An Enlightened master

An Enlightened master according to Buddhist suttas is an Arahant. It is extremely rare and difficult to find an Arahant. Even if he stands in front of us, we are incapable of identifying him as an Arahant simply because we have to be his equal to know his attainment. A wise person can identify another wise person and also a fool. A fool cannot identify a wise person but mistaken another fool as a wise person. If you are a wise person, you can evaluate another based on a few criteria according to “The Shorter Elephant Footprint Simile” sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 27.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.027.than.html

A monk may be a world renown master, praised by a respectable individual, praised by the many who are praised, and many converted from another religion to become Buddhist monks as the disciples of the world renown master; yet, we cannot come to the conclusion that he is an Enlightened master according to Buddhist suttas. He should be observed and evaluated, over a long period of time, according to the following criteria:

1. Virtue: strict adherence to the rules of the Vinaya, beyond the Eight Precepts.
2. Sense Restraint: restraint over the faculty of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch, and mind.
3. Mindfulness & Alertness: he acts with alertness in each and everything he does.
4. Abandoning the Hindrances: he has no covetousness (lust for sensual pleasure), ill will and anger, restlessness and worries, sloth and torpor, doubt.
5. The Four Jhanas: purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither-pleasure-nor-pain.
6. The Three Knowledges: He recollects his manifold past lives; He sees — by means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human — living beings died and reborn, and he discerns how they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate in accordance with their kamma; He has direct and personal knowledge of Nibbana.

With the above, yet you cannot come to the conclusion that the master is an Enlightened Arahant. The only way to really discern an Arahant is: you must be an Arahant. You know you are an Arahant when:

“Your heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, is released from the fermentation of sensuality, the fermentation of becoming, the fermentation of ignorance. With release, there is the knowledge, ‘Released.’ You discern that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.”

The good news is: you don’t have to look for an Enlightened master. You can learn from the Buddha, the original Enlightened master, our principal teacher, from the Early Buddhist Texts (EBT):

• the Dīgha Nikāya, the collection of long (Pāḷi: dīgha) discourses
• the Majjhima Nikāya, the collection of middle-length (majjhima) discourses
• the Samyutta Nikāya, the collection of thematically linked (samyutta) discourses
• the Anguttara Nikāya, the “gradual collection” (discourses grouped by content enumerations)

You don’t have to find a living Enlightened master. You can find a venerable monk to be your teacher or tutor. However, this is not the most important thing to do. The venerable monk can possibly teach very well, but you will have no awakening or attainment of the truths if you are incapable of learning. You cannot perfect your virtue, equanimity and wisdom if you stop at knowing the path but not walking the path leading to cessation of suffering.

Everybody can teach, but not everybody can learn.

Every -ism is a wasn’t. Confucianism today wasn’t the original teaching of Confucius. Daoism today wasn’t the original teaching of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. Similarly, Buddhism today wasn’t the original teaching of the Buddha.

If you really want to learn Confucianism, you must study the original words of Confucius. If you really want to learn Daoism, you must study the original words of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. Similarly, if you really want to learn Buddhism, you must study the original words of the Buddha.

There is no dispute between the numerous Buddhist sects that the above Four Nikayas are authentic and original suttas. Some Buddhist sects call them Agama suttas. Of course, not all of them were original words of the Buddha. All of them were words heard by disciples of the Buddha. That is why the suttas always start with “Thus as I heard”. No one sutta should start with “the Buddha said”. There are possibilities that some suttas were counterfeits, or wrongly heard/recalled by the disciples, or misunderstood.

I would embrace the original type of Buddhism.