Samaya--Comments by Thrangu Rinpoche

[conebeckham]

On the Buddhist Tantra talk section there's a question about Samaya....rather than a PM to the original poster, I thought it important to share these words of Thrangu Rinpoche for the benefit of everyone....they are not strictly about Samaya, but pertain to devotion and sacred outlook, which are most certainly related to specific Samaya of Highest Yoga Tantra:

"However, faith in one’s guru is not supposed to be blind faith. It is not the attitude, “My guru is perfect,” even though your guru is not perfect. It is not pretending that your guru’s defects are qualities. It is not rationalizing every foible of the guru into being some kind of superhuman virtue, because after all most gurus are going to have defects.You do not have to pretend that your guru’s defects are qualities. That is not devotion. The object of your devotion is not the foibles, quirks,or defects of your guru, but it is the dharma which your guru teaches you. As long as the dharma is authentic and pure,then that guru is a fit object for your devotion. You are not practicing the guru’s foibles. You are practicing the guru’s teachings, the dharma. The result which you will get, you will get from the dharma that you practice. Therefore, your devotion is principally to the dharma, which is the teaching of the
guru. You need to recognize the defects of your guru as defects. You do not need to pretend that they are anything other than that. But you also need to recognize that the guru’s defects will not hurt you because it is not the guru’s defects that you are creating or cultivating. You are following the teachings fo the guru, and so trust means trust in the teachings, trust in the validity, purity and authenticity of the dharma that you receive from your guru. You do not need to pretend that defects are qualities. You just need to recognize the validity of the teachings themselves. So that is the importance of devotion and sacred outlook."

http://www.rinpoche.com/teachings/creation.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
From Shenphen Osel, Vol 5, No. I, and I believe this was later published as a book on Kongtrul's Creation and Completion text.

With regard to the original poster's question, if one cannot abide the foibles, quirks, and defects, it is appropriate to seek out another teacher, but it does not mean that one's Dharma Connection with prior guru is somehow invalidated. This is a tricky point, but honesty, with oneself and with others, is key.

[Sönam]

...
From Shenphen Osel, Vol 5, No. I, and I believe this was later published as a book on Kongtrul's Creation and Completion text.

Yes, page 92, in "Commentary by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche" - Devotion and Pure Vision

Sönam

[PeterC]

As the poster who placed the question in that forum, let me first thank Conebeckham for sharing this teaching, and also share some of the other responses I got to my question by PM, in case others have similar issues:

1. The potential breach of samaya arises from entertaining negative thoughts and giving rise to negative speech and action regarding the guru. If it's a choice between staying close to the Sangha/Guru and risking these things, or keeping a distance, then the latter is desirable
2. The maintenance of samaya rests on seeing the enlightened aspect of the guru - and since we strive to see the Buddha-nature in all living beings, that is not a particularly excessive demand
3. Many great teachers and practitioners only had short encounters with their gurus. Most of the Mahasiddhas only received one empowerment in their lives and spent a few days or less with their guru. On ongoing, close relationship with one's guru is of course nice but not necessary
4. One should not project one's idealized vision of a teacher onto the actual teacher that you have, and then hold him to account for not measuring up
5. Whether or not one has a current human teacher, one always has the written teachings
6. Even if one's relationship with a guru were perfect, there is never any harm in being absent from them for a period and/or receiving teachings from another
7. Doubt and uncertainty are very damaging to the practice of the Vajrayana, and any circumstances that give rise to them are better abandoned, for the benefit of the practice

There was also an excellent teaching from HHDL posted a while back that touches on this topic in this thread. His advice is a lot stronger than what I've posted here.

http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=14524" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[reddust]

PeterC,

Thank you for sharing, your post answered some of my questions. I'm up in the woods and hardly see anyone including my sangha and teachers. I felt kind of guilty about this but it's so nice being away from everyone and hanging out with nature

[emptydreams]

Thank you so much for this teaching because i was misled before. It helped me clear off so much on this.