Spark of Potential: Buddhist Insights on Spiritual Teachers

Buddhism promises that change is possible for all of us. We all have the potential to awaken. This is the central message of the Buddha’s life and teachings. While it can be inspiring to read about great historical figures like the Buddha and to learn about his approach to training and transforming the mind, we also need more immediate role models—real people we can meet and interact with. Being around inspiring people can awaken something in us, like a spark that passes from one person to another.

If you look back on your life, you might remember people who have inspired you with their wisdom or compassion. Maybe you didn’t think in these terms, but still, perhaps you can recall certain individuals who seemed to radiate kindness or who always seemed to have deep insight into people or situations. When we encounter such people—whether in real life or a book—something awakens. There is a glimmer of some new potential, a new perspective on what is possible for us as human beings.

It is one of the great ironies of my own life that I now give so many talks and presentations because as a young adult, I was intensely afraid of public speaking. I even fainted on stage one time when I was a teenager. Hearing the stories of great meditation masters helped shift me out of my anxious mindset. My first role models appeared in books. I devoured modern-day spiritual classics like the writings of Carlos Castaneda. I couldn’t get enough of the great teachers and the lessons they imparted to their students. Reading about the spiritual journeys of other people helped me see my situation more clearly. I remember learning about Castaneda’s experiences with his mentor Don Juan. Castaneda was a tightly wound academic type when he first started his training, but Don Juan put him in all sorts of interesting situations that forced him out of his comfort zone. This gradually opened him up to new insights, and his neurotic tendencies slowly transformed into wisdom and confidence. Hearing all these stories helped me see that I could either let myself get completely consumed by anxiety and isolate myself further, or I could do something different and make a change.

The people I read about reflected to me something about myself. Their stories were my story. Gradually, I started to see a spark of potential that I could tap into myself, just like they did. They were not miraculously born saints and sages. They were ordinary people, with ordinary challenges. But they followed a path of training. On the path to becoming great masters, these remarkable individuals learned to train their minds and open their hearts in a step-by-step way. They had teachers. They had other people who supported them on their journey. They read books that got them started. Their stories carried many layers of inspiration.

The meditation masters and teachers in these books also helped me to trust in my basic goodness. They helped me see that all of us have shadows and inner demons. At some time or another in life, all of us feel broken. But there are also parts of us that are whole and complete. I began to understand that the path is not a process of fixing ourselves but rather of recognizing and attuning ourselves to the parts that were never broken. Wise role models and teachers will stop you in your tracks and help you see this within yourself.

The Buddhist path is a path of awakening, a series of steps that help us to get in touch with the inner treasure of our innate awareness, compassion, and wisdom. We learn to see these qualities in ourselves more clearly. They become our new home. Wise, compassionate teachers can play a critical role in this process. They help us to find this buried treasure and unearth it, then they support us as we begin the slow process of transforming how we see ourselves and how we live in the world. Our life becomes filled with this newfound treasure of awareness, compassion, and wisdom.