18/07/2026
⚠️ Beware of False Dharma Teachers: The Buddha Told Us to Test Before We Trust
Many people today feel disappointed or even regretful after following the wrong Dharma teacher. But this is not a fault of the Dharma itself. The problem is placing trust in the wrong person.
The Buddha repeatedly advised us not to follow anyone blindly. Instead, he encouraged careful investigation and wise reflection. He compared his teachings to gold: just as a goldsmith tests gold by cutting, rubbing, and burning it before accepting it as genuine, we should carefully examine teachings and teachers before placing our faith in them.
This applies to everyone whether a teacher is famous, has many followers, is called a Rinpoche, Tulku, Lama, Guru, Ajahn, or holds any other respected title. Titles, robes, reputation, lineage, or charisma are not proof of genuine realization or authentic Dharma.
Sadly, there are teachers in many Buddhist traditions, including some who claim to be Tibetan Tulkus or Rinpoches, whose conduct does not match the Buddha’s teachings. This is why we should examine a teacher’s ethics, wisdom, and compassion rather than blindly trusting appearances or status.
True Dharma does not ask for blind belief. It invites investigation, understanding, and personal verification through practice.
Be mindful. Be patient. Test the teachings as the Buddha instructed just as gold is tested before it is accepted. Follow the Dharma, not personalities.
“How to Follow a Spiritual Friend and teacher
IF WE ARE LOOKING for a teacher who can show us this path, no ordinary being, no god, nor demon, nor even the ruler of living beings, Brahma, is capable of teaching us. Neither are those who love us—our parents, relatives, loving friends, and so forth—capable of doing so.
Who then can show us this path? A teacher or spiritual friend, and since the spiritual teacher is the one who can benefit us, we must follow a spiritual teacher and spiritual companions. Without relying on these two, we can never know how to accomplish the levels of liberation and omniscience. Nowhere in any sutra, ta**ra, or shastra is it said that liberation and omniscience can be attained through one’s own ingenuity and prowess without following these two.
Check whether or not you could accomplish the path of liberation on your own without relying on a spiritual teacher and spiritual companions: you will see that on your own it is impossible. You have to follow a spiritual friend. But it is not just anyone you happen to meet who can help you. If you take as your lama someone who teaches wrong “eight qualities: “He is a teacher, holds the treasury of the teachings, has perfected the stream of transmission,” and the rest.
You should examine more particularly a lama who teaches the pith instructions and check that he has all the following qualities:
his mind has been matured by receiving the four empowerments specific to the path of the Great Perfection which are an amplification of the fourth empowerment in the lower ta**ras: the elaborate empowerment, unelaborate empowerment, and so forth;119
he has practiced discipline by keeping the samayas purely, namely those with something to be kept—the samayas for practitioners whose realization develops gradually, which are the twenty-seven categories of the root samayas related to the teacher’s body, speech, and mind and the twenty-five branch samayas—and those with nothing to be kept—the samayas for practitioners of sudden realization, which are nonexistence, omnipresence, and so forth—of which two, nonexistence and omnipresence, relate to primordial purity, and two, unity and spontaneous presence, relate to spontaneous presence;
he has seen the absolute nature in reality through the liberating instructions on trekchö based on primordial purity and thögal based on spontaneous presence;
he has listening to his teachings and reflecting on them, rather than on trying to practice.
EMULATING THE TEACHER’S REALIZATION AND ACTIONS
When you come to emulate the teacher’s realization and actions, you should first of all acquire in your own being the essence of his wisdom mind. It would be hypocritical to emulate the teacher’s actions without attaining his realization; you should therefore acquire his realization, and only then emulate his actions.
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Excerpt From
A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher
Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang
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