Guru Devotion in The Essence of Nectar¹³⁹ 

The Essence of Nectar is a good book to use as a pocket lamrim as the words and the arrangement of this text are very tasty and effective for the mind. The author, Yeshe Tsöndrü (1761–1861), was himself a lineage lama of the lamrim and these teachings came from his experiences. While The Essence of Nectar doesn’t have elaborate explanations of every lamrim topic with all the stories and logical reasoning, it is direct, clear and easy to read. You can open The Essence of Nectar and do direct meditation on any subject by reading the text. For those who want to understand the guru devotion meditations, The Essence of Nectar gives quite a detailed explanation of how to do them.

The compassion of all the numberless Victorious Ones
Manifested in the holy body of the supreme virtuous friend who reveals the path.
To the kind root guru, I request,
Please bless my mental continuum.¹⁴⁰

The benefits of devoting to a guru

Devoting with thought and action
To the holy virtuous friend, who reveals
The perfect, unmistaken, supreme path to enlightenment,
Has inconceivable benefits.

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.

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.

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.

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 and
Realizations of the paths and bhumis are generated and increase.

If one always devotes to the virtuous friend,
All delusions and wrong conduct spontaneously cease.
The white dharmas spontaneously develop,
So one achieves extensive happiness in this and future lives.

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.

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 shortcomings of devoting incorrectly

Just as there are inconceivable advantages
In correctly devoting to a virtuous friend,
There are also inconceivable shortcomings
In not devoting or incorrectly devoting to a virtuous friend.

It is said that the actions of all the Victorious Ones
Appear in one’s own guru.
Disrespecting him is thus disrespecting all the Victorious Ones.
What could have a heavier ripened aspect result than that?

However many moments one is angry at the guru
Destroys merit accumulated for eons equaling that number
And one will be born in hell for the same number of eons,
It is said in the Kalachakra Tantra.

Even one who has done heavy negative karmas,
Such as the five uninterrupted actions and so on,
Through tantra, can achieve sublime realization in this very life.
But those who abuse their guru from the heart,
Even though they practice for eons, will achieve no realization at all.

The person who intentionally abuses and despises
The virtuous friend who reveals the path,
Even if he puts effort into trying to realize the meaning of tantra,
Giving up sleep, dullness and distractions,
It is, a tantra explains, like working for hell and so on.

If one is devoid of devotion for the sublime object, the guru,
Qualities are not generated and those generated degenerate.
In this life disease, demon harms, untimely death and so on happen.
In future lives, one will wander endlessly in the evil-gone realms.

If, by chance, one finds the body of a happy migratory being,
Because of experiencing the result similar to the cause
Of not having respected the guru,
One will be born in unfortunate states without freedom
And one won’t even hear the words “holy Dharma” or “virtuous friend.”

In short, if the way one devotes to the guru is wrong,
One won’t have the opportunity to achieve higher states or liberation,
But will wander forever in samsara, in general,
And the lower realms, in particular.

Since the benefits and shortcomings are beyond conception,
And even the roots of the multitudes of goodness appear here,
From now on, without running to the object of superstition,
Why don’t I devote to and respect the virtuous friend?

The root, training our mind in devotion

The virtuous friends who reveal the path
Are like the one moon in the sky reflected,
Without effort and at the same time,
In all the waters of this world.

A sutra says, The transcendental wisdom of the buddhas
Appears without effort in the holy bodies of
Sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya and ordinary virtuous friends,
To the pure and impure objects who are to be subdued.

Many tantras, in particular, teach
That at the end of the age, omnipresent Lord Vajradhara
Will appear in the form of ordinary gurus
And guide degenerate beings.¹⁴¹

Whatever holy body and actions are shown,
In fact there is no doubt
That all the Victorious Ones of the ten directions
Are showing the holy bodies that subdue us,
In order to guide us in the path to liberation.

As for the appearance of faults:
Devadatta, Sunakshatra and the tirthikas,
Saw the Founder, with all stains gone and qualities complete,
As full of faults.

Like a person with jaundice sees a white conch as yellow,
Because the veils of my evil karma and obscurations are so thick,
I see the faultless as having only faults.
How is it possible that in fact they have faults and vices?

For sentient beings, it is said, the Victorious Ones
Show themselves in any form, such as maras and so on.
How do I know that these actions, which appear purely as mistakes,
Are not purposely shown?

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

Therefore, all the aspects of faults
In my teacher’s actions are
Either the hallucinated appearance of my evil karma
Or they are purposely shown.

Therefore, whatever appears to me,
In fact their essence is that they encompass in one
Each and every one of the infinite Victorious Ones of the infinite fields,
Having ceased all faults and perfected all qualities.

Remembering the guru’s kindness

Not only are these, my saviors,
Of the essence of all the Victorious Ones;
In constantly guiding me with the nectar of holy Dharma,
Their kindness is much greater than that of all the Victorious Ones.

If a man is suffering in prison
And someone frees him from that prison,
Then has him taken to a place of perfect enjoyments,
We definitely recognize that as great kindness.

Therefore, when our gurus have revealed to us
The methods of escaping from the three evil-gone realms,
Kindly giving us the chance to enjoy for a while
The perfections of gods and humans,

And they then show us well the highest method
For pacifying all the degenerations of samsara and nirvana,
And lead us to the exalted state of the three kayas—
Why is this kindness not supreme?

If it’s said that the kindness of teaching a single verse
Cannot be repaid by making offerings for eons
Equal in number to its letters,
How can one measure the kindness
Of having shown the complete pure path?

It is by the kindness of our precious gurus
That we renounce family life, which is like being in the center of a fire,
Then, living in a sage’s righteous conduct in a solitary place,
We experience the sublime taste of the nectar of holy Dharma.

It is by the kindness of our holy instructors
That we have met the teaching of the Jamgön Lama,
Which is difficult to find even on searching for many thousands of eons,
And that we have confidence in the methods of his teaching.

Therefore, my virtuous friends are:
Rescuers, rescuing me from the lower realms,
Captains, taking me across the ocean of samsara,
Guides, leading me to upper realms and liberation,

Doctors, curing the chronic disease of delusion,
Streams of water, extinguishing the great fire of suffering,
Lamps, dispelling the darkness of ignorance,
Suns, illuminating the path to liberation,

Liberators, releasing me from the bonds of the samsaric prison,
Rain clouds, showering a rain of holy Dharma,
Relatives and friends, bringing benefit and dispelling harm,
Parents, always caring for me with love.

Devoting with action

Every single benefit of samsara and beyond
Comes through the kindness of the guru.
Although I can never completely repay this kindness,
In order to try to repay it, I will try to please him.

Just as one plants seeds in a fertile field,
Even though the guru doesn’t depend on offerings and respect,
To quickly complete my own great accumulation of merit,
Why don’t I attempt to plant seeds in this supreme field
By making offerings and showing respect?

It is said that making offering to one pore of the guru
Who has revealed to us the unmistaken path
Collects greater merit than honoring and making offering to the multitudes of aryas:
Hearers, self-conquerors, bodhisattvas and buddhas.

Many holy beings, such as Naropa, Milarepa,
Dromtönpa, Sakya Pandita and Chayulwa,
Gave up without a thought their body, life and wealth
For their gurus and achieved many realizations.

Therefore, I shall strive to respect and serve with my body and speech,
Such as by offering all my cherished possessions,
Prostrating, rising, giving massages and baths,
And speaking respectfully, praising and so on.

Especially, I will attempt day and night without distraction
To practice the complete, unmistaken graduated path:
The best way to please my guru with my three doors.
I will please my guru with the offering of practicing in accord with his advice.
Please grant me blessings to be able to do this.¹⁴²

Colophon

These verses, translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche with additional commentary, were dictated to Nick Ribush from August to October 1982 and to Kyogan O’Neil from December 1982 to February 1983 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. They have been further edited for inclusion in this book.

NOTES

¹³⁹  There are two English translations of the entire text available. The Essence of Nectar contains just the root text; The Essential Nectar also contains a commentary by Geshe Rabten. See Suggested Further Reading, pp. 463 & 464. The verses here were translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. [Return to text]

¹⁴⁰ V. 78. This verse comes at the end of the requesting prayer to the lineage lamas. [Return to text]

¹⁴¹ Verse 116 was omitted from the original translation. This verse is Martin Willson’s translation, as found in The Essential Nectar. [Return to text]

¹⁴² Vv. 97–139. [Return to text]