Bardor Tulku Rinpoche talk

[Sloppy Zhang]

Hey everyone, tonight I had the privilege of attending a discussion with Bardor Tulku Rinpoche (a quick bio here for those who don't know). The main focus of his speech was meditation in family life, but he then opened it up to a question/answer session. The discussion went all over the place, very interesting but also very entertaining, and he touched on a topic that comes up a lot here.

 

And that is, you know, spiritual paths, teachers, what paths you should be doing, yadda yadda yadda.

 

He likened meditation/spiritual cultivation to medicine. People who undertake those paths are like sick people who are taking medicine. If you start taking medicine, and you feel better, you are going to keep taking it. If someone comes up to you and says, "don't take that medicine, take this one instead." you're not going to listen to them because what you are doing works for you.

 

Teachers/gurus are like doctors, they help prescribe what you need. But not all doctors are equal, and some are just not up to the job at all. These can hurt you. You can identify a good teacher by meeting as many as you can and learning from them to see what works for you. A genuine teacher is going to be wise, compassionate, kind, and selfless. A fake won't possess those things.

 

But again, in the end the person is just going to have to experiment and try it out. If they find medicine that works, they should keep using it.

 

And as a final note, he brought up the Bodhisattva vow, and how it is actually AGAINST the Bodhisattva vow to go up to someone and say, "don't practice that path, practice this path instead." (or to tell them to stop taking the path they're on period) Because, as long as the person is getting good medicine and are getting better, why would you try and take that away from them? If they seek something else, that's one thing, if they are getting hurt, helping them is another thing. But you don't go around telling people, "you should stop doing what you're doing!" if they like what they are doing. Not to say that we've all taken (or should have taken, or should take in the future) the Bodhisattva vow, but I think it would be good if we all tried to do what we could.

 

I guess it's pretty obvious the kinds of conversations I'm referencing here seems like a lot has quieted down in the past day or two, I don't want to stir the pot again but I figured I should post it while I have it in my head.

Edited March 21, 2009 by Sloppy Zhang

[goldisheavy]

Good advice, except it's not always so clear cut. Sometimes a person takes alcohol and things get better. They notice that if they keep taking lots of alcohol, life is not so bad. So the medicine is working. Or maybe not. Like I said, all kinds of good advice falls apart in real life because advice is often some sound bite and doesn't account for nuances and shades of meaning you encounter in real life.

[Sunya]

seems like an interesting talk. thanks for sharing

[Trunk]

Sweet.