Four kinds of teacher 四上師

Four kinds of teacher or lama (Tib. བླ་མ་རྣམ་པ་གཞི་, lama nampa shyi; Wyl. bla ma rnam pa bzhi) —

1. the individual teacher who is the holder of the lineage (Tib. གང་ཟག་བརྒྱུད་པའི་བླ་མ་, gangzak gyüpé lama, Wyl. gang zag brgyud pa'i bla ma)
2. the teacher which is the word of the buddhas (Tib. རྒྱལ་བ་བཀའ་ཡི་བླ་མ་, gyalwa ka yi lama, Wyl. rgyal ba bka' yi bla ma)
3. the symbolic teacher of all appearances (Tib. སྣང་བ་བརྡ་ཡི་བླ་མ་, nangwa da yi lama, Wyl. snang ba brda yi bla ma)
4. the absolute teacher, which is rigpa, the true nature of mind (Tib. རིག་པ་དོན་གྱི་བླ་མ་, rigpa dön gyi lama, Wyl. rig pa don gyi bla ma)

Further Reading

• Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Indisputable Truth (Boudhanath, Hong Kong & Esby: Rangjung Yeshe, 1996), pages 16-17 & 79-80.
• Dzogchen Ponlop, Wild Awakening (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003), pages 51-55.

Sogyal Rinpoche's Teachings on the Four Kinds of Teacher

• Myall Lakes, 26 January 2008, 12.00