Lama Zopa Rinpoche

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is the kind root guru. Then it starts from Vajradhara and all the lineage lamas and at the end it mentions the root guru again. Why? That is very important. Here, “guru” means that all these lineage lamas, including Vajradhara, Vajrayogini and so forth, come from the root guru. As Padmasambhava said, The root guru is the essence of all the three times’, ten directions’ tathagatas. He is the originator of the heaps of the 84,000 teachings. He is the possessor of all the arya Sangha. To the holy mouth of my kind root guru I make offerings. Tathagatas means all the numberless buddhas of the ten directions, all the past, present and future buddhas’ holy body, holy speech and holy mind, their qualities and actions. The root guru is the essence of all that. This is what Padmasambhava said. The second line says he is the originator of the heaps of the 84,000 teachings, from where all the teachings come. Then the quote says that whatever qualities the arya Sangha have, the root guru also has. Finally, he says, “To the holy mouth of my kind root guru I make offerings.” This is before we make offerings to Vajradhara and Vajrayogini. When we understand why this is so, we can understand what the guru is. Otherwise we really can’t. That we will be able to enlighten all sentient beings depends on the kindness of the guru. Who is the guru? Who is the guru who has guided us from beginningless rebirths and will guide us all the way until we reach enlightenment? There are the ultimate, or absolute, guru and the conventional guru. The absolute guru takes the ordinary form, the conventional guru. The conventional guru is just a manifestation but the main thing is the absolute guru. The absolute guru is eternal; it is the primordial mind, with no beginning and no end, free from all gross and subtle obscurations. And next, it is very important to understand that the absolute guru pervades all existence. We say that there is no place where there is no buddha—which is also stated in the sutra teachings—therefore there is no place where there is no absolute guru. Just as we think of the buddha, the omniscient mind, pervading all existence, so too does the ultimate guru. The guru manifests everywhere to do the work of benefiting sentient beings, in a pure form to those whose mind is pure and in an impure form to those sentient beings whose mind is impure. The guru works to benefit every single sentient being, so it’s infinite. For example, in this world only one sun rises, but whether it’s an ocean, a river, a spring or just a drop, wherever there is water it can reflect the sun. As long as it’s not obscured, the sun can be reflected in water everywhere. When the sun rises, its reflection also rises everywhere, naturally and without effort, even in a drop of water. A being needs to have motivation before becoming enlightened but after that there is no need for effortful motivation. Until each and every single sentient being has been enlightened—every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, god and demigod—until each has been brought to enlightenment, the guru continuously works for sentient beings. 105
The Guru Puja mentions, Arising from the play of omniscient transcendental wisdom, You are the essence of ten million mandala cycles. Pervading lord of a hundred buddha families, foremost vajra holder, Unified primordial savior, I make requests to you. Unobscured, inseparable from the play of simultaneous joy, Pervading everything in motion and at rest; The nature of all things, free from beginning or end, All good actual ultimate bodhicitta; I make requests to you. 59 The guru is the one who manifests as numberless mandalas. Even just one mandala manifests many deities such as Yamantaka or Guhyasamaja. There are many, many details within the mandala, but the guru manifest as all the numberless mandalas, all the numberless deities. This absolute guru, this primordial mind, has no beginning or end; it pervades all existence and has been guiding us to enlightenment from beginningless rebirths. The absolute guru is without obscurations, experiencing simultaneously-born bliss, the greatest bliss. Pervading all existence, the numberless buddhas and the numberless mandalas are all absorbed into the one, the absolute owner of all, the absolute guru. The absolute guru is all good, absolute bodhicitta. This is not the usual bodhicitta but the bodhicitta of the absolute mind, the primordial mind. The prayer continues, You are the guru, you are the yidam, You are the dakinis and Dharma protectors. From now until enlightenment I shall seek no other refuge than you. In this life, the bardo and all future lives, Hold me with the hook of your compassion; Free me from samsara and nirvana’s fears, Grant all attainments, Be my constant friend and guard me from interferences. 60 With this request we recognize what the guru is. This is the real guru but for us he must manifest in the ordinary aspect. This is the way to understand that the absolute and conventional gurus are not two separate things. The absolute guru manifests as the conventional guru to guide us easily. We need to think like that, that only with the conventional, ordinary aspect can we be guided to enlightenment. That is the guru’s kindness. Even if we were dying today, even this hour or this minute, this is what we must request, that the guru holds us with the hook of his compassion. 106
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SUN OF DEVOTION, STREAM OF BLESSING
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The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Bring
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6. The Guru Is the Most Powerful Ob
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Editor’s Preface This book is the
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Chapter 1. Taking Care of the Mind
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We still have to experience death b
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In a well-cultivated field, whateve
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What a pleasant life we human being
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enefit the teachings of the Buddha
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Among those fifty-one secondary min
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means the cessation of all the gros
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Padmasambhava’s ways of diagnosin
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Practicing Dharma is subduing our m
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from life to life, we will be able
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In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s W
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said, that allows them to develop i
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contained in the Tengyur, a collect
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Thus the misconceptions about Buddh
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Not understanding this specific emp
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Cutter Sutra eventually does. Then
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There are sentient beings who are a
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vase, the neck is not the vase, the
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4. The freedom of not being born as
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sentient beings, not only to the ti
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If Milarepa could do that after kil
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All of us, believers or nonbeliever
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The need for refuge in our life Per
Page 56 and 57: ▶abstaining from telling lies ▶
Page 58 and 59: Otherwise they come into the kitche
Page 60 and 61: Our life is so important, so precio
Page 62 and 63: Even though our mind, or the other
Page 64 and 65: We will realize this as we are abou
Page 66 and 67: The emptiness of the Z I want to en
Page 68 and 69: the greatest problem that affluent
Page 70 and 71: Without a guru, we cannot be free f
Page 72 and 73: This is mentioned in Pabongka Deche
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Page 78 and 79: Buddhism came from the Buddha, from
Page 80 and 81: obscurations but also the obscurati
Page 82 and 83: Chapter 7. A Talk about Dolgyal Rec
Page 84 and 85: seemed to like us and we were able
Page 86 and 87: very crowded. That’s how we lived
Page 88 and 89: him about the bum-pa, the vase. Thi
Page 90 and 91: A key element of guru devotion prac
Page 92 and 93: who helped with his education, his
Page 94 and 95: In short, practicing Dolgyal is har
Page 96 and 97: Khadro-la and earthquakes Although
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Page 100 and 101: Publicly she is like an ordinary pe
Page 102 and 103: There are other quotations but that
Page 104 and 105: Once in Nepal I dreamed of a small
Page 108 and 109: It is as the quote says, Before the
Page 110 and 111: The importance of guru devotion Pad
Page 112 and 113: So now, this is a real story. At Bu
Page 114 and 115: them perfectly—and even if he has
Page 116 and 117: Practicing Dharma is more important
Page 118 and 119: memorize them but then forgot them
Page 120 and 121: egin by achieving a long life, wher
Page 122 and 123: Chapter 10. Seeing the Guru as a Bu
Page 124 and 125: The monks did that, but of course,
Page 126 and 127: uddhas. That is also mentioned in t
Page 128 and 129: person without head. I don’t know
Page 130 and 131: Those meditators who have achieved
Page 132 and 133: When I was in Tibet I visited Tsurp
Page 134 and 135: Why should they be called kon-chog
Page 136 and 137: that it is his mistake. It is like
Page 138 and 139: Chapter 11. More Precious than a Wi
Page 140 and 141: patience, perseverance, meditation
Page 142 and 143: dust of this earth can be counted,
Page 144 and 145: we were once crossing a short bridg
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Page 148 and 149: Whether or not we eat animals is in
Page 150 and 151: Having been born at a time when the
Page 152 and 153: We must prepare for the next life T
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Probably many people think that ren
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Chapter 12. Cutting the Root of Sam
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Because things appear to us not as
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161
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This is all karma. What the Buddha
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numberless suffering sentient being
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By seeing that person as a wish-gra
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light more and some illusory body.
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to achieve enlightenment. The other
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together is the transcendental wisd
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Then you make a promise to generate
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eings who also need the Medicine Bu
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Focus on the deity’s holy body th
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End Notes 1. Or his. Rather than us
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30. Khedrub Sang ye Yeshe (1525-91)
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64. In other teachings Rinpoche has
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97. These are the three ways to und
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Where and when these teachings were
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Gyatso, Tenzin, the Fourteenth Dala
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———. How to Practice Dharma:
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If you, dear reader, would like to
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Other available teachings by Lama Y
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Our further development similarly d
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The Foundation for the Preservation
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Dedication Through the merit create
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About Gordon McDougall Gordon McDou
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