The importance of virtuous teachers 善知识的重要性

【The importance of virtuous teachers 】
Remember the story of the blind trying to size up an elephant?

Everyone of them has touched the elephant, but their views were completely contradictory.

What is the problem? The problem is that everyone held onto what he felt and took that perspective as entirety and truth.

The same is true and even worse for those who practice Buddhism.

At least the blind has touched the elephant.

A Buddhist practitioner, however, without guidance of virtuous teachers, views Buddhism Dharma only by his understanding.

What he sees is most likely the Dharma in his imagination which is far from the real Dharma.

To study the dharma, one must first find a team of virtuous teachers and fellow practitioners.

When taking a systematic approach to complete understanding and establishing the right view, all doubts and confusions are naturally resolved. 

【善知识的重要性】
记得盲人摸象的故事吗？

每个人摸到的都是象，可是观点却完全矛盾，问题在哪里呢？

因为各自都只执著于自己了解的那一点，那一个角度，以为这就是全部，这就是正确的，学佛法也极容易犯这个毛病，甚至更糟。

盲人摸象，至少还摸到了真的大象，学佛者若离开了善知识的指点，凭自己的理解去看待佛法，很可能看到的只是自己想象中的佛法，离真正的佛法还很远。

学习佛法，首要之务是找到师法友团队，系统学习、完整了解，建立正知见，自然疑惑都会解决。