Guru Yoga Merit Field
A student who was in a long retreat wrote to Rinpoche to confess what he felt were disturbing omissions in his guru yoga merit field and to ask if he should include all the recognised incarnations of his gurus, as well as a geshe who taught him dakini dancing and a monk who taught him mandala drawing. He also told Rinpoche about a scorpion that had stopped in front of his cushion during a session and had caused strong heart-felt compassion and tong-len to arise.
My very, very, very dear Tony,
Thank you very, very, very, very much for your kind letter, expressing what you feel.
In regards to your question about teachers, it is very good to remember those who you have made a Dharma connection with; that is the ones that you have regarded as guru and yourself as disciple.
It doesn’t mean that anyone who taught you dancing, mandala or chanting is your guru unless you have taken that person as your guru at that time. If you regard the person as guru and yourself as disciple, then they are actually your guru. If you haven’t taken the person as guru at that time, then you do not need to recognize them as your guru. Or even if you haven’t taken Dharma teachings from them and they are a great teacher, but at the time you haven’t recognized them as guru; it’s as if you are spying, sitting in the teachings and listening to the teachings—spying, examining, like that. Just hearing the teachings doesn’t mean that the person teaching is now your guru, unless you look at the teacher as guru and yourself as disciple, then they become your guru; otherwise not.
The other thing is that maybe you haven’t particularly taken them as your guru at the time, but you decide in your mind to take them as guru later, so maybe you listen to the teachings, but haven’t taken the person as your guru at the time. You can still take them as your guru later, actually that way it’s kind of easier to take that person as guru because you have already taken teachings from them, even though at the time you did not particularly regard them as guru. So, it all depends on how you regard them. I hope you can understand from this.
It was great purification for you to feel remorseful and make a confession to the guru.
It is great that you did tong-len and generated compassion to the scorpion; that is unbelievably good. I am sure that the body will achieve enlightenment much quicker by generating compassion to the scorpion—then that body will achieve the path to enlightenment much easier, no question.
Even to generate compassion to just one sentient being—any kind, even one so tiny that you can only see it through a machine—to generate compassion to one sentient being brings us to enlightenment. With strong compassion it is then quicker to achieve enlightenment. That is the way, even though Maitreya Buddha generated bodhicitta earlier and Shakyamuni Buddha generated it later, Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened faster because he generated much stronger compassion and bodhicitta than Maitreya Buddha.
In regards to shi-nä, Gen Jampa Wangdu said that Liberation in the Palm of your Hand has a very good section on shi-nä, and then Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo has more details; it is very clear. There is also another text, but I don’t remember the title. Anyway it hasn’t been translated into English.
Please read well about shi-nä and try. But even if shi-nä realizations don’t happen, try for guru devotion realization or other lamrim realizations, such as renunciation of this life, emptiness, etc. That would be very good.
Please write back anything you have to say. You are with me, you are not separated from me.
With much love and prayers...