The Liberating Lives of the Lineage Masters

For someone who aspires to practice the dharma, it is very important to read or hear the liberating lives of the masters of whichever lineage of teachings we follow. Even a little knowledge about their lives can help inspire faith and trust in the dharma and lineage. And when there is faith and trust, our minds will naturally turn towards the dharma.
The way we read these life-stories, however, is not with the intention to merely learn what the protagonist did, what we are dealing with here is more than just a historical account of the master’s life; we read them in order to learn what WE need to do.
Let’s say we call ourselves followers of the Kagyu Lineage, that means we aim to follow the example of past Kagyu lamas, to emulate what they did and so on. If we read the liberating lives with this mindset, they will have an immediate influence on our own practice and approach to the dharma. This, then, is the purpose for studying the liberating lives.
Teaching on the Lives and Liberation of Tilopa