Spiritual Teachers

The graded-path presentations nearly always include instructions on appropriate thoughts and actions for disciples in relationship to their mentors, whether on the sutra or the tantra level.

As Buddhism takes root in the West, more Westerners are becoming spiritual teachers. Time-tested Dharma methods have provided solutions to culturally based problems that can arise.

There are many misunderstandings about ngondro practices, such as that they are a miracle cure for all our problems.

The appropriate relationships with our teachers depend on our aim, our level of development.

Choosing our spiritual teacher or a root guru, someone whose inspiration serves as a root to anchor and nourish our spiritual growth, requires us to have examined them well and to feel a sense of instinctive connection.

Our relationship with our teacher needs to be based on a firm conviction in our teacher’s good qualities.

Spiritual mentors lead others to behave and to think constructively in order for them to attain enlightenment. Disciples are those who are led to enlightenment by such persons through training in constructive behavior and thought.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s Avalokiteshvara deity yoga practice focuses on the development and practice of compassion.

The “Guru Puja” – “Lama Chopa” in Tibetan – is a tantric practice, in the Gelug tradition, of making offerings to the spiritual master and includes a review of all the points of the combined sutra and tantra path to enlightenment

We practice this meditation in order to inspire and uplift ourselves to the state of our spiritual teacher inseparable from Avalokiteshvara, by joining our good qualities with theirs.