Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 42-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen walks through the criteria for choosing a qualified guru in the Lamrim tradition. He outlines ideal guru qualities—moral discipline, freedom from meditation distractions, wisdom realizing emptiness, and superior knowledge—then acknowledges their rarity, especially in degenerate times. For those unable to find such a guru, he offers realistic guidance: seek someone disciplined in the three trainings, compassionate toward followers, and with realized emptiness, at minimum someone with higher qualities than yourself. He illustrates the stakes with the cautionary tale of Angulimala, who followed a negative master and killed 999 people. He concludes with the advanced practice of viewing all gurus as emanations of Buddha Śākyamūni, emphasizing the critical importance of discernment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 Lam Rim 1995 10 29.mp3
UUID: 39cdbebd-3756-4349-88d5-4a8c4637aabe
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-10-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.1 minutes
Words: ~1,662
So the reason is because if there’s firewood and at the same time there are some special incense, and if you burn them together, then the smell — the good smell of the incense — might get mixed with the ordinary firewood. So if one’s guru is higher in knowledge than oneself — like having all those well-disciplined qualities in the practice of morality, and having removed these two distractions that are dullness and excitement in their meditations, and having the wisdom knowing selflessness — then if that type of guru is among the students or among oneself, his or her qualities can get mixed with one’s own. So because of that reason, the guru should be higher in knowledge than oneself.
So then the next quality is perfected in two meanings — that is through the power of hearing, the wisdom of — let’s say, through the power of hearing — that one understands the view of the Prāsaṇgika Mādhyamika, knowing through the power of hearing the view of — So the guru should have these qualities. And one should rely on a guru who has these qualities. So if one were to ask whether that type of guru is possible, whether it’s possible for us to meet one — there are that type of gurus who have all these qualities: the qualities explained in the Vinaya teachings, the qualities explained in the Mahāyāna teachings, and also in the tantric path. But they are very rare.
Very, very few of them. So it’s very rare, and even if one is not to find that type of guru in this very degenerate age — this known as the age of five degenerations, like the degeneration of sentient beings, degenerate delusions, and so on, there are five — so at this stage when there are these five degenerations, even if one doesn’t find a guru with all these qualities in this degenerate age.
If one is to meet a guru who is well disciplined in the practice of the three higher trainings and having compassion towards the followers and one who has realised emptiness — if one is to meet that type of guru, that is very good. So then even if one is not to meet with this type of guru, at least the guru that one is relying upon should have higher qualities than oneself. And one who gives explanations of the greater importance of our future lives than this life. And then a guru who thinks others more precious than oneself. If one is to rely on that type of guru, then that — at least — is the type of guru one wants to rely upon.
So then when explaining the teachings, the explainer should have the wish to explain. And similarly, whoever is listening, the listener should have the wish to listen. So the wish to listen doesn’t only mean just to hear the teachings.
So the wish to listen is that after listening, one also has the wish to rely upon the guru’s instructions. So relying completely upon a guru doesn’t mean one has to do this right at the beginning when one comes to listen to the teachings. One can listen to the teachings. And then, as it is explained here, through listening to different teachings one finds in the guru one of these three qualities. Then on that basis, one makes this decision that one is now going to rely upon that guru.
So if one is not to analyse well the qualities of the guru, then there is this danger of meeting with a negative spiritual guide or negative spiritual guru. So if one happens to meet with negative friends or negative spiritual masters or spiritual guides, then instead of getting closer to the enlightened state, one always creates karma that brings one to the lower realms. So as we see, there are spiritual guides who lead one into a religious practice that involves sacrificing animals and doing these negative actions. And if one happens to follow that, then those negative actions always bring about a negative result. So like the person known as Angulimala, who happened to follow a master who instructed him to kill nine hundred and ninety-nine people.
So this person named Angulimala happened to meet with a negative spiritual guide and followed his instructions, where the master explained that he should kill or take the life of one thousand people. And as he followed that, he killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people — not nine hundred and nineteen as I said. So we also should be very careful when relying upon a guru — being careful not to meet with a negative spiritual guide. So we’ll stop here today, and if you have any questions.
He said, I saw you rubbing your knees a lot, so he’s stopping you today. Oh. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Uh-huh. I see.
Okay. Uh-huh. So in Buddhism, there are four tenets. Four schools of tenets. And among the four, the final view — the last or the final view of Buddhist tenets.
So it’s the final view of the Mādhyamika. That is the view which is explained by Nāgārjuna. Good. Yeah. Good.
Good. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm. Sorry.
And how to practise. Oh. It comes to the very beginning of Lamrim teachings, one of the earlier teachings also. Do you remember clearly what — but what did someone write down of what I said?
Mhmm. So, like these two stages — how one leads, how to say, follows — or the trainees on the path. It has two separate classes, which is: first, the way how you devote to the guru. And then second, how you practise along the path. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Choosing the wrong guide. Uh-huh. So just to go through again the qualities of the guru as explained from the Sūtra Ornament. And the first one is the guru who is well disciplined in the practice of morality.
So then second is that one has removed these two distractions, the dullness and excitement in their meditation. And then having the wisdom realising selflessness — that is applying antidote towards grasping. And then next is one who has a higher quality than oneself. So then the last part, I said before — there are more other qualities which have not been explained before, like one who is enthusiastic.
Inspiring, yeah. And one who is rich in all transmissions. And one who is skilful in giving Dharma teachings. In giving Dharma teachings.
So if one is not skilful in explaining, then that can bring about many dangers. So I guess, let’s say, today we won’t go into that. Said that he will explain how one should analyse — like the proper way of analysing the guru. It’s very important.
In next Sunday. So he was saying that if a spiritual master or guru is sitting outside in the sun having a cup of tea all the time, then that shows there are some mistakes or problems. So it is not easy for us to analyse the guru or the qualities of the guru as explained in the Sūtra Ornament. But one can understand at some level by checking behaviours or how the guru lives, checking the lifestyle of the guru.
Yeah. Yeah. So if one is in another country and needs the explanations of one’s practice, one needs to rely on a guru. But then one should imagine the guru that one takes in another country having the same — what do you say — essence or same nature. Mhmm.
Having the same nature. So there is a line explained by one of the masters. The past Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who at this present time are working for the purpose of other sentient beings — so not only as a promise, but if one is able to actually practise that.
So not only as a promise, but if one is able to contemplate or think, one will, let’s say, fall in prostration in front of a qualified master. So whatever number of gurus that one has, one should see all those gurus as the emanation of one’s own root guru. So not only, I would say, on an intellectual level, but once one is able to think from the depth inside that they are the emanation of those good gurus —
They are actually the manifestation or the emanation of the root guru. So the reason — as an example — Buddha Śākyamūni works for the sake of us. But when Buddha Śākyamūni came to Bodh Gaya and showed the deeds of achieving the fully enlightened state, at that time we were not close disciples. So we had not been born in front of Buddha Śākyamūni at that time.
And definitely Buddha Śākyamūni is working for us. But then how is that like a true one-to-one guru? One should see one’s own guru as the manifestation of Buddha Śākyamūni. So whoever one’s guru is, he or she doesn’t have to be a fully ordained monk or fully ordained nun — it can be anyone, a lay male or lay female. It can be anyone.
It doesn’t mean that he or she has to sit on a high throne. So whoever it might be — one who gives the explanations of what one should adopt and what one should abandon, and at the same time, once one has seen the qualities of the guru — if one has all these, then that is what we mean by guru.
So in Lamrim teaching, the teachings on guru devotion are given in very great detail. And if one wants to go in detail, then it would probably take one month. So it takes a very long time. It’s because he will give a short explanation in the next Sunday.
Yeah. He will explain that next time. So we do the dedication on page five, numbers eight and nine. Okay.