This is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reply to a letter from a student asking about how to correctly meditate on guru devotion and what to do when samaya with the guru has been broken.¹³³

My very dear (name withheld),

Sorry I took so long to reply to you. Actually, I meant to call you from Milarepa Center¹³⁴ or send an email. I thought about it but it didn’t happen. I heard that you think and have told some of your friends that I said your negative karma can’t be purified.

According to Buddhism, no matter how much negative karma one has created, it can be purified. According to the teachings on karma (cause and result), non-virtue has one good quality and that is that it can be purified. Therefore, Buddhism teaches that even the heaviest negative karma can be purified. Otherwise, there would be many sentient beings who could never ever achieve enlightenment and it would then become a little bit like Christianity, which says that when one is born in hell, one will be there forever. So, it would mean that having buddha-nature does not function and does not benefit, which would mean that you couldn’t purify delusion and negative karma or actualize liberation from samara and enlightenment. You would then have a dead buddha-nature. But your buddha-nature is alive, not dead—and should be a smiling one, of course!

From your side, training your mind in guru devotion means looking at the guru as a buddha. By using quotations and logical reasoning, you transform your mind into guru devotion. By developing guru devotion, you are then able to see one guru as all the buddhas and all the buddhas as all your gurus. You shouldn’t have this realization for just a few hours or a few days; it should be stable. You should feel this from the bottom of your heart, without the slightest doubt, all the time.

No matter how many years it takes, you should do guru devotion meditation until you have the realization. Guru devotion is the root of the path to enlightenment, so you have no choice. You have to realize it correctly to achieve realizations and complete the path to enlightenment.

Especially, use the mistakes that you see in the guru to develop devotion and not lose your faith or destroy your enlightenment, liberation, realizations and merit.

In the outline of the disadvantages of incorrect guru devotion, it says that if anger arises toward the guru it destroys the merits you have accumulated for lifetimes—not just in this life but in an uncountable number of past lifetimes. Therefore, eons of merit are lost. You are also reborn in the hell realms and have to suffer there for eons equal in number to the moments of your anger. Not only are eons of merit equal to the number of moments of your anger destroyed but your realizations and enlightenment are delayed for the same number of eons.

That is why the sutra and tantra teachings place so much emphasis on having pure samaya with the guru. Correctly devoting to the virtuous friend and pure samaya are essential.

In order to purify, first you should confess directly to the guru. This is the most urgent thing. You should do it without even a second’s delay because now you can see how dangerous and harmful every single negative karma in relation to the guru is. You can confess by actually meeting your guru and confessing directly or you can confess in a letter or by telephone. If you haven’t already done this, you should do it immediately. Respectfully thinking, “This is a buddha manifesting to me in this form,” confess until your guru accepts.

Another powerful practice to purify the negative karma is to do something that most pleases the holy mind of the virtuous friend. In our daily life, whenever we do something that pleases the guru’s holy mind, it is a most powerful purification practice and there’s no question that it collects the most extensive amount of merit. It means all the buddhas are happy and that means you become so much closer to enlightenment. It is much easier to achieve realizations by fulfilling the guru’s holy wishes.

The other thing is to change your mind, your attitude. Even if you have lost faith, you have to generate faith again. Do self-initiation with strong thought of purifying that specific negative karma. Also, you can do prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas and Vajrasattva and Samayavajra practice. These are very good practices for purification. You can also do tsog offering with Guru Puja or Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. Offer tsog especially to the guru in relation to whom you have created heavy negative karma. Tsog is very good for that as it pleases the guru and this makes a huge difference, an unbelievable difference. There is so much less negative karma. The first and most important thing is to make confession directly to the guru and again establish a good relationship, good samaya.

Here I am going to mention a brief meditation in which you use the mistakes you see in the guru to develop devotion and achieve realizations of the path to enlightenment.

First think that it is all a hallucination. We have so many wrong concepts, such as seeing impermanent things as permanent, and we also have no ability to see what is going to happen tomorrow or even in the next moment. So we are deeply ignorant. We have to recognize the many hallucinations we believe in. We have so many mistaken thoughts, so many wrong concepts.

First establish that the guru is a bodhisattva. Make sure you understand and believe that bodhisattvas have no thought of seeking happiness for themselves, not even for a moment. They think only of others and work only for others with bodhicitta, the wish to benefit all sentient beings.

After you have established this, think of how bodhisattvas collect the two types of merit in order to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, which includes you. Think, “There are numberless bodhisattvas working for sentient beings and working for me.”

Then think, “There are numberless buddhas who have completed the two types of merit and ceased all gross and subtle defilements by actualizing the paths of method and wisdom. These numberless buddhas have omniscient mind. They see all sentient beings, including me. They see all my sufferings, my needs, my karmas, my characteristics, the level of my intelligence—everything. Without the slightest mistake, they can see all the methods that fit me, that can lead me from happiness to happiness to enlightenment, and know as well the methods that fit every single one of the numberless other sentient beings. Not only do they have perfect knowledge of my mind but they can see everything directly; they can see all the past, present and future. They also have the perfect power to reveal these methods according to my karma and the karma of all sentient beings. Not only that, but their mind is trained in great compassion that embraces and hooks me and every single sentient being. And they have even more compassion for those with more negative karma and more suffering. The buddhas have unbearable compassion for them.

“Buddha never gives up on sentient beings for even a moment and Buddha has perfected all the qualities to guide me and all sentient beings. All the buddhas are guiding me even right now. So, who are they? There is no one to find except my gurus, especially this one guru toward whom I feel anger or heresy, this one that I see as having faults, this guru that I see as having delusions and suffering aggregates and making mistakes in his actions.

“If the guru manifested lower than this, as an animal, it would be difficult for me to recognize him and difficult to receive his guidance. If the guru manifested more purely than this, I wouldn’t have the pure karma, the pure mind, to see him. Therefore, I have the impure karma to see only a guru in this aspect and acting in this way: having delusions and suffering aggregates, and making mistakes in his actions, such as acting in an immoral way.

“Therefore, to guide me, the guru-buddha manifests in this ordinary aspect, which means one having faults, exactly according to my karma. How unbelievably kind it is!” Repeat this over and over again—twenty-one times or for even half a mala or a mala.

After that think, “This ordinary aspect with faults is the only one that can guide me.” Repeat this over and over again, then do fixed meditation on it. Then think, “How precious it is!” Also repeat this over and over again. “This is the most precious, most important one in my life. This ordinary aspect liberates me from the lower realms, from samara and from even the lower nirvana and brings me to enlightenment by revealing the holy Dharma and by various other methods. How unbelievably kind the guru is!” Repeat this over and over again, then do fixed meditation.

“Shakyamuni Buddha, Manjushri, Chenrezig, Vajrayogini, Tara, Guhyasamaja, Heruka, Yamantaka, Machig Labdron and all the rest of the numberless buddhas guide me though this ordinary aspect (or in this manifestation).” Think, “How precious this ordinary aspect is, how precious it is….” Repeat this over and over again. “This is the most precious, most important one in my life.” Repeat this over and over again, then do fixed meditation.

After that think, “Any action any of my gurus does for me is definitely leading me to enlightenment. Doing the action of giving even the oral transmission of a few syllables of a mantra or a verse of sutra or tantra leaves a positive imprint on my mental continuum that enables me to be closer to again receiving a precious human body in my next life, to meeting the Buddhadharma and understanding the words and meaning of the teachings, to accumulating merit and purifying, which ceases all the gross and subtle delusions. In this way, it leads me to enlightenment. So there is no doubt about the result of my guru giving me refuge and other vows, initiations, oral transmissions and instructions. Other actions such as praising me, speaking sweetly to me, giving me food, drink and gifts and even scolding me with wrathful words are helping me, inspiring me to practice Dharma and bringing me to enlightenment.

“Even though my ordinary mind believes that my gurus are ordinary, they are actually doing the work of guiding me and bringing me to full enlightenment by teaching me these methods. In my ordinary view it seems that the numberless buddhas are doing nothing for me. That is absolutely impossible. The buddhas have skies of qualities. Therefore, these gurus who are guiding me and taking care of me right now are buddhas.

“My normal concepts are totally wrong. I constantly project wrong views. My normal concept is to see faults in the guru, to see the guru as not being pure, not having discipline and so forth. My mind sees all this and believes it to be true even though it is invalid. This is the most harmful thing in my life.”

Bhikshu Sunakshatra, who was together with and served the Buddha for twenty-two years, saw the Buddha as only a liar. He didn’t see any good qualities in the Buddha, who had been enlightened for an incredible number of eons, while numberless others saw the Buddha as a fully enlightened being. This is similar to how we see the guru.

Even if you see your guru as ordinary, others can see him as a real buddha and generate the happy, healthy mind of pure devotion toward him. Therefore, there is not a single doubt that he is a buddha. Do fixed meditation on this.

“How we see something, whether as pure or impure, depends on how we look at it, on whether we look at it with a pure mind or an impure mind. Good, bad, happy, unhappy—my view of something comes from the label that I apply, from the pure or impure thought that I create.” Using this example, think, “Therefore, my guru is definitely a buddha.” Again do fixed meditation on this.

There is a story from Tibet about a teacher who lived very high on a mountain. One day two of his disciples went to visit him. They arrived very tired and the teacher offered them cold tea. One of the disciples thought, “We came so far and are so tired and our teacher didn’t even bother to offer us hot tea.” The other disciple thought, “How unbelievably kind our teacher is! He purposely gave us cold tea to quench our thirst.”

The disciple who was positive became very happy and received much benefit and blessing but the other disciple, who looked at the situation in a negative way, was very unhappy and possibly even got angry, so he received only shortcomings.

You can see things as pure or impure according to the kind of mind you look at them with. It all depends on whether you look at something with a pure mind or with a negative, or impure, mind. So whether you receive great blessings or small blessings doesn’t depend on the actual object itself; it depends on how you look at it.

“Even the guru showing faults, which means manifesting in an ordinary aspect, is the most skillful way to guide me to enlightenment. Since my guru does this to bring me to enlightenment, if he is not buddha then who else is? He is definitely buddha.” Again do fixed meditation on this.

Here really meditate on how the guru is manifesting in an ordinary aspect, which means having delusion and suffering, making mistakes in his actions, such as acting in an immoral way and so forth. Here this aspect becomes the most urgently needed, most important one in your life, more important than anything else.

“Without this manifestation that shows mistakes, I would be totally without a guide. I would be totally lost in samsara, like a baby left in a desert where there is nothing and nobody to take care of them. Besides that, in this vast desert there is great danger from poisonous rattlesnakes and many other vicious animals. Like this, my life would be in great danger.”

Pabongka Rinpoche mentions the example of being lost alone in a forest at night, with no moon or stars. You can’t see because it’s totally dark and the forest is filled with tigers and other vicious animals. Not only are you without a guide but you are in incredible danger. Being in samsara is like that.

“Apart from these buddhas that are showing ordinary aspects, my gurus, there is nobody to guide me.” Make a strong determination that all your gurus, especially this guru in whom you see faults and toward whom you have generated anger and heresy, are definitely Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. After you have made the determination that this guru is the Buddha, do fixed meditation, holding that feeling and recognizing him as Buddha.

This is a brief meditation that you can practice every day. If you can, while doing the meditation also recite your gurus’ name mantras,¹³⁵ especially the name mantra or requesting prayer (which is usually one stanza in length) of that particular guru. If you are able to, do that while you meditate.

Also, it is always important to do the special request for the three great purposes¹³⁶ at the end of mandala offerings.

Any time you see a mistake you should immediately think, “This is Buddha manifesting in an ordinary aspect, showing an immoral aspect, giving wrong explanations or teachings, or saying ‘I don’t know.’” Immediately thinking this will stop the thought of faults from arising; thinking “this is what manifesting in ordinary aspect means” will stop the thought of faults.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Colophon

This letter was dictated to Ven. Holly Ansett at Kachö Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, in November 2002.

NOTES

¹³³ For more advice from Rinpoche on guru devotion and many other topics, see his online advice book at www.LamaYeshe.com. [Return to text]

¹³⁴ An FPMT center in Vermont, USA. [Return to text]

¹³⁵ A guru’s name mantra consists of his name in Sanskrit inserted between om ah guru vajradhara and sarva siddhi hum hum. Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s name mantra, for example is om ah guru vajradhara muni shasana kshanti sarva siddhi hum hum. [Return to text]

¹³⁶ I prostrate and go for refuge to the Guru and the Three Rare Sublime Ones: please bless my mind.
Please bless me and all mother sentient beings to quickly cease every kind of mistaken mind from disrespect for the spiritual friend up to the subtle dual appearances of white appearance, red increase, and dark near-attainment.      
Please bless us to easily generate every kind of unmistaken mind from respect for the spiritual friend up to the union of no more learning.                 
Please bless us to quickly pacify all the interferences of outer and inner conditions.          
 See Lama Chöpa, “Special Request for the Three Great Purposes.” [Return to text]