Many strong, mature people are thinking: "What do I need a teacher for? Since all Truth lies within me". Luckily progress is possible even without a teacher. The question is only how fast you want to get there.

The Buddha taught several different ways. In some you go forward over the course of many lifetimes through "trial and error". One tries the possibilities of Living and eventually one discovers what brings joy and what brings suffering. With this kind of experience, which build on habits and memories, you don't need a teacher. Here one simply realises that certain actions, words, and thoughts on the outside and on the inside are "rewarded" with a good feeling, while others lead to trouble and bad vibes.

This happens in the same manner as in the experiments in which a small worm sent crawling through an Y-pipe eventually realises that going through the left branch always leads to electrical shocks and going through the right one always gets it something to eat. On this level of avoiding suffering a few simple teachings suffice, like what the Buddha taught in the HinaYana.

It is much faster however when a convincing teacher says, "These actions lead to these results." In this way the realisations are (re-doable) and the experience becomes more "rounded". In many lectures for instance the professor says less than what is printed in his book, and one could easily read that on one's own. But by his saying it, it becomes more powerful.

On this level however, one does not need very many teachings, and those that are there, are not especially distinguished. This you see n the Theravada-countries like Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. The teachers are examples of course, but the highflying and power-transmitting work, which is so important in the DiamondWay, is hardly ever found.

When an intelligent lifestyle has lessened our difficulties, people develop an "inner"-life by themselves. It shows itself on the side as compassion, the ability to co-experience the striving of others after happiness, and on the other side as the wisdom to see things as "supra-personal". A rational level appears. You see, what is really there and no longer just one's own expectations and aversions. At this second level one can also progress through books, for this is about rational reasoning. From the level of ideas impressions seep into our consciousness little by little, and you change. When we observe clearly, what happens everywhere, compassion and wisdom arise spontaneously. This however happens faster and more directly when someone shares his experience with us. On this MahaYana level, the "Greater Vehicle", the teacher is important, but not irreplaceable. He is first and foremost our good friend on the Way, an important inspiration.

If all of Buddha's teachings were to disappear and 500 years later the old books were rediscovered and one wanted to understand them, then the HinaYana and MahaYana levels could be re-established right away. Nothing would have been lost.

This however would not be possible with the third and highest level of the teachings. Here it is about imagination and the reshaping of emotions and the acceptance of whole areas of states of experience. If we want to embrace quickly all the riches and powers and abilities which lie within us we definitely need a teacher. Whoever wants to remove in 15 or 20 years everything, that lets us experience old age, sickness, and death as big difficulties, must use this direct approach.

They, who want to leave personal limitations so far behind, that he can work completely for others, can not get around this. You really need someone who knows the mind in order to experience it yourself. Hannah's and my first teacher, Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche, once said, "Even Buddha had Lamas". It took a while for me to understand that "Enlightenment is the process of growing through lifetimes". When the experience through the power of a teacher is brought up to a supra-personal level of insight, it becomes self-liberating and everything shows the limitless possibilities of space. That is the Way of Insight, which is called the MahaMudra.

Also for the way of the methods [means] you need a teacher. He gives us the power to let us experience ourselves as forms of light and energy in a Pure-land. The basis for this is the threefold transmission of the DiamondWay. It consists of the initiation, the Wang, whereby the force fields of the Buddhas are transmitted.

Then follows the permission, the Lung, whereby the experience of the text is brought into the consciousness through hearing. Finally, then, one receives the teachings, the Tri. They reveal for us all the possibilities contained in the texts, so that we can utilise them completely. Primarily it is the DiamondWay, which gives descriptions of the qualities of a teacher.

First he needs compassion. He must be willing to interfere in the life-flow of people and to help them on the short as well as the long run. Inseparable from that he must have wisdom. He must know with what he is working and must be matured through experience.

However, the most important quality of a teacher is to be able to see things suprapersonally [in a suprapersonal way]. He must thoroughly understand emptiness and may not experience anything as narrow and I-related. He must also have a steady feel of the nature of Mind and be unshakeable in body, speech, and mind. The mind must remain strong, the speech convincing, and the body may not cease to emanate courage and joy.

In the beginning most people see the teacher as very personal. This makes great openness possible and creates a strong connection. But it is not a good basis for long term development. Soon the disturbing emotions will also tarnish the purity of this experience, and instead of the "flash" of the [first] meeting expectations and habitual thinking will take over. The traditional Tibetans say something extreme, "You keep all ties when you are with the Lama for only a short while, and you break them all when you stay with him q long time". However, this saying does contradict my own experiences with my students. We Kagyüs take a lighter approach anyway. We learn to see every Lama as an expression of Karmapa. This way it becomes less important whether one is thin or thick, attractive or less exciting. What is important is that all teachers express different sides of Karmapa. If one sees him as the whole rainbow, then all the teachers are the different colours of the rainbow. Through one teacher one experiences the wisdom of Karmapa, from others his joy, his fearlessness, his compassion or other perfect qualities. That way there is something to be learned from every teacher. With the one with whom one finds the thing that touches one the most, one forms a special bond; one chooses this teacher as one's root-lama. This is the most important teacher. He will make us trust in our Buddha-nature, in the space-clearness-limitlessness of our mind.

If this teacher keeps his transmission, if he is also true to his teacher, his work will go very deep. What he transmits will be clear like water from the finest well and will benefit all [beings]. Popularity is easy to come by. All he needs to do is to say the things that people want to hear. But for those who do not just want to polish their own egos but want to abolish it altogether, for those the teacher must transmit the stream of a genuine blessing. If he represents an enlightened line of transmission everything he touches will blossom. He will be deep as the ocean and high as the mountains. Wide and solid and with strong roots he will transmit the essence of that, which the Buddha gave us 2500 years ago, and which was further empowered by Karmapa.

As for Karmapa himself we should know that he is a Buddha. We can trust him completely that he will lead us on the way from confusion to the ultimate Enlightenment. With other teachers we should concentrate on the abilities and not the weaknesses. Our vie-point is to begin with quite limited and expectations and aversions colour our experiences. All beings, after all, have the Buddha-nature. Samsara IS Nirvana. But when someone contains both good and bad, what would we rather share with him?

Now how does the transmission to the student work? Through their openness they more and more take over the different qualities of the teacher. After some time others will start to detect the same power and certainty in them. They trust in that and likewise enter the power-field of the lineage. Besides trust also intelligent honesty is wanted. One shouldn't lose one's cool at every little thing. If one experiences more cleaning than blessing for a long time it is good to talk to the teacher about it. Students who don't communicate are difficult. We don't want any faith or peace-joy-omelette Buddhism. Doubts must be resolved, so that no obstacles will appear on the Way later on.

It is important that one sees the teacher at the highest purest realm. Not as a person, but as inseparable from his lineage and transmission. This is for the sake of the students and not to benefit the teacher. They only get more work that way. If one thinks that the Buddha is an ordinary man, one receives the blessing of an ordinary man. If on the other hand one thinks of one's teacher as a Buddha one receives the blessing of a Buddha. The teacher is a mirror to our mind and connects us with our own Buddha-nature. If we see him as wise we will benefit form him. Otherwise we are just wasting our time.

A teacher is as useful as his success in making people aware of their own beauty. If he can awaken them and if they do not become dependant on him, that is very good. Of course he may not say, "I am the source of your happiness and now please buy me some Rolls Royce". Instead he should say, "All the riches that you now possess are yours. If you didn't have it within you how would you be able to experience it? Now take it into the world and show what you have learned." Then when the students come back, he examines how it has all gone and shows him how to carry on. In this way one gets the deepest connection of all, namely common development. With each meeting one has matured a little more, one has learned just a bit more. The competence of the teacher shows in the independence of his students. His power is seen in their ability to stay strong.

From Kagyü Life Nr. 7, 3rd Year (December 1991)

Translation: Lodrö Sangpo