Guru Displeased

Guru Displeased

Date Posted:
November 2009

Rinpoche made the following comments in answer to a question on how to deal with the appearance of the guru scolding you or being displeased.

It is due to some past karma that this happened. If you read the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, then you will understand. Read it as a means to destroy the ego, the self-cherishing thought, as a means to actualize bodhicitta. So, read that text, and there you will find an explanation.

The other thing is that there are many other sentient beings who have the same problem, who have problems and difficulties with their relationship with the virtuous friend, their guru. For those who have so much suffering and difficulties with their boss—their guru—take all of that on yourself. Ego, the self-cherishing thought, made you create the karma in the past to have a difficult relationship with the guru, which causes displeasure to the guru. You give all those problems to the ego, turn all of them into the ego, and destroy the ego (claps); they become non-existent.

The real “I,” appearing from its own side, the “I” that cherishes the ego, which is the object of the ego, even that becomes non-existent. So, try to remember. The ego is totally non-existent, there is no such thing, it is emptiness. Then, while everything is empty, the “I” can offer charity, giving the body, merits, and enlightenment to every sentient being. Then, you generate compassion. Sentient beings in reality are empty, but they are not aware of it. They believe 100 per cent that they exist from their own side, because this appears to their hallucinating mind. They suffer so much due to this ignorance. It is like taking drugs, their minds are completely hallucinating, possessed by ignorance, and all their views become hallucinations. Whatever object appears is a hallucination, which in reality does not exist.

This is the basic suffering, believing in a total hallucination, believing that it is true. Then, on the basis of this, anger, attachment, pride, the six root delusions, the thirty-seven secondary delusions, and all other delusions arise. This is the fundamental suffering. Out of that beings create negative karma and problems. Their lives are trapped in many big piles of hallucinations.

There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy. Each school has its own view of emptiness and the ultimate nature, and the opposite, the object to be refuted, the hallucination, which is the opposite to their point of view of emptiness.

The mind has all those wrong concepts, hallucinations, superstitions, then anger, pride, jealousy, more and more superstitions, more and more concepts, and more suffering. There are so many piles of hallucinations, of wrong concepts.

So, you see the general sufferings of samsara, the six types, three types, and four types. You can use compassion, taking their suffering, and meditate in this way, generating compassion for the numberless other sentient beings who have difficulties and problems with the guru. Take everything from all the other beings, all the wrong views, all the delusions, root delusions, and hallucinations.

Think how devoid of happiness they all are. Even human beings are devoid of ultimate happiness in samsara. Besides other sentient beings, even arhats are devoid of full enlightenment, the peerless happiness. Then generate the thought, "How wonderful it is for all sentient beings to have happiness and the cause of happiness. May they have happiness and the cause of happiness. I will cause them to have happiness. Please, Guru, bless me to be able to do this right now." Then practice giving: give away your body transformed into a wish fulfilling jewel, your merits, and all your happiness up to enlightenment. You practice giving and taking.

You can use whatever difficulties you are having with your teacher, such as your teacher showing he or she is unhappy with you and using harsh words. You use that to destroy the ego. This means you are using this experience to achieve enlightenment. You are using these problems with your teacher as a path. When you use this to destroy the ego, you are transforming the experience with the guru and using it to achieve the path to enlightenment for all sentient beings. OK? In other words, you are transforming this into a cause to bring total, ultimate happiness for all sentient beings. You use it to cause happiness for all sentient beings. Use any difficulties in your life to destroy the ego, for bodhicitta, as a means to cause happiness for all sentient beings. You transform your experience by destroying the ego and use it as a weapon to destroy the ego, to transform the mind into bodhicitta. You make your experience most meaningful to cause happiness for all beings.

In the Guru Puja it says Yi de ba zhig gom par jin gyi lob (Bless me to always meditate only in happiness.) Look at that verse in the Guru Puja (LC 97). It means that whatever happens in your life, you use it to achieve the two bodhicittas. This is how you use all problems, to make the mind happy. Whatever problems you experience, use them as a means to achieve ultimate happiness, so it becomes a very deep psychology. You are a trained psychologist!

The other thing is this. You should remember what Drogön Tsangpa Gyare (see Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, p. 262) said: If the guru beats you, it is an initiation. Dung dak chung wa wang po yin: If the guru scolds, you, it's a wrathful mantra pacifying the obstacles to practicing the Dharma or to enlightenment. You see, when there are obstacles in life, normally people recite wrathful mantras for pacification, and perform wrathful pujas. It is the same if the guru scolds you. This is the wrathful mantra pacifying the obstacles to achieving enlightenment. Also, if there are obstacles that need to be eliminated, the scolding eliminates them. Think that your teacher is showing this aspect purposefully to purify your mind, to guide you and bring you to enlightenment.

Then, lastly, one can think: Sometimes the guru is so happy with you, but externally shows the aspect of being unhappy, beats you, scolds you, but also sometimes shows the external aspect of being happy, but inside is not happy. So, you can think like that. Thank you very much.