The long version of Six-Session Guru Yoga120 has a section on guru devotion after the mandala offering, with verses that explain what the guru is and the kindness of the guru. It is very effective to meditate on guru devotion with these verses, which contain all the important points of correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. You can use the quotations and logical reasoning from the lamrim to meditate on seeing the guru as a buddha, then also meditate on remembering the kindness of the guru.
When you meditate on Six-Session Guru Yoga, think that Vajradhara is the embodiment of all your gurus; do the guru yoga meditation by simply visualizing Vajradhara—the essence of all your gurus embodied in one aspect. From the syllable HUM at the heart of Vajradhara, your gurus in their ordinary aspects are transformed on the tips of beams, then surround Vajradhara. That one being, Vajradhara, manifests in the different aspects of your gurus.
In this way you see that the essence of all your gurus is Vajradhara. Looking at all of them as one in essence helps you to generate devotion and also to generate more devotion for the gurus toward whom you have difficulty generating devotion. By looking at your gurus as one in essence you can generate the same strong devotion for other gurus as you feel for the guru for whom you feel the greatest devotion. They are simply different manifestations, but otherwise the same.
Don’t think only of your gurus of this life. Your present gurus are one in essence with all your past gurus during beginningless samsaric lifetimes and with all your future gurus until you achieve enlightenment. Remember each of your gurus and think that he is one in essence with all your past and future gurus.
The first verse in this section says,
All Those Gone to Bliss of the three times and ten directions, manifesting in the aspect wearing monk’s robes to subdue beings, perform the actions of the Victorious Ones in numberless realms. To you, precious guru, I make requests.121
Those Gone to Bliss [Skt: sugatas] means the buddhas. The verse mentions the guru manifesting in the aspect of a monk but this is just an example; it doesn’t mean that the guru manifests only in this aspect. An ordained aspect is referred to because it is generally easier for us to generate faith in this aspect and take it as an example to follow in order to achieve liberation and enlightenment. We can think of this aspect but we can also relate the words to other gurus who are not ordained.
To subdue beings means that the buddhas manifest various forms in accord with the karma of different sentient beings in order to subdue them.
This verse contains the essence of guru yoga meditation. It’s useful to remember the outlines of the eight benefits of correct guru devotion and the eight shortcomings of incorrect devotion then recite and meditate on the meaning of this verse.
Devoting to the guru with thought means regarding the guru as a buddha—or here, in Six-Session Guru Yoga, as all the buddhas of the three times and ten directions. All the buddhas of the three times and ten directions have taken an aspect wearing robes or whatever other aspect is needed to subdue sentient beings. To subdue our mind, all the buddhas manifest in this aspect that accords with the level of our fortune. At this time, even though we can’t see the guru as a buddha, we’re fortunate to be able to see the guru in the form of a monk rather than in the form of a dog or a monkey.
Each of our gurus has been performing the actions of the buddhas in numberless realms. During beginningless lifetimes they have been guiding us from happiness to happiness to enlightenment. Among all the deeds of a buddha, the supreme deed is that of the holy speech, giving teachings. Unless we are given teachings on the path to enlightenment, there is no way we can follow the path and achieve enlightenment. Our virtuous teachers giving us commentaries, oral transmissions, initiations and advice are all the actions of the buddhas of the three times. Even from their giving us teachings on the path to enlightenment, we can understand that the actions our gurus are performing for us are the deeds of the buddhas. There are no other actions of the buddhas to point out that are separate from what our gurus do for us. From these lines we can understand that all the buddhas are working for us, guiding us.
In the past Guru Shakyamuni Buddha generated bodhicitta to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings. Solely for the sake of sentient beings, he then entered the Mahayana path and accumulated merit for three countless great eons. He worked very hard and experienced much hardship in following the path to enlightenment. Buddha achieved enlightenment solely for the sake of us sentient beings, to guide us out of the suffering of samsara and lead us to enlightenment. And it is the same with the numberless other buddhas.
If Guru Shakyamuni Buddha himself and all the other buddhas, after achieving the state of omniscient mind with that motivation, abided in that blissful state without working for sentient beings, they would be cheating all sentient beings. That is impossible. Even when they were bodhisattvas they worked for sentient beings. Even from the time they first generated bodhicitta and entered the Mahayana path, they completely renounced the self-cherishing thought and had only the thought of cherishing others. If they worked solely for sentient beings even when they were bodhisattvas, why wouldn’t they do so after they had achieved enlightenment? The buddhas are definitely working for sentient beings, including us.
How do the buddhas work for sentient beings? There is nothing other than the work that our gurus are doing for us to point out as the buddhas’ work to save us from the suffering of samsara and gradually lead us to enlightenment.
With respect to remembering the kindness of the guru, only this manifestation, which accords with our own karma, can guide us to enlightenment; otherwise, there is no one to guide us. In relation to this verse, think about what the guru is and how the guru is performing the actions of all the countless buddhas in numberless realms. This is remembering the guru’s kindness. Remembering this kindness doesn’t mean simply thinking of the guru giving us the complete teachings of sutra and tantra, ordinations and initiations but thinking of the guru doing whatever actions benefit us and other sentient beings.
What is being requested with To you, precious guru, I make requests? It is the same as what we request in Guru Puja:
In this life, the bardo and all future lives,
Hold me with your hook of compassion;
Free me from the fears of samsara and nirvana, grant all attainments,
Be my constant companion, and guard me from interferences.122
We are requesting the guru to liberate us from samsara, grant all realizations and protect us from all interferences, including all wrong conceptions, from those toward the guru up to the subtle dual view, the very last of the wrong conceptions.
Six-Session Guru Yoga then continues,
You are praised by Vajradhara for sentient beings of lower mind as a field of merit more precious than the mandalas of infinite buddhas. To you, precious guru, I make requests.
The phrase mandalas of infinite buddhas refers to the principal and surrounding deities of mandalas such as those of Thirteen-deity Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, Heruka Chakrasamvara and so forth. Even though there are infinite such merit fields, transformations of the deity’s bliss and voidness, the guru is more precious than all of them.
Also, the guru is a more precious field because the guru is the highest among all holy objects, including the buddhas. Remember the guru’s kindness in being this object with which we can accumulate the most extensive merit. It is the guru who provides the quickest means of finishing the work of accumulating merit and thus of achieving enlightenment. Our gurus are so much more precious and kind than all the buddhas.
You can’t plant crops in an ordinary field all the time but have to work according to the seasons; you can plant and harvest crops only at certain times. But in the holy field of the guru you can plant merit, the seed of all happiness up to enlightenment, all the time, twenty-four hours a day. The only problem is if, from your own side, you don’t attempt to do it because you are careless or lazy, don’t have faith or don’t realize what an incredibly precious opportunity you have. You don’t have to plant this field only in the right season; you can plant it every moment of every day. If you have faith and understanding and aren’t lazy, you have an unbelievable opportunity with the merit field of the guru to create the cause of all this happiness in every second.
This verse is mainly about remembering the kindness of the guru; here we should remember his kindness in the past, present and future. In terms of qualities, the guru and the buddhas are equal, but in terms of kindness, the guru is kinder.
We don’t have the karma to see Yamantaka, Guhyasamaja, Heruka or any other deity and receive initiation from them but we do receive initiation from our gurus. We don’t receive teachings on sutra and tantra from Guru Shakyamuni Buddha as we have no karma to see Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. None of the infinite nirmanakaya and sambhogakaya aspects of deities can give us teachings because we don’t have the karma to see them, but our gurus do give us teachings.
Vajradhara manifested in the aspect of our gurus, whether ordained or lay, to us, ordinary sentient beings with little merit. Vajradhara also manifested in all the nirmanakaya and sambhogakaya aspects of deities and as the dakinis, protectors and even all the lineage lamas as well. Since we didn’t have the karma to see or receive teachings from them, we have been left out, unable to be directly subdued by them. These manifestations of Vajradhara, our gurus, have much greater kindness than all the buddhas of the three times and all the beings in the merit field.
If our guru had not manifested in his present human body but in a lower form such as that of an animal, we couldn’t recognize him. It would be impossible for us to recognize an animal as an embodiment of Vajradhara and communicate with or receive teachings from him. As Chengawa Lodrö Gyaltsen said, we are extremely fortunate not to see our gurus in the aspect of dogs and donkeys but to see them in human aspect.
If the aspect of our guru were higher or purer than his present one—if he were to manifest in the nirmanakaya or sambhogakaya aspect, for example—again we wouldn’t have the karma to see him and receive teachings. The only aspect that accords with our level of mind—one that we can see and receive teachings and guidance from—is the one we now see. This aspect exactly suits our present karma. Therefore our guru is extremely kind. Without even thinking of all the complete teachings we have received many times, we can see that our guru is unbelievably kind in showing the aspect that suits our present level of mind.
If we think of the meaning of this second verse in this way and meditate on it, it has great taste, great meaning. It helps us feel the guru’s kindness from the bottom of our heart.
We can also think of what His Holiness the Dalai Lama sometimes says to the Tibetan people: “If the Tibetan people don’t follow my advice well, the Dalai Lama might become sick and unable to do any activity.”
We may have found a guru but if he is always sick or unable to teach, we won’t receive teachings. In their present manifestations, our gurus are able to give whatever teachings we wish. If we meditate more specifically in this way we will feel the kindness of our guru more deeply.
Only our present gurus are actually revealing to us the methods to achieve liberation from samsara and enlightenment. Only our gurus are granting us ordinations, the bodhisattva and tantric vows, and commentaries on sutra and tantra. Therefore they are more precious than all the infinite buddhas.
Without our gurus, we would be barbarians; if our present gurus were not revealing the teachings to us, we would be barbarians with no understanding of karma. Being reborn as a human being is imperfect if we don’t meet gurus and the teachings. Just think of the Indian villagers in Dharamsala. Without any understanding of karma, they don’t have the opportunity or the freedom to stop creating negative karma. Without the kindness of our present gurus in manifesting exactly according to our karma, we’d be barbarians, completely without guidance. Even if we weren’t born in the lower realms, we would still be barbarians.
Without our gurus, we couldn’t even receive a human body. To receive a human body we have to create good karma and without a virtuous teacher we can’t create it. We need to receive teachings in order to practice virtue and obtain a human body.
As The Essence of Nectar says,123 it is through the kindness of our gurus that we are guided from the lower realms, placed in the state of a human and given teachings and temporal enjoyments, and from this we gradually achieve enlightenment. Guided from the lower realms doesn’t mean taken by the hand but given teachings so that we can create merit.
There are two ways to think about how the guru is kinder and more precious than the buddhas. One is to think that our present virtuous teacher, who appears in an ordinary aspect, is a manifestation of the absolute guru and everything—including Buddha, Dharma and Sangha—comes from the absolute guru.
The other way is to think that the numberless buddhas can’t guide us in the aspect of buddhas because we don’t have the karma to see them; only our present gurus can guide us. Without them we’d be without a guide, like a child without parents. We would be like a crawling baby, who doesn’t know anything, not even what to eat.
After the verse about the kindness of the guru, devoting to the guru with action comes in this verse of request:
Seeing that all general and sublime realizations depend upon correctly devoting myself to you, my savior, I give up my body and even my life. Please grant me blessings to practice only what pleases you.
This is an extremely important prayer. It’s important to always please the guru and never displease him for even a moment. We should say this prayer and dedicate merits in this way as many times as possible every day. If we dedicate merit in this way, in this life and future lives we will be able to do more Dharma practice and practice more correctly. It gives us the opportunity to be a successful Dharma practitioner.
Devoting ourselves to the guru doesn’t mean that we feel devotion and respect only at the times when our guru smiles at us, gives us things or does something that we like, then give up the guru at other times when he is angry at us, tells us our faults or does something we don’t like.
A text says,
By receiving Dharma, we should have good reliance. We should correctly devote ourselves to the virtuous friend until we achieve enlightenment.
In relation to give up my body and even my life, even if it endangers our life to follow a piece of advice from our guru, we should be willing to give up our body and life to do that, as in the stories of Naropa and Milarepa. Remember the twelve great hardships that Naropa experienced in following the advice of Tilopa.
What if somebody tells us that they will kill us if we follow our guru’s advice? In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo tells the story of somebody who said to a monk, “If you don’t give up refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, I will kill you.” Rather than give up his refuge, the monk chose to be killed and was then reborn in a pure realm.
Giving up our body and life to accomplish our guru’s holy wishes has incredible advantages. The alternative, protecting our life and going against our guru’s advice, has many shortcomings, even in this life. Even if we live a few years longer by protecting our life, our mind won’t be happy.
The next line, Please grant me blessings to practice only what pleases you, also has great meaning. When we recite this request, we should think, “From this moment until I achieve enlightenment, may my body, speech and mind be only pleasing to my guru. May I never displease him for even a moment.” If our virtuous friend is happy and pleased with us, that is the best purification. Even if billions of other sentient beings criticize and are unhappy with us, it doesn’t matter as long as our guru is pleased with us.
We purify even heavy negative karmas accumulated in the past with sentient beings or with our gurus by doing actions that please our guru’s holy mind. It is explained in the teachings that even the heaviest negative karmas, those accumulated in relation to the guru, are purified by following the guru’s advice and pleasing him. Even if billions of other sentient beings are unhappy with us, we will still have happiness in our life. In this life and in the future, we will succeed in our practice.
These three verses in Six-Session Guru Yoga have unbelievable meaning. It’s a waste if we just race through the words and don’t think of their meaning. We lose the richness of the prayers.
Notes
120 See Six-Session Guru Yoga for a commentary on this text. [Return to text]
121 The English translation of Six-Session Guru Yoga has been updated since Heart of the Path was first published. Rinpoche’s commentary in this chapter refers to a previous translation. [Return to text]
122 V. 53. [Return to text]
123 Therefore, when our gurus have revealed to us
The methods of escaping from the three evil-gone realms,
Kindly giving us the chance to enjoy for a while
The perfections of gods and humans;
And they then show us well the highest method
For pacifying all the degenerations of samsara and nirvana,
And lead us to the exalted state of the three kayas—
Why is this kindness not supreme? (Vv. 126–127.) [Return to text]
