The mahayanists view the teacher as a spiritual friend–kalyanamitra in Sanskrit–which literally means “spiritual friend” or “companion in the virtue.” Virtue, as it is used here, is inherent richness, rich soil fertilized by the rotting manure of neurosis. You have tremendous potential, you are ripe, and you smell like one-hundred-percent ripe blue cheese, which can be smelled miles away. Devotion is the acknowledging of that potential by both the teacher and the student.

From The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation, p.134.

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