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) —
- 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)
- 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)
- the symbolic teacher of all appearances (Tib. སྣང་བ་བརྡ་ཡི་བླ་མ་, nangwa da yi lama, Wyl. snang ba brda yi bla ma)
- 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
