KALYANA METTA

THE BUDDHIST SPIRITUAL GURU

Abstract

To look for a spiritual guide or a spiritual director in any religious tradition is to search for an adept, i.e., for someone who attests to personal experience of the tradition, or at the very least for someone who claims intimate knowledge of the details or signposts on the path or paths proclaimed by a particular vision. For Buddhist spiritual guides, experience, experience modelled after the Buddha's original Enlightenment and Nirvana, is the commanding principle and paradigm; personal realization of an experience similar to the Buddha-experience is thus the goal of both the Buddhist novice as well as the spiritual guide or skilled adept. Significantly, both novice and guide are located within a process of spiritual journey toward an appreciation, realization, and awakening to an experience proclaimed by the Buddha. Both are motivated to pursue the unique wisdom proclaimed by the Buddha.