Listen, test what they teach, see if it works. That's one way. Judge the teacher. A lot of you think that we shouldn't judge other people. In Buddhism, yes, judge the teacher. Judge them on their compassion, judge them on their patience, judge them on their wisdom. Definitely judge these things. In the 20 Sutta e-mail book that we have available (many of you have it, if you don't we encourage you to get a copy) one of the Suttas talks about the four qualities on which to basically judge a person. We do want to judge a teacher. In particular, we are in danger if we hang out with a teacher who is going to take us the wrong way, with wrong understanding. Jim Jones was one example. Also there was David Koresh in Texas. These people show up from time to time. So you have to judge a teacher, and in Buddhism it says yes, do so.
There is one criteria that is very high, described in one of the Suttas (and I believe it is in the 20 Suttas, as well). It's a very high criteria that you may not be able to use today. It says, see if they are a free from greed, hatred and ignorance. That's enlightenment. That's pretty high. If they are not free, though, are they free of a lot of it, not just a little bit? Do they very seldom ever get angry? Do they seemingly have such good wisdom that it hits you every time? Then you can work with them.
So yes, judge your teachers. Now, when judging, sometimes you have the test them. Every time Rosemary and I go to visit a new the teacher, we ask them certain questions that we ask over and over. We are going to ask them some questions, no matter who we meet, because we are testing their understanding. We are seeing whether it correlates to what we know from ourselves, and from the scriptures. So we test every new teacher that we ever meet. We want to know where is their level. Is it above us? Is it below us? Or is it even lower?
On top of that there are always the Ten Paramis, to test anybody as to being a good friend. The word Kalyanamitta means a good, wise, spiritual friend. Check out the Ten Paramis in your friends. Is the person generous? Do they have a good moral ethics? Are they not so greedy that they are able to renounce a lot of excess things people have? How is their wisdom? How is their patience? And so on. So check their development in the Paramis, too. Your teachers, your good friends, it is all very important. Who you hang out with, who you study with, who you live with, is what is going to condition you. It will condition your wisdom, whether it's going in a good way or not in a good way, so test them to make sure they're conditioning you in a good direction.