As I have already said, never discount the possibility of the perfect teacher popping up out of nowhere, instantly cracking open the shell of your delusion and, without warning, laying bare your buddha nature. But this is the exception not the rule. I cannot emphasize strongly enough just how important it is to assess and authenticate a teacher before taking him or her as your guru.

For deluded beings like you and me, one of the Vajrayana’s most useful tools is ‘lineage’. Please, take lineage seriously. I noticed recently that some of the younger generation of lamas give teachings that they themselves have not received. These young lamas are far from diligent, have never studied, and have yet to take full responsibility for caring for the Dharma.

Nevertheless, they assert that they have no need to receive teachings in this life because they received them in a previous life. What utter bullshit! Never believe a lama who talks like that.

Always find out about a guru’s lineage before you receive his teachings, to give yourself time to decide whether or not you want to be associated with his lineage gurus. How would you react if, in ten years’ time, you discovered that one of the gurus in your lineage was a paedophile or a murderer or a con man? Would you be able to continue visualizing such a guru as a buddha? Few of us can see absolutely everyone as a deity. Could you see Donald Trump as a deity?

If a guru has a guru of his own, if he is obviously devoted to his guru and if he treasures his guru’s teachings, their lineage is likely to be quite safe – especially if the guru’s guru is still alive. So try to choose a guru who cherishes and has the greatest devotion for his own guru. This is one of the ways in which the guru lineage can help students – it’s how lineage works.

As you now know, the real guru is the nature of your mind. Although a girl looks at her reflection in a mirror to apply lipstick in an effort to enhance her beauty, her real beauty is her own face. The mirror helps her see her beautiful face by reflecting it back to her.

The paradox here is that the reflection is the girl, but at the same time, it isn’t. Looking at a reflection of herself makes it possible for the girl to apply her lipstick. If it didn’t, there would be no cosmetics industry.

The outer guru is the reflection of your own mind. Some mirrors distort reflections, so it really helps if the mirror in which you see your mind reflected is a good one. In this case, the guru lineage is the mirror. A teacher who does not tell her students about her own guru cannot believe that she herself is beautiful.

I know who I am when I look at my mirror and, because I can see the reflection of my face, I can also see my own beauty and apply lipstick to make myself even more beautiful.

A guru who remains silent about his own guru does not instil confidence in others. His silence leaves students with the impression that he does not believe in his own beauty and that he lacks self-confidence.

I am not suggesting that students should ever flaunt their gurus or talk about them openly. But they should know about their guru’s background, which means knowing about their guru’s guru.

Preferably, students should hear all this information from their guru’s own lips. Students love to hear stories about the lineage masters, many of which are not only inspiring but also comforting and encouraging.

Lineage helps in so many ways. Students are inspired when they learn that the teachings they receive from the Karmapa were given to him by Tai Situ, who in turn received the same teachings from Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Taye, and that each member of the entire lineage of teachers received the teachings in the same way, all the way back to Naropa, Tilopa and the Vajradhara.

Mahamudra students light the fire of passion for their chosen path by reading stories about the protégés of great mahamudra masters. They eagerly devour as many of the fables and biographies of their lineage masters as they can get their hands on.

Learning about their own lineage fills many students with wonder and respect. They are encouraged to hear that, long before they met their own guru, great teachers like Milarepa, Tilopa and Naropa had put a great deal of effort into ensuring that all the existing Buddhist lineages would continue to flourish and spread for generations to come.

Lineage points out that the practices we do today are not minor shamanistic rituals that, once upon a time, one or two people practised in a small village deep in the jungle. And when one of the gurus in our lineage is accused of behaving badly or for some reason fails to win us over, we can count on the rest of our lineage gurus for help and inspiration.

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Poison is Medicine ~ Clarifying the Vajrayana ~ Siddhartha’s Intent ᪥ Repost from Geoff Derring’s Ngöndro – Preliminary or Foundational Vajrayana Practices