Spiritual Teachers

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama invokes the spiritual masters of the Nalanda tradition.

The Kadam traditons’s sutra-level guru-meditation can be very helpful for some of the problems that have caused unhealthy relationships to develop with spiritual teachers in the West.

Guru-yoga is done with visualizations, where we imagine that our own qualities of body, speech, and mind become joined with the good qualities of our spiritual teacher and uplifted by them.

An overview of the intellectual, emotional, and devotional approaches to Dharma.

A detailed look at the different meanings of the term “Sangha” in the various Buddhist traditions.

The classic texts on the graded path (lam-rim) speak about the benefits or advantages of having a healthy relation with a spiritual teacher.

Both the sutras and tantras instruct disciples to regard the qualities and kindness of our mentors as those of a Buddha.

Unhealthy relationships between disciples and mentors can manifest in many ways, including overdependence on the mentor, not maintaining discriminating awareness or transference and regression as known in psychotherapy.

We can access the Buddhist teachings, whenever and wherever we want, on our phones and laptops. What is the role of the spiritual teacher in such a society and such an age?

Alternative Kalachakra deals with the methods for overcoming being under the influence of the external and internal cycles of time. The Kalachakra Tantra presents these methods in its third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter deals with the empowerment, the...