Recollect One's Teachers

I think it’s really important to recollect one’s teachers, both ordinary teachers and Dhamma teachers, as well as one’s parents, because they are all carried into and become part of our citta.

This mind is like a stream that absorbs influences from other people. But it’s important to hold this process in the right way. As Luang Por himself would say, ‘Luang Por Sumedho is a perception in the mind’ and ‘There’s no real fixed person there.’ Perceptions of people are impermanent formations that arise in our minds. And yet they can serve as guiding influences. In this way we can intimately absorb the skills of our teacher and fellow practitioners.

And as we live our lives, we can also give helpful impressions to others. This field of human manifestations of Dhamma is a valuable resource to share in.

This reflection by Ajahn Sucitto is from the Forest Sangha Newsletter 2015 (FSN #94), (pdf) p.10.