Miroku wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:03 pm
florin wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 11:21 am
As an example consider all the practitioners across the centuries who went into retreat for many years and while in retreat their teacher died. They continued to practice afterwards and after some years achieved stable realization. People heard and requested they would teach. They started teaching. Apart from their realization which is the highest credential nobody gave them any authorisation. No human's authorisation is higher than the validation of your own realisation as identical to that of Samantabhadra.
While I get your point and it definetly is valid, I would argue that in modern society it is bit better to also have some lineage to back up these claims. It is one of the important signs of somebody who is at least a bit legit. Not the only one, as realization is also important (however it can be hard for us normal people to perceive it), but a very important one. And in the context of IDC I would be especially careful as it would be a shame if one such claim destroyed and ripped apart the community. I mean even I had a weird dream where I claimed to be a tulku.
Nobody said that people need to claim anything.
From what I remember rinpoche before he started teaching he had multiple requests from people or lamas but he always turned them down( including that of Karmapa). But upon reflection he decided that it is what he needs to do.
I would be suspicious of anybody making claims of any kind when it comes to realisation.
Is just a guess but i think that people who have realisation and start teaching they only do it as long as there are various indications/signs combined with real life circumstances that are pushing towards such an activity.
People in my example didn’t live in a vacuum. They were well known to people living in the area and everyone knew they had lineage and who their teachers were. So is not like one day they achieved realisation but nobody knew who they were and everybody just accepted them. Although you are a yogi, a retreatant for many years, your life is still intertwined with that of the locals.