Relying on the Guru

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1976 (Archive #091)

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained why we need to rely on a guru at the 9th Kopan Course in 1976. This teaching is an edited excerpt from Lecture Eight, Section Two of the course. Click here to read more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with students at Chenrezig Institute, Australia, May 25, 1975. Photo: Wendy Finster.

There are many people who say that to receive nirvana, or enlightenment, we don’t need a guru or teacher. They say that if we buy lots of books from the store and meditate as it is explained in the books, it is enough. Many people think that we don’t need to depend on a teacher or guru to be free from suffering and samsara. However, without first depending on a teacher, even if we have a whole library of Buddhadharma texts, sutra and tantra, we don’t get even the right intellectual understanding of the words. Many times there is the danger that we get the wrong understanding, even if the book is written correctly. This is not the mistake of the book, but of our mind.

The teachings are written in many different ways, in parables and so forth, and they are not necessarily what is outwardly written. Many people get confused about the meaning, and need some other commentary to understand them. Reading texts such as the Heart Sutra, many people believe there is no eye, no ear, no nose…no form, no sound, no smell. They believe either these things don’t really exist or they get the wrong conception, “Oh! Buddhists say these do not exist.” Even if the Buddha did not mean that in the teaching, and did not say that, we understand and believe what is literally written there, due to our ignorance and lack of guidance.

Also, to attain the realization of the graduated path to enlightenment, besides reading and understanding the texts, we have to get an explanation from the teacher. We have to receive the meditation techniques from an experienced teacher. Also, we have to both learn by example, from our own experience, and we have to learn what is right and what is wrong from an experienced teacher. Without depending on the guidance of a teacher, there is no way to receive nirvana, or release from samsara.

In tantra, there is no way to attain Vajrayana realizations without depending on the guru, and this depends on receiving initiation from the guru. Like this, by training our mind in the fundamental general path, and by depending on the guidance of the guru, we take initiation from the guru and that makes our mind ready to practice and actualize the Vajrayana path. Then, by following the Vajrayana path we receive enlightenment on the basis of pleasing the guru, and by following his orders perfectly. Especially in tantra, this is the most important thing.

In the Vajrayana teachings, the Buddha explained like this, “The boat cannot cross without the person holding the oars. How much knowledge is completed, without the guru we cannot be released from samsara.”

He is saying that even if we have all the understanding of sutra and tantra, like a library within our mind, and we are able to explain this to other people by heart—without a guru this is like having a boat but not having an oarsman who can guide us across the ocean. Having all this knowledge is like the boat, and not having a guru is like not having an oarsman who knows very well how to cross the ocean and reach the other side. So, it is said in the Vajrayana teachings that even if we have a boat we cannot reach there, and without a guru we cannot be released from the suffering realm of samsara. To receive enlightenment, we should follow the perfect teacher who can show perfectly the whole graduated path to enlightenment—the graduated path of the lower, middle and higher capable being. In order to attain enlightenment, we have to find the perfect teacher who can show all these graduated paths to us and who has the understanding of the whole path.

The teacher who gives Mahayana or Vajrayana teachings must have a certain number of qualifications. For the teacher who shows the Vajrayana path, his own mind should be subdued and he should have the fundamental realization of the preparations to practice the Vajrayana path—the realization of bodhicitta, the wisdom realizing the absolute true nature and the mind renouncing samsara on the basis of understanding the Vajrayana path perfectly. There are many Vajrayana practices that we have to know, and the teacher should have perfect understanding of these.

For the Mahayana teacher, there are about ten qualifications, based on the mind being subdued. I think to explain this takes a lot of time. Basically, there are ten qualifications for showing the Mahayana teaching.

Even the teacher who shows the lesser vehicle path—the Theravadin path—his own actions of body, speech and mind must be subdued by living in moral conduct. If his actions are not subdued, how can he subdue others? He must be living in the higher training of moral conduct, and he must also have the experience of shamatha meditation, mental quiescence. He must have control over mental distractions, and also the right wisdom realizing shunyata, emptiness. These are the fundamental qualifications.

It is extremely important that we become completely free from suffering, destroying the cause of suffering—the ignorance of the absolute nature of the self. If the teacher doesn’t have the right intellectual understanding of shunyata, it is impossible for the teacher to turn the disciple from the root of suffering, and the disciple cannot actualize the absolute true nature of the self. Without this there is no way to escape from the evil, the ignorance of not knowing the true nature of the self. Therefore, in order to be free from suffering and to receive ultimate happiness, it is extremely important that the teacher that we are seeking and trying to follow, has at least a perfect intellectual understanding of shunyata.

Unless the teacher emphasizes the happiness of other sentient beings as being more important than ourselves—if the teacher only emphasizes our own nirvana as the goal—we do not enter the Mahayana path, and the Dharma that we practice does not become a cause of attaining full enlightenment, but only nirvana, the release of samsara. A teacher who doesn’t have the understanding of the root of suffering and the absolute nature cannot help us attain enlightenment.

By following a teacher who only emphasizes the happiness of this life, who never talks about future lives—who emphasizes that working for the happiness of this life is more important than the happiness of future lives—the disciple is misled. If the teacher is concerned only for the happiness of this life, the disciple becomes the same and never makes preparation for the happiness of future lives and a better rebirth. So, the actions of the disciple do not become Dharma, and the teacher makes the disciple create the cause of suffering, not happiness. The way of checking the qualifications of the teacher is like this. There are many things to explain from the teachings, but this is the fundamental way of checking up.

If we are going to print something from a block and make a block picture, the model that we copy has to be perfect. If the model itself is imperfect and there is something wrong with it, the picture won’t be perfect—if things are not straight, if they are curved, or if the eyes are crooked or the nose is turned. That is why it is important to examine the teacher from whom we take influence—as a copy, an example for our life. How much pure Dharma we can practice depends a lot on who we copy—the teacher. These are the fundamental things to know, to check up and have some understanding of.

Then generally, there are also qualifications for the disciple. The teacher has to check up before accepting the disciple, before giving teachings. There are three qualifications for the disciple, so after we have found the right teacher, we have to know how to follow him. If we make the wrong practice, the negative action is very heavy. Gradually we can understand.

If the teacher is perfect, and the disciple is the right receptacle—like if we are going to put tea in a clean cup with no holes, we pour the tea and it can stay in the cup. The disciple who is the right receptacle and meets the perfect guru can attain enlightenment so easily, like making bread with flour, like making mo-mos.