Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Robina Courtin opens this 32-minute teaching with an extended personal story: learning to bake cakes from her mother, which becomes a metaphor for choosing a spiritual teacher wisely. The core instruction concerns guru devotion—not blind faith or emotional attachment, but rational confidence grounded in actual checking. She challenges the Western spiritual tendency to follow charismatic teachers or those who make you feel good, using secular examples (demanding coaches, skilled dentists) to expose the logical flaw. Real devotion requires verified qualities: knowledge of the path, genuine compassion, and demonstrable spiritual development. She reframes the Tibetan practice of viewing one’s teacher “as a Buddha” as a psychological technique for removing your own projections, not as mystical belief. The teaching includes Q&A on how to check a teacher’s validity and recognize your root teacher.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 DAR 2003 06 21.mp3
UUID: 963a9172-44e4-462f-8d66-b287d8df83d7
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Death and Rebirth (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2003-06-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 32.2 minutes
Words: ~6,756
You, she made good cakes. I tasted other cakes. So I had the the evidence. I also had the evidence, you know, they say with a teacher, you check on the students. I checked on on the students.
I checked I tasted my mother my sister’s cakes, and my mother had shown them. You check on the peers. You check on the reputation among their peers of the teacher, you know. And I many of my friends, my mother’s friends said she was a valid cake maker. So this will all sort of happened intuitively.
I didn’t do it with this conscious effort because I want you know, I didn’t think like that. I’d done that work. I wanted to do it. I’d done the checking. So now this is the point this is the crucial point here.
Why would I need to do the checking? Because, you know, you get this to the point where I’m in the kitchen, and what’s interesting, I remember this day. The kitchen was at my mother’s house in queue. The time all the others had gone to the football. I never went to a football.
Actually, when I was younger, in fact, my mother and I yeah. All my sisters were fanatic South Melbourne barrackers, you know, Sydney, isn’t it? And my sister, Jen, still is. She still cries at the football. It’s unbelievable.
She can’t get I mean, she’s the swannies as she calls them. It’s sort of incredible. And I couldn’t stand the pain of football. It was just all that hysterical. I couldn’t spare it.
You know? You know, they all go to the footy, and my and I was learning music from my mom. She was my music teacher as well. I was used to be a singer. She taught me to sing.
She was a classical singer. And she and we used have these, you know, Saturday afternoons. And so this same day, I remember when I was twenty eight, and they all go into the footy, and my mother showed me how to make a cake. I remember the day. It was vivid, you know.
And so the point is of why you should check is this, that at the moment when you begin the lesson and your mother says, well, do this and do that, remember you haven’t learned how to make a cake. So therefore you don’t know how to make a cake. Therefore you have no wisdom experientially, do you, to judge whether what she’s telling you is valid, do you? From your own experience, you don’t know. So what else can you do to have some kind of confidence in her?
You have to have checked up. You check up on her reputation. You check up her on on the product itself, on the students. Then you have intellectual basis enough to give you confidence that when she does say, now Bob’s, you know, you call me Bob’s. Now Bob’s, put two eggs and you do this, you whip this, you put the butter in then this.
Now if I if I haven’t checked up on her because I haven’t got the experience, then how do I know that she’s telling me the right thing? She might lead me up a garden path. That’s why you’ve got to do the checking because if you if you don’t have the valid experience yourself, you don’t have any other basis except your own intelligence. So absolutely when it comes to spiritual teachers, I tell you I have seen the mess in the West because we had this fantasy about spiritual and because we relate it to feelings, you know. Now I mean there are some let’s say some many teachers who are extremely charismatic and I have seen it myself.
The number of students the person might or not might be valid but the most of the reason person jumps into that that teacher is because they make them feel good. They’re so they’re so good with their words and they make them kind of they dazzle them, know. But they haven’t done the checking on this person. They don’t know this person is valid because they haven’t done the checking. They use their emotion.
And that’s just, you know, that’s not valid. I’m sorry. And we think spiritual is about feeling. It’s just it’s too it’s too superficial, you know. Feeling is not valid.
People felt really good with Hitler. I’m sorry. Look at the experiences in the world of charismatic people. And then we were blinded by our attachment. We built up this big that he’s so special, he’s amazing, he’s incredible, he speaks so clearly, he’s admiring, he’s amazing, he’s this, but excuse me, you haven’t done the checking.
You do not know validly until you’ve checked that this person is really a valid teacher. You just just don’t know. You don’t know. You cannot say you know if you haven’t done the checking. Just because you feel good is no logic to prove that a person is good.
You know? So we have to use our intelligence because this is the point. You know? Know. You’ve done the checking.
You you want to do it. You’ve done the checking. You’ve checked up. You have real confidence now and then you commit. Then you could do the you know, then you commit one to one.
Okay. Please show me the path. Then this is this kind of vajra commitment. Now I’m telling you, once you’ve really committed, any lama, any guru guru Sanskrit means heavy with knowledge. The lama is the Tibetan equivalent.
I don’t know. Different translations I’ve heard, but I’ve heard that la is means high and then ma is like a female ending. So for some reason it’s la ma so it’s like hi mother I’ve heard sometimes like that. But the Sanskrit is heavy with knowledge. So unless we’ve done all this checking and we really have confidence beyond just the feeling, you’ve to have a good feeling about the person too.
Of course you do. Because and why you have to be steady is because they’re not gonna know, have this cute often we have this fantasy. Many people who jump in quickly to a spiritual path have a fantasy that it’s all blissful and incredible ways and amazing and you know blah blah blah but it’s huge attachment. So the point about attachment is it’s pollution. It’s just you know like it seems like a higher level of attachment.
But the point of about attachment, it’s very manipulative, and it it has a fantasy of what it thinks it wants. And then if it doesn’t get it and it won’t get it because attachment never gets what it wants, then you’re gonna start criticizing the object. You go to finding fault because this the look or you fall in love. You fall in love. He’s just divine, isn’t he?
Excuse me. Look what happens after six months or a year. Bit of fighting, anger, rage, annoyance, and you don’t even know what’s going on because your attachment wasn’t satisfied because attachment can’t be satisfied because it’s a liar. It’s a fantasy. And I’ve seen it with spiritual teachers again and again, and it’s just so polluting, you know.
People have more emotion with their guru than what they do with their boyfriend, and then more crashing to the ground when their when their bubble bursts, you know. Because also the fact is if a teacher is a valid teacher, they’re gonna put you through the hoops, I tell you. And we don’t need to look at only spiritual practice to see that. Especially in the United States, I see maybe it’s the same here with sport but I’m used to living in America these few years. And you know you see all these like this one famous coach I think it’s Michael Jordan’s coach he’s Phil Jackson or somebody who’s like a Zen practitioner he’s famous among coaches basketball coaches because he’s he’s like this really kind of and some of the best coaches, they like this.
They’re these wrathful Zen masters and wrathful gurus, you know. They put the students, these athletes absolutely pushed to their limit. Now even at an ordinary level, if ‘re an athlete and your coach starts bashing you around pushing you to the limit because they really are a good coach and they want to get the best out of you but you’re completely just attached to being comfortable and you’re gonna start criticizing this coach you know. Who do they think they are? What rights they have?
I mean you won’t like to be knocked around but if you have faith in that person, confidence based on your first your checking and now your experience that they are a valid coach, you can let them. You’ll let them push you to a doomsday because you want to get the best out of yourself. And so when we got just attachment to the guru, you you have this fancy, all lovely, gorgeous being at his feet all holy, you know, they’re sweet and loving and it’s a load of garbage. I tell you, it is not like that. It’s not how we think.
You know? And if you are committed, what you’re doing as a Buddhist is really wanting to develop your qualities. That’s what you’re trying to do. You therefore, you want to go outside your comfort zone. You want to push yourself, not in a neurotic way, in a good way like, you know, like these athletes all do it.
You want to do that. You want to taste your potential, and you’ll only taste your potential if you push yourself outside your comfort zone. And now the fact is, if you doing it on your own, you won’t do that. You’ll just sit in your comfort zone, you know. Nice practice, feeling good, good feeling every day, more peaceful.
I’m sorry, really practice is not like that, I’m telling you. So when you commit yourself to a lama, the point about that person is they know more than you. They’re more ahead of you on the path. I believe they’re a Buddha completely, but they’re definitely more ahead of you which in spiritual terms means they’re more they’re more they know their mind they know their mind profoundly and they know your mind profoundly. They even have clairvoyance.
They know your mind from past and future. They know your karma exactly. They really have powerful wisdom that sees exactly where you’re at. They can see you coming, you know, like a really skillful mother is not fooled by her child’s games. So the the the guru is like a parent in that way, incredibly skillful, like an incredibly skillful therapist.
Their job is to help you develop your amazing potential. And that means in Buddhist terms to help you cut the crap, know, to cut past all the garbage, all the delusions, and all the manipulation, and the anger, and the hurt, and the laziness, and the depression. Their job is to see you perfectly and to find the most skillful way to help you see yourself perfectly. So therefore, it’s an extremely painful job. I mean, I was very fortunate.
The very first Buddhist teaching I had was from my what turned out to be my main lamas, know, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa. I was incredibly fortunate because they they picked me up by the scruff of the neck and they haven’t let go yet. And so somehow it’s extremely difficult. I mean, extremely difficult because you you when you’re really wanting to learn and when you’ve met the valid teacher who these very powerful beings and you allow them in, which means you commit yourself, they I mean, all these cliches, but they’re really true. They really help you see your garbage so quickly and you want to see your garbage, not to make yourself horrible because that’s what’s preventing you from seeing your beauty, you know, from seeing your perfect qualities.
So they truly help you see both actually. So they’re dragging you along. They’re forcing you to grow. They are forcing you out of your comfort zone, and you if you’re brave enough, you want that. So you ‘ve got to be committed to this person.
You’ve got to have checked up on this person because if they’re gonna start putting you through the hoops, the first thing that attachment will do when it doesn’t get it want is blame. And I’ve seen many people, they even sue their gurus. It’s happened many times in the United States. I mean for whatever reason and yes indeed some of them might not be valid but don’t blame them. It’s because you jumped in you know with all your fantasies and now they turn out to be not a valid guru you then blame them.
Excuse me, you know. It’s like when you jump fall in love with a person, but you didn’t check up. And now you discover he’s a creep, and you blame him for being a creep. Well, he’s always been a creep, but you just didn’t see it. So don’t blame him.
Even blame yourself, you know. It’s really like that. We’ve got in other words, the emphasis again in Buddhism is on we have to take responsibility. It is up to us. The onus is on us, you know.
They’re sitting there waiting for us to come and ask. They will not push. This is the thing about the teachers. It was very skillful in the Buddhist tradition. You can say that about my mom.
She waited twenty eight years or, you know, twenty five years for me to ask. Can you imagine how happy she was finally when her bobs asked her to show how to make a cake? She always knew how to show me, but she didn’t push because she knew it wasn’t it wasn’t wise. So when when I was ready, I’d done the checking. Mama, please show me how to Everything came together beautifully.
I I was prepared to trust when she said put to this and do this. And I listened and I remember that as like I said, I remember the day because it was the moment that cake making became real for me. Cakes came became real for me real for me on that day because everything was ready. All the conditions came together, you know. I wanted it.
I requested. She showed me. I was open. I did what she said, and I made the cake. I probably haven’t made one for twenty years, but I bet I can make a good cake because that it was like I got initiation.
It was like an initiation, know, the empowerment. That’s all an empowerment is in the esoteric teachings. You you know, everything is all together, the conditions all together and you get the you kind of you get it, you know. You get it. It’s a very quick way to get it and I got it.
So yes, I and the person who did the getting was me. I did all the work. I did the checking. I wanted to do it. I listened to the instructions.
I made the cake. My mother in that sense, the the teacher is like a catalyst. You do all the work, but you’ve got to have the person there to do it to you to be open to them to get the instructions, and then you’ll really learn to go, you know, you’ll really learn to practice. So if we do have a teacher, great. Reinforce our wish to, you know, whatever.
Have pure practice, pure devotion. Devotion just means confidence. And if we don’t have what we want, just make aspiration. Okay. May I meet my teacher?
May I have enough courage to recognize my teacher so I can do what I wanna do, which is develop me because that’s their job. They have no vested interest. If the teacher’s a very valid teacher, which in Buddhist terms means they’re quite highly developed, which means they’ve gone beyond ego, they have no vested interest for themselves at all. Their function is to help you develop your qualities. That’s their job, you know.
So make strong aspiration to meet your teacher when the time is right, you know. So the essence of this practice actually, they call it the essence of guru devotion, confidence in the teacher, that’s all it means, is actually and this seems quite an interesting one, but to to get our head around it just briefly. What does that say? Okay. Is to they say once you’re committed to the teacher, the practice the heart of your practice then is just practice seeing the teacher as the Buddha, as if they were fully enlightened.
Not as a way to praise them because it’s for their benefit. It’s simply a skillful psychological technique that enables one to quickly get the realizations. In other words, they say, you know, the main benefit that comes let’s say we’re all sitting in the teachings listening to a lama teach. The main benefit that comes from that teaching, from our listening, is not the knowledge of the teacher. It’s our pure view as they call it, is our open heart.
Having done the checking, remember, now we can have a very open heart and absolutely clean pure view and imagining that is the pure perfectly enlightened Buddha teaching me. They say to to this extent, we get realizations. Because it’s obvious. If you sit there thinking, oh, this person, who do they think they are? And do they wouldn’t they know what they’re talking about?
That could be the Buddha up there. But if you haven’t done the checking, you’ve got this cynical mind, you get zero benefit. It’s very obvious. You know, I might go to George because I’ve heard he’s a great dentist, but let’s say I don’t like Australians, don’t like folks with moustaches or something, and he could be the most genius dentist. But if I’m already suspicious and don’t trust him, it’s obvious what benefit do I get.
I won’t even get even let him get near me, so I won’t get the benefit. But if I’ve done my checking and he’s just I’ve discovered he’s a valid dentist and I go myself there completely open, he can completely fix me, you know. So it’s a very skillful attitude. It’s not some mystical thing seeing the guru as a Buddha, you know. It’s just highly intelligent.
Because the more we understand our mind that our mind is full of all this delusion and projections and fears and neurosis and you know ego nonsense. If we’re seeing and mostly we’re seeing everybody through these filters, these busy busy rubbish, you know. We can’t see a person at all. We’re seeing only a reflection of our own neuroses, you know. So you gotta get your neuroses out of the way and see the person as if they were enlightened.
Then to this extent, you will get all the benefit. You’ll get realizations very quickly. It’ll just come flowing into you, you know. So it’s a very skillful attitude. And we have to cultivate it.
You know? Say the words. Think this way. So that’s why guru devotion has got nothing to do with emotion in that in that neurotic sense we think. You know?
Because a person’s charismatic and says the Dharma really skillfully. Hitler was I mean, actually, you analyze Hitler’s words. Was an idiot, you know? But I mean, it’s so amazing how people can be blinded. And, yes, it could even be teachers who are very charismatic.
The Dalai Lama is charismatic, but excuse me, it’s fortunate that we like him and why we mostly like him is because he makes us feel good. Okay? It’s sort of interesting, but we’re not sort of we hit we hit the jackpot because he happens to be a valid person and that’s for you to find out still, but if one has done the checking one will discover that he is a valid person, but we don’t like him because he’s a valid person, we like him because he makes us feel good. So in other words we like him for the wrong reasons because you watch what happens if he started chucking his students out of the Gompa. You know you hear about these stories about Milarepa and he was, you know, beaten up by his guru, thrown out of the Gompa, told to do these things.
I mean, we love to hear these wow, these amazing stories, but you just check them. But can you imagine going to a teaching by the Dalai Lama and he throws out some people? I don’t want you here. Get out. Now you check this.
I think everybody would be so shocked and we would immediately stop liking the Dalai Lama. That proves we haven’t done our checking. That proves we don’t really know he’s a valid person. It just proves we’re just following emotion, following attachment, know. Because the fact is when we do have the valid view that that Phil Jackson is a good coach, when he shouts at us and you do more push ups or don’t you come tomorrow because you’re late today, you’ve got a penalty, we will put our tail between our legs and we will do exactly what he says because we know he’s doing it for our benefit.
That means you’ve checked up on his qualities and you know it’s for your own good. But as soon as a spiritual teacher looks slightly wrong or doesn’t do what you want immediately, we get upset. So it shows it’s attachment, know. It really does. If you think you’re devoted to somebody, a teacher, this sounds shocking, but then you just think about if if they if they shout at somebody and are really mean, then check how you feel.
Now if you really do think, well, that’s a a clear that’s a that’s a skillful means by that person, he’s a really a Buddha out of compassion for another, then you’re on the right track. But if you find, oh, that would be shocking. I don’t think I’d like him then. Then it’s just attachment. It’s just attachment, you know?
And I keep using these coach examples because we have worldly experiences that are exactly what I’m talking about. You don’t need to you don’t need to read to me read to to hear about these things. It’s right here now in ordinary things called sport. It’s incredible. So we have to do the the logical thinking.
Do we have actual grounded confidence that that person is valid, you know? Because it’s by the same token, you can have someone like Lama Zopa Rinpoche, you’re not being personal, my guru, who is renowned for teaching weirdly, you know? Speaking until three in the morning, completely freaking you out, tired, exhausted, irritable, who completely coughs half the time, don’t know what he’s talking about. My first month of teachings with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I really mean I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. It was just my past merit, I’m sure, that kept me there, you know.
I didn’t know. And he’s Rinpoche is renowned, but everybody if they do the checking from the Dalai Lama down, he is verified as one of the most amazing holy beings on this earth. I’m not saying that because he’s my Lama. I’m telling you what other high beings say including the Dalai Lama, you know. Everybody says this.
But when and I see it when I go to courses, know, and people have especially at Kopan where he does his monthly courses. He’s been doing for twenty five, thirty years, thirty years. You know, there’s this huge reputation Rinpoche has got of being a holy being, you know. So naturally, we have all this fantasy of a holy being they’re gonna make you feel good and as charismatic and it’s gonna be amazing and special. Excuse me you come crashing down to earth.
I’ve seen people at Kopan who just can’t bear to go to the classes anymore who are pulling their hair out thinking how can he be a holy being you know I’m feeling upset so it shows how it’s all this emotion you know I mean it just shows how we all are full of attachment you know we don’t know there we go to a person who speaks you know more many people like to come my teachings rather than Lama Zopa Rinpoche. I’m so shocked I almost can’t bear it. I know I’m an ordinary person. He’s a high being. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.
That’s just a fact, okay, in terms of development. Because I say things in Australian way and it’s easier to digest, I understand that, you know, but if we actually understood the qualities of Lama Zopa, we wouldn’t care that he coughed. We would actually know, this maybe sounds more mystical, but when we think about it, again, it’s logic. We would know just by being in his presence, we’re getting profound kind of it’s enabling us to get profound insights at some point, you know. We’d put up with the coughing, we wouldn’t care.
But no, we just have this craving to feel good. That’s why we all like, you know, we just we we we go to the bottom line, the easiest option. And like I said with the Dalai Lama, he is extremely charismatic, and the fact is he also happens to be valid. He is said to be a Buddha, so you couldn’t get a higher quality than him. So it’s just like it’s great for us because he and it’s great for everybody because he’s able to hook so many people who wouldn’t who wouldn’t go to another person’s teachings.
So it’s fortunate because he is blessing the world. But like I said, we don’t have a we don’t have the right reason for liking him. We like him because he makes us feel good, and that’s not a valid reason. So it’s very interesting. We have to think about it so carefully like this.
You know? And then when we’ve got stable in the mind, then nothing will waver. Then we have certainty. Then we will really learn quickly. Really want really seriously enter the path then.
You know? We’re supposed to have a tea break at some point. I haven’t got the schedule, but I’m sure you’ll tell me what to do. Where’s the schedule? Darling, what time is it?
Just say the time. Don’t worry. Always time for the break. You like cup of tea then, people? Mhmm.
A little bit of tea? Tea for alright. So any questions before we have tea Just a few about what I’ve talked about so far, the mind and guru devotion. Any questions at all? Yes.
Okay. That’s interesting. They use this phrase. Okay. The idea is there he is, this holy being, he’s said to be a Buddha.
You ask all these other people, they will say that. I can’t see that he is, but they will say that he’s fully developed. Okay? Which means he’s fully qualified and all his all his yeah. He’s fully developed.
He’s the full oak tree now. So what they say is on this path that he’s had countless lives in the past, of course, and so he’s been on the path for countless lives before he became a Buddha and practicing as a bodhisattva, they talk about, you know, from and we’ll talk about this. So from life after life after life, there he is being reborn with great awareness because he’s now got the control before he was a Buddha as a bodhisattva practicing practicing practicing perfecting perfecting perfecting and finally becoming a Buddha. And one of the jobs they say of a bodhisattva, which is the compassion wing, is to, as they say, hook sentient beings, which means all the millions of people now, right now, who just like the Dalai Lama, as soon as they see him, as soon as they meet him, which we do, let’s say, is because from life after life after life after life life, he has hooked. He has connected with every one of us eyeball to eyeball.
He’s got each one of us. He’s made eyeball to eyeball contact. He has made a karmic connection with us. And he’s obviously used very sweet methods, which is how come the karma isn’t we like him now. Do see what I’m saying?
That’s what they say. That’s how come he’s just got us in his in his palm you know not because he’s so handsome really. I mean the Chinese hate him. The communist think he’s a devil. Do you see what I’m saying?
That’s what they how they talk. Does that make sense? Do you think a teacher always has to identify as a Buddhist themselves or just be a very wise person? Well teacher is not existing from its own side. A teacher is not a person who’s I mean a teacher in this way Okay.
What we’re really meaning here by a teacher is a person with whom you have a karmic connection whom you wish to learn from. So it’s up to you to decide. You can you can decide whom you like. That’s your job, know. They’re not teachers from their own side.
I mean your teacher might be my teacher. There’s no inherent teacher there. Teacher in this sense is used in a very personal way as that’s my Lama you know. Okay the Dalai Lama we can also say oh he’s like a top Lama. We can say that in a general sense but many people’s Lama, my Lama’s aren’t somebody else’s Lama’s.
You know, they’re my lama. So what we’re really meaning is the one that you call your lama. That’s what we’re talking about. So you have to check what you want. So it’s up to you.
If you want to if you know, it’s up to you. If you identify yourself as a Buddhist, let’s say let’s say, then you could, you know, you would your root lama, as they would call, the main like your mommy lama, that obviously would be a person who’s on that path. It’s a very it’s a clear thing. You gotta label the path, you know. But you can have many other people who are your teachers whom you learn an enormous amount from.
That’s your decision. They’re not a teacher from their own side. They could be somebody else’s, you know, wife, but they can be your teacher. That’s up to you, you know. Do you see?
Yeah. Yeah. How do we check the validity of the teacher? Well, that’s what I said before, the various things you do. You that’s what I said.
But I mean, in terms of the detail, how do I know what are the criteria? Well, that’s what I oh, I see. Okay. Well, okay. Yeah.
There’s like, usually, they say there are ten main points, but I mean, just the general idea, the criteria are that that the person at least the very minimum criterion is that the person is ahead of you on that path. Ahead of you. The very minimum is that. The best of course is a fully qualified one, a person who actually has achieved Buddhahood, which of course is that’s impossible for us experientially to verify, but by reputation we can. So any Tibetan lama, for example, would tell you the Dalai Lama is the Buddha.
They say he’s fully qualified. So, you know, so that’s where the reputation comes in. But they they should the very least, they should have genuine patience or knowledge of the path. Obviously, they’ve got to have the knowledge of what it is you want to learn, actually qualified. Best to be experiential knowledge and to be genuinely patient and loving and to have a genuine compassion for you and the wish that you learn to see their main functions to help you learn.
That’s the minimum qualities. Do you see? I mean, again, it’s kind of it’s logical. It’s the same with cake making, you know? Obviously, their side, the more qualified they are, the the better it is.
But from but the very minimum is those qualities. And then the job from our side, once we’ve checked and that’s valid, then we see them as the Buddha even if they’re not, we’re gonna get the benefit of as if they were the Buddha. You know, that’s the point. That makes sense, isn’t it? That’s more specific, and I forget all the ten points, but it’s usually mentioned in Lam Rim.
Yeah. What else? Yes. Yes. You talked about compassion and the the three elements, the wish for you not to for somebody not to suffer spontaneous wish to take it away and then the power to do it.
So my question is how do Buddhas take suffering away? Okay. So first of all, to be more clear there Jo, I was I say things too quickly. I’m sorry. The three main points I was that no.
Compassion one of those points was compassion. There are three things. There’s the wisdom that if you like in relation to benefit of sentient beings now, qualities of a Buddha are the wisdom that sees their mind perfectly. Broadly speaking, it’s the omniscience that sees everything. But specifically in relation to sentient beings, it’s it’s just it’s the wisdom that sees their minds perfectly.
The second one is the infinite empathy with that person and the wish they don’t suffer. That’s the second one. That’s the compassion wing. And the third is the power to do so. So it’s the wisdom, compassion, and power.
And actually, that’s that’s that’s that’s expressed in the three three different Buddhas. Mañjuśrī is the Buddha of wisdom. Chenrezig is the Buddha of compassion. And Vajrapāni or Tārā are considered the power, the the capacity to act. Yeah.
How do Buddhists take away suffering? They don’t. They give you the means. But no. But the point there is, honey, the point is it’s not so much that they take away the suffering, that what compassion is okay.
What compassion is is this finding of the suffering of others absolutely unbearable, which is called compassion. Then it develops into what they call great compassion, which is it’s my job to take it away. Meaning, you have the wish to take it away. You’ve to have the wish to take it away because you find the suffering so unbearable. And then that culminates in bodhicitta, which is I must become a Buddha as quickly as possible because then I can be qualified, and that’s then you have the power.
So you don’t technically take it away, but you have all the means. You have this incredible mind that sees their minds perfectly. You know all the myriad means to do so, and then you able that much more powerfully to give, to show the means. That’s all. To show the methods.
I mean, that’s how you take away the suffering by showing the methods. But you gotta have the wish to it’s as if you were taking it away. It’s so strong. You know? The compassion is so enormous.
But as we we all know, it’s we who have to do the job. You know? Isn’t it? You see? Yeah.
Yeah. Someone here. We’re really fortunate in Adelaide because we have so many wonderful people. Yes. That’s right.
So how do you choose a teacher from all the wonderful ones that come? I understand it’s very good but it sounds like you have a lot of teachers. You can like every single you know, if you can be in a certain path and you can come along and you have this very pure mind, you you get the you see the best in all the teachers. That’s the best anyway. It’s incredible.
But you’ve got to they would say you have a particular karmic connection with a certain lama or or more than one. I mean, in my case, my I’d say my root gurus are both, are two, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa. So I have incredible number of I mean, a number of teachers like you who say you see these marvelous ones and you have enormous delight hearing their teachings and you love them, but you have this kind of special mummy lama. Well, they say one would have or one could have. Not to be distressed if one hasn’t, but to make the prayers and aspirations to eventually recognize one’s own root lama.
Do you see? And so how you choose It’s not I mean, yes, you choose by using As we said, looking at the criteria, checking against them against those criteria. But then in the end, it’s just having the aspiration every day. May I meet? May I recognize?
Meanwhile, totally enjoying all the Lamas you’ve got. Getting the most from them. That’s fantastic. Couldn’t wish for better. Yes.
Value Why is the mind good? He’s saying it’s value laden. First, have to establish what we mean by good, don’t we? We have to define our terms. Right?
Don’t we? Because we all have already you and I have different views about these things because we we can hear from the way we’re discussing that, you know, you got you know, you had your definitions. We should then for us to to describe. We need to define good, define bad, define what that means and where it comes from, don’t we? So maybe we’ve got time to do it now, have a break, we can do it after.
When we begin to look at the second scope and we start, we’ll probably later today, we’ll start talking about I’m gonna start talking about death in a minute, which is the beginning. Start we’ll talk about what we just exactly how we define. We define what is good, what is bad, and therefore how the mind is that. And it’s I mean but just as a general point now, value laden as you said, there’s an implication there that you can’t say any words in. Because I mean, if you really follow what you’re saying through, you have to use no words at all because everything every word is a value you’re saying.
Therefore, you and it’s not possible. I mean, is where you’re chopping the baby out with the bathwater a bit. In the very fact, we’re at is we are at the level of words, gross concepts. We need language to communicate. So the key point here, and this is where we’re talking about emptiness now.
We’ll talk about this. But what Buddha is saying is that nothing has an inherent nature of good or bad or of anything, up or down, this or that. It’s all just it’s it’s there’s a conventional reality to it. But we have to once we’ve established something, we have to give it a name, define it, and then we can discuss it. That includes good and bad, microphones, toilets.
We have to use words, you know. And then when we have if we have a very if we are value laden, like I said, which which means our own projections onto it, that’s the problem. But what Buddha is saying is we can establish that there is microphone, that there is good, there is bad. We have to establish that, then we can discuss the characteristics of it. We have to be able to discuss it for it to even if it exists, we have to be able to discuss it.
That’s where we’re at right now. And it doesn’t have to be full of projections, but we can discuss it later. So please enjoy a cup of tea. Five, oh no. Try a fifteen minute break.
See how it goes. Have a then we have a longer lunch.