Offering Service to the Guru

Offering Service to the Guru

The Merit of Offering Service
Date of Advice:
July 2022
Date Posted:
October 2024

This advice about the benefits of correctly following the virtuous friend was given to a couple who had offered service for a long time and wrote offering their practice.

My most dear, most kind, wish-fulfilling ones,
You have been helping at the center so much and for such a long time. This is a healthy action and if your minimum thought is to benefit others, then it is a beneficial action. So that is incredibly good. Secondly, you might have been doing all that while thinking of me, so it is a very healthy action.

Sakya Pandita said,

All the merit you accumulate by practicing the paramita of charity for a thousand eons—giving to other sentient beings not only your head and limbs but even the merit you receive by offering your body in this way—is collected in one second by following the path of the guru. Therefore, offer service and feel happy.

That means by fulfilling the guru’s wishes or following the guru’s advice for even in one second, we collect all the merits of an eon in one second. So there was a need for the work you did and you did it by thinking of me. Also, the practice you did, same thing, you did it by thinking of me. You are offering service to the guru, therefore rejoice and be happy! There are many words and quotations that say this, but this is enough.

In this work, no matter how many difficulties you experience, it is beyond beneficial. Therefore, you should rejoice. It’s unbelievable! It is said that for those who correctly follow the virtuous friend, the karma to be born in the lower realms is purified. By following the guru, those heavy karmas are experienced as some small harm or difficulties in this life or even as some small harm in your dreams.

The Ksitigarbha Sutra mentions,

For those who correctly follow the virtuous friend and offer service, even the negative karmas that would cause them to wander in the lower realms for an unfathomable time, tens of millions of eons, are totally purified by manifesting in this life as disease or some other small harm to the body or mind, or even by experiencing that in a dream.

In this quotation, to “correctly follow the virtuous friend and offer service” doesn’t mean in the same place as the guru; it can be in another part of the world.

The Kalachakra Tantra says,

You cannot become enlightened in this life even if you make offerings to the Three Rare Sublime Ones and save the lives of millions of creatures for all the eons of the three times; but if, with devotion, you please the guru, who has oceans of qualities, you will definitely achieve the general and sublime realizations in this life.

Also, it is mentioned in the Oceans of Transcendental Wisdom,

For the wise fortunate one, serving the guru has greater meaning than making prostrations to all the buddhas of the three times for sixty million eons. If you accomplish the work according to the guru’s advice, all your wishes will quickly be achieved, and you will collect unimaginable merit. And those who please the guru with the offering of their possessions will be liberated from the three realms of samsara, be born in the pure realm of nirmanakaya and go straight to the sorrowless state.

With love and prayer ...

The Obstacles Are Purifying Your Karma
Date of Advice:
December 2020
Date Posted:
August 2024

A student wrote to give Rinpoche an update and mentioned all the obstacles they had been experiencing.

My very, very dear one,
As you have been doing in the past and continue to do, you have been serving the center with the motivation of bodhicitta. The success of that is the root of the path to enlightenment, devoting to the guru, like with Lama Yeshe and His Holiness the Dalai Lama and then me, but I’m like a sloth going so slow.

So doing this with guru yoga, for you that’s the highest merit and the greatest purification. I’m very happy. I hope all your family are well.

The obstacles you are experiencing are purifying your karma, etc. Please make the following prayer.

The great Lama Choje Gotsangpa said:

By my experiencing this karma, may all the four things —all my negative karma, sickness, obscurations and spirit harm—be purified.

You can recite this, say one mala or two malas each day.

With much love and prayer ...

Pleasing the Guru
Date of Advice:
January 2015
Date Posted:
June 2023

Rinpoche wrote this letter to a monk who was helping at a Dharma center. Rinpoche had heard a lot of praise for how hard he was working.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche adorned with flowers, 2010.

My very dear one,
How are you? I have been hearing excellent news about you. How you work so hard and are dedicated to me and to all sentient beings and to the teachings of the Buddha. You are working so hard and have dedicated your life and this has benefits.

The great, great, great holy being from where the Sakya teachings came, Sakya Pandita, mentioned that even the brightness and heat of the sun cannot produce fire without a magnifying glass. Like that, without the guru, we cannot receive the Buddha’s blessings. Therefore, if the guru is pleased then all the buddhas are pleased.

Therefore, by pleasing the guru all the buddhas are pleased with you, who are the embodiment of all the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

I go for refuge to you who are the embodied Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I go for refuge.

It is mentioned in the Drop of Mahamudra:

Just as fire burns wood and in one second makes ashes,
If the guru is pleased, then your negative karma is burned in a second
And many eons of heavy negative karma are ceased.

Also, Sakya Pandita said,

For a thousand eons you can make charity of your limbs, legs, hands and so forth, and even the merits from that is given back to sentient beings, but you receive all that merit in one second by following the guru’s path.

That means the merit from making charity, from giving your limbs to sentient beings and dedicating that merit for thousands of eons, you achieve in one second when you fulfill the guru’s wishes, the guru’s advice.

Please enjoy your everyday life, every hour, your most meaningful life, every minute, please enjoy.

With much love and prayers ...

The Merit of Pleasing the Guru
Date of Advice:
January 2013
Date Posted:
January 2022

Rinpoche sent this card to an interpreter who was offering service at a Dharma center.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Root Institute, India, January 2009. Photo: Ven. Roger Kunsang.

My very dear one,
What a great joyfulness you have offered by being at the center and helping the Sangha, teaching Tibetan and translating for Geshe-la, many things. Thank you very, very much for doing all these things on my behalf. It’s really great! Thank you. You are just like the manifestations of Manjushri or Tara. Great, yet simple, so great!

I am sure so many people enjoy and are happy having you to help. I am wondered how I can repay you. As you are always happy and satisfied and everything, please continue like this and enjoy.

I am sending you this Buddha Amitayus mantra that I wrote out as exercise for my right hand and also to purify the remaining negative karma and collect extensive merits. It has extensive benefits. It is the greatest offering, more than offering to the ten-direction Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas and scriptures.

When you recite the mantra from the Amitayus Long Life Sutra (Tse dö), it is like reading the whole Kangyur. Universes filled with wish-fulfilling jewels are small compared to writing this mantra.

Nagarjuna said:

Abandon making other offerings,
And strive purely to make offerings only to your guru.
By pleasing your guru, you will achieve
The sublime wisdom of the omniscient mind.

That is because there is less merit making offerings to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha than offering to the guru. This means obtaining the guru’s advice and fulfilling the guru’s wishes, not only making physical offerings.

Sakya Pandita said:

The merit you collect by making charity of your limbs for a thousand eons, giving away your head, legs and so forth, and even dedicating that merit to sentient beings, can all be achieved in one second by following the guru’s path.

What it says is that making charity of various parts of the body for a thousand eons, even if the merit of that is dedicated to sentient beings, you collect all that merit in one second when you follow the guru’s advice and follow the guru’s wishes. You collect all that merit in one second by following the guru’s path.

That means, can you imagine how you are so lucky, so unbelievable fortunate? You can’t imagine. So it is very good you have a good opportunity to learn Dharma philosophy from the geshe at the centre. This is a great opportunity.

I hope to see you soon.

With much love and prayers ...

Working for the Guru Purifies Eons of Negative Karma
Date of Advice:
March 2019
Date Posted:
September 2020

A student wrote that he hadn’t started a Vajrasattva retreat because he had been serving the center and didn’t yet have the time. Rinpoche had advised him to do the retreat some time ago.

When you work for the guru even if it’s not meditation, even if it’s physical work, because there is a need for that, it contains so many thousands of mandala offerings, prostrations, etc. It purifies so many eons of negative karma and it is the greatest purification. It is said in the sutra Donpo gopai do that serving the guru makes us achieve enlightenment.

You can do Vajrasattva as planned or do a little each day.

Service to the Guru is the Best Offering
Date of Advice:
May 2016
Date Posted:
September 2018

A Dharma center had a lot of expenses when Rinpoche visited. After leaving the center, Rinpoche sent this card to the directors with advice about guru devotion.

My dear ones,
I enjoyed my stay very much. First you should know that.

From your side, I could see that you did everything in the best way that you could. But from my side, as I am an ordinary being with little good karma, what I have is finished very fast. That’s what the reality is.

I am an ordinary person with very little merit, so with all that comfort I am finishing the merit very quickly. However, I wanted to add this. Because from my side I am an ordinary being, great comfort means a lot of attachment. It becomes poison and is the cause of being in samsara and the lower realms endlessly.

The common people in the world don’t know karma, therefore they think that external things are the highest quality enjoyments. But they don’t create good karma as much as they enjoy the external things—they use them with great pleasure or they have very expensive enjoyments, so their little good karma finishes very fast. I just wanted to inform you of this.

In the airplane Roger mentioned that you spent a lot of money, for example, buying many vegetables for our food. Then I explained that actually you know what the most important thing is; what the key practice is.

Then I said that what you did is pleasing, it’s the best offering. It purifies unbelievable obscurations and negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths; it collects the most extensive merits and it causes you to actualize the path to enlightenment. Then you will achieve enlightenment the quickest, no question about all the temporary success. It is the best and quickest cause of success.

Then I quoted two tantric texts, the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion, which is the condensed meaning of tantric texts.

From the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion:

It is said by Vajradhara that realizations follow the master.
(That means how you follow correctly the vajra master.)
By knowing that, with all actions please the guru.

So with all the things, with devotion, follow the guru’s advice with body, speech and mind, by fulfilling the wishes of the guru and also by making material offerings if you have them. For example, even by offering a glass of water to the guru you become closer to enlightenment. It means every single service, like that, and especially by pleasing the holy mind. This is the quickest path.

This was in essence what I told Roger. Yes, maybe you spent a lot of money, but that is the best way to earn money, to earn so much more. What is achieved compared with what is spent is unbelievable, unbelievable, beyond our concept. What you spent is nothing compared with the result that you will achieve. This is not word-for-word what I said, but this is the essence.

Whatever pleases the guru, attempt that.
(That means all the different things, whatever they are.)
Whatever displeases the guru, don’t do that.
By following this then all the qualities—common, uncommon and sublime —are achieved in this very life.
(“Sublime” means mahamudra realization and enlightenment.)

I may have also explained what Nagarjuna said—that the greatest purification, the greatest realization and the quickest enlightenment is achieved by offering pleasing service to the guru. Even offering to numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha and to numberless statues, stupas and scriptures is very small compared with offering service to the guru. Therefore, Nagarjuna said to abandon all the offerings and attempt completely to make offerings to the guru.

So everybody please enjoy. In particular, having met Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings is a miracle. It’s a miracle, hard to believe.

With much love and prayers ...

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