New Kadampa Tradition - Teachers - Other Teachers

Other Teachers

Alongside Kelsang Gyatso, who as founder and former spiritual director was the main teacher of the NKT-IKBU and his successors, all teachings (i.e. the three study programs) are held by Western students; lay persons and ordained alike. Qualification as an NKT-IKBU Dharma teacher is generally achieved by attending the NKT-IKBU's own Teacher Training Program, which Kelsang Gyatso regards as "a western equivalent to the traditional Tibetan Geshe degree."

Cozort has noted that "Several of the most prominent Tibetan teachers have long recognized themselves the need to train Westerners as Dharma teachers." Kelsang Gyatso explained the importance of Western Dharma teachers to the flourishing of Dharma in the world, saying that one fully qualified teacher is worth a thousand enlightened students. He expounded on the qualifications of NKT-IKBU teachers in 1990:

Buddhadharma is beneficial to others only if there are qualified Teachers. Without Teachers, Dharma texts alone are of little benefit. To become a qualified Dharma Teacher requires special preparation and training. It is not easy to become a Dharma Teacher because special qualities are needed: wisdom, correct view, faith, conviction, and pure conduct as an example to others. Also a Teacher needs an inexhaustible reservoir of Dharma knowledge and experience to teach from, otherwise he or she will dry up after one or two years.

Regarding the qualifications of NKT-IKBU teachers, Kay observed that "Whilst personal experience of the teachings is considered important, the dominant view within the NKT is that the main qualification of a teacher is their purity of faith and discipleship."

According to Robert Bluck, "Most teachers are appointed to centres by Kelsang Gyatso before they have completed the Teaching Training Programme and continue studying by correspondence, with an intensive study programme at Manjushri each summer." Daniel Cozort explained that this is "rather like graduate students who teach undergraduate courses while pursuing their own Ph.D.'s."

Kay found that lay people were almost as likely as monastics to be given teaching and leadership roles; and he sees this as an important Western adaptation of Gelug Buddhism, again because this includes tantric practices which Tsongkhapa restricted to those with "a solid grounding of academic study and celibate monastic discipline".

Kelsang Gyatso has said that monks, nuns, lay men and lay women can all become Spiritual Guides if they have the necessary experience, qualities and training. All NKT-IKBU teachers, lay and ordained, study on the same study and retreat programmes. The Internal Rules specify the criteria for completing the programme:

15§6. A practitioner shall be deemed to have completed the Teacher Training Programme if he or she:

• Has attended the classes related to each of the twelve subjects;
• Has memorised all the required materials;
• Has passed examinations in all twelve subjects and received a certificate to that effect; and
• Has completed the required meditation retreats

In addition to the TTP commitment, all Resident Teachers have to attend International Teacher Training Program each year, taught in repeated rotation according to a sixteen-year study scheme.

Ordained and lay Resident Teachers who have taught successfully for four years are given the titles 'Gen' and 'Kadam', respectively.