If you really want to practice Varayana, you have to find a good teacher and good teachings…

„So many choices! How can we know, if the quality is good?”, Maria sighed while looking a bit desperate at the big collection in the supermarket.

Katharina had sent us a small shopping list with items she needed for the dinner in the retreat house at the end of the world. Always with the addition “good quality”. “Well”, I replied, “It’s not easy to find good quality. Same with spirituality.”

If you really want to practice, you have to find a good teacher and good teachings. I very often see people claiming that their teacher would be a high lama. But if you see him once a year in a group of 50 people, how can you be so arrogant to think he is your teacher? Maybe he even doesn’t know your name, how can he guide you on the path?
Or people go to workshops, where the teacher takes one part out of the traditional teachings and mixes it with western psychology. To make it more understandable. Or condense a practice of 400 pages and complex rituals, so it is learnable in one week-end. If your teacher does so, I suggest that you put on your sport shoes and run away as fast as possible.
Or you are visiting every second month another teacher on another topic. Then you can truly call yourself a “Dharma tourist” and send nice postcards and pictures to your friends. But don’t expect any progress there.

“I see”, Maria replied while still looking a bit skeptical at all the different brands. “But how to find the right choice?”.  “In our tradition, it’s the teacher.”, I said while giving her a jar out of the big collection for a more precise examination. “The teacher has to guide you on the path. Therefore he must be qualified in a unbroken lineage. This is a big commitment, so don’t expect, that a teacher is always happy, if you run to him, telling him, that he should guide you on the way from now on. He might test you for years. And you practice only certain practices – over and over again. Until you get a result. Not every week something else.”.

We were going down the passage in the supermarket. Most of the items we had already in the basket. Now only a good white wine was missing. “And then, there is the choice of your personal taste”, I said. “You have to be clear, what you want. And why you want it. And if you should do a practice or better watch the last Netflix series. What you do must fit your taste, otherwise it’s just a waste of time!”.
“Well”, she was laughing while her brown eyes were flashing, “That’s easy. I have the simplest taste – I’m always satisfied with the best“.