Spiritual friends - spiritual guidance

In addition to our meditation, it is important to lead our lives responsibly. We must avoid the influences of bad companions, unsavory friends who can lead us astray. It isn't always easy to judge others, but we can see that certain lifestyles lead to less righteous ways. A kind and gentle person can easily become influenced by dubious friends to follow a less moral path. We must be careful to avoid such negative influences and must cultivate loyal friends who help make our human existence spiritually meaningful and purposeful. 

Regarding friendship, our spiritual teacher is of the utmost importance. It is crucial that the person we learn from be qualified. Conventionally speaking, we seek a teacher who has the qualifications to teach the subject we wish to study. Though someone might be a brilliant physics teacher, the same person may not necessarily be qualified to teach philosophy. A spiritual teacher must have the qualifications to teach what we seek to learn. Fame, wealth, and power are not qualifications for a spiritual teacher! It is spiritual knowledge we must be sure the teacher possesses, knowledge of the doctrine he or she is to teach as well as experiential knowledge derived from practice and life led.

I wish to stress that it is our own responsibility to ensure that the person we learn from is properly qualified. We cannot depend upon the words of others or upon what people may say about themselves. In order to properly investigate the qualifications of our potential teacher, we must have some knowledge of the central tenets of Buddhism and must know what qualifications a teacher would need. We should listen objectively as the person teaches and watch the way he or she behaves over time. Through these means we can determine whether the person is qualified to lead us along our spiritual path.

It is said that one should be willing to scrutinize a teacher for as long as twelve years to ensure that he or she is qualified. I don't think that this is time wasted. On the contrary, the more clearly we come to see the qualities of a teacher, the more valuable her or she is to us. If we are hasty and devote ourselves to someone unqualified, the results are often disastrous. So, take time to scrutinize your potential teachers, be they Buddhist of of some other faith.