..续本文上一页”m loyal and devoted to my teacher.” This is a very English sense of devotion and loyalty to someone, to the point where it may become too much. One becomes bound to an ideal, to a person, rather than to the truth.

　　Our refuges are deliberately set up as Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, rather than as the personality of any teacher. You don”t take refuge in Ajahn Chah, or in any of the bhikkhus here ... unless you are an unusually silly person. You could say, ”Ajahn Sumedho is my teacher; Ajahn Tiradhammo is not my teacher. I”ll only learn from Venerable Sucitto and not from any other” – along like that. We can create all kinds of problems in this way, can”t we

　　 ”I”m a Theravada Buddhist; therefore I can”t learn from those Tibetan Buddhists or those Zen Buddhists.” It”s very easy for us to become sectarian in this way because, if something is different from what we”re used to, we suspect it of not being as good as or as pure as what we”ve devoted ourselves to. But in meditation, what we are aiming at is truth, full understanding and enlightenment, inclining away from the jungle of selfishness, conceit, pride, and human passions. So it”s not very wise to attach to a particular teacher to the point where you refuse to learn from any other.

　　But some teachers encourage this attitude. They say, ”Once you take me as your teacher, then don”t you go to any other teacher! Don”t you learn from any other tradition! If you accept me as your teacher, you can”t go to any other.” There are a lot of teachers that bind you to themselves in that way, and they have very good reasons sometimes, because people just ”go shopping”. They go from one teacher to another teacher, and another ... and never learn anything. But I think the problem is not so much in ”shopping” as in attaching to a teacher or tradition to the point where you have to exclude all others. That makes for a sect, a sectarian mind, with which people cannot recognise wisdom or learn from anything unless it”s in the exact words and conventions that they are used to. That keeps us very limited, narrow and frightened. People become afraid to listen to another teacher because it might cause doubt to arise in their minds, or they might feel that they are not being a loyal student of their particular tradition. The Buddhist Path is to develop wisdom, and loyalty and devotion help in that. But if they are ends in themselves, then they are obstacles.

　　“Wisdom” in this sense means using wisdom in our practice of meditation. How do we do that

　　 How do we use wisdom

　　 By recognising our own particular forms of pride, conceit, and the attachments we have to our views and opinions, to the material world, to the tradition and the teacher, and to the friends we have. Now this doesn”t mean that we think we shouldn”t attach, or that we should get rid of all these. That”s not wise either, because wisdom is the ability to observe attachment and understand it and let go – rather than attach to ideas that we shouldn”t be attached to anything.

　　Sometimes you hear monks or nuns or lay people here saying, ”Don”t attach to anything.” So we attach to the view that we shouldn”t be attached! ”I”m not going to attach to Ajahn Sumedho; I can learn from anybody. I”m going to leave, just to prove I”m not attached to Venerable Sumedho.” Then you”re attaching to the idea that you shouldn”t be attached to me, or that you”ve got to go away to prove that you”re not attached – which isn”t it at all. That”s not being wise, is it

　　 You”re just attaching to something else. You may go to Brockwood Park and hear Krishnamurti” [See Note 1] and then you think – ”I”m not going to attach to those religious conventions, all that bowing, Buddha images, monks and all that stuff. Krishnamurti says it is all poppycock: "Don”t have anything to d…

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