An old student, who was very sick, checked with Rinpoche about fulfilling his commitments. He was attending lam-rim teachings every day, but was experiencing head pains, nightmares, and had been admitted to hospital. During the day he could only lie in bed because of his illness, and at night he would attend the teachings. He explained that he was having difficulty doing all the practices Rinpoche had given him and asked if he could just focus on the teachings and Six-Session Guru Yoga and leave the other prayers till after the teachings were over. Rinpoche replied as follows:
Attending the teachings and being able to do Six-Session Guru Yoga—that’s great! Since you are sick, it’s understandable that you are not able to do the rest of your commitments. The fact that you are still able to do Six-Session Guru Yoga anyway covers much of your samaya commitments. Six-Session Guru Yoga is the essence of tantra.
