Guru yoga enables us to practice correct devotion to the virtuous friend with thought and action but what is it? Guru yoga is a process, through logic, quotations and meditation, of transforming the mind that sees the guru as an ordinary being into the devotion that sees the guru as a buddha, a fully enlightened being, one who has ceased all faults and completed all qualities, or realizations. After proving to ourselves that the guru is a buddha, we then meditate on the guru in the aspect of the special deity that we practice.
If we visualize the deity in front of us but regard our own guru as ordinary and separate from that deity, then even though we might say that we are practicing guru yoga, what we are doing is not even a part of guru yoga meditation. Drogön Tsangpa Gyare said, “If you look at the guru and deity as separate, you can’t receive blessings.” This means that you can’t achieve attainments.
We have to constantly see the guru as in essence our own personal deity, the one with which we have strong karmic contact. No matter how many gurus we have, we have to regard them all as embodiments of this deity. All the time, when we eat, drink, sleep or do any other activity, we practice being one with this deity. And just as we always have the divine pride and clear appearance of being this deity, we also see the guru as this deity.
On top of that, we constantly meditate that our mind, as well as our body and speech, is unified with the guru and our special deity. This is the tantric practice of guru yoga.
There are different ways of devoting to the virtuous friend according to the different Buddhist vehicles. In Hinayana practice, although the abbot who grants vows is respected and served as if he were Shakyamuni Buddha, he is not seen as a buddha. The teacher is regarded as a substitute for Buddha and is offered the same respect as Buddha. How to do so is clearly explained in the Hinayana teachings.
In the Paramitayana, the virtuous teacher is seen as in essence a buddha, as someone who has completed all the qualities of cessation and realization.
In tantra, the guru is seen as a buddha not only in essence but also in aspect. His Holiness Song Rinpoche often used to say that meditating that the essence of the guru is the deity brings greater blessings but if we also visualize the guru in the pure form of a deity, we receive blessings more quickly. In Mahayana Secret Mantra, we not only look at the guru as a buddha but also stop looking at him as an ordinary being, even in aspect, by stopping ordinary concept and appearance. We look at the guru in pure form, which means in the aspect of a buddha. Mantra means protecting the mind: man means mind and tra means protection. When we practice guru devotion, we protect our mind from negative thoughts about the guru and from thoughts of the guru as an ordinary being. In addition to the Paramitayana practice of looking at the guru as in essence a buddha, in the tantric practice of guru devotion we look at the guru in the aspect of a buddha.
Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo says that in the tantric way of devoting to the virtuous friend, it’s not sufficient to do it the way it is done in the Paramitayana path. In tantra, you should devote yourself to the virtuous friend as explained in Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion.
The fundamental practices in tantra are stopping impure conception and appearance and practicing the four purities, which means visualizing now what you are actually going to experience when you become an enlightened being. You stop the impure conception and appearance of yourself as an ordinary person and practice the divine pride of thinking of and looking at yourself as the deity you practice, with the pure vajra holy body of a buddha. You also stop your impure conception and view of your environment as an ordinary place and look at it as the pure mandala of the deity. You also have pure enjoyments and perform pure actions. You practice the divine pride of having already achieved these four purities, as if you already were that future buddha.
While holding this pure appearance, your mind is protected from impure conception and appearance, which are the basis for the arising of many delusions and the creation of negative karma, the cause of samsara. You protect your mind from ordinary, impure conceptions and appearances and look at everything as pure. When you become enlightened, everything you see will appear as pure, as in the nature of great bliss. Nothing impure appears to a buddha’s holy mind. In tantra, it is not enough to look at the guru as in essence a buddha; there is the additional practice of looking at the guru in the aspect of a buddha.
We need to do the visualizations and recitation of mantra of deity practice on the basis of correct meditation on guru yoga. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo says,
Visualizing the deity in front of you without mixing it with the guru is never going to fulfill the meaning of guru yoga.
If we simply visualize the deity without mixing it with the guru, we haven’t incorporated the meaning of guru yoga into our practice. We have missed the point. If we’re meditating on the deity separately from the guru, our practice doesn’t become guru yoga meditation. Simply visualizing the external aspect of a deity is not actual guru yoga practice.
Visualizing the guru as an ordinary person separate from this deity also doesn’t become guru yoga meditation. If we visualize our guru but don’t meditate that he is inseparable from the deity, we have again missed the point of guru yoga. We are left with the recognition of the guru as only an ordinary being, and meditating on the guru as an ordinary being doesn’t become guru yoga. There is no way to receive blessings from that.
Visualizing the guru as the deity, in essence and in aspect, cuts our ordinary impure concepts and ordinary impure appearances. We are then able to have pure concepts and pure appearances, and devotion then arises. The arising of devotion causes us to receive the blessings of the guru-deity and from that we then achieve realizations.
If we do the visualizations and recitation of mantra with the understanding that the guru is the deity, we receive blessings. Otherwise, our practice is like an empty momo. Doing visualizations without guru yoga is like having a picture of the most delicious food but not eating the actual food or like having a mannequin in the shape of a friend but not having the actual friend. Leaving out the guru means our practice doesn’t become guru yoga, so it doesn’t become the means to receive blessings. The way that Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains this from his own realizations brings unbelievable blessing.
Whenever we do sadhanas and visualize either ourselves as deities or external deities, it is very important never to separate from guru yoga practice. We shouldn’t visualize ourselves as a deity that has no connection to our guru. Our own mind, the deity’s holy mind and the guru’s holy mind—all three are one.
Thinking that a buddha is a higher or more powerful object than our guru is not the mind of guru yoga. Remember what the great yogi Padampa Sangye said,
One should hold the guru higher than the buddhas; realization will then come in this life, people of Tingri.
Making offerings to the buddhas as something separate from the guru also doesn’t become guru yoga practice. If we make offerings without the devotion that sees the buddhas as one with the guru, our practice doesn’t become guru yoga practice.
Even in a temple, whenever we make prostrations or make light, scarf or any other offering to paintings or statues of a buddha, we should always remember the guru and then make the offering. There are also a lot of offering practices when we do any deity’s sadhana. If we make the offering each time with the guru yoga mind, if we think of the guru, we collect the most extensive merit.
As mentioned in Guru Puja and many other teachings, devoting to the virtuous friend with thought and action is the most powerful way to finish the work of accumulating extensive merit in order to achieve enlightenment. Achieving the dharmakaya and rupakaya depends on completing the two types of merit, the merit of fortune and the merit of wisdom,117 and the most powerful way to quickly finish the work of accumulating extensive merit is by correctly devoting ourselves to the virtuous friend with thought and action. Since we accumulate the most extensive merit, the more we are able to devote ourselves to the virtuous friend with thought and action, the closer we become to enlightenment.
This is why the practices of listening to and reflecting and meditating on the teachings of guru yoga are essential in our everyday life. The benefits of practicing guru yoga are as infinite as space, starting from the success of this life up to enlightenment. I mention the success of this life because when we practice guru yoga all the happiness and success of this life happens incidentally. Even though we are looking for happiness beyond this life and might feel detached toward the happiness of this life, the happiness and success of this life comes as a result of pure practice of guru devotion, as do all other happiness and success up to enlightenment.
Reciting the words of a guru yoga practice is not the main point; the main point is to change our mind, to transform our mind into guru devotion, the root of the path to enlightenment, which brings success in all realizations from the beginning to the end of the path to enlightenment.
It is a foundation of strong guru devotion that enables us to receive the blessings of the deity when doing retreat and deity practice. There is no other way to receive the blessings of the deity. If we leave out the practice of guru yoga, simply visualizing the deity and reciting mantras is like trying to get water from an empty container; we receive nothing.
The purpose of doing deity retreat is not just to fulfill a commitment, like doing a job we promised to do, but to receive the blessings of the deity. Receiving the blessings of the deity then enables us to have realizations of the path to enlightenment. This is scientific, and those who have done retreat can relate to this from their own past experiences. When we have no devotion to our gurus or our devotion is superficial and not from our heart, nothing much happens. We don’t receive any good signs, not even a good dream. When we check our past experiences, we discover that it was during times of strong guru devotion that we had many good experiences, when we received many blessings. I think that guru devotion is the most important factor in having a successful retreat.
Guru devotion is the main factor that determines how much we can receive the blessings of the deity and gain experience by doing meditation on the path. This is especially true if we are doing something that pleases the holy mind of the virtuous friend; in that case, we can quickly have wonderful experiences and also many good dreams and other signs. We then receive the blessings of the deity and become closer to the deity.
If we don’t understand the fundamental meditations on how to see the guru as a buddha or don’t know how to do them properly, our practice won’t be effective. It’s not sufficient simply to think about our personal experience of the particular qualities that our gurus have that we and other ordinary people don’t have. We need to establish stable devotion through logic and quotations. Doing the later practices on the basis of stable devotion has incredible power and brings incredible blessings. Even doing a little meditation on guru yoga will make our mind as soft as cotton-wool, and any lamrim meditation that we then do will come very naturally. Even if we practice guru devotion only a little, perhaps simply meditating on it for a few days in retreat, experiences will be great and come very easily and quickly; it will immediately change our mind. Success will come very easily. It will not be as if the teachings hit a rock when they hit our mind.
Even if we think that we know what the guru is, unless we do the basic meditations explained in the lamrim, using logic and quotations, many superstitions can arise and create obstacles. If we haven’t proved to our mind that the guru is a buddha, we have no opponent to stop superstitious thoughts. Without an understanding of and faith in the inseparability of the guru and buddha, the essence of the practice will be lost.
After studying what Buddha taught on guru devotion in the sutras and tantras and studying the lamrim teachings on guru devotion, we then practice devoting ourselves to the guru in accordance with all those teachings. All success in terms of not just the general happiness of this life but especially realizations of the path to enlightenment and in terms of stopping obstacles depends on guru yoga practice. Everything depends on whether or not we practice guru yoga and how we practice it. Guru yoga is the key to all happiness.
The real meaning of guru
When we think about what guru really means, we have to think about the absolute guru. We have to go beyond the conventional guru to the absolute guru, the real meaning of guru. And what is the absolute guru? In tantric terms, it is the dharmakaya, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. It is eternal, with no beginning and no end. (This absolute guru is a little similar to the eternal God of Christianity but Christianity has no explanation of how God is eternal.) This dharmakaya pervades all existence; there’s no place that the dharmakaya, the holy mind of the buddhas, does not cover.
In Ornament of Mahayana Sutras, Maitreya Buddha explains,
Just as the innumerable beams of the sun mix to constantly perform the one activity of illuminating the world, in the uncontaminated sphere of dharmakaya the innumerable buddhas mix to perform the one activity of illuminating with transcendental wisdom.
Just as an inconceivable number of sunbeams always focus on the one action of illuminating the world, in the dharmakaya the countless buddhas mix to perform the one action of guiding sentient beings, of making the transcendental wisdom of omniscient mind appear in the minds of sentient beings. The dharmakaya, the absolute guru, is the completely pure holy mind, the transcendental wisdom of great bliss always in equipoise meditation directly seeing the emptiness of all existence. Like having poured water into water, the transcendental wisdom of great bliss is inseparable from emptiness forever. The transcendental wisdom of all the buddhas is of one taste in the dharmakaya. The phrase uncontaminated sphere of dharmakaya means that the dharmakaya is a state free from delusions.
All the beams of sunlight mix together to dispel all the darkness in the world but this is just outer darkness. Here, all the numberless buddhas mix together to become one in the dharmakaya to carry out the one action of dispelling the inner darkness of the two obscurations, the disturbing-thought obscurations and the subtle obscurations to knowing. In other words, through various means the buddhas perform the highest action of revealing the teachings, illuminating with transcendental wisdom, and thus dispelling the inner darkness of the obscurations. When sunlight dispels external darkness, we see objects clearly. When the buddhas dispel our inner darkness, our minds are completely illuminated and become omniscient, the transcendental wisdom of the dharmakaya.
It is helpful to remember this quotation from Maitreya Buddha when we begin each session of guru yoga practice and in our daily life when we meditate on Six-Session Guru Yoga.
Referring again to Ornament of Mahayana Sutras, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo gives the example of rivers entering the ocean and mixing together. When we then take one tiny drop of water from the ocean, it embodies every single river that has gone into it; that one drop from the ocean is a mixture of all the waters that came into it from various places. Before entering the ocean, all the various rivers appear different, but after entering the ocean, they all become one. Like this, all the buddhas are of one taste in the dharmakaya.
The dharmakaya, the absolute guru, the holy mind of all the buddhas, is like the ocean. Just as all the rivers are mixed in the ocean, all the buddhas are mixed in this dharmakaya, this absolute guru. Like drops from the ocean, all the many different aspects of buddha—the One Thousand Buddhas, the Thirty-five Buddhas, the eight Medicine Buddhas—are manifestations of the absolute guru. Each of the millions of different manifestations that guide sentient beings, whether in the form of an animal, a human being or a deity, is a manifestation of all the buddhas. All the different deities we visualize are actually just one being. No matter how many different forms we see, one buddha is all the buddhas. As in the example of the ocean, all buddhas are of one taste in the dharmakaya.
Each of the buddhas is the embodiment of all the buddhas and each of the buddhas is the embodiment of the guru. If the guru is the embodiment of one buddha, he has to be the embodiment of all the buddhas. There is no buddha who is not an embodiment of the guru; there is no guru who is not an embodiment of buddha. There are different aspects but just one being, the absolute guru, the dharmakaya, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. And when we become enlightened, we become one with all the buddhas.
No matter how many buddhas we visualize or whether we visualize them all as one, they are all the guru. Whether we visualize one into many or many into one, it is the guru, as Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo mentions in Calling the Lama from Afar.118
The guru is the transformation of the transcendental wisdom of all the buddhas; the guru is the embodiment of all the countless buddhas who abide in the ten directions. A transformation of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha or Vajradhara has to be a transformation of all the buddhas. Although they manifest in different aspects and have different names, all the buddhas are one in essence. The absolute guru manifests in Vajradhara, the Five Dhyani Buddhas, Lama Tsongkhapa, and the rest, as well as in the ordinary aspects that we can see. We should be aware of this.
Even though there are different appearances—Tara, Manjushri, Vajrapani, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and so forth—in reality each buddha is all the buddhas. One buddha’s action of guiding us is all the buddhas’ action of guiding us. Therefore, even if we practice only the one deity, such as Chen¬rezig, when we become enlightened in the essence of Chenrezig, at that time we achieve the enlightenment of all the buddhas. When we achieve Chenrezig’s enlightenment, there is no such thing as our not having achieved the enlightenment of Manjushri, Vajrapani, Yamantaka or any other buddha. It is not that in order to achieve Yamantaka’s enlightenment we have to start all over again from the beginning of the path. When we achieve Chenrezig’s enlightenment we achieve all the buddhas’ enlightenment. That is the reality.
As mentioned in Guru Puja in relation to the virtuous friend,
You are the Guru, you are the yidam,
You are the dakini and Dharma protector.119
The virtuous friend is all the various deities. When we say “Shakyamuni Buddha,” it is the virtuous friend; there is no separate Shakyamuni Buddha. When we say “Manjushri,” again it is the virtuous friend. No matter what name we use—Chakrasamvara, Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, Maitreya, Tara, Vajrapani—it is the name of one being, the virtuous friend. The dakas and dakinis and all the different Dharma protectors are also one being, the virtuous friend. This is the reality and this is the way to practice guru yoga.
Whether there is one aspect, such as Shakyamuni Buddha, Chenrezig or Tara, or many, it is the guru; it is one in essence. When we think of the guru, we can think of the conventional guru, the ordinary human form of the guru that we see, but that being is the absolute guru, the dharmakaya, the holy mind of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. Because it is bound by infinite compassion, it manifests in (or through) these ordinary human forms to guide us to enlightenment.
With this understanding of guru yoga we know that all the buddhas are communicating with us. Shakyamuni Buddha, Tara, Manjushri and all the rest of the numberless buddhas are guiding us through this ordinary human form; they are giving us initiations, vows, oral transmissions and commentaries.
In guru yoga, the essential point to understand is that all the buddhas are of one taste in the dharmakaya. The dharmakaya is the absolute guru, and this is all the buddhas. This is the very heart of guru yoga practice. Without understanding this there’s no way to practice guru yoga comfortably. Even if we do the visualizations it won’t be completely satisfactory because we’ll be unclear as to how buddha is the embodiment of the guru and the guru is the embodiment of buddha. However, it will be extremely clear if we understand the very heart of guru yoga, that the guru is buddha and buddha is the guru.
We can integrate this understanding into our guru yoga practice by thinking in the following way. When we become enlightened, if there is one sentient being who can be guided by a manifestation of Tara, we will manifest in the aspect of Tara to guide that sentient being. Now, that Tara is the manifestation of all the Taras and all the other buddhas. It is not that there is a separate Tara with a separate mind who guides that particular sentient being and there are billions of other Taras who guide other sentient beings but not that particular one.
When a sentient being is ready to be guided by an aspect of a buddha and be taught Dharma, the buddha who reveals the Dharma to them has to be all the other buddhas. Otherwise that sentient being would not be guided by all the buddhas but by some buddhas and not others. This way of thinking creates problems in the mind. When Manjushri or any other buddha guides us, that guidance is the guidance of all the buddhas and that manifestation is the manifestation of all the buddhas.
In reality, even though there are numberless different aspects of buddhas, the holy mind of all the buddhas is one but appears in different aspects to guide us sentient beings, just as all the rivers that go into the ocean become one.
The dharmakaya is like the ocean in which many waters are mixed and our various gurus are like drops from the ocean. All our gurus are manifestations of the dharmakaya, the absolute guru, the holy mind of all the buddhas; the absolute guru manifests in an ordinary form in accordance with the level of our karma. This ordinary form is the conventional guru, the essence of which is the absolute guru.
When we actually see or visualize a deity or see statues or paintings of deities we should recognize that they are all the guru. There is no deity other than the guru.
The guru in guru yoga means our present gurus, who guide us to enlightenment by teaching us the alphabet, giving us commentaries, oral transmissions, tantric initiations, vows and personal advice; they are the embodiments of the dharmakaya, the absolute guru, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. When we do Guru Puja, Six-Session Guru Yoga or any other guru yoga practice we shouldn’t think that the central figure has nothing to do with our guru. When we are doing Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga or Guru Puja we have to remember that there is no Tsongkhapa who is not our guru.
When we visualize Lama Tsongkhapa, the aspect we visualize is Tsongkhapa but our main focus should be on Lama, the guru. When we say “Lama Tsongkhapa” we know that we are talking about the dharmakaya of all the buddhas and that Tsongkhapa is the particular embodiment of this dharmakaya that is of one taste with the holy mind of all the buddhas. This will bring some change in our mind because we will quickly receive blessings. The mind that was previously dry and uninspired will develop great respect, devotion and inspiration to practice. Through effort in our practice, realizations of the lamrim path will then come. This is how it is possible for us to achieve enlightenment.
Otherwise, if we concentrate just on the aspect of Tsongkhapa and not on the meaning of Lama when we practice Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga or Guru Puja, we leave out the guru yoga practice. Of course we can still accumulate merit by making offerings and so forth simply with the thought that Tsongkhapa is a buddha; after all, we accumulate merit by making offerings to bodhisattvas, Sangha, and even our parents, even though they are not buddhas. But for us to generate all the realizations from perfect human rebirth up to enlightenment, the blessings of the guru have to enter our heart.
It is similar when we meditate on Guru Vajradhara in the practice of Six-Session Guru Yoga. Vajradhara is the particular aspect we visualize, but it is more effective to focus on the absolute guru. It makes sense to relate to the absolute guru every time we hear or say “guru” or “lama.” It would be strange to simply think of the relative guru, the guru who appears to us in ordinary aspect and gives us teachings and not think of the absolute guru; it would be strange to think of the aspect and not the essence. If when we meditated on Guru Shakyamuni Buddha we saw him in essence as an ordinary person, a sentient being, we wouldn’t see any purpose in doing the meditation. If we meditate in this way, we haven’t understood guru yoga practice. We have to meditate on the absolute guru.
Otherwise, if we have no feeling of devotion in our heart and see the guru as an ordinary being, we won’t see any purpose in making requests to him; we’ll feel that we’re trying to get milk from a cow’s horn. We’ll think, “What is the point of making requests to an ordinary person, somebody who has been born from a mother’s womb and has the same flesh-and-blood body as I have? What am I doing praying to somebody who is a human being the same as I am?” Even if we say the prayers, we’ll have no feeling for them. Our heart will feel empty, as if there’s a hole in it.
Whenever we do guru yoga meditations or think of or physically see our guru we should immediately think, “This is buddha.” The instant we see the particular form of our mother, for example, even in a large crowd of people, we are instantly aware that it is our mother. There is the immediate recognition, “This is my mother.” It is similar with guru yoga practice. We should immediately be aware that our guru is in essence the absolute guru. At the moment we have to apply effort to think this but later a definite understanding that the guru is buddha will spontaneously arise in our heart, without need for logical reasoning or quotations, just as when we see our mother’s form we don’t have to exert any effort to think it’s our mother. This is the way to develop stable realization of guru devotion.
When we serve our guru with this awareness of the absolute guru, the holy mind of all the buddhas, even if we are offering only a cup of tea, we are spontaneously aware that we are offering the tea to all the buddhas. If we are sitting next to our guru we are aware that we are sitting next to all the buddhas of the ten directions. When our guru gives us advice, teachings or an initiation we are aware that all the buddhas are giving us the advice, teachings or initiation. Even if we don’t have realization of this, it is effective to attempt to listen to teachings with this awareness. We will then feel much more connection; we will feel much closer to all the buddhas.
Geshe Senge mentioned one high lama in Tibet who used “Guru” in front of the name of every buddha; he would say “Guru Arya Tara,” “Guru Yamantaka” and so on. Many lamas relate to deities in the same way because the guru is the source of all the buddhas and the Triple Gem. From where do all the buddhas come? From the guru. From where do Buddha, Dharma and Sangha come? From the guru. And what is that guru? It is the absolute guru, the dharmakaya, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness.
The real meaning that we should constantly remember when we use the word guru and also when we see the guru is primordial unified savior, the extremely subtle primordial mind of dharmakaya, the absolute guru. When we think of the guru as the primordial unified savior, the dharmakaya, we see that because this dharmakaya is bound by infinite compassion to us sentient beings, it has to manifest in various forms to guide us. As we don’t have the karma to directly see aspects of buddha, it has manifested in the ordinary aspects of the gurus that we visualize. If we miss the real meaning of guru we will think that a guru is simply someone from whom we have received teachings and won’t be able to figure out how all the deities are manifestations of him.
As the great yogi Buddhajñana said,
Before what is called “guru” there is not even the name “buddha.” All the buddhas are manifestations of the guru.
If we don’t relate this quotation to the absolute guru it doesn’t make sense, and neither will many of the prayers in Guru Puja. In other words, buddha doesn’t exist before the guru. All the buddhas, as well as the Dharma and the Sangha, come from the guru.
The essence of all our gurus, even though they appear in ordinary aspects, is one, the absolute guru. Their aspect is called kun dzob kyi lama in Tibetan; the translation with which you are familiar is probably “relative guru” or “conventional guru.” In guru yoga practice, the relative guru, whose essence is the absolute guru, is visualized in the aspect of Shakyamuni Buddha, Manjushri, Tara, Vajradhara, Lama Tsongkhapa or another enlightened being.
Because we have impure karma, the absolute guru manifests to us in a form with faults. With our present capacity we don’t have the pure karma to see the guru in pure form; we can only see the guru in a form with faults. We don’t have the pure karma to see the buddhas in the pure aspect of buddha; we have only the impure karma to see buddhas in impure aspects. A buddha’s power and sentient beings’ karma are equal. Therefore the buddhas manifest to us in ordinary forms with faults, which accord with our own karma, our own level of mind, then guide us through various means that also accord with the level of our minds to the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment.
Every time we say the word “guru” or hear it or think about it, we should remember that it actually means the absolute guru. The absolute guru manifests in various ordinary forms according to our karma. All the buddhas are embodiments of the guru, the absolute guru, and all the gurus are embodiments of the buddhas. Though different names, like “buddha” and “guru,” are used, they are talking about one object: the dharmakaya, the absolute guru, just as one object has different names in different languages.
We have to transform our mind into a devotional state that is constantly aware that the guru is a buddha. Using logic and quotations we should transform the mind that doesn’t see the gurus as buddhas or, in other words, as the absolute guru, the holy mind of all the buddhas, the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. We have to change the mind that sees our gurus in ordinary aspect as separate from the buddhas. Even though the buddhas manifest in the ordinary forms of these gurus and guide us by revealing teachings and other means, we don’t see the gurus in this way but believe them to be separate from the buddhas. We have to transform this state of mind into the devotion that sees the gurus from whom we have received teachings directly as inseparable from the buddhas. We have to see them as manifestations of the absolute guru, the dharmakaya, the holy mind of all the buddhas.
When you spontaneously, constantly, see the guru as a buddha, you have the realization of guru devotion. When you see a buddha, you think it is an embodiment of your guru; when you see, hear or remember your guru, you spontaneously understand in your mind that this is a buddha. Even though the aspect is ordinary, in your heart you understand that this is buddha. It’s similar to visualizing yourself as a deity. While you have the appearance of yourself as a deity, at the same time you understand that it is empty of existing from its own side; there is a unification of appearance and emptiness. Like this, whenever you see, hear or remember the guru, you think that this is buddha, without any need to remember the reasons.
At times when you are doing strong guru yoga practice and the guru is also pleased with you, you suddenly feel in your heart, “If this is not Vajrayogini, who else can be Vajrayogini?” or “If this is not Chenrezig, who else can be Chenrezig?” Before when you said “the guru is buddha” you were just repeating the words during meditation, just imitating what the teachings said, but you now feel in your heart the meaning of the quotations and lines of reasoning that you used to think about. Suddenly it all becomes real to you. At the same time you also appreciate the unbelievable kindness of the guru. You can’t control the feelings that come.
With this realization, you have the same devotion to your guru as you do to Shakyamuni Buddha, Tara or any other deity. With this devotion, you have complete faith in your guru and follow him. In this way you don’t create any obstacles to achieving the path to enlightenment and only create the causes to achieve realizations, and enlightenment.
Unless we understand the importance of the sutra and tantra teachings on guru devotion, unless we have done the analytical meditations on those points, simply thinking that the guru is inseparable from the deity and making requests becomes just words. Guru yoga becomes just words; there’s no feeling in our heart. We don’t feel that the guru is buddha, that the guru is inseparable from the deity. Unless we know those teachings and do the analytical meditations using the quotations and reasoning, we won’t feel that the guru is buddha.
If we don’t do any of the meditations on guru devotion as taught in the sutra and tantra teachings but simply recite some short guru yoga prayer or even Guru Puja thinking that the guru is inseparable from the deity, results will never come in our mind. Such practice is merely given the name “guru yoga” and will have little benefit. It won’t bring quick development. It won’t bring the result of having meditated on guru yoga, which is that we feel incredibly joyful to devote ourselves to the virtuous friend with thought and with action. Feeling unbelievably happy to carry out whatever advice or work the guru gives us and finding no difficulty in doing it are the results of having done meditation on guru yoga. Wanting to confess from our heart as quickly as possible any mistakes we have made in the past is also the result of having done effective guru yoga meditation. The wish not to make the same mistakes again also naturally and effortlessly comes.
With devotion, the thought of finding faults doesn’t arise. When there is constant devotion, seeing every action the guru does as pure, respect will naturally and effortlessly arise by remembering the kindness of the guru from the depths of our heart. This also means that the guru yoga meditation we have done has been effective.
NOTES
117 The merit of wisdom, accumulated by meditating on emptiness, becomes the cause of dharmakaya, a buddha’s holy mind; the merit of fortune, accumulated by virtuous activities other than meditating on emptiness, becomes the cause of the rupakaya, a buddha’s holy body. [Return to text]
118 The hundred, five, and three types, however many elaborated, are the guru.
The pervasive master in whom they are all included is also the guru.
I beseech you, guru, as master of all the types of buddhas,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo. [Return to text]
119 V. 53. [Return to text]
