It’s not always easy to know what skills a guru has. Some very academic gurus can tell you which page number you should read in which edition of a text, and can remember exact dates. This is impressive if you are a university student, but if you’re following a spiritual path, it may not be what you need. What you need is someone who can actually turn knowledge like that into something useful for your path, someone who can teach you how to learn. A guru must also have the skill to work with your temporary defilements, because even though the defilements are temporary, they have existed since beginningless time, and they will not be easy to eliminate.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book The Guru Drinks Bourbon?
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Further quotes from the book The Guru Drinks Bourbon?:
- A proper guru-student communication
- Going beyond Rational and Irrational Devotion
- Why can’t the Guru be perfect?
- The authentic guru lineage is indispensable
- Peeling of our patches of samsara
- Experience is like a mist in the morning
- Modern Buddhadharma
- Sooner or later, you will have to check
- Devotion
- Never opt for the easy way out
- Guru devotion and pure perception
- Hearing the Dharma
- Teachings don’t just rain down
- Examining the Guru
- Controlled by circumstances
- The guru is like the horizon
- Celebrity Gurus
- Vajra hell
- Famous unintentionally