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30 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

WHEN A BUDDHIST

TEACHER CROSSES

THE LINE

By Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The teacher-student relationship in The Buddha himself lived a life of
Vajrayana Buddhism is intense and kindness, humility, and compassion. He
complex. It is easy to misunderstand fully embodied the teachings he gave,
and can even be misused. The respected and the sangha that grew around him
Tibetan teacher Mingyur Rinpoche followed his example. There were many
explains Vajrayana ethics, how to find times when the students got off track
a genuine teacher, and what to do if a and acted inappropriately—sometimes
teacher crosses the line. hilariously so—but these incidents
were used as opportunities to clarify
As a Buddhist teacher, I am often important values and to show the
Yongey Mingyur asked questions about meditation and community how to live a life of virtue.
Rinpoche is a meditation profound Buddhist principles, like From the early days of Buddhism, ethical
master in the Kagyu and interdependence and emptiness. I am conduct was as central to the path as
Nyingma lineages of happy to share what I know on these meditation, study, and contemplation.
Tibetan Buddhism. He topics. But I have noticed that people
is the guiding teacher of rarely ask me about ethics and how to These days, the one time people
live a virtuous life. do ask me about ethics is when
the Tergar Meditation
scandals or controversies happen in
Community, a global
It is true that meditation is important Buddhist communities. Despite the
network of meditation
in the Buddhist tradition. There’s no clear importance of nonviolence and
groups and centers. question about that. The same can be compassion in the Buddhist tradition,
said about studying Buddhist ideas and many students are not sure how to
philosophies. But in many ways, ethics deal with these situations. I can see
and virtue are the foundation of the why they get confused. There are many
Buddhist path. different Buddhist lineages and schools,
and it is hard to keep track of all their
The one time people do different teachings, practices, and ethical

ask me about ethics is when frameworks.
scandals or controversies This is especially true in the Tibetan

happen in Buddhist tradition, where we have three different
communities. approaches—which we call yanas or
“vehicles”—that are woven together into