Obstacles to Guru Devotion

My very dear one,
It is very important to follow and practice His Holiness the Fifth Dalai Lama’s instructions. Here is his very powerful advice:

In the view of your hallucinated mind,
Your own faults appear in the guru’s actions.
All this shows is that your own heart is rotten to the core.
Recognizing them as your own faults, abandon them as poison.

[We should hold] pure appearance, seeing whatever actions are done by the guru as good and practicing whatever the guru advises. By practicing the profound vital points, whatever is done becomes Dharma. That should be understood as the root of happiness and benefits, and the completion of all our wishes.

The Essence of Nectar says:

Until we are free from our obscuring negative karma,
Even if all the buddhas without exception descended directly in front of us,
We have no fortune to see the sublime holy body adorned with the holy signs and exemplifications;
We only see this present appearance.

This means we see the guru having ordinary appearance, as an ordinary being.

Especially for us, even though we have such enormous heavy negative karma and obscurations, we don't see the guru in the aspect of a dog or donkey, and we see the guru in human form, and we are able to listen to Dharma. It is so wonderful.

The highly attained, learned, great yogi Lodrö Gyaltsen said:

Since our karmic obscurations are so heavy,
We should be happy to see our guru even in human form.
We have great merit not to see him as a dog or a donkey;
Therefore, generate heartfelt devotion and respect, child of Shakya.

Buddha was born in the Shakya caste, and we are disciples of Shakyamuni, so it says “child of Shakya.”

I was telling a student that during a great initiation the lama who is giving the initiation is [seen as the deity]. The lama says “You should listen and do what I advise. Do not belittle or give up [the guru].” This is giving a pledge, or samaya, to the lama.

[Disparaging the guru] is the most dangerous, heaviest negative karma, and it is the first root downfall. It seems people who gossip and criticize the guru, or give up the guru, do not think about this.

They have taken that lama as their guru and due to the vow given during the initiation, [criticizing the guru] is very heavy karma. So when they break that vow, there are eons of suffering, and when they pass away they are reborn in the hell realms and have to experience the heaviest suffering in the lowest hell realm. Even if they are born as a human being due to another good karma, they cannot find a perfect guru for eons.

Also, they pollute all the students that they meet and that they see. They degenerate those students’ minds and cause them to also be born in hell for a long time.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
That is why it is so important to dedicate the merits. It is so important. Dedicate like this:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by the numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, in all my lifetimes, including in this life, may I be able to meet perfectly qualified gurus and by only pleasing the guru’s mind, may I never be separated from the guru and may I enjoy the holy Dharma, enjoy the path and actualize the path, and achieve the state of Vajradhara.

This prayer is so important.

Dedicate to always see the guru as a buddha, in all your lifetimes, including this life, and in all your lives to only please the holy mind and to never displease the guru even for one second. This is a most important prayer and it’s good to recite it many times a day. It is so good if you can recite this prayer.

Also recite this prayer:

Request to Not Give Rise to Heresy

Päl dän la mäi nam par thar pa la
Kä chig tsam yang log ta mi kye zhing
Chi dzä leg par thong wäi mö gü kyi
La mäi jin lab sem la jug par shog

May I not give rise to heresy for even a second
In regard to the actions of the glorious guru.
May I see whatever actions are done as the stainless [actions of a buddha].
With this devotion, may I receive the guru’s blessings in my heart.

Whenever the thought of the guru comes up, always be prepared to see the guru as a buddha, with no mistakes, only qualities. Prepare in this way from the morning, whenever the thought of the guru comes.

With much love and prayers ...

My very dear one,
I got your letter and I have read it. Your letter explained the situation and was very detailed. I was very happy.

Yes, I understand that even though you don’t remember one hundred percent, you feel you were hurt in the past and it has become a huge thing. Then you could not relate that to karma. Somehow it seems you can’t relate to karma when you think of that; you forget karma, that you are the creator.

Buddha taught that we are our own enemy and we are our own guide also. That means when we follow the self-cherishing thought, it produces and creates all our problems. It produces all our problems and creates all the obstacles to achieving enlightenment for mother sentient beings and to benefiting numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings—all those kind mother sentient beings. It harms them and does not benefit them.

The big demon, our enemy and the cause of all our sufferings of samsara, is ignorance—holding the I as truly existent while it is not, while it exists in mere name. Also, the aggregates exist in mere name; they are not at all truly existent but our ignorance believes them to be truly existent.

When we think about our own suffering, it is far away from Dharma; it is thinking with the self-cherishing thought and ignorance. This is the same generally when we face problems in everyday life, for example, when somebody is angry with us or is putting us down, disrespecting our body, speech and mind. At that time the Dharma is very far from our mind. Even though we may have intellectually learned Dharma, having studied sutra and tantra, at that time the Dharma is very far away.

When we practice cherishing others, bodhicitta, at that time we become our own guide, we become the creator of our enlightenment, the creator of our own happiness and liberation from samsara. We become the creator of all the happiness of future lives, even this life’s happiness, even today’s happiness, even this moment’s happiness. We are the creator of that.

I want to let you know: thank you very, very, very much. I highly appreciate what you told me, what you expressed to me, your confession and explanation.

Just for your understanding, I am going to mention a few quotations on guru devotion:

The sutra Meeting of the Father and Son (Tib: yap sä jelwä do; Wyl: yab sras mjal ba'i mdo), talks about the Buddha manifesting in various ordinary forms. This means the ultimate primordial dharmakaya, the absolute guru, manifesting in various ordinary forms:

The Buddha works for some sentient beings by taking the costume of Indra and Brahma,
The Buddha works in the costume of Mara for sentient beings.
(He acts as Mara though worldly beings cannot understand this.)
He manifests as a woman, and he even manifests as an animal.
He manifests as attached but has no attachment.
He manifests as frightened but has no fear.
He manifests ignorance but is without ignorance.
He manifests as crazy but is without craziness.
He manifests as lame but is without lameness.
So, with various forms and manifestations, the sentient beings are subdued.

You have to understand that even though the Buddha acts as crazy, having attachment, ignorance, all that, and shows all kinds of form, including animal form, he does this to subdue the minds of ordinary beings. Those manifestations are needed for us to be free from samsara and brought to enlightenment.

It is said in the tantric text Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion (v. 46–47):

Do whatever pleases the guru and abandon whatever displeases the guru.

“Attainment depends on following the vajra master,” Vajradhara said.
By knowing that, please the Guru completely with everything you do.

Thus, the sublime and general realizations are granted in this life.

Also, it is mentioned in the Six-Session Guru Yoga, the long version, at the end of the first round (v. A14):

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.

That’s relating to you as disciple and your own guru, from whom you have received teachings. So that’s what it says in the Six-Session Guru Yoga.

The refuge prayer that is recited in the monasteries, the very beginning prayer [A Direct Meditation on the Graduated Path Containing All the Important Meanings, by Dorje Chang Losang Jinpa] says:

Essence encompassing all the buddhas,
Originator of all the holy Dharma of scripture and realization,
Principal of all the aryas intending virtue:
In the glorious holy gurus, I take refuge.

This is what is commonly recited in the monasteries, in the refuge prayers, the very beginning practice. Nowadays, some of the Western students see mistakes in the guru, so their guru yoga is totally opposite to what is mentioned in the refuge prayer. [They think the guru] is not the essence embodying all the buddhas, not the originator of the whole entire Dharma, the transmitter of the teachings and realizations, and not the principal of all the Arya Sangha.

We see mistakes if we don’t keep our mind pure by training with much effort in seeing the guru as a buddha, in that realization. If we don’t have that, then we will find mistakes. It’s a question of big mistakes, middle mistakes or small mistakes.

So, we see this in the teachings. If His Holiness is showing the aspect of having a cold, sniffing and things like that, then we really believe that His Holiness is suffering by having a cold or coughing. That means the Buddha has suffering. However, His Holiness is Buddha Chenrezig, so it becomes totally contradictory.

Lama Tsongkhapa made this prayer in A Prayer for the Beginning, Middle, and End of Practice (v. 9):

As Sada Prarudita devoted himself to Dharma Arya,
May I sincerely please my spiritual master
With body, life, and wealth,
Never disappointing him for an instant.

Also, Gyalwa Ensapa, who achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate time, said:

In short, whether we achieve great or small realization depends on whether we have generated great or small devotion.
Therefore, may I reflect only on the qualities of the valid guru, from whom I receive all realizations, and not look at the mistakes.
May I do my utmost to practice this instruction and to fulfill this commitment without any obstacle.

Until we see [the guru as a] buddha and have this realization—seeing the guru totally as a buddha, anytime, whatever happens in our life—until we have that stable realization then we will see always see mistakes, and it’s a question of small, middling or great mistakes. It depends on how we think, how we take care of our own mind—whether we know how to take care of our own mind and are able to keep the mind in stable devotion by seeing the guru as a buddha. For us, it is like that.

This is just extra, I’m telling you, blah blah blah, as it might help those other people who have totally lost their devotion and whose minds have become like hot boiling water, creating the heaviest negative karma with their guru.

Also, one thing is that before we receive teachings from that person, they were an ordinary being, and then there is also Buddha. We can’t say that everyone is a buddha, but as I mentioned before, there is Buddha in ordinary form. But the minute we make the connection as guru-disciple and receive teachings, that person is a buddha for us. So, we have to practice that.

Here it is not so much before we take teachings that the person is a buddha, it is not talking about that, but after we have taken teachings we have to visualize [the guru as] a buddha. We have to think that is a buddha, we have to train our mind in the pure mind of guru devotion, thinking that is a buddha. So, this is one thing to clarify. I’m not saying that before we take teachings everyone is a buddha.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the details of your explanation to me. I am very happy to receive your explanation. Thank you very much. I hope to see you soon.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
My suggestion is to read the chapter on correctly following the virtuous friend in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Also recite Practicing Guru Devotion with the Nine Attitudes every day, after doing Six Session Guru Yoga.

Otherwise recite the Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment), and after the section on the guru, read Practicing Guru Devotion with the Nine Attitudes. Then read the chapter on correctly following the virtuous friend [in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand]. Read this chapter or some part of it each day; read and meditate on that.

This is to actualize being able to see the guru as Buddha, to follow the guru’s advice and teachings, and to serve the guru.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much your kind letter. You mentioned that you received teachings from Lama Yeshe and myself in Kopan in 1971, a long time ago, so the connection was already made, even from then.

Regarding what you mentioned about ___, even though you're not with this lama or his centers now, you should still respect him, thinking of the kindness of his teachings. It is very good to not lose respect as he is your guru. As you know, the negative karma in relation to your guru—if you give up, criticize, generate heresy, etc, in tantra vows—that is the heaviest one. In the long Six-session Guru Yoga it says lama nyi mer which means giving up, arising heresy, criticizing, belittling and so forth.

It's good that you still think of the guru’s kindness and don't lose respect. Basically once you have made a Dharma connection, then from your side you have to look at the guru as all the buddhas. This means any guru that you have a Dharma connection with. So, numberless buddhas are the guru and the guru is numberless buddhas, inseparable. You have to meditate in this way and realize this from your side, so the realization should be there without effort. That is the realization.

My heart advice, since you are mainly following the Sakya tradition, is Parting from the Four Attachments [Tib: zhen pa zhi drel]. That is the same as what is called lamrim. There is a different title, but basically it’s the same as Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition, lamrim and the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment. Renunciation of this life and renunciation of future samsara go under one outline in the section of renunciation, so these become three. In Kagyü and Nyingma there are four outlines. So it is the same; renunciation of this life, renunciation of future samsara, then bodhicitta and emptiness. Basically it is the same [for all four traditions]; there is sutra as a foundation, then tantra—secret mantra, Vajrayana.

Since you are living alone; if you are able to live alone, that is very, very good. Generally for common people, living alone gives a lot of time to practice Dharma, whatever we wish. If we live in a group with other people, there is a lot of distraction and we can waste a lot of time. We waste a lot of our life and we can't do practice as we like, so we are not free. So it is very, very good that you are able to live alone, that gives you great freedom to practice Dharma. It's very good that you are free day and night.

Also, please read the lamrim; this gives you a clear understanding of how to approach the path. Mainly put your effort into lamrim meditation, to realize guru devotion, as I explained before, for however many weeks, months or years it takes, so your mind is in that realization without a single effort. Then on that basis, having renunciation,as it is mentioned in the lamrim books, you should have that in your heart; and then on that basis, to realize bodhicitta; then on that basis to realize emptiness.

The particular path of tantra—secret mantra, Vajrayana—is the same, but presented in a slightly different way depending on which tradition one follows. However, the most important thing is to realize guru devotion, renunciation, bodhicitta and right view. Once you have realized bodhicitta, then you can do more tantra.

Of course, first study well and try to have effortful realizations and then effortless realizations. Do effortful meditations first to bring the mind closer to realizations and to lay the foundations for effortless realizations, one-by-one.

With much love and prayers ...

PS: For many people, living alone becomes a support to be able to live in the vows, to keep the vows, getsulma [novice nun’s vows]. This becomes very important, because if death happens, then you will immediately have a perfect human rebirth and be able to meet the Dharma again, with the possibility of meeting the virtuous friend and the Mahayana teachings.

If you have some questions or something to ask, you can send me a letter from time to time, then when I have time, I will answer.