Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book
Lam-rim Topics :
Guru Devotion
| When the Guru Is Ill |
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| A nun wrote seeking help adjusting her mind to the sickness of one of her gurus. Here is her letter, followed by Rinpoche’s reply to her. | |
Dear Rinpoche,
With respect to our precious teacher Geshe-la’s health, our kind lama is manifesting the aspect of sickness, and I do not feel quite sure how to think about it.It is easier with ordinary beings. But since our teacher is a fully realized, holy being, we cannot treat him like a suffering sentient being, and whatever symptoms of illness there are, I cannot really believe them. I feel almost as if I don’t have respect when I ask my teacher how he feels, and I also cannot really tell him what would be good for him to do because I am embarrassed to do so. I think that he knows far better what is good for him.
On the other hand, it makes me sad to think that his eyes and heart could be affected, and that he could be burdened, and it makes me totally sad to think that these eyes full of love would some day not look at us any more, and this treasure of wisdom and compassion could leave us. Geshe-la certainly does not worry at all for himself, but he cares for us, and his looking after his health may totally depend on the intensity of our needs and wishes.
If a Buddha manifests as a human body, does he depend for his well-being, his energy, and his long life on this body and does he depend on medicine at all? Or does his manifestation of a long life depend on our karma, efforts, and prayer? What we see, is it his sickness or our obscurations? What is proper to think and do? Can ordinary medicine and ordinary beings help the illness of realized beings? Can we as his students influence Geshe-la’s health by some special practice?
Dear Jangchub,
Regarding the guru having sicknesses, and whether to have treatment or not, this answer is not for every single guru, but a general answer.
The disciple should pray for the long life and health of the guru, because disciples’ prayers have power. Why? Because there is a Dharma connection.
You can’t leave this out, saying, “This is Buddha, who does not need anything,” and then do nothing. Because the guru is showing an ordinary aspect, such as having suffering and sickness, you should offer service, get medicine, and so forth. The need for your service is also part of the manifestation, and it is for us sentient beings to collect merit and purify. Those sentient beings who offer service need their negative karma to be purified. These are the reasons for the guru’s sickness, because it makes possible very powerful purification for sentient beings, for them to achieve enlightenment quicker.
It is good to recognize this. When Lama Atisha showed the aspect of diarrhea and loss of control of his bowels, Drontompa cleaned it with his hands, without any thought of its being dirty, and from this he achieved clairvoyance. Because his mind was clarified from these actions, he was able to read the minds of sentient beings, even ants, even the minds of people as far away as an eagle can fly in 18 days.
Thank you very much for your concern and for your guru devotion. That is your jewel, the root that eliminates all defilements and obstacles, and achieves all realizations and enlightenment, and enlightenment for all sentient beings.
With love and prayers...
| Illness and One's Guru |
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| Rinpoche wrote the following letter to two Tibetan monks who had served as attendants to a Geshe. At the time of the letter, they were caring for the Geshe after an operation for cancer. | |
You, who are loving ones, I offer greetings.
Regarding your offering service to Geshe-la, day and night, all the time, Geshe Dromtonpa served Lama Atisha when he took the aspects of sickness and of losing control of his bowels. Dromtonpa cleaned up everything without thinking of it as dirty. He achieved so many realizations from that. Kadampa Geshe Chalwa, offering service to Chengawa, achieved so many realizations, (if you don’t know about these people, you should ask Geshe-la, then you’ll understand well).
Like that, for you, too, this has been the most powerful purification and a means to accumulate the most extensive merit. There is no difference between what you have done and performing Vajrasattva practice for many hundreds of thousands of years, meditating, doing deity retreat, preliminary offerings, and a hundred thousand or tens of millions of mandala offerings. What you have done is more than that. By offering this service now, you become closer to enlightenment.
Geshe-la took on these sicknesses in order to purify you two. He took your defilements. It is to purify you that Geshe-la has showed the aspect of taking on the sicknesses. You should think that way.
The purpose of becoming learned in Dharma in the monasteries is to tame the mind, to achieve enlightenment. Therefore, it happened this way, at this time, especially, to provide you the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.
So I, Thubten Zopa, who is named as an incarnation, offer this.
| How to Think When Your Guru Shows Signs of Aging |
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| A student had been hosting a Rinpoche, who was very elderly, in her home for some time. She was taking care of his health, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent her this letter after she had come to visit him in his own home. | |
My very dear Karen,
I want to mention something else in addition to what we discussed last night. Rinpoche is the Buddha, and he knows everything. Since you have confirmation of and faith in this in your heart, that makes everything possible for you. It will accomplish every single wish you have for success, for happiness in this life, for your time of death, intermediate state, in the pure land where you wish to be born, for ultimate liberation from samsara, and for all the realizations up to enlightenment. Then, you will be able to guide sentient beings, and give deeper and deeper benefit to others, more and more, bringing sentient beings from happiness to happiness all the way to enlightenment.
That makes you the luckiest person, the most fortunate being. All good things will come toward you, like the waves of the ocean, like rain, or snow, (that is, if you like snow, then countless snowfalls!)
With that same logic, you thought Rinpoche asked you to take on these responsibilities in order to benefit you. That is exactly the best way to think. I think it would be excellent for you to think in a similar way that Rinpoche is taking the aspect of sickness and so on, like an ordinary being, for the same reason. In exactly the same way, you can think that every single aspect that is like an ordinary person—having sickness, delusion, mistaken actions, needing treatments, being unable to remember things, having fear, and so on—all of this is to benefit you, because the actual Buddha does not have suffering, old age, sickness, or death.
So, I say that you are the luckiest woman in the world.
With skies of love and prayers...
| Close to Guru |
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| Rinpoche and a student were conversing about another teacher, whose good qualities Rinpoche was praising. | |
Student: Rinpoche, Geshe-la helped me a lot. He gave me very good advice on guru devotion.
Rinpoche: Really, what was it?
Student: He told me, “Even you are not physically near your guru all the time, if you feel close and have devotion, you will constantly receive his blessings. To feel close, you must constantly remember his kindness.”
Rinpoche: I think that’s from his own experience. I don’t think that came from a text.
Student: Also, I told him that I only wanted to practice guru devotion. I didn’t want to meditate on anything else, and I asked if that was all right. He said, “If you put guru devotion on one side of a scale and all the other topics of the lamrim on the other side, guru devotion will always weigh more.”
Rinpoche: Really? He said that? One time a student asked His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche about this. I think she was feeling sad because of not being close to Lama Yeshe. Then His Holiness gave this analogy: If you plant a flower, as long as it’s not covered by stones and there are no obstructions, then even though the sun is very far away, the flower will receive everything it needs to grow.
Student: Yes, Rinpoche. It makes sense.
Rinpoche: I think what Geshe-la told you is expressing his own experience. If your mind is good, you always feel close to the guru. If you make a mistake and do something wrong, then even though you are physically close, you feel kind of distant. It is like that.
| Many Gurus |
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| Rinpoche wrote the following letter to a student in Singapore, with cautionary advice on making Dharma connections with other gurus. | |
My very dear Charlotte,
Of course you know this, but I wanted to mention to you to be careful meeting other lamas (gurus) and receiving teachings and initiations. If you have taken an initiation from them, which means you have done the visualization during the initiation, then you have to devote to the lama as a guru. This means you have to obey what he says.
You often say His Holiness the Dalai Lama and myself are your gurus and no others.
Just being present with other people and hearing the teachings does not alone make a Dharma connection—a guru/disciple relationship. But if you took the teaching with a recognition of yourself as the disciple and the teacher as the guru, then even if the teacher just says a few words, even just a verse of teachings or one mantra recitation, then that person is your guru from then on. There is no changing that. After one makes that Dharma connection, of guru/disciple, then if you give up that teacher, that is the greatest negative karma and the greatest obstacle to your spiritual growth. Besides that, there are heavy obstacles and one has to experience suffering, especially at the time of death, and eons of suffering in the lower realms and the hell realms.
If you attend the teachings to make other people happy, and you just sit with the group of people while the lama gives the initiation, but you don’t visualize seeing the lama as the deity, as the lama instructs you, then you are not taking the initiation. Even if you take the substances, that doesn’t mean you are taking the initiation if you don’t do the visualization.
This is just to make sure, to make it clean-clear, so you know.
With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
PS Please continue to pray for the Maitreya Project’s quick success, to receive all the funding and for the project to start without delay, and for the success of all of my projects and that all my wishes be fulfilled.
| Having Many Gurus |
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| A woman who came to visit Rinpoche had been living in a place where many teachers from different lineages and traditions came to give teachings and initiations, and where quite a few students had the habit of going to receive initiations whenever they were offered. During the visit she mentioned that she did not wish to do that, and commented that it gave her a headache to have to manage and keep straight all the different teachers and one’s connection with them. Some time after she left, Rinpoche composed this letter for her. | |
There is another important piece of advice that I thought of telling you some weeks ago, in regards to taking teachings and initiations from a lama in a guru and disciple relationship. This is the most crucial thing, so one has to be most careful on this point. It’s important, because if you are not careful, you can create huge negative karma with the guru. This negative karma comes from non-devotional thoughts, from disturbing the holy mind, from harming the holy body, and from disregarding the advice of the guru. These heavy actions create great obstacles to happiness in this life, the next life, up to liberation from samsara and the peerless happiness of enlightenment. This is the greatest obstacle to having realizations on the path to enlightenment, besides causing intense suffering in the lower realms for an immense length of time.
Looking at it generally, the guru can be perfect, but the disciple may still be unable to devote him or herself. There can also be an imperfect guru, misleading the disciple. In my case, the gurus are perfect. If I cannot devote myself correctly, that is my own problem. It is not the mistake of my gurus.
Therefore, I suggest to you, in regards to lamas you connect with to receive an initiation or teachings, certainly you should make a connection with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is Compassion Buddha in human form. There can also be other lamas who are your gurus, but there’s no rush. So, you can attend His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings and his initiations.
It is good the way you have been thinking, trying to protect yourself and not just listening to anyone who says to come and listen to different lamas’ teachings and initiations, making a of guru-disciple connection. You said that you didn’t want any “headaches.” Already many people have had such headaches, taking teachings and initiations from this lama and that lama. Worse, after having headaches, there is the danger of giving up the guru as well as one’s faith in the Dharma. That behavior leads to the heaviest hell realm, therefore it is something to be abandoned, even at the risk of your life. Just losing this life doesn’t necessarily mean you are reborn in the lower realms. You can still have a good rebirth, and even be born in the pure realms.
So, your term “headache” is perfect. There is the danger of getting involved in many things when one makes a connection by taking teachings and initiations from any lama one hears about. Then, you really do get many headaches, and so much confusion. For us ordinary beings, it becomes very complicated when we don’t know how to handle these situations. Many people I meet have gone through these problems. You can study the teachings on guru devotion.
However, if you don’t recognize yourself as a disciple and that person as the teacher or guru, just being present in the teaching does not mean that you are making a guru-disciple connection, even if you listen to the teachings. Likewise, even if you are present at the initiation, if you don’t do the visualization and have no recognition that you are the disciple and that person is the guru, you are not taking the initiation and are not making the guru-disciple connection.
| Request to Be Guru |
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| A student who felt extremely devoted to Rinpoche wrote to him requesting him to be his guru. | |
My very dear Frank,
Thank you for your letter. I am very happy to hear that your meeting me and hearing the Dharma caused your mind to be positive and develop in the Dharma. This fulfills the purpose of my life. It is fantastic how this has begun for you; my request is for you to continue. My hope is you can continue and receive more teachings on sutra and tantra so your mind can develop. The lamrim is very important – the most important – the three principles of the path, etc, then the path of secret mantra.
Regarding your request about my being your guru, of course. If you find this beneficial, why not, we can try our best. From time to time, if you have any questions, let me know.
With much love and prayer...
| Advice on Guru Practice |
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| Taken from a very small stack of blue Post-it notes with extremely illegible hand writing, some words only having one letter in them, handed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Ven. Holly Ansett with the comment that maybe they can be useful somewhere. Transcribed by Ven. Holly at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, CA, April 2005, and edited by Nick Ribush. | |
The most important thing that determines how quickly you reach enlightenment how strongly you need, rely upon and devote yourself to your guru—the stronger, the quicker.
It is your guru’s kindness that prevents you from falling into the lower realms, where you will suffer for an inconceivable amount of time, and allows you to gain a higher rebirth.
The better you understand suffering, the more you need to rely upon your guru; the better you understand how all of samsara—including the deva realm—is suffering in nature, the more you need, rely upon and devote yourself to your guru.
The more you suffer you more you need to rely upon and devote yourself to your guru.
The more you learn the more you respectfully need your guru’s help and rely upon and devote yourself to your guru.
The greater you feel the need to attain enlightenment the more you see the need to rely upon and devote yourself completely to your guru.
The further you progress along the path the more you need to rely upon and devote yourself completely to your guru.
The greater you feel the extremely unbelievable suffering of sentient beings the more you feel how urgent it is to rely upon and devote yourself completely to your guru.
The more you practice tantra the more you need to rely upon and devote yourself completely to your guru.
The essence of your life is practicing pure guru devotion, realizing the incomparable kindness of your guru, who is kinder than anybody else.
| Qualities of a Guru |
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| Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who wrote to him asking what are the qualities of a Guru who teaches tantra. | |
My very dear Simon,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, sorry for the long delay in replying.
Regarding your question about the ten qualities of a guru—there are ten outer qualities according to lower tantra and ten inner qualities according to highest tantra. You can find these in the Guru Puja and in lam-rim commentaries (Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Lam-rim Chen-mo, etc.). It is very good if you read these and study this well. Also, you can find it in the commentary on 50 Verses of Guru Devotion.
There are qualities that the guru should have and qualities that the disciple should have. The minimum qualities the guru should have are having the lineage of the initiation (that he is giving) and living according to samaya vows and tantric vows, and that the deities have not prohibited him from offering the initiation by giving signs, for example.
You can read and study the section in the Guru Puja that covers the qualities of the guru (before the section which begins “you are my Guru, you are my Yidam …..”
First it mentions the ten qualities of a Mahayana Guru:
1. Discipline as a result of his mastery of the training in the higher discipline of moral self-control;
2. Mental quiescence from his training in higher concentration;
3. Pacification of all delusions and obstacles from his training in higher wisdom;
4. More knowledge than his disciple in the subject to be taught;
5. Enthusiastic perseverance and joy in teaching;
6. A treasury of scriptural knowledge;
7. Insight into and understanding of emptiness;
8. Skill in presenting the teachings;
9. Great compassion; and
10. No reluctance to teach and work for his disciples regardless of their level of intelligence.
Even if one doesn’t have all the ten qualities but has five, six, or seven qualities, the main quality is having more knowledge than the disciple and having great compassion.
A tantric master must have even more good qualities. Most important is that he be an extremely stable person, with his body, speech, and mind totally under control. He should be someone in whose presence everyone feels calm, peaceful, and relaxed and even the mere sight of him brings great pleasure to the mind. And his compassion must be unsurpassable.
There are two sets of ten fields in which the vajra guru must be a complete master. The ten inner ones are essential for teaching the yoga and maha-anuttara yoga classes of tantra, which stress the importance of purifying mainly internal mental activities. These are expertise in:
1. Visualizing wheels of protection and eliminating obstacles;
2. Preparing and consecrating protection knots and amulets to be worn around the neck;
3. Conferring the vase and secret initiations, planting the seeds for attaining a buddha’s form bodies;
4. Conferring the wisdom and word initiations, planting the seeds for attaining a buddha’s wisdom bodies;
5. Separating the enemies of Dharma from their own protectors;
6. Making the offerings, such as of sculptured tormas;
7. Reciting mantras, both verbally and mentally, that is, visualizing them revolving around his heart;
8. Performing wrathful ritual procedures for forcefully catching the attention of the meditational deities and protectors;
9. Consecrating images and statues; and
10. Making mandala offerings, performing the meditational practices (sadhana) and taking self initiations.
The ten external qualities are required for teaching the kriya and charya classes of tantra, which stress the importance of purifying mainly external activities in connection with internal mental processes. These are expertise in:
1. Drawing, constructing and visualizing the mandala abodes of the meditational deities;
2. Maintaining the different states of single-minded concentration;
3. Executing the hand gestures (mudras);
4. Performing the ritual dances;
5. Sitting in the full meditation position;
6. Reciting what is appropriate to these two classes of tantra;
7. Making fire offerings;
8. Making the various other offerings;
9. Performing the rituals of
a) Pacification of disputes, famine, and disease,
b) Increase of life span, knowledge, and wealth,
c) Power to influence others and
d) Wrathful elimination of demonic forces and interferences; and
10. Invoking meditational deities and dissolving them back into their appropriate places.
Lama Tsongkhapa explained that in degenerated times it is difficult to find lamas having all these qualities mentioned above, so if the lama does not have all those qualities then having two, five, or even eight is sufficient.
As I mentioned before, the minimum qualities the guru should have is having the lineage of the initiation (that he is giving), living according to samaya vows and tantric vows, and that the deities have not prohibited him from offering the initiation by, for example, giving signs, etc.
Since you have received highest tantra initiation from Denma Locho Rinpoche, this means he is your guru. Any time that you take a teaching with the recognition that you are the disciple and the teacher is the guru, then even if the teacher only says a few words, a verse of teachings, or one mantra recitation, that person is your guru from then on and there is no change. After one makes that Dharma connection of guru and disciple, then if you give up it is the heaviest negative karma, the greatest obstacle to your spiritual growth. It brings heavy obstacles and one has to experience, especially at the time of death, eons of suffering in the lower realms and hell realms.
According to the texts, the teachings of the Buddha, the lamrim, one is supposed to think only of the qualities of the guru and only praise them. The heaviest negative karma is if anger and heresy arise, and you criticize him or her.
It is said in many tantric teachings—the Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja—that even if one has accumulated the five uninterrupted negative karmas, one can still achieve the sublime vehicle in this life, in particular the maha-anuttara path. This path has the most skills to grant enlightenment in a brief lifetime of these degenerate times. But if you criticize the guru from the heart, even if you practice the sublime vehicle, you will not achieve this.
In the Lama Tsongkhapa lamrim it is clearly mentioned that even the thought that the virtuous friend is ordinary becomes a cause to lose realizations, which means that it also becomes an obstacle to developing the mind on the path.
The most important thing is to analyze as much as possible before making Dharma contact. When the recognition of guru and disciple is present, since the Dharma contact is established, then from that time there is no change. One has to have a new relationship with the guru, it is another world, looking at that person with a new and pure mind.
It is said by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, the great enlightened being, the Heruka, that if one is able to stop all thoughts of mistakes and look only at the qualities of the guru, looking at the guru only as Buddha, then one can achieve enlightenment in this life. With the realization of seeing all buddhas as the guru and all gurus as the Buddha, one can get enlightened. This is mentioned in all four Tibetan Mahayana sects, in both sutra and tantra.
Making mistakes, the arising of heresy, anger, criticism, and giving up the virtuous friend become the cause to not find a guru in future lives. It is said in the Essence of Nectar that one cannot ever hear the sound of the holy Dharma, not to mention find a virtuous friend, and one becomes without a virtuous friend in all one’s lifetimes.
If one's own mistakes seem to appear in the guru’s actions, in one's hallucinatory mind, one must realize that this is one's own mistake and abandon it like poison. One must abandon the thought that there is a mistake in the actions of the virtuous friend. With this mindfulness, one looks at that person as Buddha, as one who has eliminated all mistakes and has all the perfect qualities.
If the guru asks you to do something, and you don't have the capacity to do it at that time, your mind hasn't reached that level, so with this pure thought, with this mindfulness, one respectfully explains to the guru how one is incapable of doing this, and in this way tries to get his or her permission not to do it.
This is what is said in the Fifty Verses of the Guru and the Vinaya. If the guru says to do something that is not Dharma, one can ask also permission not to do it. It doesn’t say in the text to have negative thoughts or to criticize or sue him. This is how you deal with that kind of problem without it becoming an obstacle to developing one's own mind on the path.
Of course, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentions all the time, if it is a special guru and disciple relationship, then you do every single thing the guru says, like Tilopa and Naropa, and Marpa and Milarepa, and so forth.
I hope this answers your question. You should study the tantric commentaries from qualified lamas such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and, in the future, if you pray, you will also be able to receive direct tantric teachings.
With much love and prayers...
Guru Devotion
The following is a teaching given by Rinpoche to a small group of students at Kopan Monastery in Nepal.
Guru devotion is the quickest way to collect the most extensive merit, the means to achieve enlightenment. Of course, the main thing is having the right motivation, bodhicitta, but having a pure mind of guru devotion, with no negative mind arising toward the guru – which is very heavy negative karma – is also very important.
A negative attitude, such as a thought of giving up respect, even just thinking, “What is the use of this teaching?” creates negative karma; one breaks the samaya vows. A kind of pollution comes, and whatever you offer becomes negative and can invite sickness or obstacles. So, I think, the most important thing is keeping samaya, not doing any wrong thing, not letting heresy arise, having negative thoughts, or losing faith. Lost faith is very heavy. Also, it is important not to break the root Pratimoksha vows.
So much emphasis is placed on guru devotion because, with very strong guru devotion, there is no hardship in following the guru’s advice; it becomes so easy to follow any advice given.
If one sees Buddha, one feels incredible happiness, joy, and pleasure in this life. We were trying the other day to find an example of happiness. I said “going to the beach” or “drinking nectar”; you said “having sex,” remember? We were looking for an example of something that is most exciting and joyful for ordinary beings.
Here, Dharma practice offers the most exciting, highest happiness there is: following advice, finding no hardship at all in whatever advice the guru gives, even things that generally seem hard in the view of other people, even impossible. That itself is guru devotion. Then, seeing your guru as Buddha, without any question, is incredible, the peak, the highest enjoyment. Then, nothing is difficult to accept. But if the devotion is not strong, if it is wishy-washy, if there’s no real devotion, only a little, and it's artificial, from the lips, but not in the heart, or it's very weak like when a fire has been burning a long time and there are only one or two sparks left, it can disappear very easily. That is what happens to devotion – one or two sparks are left and then the fire is gone. Then it's very difficult to follow advice, even if the advice is simple, and not a great sacrifice. Even very small things become hard. The mind doesn’t want to do it.
With that attitude one cannot obtain advice. There is no thought that it is precious and that "this is a task for me," that this is a dependant arising, that this advice is purification of negative karma accumulated from beginningless rebirths up to now and is collecting the most extensive merit. We don’t see it as a path to achieve enlightenment, that the advice brings you to enlightenment. One doesn’t see that every single piece of advice that is given, and whatever service one does, is the most powerful, best method to fulfill all your wishes.
From among all your wishes, the highest, most important wish is to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, and this is the best, most powerful cause to be able to enlighten so many sentient beings and do perfect work for them.
The proof of the power of guru devotion is found in many stories. The root of guru devotion, seeing the guru as Buddha, grows into a stable realization, through advice obtained from correctly devoting oneself to the virtuous friend in thought and action.
Many people can understand, have admired the life story, or have heard how Milarepa achieved enlightenment in one brief lifetime in this degenerated time. That’s because he was given advice by his teacher, Marpa, before receiving teachings or initiations, not only to build a tower alone, without any help, but then to tear it down and put the stones back from where he brought them, again rebuild it, and again put the stones back. It is amazing that Milarepa did all this without losing faith or devotion. Sometimes Milarepa came with other students to receive teachings from Marpa, but the minute Marpa saw Milarepa among the people, he scolded him and asked him to leave. Yet there never arose a single heresy from Milarepa’s side. His devotion was always very firm, he never lost any faith. Because of that, correctly devoting with thought, then with actions, following every single word that Marpa said, he achieved enlightenment in that very lifetime.
It was the same with Gyalwa Ensapa, Chokye Dorje, and so many other beings, such as Naropa and Lama Tsong Khapa. It is said that Lama Tsong Khapa could have achieved enlightenment in one brief life in this degenerated time by practicing wisdom mother practice, with a consort, but in order to preserve the Vinaya teachings and be an example to others, he achieved enlightenment in the intermediate state.
There are many other inspiring stories, such as that of the bodhisattva Sadaprarudita, “Always Crying One.” I think Sadaprarudita must have reached the great path, the third level, of the bodhisattva’s path of merit because when you achieve that level, wherever you are, you see hundreds of buddhas in their nirmanakaya aspect. Sadaprarudita was able to see and could have received teachings from many other buddhas but he was not satisfied. He wanted to see the buddha, the guru, with whom he had a karmic connection.
He went to see the bodhisattva Dharmodgata, the one he had the past karmic connection with, but bodhisattva Dharmodgata was in retreat. “Always Crying One” stayed in that temple for seven years, cleaning outside it. The day Dharmodgata came out to give teachings, he set up the throne and cleaned the place. When he was cleaning, he wanted to prevent dust from rising up, but maras had created obstacles and there was no water near this place. So, he drew some blood from his body and sprinkled it on the ground.
Generally, without practicing tantra, only following sutra, the paramitayana, one has to collect merit for three countless great eons, but “Always Crying One” finished collecting the merits of one countless great eon within those seven years. Why so fast? Because he had incredibly strong devotion to his guru, cherishing bodhisattva Dharmodgata more than his own life. This means you can achieve enlightenment more quickly.
Another story is about the Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa. Normally, the teachings mention him as an incomparable example, one that we should pray to be like. Also, there is Bodhisattva Shönu Norsang and Chayulwa. These beings were incomparable in giving their life to their gurus, cherishing the guru more than their own lives.
With that kind of strong guru devotion, cherishing the guru more than his life, every day Kadampa Chayulwa offered service to his guru, Chengawa, cleaning Chengawa’s house and offering many other services. It is said that even if he was offering a mandala, when Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa heard his guru calling, he would stop in the middle of the mandala and run to offer service. This shows how he had such strong devotion, cherishing the guru and actualizing the guru's advice.
Through cleaning and dusting, he achieved purification of the defilements and negative karma in his mind, each sweep collecting extensive merit. One day, after cleaning Chengawa’s room, while going down the stairs, when he reached the third step, the karma that blocked seeing Buddha was purified and he saw numberless buddhas in their nirmanakaya aspect, right there, while he was going down to throw out the garbage. Of course, it can be whatever service you are doing, like cooking or serving, especially following whatever advice is given. Every second one moves closer to liberation, becomes more distant from samsara, closer to enlightenment. Each time we come closer to realizations of the path to liberation and enlightenment.
Another example is Sakya Pandita. When Sakya Pandita’s guru, Dragpa Gyaltsen, took on the aspect of having a very heavy sickness, Sakya Pandita offered service so selflessly that he had no time himself to eat or sleep. He offered one-pointed service day and night, bearing hardships in order to offer service to his guru. Dragpa Gyaltsen was extremely pleased and said he would teach him Manjushri Guru Yoga practice. After he received this practice, Sakya Pandita realized and was able to see that his guru was Manjushri. All the negative karmas and impurities in his mind that had blocked him from seeing Manjushri before were purified by offering service, day and night, without even sleeping. Then Sakya Pandita became extremely learned. He became world-famous as the most expert logician, expert in the five sciences: crafts, logic, grammar, medicine, and philosophy, or inner knowledge. He was able to offer the most extensive, incredible benefit by seeing Manjushri. This came by serving his guru. Knowledge blossomed by having purified the defilements and blockages through service.
One time, Lama Atisha took the aspect of being sick with uncontrollable diarrhea. His disciple, Dromtonpa, cleaned and took care of Lama Atisha with his own hands, like a mother, cherishing him more than his own life. As he was offering service like this, one day he was able to read the minds of insects, ants, and worms, even from the distance it takes an eagle eighteen days to fly. After taking care of Atisha like that, he actualized one of the six types of clairvoyance, the ability to read anyone’s mind, very clearly. The potential is there in everyone to attain those qualities but is blocked by karma and defilements. Dromtonpa, by having one-pointed guru devotion to Lama Atisha and offering service, purified his mind and those qualities arose within him by the blessing of the Lama, having received the Lama’s blessing through devotion and service.
Another story is how one day Lama Atisha, with his clairvoyance, saw that Kadampa Geshe Gönbawa was thinking, “I must have greater realizations than the translator Dromtonpa. Why? Because he doesn’t have time to meditate, he's always so busy translating. I have so much time to meditate so maybe I have greater realizations than him and the cook, Amé Jangchub, who is always busy cooking.” So, Lama Atisha invited all three of them to line up in front of him and checked who had higher realizations. Dromtonpa’s realization was much higher than Gönbawa's – there was no comparison. Even Amé Jangchub's realization was higher than Gönbawa’s, even though he didn’t have time to meditate like Gönbawa. This story clarifies one point. Generally, people think that retreat and meditation are good and offering service is not really the best practice to develop the mind, that what really develops the mind and can bring realizations is only meditation. But in reality it is not necessarily like that. One has to analyze which practice collects the most merit, which involves the most purification, which is more powerful. Amé Jangchub, the cook, and the translator were so busy offering service, and I think that is why their realization was higher.
My guess is that what matters, the main point, is whatever is most pleasing to the guru. I would say that is the quickest path to enlightenment. That is, of course, based on the mind being one-pointedly devoted, with no negative thoughts arising, and not breaking samaya with the guru. This is based on correct devotion to the virtuous friend, as is mentioned in the eight disadvantages of making mistakes and eight advantages of correctly devoting to the virtuous friend in the section on guru devotion in the lam rim.
Doing something that one would like but which is not following what the guru said – breaking the advice, or giving rise to negative thoughts of anger or heresy – can make you lose any qualities you may have, such as some experience of compassion or renunciation, even the actual realization of bodhicitta, maybe even an experience or realization of emptiness.
It is explained that even if one has achieved actual realization of bodhicitta, there is the possibility of losing it, so it may be similar with the realization of emptiness. Whatever experience one has one loses and no new experience can occur. It’s very difficult – the mind gets stuck, thick-skulled, and like a stone that has been in the ocean for thousands of years. No water goes into it, it is so hard. Or like being in the hot desert, which doesn't get one drop of liquid. The mind becomes like that. Nothing grows. Whatever thoughts arise are negative, it is so easy for negative thoughts to arise, and the mind becomes covered by them, like being covered by mud. It becomes very difficult for positive thoughts to arise, such as thinking of the qualities of the guru. Even if the guru is an enlightened being, one cannot see him or her even as a bodhisattva, only as selfish, or only seeing mistakes in body and mind.
Not only realizations, but even the Dharma understanding one had before becomes meaningless, degenerates, one can't remember it. It becomes difficult to learn new things even when one listens to teachings. Before, one could concentrate and it was easy to understand, now it is difficult, one can’t keep up or follow. That is the result of actualizing mistakes in guru devotion: a negative thought arising and then giving up on the object of respect.
By correctly devoting to the virtuous friend in thought and actions, even if one doesn’t have intellectual knowledge, understanding and realizations come. There was an attendant of Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, author of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, whose name was Jamyang. He had never studied the Tibetan alphabet and could not read Tibetan. Before Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo passed away, he told this attendant that eventually he would be able to read the entire Guru Puja by himself, without being taught. And that’s exactly what happened. After going into exile from Tibet, Jamyang lived at the refugee camp at Buxa, where I lived for eight years. The abbot and main teacher at Kopan Monastery, Lama Lhundrub, used to live in the same building as Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo’s incarnation, where the attendant Jamyang also lived. When Jamyang first arrived at Buxa, he couldn’t read a thing, but suddenly one day he was able to read the entire Guru Puja. He told Lama Lhundrub that Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo had predicted that this would happen.
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More talks by Lama Zopa on this topic:
The first chapter of Lama Zopa's book Making Life Meaningful.
A talk on guru devotion in the January 2005 issue of our e-letter.
Guru Devotion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Dorje Shugden (a talk given in April 2001)
