Use the talk on the last evening that I give every retreat, about going to other teachers, use every bit of advice that is in that talk, as to not believing them automatically, as to questioning them and so on. Some little extra things that I could add to it, is that although Rosemary and I know a lot of answers to a lot of questions, every time that we go to a new teacher we ask questions. We ask questions that we basically already know, because we've just been in the game so long, it's like I don't know what else we can ask that we haven't figured out. But it's not so much that we ask questions that we know in order to prove anything regarding ourselves, we ask questions that we know and we've asked other teachers before, so that we can see how this teacher answers the same question. Can they give us something brand new, can they give it to us as solid as we already know it, or do they fail in being able to give it to us at all? In that way we're able to test teachers. How high is their wisdom level? Do they really have it? We have a number of basic kind of set questions that we may ask, which judge the person's level of how much they know. We'll ask them about Compassion, see what they're going to tell us. We'll ask about the eight worldly dhammas as I just explained.
If they don't even know what the eight worldly dhammas are, then we go hmm! This is something that a lot of teachers actually don't know anything about, especially western teachers. So we will always ask, we will always see first, is there anything we don't know that this person has extra for us. Second is, is their wisdom level up to scratch, so to speak, is it up to ours? And third, if it is not, are they really lacking something?
Something to watch for also is how the teacher answers the basic question. Are they giving you what is some set form that you've seen in books before? That's not so bad in itself, because I just gave you the eight worldly dhammas and I'd labeled them all exactly the same as I've read. That's not so bad, but is that all they're doing, giving you book knowledge? Or are they giving you another way to look at things?
And are they also crediting where they get the information from? This is something else that you may want to look at with other teachers. In the retreat when we talk about the Kalama Sutta, the Satipattana Sutta and whatever else, anything that's from the scriptures, Rosemary and I try as much as possible to always say, "This is what is recorded in the scriptures, this is what the Buddha was described as saying." And we say what is from the scriptures as being from the scriptures. What we know for ourselves from experience, we can say; and what we don't know ourselves and what's coming from other books, we try to tell people exactly where it's coming from. Personally, I've sat in front of a lot of teachers who talk as if they know everything the Buddha did without ever referring to, "this is what I read about." So that's an interesting little area in which you can look at teachers. When they're answering you, where is this actually coming from? And are they speaking about something that they really don't know for sure, but they're speaking it as if they do know it for sure?
Another way to judge the teacher's level of understanding is to see if they can answer on the spot. To a certain extent it's what you're seeing right now, we haven't looked at these questions before. They are neither Rosemary's nor my questions. And we're just answering off the top of our head. Can the teacher do that? Can the teacher look at something brand new and give you an answer?
An interesting Sutta shows how the Buddha related this type of ability. This is a Sutta called the Prince Abhaya Sutta. Prince Abhaya was a prince who was actually a member of another religious order, and he had been encouraged by his teacher to try to baffle the Buddha, to try to pull the Buddha down, which didn't work. He invited the Buddha for a meal and he tried to present a double-edged question. The Buddha baffles him and turns it upside-down. That was fine, and slowly the prince developed some confidence in the Buddha, as being, "Oh, you're better than the teacher I've got." He said to the Buddha something like, "Sir, when people come to you, when other wise teachers and religious people and lay people come to you and ask you questions, has it already occurred in your mind, 'Now, if so and so comes to me and asks a question like this, I shall answer like that,' or when people come and ask you questions, does the answer arise in your mind on the spot?"
The Buddha didn't answer him straight away. He said, "Prince Abhaya, let me ask you a counter question first. Are you very skilled in the parts of a chariot?" (Remember in those days they had chariots.) Prince Abhaya goes, "Oh yes, of course Sir! I understand the chariot well, I can make it, build it myself, I can name every part of the chariot. I am renowned for my understanding of a chariot." The Buddha then said, "Good prince. Now when people come to you and ask you questions about the chariot, has it occurred in your mind beforehand that 'If someone asks me a question about this part of a chariot I shall answer like that'?" And Prince Abhaya goes, "Oh, no, no, of course not, I'm well renowned, I'm so experienced with the parts of the chariot, that if anyone asks me any question I can come up with an answer on the spot." The Buddha then said, "So it is with me Prince Abhaya. That when people come to me with a question about the Dhamma and meditation, I've thoroughly penetrated the Dhamma so I can come up with the answer on the spot." So that's another way of judging your teachers on how well they can answer you on the spot.