices, of course I will “scream”, I will intervene and intercede. If I do not, do not call me a Guru, a teacher, or a Dharma instructor. Do not even call me a human being.

I need to intercede, I need to talk, I need to say things and because you do not have a Buddhist-conscious background — where the Guru just needs to say one sentence or one word — saying it simply and gently is probably not going to work. Students around the world, outside of Buddhist countries, require tremendous explanation, cajoling, jokes and a tremendous number of methods to educate their minds about Buddhist culture — which took millenniums to be established — within a few years.

The bottom line is if people are not doing their commitments, then whether they belong to another Guru or not, if they are in my territory, in my center, I will tell them what is right and what is wrong, with respect to their Dharma practice and their Gurus.

From “Gurus for Hire Enlightenment for Sale” by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche