Conflict with Lamas
A student approached Rinpoche after one of her gurus had directly and blatantly criticized another one, saying to her that she should not bring others to that lama for advice. Her faith was still quite strong toward the lama that had been criticized, as this lama was one of her main teachers and she could simply look at the benefit to her own mind from her relationship with that lama. However, she was having difficulty in her mind with the lama who had made the criticism. When visualizing them together in the merit field, there was some block in her mind. She asked Rinpoche how to handle the situation.
It is good that you haven’t said anything to others who are close to these lamas, as to have mentioned this to others would have been like a terrorist act, complete suicide, destroying yourself and others. It would have disturbed others’ minds in relation to their teacher, which would have been very heavy negative karma for all involved, causing a lot of destruction, just like a terrorist bomb.
I once went to translate for a group of Western students wanting to receive an oral transmission from the Panchen Lama in Tibet. At that time, I hadn’t yet decided whether or not to take the Panchen Lama as one of my teachers, as there seems to have been some politics involved with respect to the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama. If one actually receives the oral transmission, one must thenceforth regard the person giving it as one’s guru. I got all the way to the point of making the mandala offering—the last preliminary before the teacher would begin to offer the transmission—and then suddenly realized that, regardless of the politics, they are one. So I took the Panchen Lama as my teacher. There is no need to focus on politics.
In the Guru Puja, the merit field comes from the primordial mind. It is all one, all a manifestation of one’s own mind of indivisible bliss and voidness. All the lamas are the same. They are all one.
Further, to see the lama as having mistakes should only bring to mind the kindness of that lama. The moment one sees mistakes (Rinpoche snapped his fingers), in that same moment, one should think “so kind.” Why? Because Shakyamuni Buddha said that during this degenerate time, this is how he would guide sentient beings, by taking an ordinary form. “Ordinary form” means having mistakes, so seeing the lama as having mistakes should only remind one of the kindness of the lama, who is taking an ordinary form in order to benefit one’s mind.
Heruka with consort is a form that is taken to benefit the minds of sentient beings. The guru having mistakes is the same. It is just another form that the primordial enlightened mind is taking to benefit sentient beings.
One can only see the guru according to the level of one’s own mind. We are so lucky that we are able to relate to the guru in human form, even with mistakes, and not as an animal that we can’t even talk to. Just being able to relate to the guru in human form, we are so lucky, so unbelievably fortunate. So, again, seeing the guru as having mistakes should only bring to mind how incredibly lucky we are that the guru is in human form and not an animal.