Once we have found a guru who can reveal the infallible path, it is extremely important to follow him perfectly. All the important points of how to devote to a guru as explained in the sutras are condensed into four outlines:
1. The benefits of correctly devoting to a guru
2. The shortcomings of not devoting to a guru or of devoting incorrectly (chapter 8)
3. How to devote to a guru with thought (chapters 9–14)
4. How to devote to a guru with action (chapter 15)
These key guru devotion meditations are outlined in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.
There are eight benefits of correctly devoting to a guru and eight shortcomings of not having a guru or of devoting incorrectly to a guru. If you don’t have a guru, you don’t have the karmic cause for enlightenment and you don’t experience the eight benefits of correct devotion. Not having a guru is itself a shortcoming and there are then eight shortcomings of incorrectly devoting to a guru.
The Essence of Nectar says,
Devoting with thought and action
To the holy virtuous friend who reveals
The perfect, unmistaken, supreme path to enlightenment,
Has inconceivable benefits.
1. THE BENEFITS OF CORRECTLY DEVOTING TO A GURU
The first meditation outline explains the great benefits, or advantages, of correctly devoting ourselves to a virtuous friend, which are condensed into eight points:
(1) We become closer to enlightenment
(2) We please all the buddhas
(3) We are not harmed by maras or evil friends
(4) Our delusions and negative actions naturally cease
(5) All our realizations of the paths and bhumis increase
(6) We will never lack virtuous friends in all our future lives
(7) We will not fall into the lower realms
(8) We will effortlessly accomplish all our temporary and ultimate wishes
(1) WE BECOME CLOSER TO ENLIGHTENMENT
When we meditate on the benefits of guru devotion, the first benefit is that we become closer to enlightenment. This first benefit has two divisions:
(a) We become closer to enlightenment by practicing the advice given by our guru
(b) We become closer to enlightenment by making offerings to and serving our guru
Every time we follow any of our guru’s advice, including by living in vows, doing Dharma practices and serving others, we become closer to enlightenment. Each time we do what we have been told to do, we become closer to enlightenment. And it is the same with each offering we make to the guru and with each service we offer. We become closer to enlightenment each time we follow our guru’s advice, make offerings or offer service to him because we thus perform the most powerful purification and collect the most extensive merit. In this way our level of mind continuously gets higher and higher and we become closer and closer to enlightenment, or to the guru—these two are actually the same thing, as we become closer to the absolute guru, the dharmakaya. We should be aware of these two ways of becoming closer to enlightenment in our daily life.
(a) We become closer to enlightenment by practicing the advice given by our guru
Without a guru, there is no way we can end our samsara. If we never meet a guru, the time of our achieving enlightenment will never come. But if we rely upon a guru who shows the infallible path, our own samsara, even though it is beginningless, can have an end. By meeting a guru and following his advice, we will quickly achieve enlightenment.
By following the Paramitayana path revealed by the guru, we can achieve enlightenment more quickly than the hearers and self-conquerors,35 followers of the Hinayana path. By following the teachings of the Action, Performance and Yoga Tantras revealed by the guru, we can achieve enlightenment much more quickly than by following the Paramitayana path. And by practicing the path of Highest Yoga Tantra shown by the guru, we can achieve enlightenment extremely quickly, in one brief lifetime of this degenerate time—much more quickly than by practicing the paths of the lower tantras.
Guru yoga practice is the very heart of the Highest Yoga Tantra path. As Manjushri advised Lama Tsongkhapa, tantric practice especially is based on cherishing guru yoga more than our own life. If we protect our practice of guru devotion more than our life, it will be possible for us to accomplish enlightenment within a few years, as did the great yogi Milarepa, King Indrabhuti, Gyalwa Ensapa and many others.
The reason we have the commitment to recite Six-Session Guru Yoga once we have taken a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation is that nothing works without guru yoga. The main factor that makes the tantric path a quick path to enlightenment is guru yoga practice, cherishing our gurus more than our own life.
As said in The Essence of Nectar,
The great unification is difficult to achieve
Even with hundreds of efforts for oceans of countless eons;
But it can be attained in one brief life of a degenerate time
If we rely upon the power of the guru.
The verse of prostration in Six-Session Guru Yoga also mentions,
I prostrate at your lotus feet, my jewel-like guru, whose kindness instantly grants me great bliss.
This is similar to the way the kindness of the guru is described in the abbreviated Calling the Lama from Afar: “Magnificently glorious guru, who is the wish-granting jewel.” (See appendix 2.)
The jewel mentioned in the verse from Six-Session Guru Yoga is also the wish-granting jewel, which fulfils all wishes. The guru is likened to a wish-granting jewel because there is nothing in the world to compare to its value. It is not really a comparable example but it is what we can find among material objects to give us an idea of how the guru fulfils all our wishes for happiness, up to enlightenment.
Through the kindness of our guru in having taught us Dharma, we are granted the great bliss of the dharmakaya, or enlightenment, and even that is granted instantly. Why is the term instantly used? If we achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of a degenerate time, it is like achieving it in an instant when compared to the incredible length of life of a god or hell being. The length of a day is different in the human, god and hell realms. One morning in the god realm of Tushita, for example, is equal to fifty human years. And the higher the god realm, the longer the length of a day. The length of life of the gods of the desire realm—the worldly gods situated on the levels of Mount Meru, such as the Four Guardians—is five hundred years, but this is equal to nine million human years. Even if it took us nine million human years to achieve enlightenment, it would be like achieving enlightenment in only one life in terms of the gods of the desire realm. We think it is a long time to take to achieve enlightenment but it is very short compared to the length of their life.
Even though the length of life of a being in the Realm of Thirty-three, the highest god realm of the desire realm, is very long, it seems very short when compared to the length of life of a being in the first hot hell, Being Alive Again and Again. With the eight hot hells, the lower the hell, the longer the length of life. The longest length of life, that of the eighth hot hell, Inexhaustible Suffering, is one intermediate eon. How long is an intermediate eon? One great eon is made up of twenty intermediate eons, and there are four great eons in the history of a world system: evolution takes one great eon; the world system exists for one great eon; it decays over one great eon; and then is empty, with everything having disappeared, for another great eon.
According to the time frame of the lowest hot hell, Inexhaustible Suffering, taking many millions, or even billions, of years to achieve enlightenment would be very short. One day for the beings in even the first hot hell, Being Alive Again and Again, is nine million human years. So, even if we were to take nine million years to achieve enlightenment, according to the time frame of the sentient beings in Being Alive Again and Again, we would have achieved enlightenment in one day. And for beings in Inexhaustible Suffering, it would be like an instant. Even if we took billions or trillions of years to achieve enlightenment, we would have achieved enlightenment in an instant according to their time frame.
However, we don’t need to talk about the lengths of life in the different hell and god realms—we just have to think about the beginningless nature of our own samsara. It is also like an instant when compared to the duration of our samsara during beginningless rebirths up to now or from now until our samsara ends. To us it seems very tedious to have to take three countless great eons to achieve enlightenment, but if we think back, we have been circling and suffering in samsara for beginningless lifetimes. The continuity of our samsaric suffering has no beginning. Even if it takes us hundreds or hundreds of billions of countless great eons to achieve enlightenment, it is nothing when compared to our beginningless samsaric lifetimes. If we think of the beginningless duration of our suffering in samsara, taking even three countless great eons to achieve enlightenment is like achieving enlightenment in an instant.
Even if we don’t achieve enlightenment in this life, but take twenty or thirty lifetimes, it is nothing compared to the lengths of life in the god and hell realms, the length of time arhats stay in nirvana before entering the Mahayana path and achieving enlightenment, or the duration of our beginningless samsara.
Also, as mentioned in the first of the verses of prostration in Guru Puja,
Your compassion grants even the sphere of great bliss,
The supreme state of the three kayas, in an instant.
Guru with a jewel-like body,
Vajra holder, I prostrate at your lotus feet.36
Since the guru has advised us how to achieve enlightenment, if we perfectly follow our guru, there is no doubt, as mentioned in this verse, that the guru’s compassion can immediately grant us even “the sphere of great bliss, the supreme state of the three kayas.” The guru can grant us what normally requires the accumulation of merit for three countless great eons in an instant, which means in this brief lifetime of a degenerate time.
We have had many gurus, who have given us vows, initiations and commentaries and tried as much as possible to reveal all the various sutra and tantra methods necessary to lead us to enlightenment. If from the very beginning we had practiced exactly what each of our gurus had taught us, we would have become enlightened by now or at least have reached the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. Let alone not achieving the three kayas in this life, we haven’t even generated in our mind a single realization of the sutra or tantra paths. From our side, by not practicing our gurus’ advice or not practicing it correctly, we have tried to pull ourselves down to the lower realms. It is we ourselves who are preventing our achieving enlightenment, the supreme state of the three kayas, in an instant.
Ask yourself, “Why don’t I yet have the realization of impermanence and death? It’s not because my virtuous friends haven’t taught me about impermanence and death; it’s only because I haven’t practiced what they have taught. Forget about enlightenment—I still haven’t achieved the realization of impermanence and death or any other lamrim or tantric realization. My gurus have taught me the essence of the path, with nothing missing. If from the very beginning I had practiced exactly what they had taught I would already be enlightened or at least have high tantric realizations.”
Generally, to achieve enlightenment through the Paramitayana path one has to accumulate merit for three countless great eons. It takes one countless great eon to go from the Mahayana path of merit37 to the Mahayana path of seeing, or the first bhumi. From the path of seeing to the eighth bhumi takes a second countless great eon; and from the eighth bhumi up to enlightenment takes a third countless great eon. If we perfectly follow the guru, however, even if we practice only the sutra path and don’t practice tantra, we can still accomplish the path very quickly, as happened with the bodhisattva Sadaprarudita.38 Even without practicing tantra, Sadaprarudita accumulated in seven years the merit that would normally take two countless great eons to accumulate by following the Paramitayana path. Without the practice of tantra, it would generally be impossible to accumulate such extensive merit in such a short time. However, Sadaprarudita followed his guru, the great bodhisattva Dharmodgata, in a very special way, cherishing him more than his own body and life. Because of the power of his special guru devotion, he was able to achieve in seven years paths that normally take two countless great eons.
Even before he met Dharmodgata, because Sadaprarudita had achieved the Concentration of Continual Dharma on the great path of merit, he was able to see countless buddhas in nirmanakaya aspect. Even though he could see so many buddhas, Sadaprarudita wasn’t satisfied; he still wanted to find the guru with whom he had a karmic connection from past lives. Constantly tormented by this worry, he was so sad that he cried all the time, which is how he received the name Sadaprarudita, which means “always crying.”
Sadaprarudita searched for a long time until he finally found his past-life guru, Dharmodgata, then devoted himself by cherishing his guru more than all the buddhas. He followed Dharmodgata by completely giving up concern for his own life. To make offerings to his guru, without any feeling of loss he even sold his own flesh to a Brahmin, who was actually a transformation of the worldly god, Indra.
At first, as Dharmodgata was in strict retreat, Sadaprarudita wasn’t able to see him and request teachings. Sadaprarudita had to wait seven years before he was able to meet his guru, and while he waited, he cleaned around the temple where his guru was doing retreat. While cleaning, Sadaprarudita didn’t think of food or sleep; he just thought, “When can I hear the Perfection of Wisdom teachings from my guru’s holy mouth?” Cherishing Dharmodgata more than his own life, Sadaprarudita served him during those seven years.
When Dharmodgata finished his retreat, Sadaprarudita was finally able to meet his guru and request teachings. Before setting up the teaching throne, Sadaprarudita cleaned the teaching site. He wanted to sprinkle it with water to settle the dust but there was no water. Maras, who wanted to interfere with these Dharma activities, had caused all the water in the area to dry up. Sadaprarudita then cut himself and sprinkled his own blood on the ground to stop the dust rising. Sadaprarudita then invited Dharmodgata to give the teachings.
After Dharmodgata revealed Dharma to him, Sadaprarudita reached the eighth bhumi and achieved the patience of unborn Dharma.39 Sadaprarudita quickly reached the eighth bhumi because his practice of guru devotion was incomparable. He was willing to sacrifice his own body and life to correctly devote himself to his virtuous friend.
In a similar way, even if we don’t practice the profound path of tantra, if we perfectly follow the virtuous friend as Sadaprarudita did, we can also quickly complete the work of accumulating merit. As we have met not just tantra but the profound path of Highest Yoga Tantra, if we practice guru yoga as the heart of the path as Sadaprarudita did, protecting that practice as we protect our life, there is no doubt that we will soon finish the work of accumulating three countless great eons of merit and achieve enlightenment. It could happen even in this life.
When you meditate on this first benefit, becoming closer to enlightenment by putting the guru’s teachings into practice, relate it to every single activity that you do, whether daily practice, retreat or serving others. In your daily life, every single time you carry out your guru’s advice—and here we’re not talking about just sitting meditation—you accumulate the most extensive merit, perform the greatest purification and become that much closer to enlightenment. Each piece of advice that you follow brings powerful purification because the virtuous friend is the most powerful object in your life. If you relate to what you are doing in this way, you become aware that you are receiving these benefits and can enjoy what you are doing.
Remember all the practices and advice the guru has given you and relate your meditation to them. This applies not only to teachings on the extensive and profound paths but also to each piece of advice you have received on how to live your daily life. Remember all the vows, commitment practices, mantras and meditations. If the guru has granted you ordination, each day that you live in those vows brings you closer to enlightenment. If your guru has given you mantras, prayers or sadhanas to recite or a meditation practice to do, each time you follow his instructions and do the practice, you are coming closer to enlightenment. After receiving the oral transmission of the Chenrezig mantra, you become closer to enlightenment each time you recite it. As you complete each sadhana, you become closer to enlightenment. As you keep each of your samaya vows, you become closer to enlightenment. As you complete each preliminary practice, you become closer to enlightenment. Each time you do the preparatory practice of cleaning your room, each movement of vacuuming or sweeping, since it is according to your guru’s instructions, brings you closer to enlightenment.
If your guru has asked you to work in a Dharma center, whether as director, spiritual program coordinator or something else, each day that you work in the center makes you closer to enlightenment. You become closer to enlightenment with each task that you do, since you are carrying it out on the advice of your guru. Every single thing you do is a method to achieve enlightenment. With each task that you do, you lessen your negative karma—the cause of the lower realms—and your obscurations become thinner, so you become closer to enlightenment. For as many years as you do the job, since you are carrying out your guru’s advice, every single thing you do is bringing you closer and closer to enlightenment.
For example, if you are building a house for a Dharma center, with each brick that you lay and each piece of wood that you nail, you get closer to enlightenment. No matter how many years it takes you to build the house, all your work becomes the cause of happiness. It is the best medicine to eliminate the root of disease and other sufferings, since it purifies the cause of suffering, negative karma. As it brings the most powerful purification, it is also the best preliminary practice.
Remember the great yogi, Milarepa. In Milarepa’s biography, you don’t read that he did hundreds of thousands of mandala offerings, prostrations or any of the other preliminary practices. All you hear about is how he was beaten, kicked out of teachings and made to do only hard work. Without giving Milarepa any teachings for many years, Marpa made him build a tower and then take it apart three times. He had to put every stone back in its original place, then again build the tower. From carrying all the rocks so many times, the skin on Milarepa’s back became callused and infected. His hard work was his preliminary practice.40
In your daily life you become closer to enlightenment each time you are able to carry out a piece of advice given to you by your virtuous friend, each time you are able to practice the teachings. If you are aware of this benefit you will see that you are gaining inconceivable merit all the time you are following your guru’s advice. Your life then becomes extremely enjoyable. As time goes by, by continuously carrying out your guru’s advice, you become closer and closer to enlightenment.
The sutra Laying Out of Stalks, which elaborates on the subject of guru devotion, says,
For bodhisattvas who live without transgressing the words of the virtuous friend, enlightenment is close.
A root tantric teaching also mentions,
If you offer yourself as a servant to please the virtuous friend, the virtuous friend grants you enlightenment in the brief lifetime of the quarreling time, even though it would otherwise have been difficult for you to have achieved enlightenment even in ten million eons. To whom does the virtuous friend grant enlightenment in that very lifetime? To the supreme disciple who has blazing perseverance and who is a fit object to be subdued. Those who do not have perseverance and do not put effort into practicing the teachings do not become enlightened, and that is solely the fault of the disciple.
Enlightenment is difficult to achieve and can take an uncountable number of eons in fortunate times, when the length of life is much longer and external obstacles are fewer than in this quarreling time. However, enlightenment can be granted by the virtuous friend even in this degenerate quarreling time, when the lifespan is shorter than one hundred years and the five degenerations41 are flourishing, causing many obstacles to the practice of Dharma.
The great Indian yogi Padampa Sangye said,
If the guru leads you, you can reach anywhere you wish.
Therefore, people of Tingri, offer the guru devotion and respect.42
This verse is not referring to reaching a place but to reaching liberation and enlightenment. If the guru guides you, you can reach wherever you wish, even the state of omniscient mind. Whether you are able to reach the place you wish to go completely depends upon how perfectly you follow the guru. If you don’t follow the guru, there is no way the guru can guide you.
During the time of the great yogi Milarepa, Padampa Sangye came to live at Tingri, in Tibet, which is one of the places where people usually stop on the way from Nepal to Lhasa. Both Padampa Sangye and Milarepa had psychic powers and they sometimes tested each other when they met in their travels. One day when Milarepa knew he was going to meet Padampa Sangye he manifested as a flower beside the road to check whether or not Padampa Sangye could recognize him. Padampa Sangye did.
The people of Tingri asked Padampa Sangye for advice, and just before he passed away he gave them many pieces of advice about how they should live their daily lives. This is one piece of advice from that text, which is like Padampa Sangye’s will.
In The Five Stages, a tantric text on the completion stage, Nagarjuna also said:
If someone falls down from the top of a mountain, even though he doesn’t wish to fall, he will still fall. Like this, if you receive the benefit of even an oral transmission through the kindness of the guru, even if you do not wish to be liberated, you will definitely be liberated.
(b) We become closer to enlightenment by making offerings to and serving our guru
We become closer to enlightenment not only by practicing the advice given us by our guru but even by making offerings to our guru, showing him respect and serving him, as in the stories of Sadaprarudita, Milarepa and Kadampa Geshe Tölungpa. This is because in order to achieve enlightenment we need to accumulate extensive merit and the supreme merit field is the virtuous friend. The first verse of the lamrim prayer in Guru Puja describes the guru as the supreme field of merit. If we make offerings to our guru we can accumulate in a moment the extensive merit that would take an inconceivable number of eons to accumulate through following any other path. This is why we have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime. It happens in dependence upon the kindness of the guru.
With respect to fields of merit, as I have already explained, there is more merit in making offerings to our parents than to other ordinary people and in making offerings to ordinary Sangha, monks and nuns, than to our parents. There is progressively more merit in making offerings to arhats, bodhisattvas and buddhas. And there is more merit in making offering to one pore of the guru than to all the buddhas of the three times. There is then no doubt at all that making offerings to our own guru must accumulate much more merit—the guru is the supreme field of merit.
The Samputa Tantra mentions that making offerings to one pore of the vajra master collects merit superior to that accumulated from making offerings to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions.
A root tantric text also says:
Making offerings to one pore of the guru surpasses making offerings to all the buddhas of the three times.
A similar point is made in one of the verses of request in Guru Puja:
Even one of your pores is for us
A field of merit more highly praised
Than all the conquerors of the three times and ten directions.
Compassionate refuge savior, I make requests to you.43
The compassionate refuge-savior is the guru, but what are the pores of the guru? While the Tibetan word is the same as that for the pores of the skin, it actually refers to any being who is related to or belongs to your guru. Drogön Tsangpa Gyare said, “The pores of your guru are his disciples, wife, children, servants, relatives, neighbors and even animals, such as horses and dogs.”
The disciples referred to here are not the disciples of just anybody who is called “guru” or “lama” but the disciples of any guru with whom you have established Dharma contact. If your guru is not ordained, the guru’s wife, husband or companion is also regarded as a pore of the guru. I think even your guru’s close friends can be counted as his pores.
Je Drubkhangpa advised,
Offering to the pores of the guru accumulates infinite merit, more than from making offerings to all the buddhas. When you offer, remember the guru in your heart. This is the way to practice when you make offerings to the pores of the guru.
By remembering the guru with whom you have Dharma contact, you then make offerings to his pores. For example, if you are giving a cup of tea to a fellow disciple, a biscuit to a dog that belongs to your guru or a handful of grass to your guru’s horse, first remember your guru in your heart, then make the offering. Previously, when Lama Yeshe had many dogs at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, I would try to practice with this faith, even if I was only giving them a piece of biscuit.
By making offerings to one pore of our guru in this way, even if we offer only a piece of fruit or a glass of water, we accumulate far more merit than by making offerings to all the buddhas of the three times or to all the statues, stupas, thangkas, scriptures and other holy objects in the ten directions. Our ability to accumulate all this extensive merit is due to the power of the guru.
Because making offerings to even the pores of the guru has this incredible advantage, in the past, when Geshe Tölungpa drank butter tea, he would collect the residue of butter left in his bowl and send it along with his leftover food to the dogs that lived in Lo. Why did he do this? Because his root guru, Geshe Chengawa, lived in Lo, and the dogs belonged to him.
Geshe Tölungpa said, “I accumulate much more merit by giving food to the dogs in Lo than by inviting all the monks of Tölung and offering food to them.” Because his guru lived in Lo, the dogs in that village were his guru’s pores, so there was more benefit in offering food to them than to the monks in Tölung, who were not disciples of Geshe Chengawa. Tölung is the place near Lhasa where Lama Yeshe was born. I went there to meet Lama’s relatives the second time I went to Tibet—I actually went there twice, once on pilgrimage and once to give an initiation.
How quickly we become enlightened depends on how quickly we are able to finish accumulating the merit of fortune and the merit of wisdom. Whether we are concerned about our own happiness or the happiness of all sentient beings, we should take every opportunity to collect merit, even a small amount. And it is easy to accumulate infinite merit just with the beings around us in our everyday life. We don’t need to go anywhere special; we have incredible opportunities all around us. There is no doubt about this if you live in a meditation center, where there is often a virtuous friend and also the pores of that virtuous friend. But even if you live in your own home, through making offerings to the pores of the guru, you still have many opportunities to accumulate inconceivable merit, more extensive merit than from making offerings to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and all the holy objects of the ten directions, as Vajradhara explained in some of the root tantric texts. By generating faith in these points and putting them into practice, we become wise in practicing Dharma, in accumulating merit.
In the large Tibetan monasteries most of the monks are disciples of our own gurus. There are actually very few Tibetan monks and nuns who haven’t received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and we should remember this when we make any offering to a monastery. The merit of making offerings to one such monk is unbelievable, far greater than making offerings to numberless holy objects, and in a large monastery there could be a thousand or more monks who are disciples of our gurus. Even if we offer just a small packet of tea by remembering our guru and thinking that all the monks are disciples of this same guru, although that packet alone couldn’t provide tea for all the monks, when added to other tea we are able to make offerings to all the thousands of monks in the monastery. We then accumulate unbelievable merit.
It is similar in a meditation center in the West, where even if there are no Sangha, there are still many pores of the virtuous friend. Nowadays more and more students have received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Therefore, if from time to time you make offerings of money, food or drink to the students at your center, who are disciples of the same guru, you collect limitless skies of merit. The offering can be made during pujas or other practices or simply as an offering. That is up to you.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t make offerings to the Tibetan monasteries. Of course, by making offering to the Sangha, those with higher ordination, you collect more merit; but at your own Dharma center there are so many students of your own gurus. You have so many incredible opportunities to collect merit; you don’t have to make offerings only far away in the East. As I have mentioned, by making offerings to the guru’s pores you collect more merit than from having made offerings to numberless buddhas. Can you imagine that?
Also, your offering doesn’t need to be only food. It can include supporting the meditation center itself, through a building project or something similar. You are then helping all the students of the center and everyone who comes there to learn Dharma. This naturally becomes an offering.
When I go to Solu Khumbu, because I have the important name of “incarnate lama,” the Sherpas often make a material offering of money or something else to me on behalf of someone who has died. They collect the offering by working hard day and night, with much sweat, worry and exhaustion. In turn, I make offerings of the money to the monasteries where there are many pores of the guru so that their offerings aren’t wasted. Unbelievable merit is accumulated and again all that merit can be dedicated to the benefactors and to all sentient beings. In this way, the merit from their offering is increased, like investing money in a bank and getting interest. Also, I don’t pollute my mind by enjoying those offerings.44
I often tell the cooks and managers in monasteries and Dharma centers that I rejoice in their work, because they have a great advantage in accumulating merit. If they know how to practice, they have the opportunity to accumulate unbelievable merit every day, each time they serve drink or food to the disciples of their gurus.
Many years ago at Kopan the cook, Chombey—the one I mentioned who first brought me to take teachings from Lama Yeshe—used to get discouraged. He would come to my room and say, “I’m always so busy cooking that I never have time to practice Dharma. I’m always creating negative karma while you’re always sitting on your bed saying prayers and meditating.” I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or serious, but he then said, “After this you will go to a pure realm.” He was making his own projections.
I told him, “I just sit here doing nothing—you’re the one who actually practices Dharma. Look at how much merit you accumulate every day.” Since he had received many initiations and teachings, I told him, “Remember what it says in Guru Puja. Making offerings to one pore of the guru brings much more merit than making offerings to the buddhas of the three times. Each time you offer tea in the morning you accumulate unbelievable merit as there are so many disciples of Lama Yeshe in this monastery. At breakfast time you accumulate so much merit, then again at lunch time, at tea time in the evening and then at dinner time. Even in one day you’re accumulating unbelievable merit. You should understand this and be happy. You’ve heard more teachings than I have, so you should think in this way. Actually, you practice Dharma much more than I do—I just sit on my bed doing nothing.”
Even if they don’t have time to do prostrations, count mandala offerings or sit down to say prayers, I think that cooks in monasteries and Dharma centers accumulate much more merit by offering service. If you give even a candy, a cup of tea or a glass of water to one disciple of your guru, by remembering that guru and then making the offering, in that moment you accumulate more merit than by making offerings to all the buddhas of the three times. Since there is so much merit from making offerings to one pore of the guru, there can be no doubt about the merit of offering breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea to hundreds of fellow disciples. Even if only one or two people actually serve the food, since all the people in the kitchen work together to produce it, they can think in the same way. They should motivate by remembering the guru, offer the food to the pores of the guru, then dedicate the merit to others.
Although the cook himself couldn’t afford to invite all those disciples to his home and offer them all meals and cups of tea, in a monastery or Dharma center other people give him this incredible opportunity to perform purification and accumulate extensive merit in such a short time. However, you can still do this practice even if you don’t have the chance to be a cook, manager or kitchen worker. Whenever you give anything to a fellow disciple, remember the guru in your heart and that this person is a pore of that guru and then make the offering. That action then becomes a highly skillful method to achieve enlightenment.
If making offerings to the pores of the guru creates more merit than making offerings to all the buddhas of the three times, there can be no doubt that there is much more merit in actually making offerings to the guru. By making offerings to our guru, we collect the most extensive merit. By offering a glass of water or even a candy to our guru, we collect more merit than from having made offerings to numberless Buddhas, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas, thangkas and scriptures.
Basili Llorca, Lama Ösel’s attendant when he was first at Sera Je Monastery, told me that every morning when Lama Ösel went to receive teachings from Geshe Thubten, he always took along something, usually one of his toys, as an offering. I told Basili that it was a very good practice to continue. Geshe-la was also very happy to see Lama Ösel doing that. Although I don’t do this all the time, as I think Lama Ösel did, I try as often as possible to take an offering when I go to see one of my gurus. Since it’s an opportunity that comes rarely, it’s good to take it. When we have the opportunity to accumulate the most extensive merit from the merit field of the guru, as mentioned here in the eight benefits, we should take it. This doesn’t mean that I’m campaigning for you to bring offerings to me, by the way.
When you make an offering to a virtuous friend, it is good, if you are familiar with it, to remember the second Guru Puja merit field, where every single part of the guru’s holy body is meditated on as different aspects of buddhas and bodhisattvas. For example, the five aggregates are the five Dhyani Buddhas. Or you can think that the guru’s holy body is like the assembly of all the buddhas. When you make the offering, think that there are numberless buddhas in each pore of the guru’s holy body. This guru yoga practice is very effective for your mind and it also makes your mind very happy.
You become closer to enlightenment every single time you make an offering by thinking of your guru—for example, when you do a mandala offering or make offerings during a sadhana or Guru Puja. Whether you are in your own meditation room or somewhere else, each time you make an offering to your guru, either directly or in meditation, you become closer to enlightenment.
Sakya Pandita, an embodiment of Manjushri and one of the five principal lamas of the Sakya tradition,45 said,
All the merit you accumulate by practicing the paramita of charity for a thousand eons—giving to other sentient beings not only your head and limbs but even the merit you receive by offering your body in this way—is accumulated in an instant with the path of the guru. Therefore, offer service and feel happy.
The path of the guru refers to practicing guru yoga by making offerings to our guru, whether to the actual or visualized guru. Sakya Pandita is saying that the merit we’d accumulate by practicing the six paramitas, such as the paramita of charity, for thousands of eons is accumulated in an instant by making offerings to the guru. This means that even by offering one bucket of water for the guru to bathe we’re able to collect all the merit collected over thousands of eons by giving not only our own body, our most cherished object, to other sentient beings, but even the merit we have accumulated through those actions. The merit we accumulate in an instant by making offerings to our guru is unimaginable.
Sacrificing ourselves by making charity of our body and even our life to other sentient beings for one thousand eons, a great length of time, is incredible. But, as far as finishing the work of accumulating merit is concerned, simply offering one glass of water to a virtuous friend accumulates as much merit. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo used the example of offering a bucket of water for the guru to bathe, but by offering the guru even a glass of water or a cup of tea, we accumulate in that second an inconceivable amount of merit.
Sakya Pandita then concludes, Therefore, offer service and feel happy. We should offer service to the guru and, by remembering the advantages of our service, feel great happiness. For example, just by cleaning our guru’s room we become closer to enlightenment. We create infinite merit and this infinite merit is received through the kindness of our guru, through our having a guru-disciple relationship with him.
Sakya Pandita is giving this advice with compassion, as if to someone he feels very close to and wants to save from suffering. The heartfelt nature of his advice is very evident in the Tibetan.
If we make one tiny offering—a stick of incense, a flower or even a grain of rice—to a statue of a buddha, even without bodhicitta or some other virtuous motivation, in that second we accumulate infinite merit. It’s hard for our ordinary mind to understand the unimaginable results, including enlightenment, we create by making one tiny offering to even a statue of a buddha, let alone to an actual buddha. Why does it have this unimaginable result? Because of the power of the holy object, because a buddha’s power and qualities are inconceivable. This is why there are unimaginable good results from a single action of circumambulating, prostrating or making offering to a statue of a buddha. And there is no need to mention the unbelievable merit we accumulate from making offering to numberless buddhas. Now, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo says that such merit cannot be compared to the merit from serving our guru, whether actual or visualized, by offering him a bucket of water to bathe.
Padampa Sangye also said,
If you take care of the guru, who is much more precious than the buddhas, you will achieve whatever realizations you wish to achieve in this life, people of Tingri.
If we see a statue of a buddha as more precious than the holy body of our guru, which we regard as an ordinary being’s suffering samsaric body, we will find it very difficult to generate realizations of lamrim and extremely difficult to generate realizations of tantra. But if we take care of our guru as being much more precious than the buddhas, as Padampa Sangye said, we will generate the realizations of sutra and tantra easily, like rain falling.
Kalachakra Tantra says,
One cannot become enlightened in this life even if one makes offerings to the Triple Gem and saves the lives of millions of creatures for all the eons of the three times; but if, with devotion, one pleases the guru, who has oceans of qualities, one will definitely achieve the general and sublime realizations in this life.
In The Five Stages Nagarjuna says,
Give up all other offerings—attempt only to make offerings to the guru. By pleasing the guru you will achieve the sublime transcendental wisdom of omniscience.
Also, the tantric teaching Ocean of Transcendental Wisdom says,
For the wise fortunate one, serving the guru has greater meaning than making prostrations to all the buddhas of the three times for sixty million eons. If one accomplishes the work according to the guru’s advice, all one’s wishes will quickly be achieved and one will collect unimaginable merit. And one who pleases the guru with the offering of one’s possessions will be liberated from the three realms of samsara, be born in the pure realm of nirmanakaya and go to the sorrowless state.
Even though samsaric perfections don’t have any essence, we obtain essence from the wealth and possessions that we have by offering them to the guru. Ocean of Transcendental Wisdom mentions simply possessions but the offering that most pleases the guru is the offering of Dharma practice, which is implied here. The real meaning of offering is pleasing the guru’s holy mind, which comes about through practicing Dharma or achieving realizations. It is Dharma practice that most pleases his holy mind, not material offerings.
A wise fortunate one is someone whose work accords with the guru’s wishes. As said in this tantric teaching, skillfully working for the guru has greater meaning than making prostrations to the buddhas of the three times for millions of eons.
I mention these quotations because I find them very effective when I think of their meaning. They are the true teachings of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and great yogis, and if we have faith in and practice them, we definitely receive the result. Also, these are quotations from the Buddha and from great yogis who have themselves practiced and completed the path. Because these quotations come from their personal experience, they have much power and we receive much blessing by remembering them and contemplating their meaning. We should especially remember these quotations when we find it difficult to do what the guru advises us to do and are becoming depressed. When working for the guru, it is extremely important to remember again and again the infinite advantages of doing so.
If we remember the benefits explained in the sutra and tantra teachings, the work we do becomes very effective for our mind, just like reading scriptures or doing meditation, and very enjoyable, because we are confident of the result we will receive from it. No matter how hard the work, our motivation for doing it will easily become Dharma. Otherwise, if we don’t relate the practice of guru yoga to our own work, instead of working for the guru we’ll be working for ourselves. Our motivation will become egocentric and after some time our mind will become empty, dry and without hope. We’ll get physically and mentally exhausted and the work we’re doing won’t make much sense to us. Then there’s a danger that we will lose our faith and generate heresy and other kinds of negative thoughts, which throw us into the hells.
When working at a meditation center we sometimes find ourselves in difficult situations. However, we can still be happy if we know how to apply guru yoga practice to that difficult situation. We can think, “This is the blessing of the guru” or “This situation has been purposely manifested by the guru to help me purify my negative karmas and obscurations.” When we’re finding it hard to deal with a particular person, for example, we can think, “This person has been purposely manifested by the guru to subdue my unsubdued mind, to tame my untamed mind.” By relating the situation to guru yoga, we can accept it and be happy.
As explained in Ocean of Transcendental Wisdom, those who are able to offer service to their guru are fortunate beings. Why are they fortunate? Because from morning until night, everything they do is following the guru’s advice and thus they accumulate unbelievable merit. If we are working at a job that the guru has given us—whether it is cleaning toilets, building houses or even running a business—it is easy for us to think that our purpose in being alive is to serve the guru. We exist to offer service to the guru. And we are fortunate beings, because from morning until night we take care of ourselves for that purpose. We even eat for the purpose of offering service to the guru. We are fortunate if what we are doing is carrying out the guru’s advice, because our every movement, even in taking care of ourselves, becomes a method of purifying our negative karma and accumulating extensive merit.
If we have been working hard to serve our guru, we should feel great happiness. We don’t need to worry that we don’t have time to meditate or do prostrations or any of the other preliminary practices. Remember the life stories of Milarepa and Naropa and think, “This is my preliminary practice to purify my karmic obscurations.” Doing hundreds of thousands of prostrations is nothing special. As mentioned in Ocean of Transcendental Wisdom, carrying out the guru’s advice purifies much more negative karma and accumulates much more merit than does making many millions of prostrations to all the buddhas of the three times for millions of eons.
If you are doing some work on the advice of your guru, you also don’t need to worry about not getting to do retreat. It is natural that all your wishes will be fulfilled, whether you are wishing for a long life, to do retreat, to generate the path, to be born in a pure realm or to achieve omniscient mind. Whatever wish you have will be fulfilled without hindrance; it’s a natural process, a dependent arising. Following the guru’s advice itself is the best puja to prevent hindrances to the fulfillment of your wishes. Generally, accomplishing the wishes of other sentient beings becomes the cause for your own wishes to be fulfilled; so there is no doubt that fulfilling the guru’s wishes will cause your wishes to be fulfilled. There is no doubt that any project you have in this life, and in future lives, will be successful. It’s the best cause for your own success. You can understand this from the life ¬stories of Dromtönpa, the translator and closest disciple of Lama Atisha, and many of the Kadampa geshes and great yogis. You can also see examples of the truth of this even with present practitioners, many of whom underwent hardships in carrying out their guru’s advice and experienced success later in their lives.
All your wishes are fulfilled because you collect unimaginable merit and purify so much negative karma. Purifying karmic obscurations itself prevents hindrances to your practice, thus ensuring the success of your Dharma wishes. Because of the hardships you have previously undergone in following the guru’s advice, if you do strict retreat in an isolated place, you will be very successful, with no hindrances.
If we can remember how fortunate we are and the advantages of what we are doing, we can feel incredible happiness from morning until night. Even though we mightn’t have realization of emptiness or of the generation and completion stages, we can still be satisfied with what we have.
If we understand guru devotion practice and all its eight benefits and are aware of them every day, there is no way that we could be other than happy to do all the hundreds, thousands, billions of things we have to do, especially when we work in a Dharma center. There is no happier life to be found on this earth. We recognize this if we know how to correctly devote ourselves to the virtuous friend. If we know even the very first benefit, that we become closer to enlightenment each time we carry out our guru’s advice or make an offering to or serve him, we will know how to think. The more we have to do and the harder it is, the more we will see that there is no better, no happier life than this.
2. WE PLEASE ALL THE BUDDHAS
The second advantage of correctly devoting ourselves to the virtuous friend is that we please all the buddhas.
The Essence of Nectar mentions,
When a disciple correctly follows the holy virtuous friend,
The thought that this practitioner will quickly be liberated from samsara
Profoundly pleases the holy minds of all the Victorious Ones,
Like a mother who sees that her son has been benefited.
There is also a reference to this in the sutra Laying Out of Stalks, which states,
The holy minds of the buddhas are happy with the bodhisattvas who have entered the teaching revealed by the guru.
Just as a mother is very happy when she sees someone helping her beloved child, all the buddhas are pleased when we devote ourselves correctly to our virtuous friend with thought and with action, following their advice and serving them. Even though the person doesn’t actually help the mother, she is still extremely pleased that they are giving help to her son. Similarly, if we correctly follow our guru’s advice, which is the main service, and make offerings and so forth, all the buddhas are extremely pleased with us from their hearts. If we please our virtuous friend, all the buddhas are pleased and even the deity that we practice becomes closer to us. We are given guidance and granted blessings. Pleasing the guru means pleasing all the buddhas, and we receive the blessings of all the buddhas.
Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that the virtuous friend is the form in which all the buddhas manifest in order to subdue us. If we don’t devote ourselves correctly to the virtuous friend, even if we make thousands of offerings to all the buddhas of the ten directions every day, there is no way that the buddhas will be pleased with us. Similarly, if we disturb the holy mind of the virtuous friend by not following his advice but at the same time make thousands of offerings to the buddhas, there is again no way we will please all the buddhas and no way we will attain realizations or even have any good experiences.
If, however, we correctly follow the guru and then make offerings, we please all the buddhas. Why? Because the guru is the embodiment of all the buddhas. In order to subdue our mind, all the buddhas manifested in this particular aspect, in accord with our karma or, in other words, our merit. If we correctly follow our virtuous friend, even without needing to be invoked, all the buddhas living in all the directions will happily abide in our guru’s holy body and accept our offerings.
The highly realized yogi Buddhajñana explained,
I shall dwell in the bodies
Of those who are living in this meaning
And accept offerings from practitioners.
Pleasing the virtuous friend purifies
The karmic obscurations in the minds of practitioners.
This means that Buddha himself dwells in the body of the qualified virtuous friend and accepts the offerings of the practitioners who correctly follow that virtuous friend. This pleases the buddhas and thus purifies the karmic obscurations in the minds of the practitioners.
A similar thing is said in The Essence of Nectar,
It is said that when a disciple correctly follows the guru,
Even if not invoked, the buddhas will happily enter
The guru’s holy body, accept all the offerings,
And also bless the mindstream of the disciple.
The buddhas will accept the offerings from the disciple and also bless her mind, which means that her mind will be transformed so that it becomes capable of generating realizations.
As the guru is the embodiment transformed by all the buddhas in order to lead us to liberation and enlightenment, as I’ve already explained, by making just one cup of tea and offering it to our guru, in that moment we receive the infinite benefits of having actually offered tea to all the buddhas of the three times. As said in many prayers, the guru is the sublime field of merit.
Offering the guru even one cup of tea is like having actually made offering to all the buddhas, but the benefit is much greater. As Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo points out, if we make an offering to the buddhas of the three times, we gain the benefit of having made the offering but we can’t be sure that the buddhas actually accept our offering with pleased holy minds. However, by making an offering to the guru we receive both the benefit of having made an offering to all the buddhas and of having the offering accepted. In this way we are able to quickly finish the work of accumulating merit.
3. WE ARE NOT HARMED BY MARAS OR EVIL FRIENDS
If we correctly devote ourselves to our virtuous friend with thought and with action, allowing ourselves to be under the control of the virtuous friend, we won’t be harmed by maras or evil friends. Because of our strong devotion, we purify inconceivable obscurations and past negative karmas and accumulate extensive merit; nonhuman beings, such as the devas and spirits who disturb the practice of virtue, and even human beings cannot then harm us. Even the four elements—earth, water, fire and air—cannot give us harm.
Generally speaking, someone with a lot of merit has much power and cannot be harmed by others, even though others might dislike the person and want to harm him. Such a practitioner has much success in his practice, in achieving realizations. But when a person’s level of merit becomes low because he commits a heavy negative karma or stops creating extensive merit, he experiences a lot of problems in his life. Human and nonhuman beings are then able to harm him.
There are two types of maras: inner and outer. Inner maras are karma and delusions. Outer maras are worldly beings who cause delusions to increase, such as nagas, devas and various types of spirits; they can also be human beings, “evil friends.” Someone who practices correct devotion to his virtuous friend can’t be harmed by evil friends simply because he follows his virtuous friend and not the evil friends. Because of that, even evil friends can’t be a bad influence and lead him in the wrong path.
Outer maras, such as the Deva’s Son [Skt: devaputramara] and other black-side devas, dislike seeing people practice Dharma and can interfere with their practice by causing sickness, extreme desire and other problems. For example, in someone who is trying to practice charity, maras can cause miserliness to arise. Maras can cause ordained people to no longer recognize their ordination as a good thing and wish to no longer be a monk or nun. Maras can cause someone in retreat to suddenly change her mind and not want to do the retreat. The mudra of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s right hand, with the palm resting on the right knee and the middle finger touching the ground, indicates that he has control over the Deva’s Son.
There are many different types of outer maras. Tsen are spirits that live above the earth and can cause epilepsy, strokes and other diseases. (They are the cooperative cause, of course; the principal cause is karma.) Landlord, or local, spirits live on the earth and can drive people crazy and cause catastrophes. Spirits, nagas and dön, or demons, live below the earth and can cause infections. Local spirits, tsen and gyal-gong can possess people and make them crazy.
The teachings advise people doing retreat not to recite mantras at noon or when the sun is rising or setting because during these times maras come to distract the mind. If you do recite mantras at these times, they should not be counted as part of the retreat because your mind will be distracted and the recitation will not be perfect. I count the mantras anyway, because for me it doesn’t make any difference—there’s no concentration at any time.
In the sutra Extensively Manifesting, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explains,
The person who correctly follows the guru accumulates extensive merit. From that cause, he experiences the result of happiness. Ripening of merit brings happiness and eliminates all suffering. That fortunate one accomplishes all his wishes, defeats the maras and quickly reaches enlightenment. He also achieves the coolness of the sorrowless state.
Here, the coolness of nirvana is contrasted with the heat of samsara. Samsara, which is only in the nature of suffering, is hot, like a fire; nirvana, the sorrowless state, is like a cool breeze. Those who correctly devote themselves to the virtuous friend accumulate extensive merit and thus avoid being harmed by maras and succeed not only in removing their own suffering and receiving happiness but also in removing the sufferings of others and granting them happiness.
Another sutra says,
The fortunate being is unable to be harmed by devas or maras.
The Essence of Nectar also explains,
At that time, because the blessings of all the buddhas
Enter the opening of the devotional mind,
One isn’t harmed by multitudes of maras and delusions.
Here maras might be related to the outer maras and delusions to the inner maras. As one isn’t overwhelmed by the inner maras, the delusions, one is also not overwhelmed by outer maras. It is because of our disturbing thoughts and karma that we are harmed by outer maras. Having whole-hearted devotion enables us to receive the blessings of the guru and we are then unable to be harmed by inner and outer maras. We are able to conquer all our enemies, the maras, especially the inner maras of the disturbing thoughts and the subtle mara of dual view. In this way we are then able to achieve buddhahood, with completion of all the qualities of cessation and realization.
4. ALL OUR DELUSIONS AND NEGATIVE ACTIONS NATURALLY CEASE
If we correctly devote ourselves to a virtuous friend, all our delusions and vices naturally stop. We realize the advantages of devoting ourselves to a virtuous friend and also look at unsubdued minds and wrong conduct as our enemy. As we understand what is to be practiced and what is to be abandoned, we are able to give up wrong conduct. Either because we follow our teacher’s example or because we practice correct devotion from our own side, all our disturbing thoughts and negative actions are naturally stopped. When we are following a guru, we allow ourselves to be under his control instead of that of our delusions.
Those who correctly devote themselves to the guru cannot be led in the wrong way because, as said in the sutra Laying Out of Stalks,
It is difficult for one who is guided by a virtuous friend to be overwhelmed by karma and the unsubdued mind.
The Essence of Nectar also mentions,
If one always devotes to the virtuous friend,
All delusions and wrong conduct spontaneously cease.
If a guru is living an ascetic life, with no interest in worldly activities, the disciples who take teachings from and live with that guru will automatically follow his example and also live an ascetic life. The disciples will also be content, have little desire and turn their back on the eight worldly dharmas. Because of the teacher, the disciples will naturally become pure Dharma practitioners, leaving behind all concern for happiness, comfort, food, clothing and reputation. When the thought of worldly concern is left behind, the disciples will tend not to generate delusions and create negative karma.
If a teacher is strict in the practice of virtue, rather than eating, sleeping and enjoying himself all the time, he will always attempt, day and night, not to waste his time. He will stay up late at night attempting to practice virtue. His disciples will also continuously attempt to practice virtue and not spend much time on the pleasures of this life. If a virtuous teacher is a great learned being who has done extensive listening and reflecting, his disciples will also have extensive understanding of what is to be practiced and what is to be avoided. If the teacher is strict in moral conduct, abstaining from vices with his three doors, his disciples will also naturally be careful in moral conduct. Good disciples will automatically be like their teacher, renouncing even small vices. In this way, delusions and wrong actions naturally cease.
In a similar way, if the guru does much practice of bodhicitta, renouncing the self and cherishing others, his disciples will also automatically follow that example, naturally practicing the good heart. This is shown by the examples of Lama Suvarnadvipi and his disciples, such as Lama Atisha; Lama Atisha and his disciples, such as Dromtönpa; and Geshe Potowa and his disciples, such as Geshe Sharawa.
If we understand the eight benefits of correctly following the guru and the eight shortcomings of incorrectly following the guru, which actually form part of the subject of karma, we understand the vices of body, speech and mind from which we should abstain. Looking at vices and the unsubdued mind as our enemies, we will then be able to renounce them and practice their remedies.
5. ALL OUR REALIZATIONS OF THE PATHS AND BHUMIS INCREASE
The fifth benefit of correctly following the guru is that all our realizations of the paths and bhumis will effortlessly increase, even in each second. If we follow the virtuous friend correctly, even if we don’t meditate much, realizations will spontaneously, effortlessly, be generated.
The quickest way to achieve realizations is to do what most pleases the holy mind of the virtuous friend, which means following his advice. We normally have such questions as “How can I have realizations quickly?” or “How can I develop my mind quickly in the path to enlightenment?” but somehow we don’t think of this section of the lamrim, which is the answer. Our answer is normally not this basic one but that we need to do more retreat or some other practice. We don’t know or we forget that it is guru devotion practice that made it possible for the past and present practitioners to achieve realizations quickly. We think that some other practice will enable us to achieve realizations quickly, but it doesn’t work.
Correctly following the guru and serving him increases realizations hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, and our obscurations are purified in a similar way. The reason we are not enlightened now is that we have obscurations. If we had no obscurations, we would be a buddha now. It’s simply a question of our having obscurations.
The Essence of Nectar says,
Realizations of the paths and bhumis are generated and increase.
The white dharmas spontaneously develop,
So one achieves extensive happiness in this and future lives.
Also, the Perfection of Wisdom says,
Finding the profound meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom, emptiness, depends on only the virtuous friend. By depending on the virtuous friend, one approaches the paths and bhumis.
And Lama Tsongkhapa says in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment,
The multitudes of realizations increase higher and higher in one who never transgresses the bodhisattva’s conduct and always sees the guru as a buddha and is mindful of the advantages of offering service and the disadvantages of generating heresy, thinking, “If I generate heresy, I will be born in the hells” or “If I act in this way it will harm my achievement of enlightenment.”
There are many stories of Kadampa geshes, other past great yogis and even present meditators who have correctly followed the virtuous friend and increased their experiences and realizations of the path to enlightenment.
Take Lama Atisha’s disciples, for example. Gönpawa always meditated. Lama Atisha would even go to Gönpawa’s hermitage to give him teachings, rather than Gönpawa go to Lama Atisha. Dromtönpa was always busy translating for Lama Atisha and doing other work. And the monk, A-me Jangchub Rinchen, cooked for and served Lama Atisha. (I used to think that there was a printing error in the text and that the cook was actually a nun, Ani Jangchub Rinchen, but Ribur Rinpoche explained that the cook was a monk, A-me Jangchub Rinchen.)
A-me Jangchub Rinchen was worried that he didn’t have time to meditate or do retreat because he always had so much cooking to do. When he told Dromtönpa of his concerns, Dromtönpa replied, “I have no other thought in my mind except to offer service to Lama Atisha.” That answer completely satisfied A-me Jangchub Rinchen and his problem disappeared.
One day, alone in his hermitage, Gönpawa thought to himself, “Because I meditate all the time I must have a much higher level of realization than Dromtönpa, who is always busy translating for Lama Atisha and never has time to meditate or do retreat. And I should definitely have more realizations than A-me Jangchub Rinchen, who is always busy cooking for Lama Atisha.”
Lama Atisha, with his clairvoyance, immediately discovered what Gönpawa was thinking in his meditation room. He called Gönpawa, Dromtönpa and A-me Jangchub Rinchen together and sat them down in front of him. He then checked to see whose mind was most developed. Lama Atisha saw that Dromtönpa’s level of realization was the highest, much higher than Gönpawa’s, and even A-me Jangchub Rinchen had higher realizations than Gönpawa.
Even though Gönpawa had not been busy working but had been meditating all the time, his level of realization was the lowest of the three. Even though Dromtönpa and the cook were extremely busy and had no time to meditate, they purified their minds by bearing hardships to serve Lama Atisha. This is why their level of realization was higher. Because we have buddha-nature, if we purify our mind, realizations will manifest from within it.
Before coming to central Tibet and becoming Lama Atisha’s translator, Dromtönpa lived in Kham and was the disciple-servant of his first guru, Lama Setsun, whom he served for a long time. Dromtönpa once asked Lama Atisha what had been the best Dharma practice out of all the things he, Dromtönpa, had done in his life. He told Lama Atisha about his various practices and also explained how hard he had worked for Lama Setsun. At night, armed, he guarded all the lama’s animals. During the daytime, he did many other things. He made all the fires. The lama’s wife used Dromtönpa as a seat while she milked the cows out in the fields. Every morning for many years Dromtönpa would clean the kitchen and take out the ashes left from the fire. While Dromtönpa was using his hands to spin yarn, he’d be kneading butter into dried animal skins to make them soft and pliable with his feet. At the same time, he’d also be carrying something on his back. For many years, he worked like this—doing many things at the same time. Dromtönpa explained all this to Lama Atisha, who said, “Of all the things you have done, only your hard work for Lama Setsun has been the real Dharma.”
Dromtönpa correctly devoted himself to Lama Atisha for seventeen years. From the time Dromtönpa met Lama Atisha, he never left Lama Atisha in the dark at night: every night he offered a butter lamp in Lama Atisha’s room.
When Lama Atisha was showing the aspect of old age and sickness, he became incontinent; he couldn’t control his bladder or bowels and would urinate and defecate in his bed. With a continuous feeling of guru devotion and without any superstitious thought that it was dirty, Dromtönpa would clean away the feces with his hands and take them outside.
One day after he had served Lama Atisha in this way, Dromtönpa spontaneously went into a state of concentration. When he arose from it, he had suddenly developed clairvoyance and was able to read clearly all the thoughts in the minds of sentient beings—even ants—up to a distance that it would take an eagle eighteen days to fly. Dromtönpa’s mind became so clear because of the purification that came from serving Lama Atisha, including cleaning up his excrement.
This didn’t come about through Dromtönpa’s simply understanding the words of Dharma. Dromtönpa sacrificed himself to serve Lama Atisha and by doing so he purified some of his obscurations. This is why he suddenly developed this clairvoyant knowledge.
Because Dromtönpa correctly devoted himself to his virtuous friend in this way, he became the head of the Kadampa tradition, the successor of Lama Atisha, and his holy name became renowned in the ten directions. Also, Lama Atisha’s holy actions, as vast as the sky, to benefit the teachings of Buddha and sentient beings in the arya land of India and in Tibet came about only through his having correctly devoted himself to his virtuous friends.
There is a similar story about how Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa served his guru, Geshe Chengawa. Chayulwa was originally a disciple of Geshe Tölungpa, who offered him to his own guru Geshe Chengawa because Chayulwa was such a good disciple and had served him so well. Geshe Chengawa was extremely pleased by this.
Every day Chayulwa served his guru Geshe Chengawa by cleaning his room. And whenever Geshe Chengawa called, even if Chayulwa was in the middle of doing something, as soon as he heard his guru’s voice he would immediately stop what he was doing and go to serve him. If Chayulwa was offering a mandala when Geshe Chengawa called him, he would stop before he had finished offering the mandala and run to serve him. If he was writing the letter nga, not even waiting to finish the syllable, he would immediately run to serve Geshe Chengawa.
One morning, after Chayulwa had finished cleaning Geshe Chengawa’s room, he collected all the dirt in the lap of his robes and went to carry it down the stairs to throw it out. When he reached the third step he suddenly saw numberless buddhas right there, a sign that he had reached the level of the great path of merit, Concentration of Continual Dharma. When you achieve the Concentration of Continual Dharma you see countless buddhas in nirmanakaya aspect and are able to continuously receive teachings from them. Before this Chayulwa had not been able to see even one buddha. Like heaping up grain, realizations then came in his mind. That was the result of his having purified his negative karma and obscurations through offering service with a pure mind of guru devotion.
Seeing or not seeing buddhas doesn’t depend on the buddhas but only on our mind. It is not that the buddhas were normally not there but on that particular day they came to the steps. The buddhas were always there, inside and outside the room, but Geshe Chayulwa saw them only when he had purified his obscurations by his strong practice of guru yoga. If we purify our mind we can see buddhas wherever we are. It’s not necessary for us to be in a holy place because there is no place where there is no buddha. We don’t see buddhas at the moment only because we haven’t purified our karmic obscurations.
When his guru Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen showed the aspect of heavy sickness, Sakya Pandita nursed him day and night. He bore many hardships to take care of Dragpa Gyaltsen, going without food and sleep, day and night. Sakya Pandita completely sacrificed himself to take care of his guru, cherishing him more than his own life.
Dragpa Gyaltsen was extremely pleased with the way Sakya Pandita had dedicated himself to serving him and later taught Sakya Pandita the Manjushri guru yoga practice, involving meditation on the inseparability of the guru and Manjushri, the embodiment of the wisdom of all the buddhas. When he did this practice, Sakya Pandita actually saw Dragpa Gyaltsen in the aspect of Manjushri. All the service that Sakya Pandita offered his guru when he was sick brought incredible purification. Because he pleased his guru, he was then able to realize that his guru was Manjushri.
Sakya Pandita then achieved many realizations and became very learned. He became famous and highly respected for his learning in Tibet and China and liked everywhere, not only by human beings but even by gods and spirits. He was invited to China by the Emperor, who became his disciple. He became a great pandit, highly learned not only in the inner knowledge of Buddhadharma but in the five fields of knowledge, which include poetry, logic, handicrafts and languages. Expert in the entire Buddhadharma and confident in explaining it, Sakya Pandita was thus able to offer extensive benefit to the teachings of Buddha and to many sentient beings.
Another example of developing realizations through the practice of guru devotion is Trichen Tenpa Rabgye, one of the Ganden Tripas. When his teacher Ngawang Chöjor was very sick, Trichen Tenpa Rabgye himself almost died of worry. Because he served his teacher perfectly during his illness, Trichen Tenpa Rabgye purified great karmic obscurations and then realized emptiness, actualizing the Prasangika right view. Before that, even though Trichen Tenpa Rabgye had studied and meditated a lot on emptiness, no realizations had come.
There is also a story about Phurchog Ngawang Jampa, whose guru was Je Drubkhangpa. When Je Drubkhangpa was in a cave doing single-pointed practice on the path, Phurchog Ngawang Jampa offered service to his guru, even though he himself was a very high practitioner. Because there were no trees in the place where Je Drubkhangpa was doing retreat, animal dung had to be used as fuel for fires. Phurchog Ngawang Jampa, even though he was old, would carry heavy loads of dung up the mountain and offer them to his guru. In this way, he underwent much hardship. One day Je Drubkhangpa gave him a little of the inner offering, which he had blessed, from his skullcup. Because of his guru yoga practice, when Phurchog Ngawang Jampa drank the inner offering, it blessed his mind so that he generated an intense thought of renunciation of samsara.
Some years ago, when I was staying at Tushita Retreat Centre in Dharamsala, I offered some beautiful begonias to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Offering the flowers was a little tricky as, although they were incredibly beautiful, they flowered only briefly and would lose all their petals within a day or so. I offered the flowers in painted butter tins, along with a money offering of thirty rupees in an envelope, on which I’d written a short request for the development of my mind. At that time His Holiness was in retreat, so I left the offering at the Private Office.
I think that His Holiness must have been pleased with the offering of the flowers, because that night I dreamt that His Holiness, seated on a throne in the temple, gave me a little inner offering from the skullcup on his table, and I drank it.
The next morning when I woke up, my mind was somehow different. Normally, I’m extremely lazy, but during that time, I think because of the influence of the many lamas there in Dharamsala, who energized me, I had a tiny bit of energy to meditate a little in the mornings. I tried to do a little lamrim meditation as a motivation for the day and as a result, that next morning my meditation was much more effective than usual. I had a strong wish to be reborn in hell for the sake of others. I wanted to be in the hot hells right that minute. The feeling was unbearable; I couldn’t suppress it. This wish was so strong that I cried out loud for half an hour, sobbing like a small child.
I think His Holiness had prayed for me the previous night; he definitely did something that blessed my mind. My mind was different. The dream and the meditation experience were definite signs of His Holiness’s blessing. There might also have been some purification from having offered the flowers. From the three types of kindness of the guru, such an experience is an example of the guru’s kindness in blessing the disciple’s mind. Of course, the effect completely disappeared after a few hours.
After that I became very interested in buying flower seeds and planting them. When they grew well, I then offered the flowers to the lamas there in Dharamsala. I discovered that the best offering was a flower offering.
Also, when we do a Vajrasattva retreat or any other retreat that our guru has advised us to do, we sometimes have strong experiences of impermanence, feeling that our death could happen at any moment, so that we have no other thought except to practice Dharma. Or strong thoughts of loving kindness and compassion arise. All these are signs of the kindness of the guru in having blessed our mind. Even those small, transient experiences prove that if we continue our practice of guru yoga, we will definitely develop realizations. It is proof that realizations can definitely happen and can be increased.
The great Pabongka Rinpoche had a monk-attendant, Jamyang, who served him for many years, in his first incarnation and also in his second, who studied in Tibet, escaped to India and became a geshe at Buxa Duar, before showing the aspect of cancer and passing away. As soon as Pabongka Rinpoche’s second incarnation became a geshe, he received all the lineages of initiations from my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche. These lineages, including many special ones, had been passed to His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, the first incarnation. Jamyang was also able to meet the third incarnation, who studied at Sera Monastery.
Although Jamyang couldn’t even read the Tibetan alphabet, before Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo passed away he told Jamyang that later he would be able to read the Guru Puja text by himself, without needing anybody to teach him.
After Jamyang escaped from Tibet, he went to Buxa Duar, where he lived with the incarnation of Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo. Lama Yeshe was also living in the same building the first time I went to receive teachings from him. Lama Lhundrup,46 who told me this story, also lived there.
Lama Lhundrup told me that when Jamyang was first at Buxa he couldn’t even read the Tibetan alphabet but after some time an understanding of it came to him spontaneously. Without anybody teaching him to read, he somehow came to recognize the letters and was then able to read the whole Guru Puja by himself, just as Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo had predicted.
This was the result of the purification that came from Jamyang serving and correctly devoting himself to Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Tibet. Such things cannot be explained by Western science because it has no concept of negative karma and obscurations. Of course, Western science has a concept of ignorance, of not knowing something, but it has no concept of such things as negative karma, defilements and karmic obscurations. Without understanding these things, there’s no way to explain how Jamyang could suddenly read without having been taught. It was a sign of his mind having been purified. When the mind is purified, understanding comes from within, without need of a teacher.
Jamyang’s story can also be related to the first benefit of correctly devoting yourself to the guru: becoming closer to enlightenment by carrying out the guru’s advice and by making offering to and serving him. Jamyang devoted himself to Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo with action—carrying out his advice, offering service and making material offerings—for many years. That itself brought great purification, purifying heavy negative karmas and making his obscurations thinner. And when obscurations become thinner, understanding of Dharma increases. With thicker obscurations there is less understanding of Dharma. Because of his many years of guru yoga practice, his obscurations became quite thin; therefore, without anybody teaching him the alphabet, he was able to recognize the letters and read by himself. It was a sign that he had become closer to enlightenment and also that his Dharma understanding, or realizations, had increased.
Jamyang passed away at the beginning of 1985 at Kalimpong, in India. By then he was no longer a monk. He didn’t appear to be a great practitioner; he just seemed to be a happy, relaxed person who enjoyed himself. When he was passing away, Jamyang said, “I have done everything I was supposed to do, except for one thing.” It seems there was only one job that he didn’t finish. There weren’t any stories of Jamyang being a great meditator or doing a lot of retreat, but when he passed away he stayed in the meditation state for some days, and when his holy body was offered fire at the funeral, it emitted beams of five-colored light. This was a clear sign that he would be born in a pure realm.
Kadampa Geshe Chengawa mentioned,
A disciple who practices correct devotion to the virtuous friend, even if he is as foolish as a dog or a pig, will have no difficulty in becoming like Manjushri.
In other words, even disciples who are not intelligent and who have little understanding of Dharma can without any difficulty become like Manjushri, the embodiment of the wisdom of all the buddhas, if they practice strong guru devotion and please the holy mind of the virtuous friend. A disciple might have little intelligence, but if his devotion is strong and stable he will have no difficulty in accomplishing the guru’s advice. There will then be only great joy, because of the limitless skies of benefit he gets from that.
Even though a person might be very foolish, if he has indestructible devotion he has the most important thing in life. Sooner or later this will bring him all success. This is “lucky” intelligence. Some people are intelligent and educated but because they have no merit they find it hard to understand and have faith in karma. They’re of “unlucky” intelligence because they’re unable to practice Dharma.
Many years ago, I was talking with one of my uncles about the Kopan monks at Lawudo, where Kopan Monastery first started. My uncle said, “It’s no use. Sooner or later they’ll go trekking with a rucksack on their back. They are of unlucky intelligence.” He was saying that they would come to know the English language and many other things but they would have no merit to continue to be monks and to practice Dharma.
It looks a little strange to say that generating realizations depends on devotion to the guru rather than on understanding teachings. It seems illogical but it’s something that we can clearly understand through our own experiences.
When the water of devotion to the guru has dried up, our mind is like a rock. When we don’t have much feeling for guru devotion in our heart, our practice becomes just words and any meditation that we do also becomes just words. Our meditation doesn’t touch our heart and isn’t really effective for our mind.
At other times, when we have more devotion and really feel the kindness of the guru from our heart, any meditation that we try is very effective and very powerful. When we meditate on impermanence and death, we see the vision of this life as being very short and are less concerned about this life. When we meditate for a short time on bodhicitta, such unbearable compassion arises that we are unable to suppress it. We feel from our heart the kindness of other sentient beings; we feel unbelievable compassion for the suffering of others and also have thoughts of love. Our dedication is also strengthened: right that moment we have a strong wish to immediately be born in hell for the sake of other sentient beings. We have such a strong, uncontrollable wish to do this that we cry like a baby.
When the virtuous friend is happy with us and what we are doing, experiences of the path come very easily. If we are trying to experience emptiness, it somehow prevents hindrances to our meditation. Our meditation is very clear, and with just one or two words we’re able to recognize the object to be refuted. We suddenly recognize the unification of emptiness and dependent arising that Lama Tsongkhapa talks about so much in his teachings, especially in the chapter on special insight in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. At such times, this experience comes very easily. When we have very clear understanding of this unification, stronger devotion arises, especially to Lama Tsongkhapa and to our own virtuous friend, who created the conditions for us to see the meaning of emptiness, of which we have been ignorant during beginningless samsaric lifetimes.
Many sutra and tantra teachings say that we have to practice the path that is pleasing to the virtuous friend. Experience of the path, transformation of the mind, has very much to do with this. When our guru is very pleased with us, our mind changes very easily and very quickly has experiences. At other times our mind is more difficult to change. Through our own individual practice, this dependent arising—that our growth in life depends on the guru’s holy mind—can become our scientific experience.
Pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend isn’t just about making offerings. When you do a retreat or something else that your guru wishes you to do, it pleases his holy mind. During such times, besides the fact that your mind is very happy, many good signs appear in dreams. At night you might dream of the deity being happy with you and giving you presents, for example. The retreat is different from other times. Even from the very beginning, when you have recited hardly any mantras, the retreat is very blissful. Somehow your meditation works: it is extremely effective for your mind and you find it enjoyable. This is not external enjoyment, like the excitement you feel when you are skiing or sky surfing, where people seem to be using their precious human rebirth to try to become a bird as quickly as possible. It is not that kind of enjoyment. There is incredible satisfaction in your heart. There is so much joy even while you’re doing the sadhana. Many good signs, signs of purification, happen. Everything you do becomes Dharma and no matter what you meditate on, you are able to feel it very easily and very effectively in your heart.
All these things mean that you are receiving the blessings of the deity in your mental continuum. They mean that the deity is pleased with you. Why? Because you are doing something that pleases your virtuous friend. As your virtuous friend is pleased with you at that time, you naturally become closer to the deity and all these signs of receiving blessings happen.
Another point is that if you are doing something positive, something very pleasing to the holy mind of the guru, even if you don’t inform the guru about what you are doing and there is a great physical distance between you, you have dreams of the guru being extremely happy and giving you presents, blessings and so forth. Or in a dream the guru looks magnificent and smiles at you.
Also, if you are in some kind of trouble, perhaps with some risk to your life, you have visions of the guru or see him in a dream and receive guidance or help.
I’m very lazy about doing retreat and rarely do it, but many years ago, on Lama Yeshe’s advice, I did a short retreat in the small hut that used to be right on the top of the hill at Kopan. I found that retreat unbelievably beneficial, unbelievably effective. I didn’t have any realizations but I enjoyed myself very much. In the early mornings, even before I began the sadhana, I found whatever lamrim subject I thought about unbelievably effective. There was a big difference from other times. This happened by the kindness of Lama Yeshe, who wanted me to do that particular retreat very much. Like a water bubble bursting, I suddenly jumped into it.
Lama Yeshe was extremely happy when I started the retreat and at the end, when I came out of the retreat, I found that Lama had made special preparations in my room. In Bodhgaya he had bought new Tibetan carpets and a very expensive cup, which he had filled with the best Tibetan tea brought by Lama’s brother from Tibet.
I was very fortunate and enjoyed myself very much, but I think this was only because Lama was very happy with me. I couldn’t find any other reason that I had such a good time.
(6) WE WILL NEVER LACK VIRTUOUS FRIENDS IN ALL OUR FUTURE LIVES
Correctly devoting ourselves to the virtuous friend helps us not to lack gurus in future lives. In other words, by correctly devoting ourselves to our virtuous friend with thought and action in this life, we’ll be able to meet virtuous friends in all our future lives. That we have been able to meet many qualified virtuous friends in this life is a result of our practice of guru devotion either in this life or in past lives; it is the result of our past good karma.
Kadampa Geshe Potowa said,
After having made Dharma contact, we must respect the guru.
It is natural that we then won’t lack a guru in future lives,
Because karma is never lost.
Our lack of success in developing our mind and gaining attainments is not because we haven’t made a Dharma connection and established a guru-disciple relationship but because after establishing a relationship we haven’t practiced correctly. Our lack of progress comes from not holding to the Dharma connections we have established and not devoting ourselves correctly to our gurus.
Some people might say that the reason they don’t have attainments is that they haven’t received some secret or profound teaching from their gurus or because they haven’t met many gurus or many well-known ones. However, it’s just that from their side they haven’t practiced exactly as they’ve been taught. Our not having realizations is not because we don’t have many gurus but because we haven’t correctly devoted ourselves to our gurus with thought and action as the teachings explain. If we had practiced perfectly, by now we would have achieved enlightenment, the completion stage, the generation stage, or at least realized bodhicitta or emptiness. From our side we haven’t practiced exactly what we’ve been taught; from the side of our gurus, they have shown us the unmistaken path and done everything possible for us.
I think that we are incredibly fortunate to have met so many qualified gurus who have revealed the unmistaken sutra and tantra paths to the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment. We can understand this when we compare ourselves to those who have been unable to meet a qualified teacher and have no understanding of Dharma. So many people cannot find a guru who can teach them how to create the unmistaken cause for even the happiness of future lives, let alone enlightenment. We should appreciate how fortunate we are and how precious this opportunity is. Otherwise, it becomes commonplace, like having breakfast or lunch every day.
It’s amazing, like a dream, that we have the karma even to meet such qualified teachers, let alone be able to hear complete teachings from them. We should rejoice in how fortunate we are. And because of our good fortune, we should continue to practice as much as possible.
Once we have made a Dharma connection with someone, we should look at that person in a new way, devoting ourselves to him as our virtuous friend. Geshe Potowa then gives the reason that, having made the connection, we should hold on to it and respect the guru: karma is never lost.
The Essence of Nectar says,
If we please the guru properly in this life,
Experiencing the result similar to the cause
Will be that we will meet supreme virtuous friends in all future lives
And hear the perfect, unmistaken holy Dharma.
As mentioned in The Essence of Nectar and by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, if in this life we correctly devote ourselves by looking at the virtuous friend as a buddha, whether or not from their side they are a buddha, we create the karma to actually be able to meet gurus who are like Maitreya Buddha or Manjushri in our future lives. This is experiencing the result similar to the cause. Even if a teacher is impatient or cruel, if we look at him as Maitreya Buddha or Manjushri and correctly devote ourselves to him as a virtuous friend, we will develop realizations in this life without any obstacles and in all our future lives will meet and be guided by virtuous friends with the same qualities as Maitreya Buddha and Manjushri. We will be able to find a guru with all these qualities and see him as having these qualities. This is important advice to keep in mind.
If we wish in our future lives to meet perfect gurus who are like Maitreya Buddha and Manjushri, we have to take responsibility in this life. This life is responsible for how things will turn out in future lives, whether it will be easy for us to practice Dharma and have realizations or whether we will find many obstacles and great difficulty in devoting ourselves to a virtuous friend.
Guru devotion in our future lives could be easy—with our easily meeting a perfect guru and succeeding in our guru devotion practice—or difficult—with our not even finding a guru or making many mistakes when we do. How perfectly we can practice guru devotion in our future lives depends on how skillful we are at devoting ourselves to our virtuous friends in this life. And how it is turning out in this life has to do with our past lives, with our past karma. Mistakes we have made in past lives will be reflected in this life, but that doesn’t mean we have no freedom, because we can purify our negative karma—Buddha is so compassionate that he explained methods we can use to do so.
If we look at those with whom we have made Dharma contact in this life as Maitreya Buddha or Manjushri, then respect and follow them, as a result of that karma, it is natural that in our future lives we will actually meet a virtuous friend who is like Maitreya Buddha or Manjushri. We will always meet such perfect virtuous friends because that karma isn’t lost. Therefore, it is important not to look at our present virtuous friends from the side of their faults but only from the side of their good qualities. We should practice guru devotion well so that we don’t miss this benefit.
Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explained, “If you want to meet pure virtuous friends in the future, in this life you should devote yourself without mistakes.”
If we practice this way in this life, in our future lives we will have a better karmic view, seeing the guru as having all the qualities of Maitreya Buddha or Manjushri.
Whether or not we will meet virtuous friends in our future lives and how many qualities we will see in them depend on our guru yoga practice in this life. Whether or not we are going to meet Buddhadharma again, whether or not we are going to meet the Mahayana teachings, and whether or not we are going to meet the Vajrayana teachings also depend on how well we are able to practice guru yoga in this life.
(7) WE WILL NOT FALL INTO THE LOWER REALMS
If we correctly devote ourselves to our virtuous friend, any heavy negative karma we have accumulated during beginningless rebirths can immediately be purified. All the heavy negative karmas to be reborn in the lower realms, such as the five uninterrupted negative karmas, can be completely purified in the shortest time—even in an instant.
The sutra Essence of the Earth mentions,
For one who is guided by a guru, even the negative karmas that would cause one to wander in the lower realms for innumerable tens of millions of eons are purified by manifesting in this life as harms to the body and mind, such as contagious disease, famine and so forth. This karma can also be purified just by receiving a scolding or having a bad dream.
This sutra is saying that if we correctly devote ourselves to our virtuous friend, we purify the heavy karmas we have accumulated in this life and during beginningless lives. Instead of our having to be born in the lower realms and experience there the heaviest suffering for an incredible length of time, we completely purify our negative karmas through experiencing disease, famine or some other difficulty in this life. All those heavy negative karmas can be purified even by having a terrifying dream or by being scolded by our guru, as in Milarepa’s life story. We then don’t have to experience the results of those karmas.
Marpa obliged Milarepa to build a nine-story tower, kicked him out of initiations, scolded him hard and almost beat him to death. Despite these hardships, Milarepa didn’t generate any negative thoughts toward his guru. Having practiced properly devoting himself to his guru, Milarepa purified all his heavy karmic obscurations and became enlightened in that very life.
No matter how much heavy karma we have created in this and past lives, correctly devoting ourselves to the virtuous friend is the answer. What is the most powerful method of purification? Again, the answer is correct devotion to the virtuous friend, because, as I mentioned at the beginning, the virtuous friend is the most powerful among all the powerful objects.
Also, the great yogi Drogön Tsangpa Gyare, a reincarnation of Naropa, said,
If I’m beaten by the guru, it is an initiation.
If there is a blessing to be received, I receive it then.
His heavy scoldings are wrathful mantras;
If I want to eliminate obstacles, that will do it.
There are many stories of a guru purposely doing such actions to guide a disciple, as Marpa did with Milarepa.
Tsangpa Gyare was a great ascetic Kagyü yogi. I saw a set of his robes many years ago in Indiana in America. A student named Michael47 had opened a kind of Hindu ashram, though inside it was more like a Tibetan monastery, with huge paintings of deities and Dharma protectors covering whole walls. Michael had a very old brocade dongka and a Bhutanese-style robe with straps, which had belonged to Tsangpa Gyare. The clothes still had a scented smell even though they had been taken out of an old statue a long time before. The statue had been brought from Kham, in Tibet, to Bhutan, where all the relics, including some of Padmasambhava’s hair, were taken out. The robes then came to America.
Michael usually kept the robes hanging in a closet, but sometimes he would wear them, holding a phurba in one hand and a skullcup in the other and baring his teeth, like a protector. He liked his students to take photos of him in this pose. He said that he felt powerful when he wore the robes. Because the robes belonged to such a great yogi, I think his mind became higher when he wore them.
Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that we shouldn’t see the many hardships we have to bear to do the guru’s work as an obligation or a burden; rather, we should see them as ornaments. Instead of letting the hardships become a burden, we should wear them as beautiful ornaments. Some African tribes put large pieces of wood in their lips or in other parts of their bodies. Even though it must be painful to decorate themselves in that way, they regard it as an ornament. There are many similar examples of people being happy to bear hardships because they regard the result as ornamental. We should look at the difficulties we have to experience in serving the guru as something worthwhile and necessary. We have to realize that the more problems we experience in doing the guru’s work, the more negative karma and obscurations we purify and the more merit we accumulate.
In other words, by thinking of the benefits, we should see any difficulty we experience in doing the guru’s work as a good thing, something we need. No matter how many difficulties we experience, if we look at them as ornaments we accumulate much more merit and purify many more obscurations than by doing many hundreds of thousands of prostrations or other preliminary practices.
This is why Marpa treated Milarepa the way he did. For many years, Marpa didn’t give Milarepa any teachings. Even if Milarepa came to the teachings, Marpa would kick him out. He scolded and beat Milarepa and only gave him work, work and more work. If Marpa had been an ordinary person, he would have been extremely cruel and devoid of compassion but because Marpa treated Milarepa like this for many years, Milarepa purified an unbelievable amount of obscurations. That is why Milarepa was able to complete all the realizations of tantra and become enlightened in one brief lifetime of a degenerate time.
Remember how Trichen Tenpa Rabgye served his guru so perfectly that he purified many of his past negative karmas and was able to realize emptiness. There are many similar stories. By practicing perfect guru yoga, a practitioner can purify the heavy negative karmas that would cause him to be born in hell and suffer there for many eons by experiencing just a headache, a toothache or some other small problem in this life. Simply having a fearful dream can purify heavy negative karmas so that they don’t need to be experienced as heavy sufferings in future lives.
(8) WE WILL EFFORTLESSLY ACCOMPLISH ALL OUR TEMPORARY AND ULTIMATE WISHES
As a result of carrying out our guru’s advice and serving him, all our wishes for temporary and ultimate happiness are quickly fulfilled. Correctly devoting ourselves to the guru establishes the root of all future happiness, including enlightenment. Everything—the works for self and other sentient beings—succeeds and we quickly become enlightened.
In the first verse of The Foundation of All Good Qualities,48 Lama Tsongkhapa says,
The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and perfect pure guru;
Correct devotion to him is the root of the path.
By clearly seeing this and applying great effort,
Please bless me to rely upon him with great respect.
Good qualities includes not only all the realizations from the perfect human rebirth up to enlightenment, but also all our past, present and future happiness. It includes all our happiness experienced during beginningless rebirths, our present happiness and our future happiness up to enlightenment. The guru is the basis of not only the actual realizations of the path to enlightenment but also all our temporary and ultimate happiness, including enlightenment.
In short, all the multitudes of goodness we experience in this and future lives depend on correct devotion to the guru. As Lama Tsongkhapa also said,49
The very root that prepares well the auspiciousness of all the multitudes of goodness of this life and future lives is making effort to practice correct devotion with thought and action to the holy virtuous friend who reveals the path. By seeing this, without giving up the guru even for the sake of your life, please the guru with the offering of accomplishing the work according to his advice.
If we don’t correctly devote ourselves to our gurus, including the guru who taught us the alphabet and the one with whom we usually eat and live, the root of all the multitudes of goodness will be lost. Therefore we should be extremely careful.
The tantric teaching Ocean of Transcendental Wisdom also mentions,
If we practice according to the guru’s advice, all our wishes are accomplished and we receive infinite good fortune.
In a requesting prayer, the great bodhisattva Thogme Zangpo also says,
If I rely upon you with great devotion,
Without effort, you quickly grant every temporary and ultimate wish:
To you, precious Lord of Dharma, I make request.
This verse contains all the eight benefits of correct devotion to the virtuous friend. All the realizations, from perfect human rebirth up to full enlightenment, which all come from the root of guru devotion, are also contained in every temporary and ultimate wish.
If we correctly devote ourselves to the virtuous friend, as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Milarepa and Lama Tsongkhapa did, all our wishes will be accomplished quickly and easily. This includes all our temporary and ultimate wishes; it includes all our wishes for this life, such as receiving all the conditions necessary to practice Dharma, and for future lives, such as finding a perfect human body again or being born in a pure realm, as well as all our ultimate wishes, such as achieving enlightenment for the sake of others.
If we correctly devote ourselves to our virtuous friend, all our wishes effortlessly succeed. If we do a retreat, we’re able to complete the retreat and it is very successful. If we’re studying, we’re able to continue our studies without obstacles and study well. How much success we have in our study of Dharma, how much opportunity we get to study and to successfully complete our study, depends on our practice of guru devotion. The same applies to living in ordination.
In the monasteries, it sometimes happens that when a monk has finished studying and comes to the day of his geshe examination, even though he has a reputation for being learned, at that time when he has to debate and answer questions in front of thousands of learned monks, he can’t remember the answers or answers wrongly. Even though he was in the top class, the lharam class, and was expected to rank first, he ranks much lower. On the day of the examination, he doesn’t succeed. On the other hand, a simple monk who didn’t study much or have much of a reputation for learning can be very successful on that day because he is able to remember and give the correct answers. Everything somehow works out very successfully. When you check back through the person’s life, it all has to do with how well the person practiced guru devotion.
If we correctly devote ourselves to the guru, even at the time of our death, we will be successful. Without any obstacles, we will be able to apply the meditations at the time of death and succeed in peacefully transferring our consciousness to a pure realm. We often hear stories about people who were especially successful at the time of death. Even though there are good stories about how they lived, it’s all related to how they correctly devoted themselves to their virtuous friends. How much we are able to succeed in our own practice and in benefiting other sentient beings depends on our guru devotion.
The Essence of Nectar says,
In short, by devoting to the virtuous friend one temporarily
Finds the body of a god or human, free of non-freedoms;
Ultimately, one finishes all the sufferings of samsara
And achieves the holy state of definite goodness.
The holy state of definite goodness means nirvana and enlightenment. These states are definite in the sense that there is no change from nirvana to samsara or from enlightenment to nirvana or samsara.
All our success in understanding the teachings and achieving realizations of the path depends on the root, correctly devoting ourselves to the virtuous friend. How much understanding and realization we are able to generate in this life and how easily they come depend on this root.
Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion also mentions that development of our mind, which means realization, depends on the guru:
The Holder of the Vajra said that attainment depends upon the vajra master. By understanding this, please the guru in all things.
Another quotation from Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion explains the purpose of pleasing the guru:
Do whatever pleases the guru. Abandon whatever displeases the guru. If you are able to do this, you will definitely achieve general and sublime realizations in this very lifetime.
It is also powerful just to read through the headings in this section of the eight benefits of guru devotion, then recite the following verse from Six-Session Guru Yoga and meditate on its meaning:
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.
How extensively we can benefit sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha in this life and in future lives also depends on how correctly we devote ourselves to our virtuous friends. Lama Atisha, Dromtönpa, Milarepa, Lama Tsongkhapa and so many of the past pandits and yogis were able to offer incredible benefit to sentient beings and the teachings because of their perfect practice of guru devotion.
Lama Tsongkhapa was able to do extensive works for sentient beings and the teachings as a result of his correct devotion to his virtuous friends. Even nowadays, by studying Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, many thousands of monks and lay people are able to understand and faultlessly generate the whole path to enlightenment. Lama Tsongkhapa made clear the subtlest points, such as emptiness and the illusory body, which are unclear in many other teachings. Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings are so clear that without any hesitation and with full confidence and joy, you feel, “If I practice this I can definitely achieve enlightenment.”
It is because of Lama Tsongkhapa that the monks in Sera, Ganden and Drepung monasteries are able to study extensively the correct meaning of all the sutras and tantras. Even though Lama Tsongkhapa passed away a long time ago, the benefit of his work still continues. All this has come from Lama Tsongkhapa’s correctly devoting himself to his virtuous friends.
The great Lama Atisha had 152 gurus but did not make a single mistake with any of them; his way of devoting himself to his gurus was incomparable. Lama Atisha himself said, “I have many gurus but I haven’t done a single thing that those gurus disliked.” In other words, not one of those 152 gurus was ever displeased with Lama Atisha.
That is why Lama Atisha was able to bring benefit as extensive as the sky to the teachings and to sentient beings both in India and Tibet. Even nowadays Lama Atisha’s holy actions are still working for us, including through our hearing the lamrim teachings, which have transformed our mind into Dharma. Even now Lama Atisha’s teaching Light of the Path50 is able to benefit the minds of so many sentient beings in many countries, not only in the East but also in the West. Before we heard lamrim, our mind was completely ignorant, with no understanding of what should be practiced and what should be avoided. It is through Lama Atisha’s kindness that we now have a little Dharma wisdom, which enables us to discriminate right from wrong, the causes of happiness from the causes of suffering. These are all Lama Atisha’s holy actions guiding us.
If Lama Atisha had not written Light of the Path, there wouldn’t be any lamrim teachings today in the West; we wouldn’t have the chance to hear lamrim. The lamrim teachings given by Tibetan lamas are commentaries to Light of the Path. Even though Lama Atisha has passed away, his holy actions are still working for sentient beings and the teachings, even in the West, and this is the result of his guru devotion practice.
Not only in the East but even in the West, many people have read the biography of Milarepa and it’s hard to find anybody who doesn’t like it. People might sometimes find it difficult to relate what Milarepa did to their own life but whoever reads his biography generates the wish to be like him. That is the holy action of Milarepa; that is Milarepa working for sentient beings. Simply generating the wish to be like that is itself a cause to become Milarepa, to become enlightened. It is extremely important, because through this wish a person slowly starts to be guided. Even the holy name, Milarepa, brings great blessing; it is effective in subduing the mind. And even this power of the holy name comes from his perfect practice of guru devotion.
Notes
35 Skt: shravaka and pratyekabuddha (also translated as solitary realizer). [Return to text]
36 V. 18. [Return to text]
37 Also translated as path of accumulation. There are five Mahayana paths, the first of which, the path of merit, has three divisions: small, intermediate and great. [Return to text]
38 For the whole story see The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, chapters 30 and 31. [Return to text]
39 The patience of unborn Dharma is a state of attainment in which delusions no longer arise. [Return to text]
40 See p. 320–26 of this book for a more detailed story of the life of Milarepa. [Return to text]
41 The five degenerations are the degenerations of mind, lifespan, sentient beings, times and view. See also note 10, p. 4. [Return to text]
42 See advice number 23, pp. 47–48, The Hundred Verses of Advice [Tib: Tingri Gyatsa], the compilation of the various advices Padampa Sangye gave the people of Tingri. [Return to text]
43 V. 48. [Return to text]
44 A mental pollution comes from using money given on behalf of a dead person for other than Dharma purposes. [Return to text]
45 The five principal Sakya lamas were Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, Sönam Tsemo, Drakpa Gyaltsen, Kunga Gyaltsen (Sakya Pandita) and Lodro Gyaltsen (Chögyal Pakpa). [Return to text]
46 Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup Rigsel (1941–2011) was the abbot of Kopan Monastery for many years. [Return to text]
47 Michael Shoemaker, or Swami Chetanananda; Rudrananda Ashram. [Return to text]
48 See Essential Buddhist Prayers, Volume 1, p. 139. [Return to text]
49 Lines of Experience, v. 9. See Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment, appendix 2, p. 181. [Return to text]
50 See Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment, appendix 1, where it is entitled A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. [Return to text]
