Q: Is there a need to find an enlightened teacher?
A: No, but it makes sense to find teachers who are more enlightened than us.
Q: Why not just find an enlightened teacher?
A: It’s not easy to discern who is enlightened as we are not enlightened ourselves.
Q: How do we find teachers who are more enlightened than us then?
A: By becoming more and more enlightened ourselves.
Q: How do we become more enlightened if we might not already have teachers more enlightened than us?
A: That’s the paradoxical part, isn’t it? Just do the best with your wisdom and be open to increase it!
There’s no need to assume any teacher to be enlightened. We always need to be discerning, to not believe anyone blindly. This is what the Buddha taught too, to test his teachings. Many teachers, even if they are generally good, have some shortfalls, because most are not enlightened, or are not as enlightened as we assume them to be.
Good to learn from many sources and not just one fixed source – because it can be wrong – in parts, even if not totally. Always with an objective, discerning and questioning mind, taking references to the sutras and dead great Patriarchs’ commentaries on the sutras, whose lives are proven blameless. Question the sutras and Patriarchs’ teachings too, on whatever is questionable.
A fully enlightened person (Buddha) will not make any mistake of spreading unfounded teachings, that confuse, that need to be taken back. The fully enlightened’s conduct is like the Buddha in the sutras. Even if anyone is the manifestation of an enlightened being, the Buddha instructed that it must never be revealed, unless one is about to pass away, to inspire others. Anyone who even hints that he or she is such a manifestation when well and alive is definitely not such a being. Even so, it doesn’t mean deathbed proclamations are always right, as an enlightened person’s conduct when alive should be like the Buddha, with unmistakable compassion and wisdom.