Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Thubten Chodron leads a guided meditation on relying on a spiritual mentor, a foundational practice in Buddhist training that both introduces and consolidates the Lamrim. She emphasizes why teachers are essential—as much for the spiritual path as for worldly skills—and walks students through identifying qualified teachers: those with stable ethical practice and wisdom, deep scripture knowledge, joyful teaching, clarity of expression, genuine compassion, and patience. She then explores the concrete advantages of cultivating such a relationship: learning correctly, gaining realizations, accumulating merit, and ensuring qualified guides appear in future lives. The meditation closes with practical methods for relying on teachers through thought and action: developing faith and gratitude, making offerings, providing service, and above all practicing the teachings as instructed. Suitable for both newcomers and established practitioners deepening their foundation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 47 GM.mp3
UUID: 94ead9eb-2f5d-4040-b3b9-7fb72b05842b
Teacher: Thubten Chodron Guided Med
Collection: Guided Meditation (Thubten Chodron Guided Med)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~1,352
Now, we’re going to do the meditation on how to rely on a spiritual mentor. This one often comes at the beginning of the Lamrim because in order to learn the Lamrim, we have to rely on teachers. But it’s also very helpful to meditate on it after we’ve done all the Lamrim teachings because it helps us to see that without the contact with the teacher, there’s no way we could have learned all the preceding teachings. So just as we need teachers to teach us worldly skills like driving and cooking, we definitely need somebody to teach us the spiritual path, which is much more complicated, much more sophisticated. So try and get a sense of how we need that.
Try and let go of the mind that says I’m going to do it on my own. I can figure this all out by myself. Try and get a sense of how the guidance would help us. It’s important that we select teachers that are qualified. So somebody may be a teacher in general, but they aren’t necessarily our teacher.
So we have to examine somebody’s qualities carefully before making the decision that they’re our teacher. So let’s think about the kind of qualities we wanna look for and think about why these qualities are important. So first, we want a teacher who has a stable practice or realizations of the three higher trainings of ethics, concentration, and wisdom. So why is that an important quality to find in a teacher? We also want to find teachers with vast and deep knowledge of the scriptures.
So, again, think why is that an important quality? We wanna find somebody that has joy and enthusiasm to teach. So with all of these, really think about why these qualities are important. We want somebody who has the ability to express the teachings clearly to us, who can communicate well so that we can understand. We want somebody with loving concern and compassion for their students.
Somebody who has a really good motivation for teaching us, who we can trust and rely upon. And we also want somebody who’s very patient and willing to undergo the difficulties of guiding others. So somebody who’s not gonna get fed up when we make mistakes but who’s gonna hang in there with us and try and help us. So in thinking of all these qualities, the knowledge of the scriptures, the personal care and compassion, the realizations and actual practice of the teachings, considering how all of these are very important qualities to have in the teachers that we choose, make a firm determination to check people’s qualities before taking them as your teacher. Make a determination to really be wise and careful about selecting teachers so that after you do, you can really develop a sense of trust and confidence that’s free of doubt because you’ve done all that checking beforehand.
And now consider the advantages of relying on a qualified teacher. The fact that we’ll learn the teachings correctly, we’ll learn how to practice properly. This is a great advantage, one that we can’t gain without properly relying on a good teacher. And by learning the teachings correctly and how to practice properly, we will gain realizations and we’ll approach enlightenment. It’s another major advantage of relying on a qualified teacher.
By practicing as our teacher instructs, then we’ll avoid unfortunate rebirths. We’ll be able to create incredible amount of positive potential and good karma. And then in our future lives, we won’t lack qualified spiritual teachers, and we’ll be able to meet them and practice under their guidance in all of our future lives from now until enlightenment. So really think of these benefits and advantages that come from cultivating a good relationship with a qualified teacher. So understanding the advantages of cultivating this kind of relationship, make a determination to do that.
See that is an important part of your practice. And then think of the disadvantages of not properly relying on a teacher either because we don’t bother to cultivate a relationship with somebody or because we cultivate one and then get angry and stomp away. So in essence, if either of those situations happen, then we’ll miss out on all the above benefits. And by lacking the relationship with a good teacher or by denouncing a good teacher because of our own confusion and anger and projections, then as a result of that, we’ll continue to wander in cyclic existence, especially in unfortunate rebirths because we won’t know how to practice. And even if we try to practice, our practice won’t be successful, and our own good qualities will decline.
So seeing these disadvantages of not properly cultivating a relationship or of giving up a good teacher because of our own confusion, make a determination to really try not to do that. Then we have to learn how to cultivate that relationship. So one way is by relying on our teachers through our thoughts, and a second way is by relying on them through our actions. So in terms of relying upon them with our thoughts, we develop faith in them by remembering their qualities and remembering the role that they play in our spiritual progress. They teach us exactly what the Buddha would teach if the Buddha were here, and they work to benefit us in the same way as the Buddha does.
So try and develop that sense of faith or trust or confidence by remembering your teacher’s qualities and the role they play in your life. And if your mind does pick faults in them, then check and see if those faults are actually coming from the side of the teacher or if they’re coming as a result of our own disturbing attitudes. So contemplating in this way, try and develop that sense of trust and confidence and a willingness to follow the teachings and instructions of your teachers. Śākyamūni Buddha were here in front of us. He wouldn’t teach anything different from what our teachers are teaching us.
Then also, rely on your teachers through your thoughts by developing gratitude and respect by thinking of their kindness. So we didn’t have the fortune to receive teachings directly from Śākyamūni Buddha or the great masters of the path. And it’s due completely to the kindness of our spiritual mentors now that we’re able to hear the teachings. It’s also due to our teacher’s kindness that we see their living example of the Dharma and find inspiration in that. And it’s also due to the kindness of our teacher that we’re able to take precepts and receive guidance in our practice.
So really think about the kindness that our teachers show us, how much benefit we receive from them, and develop a sense of gratitude and respect that makes the heart very happy. And then to practice relying on our teachers through our actions, we do this in three ways. One is by making offerings to them, And the second is by offering our service, our time and energy to help. And the third and best way to rely on our teachers through our actions is by practicing the teachings that they’ve taught us. So reflect a little bit how you can practice these three ways of relying on your teacher: by making offerings, by offering service, and by practicing the teachings as they instruct.
And as a result of doing this meditation, then we should feel a renewed effort to To seek out good teachers and to form good relationships with them by seeing the advantages of doing so and the disadvantages of not. To cultivate that relationship by developing confidence in them, by remembering their qualities and developing gratitude by remembering their kindness. And then, because of that feeling very inspired in our own heart to practice, then putting into practice the teachings for the benefit of all the sentient beings and progressing step by step along the path just as all the great masters have done in the past. So make the determination to do that.