Gateway to Dharma
What Types of Defects should a Student endeavour to avoid?
The three main defects a student should avoid are: lack of attention during the transmission of teaching; inability to remember the teaching; and contamination of the teaching with afflictive thoughts. They may also suffer from the six stains which are: to listen with pride, thinking that you are just as good as the teacher; to listen without faith, finding fault with the teacher and his teachings; to be indifferent toward the teachings, thinking that whether you receive the teachings or not is of no great importance; to be either distracted by your surroundings or withdrawn inside to the point of becoming drowsy; to be annoyed, thinking that the teachings are too long or that the external conditions are inhospitable; to be discouraged, thinking that you are incapable of practising these teachings or of attaining realisation. Students who fail to avoid the three defects and the six stains will generate negative karmic conditions for their future, for karma is a state of reality, and there is nothing random or compromising about the working of karma.