Recently I learned of an old aquaintance who has been invited to "teach" in the Toronto home of a young person I also know.

The history of this man goes like this: in a city in the US during the 1980's this man and his female partner set up a group house to begin teaching Buddha Dharma. Fair enough.

One of the big dangers of this time, according to Carl Jung, lies in the capacity of humans to project. This means we put a light on others that reflects part of ourselves we do not wish to see.

Take for instance a good Christian person. This person does not want to have anything to do with their more human side, the part of us that wants the larger piece of cake, the part of us that wants to be ahead of the rest, and similar very human qualities. Our Christian (or Buddhist, or Muslem or Hindu) example takes pride in not going for the biggest piece of cake.

We are deluged on all sides, regularly with advertisments for teachings and teachers who "have made it." These people are usually depicted as people just like you and me, who have had previously "normal" lives who have had a mysterious transformation which nows makes them into media stars.

Our recent excursion through the maze of nonsense left behind by Madi Nolan, including the very real damage her lies split through lives of people who believed in her, leads us to look at what it is to find a teacher.

What do you look for? How do you figure out if this person is real or a con artist?

One of the difficulties in the Tibetan situation is separating their traditions for gaining realization, the practices, meditations, etc that lead to greater unfolding of human consciousness, from what was Tibetan culture.

While I am not a Chinese sympathizer, I am equally not in favour of an unexamined sentimentality regarding all things Tibetan. We in the West have taken, hook, line and sinker a bite of all things Tibetan as though they alone of all the races, societies and ethnicities on the planet had figured out a way to live in peace, harmony and enfranchisement for all.

Televised visions of Tibetans beating Chinese, overturning cars, devastating property with fire bombs excites viewers: to sympathy for those caught and those who volunteered for this catastrophic revolutionary attempt, and to cynicism about the nature of Tibetan Buddhism.

GAbor Mate's new book, "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" takes its title from the Buddhist concept of the Wheel of Life. In this model, the six realms correspond to experiences any one of us may have on any given day: from the Heaven realms of having our desires satisfied (albeit temporarily) to the depths of the Hell Realms when we feel ourselves to be a blight on life itself. The Hungry Ghost realm population have large heads, skinny necks, scrawny bodies, and most importantly, an inner emptiness that nothing, nothing ever satisfies.

In response to Phil's comment about 108 000: this is the number of mantras required by Teachers in order to "complete" a particular Vajrayana Deity meditation practice.
Faith? The faith in completing even one Deity for 108 000 times is faith in oneself. The power of the exercise, before we go above and beyond into developing a relationship with that archetype and therefore keeping the archetype from binding the conscious mind, before we get into the power of focus and single-pointed concentration, just the completion of this task helps to instill faith in oneself.

This presents a problem to me as even being possible. Does not choosing faith remove this? So many contrasting, within themselves, beliefs. How could people assure themselves by finding others with the same faith when there are many peoples of many faiths? If we all have the same potential...how can that be different from the next?

Faith restricts. 108 000?

The allowance of synchronizations requires consideration. After a taste you are presented with choice. Is this really what I would always want? The wondrous, powerful attraction of efficient automation creates a conflict with free will if allowed to dominate desire.

I know of this potential yet have problems remaining grounded and find myself tortuously struggling for reality stabilization. I need to choose more wisely, perhaps.

I come here offering experience of these challenges and confusions. I come here seeking similarity.