4. HOW TO DEVOTE TO A GURU WITH ACTION
With guru devotion, seeing the guru as a buddha, we are able to devote ourselves correctly to the virtuous friend with thought and we then naturally devote ourselves correctly with action. Easily and joyfully we are able to follow the guru’s advice, practicing the teachings according to his instructions, which is the best way to devote to the virtuous friend with action. Correct devotion to the guru with action comes easily as a result of correct devotion with thought. How well we are able to devote ourselves to the guru with action is determined by how well we devote ourselves with thought.
Through training our mind in the devotion that sees the guru as a buddha and generating respect by remembering the guru’s kindness, we hold the guru in our heart, cherishing him as the most precious person in our life. Because of this feeling, we never find any hardship in carrying out any advice he gives us, even if he asks us to do something difficult. Rather than finding it a burden, we are happy to do it and see it as the most worthwhile thing to do in our life. We know from our own experience that following the guru’s advice is easier when our devotion is strong. When our devotion is weak, however, being asked to do even a small thing becomes a burden.
There are three ways to devote ourselves to the guru with action:
(1) Carrying out the guru’s advice
(2) Offering respect and service
(3) Making material offerings
(1) CARRYING OUT THE GURU’S ADVICE
The main practice—and the best offering—is the first one: carrying out the guru’s advice, which means following the holy wishes of the guru with our body, speech and mind. This is the best way to purify negativities and to accumulate merit. Pleasing the guru by fulfilling his wishes is itself the quick path to enlightenment.
As Milarepa said,
I have no material offerings. My offering to my father-guru is my practice.
He also said,
The striving and suffering I bear in my practice is an offering to please my father-guru. I repay my father-guru’s kindness with my practice.
Because he was living an ascetic life, Milarepa didn’t have anything material to offer; his offering to his guru was his practice. Milarepa’s practice was doing everything that Marpa advised him to do after they met, including building the tower, doing retreat and actualizing the whole path to enlightenment.
Here father is referring to the spiritual master, who takes care of us completely and upon whom we totally rely, now and in our future lives. The virtuous friend guides us like a parent guides his or her child. Repaying the father-guru with practice means following the guru’s advice, practicing the Dharma and attaining realizations of the path to enlightenment.
(2) OFFERING RESPECT AND SERVICE
Offering respect and service includes all the respectful behavior described in Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion and The Essence of Nectar, such as standing when the teacher enters the room, prostrating, bathing and offering perfumes and ornaments to the holy body, cleaning, cooking and other services. We must read Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion and then put those teachings into practice.
(3) MAKING MATERIAL OFFERINGS
We make material offerings if we can. The lamrim teachings mention that while the guru doesn’t seek material offerings, disciples should still make the best offerings that they can. Again, as with all guru devotion practice, making material offerings is done for our own sake, to accumulate merit.
Devoting ourselves to the virtuous friend with action in these three ways quickly purifies extensive obscurations and accumulates extensive merit. We are then able to quickly achieve enlightenment.
In Six-Session Guru Yoga, devoting to the guru with action is contained in the following verse, which is the very essence of the samayas of correct devotion to the guru explained in Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion:
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.
This means that from this moment until our enlightenment, we should try only to please our virtuous friend with our body, speech and mind.
Once we have meditated on the eight benefits of correct devotion to the guru, trained our mind in the devotion that sees the guru as a buddha and generated respect by remembering the guru’s kindness, each piece of advice given to us by our guru is like a wish-fulfilling gem, because each time we follow our guru’s advice we purify inconceivable negative karmas and obscurations. Following the guru’s advice brings the most powerful purification, purifying the heavy negative karma we have accumulated in the past. And each time we carry out our guru’s advice, we come closer to enlightenment. Everything—all the happiness not only of this life but of future lives, liberation and enlightenment—comes from following each instruction. Sincere practitioners see each piece of their guru’s advice as a wish-fulfilling gem that fulfills all their own wishes for happiness and brings success in their wish to benefit all sentient beings.
It is explained in the lamrim teachings that there is a big difference in the benefit in terms of purification and accumulation of merit between doing a retreat or some other practice because we ourselves have made the ¬decision to do it and doing something on the advice of our guru. Following our guru’s advice, no matter how hard we find it, brings much greater purification. Like a puja to eliminate obstacles, it prevents hindrances to the completion of our Dharma practice.
It is also said in the lamrim teachings that following each instruction we are given by our guru is a cause of achieving the sambhogakaya, the holy body of complete enjoyment, since the guru’s holy speech is the expression of the subtle wind.
I often tell the Kopan monks how fortunate they are because the whole monastery program from morning until night has been set up for them by their guru. During their daily life in the monastery, almost every single thing they do is following their guru’s advice. Even the simple action of sweeping up a little dirt with a broom becomes a way to purify negative karmas and obscurations and accumulate merit. Once they join the monastery, everything they do—even sweeping the grounds each morning—has been arranged by the guru.
If we know all the benefits, it is very enjoyable to be in a monastery; it is something to make the mind happy from morning until night. Every day, by following the guru’s advice, we create a great many causes for temporary and ultimate happiness in this life and in future lives. There is then nothing we enjoy more than the daily work of following our guru’s advice.
We should also think in a similar way if we work in a Dharma center. Doing any work that our guru has advised us to do has great benefit, making our life highly meaningful. Even if we’re not doing the actual work of teaching Dharma, by working in a Dharma center we are providing the conditions for many other people to practice the holy teachings and follow the infallible path to enlightenment. If we frequently think about this in our everyday life, our mind will be very happy. We should constantly keep our guru in our heart, day and night. When we practice Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, Guru Lama Tsongkhapa enters and abides in our heart and we then remember him in our heart for the rest of the day. In the same way, we should constantly remember our guru in our heart and do our work for him. This itself is guru yoga practice. All the work we do from morning until night then becomes Dharma practice. It is also enjoyable and each day we are happy to be working in a Dharma center.
When we are actually living with our guru, serving our guru itself is our guru yoga practice. We don’t need to seek the practice of guru yoga separately from that. We don’t need to meditate separately on the holy body of the guru as we are with the actual holy body of the guru. Making prostrations and offerings to and serving our guru are the actual guru yoga practice, which we only visualize in pujas. Don’t think that guru yoga practice has to do only with sitting and visualizing or reciting some prayers and has nothing to do with actual person-to-person contact.
When we do pujas, we visualize the beings in the merit field—the direct and indirect gurus, buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, dakas and dakinis and Dharma protectors—as different aspects of the guru, then make offerings of praise, mudras, bath and physically performed offerings. We use a vase to offer water to a reflection of the merit field in a mirror and use a scarf to represent offering robes, but these are substitutes for actually offering a bath and robes to the guru. We do all this to purify our own mind. The guru-buddhas don’t need to wash; we do it to purify our own defilements and to collect merit so that we can achieve realizations of the path to enlightenment. When we actually offer a bath to our guru—filling the bath with water, washing the guru and offering robes—we are performing the real guru yoga practice of offering a bath, which we only visualize in Jorchö and other sutra and tantra pujas.
In pujas, we set out various offerings on the altar, then, with mudras, make the eight types of offerings100 and the five sense offerings,101 but offering our guru tea, food, clothes, flowers, sweet sounds and so forth is the actual practice of offering. And with these offerings we accumulate much more merit than when we visualize making the eight offerings, both actually arranged on the altar and mentally transformed, to the deity in pujas or sadhanas.
However, we shouldn’t think that since we are serving the guru we don’t need to do other practices. We should also try to do the other guru yoga practices as much as we can, as they are methods to quickly finish the work of accumulating merit.
While we are perfectly serving the guru who actually lives with us, all our realizations of the path naturally increase second by second. Offering service to the guru, the highest merit field, is the quickest way to complete the work of accumulating merit.
The sutra Essence of Earth says,
All the merit of having made offerings to unimaginable millions of buddhas and also of having made charity and practiced morality are surpassed by one moment of offering service to the guru.
When we are serving our guru by cleaning his house, we should think that the guru is all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and that we are cleaning their abode. When we offer even a glass of water to our guru, we should make the offering by thinking that the guru is all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions. Since making an offering to even a pore of the guru creates more merit than making offerings to all the buddhas of the three times, there is no doubt about the benefit of making offerings to the actual guru. Even though there is already this benefit, our practice will be more effective if we meditate that the guru is all the buddhas and bodhisattvas when we serve him because it will help us to constantly keep guru devotion in mind and to stop negative thoughts toward the guru.
It is dangerous to practice guru yoga without understanding how to practice correctly and the shortcomings of practicing wrongly. There is also great danger in living with our guru and serving him if we don’t know how to practice guru yoga. In a moment we can create the karma to be in the Inexhaustible Suffering hell for eons. Like electricity, the guru can bring incredible benefit but can also be very dangerous.
It is also inspiring to read the verses in The Essence of Nectar that extensively describe pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend with action. These verses are clear and detailed. Especially effective are the verses that describe how Naropa, Milarepa, Chayulwa and other great yogis did special practice of guru devotion and had incredible attainments. They are mentioned as excellent examples for us to follow.
The section of devoting to the guru with action begins,
Every single benefit of samsara and beyond
Comes through the kindness of the guru.
Although I can never completely repay this kindness,
In order to try to repay it, I will try to please him.
This means that all the happiness we experience is due to the kindness of the guru. Even though we can never finish repaying this kindness, we shouldn’t give up altogether, as we might do with a debt that we couldn’t finish paying in this life. We should still attempt to repay the guru’s kindness, and to do this we do the practice of pleasing the guru’s holy mind.
Just as one plants seeds in a fertile field,
Even though the guru doesn’t depend on offerings and respect,
To quickly complete my own great accumulation of merit,
Why don’t I attempt to plant seeds in this supreme field
By making offerings and showing respect?
Although we might work hard—planting seeds, fertilizing and so forth—to grow crops in an ordinary field, there is no expectation from the side of the field. It is similar with the supreme field of the guru. The guru doesn’t depend on offerings and respect. All of our gurus are exactly like this.
The guru is the supreme field of merit because, as I’ve already explained, it is in relation to the guru—through following his advice, respecting and serving him and making offerings—that we collect the most extensive merit. In order to quickly complete our collection of merit we should attempt to make offerings and show respect to the guru. The real meaning of offering is not simply giving something material but pleasing the guru’s holy mind. That is the best offering.
Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion says,
Giving to the guru always becomes an offering to all the buddhas.
Offering to the guru brings a great accumulation of merit, and from such accumulation we accomplish the supreme realization.
It is also said,
If you are wealthy, offer the best of your possessions to your guru, as Lama Dromtönpa and others did.
Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion also says,
Whoever wishes to have unceasing good fortune and happiness should offer to the guru whatever is rare and extraordinary or even what is a little better than average.
From the holy speech of Lhasowa,
While we have something good to offer, if we offer something bad, we degenerate our samaya. But there is no shortcoming if we have only poor offerings or if the guru is pleased with poor offerings.
Disciples should offer whatever is the most pleasing, and gurus shouldn’t cling even a little to material possessions. As Kadampa Geshe Sharawa said,
A guru is someone who is pleased by the disciples’ practice and realization and does not mentally cling in the slightest to material objects.
Whether or not we physically hear or see that the guru is pleased, the guru is someone who is pleased by our practice, not by receiving material offerings. This is how it should be. However, if we see our virtuous friend made happy by receiving material offerings, it’s a mistake to think that this is wrong. That is incorrect devotion to the virtuous friend. Many times, to make a disciple happy, high lamas show the aspect of being pleased when receiving material offerings.
The previous incarnation of Pari Rinpoche, Pari Dorje Chang, a high lama of Sera Monastery in Tibet, was once offered a leg of mutton by someone who earned his living by printing Dharma texts. While the person was there in front of him, Rinpoche showed the aspect of being very pleased and said, “Oh, how thoughtful! Now I can make momos.” Right after the person left, Rinpoche threw the whole leg of mutton into the toilet because it came from money obtained by printing and selling Dharma scriptures. Eating food bought with money earned by selling statues or Dharma scriptures is regarded as heavy negative karma and brings great pollution. Pari Dorje Chang didn’t give the meat to other people because it would have been the same negative karma. He showed pleasure at having received the offering, then immediately threw it away. This is the skillful way that high lamas act in guiding sentient beings. Even if they accept an offering, they take it for the benefit of the disciple, so that the disciple can accumulate merit.
The Essence of Nectar continues,
It is said that making offering to one pore of the guru
Who has revealed to us the unmistaken path
Collects greater merit than honoring and making offering to the multitudes of aryas:
Hearers, self-conquerors, bodhisattvas and buddhas.
This verse describes the power of the guru. Leave aside making offerings and paying respect to our guru, even making offerings to our guru’s disciples collects far greater merit than making offerings to all the numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas and arhats, as well as all the statues, stupas and scriptures of the ten directions. As I’ve already explained, we collect such merit when, thinking of our guru, we give even a glass of water or a piece of candy to a fellow disciple or a member of our guru’s family or even give some food to our guru’s dog.
Many holy beings, such as Naropa, Milarepa,
Dromtönpa, Sakya Pandita and Chayulwa,
Gave up without a thought their body, life and wealth
For their gurus and achieved many realizations.
Without hesitation, Naropa immediately did every single thing that his guru Tilopa mentioned he should do. He thus bore twelve great and twelve small hardships. The twelve great hardships almost caused Naropa to die. Each time Naropa was close to death Tilopa would come along and bless him so that he would again recover his health. Milarepa is one of the most inspiring examples of someone who practiced incomparable devotion to the virtuous friend. After making unbelievable sacrifices and bearing hardships to practice Dharma, Milarepa had great success, achieving enlightenment within a number of years. I will describe the stories of Naropa and Milarepa in more detail later (see chapter 18).
In addition, Dromtönpa, Sakya Pandita and Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa are used to illustrate correct devotion to the virtuous friend. I described earlier how these great yogis experienced powerful purification as a result of serving their gurus (see chapter 7).
The Essence of Nectar continues,
Therefore, I shall strive to respect and serve with my body and speech,
Such as by offering all my cherished possessions,
Prostrating, rising, giving massages and baths,
And speaking respectfully, praising and so on.
Rising refers to rising to our feet when we see our guru.
In devoting ourselves to our guru, we should be very happy to make offerings to him. We first meditate on our guru as inseparable from our special deity. As His Holiness Song Rinpoche always advised, when we visualize the deity we should think of the guru and when we see the guru we should think of the deity. By thinking of the qualities of the guru, we manifest countless bodies, equal to the number of our past lives and make prostrations. We then offer ourselves as servants to the guru and with beautiful chants, praise him with our speech. In this way, we offer service with our body and speech.
We then offer to the guru actually arranged material offerings as well as mentally transformed ones. For example, we visualize transforming all our merits of the three times into various offerings and then offer them to the guru. This is the way to make miscellaneous offerings, both those materially arranged and those mentally transformed.
With respect to how to devote to the guru with action, the Hinayana teachings explain that in the daytime, one massages or offers perfume to the holy body, as well as robes; at night, one makes the guru’s bed, offers robes and so forth. This is body service.
With respect to speech service, when one mentions the holy name of the guru, one uses a particular honorific word as a preliminary, then says the name. That is why when Theravadin monks talk about or to their abbot, they put their palms together and say “Venerable Such-and-such.” The ordination text explains, “First say this, then say the holy name.” In a gelong ordination, the sangdön lobpön asks those who are to take ordination some questions as to whether or not they have particular obstacles to ordination, then gives them advice as to how to address the abbot and other teachers. When His Holiness Ling Rinpoche or His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche were quoting from a teaching of Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, they would always say “Kyabgön Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo.” Kyab means refuge and gön means savior. A particular name that expresses the teacher’s exalted qualities is used.
Speech service also means saying “I will do it” when our guru gives us an instruction. Using respectful words when we talk to virtuous teachers or ask them questions is also speech service.
Each time we offer a glass of water, a cup of tea, food or a bath to our guru, we should do so with the mind of guru yoga, looking at the guru as a buddha. When we serve our guru, if possible we should remember the second merit field in Guru Puja, where the guru’s holy body is decorated with the Guhyasamaja mandala. We should try to look at the guru’s five aggregates as the five Dhyani Buddhas and all his pores as the twenty-one thousand arhats. (Here we are not talking about ordinary arhats; they are actually manifestations of buddha.) With awareness of this, we then offer robes to our guru or perform other services. We should also think of the absolute guru, the dharmakaya, the holy mind of all the buddhas, which pervades all existence and has no beginning and no end. This is the most profound guru yoga meditation, and any service we offer our guru with this awareness accumulates unbelievable merit.
Especially, I will attempt day and night without distraction
To practice the complete, unmistaken graduated path:
The best way to please my guru with my three doors.
I will please my guru with the offering of practicing in accord with his advice.
Please grant me blessings to be able to do this.
The best way to please the guru with body, speech and mind is by attempting day and night without distraction to practice the lamrim, the complete and unmistaken path to enlightenment. We will then definitely achieve our goal of full enlightenment. On the basis of this, we please the holy mind of the guru by following his advice. If our main goal in life is to subdue our mind and have realizations of the lamrim and not just to be famous for our understanding of Dharma, attaining our goal depends on correctly devoting ourselves to our virtuous friend, which means following his advice. Following our guru’s advice on the basis of practicing lamrim is what pleases our guru the most.
We should read the section on respecting and serving the guru in The Essence of Nectar again and again and remember it when we serve our guru.
NOTES
100 The eight offerings are water for drinking, water for washing the feet, flowers, incense, light, scented water for the heart, food and music. [Return to text]
101 The five are offerings of forms, sounds, scents, tastes and tangible objects. [Return to text]
