Advice on Guru Devotion

Dear Sarah,
___ Rinpoche would be very good to teach or to do discussion with Tibetan people in public. Then ___ Rinpoche is also very good to have discussion with Tibetans and to teach them.

The younger geshes and incarnate lamas who speak English and live in the West—who know the Western way of life, the way of thinking and the culture—their way of explaining might be more beneficial and perhaps they will understand each other better, generally speaking.

I am sending the texts you left here. The orange one is a very important Medicine Buddha text.

With prayers...

I have written with my hand as secretary, so maybe the only advantage is that you will become more familiar with reading my writing when I send letters in future. Ha ha ha.

I have mentioned these lamas, but it doesn’t mean you need to take them as guru. That decision is up to the individual. If students like these lamas very much; if it is very beneficial for their mind, then they can take the lamas as guru, but of course, they should take time to examine them.

Sometimes it takes a long time because you don’t see them often; it is very rare. Then if nothing happens, life becomes completely empty. Of course, death can happen suddenly or you can get very sick. Many times it is like that. At that time it is already too late; there is nothing you can do. You cannot practice Dharma.

___ Rinpoche is a great lama in the great monasteries, Sera, Ganden and Drepung, and among the Tibetan public, especially the Gelug lay people. These lamas can just talk about certain subjects of Buddhism and have discussion. They don’t have to be taken as guru by everybody, but you should offer respect as they are ordained Sangha, and you can create very powerful merit by respecting and serving them.

Student: Can one keep a dog in retreat?

Rinpoche: It just depends on the situation. When you do deity retreat, then I think cats and dogs are not allowed because maybe pollutions, spirits, or things like that will interfere. They are not allowed on your meditation seat because it can cause pollution, obstacles, or such things. It is in order not to have interferences when you are in retreat.

If it is just lamrim it is not like that. If it is not a particular deity retreat, like Yamantaka or Vajrayogini, even lower tantra, or a puja, even a deity puja, dogs can come; it’s not a problem. It depends on the situation. In a retreat situation it is better not to have them, because of spirits or pollution; they might bring obstacles. But in a puja, even a deity’s puja, and lamrim it is OK. Dogs can come as long as they don’t disturb other people, otherwise the people will get angry. As long as they don’t disturb anyone, if they just sleep, that’s OK. If you chant prayers then they can hear, and it plants the seed of enlightenment.

For example, in Tibet, I think there were four monks who had a dog. They chanted prayers, the dog heard them, and then after the dog died it was born in Tushita deva realm. 

Student: When I am preparing, sometimes the dog comes inside. 

Rinpoche: Yes, maybe the dog knows something. Maybe he also comes to do prostrations! (Rinpoche laughs.) 

Student: I broke some samaya. 

Rinpoche: Did you make a Dharma connection or not with the Rinpoche; a guru-disciple, Dharma connection? A Dharma connection is thinking, “I am a disciple, that one is my guru.” After that, if you hear even one line of teaching, two verses or three verses, or a mantra, or a lung, a relationship is established. The person doesn’t need to give an initiation or teachings. 

Student: No. 

Rinpoche: Then that makes it much, much easier for you. All that negative karma we have made, each negative karma of getting angry or of heresy, each negative karma in relation to the guru would be like the size of this earth. Even if it is a small action of disrespect, like thinking “He is too impatient,” that throws you into the hell realms for sixty eons, just from thinking the guru is so angry or impatient.

But you didn’t make the guru-disciple relationship by thinking, “He is my guru.” Because of your situation you were saved; the karma did not become so negative. The guru is the most powerful object, so even small disrespect creates very heavy negative karma.

You didn’t create that karma. Even though you created karma it did not become like that. It is much, much smaller, hardly anything compared with the negative karma if you had taken him as a guru. Then each negative karma becomes like the sky.

Of course, the other way is, if you have taken him as a guru but you have strong devotion, whatever he does it doesn’t change, because you always have the understanding, from your side, looking at him as Buddha: “This is Buddha, his mind is omniscient mind, dharmakaya, so there are no mistakes. What is appearing to me, all these things, are a reflection of my mistaken mind, and negative karma.” Therefore, it doesn’t affect your devotion. Whatever he does has no effect, and you think, “He acted like this purposely to guide me to enlightenment, to purify my negative karma.”

It is like Marpa. Whenever Milarepa came he never gave teachings to Milarepa, even if Milarepa came in with other people into the teaching. Then Marpa scolded and beat him, was always rough, with no sweet words. Of course, in the west, when hearing lamrim teachings on guru devotion, there are many people who will call him a dictator or uncompassionate, or maybe call it abuse. But Milarepa never did.

Milarepa went there for teachings but Marpa never gave him them. As you know, Marpa asked him to build a nine-storey tower alone, then after he finished, to tear it down. After finishing it, Marpa didn’t even say, “Thank you, very good,” just “Take it down, put the stones back where you got them from.” Then he asked him to build it again. If he attended the teachings Marpa immediately scolded him.

Marpa’s consort couldn’t bear it, and she asked Marpa to please give Milarepa teachings. Marpa didn’t want to give him any teaching or initiation, he wanted to be harsh for longer, but she insisted, so Marpa gave an initiation. Marpa said, “Milarepa can become enlightened much more quickly if, according to my plan, I give more hardship for longer, then he will be enlightened more quickly.” But she pushed so much. He achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime of these degenerate times, but it took longer. Milarepa never lost faith, and that’s why he became enlightened within a few years.

Why Marpa treated Milarepa like that was to purify the negative karma, because in that life he had killed many people and animals with black magic. Also, there were all the past lives. Marpa is an enlightened being so he knew how to guide Milarepa, how to purify all the heavy negative karma within two or three years.

Even if you make a guru-disciple relationship, you should have strong devotion. That strong devotion cannot be disturbed, is always so strong, because you have very firm devotion, looking at the guru as Buddha, seeing Buddha there. Outside is a human being but in his heart, his mind is omniscient, having all the attainments, all the knowledge. So, all that appears, any mistakes, are an act; they appear like that. You have this recognition, therefore devotion cannot be lost; it is always strong.

It’s interesting that you didn’t make that guru-disciple relationship, Why didn’t you? 

Student: I didn’t need more gurus/guidance. 

Rinpoche: Yes, I see. But you mentioned that you were angry. 

Student: I don’t understand; nobody can help—I tried to see you and couldn’t. 

Rinpoche: Yes. Were you also here this year? Last year? The year before? I was giving teachings, and you were sitting there? 

Student: I was angry. I felt I didn’t get any help with my problem, with my suffering, and I was completely alone. I wanted to see you and couldn’t get an appointment and I said: “Nobody helps me and I don’t want any more Dharma.” But I met another Rinpoche. 

Rinpoche: Oh, I know his past incarnation. Lama and myself went to see his past incarnation. He had a white beard. We stayed a couple of weeks there. Also I took a student there who wanted some teachings and I translated for her. So, what did he say? 

[There follows a discussion of the student’s visit to see the other Rinpoche.] 

Student: He give me many practices to do, making tsa-tsas, etc. 

Rinpoche: Because you explained about the other Rinpoche? 

Student: No, I asked him why I had problems, etc. 

Rinpoche: Then? 

Student: Then he gave me some purification practices. 

Rinpoche: What practices? 

Student: 900,000 prostrations with Vajrasattva. 

Rinpoche: Nine hundred thousand. That’s so good. I gave 900,000 to one person. For another person I gave 100,000 nyung näs. Other people calculated it would take one person two lifetimes. But it is possible to do it in another lifetime. Somebody with very negative karma can continue the practice of purification for maybe even three lifetimes; it’s a question of karma. It could take three lifetimes. In reality it is very definitely possible that there is so much to do, because of karma. If you think there is the karma to be purified then it’s not strange.

If you don’t think of karma then it looks crazy (laughs). Anyway, through divination, I give some people big numbers of practices to do in this life, 300,000 or so, some small, some big. Some people get many big numbers; it depends. 

[Rinpoche is now talking about a Lama Tsongkhapa tsa-tsa.] 

I saw this statue in Italy. I borrowed this from a Dharma center there to make a resin mold. A Tibetan boy made the mold, and I think I took it to Nalanda, now it is there. I took this to Nalanda and now you have made them. Thank you very much. 

Student: I was going to put 100,000 in the gompa. 

Rinpoche: Some time I might ask you to make some; I like it so much. It is very nice, so beautiful. I told the monk to make this little smile; that’s very nice. How many? One thousand? 

Student: Five hundred. 

Rinpoche: Was he smiling or serious? [Rinpoche laughs] I think the reason he said this is because he thought that Rinpoche was your guru. Maybe he meant seriously, because without the guru there is no Buddha. That is what is said in the teachings, sutra and tantra teachings.

To understand that, you have to understand the absolute guru; if you can understand the absolute guru, then everything is a creation of that: all the different deities and Buddhas. This manifests as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and Vajradhara. It is Guru Shakyamuni Buddha if it is sutra, and Vajradhara and other deities if it is tantra: the four tantric deities to suit the needs of sentient beings, lamas, Medicine Buddha, the Thirty-Five Buddhas, all the thousand buddhas, Tara, Kalachakra and numberless manifestations.

These manifest to guide you through an ordinary form, the conventional guru, or manifests in these holy objects. Actually, all these statues are the same. Without the guru there is no Buddha; that means there are no holy objects without the guru. All these help us to purify the mind and collect merit; that is due to the kindness of the guru. Looking at the guru as Buddha, you can see they manifest in the holy objects. If they manifest as Buddha we can’t see them, so they manifest as holy objects such as statues and scriptures, giving us an opportunity to purify and collect merit. Then it makes it possible to achieve realizations, liberation, and enlightenment. The root of all of this is the guru. All this benefit is the kindness of the guru.

It is very good in everyday life to think all these Buddhas are the guru’s manifestation. It is very good to meditate this way and realize that oneself.

You are making the statue but actually it is manifesting. For example, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is Buddha, but of course it can be also our father or mother, appearing like normal people, but actually reincarnating. You are making statues but actually it is allowing you to purify negative karma and collect merit. OK? You are very lucky. 

Student: While I was doing prostrations, I saw Yamantaka. 

Rinpoche: When? 

Student: In Spain, doing nyung näs. When I was prostrating, I saw Yamantaka. After that I felt like Yamantaka walked on my back. 

Rinpoche: Before or after? 

Student: During the prostrations. 

Rinpoche: Did you feel the pain before or after Yamantaka walked on your back? 

Student: After. 

Rinpoche: You feel pain? 

Student: Yes. I don’t want to do prostrations any more. 

Rinpoche: That’s positive, not negative. It’s very positive, it’s purifying. It’s like the story I told you about Marpa. You have pain because you have negative karma. If you don’t have negative karma you won’t have pain, there is no reason to have pain. The pain is purification, exactly the same as the prostrations. Why are you doing prostrations? To purify negative karma. So Yamantaka is purifying you. The pain is purification. You have double purification. It is very powerful. 

Student: Rinpoche asked me to do 900 Vajrasattva mantras with prostrations. 

Rinpoche: Nine hundred prostrations or nine hundred Vajrasattva mantras? 

Student: Together, at the same time. 

Rinpoche: You count the prostrations or you count the Vajrasattva mantras? 

Student: Both together, the long Vajrasattva mantra with the long prostration. 

Rinpoche: That’s very good. Are you planning on doing that? 

Student: When I finish here I will start. 

Rinpoche: What else did he advise? 

Student: When I visualize the guru I can’t see the guru, I don’t see anything, just a dress. I see some crystal. When I explained to the Rinpoche, he said to me “It’s your Manjushri, including wisdom.” And he said to ask you for an explanation because he doesn’t want to explain this. 

Rinpoche: You cannot see the face of Geshe-la or His Holiness the Dalai Lama? That shows negative karma and defilements. That needs purification. 

Student: Because I can’t see the guru? 

Rinpoche: Yes. 

Student: He said I must first go to Nechung. He showed me a thangka with no face, with a dress. 

Rinpoche: Is this the Nechung Oracle? 

Student: Yes. The Nechung Oracle in Dharamsala. 

Rinpoche: It is like that. The face is covered with cloth. This is decoration, they don’t show the face, they use brocade.  This is the part of the offering, a coat. There are five or seven things: shoes and other things. It is in tantra, in the Guru Puja, as part of the offering. What else did the lama advise? 

Student: He said it is good to serve, to practice patience, and to continue to run the Dharma center because that is very good. 

Rinpoche: You told him you want to stop running the center and he said, don’t stop. 

Student: Yes. He said even if only one person comes to meditate in the center you must continue. 

Rinpoche: Great advice, very good. This is what I normally say. Even if two or three people come, it’s worthwhile. In the centers, of course, you get very discouraged if only two or three people are at the teaching. 

Student: I tried to continue, but he said if there are less than 35 people he doesn’t want to come. 

Rinpoche: That means he wants you to use your intelligence, on how to bring people to the Dharma. He doesn’t want you to be sloppy. He wants you to use your intelligence when doing the advertising, it is his technique. [Laughs] 

Student: He also advised me to do 14 to 40 nyung näs per year. And 15 days of Vajrasattva every year. I wrote to His Holiness. 

Rinpoche: So His Holiness, asked you to make this Buddha? His Holiness had this statue in his room in America when he was doing the Heart Sutra.  How much did you tell His Holiness Dalai Lama about the Rinpoche? 

Student: I said he was sick and I did a puja for him and now he is better. I asked if I chose the right place to do the puja. I said Rinpoche doesn’t want to give any more teachings except to those who pay him. I told His Holiness that Rinpoche only wants me to go and see him when he is alone. I don’t know a lot of Dharma. I took lamrim teachings with another Rinpoche. 

Rinpoche: That was your first contact with the Dharma? Did you take that Rinpoche as a guru or not? 

Student: He already wrote a letter. He said I will always be your guru. I want to know what is the purpose of all these things, why all this happened with the other Rinpoche? 

Rinpoche: You are talking about karma. There is no other creator than that. I use as an example a movie camera. You take film and put it in a projector. Karmic imprints project 24 hours from birth till death, remember? 

Student: I asked His Holiness for a name for the center. His Holiness said he will give me a name but I haven’t received one. 

Rinpoche: Yamantaka Center. 

[Student laughs] 

You say, “I am the incarnation of Yamantaka.” [Laughs] 

[Pause while Rinpoche makes divination] 

Thubten Kunphen Center. That is one choice, and the other one is Detong Tsundrup Center. Another one is Machig Labdron Center. Machig Labdron is the female, [Tib: khadroma] who founded the Chod initiation. Another one is Thubten Khunpen. Kunphen means the benefit of all. Another one is Detong Tsundru, the Center of Unification of Bliss and Voidness. You can choose which one you like from those three. OK?

So, you like Chod. I might be doing the Chod initiation, but I’m not sure. You have to teach Chod in the beginning or middle of other teachings, otherwise the lama passes away or doesn’t finish. The same lama should give another teaching afterwards.

Then you have to go in the forest at nighttime. Do you want to go at nighttime? 

Student: Yes, I want to go to the cemetery to practice. 

Rinpoche: Where there are the most violent spirits. Only French spirits. Not American. 

Student: My mother does magic. 

Rinpoche: To you? When? 

Student: When I was young, the neighbors had some problems with cows. 

Rinpoche: What happened? 

Student: My mother took a chicken and cut the head off. 

Rinpoche: Then? 

Student: They went in the forest to do a ritual. Sometimes it’s good because it helps the people when they are sick and sometimes it’s not good. 

Rinpoche: You know how to do the ritual but not completely. 

Student: I don’t help her. 

Rinpoche: Does it always involve killing? 

Student: If it is to help people I go, but not every time. I want to help people but not to kill. I want to cure people with plants. Also, I make prayers for the spirits in houses. 

Rinpoche: Very good. Do you know the prayers? Do you have a book? So what’s the next question? 

Student: Regarding my financial problems, what can I do? 

Rinpoche: Every day you should practice the extensive offering practice, the one that I put together, with water bowls and meditation, offering everything to all the gurus and the merit field, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, scriptures, then all the holy objects in India, Nepal, and Tibet. Put offerings on the altar.

This way material goods and money will come. At the end you must do the dedication well, otherwise the merit can be destroyed by heresy and anger or become very small, so it’s very important to dedicate the merit.

Say: “Due to all our merits, past, present, and future, all others’ merits of the three times, of sentient beings and Buddhas.” If you say it like that then it becomes very powerful and inexhaustible.

Then say: “May I achieve [whichever deity’s] enlightenment.”

Then, dedicate to enlightenment: “and lead all sentient beings to enlightenment by myself alone,” by seeing emptiness: “Due to all the three time merits collected by me, by all sentient beings, and Buddhas, who are empty from their own side (or you can say: who are merely labeled by the mind), may the ‘I’ that is empty from its own side (or you can say: merely labeled by the mind, imputed) achieve the deity’s (add the name of the deity here) enlightenment, which is empty from its own side, (or you can say merely labeled), and lead all sentient beings, who are empty, to that enlightenment, which is empty, by myself alone, who is also empty from her own side.”

That is very important. Then, dedicate to whatever else you want, like a long life, all those things. Dedicate the merit and pray to the deity to pacify the problems, to solve the financial problems, and to be able to pay the money back. You can dedicate like that or for other things. Then, dedicate for yourself, in this life, to be like Lama Tsongkhapa, to have all the qualities, and to benefit sentient beings.

I will explain how to do prostrations. Did you receive teachings on how to do prostrations? 
From making the buddha statues, you collect mountains of merit and then all your wishes are fulfilled. 

Student: When I give people a buddha, must I first carve the mantra or can I give it without the mantra inside? 

Rinpoche: Either way, but if it has the mantra, make sure the mantra is not upside down. Do it carefully. First, if possible, put some incense in, then the mantra. Put in a cloth like that, then it is most important not to put it in upside down. If you can do that it is very good. Some people don’t know about this. In the text it is said you are not supposed to keep statues empty. So if you can do it, that’s very good.

You can give them to other people. Depending on the size they can put them inside a statue or stupa, and keep them in their house on the altar. If you make small, clear print then you can put in many, many statues.

After putting the mantra in, there are the wealth deities: Dzambala and female Nor Gyunma, their mandalas. Then after that, you put incense, jewels, and money. You can put medicine if you have time. If not, just put the mantra at the bottom. If it is a big statue, in the statue’s throne you put wealth, clothing, weapons, and medicines. If you are looking for a house put a small house, if you are looking for car, put a car. It helps. It’s exactly like a wealth vase. 
You put medicine, to not get sick; five coloured cloths to achieve the five kayas; and weapons to protect. This is symbolic. You can put money and houses there for wealth.

If it is small, you can make a vase. Put Dzambala and female Nor Gyunma face to face. Then put Ganapati, then the eight auspicious signs, and after that all the other materials. Those things need to be blessed. The Chenrezig mantra also needs to be blessed.

Think that all the Buddhas’ holy mind absorbs into these, then chant:

OM NAMO RATNA-TRAYAYA YE DHARMA HETU-PRABHAVA HETUN TESHAN TATHAGATO HYAVADAT TESHAN CHA YO NIRODHA EVAM-VADI MAHA-SHRAMANAYE SVAHA

Chant this mantra three times, then blow. Then all the Dzambala, Nor Gyunma, and Ganapati wisdom absorbs.

Before you put the wealth and other things inside, you have to bless them. Put them in a container then bless it. All the jewels from all the ten directions and all the collections of goodness of samsara and nirvana absorb into this, and these become so rich; they can be whatever you wish.

For success, wealth and everything, you should recite this special sutra. Also, you should print and recite it. Ask the monks for this special sutra and my assistant for the English version. It is for everything: wealth and all success. Every morning read it three times. Print it seven times every month.

Then read the Diamond Cutter Sutra four times every month and print it ten times every month, for success. It collects so much merit; it is so powerful. If you read the Diamond Cutter Sutra, if other people are causing you problems, like somebody making a court case against you, you will win if you read the Diamond Cutter Sutra ten times.

I am writing the Eight Thousand Stanzas in gold. I started maybe six years ago. It is real gold, for the Maitreya Project, to put inside the heart of the statue. I finished writing the Diamond Cutter Sutra in gold. A nun is writing the Eight Thousand Stanzas in silver. Another monk is writing the Prajnaparamita in gold. Do you have the text? 

Student: Rinpoche gave the lung for the Eight Thousand Stanzas over three days. 

Rinpoche: You are very lucky. 

Student: I know. 

[Rinpoche giving gifts] 

Rinpoche: This Chenrezig is for the gompa. Printing the Diamond Cutter Sutra accumulates merit like the limitless sky. Each time you read it, so much can be purified.

A Daily Guru Devotion Meditation: Generating Faith, Remembering Kindness, Requesting to Please, Based on Verses from Six-session Guru Yoga

[You are] every single Gone-to-Bliss One of the three times [and ten directions],
Taking the form [of a saffron-robed monk for] whomever it subdues,
In reality working for sentient beings in numberless universes by
doing the actions of Buddha.¹

[Think that the Guru is] particularly working for me, doing the activities of Buddha for me, by giving refuge, granting vows, giving sutra commentaries and oral transmissions, teaching the alphabet, giving initiations and tantric commentaries, and giving instructions or advice. These are the activities of Buddha, which definitely lead me to enlightenment. To achieve enlightenment I definitely need these activities and it is the Guru who is granting them. Since I cannot see the Buddha in pure forms, the Buddha manifests in an ordinary form, in an impure aspect, and then performs all these activities that bring me to liberation and enlightenment.

In the view of ordinary beings, who don't have a pure mind or high realizations, the Guru manifests in an ordinary form.²  As mentioned in the tantras, "I who am called Vajrasattva will abide in ordinary forms in order to benefit sentient beings." Vajradhara himself said that he would manifest in ordinary forms and guide me to enlightenment by doing the actions mentioned above, which I definitely need in order to achieve enlightenment. Not only that, but the Guru does various actions to guide me, such as showing wrathful and peaceful aspects, giving instructions, and by using many other ways and many other skilful means.

Along with Vajradhara, there are numberless other buddhas: Vajradhara is one type, then there are the three types of Buddha—vajra holy body Vairochana, vajra holy speech Amitabha, vajra holy mind Akshobhya—and the hundred different types of Buddha. I don't have the pure karma to see these buddhas so they cannot guide me directly. Only the virtuous friends can guide me, so it is they who do all the actions of the Buddha. Therefore, these virtuous friends are more special than all the rest of the buddhas. They are more precious.

As Padampa Sangye said, "Regard the Guru as more precious than the Buddha, then you will achieve attainment in this life." As far as qualities, the gurus and buddhas are the same, but the kindness of the Guru is greater because by showing this ordinary aspect they can give guidance directly and I can receive guidance directly.

I request the Guru, the precious one
Achieving all the realizations general and sublime,
Depends upon correctly devoting to the virtuous friend,
Therefore giving up even my own body and life
Please grant me blessings to be able to practice/achieve only pleasing you.³ 

Pleasing the Guru is the most important practice that brings every success. It is the most important practice for achieving enlightenment in this lifetime. Praying like this every day creates the cause to be able to do this in future lives. Why is it so important? Why is pleasing the Guru emphasized so much? Because pleasing the Guru brings the most powerful purification. Even if mistakes were made in the past, such as breaking the advice or breaking samaya with the Guru, pleasing the Guru is the best and easiest way to purify these. Everything gets completely purified. It is also the quickest and easiest way to accumulate the most extensive merit. So it is the quickest way to receive the blessings of the Guru, the quickest way to achieve enlightenment, and the quickest way to enlighten all sentient beings.

It is very good for people to do guru devotion meditation with Six-session Guru Yoga.

Notes

¹ In the Alex Berzin translation, this verse appears as: "I humbly beseech you my precious Guru, just as the buddhas of the three times and ten directions have tamed (sentient beings), you too enact the buddhas' deeds in countless realms taking the form of a saffron-robed monk." [Return to text]

² This is a commentary to the second verse, which I am not directly translating. Berzin's translation reads: "I humbly beseech you my precious Guru, esteemed by Vajradhara, for those meager of mind, as a field of merit more holy than the endless circles of infinite buddhas." [Return to text]

³ Berzin's translation for the third verse reads: "Every supreme and mundane attainment follows upon pure devotion to you, my protector, seeing this I forsake my body and even my life; bless me to practice what will only please you." [Return to text]

It is due to some past karma that this happened. If you read the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, then you will understand. Read it as a means to destroy the ego, the self-cherishing thought, as a means to actualize bodhicitta. So, read that text, and there you will find an explanation.

The other thing is that there are many other sentient beings who have the same problem, who have problems and difficulties with their relationship with the virtuous friend, their guru. For those who have so much suffering and difficulties with their boss—their guru—take all of that on yourself. Ego, the self-cherishing thought, made you create the karma in the past to have a difficult relationship with the guru, which causes displeasure to the guru. You give all those problems to the ego, turn all of them into the ego, and destroy the ego (claps); they become non-existent.

The real “I,” appearing from its own side, the “I” that cherishes the ego, which is the object of the ego, even that becomes non-existent. So, try to remember. The ego is totally non-existent, there is no such thing, it is emptiness. Then, while everything is empty, the “I” can offer charity, giving the body, merits, and enlightenment to every sentient being. Then, you generate compassion. Sentient beings in reality are empty, but they are not aware of it. They believe 100 per cent that they exist from their own side, because this appears to their hallucinating mind. They suffer so much due to this ignorance. It is like taking drugs, their minds are completely hallucinating, possessed by ignorance, and all their views become hallucinations. Whatever object appears is a hallucination, which in reality does not exist.

This is the basic suffering, believing in a total hallucination, believing that it is true. Then, on the basis of this, anger, attachment, pride, the six root delusions, the thirty-seven secondary delusions, and all other delusions arise. This is the fundamental suffering. Out of that beings create negative karma and problems. Their lives are trapped in many big piles of hallucinations.

There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy. Each school has its own view of emptiness and the ultimate nature, and the opposite, the object to be refuted, the hallucination, which is the opposite to their point of view of emptiness.

The mind has all those wrong concepts, hallucinations, superstitions, then anger, pride, jealousy, more and more superstitions, more and more concepts, and more suffering. There are so many piles of hallucinations, of wrong concepts.

So, you see the general sufferings of samsara, the six types, three types, and four types. You can use compassion, taking their suffering, and meditate in this way, generating compassion for the numberless other sentient beings who have difficulties and problems with the guru. Take everything from all the other beings, all the wrong views, all the delusions, root delusions, and hallucinations.

Think how devoid of happiness they all are. Even human beings are devoid of ultimate happiness in samsara. Besides other sentient beings, even arhats are devoid of full enlightenment, the peerless happiness. Then generate the thought, "How wonderful it is for all sentient beings to have happiness and the cause of happiness. May they have happiness and the cause of happiness. I will cause them to have happiness. Please, Guru, bless me to be able to do this right now." Then practice giving: give away your body transformed into a wish fulfilling jewel, your merits, and all your happiness up to enlightenment. You practice giving and taking.

You can use whatever difficulties you are having with your teacher, such as your teacher showing he or she is unhappy with you and using harsh words. You use that to destroy the ego. This means you are using this experience to achieve enlightenment. You are using these problems with your teacher as a path. When you use this to destroy the ego, you are transforming the experience with the guru and using it to achieve the path to enlightenment for all sentient beings. OK? In other words, you are transforming this into a cause to bring total, ultimate happiness for all sentient beings. You use it to cause happiness for all sentient beings. Use any difficulties in your life to destroy the ego, for bodhicitta, as a means to cause happiness for all sentient beings. You transform your experience by destroying the ego and use it as a weapon to destroy the ego, to transform the mind into bodhicitta. You make your experience most meaningful to cause happiness for all beings.

In the Guru Puja it says Yi de ba zhig gom par jin gyi lob (Bless me to always meditate only in happiness.) Look at that verse in the Guru Puja (LC 97). It means that whatever happens in your life, you use it to achieve the two bodhicittas. This is how you use all problems, to make the mind happy. Whatever problems you experience, use them as a means to achieve ultimate happiness, so it becomes a very deep psychology. You are a trained psychologist!

The other thing is this. You should remember what Drogön Tsangpa Gyare (see Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, p. 262) said: If the guru beats you, it is an initiation. Dung dak chung wa wang po yin: If the guru scolds, you, it's a wrathful mantra pacifying the obstacles to practicing the Dharma or to enlightenment. You see, when there are obstacles in life, normally people recite wrathful mantras for pacification, and perform wrathful pujas. It is the same if the guru scolds you. This is the wrathful mantra pacifying the obstacles to achieving enlightenment. Also, if there are obstacles that need to be eliminated, the scolding eliminates them. Think that your teacher is showing this aspect purposefully to purify your mind, to guide you and bring you to enlightenment.

Then, lastly, one can think: Sometimes the guru is so happy with you, but externally shows the aspect of being unhappy, beats you, scolds you, but also sometimes shows the external aspect of being happy, but inside is not happy. So, you can think like that. Thank you very much.

When you go to a buffet in a restaurant, think you are offering to the guru deity, thinking the food is not for you. It helps you not to feel you possess it, that this is mine. This helps you to practice the bodhisattva vows. This is also an antidote to attachment, and when you practice like this there is peace in your heart, and happiness. Otherwise, if there is attachment performed with ignorance, then every single thing becomes negative karma, whatever you do.

Similarly, when you do shopping, watch and prepare your motivation. When you are in the shop, either do it to fulfill the wishes of the guru or to benefit and serve other sentient beings. The ultimate purpose is to fulfill the guru's advice. So, you buy these things to survive so as to fulfill the wishes of the guru or benefit sentient beings. This way it becomes an antidote to attachment, becomes a virtuous activity, Dharma, and collects extensive merit.

My very dear Julia,
I first need to say something about a student who is depressed, feeling that she is losing her connection with her guru (me), and also feeling self-pity, feeling “I am bad.”

My advice is to think, “My heavy negative karma that has already been generated can be purified. All living beings can change their minds. They can have realizations and can achieve enlightenment by practicing Dharma, because of the clear-light nature of Buddha, which is the ultimate nature of the mind.”

Although it is temporarily obscured, your mind is pure by nature. Therefore, the obscurations can change. They can be purified. The mind can change, and you can become a fully enlightened Buddha. For example, due to other causes and conditions, it may be dark and foggy out, but without any other causes and conditions, it can clear up completely so that it becomes very beautiful. In the same way, our mind can be totally clear and awakened—enlightened—by other causes and conditions that make that possible.

With much love and prayer...