How Do I Practice Buddhism?

A true Dharma teacher has spent years of his or her life practicing a still mind and penetrating the obstacles to inner peace.  He or she has also spent years making the teachings available to others.  They have studied the volumes upon volumes of Buddhist teachings and commentaries and with the reluctance that comes from not having the time to study them all, have made themselves available to pass this understanding on to us.

The teacher we hope will share with us the knowledge leading to truth has had to wait patiently for many years before their teacher felt they were ready to receive the teachings that lead to even deeper levels of enlightened experience.  Yet as Westerners, we have this arrogant notion that we are unlike all those who have preceded us.  We believe that we can grasp enlightenment after reading a book or spending a few weeks in retreat.  Such arrogance only wastes the time of the teachers and prevent the student from making any real progress.

Although enlightenment can in some cases be directly experienced at some level within a week after beginning practice, the full understanding of all the stages leading to enlightenment and the practices that assist in attaining these states take a lifetime or more to fully comprehend and understand.  

The established and time honored method for transmitting the teachings from teacher to student requires more trust, devotion, and patience than Western culture teaches to its citizens.  To remedy this problem requires two courses of action.  The first is that each student must make an individual effort to understand and cultivate the qualities necessary to receive Dharma instruction, and second, the student must proactively help society change in such a way as to make these qualities more common in our daily lives.

True Dharma teachers, teachers who have a connection to a long lineage of Dharma instructors leading back to the Buddha, are capable of being entrusted with our spiritual instruction.  It is the connection to lineage that ensures us that the instruction we will receive will not be harmful to ourselves or others.  Western society does not have such a system of instruction to compare to.  In old countries, where caste systems abounded and where a father's line of work was often carried on by his sons, this type of mindset was better understood and appreciated.  Today, Westerners barely keep employment for more than three years with a given employer.  This is partly due to the rapidly evolving economic conditions that exist today and that are unprecedented in human history.

But even if our employment situation has taken on an out-of-control expansion, the spiritual discipline of Buddhism has remained intact.  It is possible for Westerners to apply themselves to understanding the importance of lineage on the spiritual path while still fully participating in the economics of the modern day.  The continuity of lineage can actually provide a sense of stability that is missing in our modern culture.  The chaos of constantly changing politics, economics, and even family structure can be partially offset by establishing a common thread of spiritual practice with a direct link to 2500 years of lineage.

When we have established a sense of lineage we will be ready to develop the trust and devotion necessary for penetrating our habitual mental patterns which lead to the constant round of suffering we all experience in this world.  The teacher has already penetrated these patterns as is evident from his or her right of lineage, passed down by a previous qualified teacher.  It is safe to then place our trust in such a teacher.  And since it is our sole and complete desire to end all suffering, we can now safely develop devotion for the teachings, the practicing community, the Buddha, and our teacher.  All four of these entities are devoted to the truth, so why shouldn't we be devoted to them?  The stronger our devotion becomes, the quicker and deeper our practice expands toward complete enlightenment.  

The teachings of Buddhism can bear fruit only when the ground for practice is fertile and the environment conducive to supporting the teachings is favorable.  The lack of a solid spiritual teaching in the West that leads to truth combined with our society's strong desire to end suffering has provided the fertile ground for the Dharma to flourish.  The only thing holding back a Spring growth of enlightened beings now is the lack of a favorable climate.  A mainstream social connection with lineage is the climate necessary for both individual and social spiritual growth that will lead to the enlightenment of ourselves and all living things.

Not only can we study lineage ourselves, but we must begin teaching lineage to our children, offering courses in our colleges and universities, and altering our holidays and lifestyle just enough to support the importance of lineage.

Even if society has not yet changed, it is essential to develop a sense of lineage in ourselves before we can develop the essential traits of informed trust and devotion necessary to even begin receiving instructions from a qualified teacher.