Deriding a Bodhisattva

Before the start of a teaching, I overheard a couple of students making snide sarcastic remarks as to how the class was being conducted.  I was disappointed because that was coming from a supposedly ‘knowledgeable’ student.  I did not reproach nor correct the person.  I just kept quiet. It did not make sense to me, because if one had taken an initiation from a teacher, and/or had received teachings from the same teacher, technically it was not right to ‘talk bad’ about anything related  to the teachings and about whoever was assigned to lead the class.  We can never be sure if the person we deride is a Bodhisattva in disguise. We should stop ever faulting or being contemptuous of Bodhisattvas.

Scorning or deriding our own teacher or related teachings, persons, classes, means showing them contempt, faulting or ridiculing them, being disrespectful or impolite, or thinking /saying that their teachings or advice were useless.  Once we display such attitude, it is as good as rejecting them as our teachers.  Such haughty actions will seriously hamper our own spiritual progress. In this instance, I feel that not attending the teachings would be better than attending and be disrespectful and create the karma to never meet the Buddha’s teachings in future lifetimes.