Keep in mind a lot of what I say in the Day 9 evening talk about meeting other teachers. To watch out is very important. Having doubt when you see something is not what you feel is good, kind, wise, whatever. Yet have confidence if you see for yourself when it is good.
Always test your teachers. Test them, test them and test them some more. Somewhere in the scriptures, the Buddha tells people, "Go and test the teachers. See if they are free of greed, see if they are free of aversions, see if they are free of ignorance of reality." There is this pushing to test, always test. Theravadin Buddhism has this. This is very different to some other Buddhist traditions, to Zen, to Tibetan. They often feel you must believe the teacher, you must follow the teacher, the lineage and all sorts of things, but we have the Kalama Sutta. Theravadin Buddhism protects itself by having the Kalama Sutta.
Be careful with teachers who want you to throw away the Kalama Sutta. I've even had a student who tried to tell me to throw away the Kalama Sutta, I couldn't believe it. This person was a scholar, into a lot of words, and not into the real practice. The Kalama Sutta is our real protection, guiding us on how to watch out. Even in Theravadin Buddhism, watch out! There are a lot of teachers in Theravadin Buddhism who are not very pure. They may have started because they wanted to help people, but then they got caught up in the eight worldly conditions, the eight worldly dhammas. Ego takes off, loving the fame, loving people praising them, this and that, and then their practice goes wrong.
The most important thing to watch out for when you go with teachers is to make sure you test them, to make sure that you see they are good, kind and wise. When you come to interviews with me and Rosemary, if you haven't got any specific question about your practice, ask something, challenge us, test us, take a moment to do it. Throw something at us. Rosemary and I, when we go visit other teachers, we have set questions. We have some specific set questions I will ask any teacher to test their wisdom. I want to see if they can answer them as well as I understand them. I want to see if they can answer it better, I'd love to see teachers who can answer questions better than me.
If their answers are really crummy, they are going backwards. I've even heard teachers say, "You don't have to practice Compassion/Lovingkindness, that will come naturally later." Yet the second factor of the Noble Eightfold path is Right Intention. I'd walk away from those teachers, because I believe they've got something wrong. Test your teachers, that's important. See how they answer your questions.
Some of you have been with us over ten years. How many interviews have you had with us? One of you, in particular, I can say it for sure, has had over a hundred interviews with us. Now, in those hundred interviews for them and for some of the rest of you with twenty or so interviews or ten interviews, whatever it is, you have asked a number of questions. Have we answered you in good ways, have we given you good advice? After asking us twenty, thirty, forty questions or a hundred or more, and if we always answered you pretty well, then you can expect it every time you come in, Steve and Rosemary will answer you well again. In this way, you develop confidence, you don't have to doubt us. If we have given you correct answers every single time, if we never encourage you in go the wrong way, then you don't have to doubt us. You develop confidence, you are able to listen better and you are actually able to practice stronger, it becomes easier if you have less doubt.
When you are with teachers whom you are not developing that same confidence, when you are feeling there is something not right in their advice, use your doubt, it's a healthy doubt. Challenge them more, see if you can clarify what they just said. Maybe it was just confusion in translation. If that's the case, you will be able to sort it out. But if they can't clarify, if they keep giving you information that doesn't sound right, go away, find another teacher.