The mind can be trained
In his extensive teaching on guru devotion,64 Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo mentions the vital key to the practice,
In short, if we wish to achieve enlightenment in one life on one body, we have to stop all thought of faults and look at the guru as only a buddha.
This is the heart advice of guru devotion practice and the quickest way to achieve enlightenment. This essential instruction is what will enable us, like Milarepa, to become enlightened in one life, which means within a number of years, on this body. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that if we wish to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime, it is essential that we stop all thought of the guru’s faults, see only his qualities and train our mind in the devotion that sees the guru as a buddha by looking at the guru as a buddha.
Everything depends on how we as disciples train our mind. It doesn’t matter whether or not the guru is an enlightened being. If we look at the guru as a buddha by focusing on his good qualities, we will see him as a buddha; if we look at him as an ordinary being with faults, we won’t see him as a buddha but as an ordinary being. In other words, we see the guru as a buddha by looking at him as a buddha.
I think that looking at the guru as a buddha is the point where we need to apply all our effort so that we have no regrets later. If we can practice pure appearance, seeing the guru as a buddha, we receive the greatest profit; we experience great purification and collect extensive merit, enabling us to quickly develop our mind. Otherwise, if we look at the guru as ordinary, we create obstacles to the development of our mind in the path to enlightenment. Giving rise to the thought of faults in the guru becomes an obstacle to realizations. Giving rise to the thought of the guru’s good qualities causes us to generate realizations.
The basic reason that we are able to see the guru as a buddha is that it is the nature of our mind that we can train it in any way we wish. As Shantideva says, there is nothing that the mind cannot be trained to become.65 In other words, the mind is a causative phenomenon, dependent on causes and conditions. Our mind is like a child: what it becomes depends on how we guide, or direct, it.
In his thought-training teachings, Geshe Chekawa said,
This mind, which has many faults, has one great quality. What is that? Whichever way you train it, that’s what it becomes.
Compendium of Valid Cognition, a teaching on logic, explains that with a physical activity such as jumping, we need to apply effort every time we jump; however, the more we train our mind in mental phenomena, such as in generating compassion, the less effort we require to generate compassion. After some time, we can effortlessly feel compassion. It is similar with seeing the guru as a buddha. At first we need to apply effort to generate devotion through using logical reasoning and quotations; then after some time our mind will effortlessly be in the nature of devotion.
Seeing the guru as a buddha has all to do with mental training; it has all to do with the way we train our mind. What we perceive depends on the way we train our mind. All the things around us are impermanent, changing within every second, but if we don’t put effort into training our mind to see these things as impermanent, the realization of their impermanence won’t come. Seeing things as impermanent doesn’t come from the side of the objects—it has to come from our own mind. If we train our mind to be aware of the impermanent nature of life by meditating that it changes within each second because of causes and conditions and that death can happen at any moment, we see our life as being very short, and our wrong conception of permanence, our fixed idea that we are going to live for a long time, is stopped during that time. To realize the reality of impermanence we have to put effort into looking at things as impermanent.
In a similar way we can transform our mind from self-cherishing into bodhicitta, which is also a dependent arising. Depending on one set of causes and conditions, our mind is selfish, and depending on another set of causes and conditions, that same mind develops bodhicitta. Because causative phenomena depend upon causes and conditions, they can be changed and developed.
Similarly, all phenomena are empty by nature, but just knowing this fact is not enough for us to realize emptiness. We have to train our mind to recognize the ignorance that believes in true existence and the objects of this ignorance, the truly existent I and truly existent phenomena, which don’t exist. With this knowledge, we then need to put effort into not following this ignorance and into looking at things as they are, which means as dependent arisings, empty of existence from their own side. In this way, the realization of emptiness will come.
It is the same with the tantric practice of seeing everything as pure. If this had to come from the side of the object, it would never happen. Even though we now see ourselves and this place as ordinary, through training our mind in tantric practice, as we achieve realizations of the generation stage and especially the completion stage, we will gradually come to see everything as pure; we will see ourselves and other beings as deities and the place as a mandala. This pure appearance doesn’t come from the side of the object; it has to come from our side, from our own mind. We have to put effort into training our mind to look at everything as pure.
If we just wait for the realizations of impermanence, emptiness and pure view to happen, they never will, even though in reality objects are by nature impermanent, empty of existing from their own side and pure. If we don’t put effort into looking at the I as impermanent or as empty, we will never realize its real nature. It has to come from our own side, not from the side of the object. We can’t realize the impermanence and emptiness of the I without meditating on them.
Now, it is exactly the same with seeing the guru as a buddha. It is a matter of training our mind. Seeing the guru as a buddha doesn’t come from the side of the guru; it also has to come from our own mind. Unless we put effort into looking at our gurus as buddhas, we won’t realize that they are buddhas. By training our mind to look at our gurus as buddhas, we will then see them as buddhas. We have to practice guru devotion by putting all our effort into looking at our gurus as pure, as having ceased all faults and perfected all good qualities. If we train our mind to look at our gurus in this way, we will then see them in this way.
As explained clearly and perfectly by Lama Tsongkhapa in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment and also by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, there are two techniques we can use to enable us to see the guru as a buddha. The first technique is to train our mind to focus on the good qualities of the guru; the second is to use the faults we see to develop our devotion.
Focusing on the good qualities of the guru
Lama Tsongkhapa says that focusing strongly on the good qualities of the guru naturally overwhelms the wrong conception that sees faults in the guru. The basic reasoning is that by looking at the good qualities, we will see the guru as having no faults but only good qualities—as a buddha, in other words—just as the light of the sun overwhelms that of the moon and stars.
Lama Tsongkhapa suggests that we use ourselves as an example. Even though we have many faults, focusing strongly on even one good quality that we have overwhelms any thought of our faults, so that we see ourselves as only good. Our faults become invisible. In a similar way, if we focus strongly on one fault that we have, the thought of that fault will overwhelm any thought of our good qualities so that we will see ourselves as having only faults. Our good qualities will become invisible and we will see ourselves as hopeless.
It is similar with the guru. Even though the guru has many good qualities, focusing on some small faults that he seems to have will obscure all those good qualities and we will see only faults. The devotion that sees the guru as a buddha then cannot arise. This is how we train our mind in a negative way. However, even if we see some faults in the guru, if we constantly think of his good qualities, our seeing faults will not become an obstacle to our devotion. If we train our mind to focus on the guru’s good qualities, the thought of his faults will diminish, then eventually disappear. In this way, we will see the guru as having only good qualities. By looking at the guru as having the qualities of a buddha, we will then see him as a buddha.
When considering the good qualities of our gurus, we should think of our own personal experiences of the special qualities of the holy body, speech and mind of each of our gurus, and any stories we have heard about them as well. Think of the particular qualities of that lama that are not common to ordinary people, such as his understanding, loving kindness, humility, patience or ways of guiding sentient beings. When we think of his good qualities we will find it easy to see the guru as a buddha—or at least a great bodhisattva. Using our awareness of the good qualities that we find in each of our gurus is an effective way to do this meditation.
If Lama Yeshe is our guru, for example, we can think of what Lama was able to do with his holy body, speech and mind that common people could not. We can think of Lama’s incredible compassion, with only the thought to cherish others. We can also think of the benefit and happiness offered by Lama’s holy body and the great effect of his holy speech in subduing other beings.
Of course, how the guru appears depends on the mind-training of the disciple. Some of Lama’s students had a stable realization of guru devotion, seeing Lama as an actual buddha. By looking at Lama’s good qualities, they saw him as a buddha without any hesitation. No matter what aspect Lama showed or what he did, it could never disturb their mind or change their devotion. Of course, there were others without devotion who saw Lama in a negative light and criticized him. They saw only faults because they looked only for faults.
The students with stable, unshakable devotion got all the profit of the eight benefits that I explained earlier, including constantly getting closer to enlightenment. Those who didn’t practice guru devotion not only did not receive the eight benefits but on top of that, because they made mistakes in their devotion, experienced the eight shortcomings.
Of course, in the case of Lama Yeshe, even in the ordinary view Lama definitely had realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness, as well as the Highest Yoga Tantra realizations of clear light and the illusory body. As I lived with Lama and he took care of me for more than twenty years, I have many stories to prove this.
No matter what worldly action Lama Yeshe did to accord with worldly people, all his actions were done purely for the sake of other sentient beings, to satisfy them and to direct their minds toward Dharma. He would act in accord with the way the people themselves acted, doing everything in the Western style. But he did everything purely with compassion, with the thought of cherishing other sentient beings and without the dissatisfied mind of attachment.
The great meditator Gen Jampa Wangdu told me the following story about two disciples of a teacher in Tibet, which also shows how the way the guru appears depends on the mind-training of the disciple. When the two disciples returned exhausted to their monastery from their home, which was very distant, their teacher greeted them with cold tea. One disciple got angry at his teacher. He thought, “We’ve come such a long way, we’re exhausted, and he hasn’t even bothered to heat the tea up for us.” The other disciple thought, “Our teacher is so kind! He knew we’d be hot and exhausted after coming so far, so he’s purposely kept the tea cold for us.” The disciple who looked at the situation in a negative way had no profit, only loss. He created heavy negative karma by getting angry at and criticizing his guru. The other disciple, who thought that his guru had compassionately kept the tea cold for them, got only profit. This is a simple example of how the way the guru appears depends on how the disciple looks at him. It all depends on the disciple’s interpretation.
The disciple who thought the teacher was bad received only shortcomings as a result. Besides not receiving any profit in terms of achieving realizations, liberation or enlightenment, the disciple received only a great obstacle to realization. The other student, who looked at the positive side, increased his devotion and respect by thinking of the teacher’s kindness. His positive attitude brought him only great benefit, making him closer to liberation and enlightenment.
In The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment Lama Tsongkhapa explains,
Even if the guru has many great qualities, if you look at some small fault, it becomes a hindrance to your achieving realizations. Also, if the guru has many great faults, if you do not look at the faults but only at the qualities and train your mind in devotion, it becomes the cause of receiving realizations.
Looking at the good qualities of the guru and generating devotion becomes the cause of achieving all the realizations of the graduated path to enlightenment. Even if the guru has many faults and few good qualities, ignoring his faults and looking at even one of his good qualities becomes the cause of attainments. And if the guru has many good qualities, looking at the few faults that he has becomes an obstacle to achieving realizations of the path. Seeing faults in the guru is the greatest obstacle to receiving blessings and to achieving realizations, which means the greatest obstacle to our achieving enlightenment and our helping all sentient beings by bringing them to enlightenment. As well as destroying our perfections, it causes the realizations we already have to degenerate and blocks the generation of new realizations.
If we don’t look at the good qualities of our guru but see only his faults, even if our teacher is an enlightened being, we won’t see him in that way. Even though Guru Shakyamuni Buddha had become enlightened inconceivable eons previously, the six Hindu founders and Sunakshatra didn’t look at Buddha as an enlightened being. They always looked for faults so that they could complain about them to other people. When ordinary people looked at Buddha they usually saw an aura of beams for an arm span around his holy body but the six Hindu founders couldn’t see any aura at all. All they saw when they met Buddha was a very ordinary monk.
If we look in the wrong way, we can easily find fault even with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If we look for faults, we can find them. But that is not the practice of guru devotion. Looking for faults is not the disciple’s responsibility and there’s no profit in it.
By looking at the guru’s good qualities, we train our mind to see the guru as a buddha. Afterwards, we won’t find the slightest fault in him but only good qualities. At that time we will see him as a buddha. All the time—whenever we hear our guru’s name, see his holy body or remember him—we’ll have the thought of our guru as a buddha, an enlightened being. When this awareness arises effortlessly and spontaneously from the very depths of our heart without needing to rely on quotations or reasoning, we have the realization of guru devotion. All realizations, from the perfect human rebirth up to enlightenment, will then fall like rain.
Using the guru’s faults to develop our devotion
In the second technique, we use any faults we see in the guru to increase our devotion and thus achieve realizations of the path to enlightenment. We do this by thinking that the guru purposely manifested in this aspect or made this mistake in his actions as a specific method to benefit us, to bring us to liberation and enlightenment. In his extensive commentary on guru devotion, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo attributes this special technique to Lama Tsongkhapa.
We can develop guru devotion not only by reflecting on the good qualities of the guru but also by seeing even his faults. When we think that the guru is purposely showing faults or making mistakes in his actions, seeing the faults and mistakes causes devotion to arise; we can use them to support our devotion. Instead of becoming a problem for our mind and causing us to lose our devotion, seeing our guru’s faults inspires us, causing us to think of the kindness of the guru and to increase our devotion. It becomes a special technique, like transforming poison into nectar, only causing our guru devotion to develop.
The Essence of Nectar also mentions that we should think that the guru deliberately manifests faults to subdue our mind,
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?
When we see a fault in our guru, we can remember that a buddha manifests various forms and does various activities when he sees that this is exactly what suits the mind of and benefits a particular sentient being. We can then think, “There must be a special reason for this mistake. Perhaps it was purposely done to benefit me or other sentient beings.” In this way, seeing faults becomes a cause of devotion rather than a cause of conflict in our mind and an obstacle to devotion and thus to realizations.
The Essence of Nectar also says,
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.
With this technique, seeing faults in the guru, rather than making us lose our devotion, becomes a powerful cause of increasing it. It also causes us to remember the special kindness of our gurus, because without depending on these ordinary aspects, no buddhas can guide us to enlightenment. We then appreciate the faults in the human aspect of each of our gurus.
During a Guru Puja commentary in Dharamsala in 1985,66 His Holiness the Dalai Lama, even though he didn’t talk in detail about the outlines of the guru devotion meditation, touched on the most important point in a clear and effective way. His Holiness explained that “manifesting in ordinary aspect” itself means displaying faults. Otherwise, there is no object to label “ordinary aspect.” Before hearing this my mind had been like a tight knot, but His Holiness’s explanation, which has incredible meaning, released the knot. That teaching was like a key opening a door. My mind has now degenerated but at that time what His Holiness said affected me very much.
If we understand this point, any fault that appears to us in the actions of the guru becomes only a cause to develop the devotion that sees his good qualities. At the time when our seeing faults doesn’t disturb our mind but instead becomes the cause of devotion, the stable root of guru devotion has been established within our heart. This way of thinking is essential to the development of our mind; it is essential to guru devotion and to all other realizations of the path to enlightenment.
When we become enlightened, we attain the dharmakaya. But sentient beings cannot see or communicate with the dharmakaya, so in order to benefit them, the dharmakaya manifests the rupakaya, holy body of form, which has the two pure aspects of sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. But ordinary beings, whose minds are obscured, also cannot see the pure forms of buddha, so for them, the dharmakaya manifests various ordinary forms.
There is nothing fixed about these manifestations. The dharmakaya can manifest in whatever form fits the level of mind of a particular sentient being. There are numberless different kinds of manifestations for those whose minds are impure, obscured by karmic obscurations. Manifesting in an ordinary form means doing exactly what such a being would normally do because it is only in this way that it can help others.
Jamyang Shepa, a very high lama from Amdo, explains that when special holy beings, such as the great Indian and Tibetan pandits and yogis, reincarnated, when they were babies, all they knew how to do was suck milk from their mother’s breasts, cry and make pipi and kaka exactly like an ordinary baby. They did nothing new. They acted exactly like any normal child, having to learn the alphabet and everything else, even though in reality they were enlightened beings. You might then say that they weren’t the incarnations of special beings, but many of those children could also remember their past lives as great beings and the great activities they had done. Those children ate, slept and experienced sicknesses and obstacles to their lives. They also became old and later passed away.
Jamyang Shepa asks, “Even though all these things happened, how is it possible that they were all only ordinary beings? How is it possible that a buddha would experience these sufferings? It’s not possible.” Jamyang Shepa then explains that it is impossible for even a Mahayana arya being to have a rebirth caused by karma and delusion. Those who have achieved the Mahayana arya paths, either the path of seeing or the path of meditation, have completely abandoned suffering rebirth, old age, sickness and death; they have a spiritual body. Jamyang Shepa says that these great beings eat and sleep and experience sickness and other problems like ordinary human beings as methods to subdue the minds of sentient beings. They do these actions for the benefit of sentient beings and they are all the appearances of sentient beings’ karma. Jamyang Shepa then says, “Therefore, any fault that appears is not necessarily an actual fault.”
Jamyang Shepa goes on to say that when a buddha appears in the form of a dog, the manifested dog will behave exactly like an ordinary dog. It will bark, wag its tail, eat kaka and all other kinds of dirty things, and also have sex with other dogs. And, of course, it will look exactly like a dog. That’s what manifesting as a dog means.
When I mention eating kaka, I’m thinking especially of the dogs at Tushita Retreat Centre, where, during Lama’s time, we had about thirteen dogs, a mixture of Lhasa Apso and Pekinese. Lama used to say, “I don’t want to give them to other people—I love my dogs.” Anyway, the dogs loved to eat kaka. In the afternoon when the dogs were released from their enclosure and allowed to run outside, they would run in just one direction, to the road around the side of the mountain, where they would find piles of kaka. They would then quickly return, all smelly and excited.
When a buddha manifests as a pig, that pig will have a pig’s round nose as well as the body and tail of a pig. And it will spend its time behaving exactly the same as a normal pig, snuffling its nose into garbage with a Tantric College noise.
It is the same when a buddha has manifested in an ordinary human form. That person behaves exactly like an ordinary human being usually behaves; he has delusions and suffering and makes mistakes in his actions, exactly like an ordinary person. That’s what manifesting in an ordinary human form means.
For some sentient beings, a buddha manifests as a butcher and is exactly like an ordinary butcher, doing what a butcher normally does. For some sentient beings who have a lot of attachment, a buddha manifests as a prostitute and behaves exactly like a prostitute. Beings with ordinary minds just see the manifestations behaving exactly like those ordinary beings; they don’t see anything higher than that. Buddha doesn’t show a higher aspect because it wouldn’t suit ordinary human beings who don’t have the karma to see a higher or purer aspect.
When a buddha manifests as an ordinary bodhisattva, he acts exactly like an ordinary bodhisattva, not showing at all the qualities of someone who has achieved the higher paths of an arya bodhisattva. He never shows such special qualities to sentient beings who don’t have the karma to see such an aspect but only the karma to see an ordinary being. Or even if they have the karma to see a bodhisattva, they can see only an ordinary bodhisattva.
For example, in teachings or in conversations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness quite often says “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure,” even in response to Dharma questions. If you don’t have a pure mind you might think that His Holiness really doesn’t know and see him as an ordinary being. Of course, if you have a pure mind that sees His Holiness as a real buddha, a real Chenrezig, you wouldn’t have that thought. And sometimes, to certain people, His Holiness might show the aspect of being upset or angry. However, it’s all the view of us sentient beings and, of course, it’s done to benefit sentient beings, especially those particular sentient beings who needed such an aspect. Common people, who don’t have the pure mind realizing that His Holiness is a buddha, might think that His Holiness is angry because they see an ordinary form with discriminating thoughts.
Since it’s extremely difficult to understand somebody else’s mind, we can’t judge who is a buddha and who is not a buddha. It’s clear that we can’t use our perception to prove that someone is not a buddha. When we go to a market or an airport or a train station, we can’t really tell who there is a buddha and who is not.
One time when Serkong Dorje Chang, the previous incarnation of the Serkong Dorje Chang who passed away in Nepal, went to see the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, upon entering the room he saw the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in the aspect of Chenrezig called “Resting in the Nature of the Mind.”67 Whereas somebody with a pure mind will see a deity, common people like us will see a human form, and sometimes a human form in the aspect of sickness. Some people will see an aspect that is upset or disturbed. It’s totally up to us sentient beings. In reality the Dalai Lama is Chenrezig, essence of all the buddhas’ compassion, but what we see accords with the quality of our mind. As most people don’t have the pure mind to see the form of a deity, all they see is a human form.
We can also use the appearance of faults in the guru as a cause of devotion by remembering that there is nothing to trust in our view, which will be explained extensively in the next outline, how to see the guru as a buddha. We can think that any faults we see in the guru are the projections of our own ordinary mistaken mind. It is like looking at the reflection of our face in a mirror. If our face is clean, we see a clean face in the mirror; if our face is dirty, we see a dirty face. In a similar way, if our mind is pure, we see things as pure; if our mind is impure, we see things as impure.
In this technique, rather than pointing to the guru, we think that the appearance of faults comes from our own impure mind, our own impure karma. When we think that any fault we see is the view of our own mistaken mind, seeing faults in the guru doesn’t disturb our mind or make us lose our devotion. If we think that the appearance of faults comes from our impure karma, there’s no place for the arising of negative thoughts toward the guru; we’re able to keep our mind steady in devotion, looking at the guru as a buddha. The appearance of faults doesn’t disturb our devotion at all.
The Fifth Dalai Lama said,
In the view of your hallucinated mind, your own faults appear in the guru’s actions. All this shows is that your own heart is rotten to the core. Recognizing them as your own faults, abandon them as poison.
The heart referred to here is not the physical heart, but the mind, which is filled with superstitions and wrong conceptions.
This verse contains a powerful and effective instruction. The Fifth Dalai Lama is saying that to our hallucinated mind, which apprehends objects in the wrong way, our own faults appear in the actions of the guru, just as a white conch appears yellow to someone with jaundice. Just as what appears on a movie screen is the projection of what is recorded on a film, all the mistakes that we see in the actions of the guru are projections of our own impure mind. They are actually our own faults. We tend to project our main faults onto others. If we ourselves make mistakes, we often project the same mistakes onto others. Someone who steals, for example, always suspects that other people are thieves.
We shouldn’t think that any mistake we see in the holy actions of the guru comes from its own side without depending on our own mind. By realizing it is our own mistake, we should abandon it as poison. We should abandon the thought that the faults we see in the virtuous friend are there in reality and not simply appearing to be there.
The Fifth Dalai Lama is saying that we should abandon as poison all wrong conceptions toward the guru, all thought of faults and all clinging to the guru’s ordinary aspect as true. By understanding all the appearances of faults in our guru are our own mistakes, we abandon them like poison. As soon as we’re told that something is a deadly poison, we immediately throw it away. We don’t want it near us. It is similar with this wrong conception, except that there is no comparison between the danger from all the poisons on this earth and that from wrong conceptions toward the virtuous friend.
As soon as there is a danger that a superstitious thought of finding fault will arise, we should protect ourselves by remembering this quotation. When it appears to us that our guru has made a mistake, it is important to remember that there is nothing to trust in our view. This is the most effective way to stop the arising of negative thoughts toward the guru. By thinking that our obscured mind is projecting our own faults onto the actions of the guru, we will protect ourselves from disrespect, anger and heresy. The main thing we have to abandon is our belief that the faults that appear to us exist in reality. Then, even though the faults will still appear to us, our guru devotion will not be disturbed. This meditation protects our mind, protects our devotion.
Also, The Essence of Nectar mentions,
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.
This present appearance means our view of the guru as only an ordinary being, which means as someone with faults. Even if all the buddhas were to come directly in front of us, because of our obscured mind, we have no other way to see them except as having faults, delusions and suffering and making mistakes in their actions. Therefore, how we see the guru is a projection of our own obscured, impure mind. This is similar to what the Fifth Dalai Lama is saying.
These two quotations are making the same point. Thinking of either of them will help us not to lose our devotion. If we keep these quotations in mind, no matter what mistakes in the actions of the guru appear to us, nothing will disturb our devotion, which will be stable like a mountain. And if we have realizations, it will ensure that we won’t lose them.
How do we abandon this hallucinated mind that sees faults in the guru? We do this by constantly training our mind in the awareness that the guru is a buddha, free of faults and complete in realizations. We should constantly think that in essence the guru is the absolute guru, the dharmakaya, the holy mind of all the buddhas. With this awareness, no matter what the guru does, we will constantly see the guru as a buddha. Even if we don’t practice guru yoga in the tantric way, transforming the guru into the pure form of a deity, and even if we see the guru as ordinary, which means having faults, we won’t cling to that ordinary appearance as true.
If we practice awareness that the guru in essence is the absolute guru, we automatically realize that every fault we see in the guru’s actions of body, speech and mind is the appearance of our own impure karma. There is nothing to blame for this appearance but our own mind.
The Fifth Dalai Lama’s advice is the very essence of how to practice guru devotion. If our mind were completely pure, we would now be seeing all the buddhas and all existence of the three times. We have many limitations, however; our mind is impure and obscured. If we relate everything that appears to us to our hallucinated mind, we see that our own faults manifest in the actions of the virtuous friend. Whenever a fault appears to us, we should immediately try to recognize this. We should practice constant awareness that the guru is a buddha and that his holy mind is dharmakaya.
As we develop our mind in the path to enlightenment, our mind will become purer and we will see everything more purely. At the moment we see statues of buddhas as being made of brass, stone or clay; but when we enter the Mahayana great path of merit, we will see statues as the nirmanakaya aspects of buddhas, with all the thirty-two holy signs and eighty exemplifications,68 and they will speak to us. And when we become Mahayana arya beings—in other words, bodhisattvas on the Mahayana paths of seeing or meditation—we will see statues in sambhogakaya aspect.
While we see statues as simply statues, not as something living that can speak, great yogis, who have purified their karma and have pure minds, see them as actual living deities. For example, when Lama Atisha was circumambulating the Bodhgaya stupa before going to Indonesia, Tara and many of the other statues there, and even the paintings on the walls, spoke to him. They advised him, “If you want to achieve enlightenment, practice bodhicitta.”
Actually, if we have devotion and a pure mind, all the statues and paintings of buddhas can speak to us. The great bodhisattva Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen explained that all the stone statues around the outside of the Bodhgaya stupa spoke to Lama Atisha when he was circumambulating the stupa, not just the Tara statue.
Khunu Lama Rinpoche was a great bodhisattva and a great scholar, no different from the ancient pandits. He could remember the entire Kangyur, the collection of Buddha’s teachings, and quote from any text in it. His Holiness the Dalai Lama received extensive commentary on A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life from Khunu Lama Rinpoche.
One time when Khunu Lama Rinpoche was circumambulating the Bodhgaya stupa, something dropped on his head from the bodhi tree.69 When he licked the liquid to check what it was, he found it tasted like honey. It was nectar from the bodhi tree.
As our mind develops through correctly devoting ourselves to the guru, we will see the guru in different ways; as our mind develops, our view will change—not only our view of the virtuous friend but also of others. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains that at the beginning we see our virtuous friends as ordinary beings. When we purify our karmic obscurations and achieve the Concentration of Continual Dharma on the great path of merit, we will see our gurus in nirmanakaya aspect, in the holy body of supreme transformation; and when we achieve the first bhumi, the Mahayana path of seeing, we will see our gurus in sambhogakaya aspect. Until we reach the tenth bhumi and become enlightened, we meet the guru as a separate being; but when we become enlightened, we meet the guru mentally. This means that when we become enlightened, we become the guru; our mind becomes the absolute guru, the dharmakaya.
When our obscurations have been completely purified, we will actually experience everything that appears to us as pure: the place will be a deity’s mandala, the beings will be deities and all our enjoyments will be purest nectar. To our pure enlightened mind, everything will have the nature of bliss and voidness.
All this has to come from our own mind, not from outside. It comes through applying effort, through training. For us to be able to see ourselves and our environment as pure, first we have to put effort into looking at our body as a deity’s holy body and our environment as a mandala. Seeing the guru as a buddha also has to come from our own mind, not from outside. To see the guru as a buddha we need to put in effort from our side.
Whenever we see faults in our gurus, we have to use the faults we see to develop our devotion, as explained by Lama Tsongkhapa and the Fifth Dalai Lama. Also, training our mind in the subsequent outlines—how to see the guru as a buddha and developing respect by remembering the guru’s kindness—will cause the thought of the guru’s qualities to arise very strongly and this will overwhelm the wrong conception of faults.
If we keep our mind firmly and constantly in pure devotion, in the awareness that the guru is a buddha, any fault or mistake we see will appear to us to be an act, like an actor playing a part. Even though there is an appearance of a fault, we won’t really believe that it is true. It will appear to us like a mirage: there is an appearance of water but we know there is actually no water. If we look at the mind of the guru as dharmakaya, free from all faults and having all qualities, any appearance of faults won’t bother us. It won’t disturb our devotion.
If we can remember these points and put them into practice, our mind will be protected. Our mind will always be kept in guru devotion, seeing the guru as a buddha, undisturbed by any thoughts of faults in the guru. In this way we will protect our mind from creating the heaviest obstacle to achieving realizations of the path to enlightenment and from experiencing unimaginable eons of suffering in the hell realms. Otherwise, because of the imprints from our past lives, anger, heresy and the thought of faults will arise strongly and habitually, causing us to engage in the heaviest negative karma.
Each time the thought of seeing faults in the guru arises it becomes an obstacle to our achievement of realizations and enlightenment and causes our mind to degenerate. Keeping our mind in the devotion that looks at the guru as a buddha or at the guru’s mind as dharmakaya becomes a protective wall, like the walls people build around their houses to keep out their enemies. It protects us from all thoughts of faults, which can destroy our enlightenment and all our other success.
If we don’t put effort into seeing the guru as a buddha, since our mind will have no protection, concepts of the guru as ordinary and negative thoughts will arise. Understanding that seeing the guru as a buddha has to come from our own mind gives us a lot of protection, and our life—both this life and our future lives—won’t be destroyed by negative thoughts. In this way we won’t receive any loss but only profit, up to the ultimate profit of full enlightenment.
The more we can look at the guru as a buddha, the closer we become to enlightenment; and the more we think of the faults of the guru, the further we become from enlightenment. By thinking of the guru’s good qualities, we receive only profit and no loss. By thinking of the guru’s faults, we receive only loss and not a single profit. It doesn’t matter whether or not the guru is a buddha, a bodhisattva, an arhat or an ordinary being. It doesn’t matter what he is from his side. If, from our own side, we practice skillfully, looking as much as possible at his good qualities and as little as possible at his faults, we receive only great profit. We will be able to see the guru as a buddha and that devotional thought will then become the door through which we receive the actual blessings of a buddha. When these blessings enter us, the path to enlightenment then takes root in our mind. We then have the freedom to achieve enlightenment as quickly as we wish.
NOTEs
64 Abbreviated Notes from Explanatory Discourses Given on [the First Panchen Lama’s] Six-Session Guru Yoga, [Chandragomin’s] Twenty [Stanzas on the Bodhisattva] Vows, [Ashvaghosha’s] Fifty Stanzas on the Guru, and the Root and Secondary Tantric Vows. [Return to text]
65 There is nothing whatsoever
That is not made easier through acquaintance. (Guide, ch. 6, v. 14.) [Return to text]
66 This teaching, given during the FPMT’s Enlightened Experience Celebration II, has been published as The Union of Bliss and Emptiness. [Return to text]
67 This is an aspect of Chenrezig, white, with one face and two arms, in a posture of ease, with the left hand resting behind on a moon disc. [Return to text]
68 For a complete list of the thirty-two signs and eighty exemplifications see Liberation in Our Hands, Part Two, pp. 308–314. [Return to text]
69 A descendant of the tree under which Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened. [Return to text]
