What Does it Mean to Be a Terton?

What Does it Mean to Be a Terton?

It is widely believed, especially within the Nyingma school of Tibetan buddhism, that only few chosen ones can receive dharma teachings mystically, non-physically, and be "dharma treasure revealers", or tertons. I asked my good friend and student Karl Eikrem to write down his initial account of receiving his first nonphysical teaching, or terma as they are traditionally called. In this video he reads his account (follow the link to read it) and then guides the actual practice that he learned. At the end of the video I read a couple of related quotes and expound the matter a bit more. I hope this sheds light on this matter and makes people think a bit more open mindedly about it all.

To conclude I would like to present a quote from Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, as stated by his close student Acharya Malcolm Smith:

”My late teacher, an important terton, said if you want to be a terton, the only real requirement is faith in Guru Rinpoche. If you supplicate him strongly enough with genuine compassion for sentient beings, then you might be able to reveal terma.”

Link to text: http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2018/06/receiving-teaching-from-sakya-sri.html

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMbgSRNSBZw

Psychologist on Guru Yoga

Psychologist on Guru Yoga

Q: Guru yoga is actually also a practice of developing devotion especially when practiced with a Tibetan buddhist teacher, is that right?

A: Yes, well, I have to say that is where I always went a bit against the grain. My devotion flows easier towards an icon such as Padmasambhava than to a living teacher because I could also see that this was just a human being with his habits. To see him as perfect you could say that I failed in this but I think I couldn't do it and didn't want to. I think if you do guru yoga well then everything the guru does, feels and says if perfect but also everything you do, feel and say yourself is perfect. It means your ability to be critical is also buddha. Now we are talking, that's something you can work with. But if your abilities are seen as confusion and everything the guru does as perfect I think that's a distortion if you'll allow me. It's a misconception of what guru yoga is.

Answered by Hans Knibbe, psychologist and dzogchen-teacher.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5O63W5WBwg

Not even a scrap of Tibetan culture by Keith Dowman

Not even a scrap of Tibetan culture

by Keith Dowman

”I don't think we need even a scrap of Tibetan culture, including vajrayana buddhism, in order to recognise the nature of mind. If somebody walks in of the street here who never heard of Tibet or Tibetan buddhism and has a natural antipathy to anything other than American culture, is given the essence of dzogchen, there's no reason why that person should not attain immediately the same state that we have reached, having gone through that whole circuit of oriental culture and Tibetan buddhism.” - Keith Dowman

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLRbC0aNvtY