Expert: Bodhicitta - 6/16/2007

Question
QUESTION: My name is Mose and I am a Buddhist, analyzing everything in search for the
truth in order to find peace and harmony, within and without.
It is said that "however enlightened, teachers are not assumed to manifest as
perfectly pure infallible omnipotent omniscient deities who are beyond cause
and effect".
An 'imperfect' teacher who is supposed to be already enlightened sounds as a
contradiction; how could an enlightened being manifest as non-enlightened?
How can Enlightenment co-exist with non-Enlighten behavior? Even
assuming that be possible, does the continuation of such imperfect teacher
carries on in an 'imperfect' un-enlightened way?
Thanks very much.

ANSWER: Dear Mose
Thanks for your  question.

I was left wondering what your were quoting, you didn't say?
It would be nice to know in order to give a fuller answer.

Relevant to your question I think is the story in Tibetan
Buddhism of the student who saw his teacher as a dog licking
away maggots from his open wounds.Before he was able to
see that this was a great teacher - he had to go and
work on his own situation and remove his own karmic obscurations.

In the life story of the Buddha, the first person the Buddha meets - does not recognise that it is the Buddha and just
greets him and carrys on his way. So if there were people
who didn't recognise the Buddha as an enlightened teacher
we can see there is a strong message that there is a two
way process here.

I think the most important message for us from Buddhism
is that we should train ourselves and worry about
our own actions and situations. If we do not meet perfect
teachers then we should realise that is our own bad karma,
and we should resolve to act more skillfully and wish for
the good karma in the future.

Many people in the West seem to use Buddhism as a stick to
attack others with or judge others whether teachers or
just our friends. We should turn to  the first task at
hand to meditate and sort out our situation.

In Samsara, we are not enlightened friends, teachers, the world will appear non-enlightened to us. As we train and
our minds become clearer we will realise that the world
was perfect, but we were like a person living in a house
with dirty windows looking out and thinking the world
was a dull place.

Good luck

Bodhicitta

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Bodhicitta,

I am Mose, again.
Thanks very much for your answer, I appreciate it and it is very helpful.

So if I understood your answer well, the manifestation of who appears to be
an 'imperfect teacher' is a spontaneous manifestation of that Enlightened
Teacher only appearing un-Enlightened because of our un-Enlightened
minds; is that right?

I apologize for not citing the source of my quotation; it is an article on
Wikipedia briefly mentioning the story of Tendzin Osel (not the reincarnation
of Lama Yeshe): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osel_Tendzin

The last two paragraphs mentioning the 'manifestation of teachers' gave rise
to the question I asked you previously.
Could you please comment on those two paragraph?

Thanks a lot,
Mose

Answer
Dear Mose,
Thanks for the follow-up
<<
So if I understood your answer well, the manifestation of who appears to be
an 'imperfect teacher' is a spontaneous manifestation of that Enlightened
Teacher only appearing un-Enlightened because of our un-Enlightened
minds; is that right?>>
No - as I said it is a two way process. It comes from the
obscurations of the students and the karmic connection the
teacher has with the student. The student must work on
the first aspect primarily.As the  article points out - there is also a third aspect. The collective karma of people
at the time effects whether enlightened teachers may manifest and be recognised.

<<
I apologize for not citing the source of my quotation; it is an article on
Wikipedia briefly mentioning the story of Tendzin Osel (not the reincarnation
of Lama Yeshe): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osel_Tendzin

The last two paragraphs mentioning the 'manifestation of teachers' gave rise
to the question I asked you previously.
Could you please comment on those two paragraph?
>>

I can not comment on the case of Osel Tendzin as I did not
meet him or know him. But I can give you the general
situation as understood in dharma for your  consideration.

The only thing I would ask you to consider in addition to
what I have already said is this.

First we should all practice the dharma from our own
sides, follow the precepts and practice meditation to the
best of our abilities. We should also practice devotion, generosity
and loving kindness. This will generate the conditions for
us to continue to practice dharma in the future. One of the
most important conditions that will result is that in future
lives we will meet Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who can teach
us and move us on the path.

The second aspect is finding a good teacher. Traditionally
we should take a lot of trouble over finding a teacher.
Maybe both the teacher and the student should spend upto
three years testing and checking each other out. It is more
important than buying a car! You should provisionally
listen to their advice and talks. You should try the meditation practices. You should meet and check out their
students. You need to check out your feelings and experience
and decide if this is a good teacher for you. Do you feel
inspired in their presence. If not then move on and find another teacher. If you decide this is a good teacher than
listen to what they have to say and follow it to the best
of your ability.

I wish you well at practicing the dharma and finding and
meeting living manifestations of enlightenment

Bodhicitta