The Buddha as a reliable guide
16 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Volume 4 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps 
Aug 9, 2024 Part of an ongoing series of teachings based on the book Following in the Buddha's Footsteps, the fourth volume in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion series by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chodron.
- Forward order of four syllogisms to establish why Buddha is a reliable guide
- Intent on benefiting sentient beings
- Generating wisdom that serves as the way
- Three qualities of Sugata’s abandonments
- Teaches four truths and method to actualize nirvana
- One gone to bliss
- Protector, who works for the welfare of others
- Why all four qualities are required to be a perfectly trustworthy guide
16 The Buddha as a Reliable Guide (download)
Refer to the handout for the teaching
Contemplation points
- Investigate the first of the four syllogisms that demonstrate that the Buddha is a reliable guide: Consider the person of the same mental continuum as the Buddha, who has just attained the bodhisattva path of accumulation: he is suitable to give rise to the Teacher – that is, the wisdom realizing selflessness – because he is an ordinary bodhisattva endowed with great compassion.
- Does the reason apply to the subject?
- What is the pervasion?
- What did compassion lead him to do and why?
- Investigate the second of the four syllogisms: Consider the person in the same continuum as the Buddha who is on the liberated path of the bodhisattva’s path of seeing: he is suitable to give rise to the Sugata whose abandonments hae three distinctive features, because he is a bodhisattva who has directly realized selflessness and is familiarizing his mind with this realization.
- Does the reason apply to the subject?
- What is the pervasion?
- What does familiarizing himself with bodhicitta and wisdom for a long time lead the bodhisattva to attain?
- What are the three distinctive features of the abandonments and what does each of these mean?
- Investigate the third of the four syllogisms: Consider the Arya Buddha in the same continuum as the bodhisattva at the end of his continuum as a sentient being, who has just attained the first moment of omniscience: he is suitable to be the Protector, who perfectly works for the welfare of others and protects sentient beings by teaching them the four truths, because he is a being who has discovered the Sugata whose abandonments have three distinctive features.
- Does the reason apply to the subject?
- What is the pervasion?
- How does the Buddha best benefit us?
- Investigate the fourth of the four syllogisms: Consider the Safe, the Buddha: he is proven to be an authoritative, reliable being for those who seek liberation because he is a being with the Protector, the perfect welfare of others, in his continuum.
- Does the reason apply to the subject?
- What is the pervasion?
- What is the Buddha’s motivation for working for the benefit of beings?
- Why are all four attributes necessary for the Buddha to be a reliable, trustworthy and non deceptive spiritual guide?
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
