Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

him a false guru.
e. If such complete conditions are gathered in one
person, how is one to get such a guru?
i. First one must get a personal and living guru in a
physical body. From him, the mantra and mudra may be
obtained, for the tradition of them is still maintained and
handed down. Choose a comparatively good guru who
is complete in at least some of the above respects, even
though he is not perfect in all of them.
ii. From him, get all the instructions and practices. Then
the meditator, to achieve the highest goal, should make
the guru identified with the yidam, and for the quickest
results make the yidam into the guru. After this, practice
for a long time and then a real guru will come, to be
seen in the practitioner's dream or meditative light
(nimitta). The guru will appear in a human body and
may appear to fly into the nimitta from India, as
happened in the case of many Tibetan sages and about
which we may read in their biographies.
Another identification which follows from the above is
to have the guru-yidam identified with an ancient
Enlightened teacher such as Milarepa. If one succeeds
in practicing in this way, then that guru of old will
appear as a voice or be seen in a dream and directly give
one instructions.
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