Dear friends,

A few years back, I gave a series of teachings on the different roles in Dharma centres, the Guru, the disciples, sponsors, assessing which centre is best suited for you… and many other subjects that a modern day practitioner must know.

Kechara’s publishing arm then published a book based on the teachings, entitled Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale. This book is important for all who are attached to a Dharma center.

I had Khoo who just joined full-time, Khoo read the book and write a concise report on it. Below is the report by Khoo who spent intensive hours to complete this report. I thank Khoo who took the effort to complete this task given to him. I admire people who do as they say and are always consistent…Read his review as I find it very interesting and it might help you to understand the book better.

I invite everyone to read the report below and let me know your views in the comments section.

Tsem Rinpoche

Book Report for “Gurus For Hire”

Gurus For Hire is a book that recorded a series of talks given by His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, and edited by Jamie Khoo, a student of His Eminence.

His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche is a high incarnate Lama of Gaden Shartse Monastery and Spiritual Guide of Kechara Buddhist Organisation in Malaysia, known by his unconventional ways of bringing Dharma to the modern spiritual seeker.

Gurus For Hire is compiled with 4 parts which are Motivation, Guru, Centre, and Self.

Motivation

Motivation is a very important part of how and why we should set a good motivation when listening to Dharma teachings. His Eminence uses the example of the 3 pots that represent the 3 types of wrong approach towards listening to Dharma talks, and our responsibility to share the teachings.

This section also explains the prayer of Guru Yoga, which comprised the 84,000 teachings of Lord Buddha, and it is a prayer to start our day with good motivation.

Guru

“ No one has ever become Enlightened without a teacher.” This is how important a teacher is in our life. We need teachers in everything in our life, and Dharma is no exception.

This section serves as a perfect guide for people who are looking for a Guru, as well as people who already have a Guru. It explains how we identify our Root Guru, taking a Guru, The Fifty Verses on Guru Devotion – The outer protocol towards Guru, Guru Devotion with Nine Attitudes – The inner qualities of a Dharma student, the Samaya – the honest, pure, real relationship with the Guru, and our spiritual commitment towards our Guru.

We should always practice the Guru devotion because our Guru is the person who can guide us the Enlightenment. But before Enlightenment, we have a lot of non-virtuous acts that we may be aware of or not aware of, we have a lot of bad karma waiting to jump on us, and that is exactly why we are still in samsara. The Guru’s mission before He can liberate us is to help us in overcoming these non-virtuous acts, purify our bad karma. But this will never be an easy job for the Guru, and will never be a joyous experience for the student. This requires the Guru to use different methods including giving us instructions which we feel reluctant to do, being harsh or loud to us, or even just ignoring us. The Guru never has to do that if He only wants to benefit Himself. He is doing these because He wants to save us.

So as the student, we must believe in Guru for His intention in doing these, we must prepare ourselves outer and inner to get through this. Outer, we have a lot of obstacles, things and people who will try to separate us from our Guru; inner, we have all the delusion, anger, ignorance to separate us from our Guru too. So, the faith we have for Guru is very important. Our samaya to Guru must be pure and clean, so that our connection with Guru will be strong. Guru devotion is not for the Guru to feel good. It is for us to help the Guru in helping us. If we give up on Guru Devotion, we give up on Enlightenment.

The story of H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche with His root Guru, H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche in Los Angeles when He was 17 years old is a very good example of Guru Devotion. The achievements of Rinpoche now are the result of Guru Devotion.

Centre

We have Dharma Centre here instead of Monastery, that is because we do not have the qualified conditions and people to build the monastery. Our environment here does not have mass Buddhist consciousness. And we do not have sufficient knowledge, support, and ability to run a monastery. So we built Dharma centre for people to learn, study, practice and meditate, so that when we have created the awareness of the Guru and Dharma, and we are capable, we can build the monastery. We have all kinds of people in the Dharma centre. We come here for different purposes. But one thing for sure is, we all have problems. We must be firm in our objective in coming the Dharma centre, we must help each other but we must also not be affected by the problems of others.

We must learn up knowing that we are lack in Dharma knowledge. We support the Guru and centre all the way because the Guru build the centre here with only mission that is to help us. We must offer whatever ability we have in the growth of the centre either by full time or volunteering. And we must encourage people to join the centre and take care of them. However, we must also respect other centre and their Guru because they are here for the same purpose, to spread the Dharma. When we start bashing others centre and Guru, we create obstacles for Dharma to spread here. So, if we meet members of other centre, we must encourage them to contribute to their centre. There is no better or worse Guru, as all Gurus are of same qualities if they are here to spread Dharma.

When we conduct ourselves good, when we followed our Guru’s instructions well, when we learnt and practice what our Guru had taught us, we maintain clean and pure samaya with our Guru. So, when the Guru reincarnate, our strong connection with Him will make Him comes back and continue teaching us. And by that time, everything that the Guru prepared for us, and we are capable of maintaining it until He comes back, He can start spreading the Dharma faster and does not have to go through long time to build the centre again.

State 10 points that hit you hard and why?

 
1. If books were enough, then the Buddha would have emanated as books and he would never have spoken a single word of teaching. (page 42)

We always thought that by reading books, we can obtain enough knowledge, which is true. But knowledge itself doesn’t guide us to reach Enlightenment. With our education, we may be able to read the text but without someone to elaborate, we cannot understand what the meaning of the text is. Even we did, it will be based on our assumption. But Dharma is not about knowledge and Dharma cannot be assume, it is about the life of others and ours, we cannot be assume on this, we must be sure of this; Dharma is correct way of applying knowledge. Dharma is wisdom. For Dharma, we need our Guru, our linage which the correct teaching from Buddha Shakyamuni Himself, passed down through all the Great Masters. And all these Great Master devoted their whole life again and again to keep it pure so that we who do not have the merit to be with Buddha Shakyamuni will still have the merit to listen to His teachings.

Secondly, Buddha Shakyamuni did not write the text Himself in our language. The text was written by Great Masters in Sanskrit, and then translated to Tibetan and other languages. It is known that our languages nowadays cannot fully translate the full, correct meanings of some of the important Sanskrit words used to record Buddha’s teachings. Hence, we need Guru to explain and elaborate for us to understand it.

Thirdly, our mind is control by our emotions, so do our understanding. Same sentence viewed by different people will have different meanings. Even same sentence viewed by same person under different emotions will have different meanings. The text may be correct, but we cannot totally trust our understanding since we do not have the mindset that is free of emotions and disturbance. Of course it is very important to read the books and obtain the knowledge first. But to be sure of our understanding, we must need Guru to guide us.

 
2. Our Guru is our battleground. (page 65)

A lot of people including myself, coming to Dharma centre and listen to Guru’s teachings, but treating it like a playground. We come here because we want to feel good. There is no wrong to feel good knowing that we will be liberate if we follow the Dharma correctly. But our way of feeling good is to feed our ego, our ignorance. By coming here, I was thinking; at least I did something good, so I don’t have to worry about going to hell (which I knew now I was underrating the Karma). I wanted people to know that I am volunteering for Dharma centre so that we will admire me, say good things about me, we only wanted to hear the Guru praises us, or say and do something that make us happy.

The Guru did do that because He does not want to scare us away as we were not ready for the training. If we send a newly recruited rookie into a battleground, even if we give him a powerful weapon, he will be defeated because he doesn’t know how to use the weapon. Even if he knows how to use the weapon, he will be stunned by the force of the enemy who are much well trained than him.

Guru prepares us for our battleground which our enemy is our own delusion, illusions, hatred, anger and all the ten non-virtuous acts that have been trained by ourselves since many life times. For this, we must follow the training from Guru 100%, as a slightest mistake can lead us to be defeated, because our enemy knows us every well. The toughness of the training from Guru is equivalent to the toughness of our enemy. All these trainings from Guru are to protect our life. There is no other motive.

 
3. Consistency comes from commitment. Commitment comes from care. Care comes from understanding that this is really important. (page 80)

I like this sentence because it ready explains very clearly why we should be consistent, and why we cannot be consistent. Consistency without understanding what is important will not be consistent. Our consistency should not be broken by someone who does not understand what is important to us, or something that is not important to us. If it is broken, it only means it is not as important as compare to the people or things that cause it.

As we study Dharma, we knew that the most and only important thing is to be Enlightened. We must be consistent in doing the Guru’s instructions to us as those are the things we know for sure it will lead us to Enlightenment.

 
4. We should not run away from our responsibilities or escape his instructions. We should not avoid him because we cannot do it out of our laziness or any of the delusions. Also, if our Guru tells us something, we should not do it just because we are scared that we will be punished if we don’t, and that there will be bad karma. We should try to understand and think about his intention for giving us these instructions. (page 92)

If we treat our Guru the same as Buddha, then we must also know that our Guru is able to see what is the Karma coming to us. By Guru giving instructions to do something, we must always bear in mind that He is doing it out of our own good, to protect us, ,to prepare us, and to make us grow. There must be something that we will gain from follow Guru’s instruction. If we cannot understand the Guru’s intention at that moment, we must always know that our Guru will never enslave us. He will never give instructions that will benefit only Himself. The instruction will always be to bring benefits to others and us. Of course there will be bad karma if we do not follow the instruction, but the bad karma is not because of our Guru, the bad karma is there coming whether or not we meet our Guru.

 
5. When I was young, my Gurus never let me go to other teachings anywhere. They would say outright, “No. You don’t need to go. Have you learnt everything I taught you?” (page 96)

This can be the example of the pot faces upwards with holes. A lot of us here like to listen to Dharma teachings. Whenever there is an event, we always ask around “Will the Guru be coming?”, whereas we haven’t even start practicing what our Guru have taught us. In fact, most of the time, we’ve forgot about it. We just remembered the funny jokes that made us laugh. As long as we don’t fix the hole in our pot, there will be no result no matter how many Dharma teachings we attend. If we don’t even learn and practice what our Guru taught us, then what use is that we go for other teachings? The Guru will give us the teachings when we are ready, when we have been practicing what He has taught. If we have not practice what we have learnt, and still keep receiving new teachings. Then the teachings we received before but not practicing will pushed away and we will forget about it because we haven’t make it part of our lives. Practicing is our action to repair the holes. Without that, anything goes in will comes out.

 
6. Home is a place where you can find home, yourself. (page 107)

I have always thought that my home, the place I lived with my family is my home where I can be myself. This sentence makes me wake up. My that home is actually a home to my laziness, my ego, and my ignorance, I am not myself when I was there. It has become a home for my laziness, ego and ignorance, where when they were there, nothing will force them to go away, they were safe there as I allowed them to grow there. In fact I keep myself outside when I was at that home. If we practice Dharma, everywhere is our home, as every sentient being is our family.

 
7. If you are hanging off the edge of a cliff and I need help to get you off, I will need to scream very loudly for help. (page 123)

We are all walking on the edge of a cliff, one misstep we will fall down to three lower realms. Guru uses any methods just to get us off the cliff. Some people will listen when He uses the gentle way, some will only listen when He use the wrathful way. For those who do not listen in any way and are hanging off the edge, what else can a Guru do? He will never let us fall down the cliff, He must scream for help. When He screams, we must know that we are hanging off the edge of the cliff already. We must never let go and prepare to receive any help from Guru. If we are thinking Guru is coming to harm us and let go of our hand, then we are bringing this to ourselves.

 
8. A Dharma centre’s growth depends on our individual growth. If we do not individually grow, the centre will never grow. (page 129)

I always thought that the growth of a Dharma centre depends on the number of their members, the amount of the sponsors, and the products in the centre. But when I think deeper, all these are depend on the individual in the centre. Most of us cannot force the other person to grow unless we grow ourselves. It is only when we grow; we have the power to inspire others to grow. No one likes to be left behind, when one person grows, the other will catch up, and otherwise they will feel left out. And we can set an example for them to catch up with us.

It is when we grow; we will be able to attract more members as they can see the quality of us in the centre. It is when we grow; the sponsors will be inspired to donate to our works. Most donors do not donate because of the centre, as there are hundreds of Dharma centre out there. They will consider donating when they see the quality of the people who approached them. And when they got the chance to visit the centre, and see with their own eyes so many people with qualities are helping out there, it will strengthen their faith and they will be relief knowing that their donations are going to be put in good use. And this will even make them decided to donate more!

Quality of products will definitely depends on the quality of the people. Good quality product produced by people who are sincere, hardworking, and responsible. People without these qualities will never produce quality products.

 
9. You are not doing anyone a favour, you are doing yourself a favour. (page 135)

The Guru is not here because He wanted to be here with us. He is here with us because we need Him to be here to teach us, to save us. Buddha did not teach Dharma because He wanted people to listen to Him. Buddha taught Dharma because the people needed the Dharma. The Dharma centre is not here just because it can make profit, most Dharma centre are not profitable. The Dharma centre is here because we needed the centre. The centre is here because of the compassion of our Guru to make us stay with the Dharma, to allow us to have the chance to collect merit by bringing others to Dharma, by offer to the Three Jewels, by serving the holy place. So, the Guru, Dharma and centre are doing us a big favour, and we are just doing ourselves a favour. We do not do Guru, Dharma and centre any favour.

 
10. When I receive the gift, I think of it as their only link to the Dharma. (page 156)

This is what I’ve never think of. That receiving can be a giving also. At some time when the people who like us gave us gift, and we feel guilty that we have nothing to give them in return. But if we can offer their gift to the Three Jewels, we can indirectly make them collect merit for themselves, make them connect to Three Jewels. To me, this is the greatest gift we can give to them in return to their kindness.

 
What else could have been raised more in the book?

1. It will be great if we can include the picture of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Guru Yoga and a detail explanation of Dissolution. This will definitely benefit a lot of people.
2. It will be interesting to include the photo of Rinpoche with H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. From this photo we can feel the kindness of H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and the Guru devotion of Rinpoche towards H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. And also Rinpoche’s American Tantric Dress, as this create the curiosity for people to learn more about Rinpoche’s story.
3. The Crazy Wisdom of The Guru part will be more interesting if we can include the example of some “Crazy” Guru such as Chogyam Thungpa Rinpoche, why he disrobe and went against Tibetan traditions to mix Himself with the Hippies culture of west and bring Dharma to the westerner.

 
How would you market the book?

I would market the book on various Buddhist Forums especially those in China, because a lot of our searching for Buddhist information leads back to China’s Buddhist forum. I have found a China website which has a lot of links to various Buddhist websites and Forums, this is a very good place for me to start with.

• http://tianyan.goodweb.cn

And also, I do not need to worry about how the China people purchase the book because I found out that in their most popular trading website, taobao.com, there are a lot of traders selling this book in Chinese version. Although there are also some traders selling the pirated one, but I can provide the link to the stores with original book in my forum posts.

• http://search.taobao.com/search

Below are few links that provide the review of Guru For Hire Chinese version, which we can use as a marketing tools:

• http://www.douban.com/group/topic/16642278/
• http://mypaper.pchome.com.tw/vvicky0204/post/1320191970

 
What would you do with the book to promote it?

1. I think this book is very helpful for people who are new to Tibetan Buddhism. I think every of our new member should read this. This book should be strongly recommended to all our new members or we can offer them this book when they sign up for membership.
2. At outlet, we can package an affordable “Altar Start-up Kits” which includes Tsa Tsa, Stupa, Guru For Hire, and 8 water bowl.
3. We can form a weekly study group to introduce this book to all members. Senior member should study this book thoroughly and be in the study group to guide and clarify questions by other members.

 
What ideas get clearer or cleared up after reading this book?

 
1. How strong our commitment is, is how much we want it. How much we want it depends on us realizing the value of what we are doing. Understanding the value of what we are doing is dependent on knowledge. Knowledge is dependent on listening; listening is dependent on patience; patience is dependent on compassion compassion is dependent on knowing that if we do not do this, we and others that we love will suffer. It all comes back to the self-cherishing mind. (page 87)

This is very clear as to why I should keep my commitments. I can also understand now what are the tangible steps for me to keep commitments.

 
2. If a Guru manifested perfectly, does not touch the ground, walks by floating three inches off from the ground, has a halo around him, never smells, does not have to take a bath, we would all think that is too far away and that we would not be able to accomplish that. (page 93)

This is so true, if Guru shows us supernatural powers, I’m sure a lot of people will rush to seek protection but no one will be going looking for Enlightenment.

 
3. The Dharma centre is there out of compassion. We volunteer, we work, and we give our time for the Dharma out of compassion. Therefore, it becomes Dharma practice. (page 113)

When I first involved in volunteering, I was always wonder and complains. Why they have to ask for help even for little minor things, can’t they just do it themselves?

Now I know that by having the volunteers involve in as many activities, as many help they can offer, they will collect merits and create a connection to the Guru. So that the Dharma become stronger and stronger in us.

 
4. Dharma Protectors and members are very kind – they may choose qualified people for the committee or sometimes they may choose people who will become qualified. (page 131)

Some tasks I was requested to help voluntary were not something I’m familiar with. But by committed in doing it, I found out that I am actually capable in doing it, and before this was just mere laziness that was keeping me from learning.
 

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