In this blog post, I will be sharing my thoughts; ideas, insights, opinions and findings from The Principal Teachings of Buddhism: The Three Principal Paths, or Attitudes after watching Class 3 of ACI (Asian Classics Institute) Course 1.
As part of my quest, I have to research, read and watch content, which includes Buddhist literature, in order to aid my attempt to extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas that can help us all live happy, fulfilled and successful lives, and also really, the best way to find out if we can really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to us today, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications.
Diving in!

My Class Notes for Class 3: How to Take a Lama
The video lesson basically focused on answering the homework questions, so the following notes also include substantiating context from the reading for Class 3: “The Key that Unlocks the Door to the Noble Path, folios 5b-7b. “
Lama & Proper Behavior
When we speak of “proper behavior towards your lama,” it’s necessary for the student to realize that we draw no distinction between the person who delivers him formal dharma teachings and the person who teaches him the alphabet and so on. Whatever a disciple undertakes in the service of his lama during the length of their relationship—whether it be attending to him, paying him respects, or so on, everything except those minor things like the personal daily recitations that the student does for himself—all of it counts as what we call “lama practice.”
Geshe Michael Roach
On finding a qualified teacher
… be demanding, your mental real estate is irreplaceable. You have so many hours in your life. The number of breaths you will take has a number and don’t waste it. Check the people out. Don’t go and sit for a year and find out they are not qualified.
Geshe Michael Roach
10 characteristics of a qualified lama
- Controlled; self control like a well tamed horse; keeps their morality; they are ethical.
- Peaceful; they have good meditation, if they are peaceful they have behavior signs such as: they don’t get upset easily, they are very good at problem solving, they are calm, do things carefully etc.
- Super peaceful; seen emptiness directly or they understand emptiness correctly. It’s best they have seen it directly.
- The teacher should know more than the student.
- They enjoy the trouble of teaching people, they enjoy teaching people. They work hard for their students and they think it’s fun to teach people and to help their students.
- Rich in scriptural knowledge; they know all the great books, they’ve memorized them.
- They have seen emptiness directly for sure; super understood and super realized emptiness (reference point 3).
- Master teacher; they adjust to the student’s level.
- Super love; made of love. They teach for the love of their students and not for money, not to get attention, nor to get famous.
- They never give up on you.

Post Class Thoughts—Any practical strategies and methods?
[My quest: find out what and how things really work: What it takes for us to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. With a current focus on—but not limited to—Buddhist philosophy.From my current focus, 2 more questions came along.
Can we extract, adapt and contextualise the ideas and concepts from Buddhist philosophy to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life?
Can we really make a 2500-year-old tradition relevant to the 21st century, not as a “religion” but as a secular philosophy with broad applications that we can use in our lives? (source)
Most importantly, I will share my thoughts; ideas, insights, opinions, findings, and experiences as a test subject, and then document how you too can apply practical strategies and methods in your daily life to live a happy, fulfilled and successful one.]
With my quest guiding me forward, let’s look at my takeaways from the third class of the course.
This class focuses on finding a lama, which in secular context would mean finding a qualified teacher in various domains or even a qualified mentor.

1. Lama; teacher or mentor
If you look up “lama,” apart from the 4-legged furry creature, you’d find a myriad of definitions but mostly sum up as a spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism, or a teacher who teaches the Dharma.
Again, let’s steer away from the religious tones and nuances and adapt it for the modern day, secular living context.
When we speak of “proper behavior towards your lama,” it’s necessary for the student to realize that we draw no distinction between the person who delivers him formal dharma teachings and the person who teaches him the alphabet and so on.
Geshe Michael Roach
Simplified, our school teachers, or extra-curriculum teachers, mentors at work and business, life coaches, even possibly our parents are included in “proper behavior towards your lama.”
My takeaway here is the attitude one should have when we learn from somebody—teacher, mentor, coach—who is imparting us skills that we either didn’t have before, or helping us become better at something.
Instead of a transactional and mercenary attitude, “I paid you therefore you’re obliged to teach me,” perhaps we should be grateful and apply what we learnt about the three problems of the pot here as well.
Because, sometimes or more than often, money can’t buy the best teacher. Maybe you think so, but your attitude determines how much that best teacher is willing to teach.

2. Finding a qualified teacher or mentor
You can look up to your teacher or mentor, hold him or her in reverence, be in awe, idolize, and whatsoever, but you gotta make sure he or she is qualified.
After all, like what Geshe Michael Roach mentioned in the video,
… be demanding, your mental real estate is irreplaceable. You have so many hours in your life. The number of breaths you will take has a number and don’t waste it. Check the people out. Don’t go and sit for a year and find out they are not qualified.
Geshe Michael Roach
Don’t waste your time and your mental capacity to learn less than you could.
So how do you check them out to find out if they are qualified? While the list again is for finding a qualified spiritual teacher, let’s take some creative liberties here to adapt it to finding a qualified teacher or mentor in our secular modern-day life:
- Integrity: someone who does the right thing regardless of who’s looking. Can’t imagine a mentor who doesn’t practice what he or she preaches, right? Or a teacher that tries to pull the wool over your eyes.
- Emotionally stable: passionate about what they teach but cool-headed. Can’t imagine a mentor who lashes out at you every other day right?
- Expert: The teacher should know more than the student. Erm, duh?
- Passion: They enjoy the trouble of teaching people, they enjoy teaching people. They work hard for their students and they think it’s fun to teach people and to help their students. If not, why bother?
- Master teacher: they adjust to the student’s level to help you grow in way that suits you best!
- Professional: They teach for the love of their students and not for money, not to get attention, nor to get famous. They get their priorities right basically.
- Attitude: They never give up on you. In other words, they are driven to help you succeed!
So, instead of the 10, we streamlined it to 7 qualities that you can use as a checklist to find that qualified teacher or mentor.
Conclusion: What Next?
I actually thought this class would prove impossible to extract any ideas to adapt it into the secular context.
But who knew?
The fact that we do look for teachers and mentors to help us grow personally and professionally—I mean, look at the growing personal development industry—means we shouldn’t take finding a qualified one too lightly.
We’re not just talking about the fees we have to pay them, but the limited time we have in our lives! After all, we want not just the biggest bang out of our buck, but the greatest transformation we want without wasting too much time.
So find a qualified teacher, one who is worthwhile for you to respect and grateful to grow under his or her wings!
That said, gotta move on to ACI Course 1 Class 4 to find out more!