Advice on Guru Devotion

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Chenrezig and Medicine Buddha practice are common practices for everyone. Highest Yoga Tantra practice for you has not yet come out according to my observation; it didn’t come out. So maybe you will have to wait another ten months and then remind me. Just from my observation it didn’t come out, so you will have to wait.

However, there’s no deity separate from the guru. Padmasambhava, the great enlightened yogi who appeared during Milarepa’s time, said that if we regard the guru as more precious than Dorje Chang, Vajradhara, then realizations can happen this life. This means that we have to look at it in this way, then we will have realizations.

If we think Dorje Chang is something very special and the guru is almost nothing, sort of very ordinary, then there’s no way we can have realizations of the path to enlightenment. So we have to keep that meditation in our heart.

It is mentioned in a sutra called Stainless Sky that we should regard the guru as more precious, more special, than all the tathagatas, which means all the buddhas. Even though all the buddhas are highly skilled, learned in methods, wise in methods and greatly compassionate, without the condition of the guru, all the buddhas’ blessings cannot be received in the hearts of the disciples. That means all of the buddhas' holy actions cannot be received in the hearts of the disciples and the way to be subdued cannot happen.

That is not only relating to those called gurus in the world, but especially it is relating to our own guru. We should regard our own guru as more precious than all the buddhas of the ten directions, therefore, for that reason, we must have a guru.

The great yogi Indrabhuti achieved enlightenment in one brief life of degenerate times, and it is said that the whole village went to the pure land. In one tantric teaching called Yeshe Drubpa that he gave, he said:

Even if you have complete qualities (which means you know the entire sutra and tantra teachings by heart), without the guru you can’t be liberated from samsara.

For example, without the oarsmen holding the oars, the boat cannot go beyond or cross the ocean.

All the buddhas of the past, present and future came from the guru. Without the guru there’s not even the name “Buddha.” Therefore, we must rely on the guru and listen to them; that means following [their advice.] It’s so important.

In the long Six-Session Guru Yoga, in the section on the guru’s kindness, it says the guru is doing all the actions of the victorious buddhas in numberless fields, which means in numberless universes, and “I make requests to the precious guru.” It says not only in numberless universes, but also in the past, numberless buddhas guided numberless sentient beings to enlightenment already. They brought numberless sentient beings to enlightenment already, they are enlightening numberless individual beings now and numberless individual beings will be brought to enlightenment in the future by all the victorious ones, all the buddhas.

The Essential Nectar, a lamrim text, says that until our mind is separated from the obscurations and negative karma, the karmic obscurations, then even if every single buddha descended in front of us, we have no other way to see them or for them to appear, to just have the present appearance. We have no opportunity to see the holy body adorned with the holy signs and exemplifications. There are thirty-two holy signs and eighty exemplifications for a buddha’s holy body in nirmanakaya aspect.

This means the appearance we have is the guru. Our mind is obscured so we can’t see a buddha in the aspect of Buddha. Same thing, we can’t see numberless buddhas working for us, we don’t see them, we don’t realize this. There are numberless buddhas working for us through the guru, who appears in ordinary aspect to us, according to our ordinary mind.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m a buddha. So sorry, that doesn’t mean I’m a buddha. So sorry, I should have been a buddha by now, since beginningless rebirths. You know, I should be a buddha by now. So sorry, still I didn’t become a buddha; this is a mistake from my side.

Your other gurus, like Garchen Rinpoche, are all buddhas. They’re numberless buddhas working through each of these gurus, like Garchen Rinpoche, His Holiness and anyone with whom you have made a Dharma connection.

Our mind, the continuation of our mind has no beginning; the continuation of our delusion has no beginning. Therefore, the result, the continuation of our suffering in samsara, has no beginning. The sufferings from beginningless rebirths, the six-realm sufferings—amazing, amazing—the oceans of suffering of samsara of each realm are so deep and so vast.

If we don’t meet Dharma in this life—we have received a perfect human body but if we don’t meet the Dharma, if we don’t meet the guru revealing the path to enlightenment—there are numberless buddhas working through the aspect of the guru that we have a karmic connection with, but without all this, we wouldn’t have even a human body, let alone a perfect human body. We wouldn’t have met the Dharma, we wouldn’t have met a guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, which is the numberless buddhas guiding us through this aspect.

That means the numberless buddhas have omniscience, perfect power, understanding the past, present and future, our consciousness, our mind, our suffering, everything, our needs exactly. They have perfect power to reveal with their holy body and mind whatever is needed, they can reveal that. They have guided us since beginningless rebirths and also with compassion are embracing us from beginningless rebirths.

As I mentioned before, our mind is obscured by karmic obscurations, so we can’t see Buddha in the aspect of a buddha. Therefore, by manifesting in an ordinary aspect the guru then guides us according to our karma. Depending on how much good karma there is, the guru has guided us from beginningless rebirths.

That means Garchen Rinpoche, for example, has been guiding you since beginningless rebirths, not only in this life. All the buddhas have been guiding you through him, but in different aspects in each life. This understanding is extremely important—that the guru is guiding you—that every single buddha is guiding you through this aspect. That is the most important understanding and mindfulness to have, everyday mindfulness.

In the lamrim it is said that all the buddhas’ holy body, holy speech and holy mind actually enter into the guru and bless you, the disciple. There it explains another way to think—that from the disciple’s side, the guru is actually all the buddhas.

To prove that, even ordinary spirits act through a medium. When we think of the spirit’s name, then it immediately enters into the medium and changes their face, their voice and their language. Therefore, no question, when we think of our guru as the Buddha, they are the Buddha, and when we think of the guru as all the buddhas, then immediately they’re all there, because they have omniscience, perfect power and compassion embracing numberless sentient beings.

It’s not like an ordinary spirit who doesn’t have renunciation of samsara, bodhicitta or right view, but when we even mention their name they enter [the medium] immediately. So of course, the second we think of the guru as a buddha, all the numberless buddhas are in the guru’s holy body.

According to sutra, anyone who thinks that the guru is a buddha, then the Buddha enters that person and always blesses the disciple’s mind and liberates them from all the shortcomings. That is a very important quotation to remember. It’s good to remember this and think about it every day.

I’ll mention one more quotation, then I’ll stop here. It is said in the Condensed Meaning of Tantra and in the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion, that realizations depend on following the guru. This is said by the vajra-holder, Vajradhara. So with all the phenomena we should please the guru completely. There’s no need to say much—just do whatever pleases the guru and abandon anything that displeases them. If we put all our effort into that, all the general and sublime realizations will be achieved in this life.

What it is saying is to stop the thought of mistakes and remember their qualities and kindness and lead the mind in that. It says to hold the [view] of the guru only having qualities and never hold [the view of them making] mistakes. If we hold the view with qualities, we will achieve realizations; if we hold the view with mistakes, we won’t achieve realizations.

There’s one more quotation. Sakya Pandita said,

Even though the beams of the sun are extremely hot, without a magnifying glass they cannot produce fire. Like that, without the gurus, the blessings of the buddhas cannot be received.

There’s a plant that, by drying and rubbing it, then putting a magnifying glass on top, the sunbeams come through and we can produce fire, and smoke comes. Without the magnifying glass, no matter how hot the sun is, we cannot produce fire. Like that, by pleasing the guru, all the buddhas—which means numberless buddhas—are pleased. The guru embodies all Buddha, Dharma, Sangha into one, thus we go for refuge.

When the guru is happy, all the buddhas are happy. As I mentioned at the beginning and have been explaining, even if we don’t see a buddha, by having the connection, the Dharma connection, guru-disciple, then all the buddhas are guiding us through that aspect. This quotation should help. I’ll stop here.

This should be the real essence in the guru yoga meditations. If possible, it’s good to meditate on this every day, to go through what I have said. Then once you see every guru that you have a Dharma connection with, a guru-disciple relationship, you see [the guru as] all the buddhas. Then from that unchangeable devotion all the lamrim realizations come—the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being and the graduated path of the higher capable being. That’s it. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

So yes, with the deity or not, the guru you have is so much more than the deity. Numberless buddhas are guiding you through that. So the guru is most important; more important than the deity.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

I felt that we needed to help, as we are His Holiness’ disciples. Of course, “guru,” that means all our happiness, past, present, and future, up to enlightenment, came from the guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Every single pleasure, happiness, came from His Holiness.

His Holiness has guided us from beginningless rebirths, now and in the future. Can you imagine the kindness of the guru? The kindness of the guru is like the limitless sky. I also felt that we needed to help Tibet, so I suggested these prayers:

• The Mantra Promised by Tara
• Four Mandala Offerings to Cittamani Tara

I want to say a billion, zillion, numberless thanks, really from my heart, to everybody who did the prayers to help His Holiness and to help Tibet receive freedom soon.

The people in Tibet have no freedom and so much suffering. It’s unbelievable. Wow, wow, wow. As I know—I have been to Tibet five or four times, I think, and in Lhasa, from the Potala, you can see in the street where they go catching people. They can come anytime to pick someone up from their house and bring them to prison or whatever. The rest of the family doesn’t know where that person is going. They are also catching people by motorcycle. Then the police—when you see the police, it is so scary. You feel like that when you go outside.

Here we don’t see that, so we don’t feel it much, but in Tibet it is very scary. [We need to pray for] the people outside Tibet and inside Tibet, for them to have freedom. There is the middle way, there is umai lam, His Holiness always expresses that.

So, thank you very, very much. Thank you so much. This is the most extensive way to collect merit and the most powerful purification, fulfilling the guru’s wishes.

It is said by Sakya Pandita,

For a thousand eons, even if you make charity of your head and your legs to other sentient beings, and even if you dedicate the merits of that for sentient beings, you collect all those merits in one second when you fulfill the guru’s wishes and follow the guru’s advice.

We collect all those merits in one second [by following] the guru’s path. If we fulfill all those wishes and advice, we collect one thousand eons of merits in one second. When we fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice, this is what happens.

Also, it is said in tantra, Kadam Tigle,

Just as fire burns wood and in one second it becomes ashes, like that, if you are able to please the glorified guru, if you please the guru, your heavy negative karma gets burned by that. By following the guru, by pleasing the guru, it is burned in one second.

The negative karma gets purified in one second. The heavy negative karma collected from past lives now gets purified in one second. It is so powerful, this happens.

I think that’s all. Thank you very much.

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling ones,
I have nothing much to say, only that I appreciate your understanding of Dharma and your understanding of the peak of Dharma practice—what is the best way to purify the defilements, the cause of sufferings collected from beginningless rebirths, and to collect extensive merits, the cause of happiness up to enlightenment. Not only the happiness of this life but also the happiness of future lives and ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment—the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

Also, a quick way to achieve enlightenment is through your devotion to the guru, who has revealed the teachings of the path taught by the Buddha, then with actions correctly following the virtuous friend, doing the best you can.

I appreciate that. Try to collect merit as much as possible by practicing the path during this most precious human life, which is very short, it is not long. It looks like it is long but it’s not. For us, for our wrong concept of permanence, we look at life as permanent, but in reality life is very short. Every day children die in their mother’s womb, or outside, then in middle age and old age, every day in the world. In reality, death can happen at any moment—not just any day, but any hour.

It is said by the great bodhisattva Shantideva:

By thinking that today I won’t die,
Then I cannot stay comfortably.

That means spending our life being lazy or distracted, following the eight worldly dharmas. Shantideva is saying, how can we stay comfortably if we do that?

Also, you are the most precious mother, the wise, compassionate mother who has a very precious son who likes Dharma practice, especially the bodhisattva vows. That is very rare—the person who enjoys that is extremely rare, especially a young person like your son who wants to practice the Mahayana path and the bodhisattva’s path, so I highly appreciate that. Every day I thank him, I thank both of you.

The common people in the world don’t know karma, therefore they think that external things are the highest quality enjoyments. But they don’t create much good karma while they are enjoying these very expensive enjoyments, using them with great pleasure. They run out of good karma very fast; their little good karma finishes very fast. I just wanted to inform you of this.

The most important thing, the key practice, is pleasing the guru. That is the best offering. It purifies unbelievable obscurations and negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths, and it collects the most extensive merits and causes us to actualize the path to enlightenment, to achieve enlightenment quickest. Then no question about all the temporary success. It is the best, the quickest cause of success.

From the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion:

It is said by Vajradhara that realizations follow the master.
(That means how you correctly follow the vajra master.)
By knowing that, with all actions please the guru.

So with all things, with devotion, follow the guru’s advice with body, speech and mind, by fulfilling the wishes of the guru and also by making material offerings if you have them. For example, even by offering a glass of water to the guru, you become closer to enlightenment. It means every single service, like that, and especially by pleasing the holy mind. This is the quickest path.

Whatever pleases the guru, attempt that.
(That means all the different things, whatever they are.)
Whatever displeases the guru, don’t do that.
By following that, then all the qualities—common, uncommon and sublime— are achieved in this very life.
(That means mahamudra realization and enlightenment.)

I may have also explained what Nagarjuna explained—that the greatest purification and the greatest realization and the quickest enlightenment is achieved by every pleasing service to the guru. Even offering to numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha and numberless statues, stupas and scriptures becomes so small. Therefore Nagarjuna said to abandon all the other offerings and attempt completely to make offerings to the guru.

I always pray for your family. You are making your human rebirth so worthwhile.

With much love and prayers ...

Most important is to remember with feeling the guru’s kindness and to follow their advice. Then remember our own mistakes and confess.

Long life pujas purify negative karma and accumulate merit—generally speaking life can be lengthened by accumulating merit. The best kind of long life puja is not just the ritual, but cherishing the advice, with the thought correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, looking at the guru from our own side as the Buddha and remembering their kindness; feeling regret for not practicing properly in the past and making a decision to practice better in the future; generally speaking in the ordinary sense, to be a better person.

The heaviest effect on the guru’s life is degenerating or breaking the first root tantric vow of belittling the guru—this means giving up the guru as an object of respect. Also having anger or heresy arise in the mind toward the guru, particularly heresy. When there is heresy, the mind is barren like a desert, having no faith and where nothing can grow. This can cause the holy mind to be disturbed, like a sadness.

Sometimes there can be students who request secret tantric teachings and not having devotion can cause the guru (in the context of very secret teachings) to break samaya because the teacher has difficulty saying no. If the student has the sincere thought to try to develop and keep the vows and so forth, then it’s good, although of course it may be difficult to keep all the vows because the student’s mind does not even have the realization of impermanence and death!

Harmonious sincerity in obtaining advice can inspire the guru. This can give the guru the interest to have the intention to pray in an attempt to have a long life, even if from the guru’s side there is not the complete capability to control the elements.

It is important to be aware that when students break root tantric vows, samaya and so on, this is also a danger for themselves, resulting in sickness and even in their own life being shortened, not to mention suffering in future lives. Of course, as explained in the teachings, any degeneration or breaking of the three levels of vows can be purified through confession, etc.

So these things can cause the guru to take disease and pass away early; this is a dependent arising. This can happen because of the karma of the group, for example, with my gurus, they don’t have karma, but they can show the appearance.

In conclusion, a lot depends on how well the student practices Dharma and how much self-cherishing thought there is, which causes harm to ourselves and others.

I don’t think the problem has so much to do with the fact that students don't know the cause of the guru taking disease and passing away early. For some students the cause is not being thoughtful and not taking the opportunity to change their life for the better, for example, not putting the teachings into practice.

My most dear, precious, kindest, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much billions of times for your kind letter; it made me very happy, expressing your heart and practice. Of course I will accept, even though I am not qualified. You took the Vajrasattva initiation so the connection was made already, so I will try my best and you try your best.

I am very happy you expressed your sincerity—Calling the Guru from Afar, the feeling you got, that is the root of the path to enlightenment; it has the whole path to enlightenment and is most important, so please continue.

It is very good to read the book The Heart of the Path. Also recite the Daily Meditation and meditate on the lamrim. [See The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) which has now replaced the Daily Meditation.] 

First study lamrim, if you haven’t studied it before from beginning to end, with someone—a geshe, resident teacher, or old Sangha who has studied the lamrim. To begin with, study a short lamrim text, Essence of Refined Gold. Next study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, but the main lamrim text for you to study is Essence of Refined Gold.

For three months train the mind in guru devotion, following the outline in Essence of Refined Gold, then five months on the path of the lower capable being: the perfect human rebirth, its usefulness and how it is difficult to find again, death and impermanence, the lower realms, karma, etc. Then three months on the path of the middle capable being, one month on bodhicitta and five months on emptiness. This means that is the main meditation during that time, but it does not mean it is the only meditation, it just means it is the main focus.

After that train your mind in guru devotion, no matter how many months or years it takes, until you see each guru as a buddha, no question, not just for a short time, but very stable, seeing that for years and on that basis having realization.

Train the mind in the path of the lower capable being, again until your mind is transformed, no matter how long it takes, how many months or years, having stable realizations that last. On that basis train the mind in the path of the middle capable being, and then in the path of the higher capable being, bodhicitta and emptiness. You should also meditate a little on emptiness every day, by reading different texts and prayers, so do some meditation on emptiness every day.

To successfully actualize the path to enlightenment for sentient beings—for numberless sentient beings from each realm, for every sentient being to achieve enlightenment—you need to achieve realizations on the path. You need to purify negative karma and obstacles, and collect extensive merits, so you need to practice guru yoga, Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. You should recite 200,000 migtsema mantras, not just counting but meditating on the practice.

You asked for guidance so this is what I am advising, to make your life most productive and most beneficial for sentient beings. With no regrets, you will go from life to life more and more to enlightenment.

Please enjoy these cards. With much love and prayers...

My dear Louise, 
Thank you very much for your kind letter. My suggestion is to do a Vajrasattva retreat for three months or for as long as you can next year. Purification is extremely important for you. If continual, intensive purification is not done, you will have a lot of conflict in your mind and you won’t understand the purpose of different practices. That creates negative judgments and thoughts, and that in turn creates negative karma which obscures your mind again and again. Then that continually makes it difficult to understand Dharma—not only philosophy but even lamrim.

If you can, try to do at least 100 prostrations every day by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, just as you did in the retreat. During the evening time do the Vajrasattva practice. Do one mala if you can, it will be so good. Do it with a similar motivation to the one Ven. Sarah made.

You haven’t studied lamrim well, especially the part on guru devotion. This shows very clearly that you have not really read, studied and meditated well, so a huge mistake arises in your thinking.

The essential answer is: please read the lamrim text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand very well, from beginning to end. Don’t read it so fast, thinking that ice-cream will appear somewhere. As far as Buddhism is concerned, the Buddha’s words—every single one of them, each word—has ice-cream behind its meaning. There is ice-cream behind the meaning of each word, and the ultimate ice-cream is enlightenment.

Please read this text well and get a new diary book. Write down anything that you don’t understand, then check with the elder students or some geshes who have studied well, and who have learned lamrim or philosophy well. If you ask those students who don’t understand much of the teachings, there is the risk of getting wrong answers, then you could get double negative thinking— double obscurations on top of the obscurations you already have. Then you will create more negative karma. This is like a blind person who already cannot see with his eyes, and you give him a pair of dark glasses! It becomes like that.

After you have studied the lamrim well, you should study the commentary on Lamrim Chenmo [Steps on the Path to Enlightenment] by Geshe Lhundub Sopa, who is a professor of an American university, a great teacher and practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism, and a renowned teacher with thousands of monks/students in the great monasteries.

If you try to do what I have advised here, it will be very helpful.

You said you will have a lot of problems if you return to the center. That’s because you haven’t studied lamrim well and you haven’t understood, so this will happen everywhere you go. Everywhere you will find problems.

In the pure land, of course there are only bodhisattvas and those who have collected extensive merit; those with pure karma, who have created the cause to be born there. Therefore, they won’t find problems in the pure land. According to the state of our mind, we can’t be in the pure land, but of course if we are in the pure land our mind won’t be like this. There we will only find people with pure mind.

It is therefore most important for you to do continuous, strong purification. Just do it. Just do it. Without that, you will continually have a big problem with guru devotion, from the beginning to the end.

You talked about the centers offering service to the resident geshes, rinpoches and so on. The resident teachers or geshes give teachings to the students so they become their guru, therefore the students offer service to them. Even if the resident teachers and geshes are not their guru, the centers still have the responsibility of taking care of them. Offering service to the guru is itself a very important practice.

In the lamrim outline on guru devotion, there are mentioned the eight benefits which come from correctly devoting to one’s guru, and eight shortcomings or mistakes from not correctly devoting to the guru. Besides this, if we don’t have a guru, then we don’t get any benefits.

The root of guru devotion is remembering the kindness of the guru, by thinking that the guru is precious. Then we respect the guru, who is the root of the path all the way up to enlightenment. It’s from the guru that we will achieve all the realizations, from liberation from samsaric sufferings all the way up to enlightenment. This is the reason why the understanding and practice of guru devotion is so important. We need to look at it carefully. We have to be really careful and put a lot of effort into trying to understand it.

Basically, we want only profit and we don’t want loss. We want profit—the total cessation of gross and subtle defilements and negative karma, and the completion of all qualities of realizations. That’s why we need to do that.

Our main goal should be:

• To benefit others;
• To liberate numberless beings from the ocean of samsaric sufferings;
• To not only bring these numberless beings to the state of temporary happiness, but also to bring them to the ultimate state of full enlightenment.

There are four outlines under the guru devotion practice. The main one is seeing the guru as a buddha. I will leave this for you to check for yourself by reading the lamrim texts. I will explain the four outlines in a different order to the Tibetans.

1) Nothing is certain in our view. In the minds of ordinary beings, we have so much hallucination in our views—so many layers of hallucination; so many heavy mistakes. That’s why we see people and beings as having delusions, making mistakes and experiencing suffering. But that kind of view isn’t always correct.

There was a monk, Lekpa Karma, who served the Buddha for 22 years, but saw the Buddha only as a liar. He had more faith in some Hindu gurus and didn’t have faith in the Buddha, who had achieved the complete, full enlightenment, having completed all the qualities and become enlightened many eons ago.

So it’s like this example. From the guru’s side, he is enlightened, but from the students’ side, they don’t see the guru as a buddha, because they have not purified and trained well in guru devotion. I just mentioned this one outline briefly. You can check it out.

2) Even nowadays all the buddhas and bodhisattvas are constantly working for sentient beings and for me.

3) The guru is the doer of all the buddhas’ activities. Please think about this and pay attention here. Our mind is heavily obscured and we have so many hallucinations, therefore we can’t see the guru in the aspect of a buddha. We can’t see that they have no mistake, and that is why they can’t guide us directly in that aspect. We can only see the virtuous friend in an ordinary form.

The gurus are constantly guiding us, giving teachings, initiations, the three levels of vows, oral transmissions, etc, but what we can see directly is the ordinary form of the virtuous friend. Even though he or she is doing all these activities for our liberation—to liberate us from the ocean of samsaric suffering and bring us to enlightenment—we can only see the virtuous friend as having delusions, making mistakes and experiencing suffering.

Therefore, without recognizing this, according to our karma and obscured mind, we receive no guidance and it’s impossible to receive teachings, vows or anything. We are completely lost. It’s as if we are in danger in a forest at night, with tigers and lions around us, and we are there without light. Or we are like a baby abandoned in a hot desert, where there is nobody around and no home.

So, the guru is the doer of all the buddhas’ activities, and that is why we say guru is a buddha. That is the reason.

4) And then the last one—please read this section in the lamrim texts—Buddha Vajradhara himself proclaimed that the guru is a buddha.

Besides what I mentioned here, there are other deeper, more profound reasons. With intensive purification and training the mind in guru devotion, we will be able to see the guru as a buddha. Not only that, but all the realizations of the small, medium and great scopes can be achieved.

This is my news to you from Tushita Mahayana Centre in Dharamsala, from the house down below the gompa, where lots of monkeys come and play in the buckets of water. Hahaha!

Please enjoy your life. You have to really think that Buddhism is very logical. When you check on the other religions thoroughly, they go to the bottom, but when you check on the Buddha’s teachings, you can go deeper and deeper than that.

So enjoy your life, this precious life, which you get just about one time.

With love and prayers...