Within the Tibetan tradition, there’s a strong emphasis with connecting with a teacher and relying on that person. I think that’s generally good, but it’s also important to develop some self-reliance in practice. Geshe Tashi mentioned something very interesting about this a few months earlier. He commented that in order to become more self-reliant in one’s own practice, a person should contemplate the “Four Reliances.” I thought this was a refreshing reminder.
For myself personally, I probably could have spared my own teacher a great deal of my unnecessary questions if I had followed these four points.
- Rely on the message of the teacher, not on his personality;
- Rely on the meaning, not just on the words;
- Rely on the real meaning, not the interpretable meaning.
- Rely on your wisdom mind, not on your ordinary, judgmental mind.
Wonderful reminders, for sure. As I’m just starting a new relationship with a Teacher, these points are invaluable to make sure the tone of the relationship starts out right. Also, I had no idea Geshe Tashi-la had his own website! What a wonderful resource!
Geshe Tashi gives a wonderful talk about whether we really need a Guru on the FPMT Tse Chen Ling audio page (search Tse Chen Ling audio on Google and it’s the first link.) There are tons of teachings there but Geshe Tashi-la’s is special. : )
Hey TMC
I really like Tse Che Ling’s audio archive, thanks for reminding me. I really need to stop by there. Geshe-la is gonna be spending the next few years studying in the UK, so he won’t be travelling to give teachings for a while, so it seems these video archives will be invaluable. Though if you really want to see him, I heard that he’s still giving teachings in London =D
Lee