Whenever we think the guru is happy, that we are pleasing the guru, then any practice we do is guru yoga. Whenever we practice sadhanas, make offerings, visualize the merit field, and make offerings to the guru and Buddha as one, then every offering we make brings the most extensive merit.
For example, in daily life, there is the yoga of eating. If you see that the deity and guru are one, then with every drink and bite you take, you accumulate the most extensive merit. With one sip of tea you receive far more merit than offering to numberless buddhas, the Dharma, Sangha, statues, or scriptures. When you offer to yourself as the deity, make a determination in the future that you will become a buddha, that you will have the purest enjoyments, and no defilements. Offering to yourself as a deity determines what you will receive in the future. With this meditation on the guru/deity, with each bite and drink you are closer to enlightenment. Karma is very powerful.
For example, in India, a person made one offering to a fully ordained monk. In his next rebirth, he was a powerful king in India. This result came from offering to a powerful object and the fact that karma is expandable. Just one simple offering to a monk or nun is so powerful. Offering to numberless buddhas, the Dharma, Sangha, statues, and scriptures means you receive a lot of merit. But offering to yourself as the guru/deity gains much greater merit than offering to numberless buddhas, the Dharma, Sangha, statues, and scriptures—it is far more powerful karma.
Benefits of Offering to Buddha
Offering one tiny flower to a statue or picture of Buddha receives immeasurable, limitless, merit. All the paths to happiness result from that. With just one grain of rice or one tiny flower, you can enter the path and achieve total enlightenment—the completion of all good qualities.
After achieving enlightenment, you can liberate so many sentient beings from so much suffering and samsara and bring them to enlightenment. This is the result of offering one tiny flower. Each offering has all this benefit—like putting money in the bank. One dollar equals one billion trillion dollars in interest. This is an amazing benefit. It is important to remember this every day and offer as much as possible. If you see a beautiful flower, you visualize offering it to the guru and Buddha. The result and benefit is incredible. You can offer every single flower in a garden—the merit received is mind-blowing.
This is how you use your precious human life, which is extremely rare and hard to find. Every time you see an object, use it to become closer to liberation and enlightenment. Many times each day, use your precious human rebirth to bring you closer and closer to liberation and enlightenment and thus to enlighten all sentient beings.
Dorje Khadro Practice
Each time you offer seeds of negativity into Dorje Khadro’s mouth, his holy mouth is fully satisfied by them. Every session should be performed with the realization of impermanence and death. Think that maybe you will die before you finish this session. To cut worldly attachment and clinging to the “I,” you need to cut off the worldly dharmas. You need to make your actions Dharma. If not, you think you are practicing, but the results don’t come.
Your motivation is very important. While making offerings, see them as empty, then your practice becomes very rich and powerful. Until we are enlightened, we have negative imprints on our mind, even after we realize the emptiness of the “I.” Understand that the appearance of the “I” from its own side is not true. While dreaming, we can recognize that it is a dream. We still see hallucinations, visions of water, and mirages, but understand in your heart that they are not real. It is important to practice mindfulness, seeing things as empty even though they appear real. You must purify your negative imprints.
Recognize that the object of negation, the “I,” is totally empty. Think of it as a dream, and understand that it is not real. This helps us not to grasp it. It is extremely powerful purification, and becomes the antidote to suffering, to all delusions, and to be free of samsara.
When you practice the Dorje Khadro puja, it is good to think of all sentient beings, including your family, and then the puja becomes also for them and purifies their negative karma. This is very powerful. If someone has cancer, AIDS, is dying, or dead, you can do this puja for them.
When Nyudrung Ngawang Khädrub was young, he asked the Panchen Lama where he would be born, and was told in Amitabha Pure Land. Later, he became a teacher in Sera Je Monastery. One time, he used the offerings made to the Sangha for himself and some other monks—food and money—which was a polluted act. He asked a medium what would be the consequences, and the medium said he would be born in hell. He performed a Dorje Khadro puja, asked again, and the medium then said he would be born in Amitabha Pure Land.
So, the Dorje Khadro fire puja can purify even heavy karma to burn in the hell realms; you can liberate yourself from that, and also be born in the higher realms. You can accomplish all work for all sentient beings. This is the root of it. Whatever you do—study, meditation, etc.—becomes very effective. The mind can see its delusions and reduce them. Also, harm, obstacles, and sicknesses are all purified and all your wishes are fulfilled. You are especially able to develop the greatest wisdom.
In all your lifetimes, it is very important to benefit sentient beings, and be connected with Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings. Also, with the tantric path, it is easy to understand, practice, realize, and achieve enlightenment. And at death, you will go to Tushita Pure Land. It is impossible to be born in the lower realms.
There are many guru yoga practices, with different deities, but Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga is especially good for spreading Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings and achieving wisdom realizations.
