How the Past Kagyü Lamas Practiced¹⁰²

Gomchen Khampala, a Nyingma meditator who lived in Solu Khumbu, gave me a text written by his root guru, Rongpu Sangye, who I mentioned in the previous chapter. It is an incredibly moving teaching on guru devotion, with quotations from great yogis that describe how to see as positive such actions as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and so forth. It shows how to use any fault that appears to us to develop devotion within our mind. 

Gomchen Rinpoche was regarded as an embodiment of the great Tibetan yogi Tangtong Gyalpo. In 1975 Gomchen-la came to Kopan when I was there teaching a course and asked me to give him the oral transmission of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. He wanted me to give the oral transmission during the course, with all the Western students, which I did. When we then asked him to give a talk, he gave a talk on guru devotion (see appendix 7). Though not a scholar, he was a great practitioner who had spent years meditating in the mountains, so of course, every single word of his talk was effective. 

Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa and the other previous Kagyü lamas practiced guru yoga by trying to see every action of the guru, including all the mistakes, as pure. These Kagyü lamas generated the complete path of sutra and tantra and became enlightened in one brief lifetime through practicing guru yoga as the very heart of the path.

The previous Kagyü lamas practiced seeing the guru’s actions as pure in the following way:

Every action done by the qualified holy guru is good, 
Every action done is a quality. 
Even if the guru acts as a butcher or kills a human being, 
It is meaningful and good: 
It is definite that sentient beings are being guided with compassion. 

This verse could be referring to transferring the consciousness of an evil-doer to a pure land. There are various ways to do this, with weapons and with meditation. With the meditations of wrathful tantric fire pujas, for example, a person’s consciousness can be separated from his body and transferred to a pure land. 

Even if the guru kills a human being, you think that the being who has been killed is definitely being guided by him with compassion from the lower realms to better realms. If the guru does something that you find confusing, such as being careless of others or harming them, you should think, as the Kagyü lamas did, “It is definite that those sentient beings are being guided with compassion.” Or think, “If they were left as they are now they would experience much suffering. Instead, their negative karma is being purified and they are being guided with great compassion to a better realm.”

In ancient times in Tibet, even the executioners who cut off the heads of criminals were all in fact embodiments of Chenrezig, as were the king, the minister and the judge, even though externally they looked like ordinary people committing heavy negative actions.

Also, a butcher behind the Potala Palace, even though externally he looked like an ordinary person, was in fact an embodiment of Yamantaka. 

Once a monk who was very miserly with his money died. After he had died, his close disciples searched his room to find where his money was kept so that they could use it for pujas and to make offerings to the monks in the monastery to pray for their teacher. They couldn’t find the money anywhere. One disciple remembered that their teacher used to go to a spot a little distance from the monastery, where he had sometimes seen him digging. The disciple figured that the money might be buried there. When the disciple and some of the other monks went there they discovered the spot was covered with a flat stone. When they dug away the dirt they found a sack full of money hidden there but a lobster was holding it in its claws. Because of his miserliness, the teacher had been reborn as a lobster. 

When the disciple went to ask Phurchog Jampa Rinpoche what to do, Rinpoche advised him to take the lobster and offer it to the butcher behind the Potala Palace. When the disciple did this the butcher seemed surprised and demanded, “Who told you to bring it here?” The disciple told him that Phurchog Jampa Rinpoche had advised him to do it. At the beginning the butcher scolded the disciple but he finally accepted the lobster. He put the lobster on his chopping block and split it in two with a knife. He then ate half and threw the other half into space. 

The disciple returned to Phurchog Jampa Rinpoche to tell him what had happened. After he had explained, Rinpoche said, “Now it’s all right. He ate half, and the half he threw into space signifies that the consciousness was transferred to a pure realm.”

There are many similar stories illustrating that we often can’t really determine what other people are. Even though we might see them as ordinary beings doing evil actions, it is hard to really trust what we see as true. It is difficult to say whether particular people are actually evil beings, as we see them.

Generally, as we can’t see other beings’ level of mind, we can’t have the fixed idea that someone is actually an ordinary person or an evil person just because we see him doing evil actions. We may see faults in someone and decide that what we see is in fact true. But to place so much trust in our own view of something as concrete or ordinary is dangerous, as it can disturb the generation of realizations within our mind. 

Even if the guru shows the act of sexual misconduct, 
It signifies the unification of method and wisdom 
And is done to receive and increase realizations. 

To receive and increase realizations could be related to the subject, the virtuous teacher, as a yogi practitioner achieving the rest of the tantric path and the Vajradhara state by quickly cutting off dualistic view. However, it can also be understood in terms of subduing the minds of other sentient beings—their intense dissatisfaction and other disturbing thoughts—and developing their realizations of the path. 

The way to practice is to look at the action of sexual misconduct as pure, which stops the arising of heresy and other wrong conceptions, the heaviest obstacles to achieving the graduated path to enlightenment. 

Even if the guru cheats others by telling lies,
He is guiding sentient beings in the path to liberation
Through various means.

This is the way the previous Kagyü lamas thought in order to see the guru’s action of lying as pure. 

Even if the guru shows the act of stealing, 
He is transforming the possessions of others into merit. 
It is a means to pacify the poverty of those living beings.

In other words, the possessions are used to accumulate merit for the sake of those sentient beings. This pacifies the karma that caused them to be poor, without the means of living. This is the advice on how to think to see the guru’s action of stealing as pure.

If the guru shows the act of scolding,
It is reciting a wrathful mantra that definitely eliminates obstacles.
If the guru shows the act of beating,
It is a blessing and the source of all realizations. 
The devoted are satisfied and joyful. 

Devoted, respectful disciples see being scolded or beaten by their guru as pure and only as helping them purify their negative karma; thinking that their guru’s actions only benefit them makes them happy. Guru yoga practice is to not criticize the guru but remember his kindness instead and this helps generate realizations.
 
The famous example here is Milarepa, whose guru Marpa scolded and beat him a great deal. But no matter how much Marpa scolded or beat him, Milarepa’s guru devotion remained stable. 

It was similar with the old monk who was Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey’s attendant. When I went to school in Dalhousie  for six months, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey would sometimes come up to the school on Sundays because one of the Gelugpa lamas staying there was Geshe-la’s disciple. 

One time Geshe-la invited me to come down to his house in Dalhousie¹⁰³ for a meal. So one Sunday a couple of the other incarnate lamas and I went down to Geshe-la’s house. I think Geshe-la wanted to give us momos but his attendant served us bread and vegetables instead. Geshe Dhargyey then scolded the old monk for about twenty minutes. He scolded him for a long, long time. 

I sat there thinking, “If I were Geshe-la’s disciple I couldn’t stand that!” I wouldn’t have lasted long—I would have run away immediately. But this old monk was a great example of guru devotion practice. He wasn’t known to be learned and I’m not sure he even had the title “geshe,” but his mind was unbelievable. I thought he might disintegrate because of the scolding but there wasn’t the slightest change in his face. His nose didn’t become red, nor did his ears, and his eyes didn’t bulge. There wasn’t the slightest reaction. He kept exactly the same calm expression, as if Geshe-la wasn’t saying anything.

I was there only once for an hour but I’m sure Geshe-la would have scolded him not just on that one day but over years and years. I think this old monk had great achievement. 

Geshe Doga¹⁰⁴ told me that this monk would drink the little bit of water left after Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey had washed in the mornings. This is a proof of his unshakable guru devotion. Some monks mightn’t bear the title “geshe” or have a reputation for being learned or good in debate but their practice and attainments are very inspiring.

Even if the guru shows the act of killing a hundred human beings at one time, 
It is definitely only the action of a buddha benefiting sentient beings. 

Even if the guru shows the act of enjoying a hundred princesses,
It is the transcendental wisdom of great bliss, the mahamudra.

Unless our teacher gives us permission not to regard him as a virtuous friend, once the Dharma connection is made, we as disciples have the responsibility to correctly devote ourselves to that guru. No matter what happens after Dharma contact is made—even if our guru commits the ten non-virtuous actions or kills millions of people—it is our responsibility to practice guru devotion. No matter what the guru does, for our own benefit we mustn’t allow heresy or other wrong thoughts toward the guru to arise, as Buddha explained in the sutras and Lama Tsongkhapa explained in the lamrim. We have to try to see everything the guru does as positive. If we allow negative thoughts toward the guru to arise we harm our achievement of realizations and enlightenment. With a firm mind, we have to practice carefully, thinking of our own profit. 

You shouldn’t give up a virtuous teacher by thinking you can no longer see him as your guru because he doesn’t practice Dharma or kills human beings, steals, fights with others, has much anger or doesn’t live in the precepts. Even if your guru keeps a hundred wives or goes to war and kills millions of people, there is nothing to be done. You still have to practice guru devotion. It is not that you can first recognize someone as your virtuous teacher and then later decide not to recognize him any more. Once the contact is made, there is nothing to be done.

However, this doesn’t mean that if your guru drinks wine, you should also drink wine; that if your guru smokes, you should also smoke. It doesn’t mean that if your guru doesn’t live in precepts, you shouldn’t live in precepts. Even if you do see mistakes in the actions of your guru, such as criticizing other sects, you don’t need to imitate him and also criticize other sects. Thinking, “My guru does it so why can’t I?” is the wrong way to practice guru devotion.

Even if your guru goes to the city every night and spends his nights with prostitutes, it doesn’t mean that you should do that. Perhaps if the level of your mind is like that of the Sixth Dalai Lama, you can do it. However, I’m not saying that all the gurus who act like this have this level of mind. If you have reached the completion stage, you can imitate the Sixth Dalai Lama, who went to a different brothel in Lhasa every night to sleep with prostitutes. To prove to the many people who criticized him that he did not lose any semen without control, one day he went on the top of the Potala Palace and urinated. Just before the urine hit the ground, he drew it back into his holy body. 

We have to practice in accordance with the level of our own mind. Whether or not we can do what the guru does is determined by our level of mind. We can practice those actions of the guru that accord with the Dharma and also with the level of our mind. There is no need to copy exactly what the guru does, thinking, “I should do this because my guru does it,” and there is also no need to criticize him. If we can see our guru’s actions as pure, that is good as it benefits us; but even if we can’t see his actions as pure, there is still no need to criticize him. 

The great Kagyü yogi Drogön Tsangpa Gyare said,

As long as you don’t do anything inauspicious in relation to the qualified lord, it doesn’t matter if you break off every other relationship. Let it happen. But if you do something inauspicious in relation to the qualified lord, even if all other sentient beings become your friends, what is the use?

Tsangpa Gyare is saying that as long as we don’t make any mistake in relation to the virtuous friend, it doesn’t matter if we have broken our connections to all the other people in the world. If we have to choose between breaking samaya with our guru and breaking off a relationship with an ordinary friend, even if she has been very kind and helped us a lot, it is better to end the friendship. If keeping this relationship means going against the advice of our guru or breaking or even endangering our samaya, then maintaining the relationship doesn’t matter. Break it off; let it end.

However, if we make a mistake in relation to our virtuous friend, even if everyone else in the world becomes our close friend, it is of no benefit because we will have no success in our life or in developing our mind. If our guru is unhappy or displeased with us, even if everyone else in the world is happy with us, it means nothing. There is no happiness in this life, and there is no happiness in future lives, liberation or enlightenment. 

As mentioned in the lamrim teachings, if we have degenerated or broken our samaya with one guru, even if we have a good relationship with all our other gurus, we can’t generate realizations. And after we have made a Dharma connection, even if we don’t renounce the virtuous friend but simply leave him out or forget to devote ourselves to him with thought and action, we will experience heavy shortcomings. These are important points to consider if we are concerned about developing our mind for ourselves and for other sentient beings. 

This is the way the past Kagyü lamas practiced guru yoga: they looked at all the various actions of the guru as pure. Thinking in this way doesn’t allow negative thoughts and superstition toward the guru to arise. Whether or not the guru is pure, or enlightened, if from our own side we practice in this way, trying to see his actions as pure, it stops the arising of anger, heresy and other negative thoughts. Without hindrance, we are then able to quickly generate realizations of the sutra and tantra paths.

Achieving enlightenment in one brief lifetime of this degenerate time depends on how much we are able to stop negative thoughts toward the guru. In order to quickly generate realizations of the path, even if we don’t have the devotion that sees the guru as a buddha, the most important thing is to at least stop the arising of negative thoughts toward the guru. We can then train our mind in the rest of the path, and there is a possibility of generating the realizations of the path.

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says, “Even if you can’t see the guru as a buddha, the very basic thing is to stop wrong conceptions arising.” In that way you don’t create obstacles to your own success in the path to enlightenment. This is the whole point. For this reason, the Kagyü lamas practiced guru devotion by training their minds to look at the guru purely. 

Notes

¹⁰² See The Great Kagyu Masters. [Return to text]

¹⁰³  A former British hill station in Himachal Pradesh in India. [Return to text]

¹⁰⁴  Geshe Doga, the long-serving resident geshe at Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia, is a disciple of Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. [Return to text]