Aah, there's a Buddhist story of when the Buddha died. His attendant, whose name was Ananda, was first level enlightened, he was not further than that but he was first level. When the Buddha died, Ananda cried. Cried! But he's great monk what's he crying for?! OK, his attachment to the Buddha. For 25 years he was the Buddha's personal attendant. For 25 years he memorized all the teachings that he heard from the Buddha, he had a super memory and that's why we have so many scriptures. For 25 years he did everything necessary to take care of the comfort of the Buddha and whatever else was needed. And he cried when the Buddha died.
Someone could say, "Hey, he should have got enlightened, what's he crying for after being a monk for 35 or more years." And somebody could criticize and say he wasn't enlightened at all and this and that, but the fact was that his attachment to the Buddha as a teacher, his attachment to wanting to preserve the teachings, to memorize so much to pass them on, this was a super beneficial attachment.
So if you have got teachers that you feel are very important for you, don't let go of that attachment. Unless you're enlightened, don't let go of it. The Kalyanamitta, this whole business of Kalyanamitta, a good, wise spiritual friend, making the practice 100%. Without a Kalyanamitta you don't get a practice that's 100%, you get a practice somewhere below that but you won't get a full practice.
This is what the Buddha stressed over and over, yes, grab onto that Kalyanamitta, that Kalyanamitta is going to help you get there. Now without the Kalyanamitta, the Buddha is basically saying you won't get there, that only a Buddha, by definition, gets enlightened by themselves without a teacher. Now as much as we say it that way, that's an ambiguous statement, because when the Buddha was meditating for six years, supposedly, he had a teacher in the beginning, he had another teacher after that. Then he and five friends worked on some other practices that were being taught. And it was only, it's hard to say, nobody's recorded it, but maybe for 2 or 3 weeks that he left his friends and practiced alone. Then he got enlightened, he was only alone for 2 or 3 weeks. So he had support, nearly all along the way.
Regarding these other five friends, whether you want to call them teachers or not, we wouldn't really do that, but the fact is they were all into the same practice. So they were Kalyanamittas in that way. And he was only alone for a little while.
As well, as to the teachings recorded concerning Rebirth, the Buddha actually did have a lot of enlightened teachers in past lives. They say he was a monk with, I think, about 26 different Buddhas. So he got taught everything many, many times over. Then when he was doing it by himself in this last lifetime, he could do it by himself without a teacher. So even in this case we can't really state totally that the Buddha got enlightened by himself. He actually had lots of teachings inside. So the attachment to teachers, the attachment to good wise friends, to people who can support our practice, is important, and it's not important to try to get rid of that. Only if you're enlightened, you can let go of it. Wise attachments. It's like the word attachments is normally used in a negative way, but here we can say it in a wise way, having a wise attachment.
Now in a similar way, a lot of new students, when they listen to Rosemary last night when she gave the Five Hindrances talk, think, "Oh, all hindrances are bad." They all have to be destroyed. But that's not actually what we're saying either. A hindrance is something that blocks us in the moment. You sit down to do Compassion and Lovingkindness meditation and your mind starts thinking about your friends and all, that's a hindrance. You sit down and do Compassion and Lovingkindness meditation and your mind starts thinking of Death Reflection, that's a hindrance also. You sit down for the whole hour, during any period, and you dream of coming back next month for the whole hour and how you can make plans and all this and that, that's a wise desire, too, but it's a hindrance. So these wise desires, wise attachments, they can be beneficial in the long run, yet they can also be a hindrance in the actual moment. So to make a differentiation. A hindrance is not always bad, and an attachment is not always bad.