Q: I don’t have Tsawe-Lama [Root-Guru] and I don’t know what is the definition of a Tsawe-Lama, if Rinpoche could explain about that?
A: … You should not, you should never, you know, feel obligated to “find a Guru”, you know, or to “have a Guru”, you know? You should always consider many, all these different philosophers and teachers and keep your mindset open as much as you can. That is very important.
The moment you say “I have one Tsawe-Lama and one Guru and that’s it and nothing more”, then that’s when you become very close-minded, it’s not really beneficial.
If you look back in the history, you know, many master they had, some of them, they had 150 masters, some of them they have eight masters throughout their lifetime. So there’s no limitation in that. So there’s no limitation in numbers, that’s number one.
Number two is that finding a master is not like finding a husband or wife, you know? It’s not an object that you try to purchase or get by your manipulation or your presentation of yourself and social status, or whatever that may be, you know?
“Finding a Guru” means finding yourself first. When you find yourself, you find the Guru everywhere, you know? There’s a different type of Guru, you know? The closest to us is a human form of Guru. The one who recognize, the one who introduce us to the nature of the mind, that’s also a Guru. The one who reflects the meaning of impermanence that’s also a Guru. The one who gives us place to stay, eat, and food. Giving us empowerment, and teachings that’s also a Guru. You know?
So, there’s different type of Gurus. So you should not be so selective either, just because there is a distinction, you know? So that’s, that’s the other thing. When you have a clarity and calm, and the clarity and the pure intention, and over the time you can see him or her as a Guru, eventually over the time. But you should not pursue yourself in order to “find a Guru”. That is not the priority.
Like an example, my own Guru, you know, they have never told me that “I am your Guru, you are my student”. I never heard about that, you know? We always eat food together, we make a gossip together, we talk about many things. But there was not even a one moment that where they told me that “You are my student, I’m your Guru”, you know?
The moment they say that “I’m your Guru, you are my student”, you know that you are in a big trouble, you know? Either your, your bank account is going to be zero, you know, either your life is going to get destroyed. It’s little bit too late, you know? Because by that time your mind is already manipulated by, if you criticize him or her you go to རྡོ་རྗེའི་དམྱལ་བ། “dor jé nyelwa” [Vajra hell]. So by that time you are already too late. So you should not wait until that moment, you know?
So the real authentic master they will never say “I’m your Guru, you are my student”. “You are my special student!” you know, “you are lesser student”, there is no distinction in students, you know? There can be a distinction in the level of realization. But the distinction in students, it won’t be there, you know?
Like “Oh you’re coming from the high elite family, Oh all my secret teachings, I give it to you”, you know? “Oh you are from, coming from the very, how do I say, let’s say, you know, ordinary family, Ah, teaching will take time, you will not understand”, that sort of a, you know, distinction will never exist. So, so therefore, there will be few element that you will see beforehand and that is the time that you have to run away from that figure.
Yeah, that’s something important to keep in mind. Because when you have a clarity in mind, you have a genuine devotion to the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and you have also a limitless compassion as well. When you have compassion, you have a devotion. These two cannot exist, “one can exist, one cannot exist”, it’s not like that. When you have a selfless compassion, you have tremendous devotion to all the teachings of the Buddha, you know, to that extent. So one cannot exist only and other doesn’t exist. It doesn’t, it doesn’t work like that.
When you have immense compassion that means you have broken through from the cycle of illusion and the ignorant itself. So that also means that you are in a state of clarity constantly and you have tremendous devotion to all the great masters as well. And that also means that they should be having that quality as well, isn’t it? Because they are the one who’s going to lead you a little bit further, you know?
So, any time when they say “I’m your Tsawe-Lama, you are my student” just, just forget about it. If they are giving a Dharma teachings without any expectation in return, that’s good. If they are giving teaching saying that “I give you this, now you have to give me something in return” then that means they have not overcome the basic, basic foundation, you know? and let alone liberating you, you know? So it’s that.
H.E. Kalu Rinpoche live with local youth and other individuals co-creating a public spiritual space.
H.E Kalu Rinpoche – Farmer Sangay Q&A Dharma Event (1h 58’ 17”)
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