The voice said, "Whether or not this is the first time does not matter. Your karmic conditions have ripened, so now I'm going to teach you."

The student said, "I'm going to talk with my Shih-fu." He stopped meditating and told me about his experience. I told him that he should ignore the voice and forget the experience.

Another student wrote to me recently, and said she had just finished reading a book about a man who claimed to be the incarnation of a Tibetan lama, and who felt his purpose was to come to the West and spread the true teachings of the Buddha. Actually, the man was British, and he had been seriously ill. Miraculously, he recovered, but when he did, his personality had completely transformed. He said the spirit of a lama had taken over his body. My student said that his teachings seemed to differ from what she believed to be correct Buddhadharma. She asked, "If he is truly a Tibetan lama, then why does he sound so far off the mark?"

I told her, "It's not a lama's spirit that has taken over this man. At most, it's either a deity or ghost that claims to be a lama."

Similar situations can happen to anyone who practices hard for a long time. These are usually called demonic obstructions. If people follow the advice they receive during such encounters, they will fall into demonic states. The beings who claim to be Bodhisattvas or high-ranking deities are simply ghosts or demons. If you want to learn Tibetan Buddhism, study with a lama. If you want to practice Ch'an, study with a Ch'an master. Don't study with ghosts.