Teachers

fee

I'm sorry if this has been asked and covered already, but I have a question about teachers.

Why is it necessary to have one and why do people slavishly follow and believe their every word? How do we know that the teacher is genuine, not just out to make money or take something from you? Why are the teachers given such prominence in Buddhism and revered so much.

Please don't think I am being disrespectful, but Id just like to know why they are given such prominence and adulation.

Thanks

Simonthepilgrim

I think it is a very important question, Fee, and one that I have never yet seen answered other than by reference to authority: because So-and-So said we should.

The guru/disciple relationship was thousands of years old already in India when Gautama was teaching. There is a long tradition of 'secret', oral transmissions from teacher to taught which continues today. Presumably, such a teacher is unlkikely to share such secrets with someone who does not follow their 'path'.

But, once again, I think that such blind obedience is very far from the prevailing Western view, where questions such as those you ask are important. In the East, I believe, the attitude is more fatalistic.

fee

Thanks Simon

But does this mean that unless I have a personal teacher to convey his/her secrets to me, I will be losing out on learning stuff about Buddhism?
Is it possible to be a Buddhist, or follow the Buddhist path, without a teacher?
And how do you know you've found someone genuine, not a charlatan? Can anyone be a teacher - like the people here on this forum who know a lot more than I do?

I've been told that when the pupil is ready the teacher will appear. I've been corresponding with someone very experienced and he has been a great help to me but he's on the other side of the world. To be honest, I look upon him as a teacher, even though I do not know him. I was drawn to him. He has been kind, patient and has been "teaching" me by answering a lot of questions.

I don't know how to find someone here who I can speak to face to face. Or does that matter?

Lots of questions here.

Jason

There is no other place you need to look for the answers than inside of yourself. The answers are not 'outside', they are 'inside'. That is the importance of meditiation, or mental cultivation. A teacher helps you and makes the Path much easier, but you do not need a teacher to be a 'Buddhist'.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanatiloka/wheel394.html#ch4
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/meditations.html#howwhy
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel116.html

DharmaKitten

fee wrote:

Thanks Simon

But does this mean that unless I have a personal teacher to convey his/her secrets to me, I will be losing out on learning stuff about Buddhism?
Is it possible to be a Buddhist, or follow the Buddhist path, without a teacher?
And how do you know you've found someone genuine, not a charlatan? Can anyone be a teacher - like the people here on this forum who know a lot more than I do?

I've been told that when the pupil is ready the teacher will appear. I've been corresponding with someone very experienced and he has been a great help to me but he's on the other side of the world. To be honest, I look upon him as a teacher, even though I do not know him. I was drawn to him. He has been kind, patient and has been "teaching" me by answering a lot of questions.

I don't know how to find someone here who I can speak to face to face. Or does that matter?

Lots of questions here.

Well, I consider myself a Buddhist but I don't have a personal teacher. It would be nice to surround yourself with outstanding and sincere teachers, but it's not like that's always possible. Nor is it always possible to have even one teacher in the traditional manner. However, we live in an age where information is easily accessible to many people due to cheap books and the internet. Of course, Buddhism isn't just about collecting information. You also have to process and use it. However, personal experience and meditation are excellent tools - not to mention help from a virtual network of Buddha buds.

Simonthepilgrim

Fee,

I, too, have often heard that when the time is right, a teacher appears. But I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea, suggesting as it does that there is something/someone "out there" who causes a teacher to pitch up.

In answer to your questions:

1. Do you miss out?
In some ways, yes you do. To have come to Buddhism as an adult means that we did not develop the habits of mind and behaviour that are second nature to the "cradle Buddhist". The same is true of coming to any spiritual discipline later in life. Also, if we are to believe many of the writers in both Tantra and Zen, there are aspects of learning which have never been written down. But it is also the case that these 'initiations' are usually reserved for 'advanced' students so we may have a way to go before we are ready for them. Nobody, as far as I know, has ever suggested that they were essential for Enlightenment.

2. Can we be Buddhists without a teacher?
I can see nothing that precludes it because there is no single definition of what it means to be a Buddhist. Also, we have lots of teachers in books and on the Net. It is a bigger task to separate the wheat from the chaff!

3. How do we check the authenticity of the teacher?
Does following this or that teacher enable and empower your path? While the answer remains 'yes', carry on; as soon as it becomes 'no', get out quick!

4. Who can be a teacher?
No one and everyone. There are lessons to be learned from each being that we meet if we compose our mind in the attitude of a student. I know this sounds trite but do try it: it works.

5. Your distant teacher?
I believe that you are describing a situation that will obtain more and more. I have spent the past 5 or 6 years supporting and being supported on pilgrimage. It has rarely been done face-to-face but by use of private fora, email, IM and, even, snail mail.