Guru Yoga

Yongey Mingyur Dorje Rinpoche

Kagyu Samye Ling, august 2003

Translator: Chodrak

Within the Hinayana Tradition the lama, teacher doesn't really come into it, rather they have somebody who is like a learned spiritual friend, who is like a normal human being but spiritually more advanced than oneself, a friend. In the second case, when one is on the Mahayana path, one's perception of the teacher is like somebody who is on the bodhisattva levels and he has spiritual accomplishments. The teacher is like a doctor, you are the sick person and they give you medicine. That's how you perceive the teacher to be at the time of the Mahayana and bodhicitta practice. When it comes to the Vajrayana viewpoint of the teacher, then the teacher is viewed as Buddha. What is the reason for that? It's because if you view the teacher as Buddha you obtain blessings. Why is the swift accomplishment of blessings obtained? It's because between ourselves and the lama there is a connection. A very good, positive connection.

What are the three very good connections? They are the blessing of the empowerment, the scriptural transmission and the explanations. For a practitioner there is no better connection than these three. Also we can see the lama, we can hear his teachings. Because of these things mentioned we can say there is a very good positive connection with the lama and interdependence. So then, if we supplicate the lama with faith, it's like all blessings of the Buddhas come together united into the lama, and we receive the blessing of the lama, so therefore we also obtain the blessings of all the Buddhas.

Buddha Sakyamuni and Buddha Dorje Chang are very important but if we were to supplicate Sakyamuni or Dorje Chang directly and we also supplicated the lama, then supplicating the lama would be more beneficial to us and it bring blessing more swiftly. So the lama is more important. Why is that? We've never received empowerments, instructions or scriptural authorisations from Dorje Chang or the Buddha Sakyamuni, we've never heard their speech, we have never heard their teachings. We have from the lama, so the lama is more important to us.

We are given an example of what it's like for all of the blessings of the Buddha passed to the lama and thento us. For example the sun shines all over the United Kingdom. I have piece of paper in my hand. If you want to burn this piece of paper and place it on the grass in the sunshine, it will be difficult to burn it. But if I bring along a magnifying glass, and I place it by the paper, the sun's rays will be concentrated onto the paper and it will burn very quickly. It will burn immediately. The Buddha's blessing is like the sunshine. One's lama is like the magnifying glass and through him comes the sunlight, which is the blessing. Having connected with the lama's lineage, one obtains all the blessings of the Buddhas through him.

The main technique or main practice for us as practitioners in the Vajrayana is that of the practice of Guru Yoga. If we practise Guru Yoga we will swiftly obtain all of the blessings. Then one attains enlightenment very quickly. If you remember when we were doing prostrations and refuge practice we had the objects of refuge and the lama there who is the embodiment of all of the objects of refuge. When you are visualizing in the Dorje Sempa practice the Dorje Sempa deity upon your head, he is inseparable from your own guru. Then one does the yidam practice of the development stage and one feels that the yidam and the lama are inseparable. Then one is practising the dharma protectors' practices and one feels that the dharma protector and the lama are inseparable.

Based on these things one will swiftly obtain the blessings and the levels of enlightenment. What is the reason for that? It's based on having a very strong positive connection between ourselves and the lama, because we have had the empowerments, the scriptural transmissions and the instructions. Even if we don't receive all these three from the lama, if we receive empowerment from him or just instructions or just scriptural transmission, even each of them separately, will still give a very positive connection.

So then, when we supplicate the lama, whether we obtain the blessings of all the Buddhas and the lama depends on our faith. If we don't have faith, even if our teachers were Dorje Chang and the Buddha Sakyamuni and we were next to them all the time, without faith in them, no blessing would enter us. As an example, Buddha Sakyamuni had a monk called Gelong Legpe Karma. He stayed with the Buddha for 25 years but he didn't generate devotion for the Buddha therefore he didn't receive blessings. So if we perceive our lama to have the lineage, even if he is like a normal person and he doesn't have very high realisation, if out of our faith we perceive him to be a Buddha then we will get all the Buddha's blessing completely. So generating faith for one's lama is very important.

What type of faith we have to generate? We have to have faith that the lama and the Buddha are inseparable, they have the same qualities. There are two reasons for that: one is based on the relative truth and one is connected with the ultimate truth. The one related to ultimate truth is that the lama has Buddha nature and the Buddha nature is Buddha. Therefore the lama and all of the Buddhas have identical nature. So the lama really is the Buddha. Not only the lama is Buddha, the student also is Buddha. Why is that? It's because the student also possesses Buddha nature. If you understand that, it's called the ultimate guru yoga. It's like the lama's mind and your mind are meeting. When we say the lama's mind and the student's mind are united and become mixed, it's not like you have to pick some substance in your right hand and some substance in the left hand, grind them and mix them up together. It doesn't mean that. The first thing to understand is that one's nature and the lama's nature are the same. Understanding that one also understands that all the Buddhas' nature is identical. If you understand correctly, one's own lama, his mind and your own are inseparably mixed. That's the reason relating to the ultimate truth.

What is the reason connected with the relative truth? The Buddha said that generally all the Buddhas possess compassion and skilful means. For all the vast number of sentient beings the Buddhas do what they can to help each individual being appropriate to that being's nature. We ourselves have negative karma and illusions. Because of our impure perceptions we cannot perceive pure perceptions. Right now this moment Dorje Chang is present before us. We can't see him. We can't hear his teachings. This is due to one's own negative karma and negative or impure perceptions, illusions. So, what are we able to see? We can see somebody who is rather similar to us, somebody of flesh and blood who suffers. Who appears to be like us because they have suffering and mental defilements. That type of person we can perceive. So then the Buddhas in their infinite wisdom, compassion and skilful means emanate beings who look like us; like Karmapa, Tai Situ Rinpoche. In the world now there are many beings like that. They look like us, they appear to be the same. They need to eat food. They become sick, they need to take medicine from time to time, and they also manifest death. And sometimes they make a few little mistakes.

So they appear to be like us and because of that we are able to see them and relate to them. and we are able to listen to the teachings they give. But truly their real nature is that of the Buddha because they are emanations of Buddha. If a lama has all the characteristics and he possesses the true lineage, he is an emanation of Buddha. That's the reason for relating to the dimension of relative truth. So then, putting it in brief: one needs to have faith and supplicate the lama. The root of the blessing depends on our generating faith for the lama, devotion. In Milarepa's lifestory it tells you what he did and what kind of experiences he had, how he generated faith etc. One day one of Milarepa's students approached him and said, "You know, when you were with Marpa, he gave you all those difficult things to accomplish and you did all those things, you practised and finally you became enlightened. Surely you aren't a human being like us, we can't hope to do this kind of thing. Maybe you are an emanation of Dorje Chang or maybe another Buddha, would you please tell us, whose emanation you are?

Milarepa replied, "For you to think that I am an emanation of Buddha is a very good thing, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't know whose emanation I am. If I happen to be a rebirth of a hell being, because you perceive me as an emanation of a Buddha, that's very beneficial for you. So then we can see that everything depends on the generation of one's own faith and devotion. If you understand that the nature of the lama is Buddha but that the lama's kindness is greater than that of the Buddha, then one will naturally give rise to faith and devotion for him. That's the explanation of showing us that the nature of the lama and the Buddha is identical. That's finished.

Now there is a little bit of discussion about how it is that the lama's kindness is greater than that of the Buddha's. Even though Dorje Chang and Buddha Sakyamuni are very important and great beings, you are not able or fortunate enough to hear their teachings, to obtain empowerments or scriptural authorities from them, you are not able to meet them even. But we can actually meet the lama physically, hear his speech and receive his teachings, empowerments and instructions. If we were to meet the Dorje Chang Buddha in person and ask for teaching, if he was going to liberate us and lead us to enlightenment, what could he give us? He could give us the instructions of how to practise and liberate ourselves within one lifetime. Higher or better teachings than that he wouldn't be able to give us. He couldn't just pick us up and threw us into a Pure Land. And this type of instruction one's own lama can give: how to liberate oneself in one lifetime and become enlightened. We are not able to perceive Dorje Chang but we can perceive our own lama. So, who is more kind to us, is it Dorje Chang or the lama? It's the lama. If you understand that point, faith and devotion will arise. This is why in the Vajrayana tradition the practice of Guru Yoga is respected as something very important, the main point. That's the general meaning of Guru Yoga.

How do we practise the Guru Yoga actually? How do we do it? If we have understanding and appreciation that the lama's mind and the Buddha's mind are identical and that the lama is in fact a Buddha, then we can meditate on his body. If one is not able to generate that strong faith, then one feels that the lama manifests as Buddha Sakyamuni or the Buddha Dorje Chang, not the way he normally is. And you also think that his manifestation contains all of the essence of the Buddhas. One supplicates one's lama and ask that I myself and all sentient beings may be free from suffering; temporary suffering now and all suffering up until the point we reach the end result, perfect enlightenment. And then please give me the blessing so that I will have the realisation of the mahamudra, please give me all the blessings. You make a prayer like that.

Some people like to meditate on their lama in the form he normally has, how he normally appears and that's okay for them. But some people don't like that. Rinpoche knows someone who was practising the Guru Yoga but he didn't enjoy it. The reason was that in real life he was constantly coughing, so when he visualized the lama on top of his head he was uncomfortable because the lama kept on coughing. There is another guy, who had unfortunately a very pointed head, so the lama couldn't sit on the point of his head, he kept on falling off.

Before in India one person had an experience - when he tried to meditate on the form of his lama upon his head he kept on falling off from side to side. So he went to the teacher and asked what he could do. The lama said: "Oh, you put the lama at the bottom and you sit on top of his head!" So then he meditated like that. It became very clear, he didn't move. He said to his lama: "I meditated as you instructed and it was very clear, very good." Then lama said, "Now you need to revert back to what was originally there, you on the bottom and the lama on the top. He did this, and this was also very clear. The reason why he couldn't achieve this in the first place is because he had a very tight grasping idea that he had to have a very clear visualization of the lama. Because of his intensity and grasping for that, his mind became very tight and then the lama fell all over the place. When he turned it around with him on top and the lama on the bottom, he didn't really have appreciation of that, because he didn't quite like that position, as he wasn't grasping, it became very clear. Afterwards he understood the meaning of what had happened, and could meditate very well.

If one can meditate the form of one's lama and form of Dorje Sempa as inseparable, one has got the meaning of Guru Yoga as it's explained in the ngöndro. When one is practising the refuge and the prostrations, one is visualizing one's guru in the form of Dorje Chang in front of one. So that is the meaning associated with ngöndro.

What is the main part of the practice of the Guru Yoga? It's the receiving of the empowerments. The empowerments are four in number. The first one is from the lama's forehead a white light emanates and touches one's own forehead. One feels that ones physical obscurations, defilements and impurities are completely purified, and one receives the blessing of the body of the lama. That is classified as the vase empowerment.

The second part is that from the lama's throat a red light emanates and touches one's throat centre and one feels that all of one's impurities, obscurations and defilements related to speech are completely purified and one has received the blessing of the speech from the lama. This is called the secret empowerment. The third thing to happen is that from lama's heart centre a blue light radiates out and strikes one's heart centre. One feels that all of the defilements, obscurations and impurities related to mind - our mental impurities - are completely purified and one has received the mind blessing of the lama. This is called the wisdom-knowledge empowerment.

The fourth empowerment: one imagines simultaneously white, red and blue lights coming out and striking one's three places. One feels that all of the body, speech and mind impurities, defilements and obscurations are completely purified and one has received in totality all the body, speech and mind blessings of the lama. This is called the word or mahamudra empowement. Finally the lama dissolves into light and this dissolves into oneself. The meaning really is that in the end the lama and oneself become inseparable and their essence is identical. So you need to understand that. And then you relax. That is the absolute true Guru Yoga. When one is visualizing the lama external to oneself and supplicating him, that part is related to relative truth.

When one has done the visualization of the lama dissolving into light and the light dissolving into oneself, you recognize that the lama's mind's essence and your essence are identical, the same, and relax in that. That's the ultimate truth Guru Yoga. That's the end of the explanation of the Guru Yoga.

Q: If one has faith and devotion to several lamas, does one put them all into one form of the main lama and think they are all the same?

R: That is what was told yesterday, yes. That's fine. One doesn't have to think: "Oh, this lama has got blessing and maybe this one has more. If you have faith in many lamas, you put them into one, think that their essence is identical.

Q: My lama was the 16th Karmapa and he passed away long time ago. I wonder if I can still see him as my lama.

R: Of course.

Q: Could Rinpoche explain the idea of tsawe lama (root lama)?

R: There are two types of root lama. The real meaning of the root lama is the lama who points out the nature of one's mind. At the point one understands that, one has the instruction and meeting together like that. That's one's true root lama. But before we get to the point of having pointing out instructions, we have to have various lamas giving teachings. You can also perceive the root lama to be somebody whose is within a pure lineage unbroken and they have all the characteristics of a proper pure teacher, and one has connection and faith and devotion for them, then one can also perceive them as a root lama. But when one is doing the Guru Yoga though, it is more beneficial if one can feel that the lama who is giving you the empowerments and instructions and all transmissions, his essence is really there, he is the main one.

Q: Which were the four types of teachings held in different directions?

R: Tummo, clear light, dream yoga and illusory body are just an example of the four types of teachings, which were held in different directions. But there are many, it is not just those alone.

Q: What does it mean for the guru to become the path?

R: Guru Yoga is the path. We don't say that the lama himself is the path. It's the Guru Yoga. Oneself practising the Guru Yoga, that is the path.

Q: At the very beginning of teaching today we heard that Dorje Chang manifested to Tilopa. If he was so clever, why didn't he manifest to somebody in every country of the world speaking every language and get it done much quicker?

R: If he could do that then he could just pick us up and throw us to the pure lands. Because of individual sentient beings' karma appearances like those don't come about. If it were like that we wouldn't have to stay in samsara now. We would have been Buddha a long time ago.

Q: Would you tell us about Maitripa?

R: Marpa received three types of mahamudra teachings. There were the sutra tradition, tantra tradition and essence of mahamudra tradition. Maitripa gave Marpa the sutra tradition; mahamudra transmission and the other two were bestowed by Naropa. Marpa had various teachers: Maitripa, Kukkuripa and so on.

Q: As westerners we often have suspicions associated with figures of authority, not like in the east where in India or Tibet people naturally have faith in parents and lamas and they maybe take authority figures better than us. So from time to time we have doubts and obstacles related to these figures of authority. How do we deal with that?

R: It is important and necessary for one to follow the dharma instructions and advice that the lama gives you. But if it relates to everyday worldly life then one can be a bit more neutral about that. Sometimes we might not listen to some of that advice. You can check it out like this: these days when the really true and straightforward lamas talk to people and give advice it's not based on their own benefit. They are thinking solely of the benefit of the person they are talking to. But there are also present in the world lamas who have some idea of mixing their own benefit in with that. So the second one is not beneficial and you need to check that out. But when one's lama is perceived to have Buddha nature and to be really the Buddha in essence, you can supplicate like that. But if one comes into contact with kind of false lamas who are really mixing up their own benefit in their teachings, one abandons them. That kind of advice and connection, you leave it. If one encounters a false lama, it's better to abandon them.

Q: There is a special connection between His Holiness Karmapa and Tai Situ Rinpoche. Could we have some explanation of that?

R: This comes about because of Chögyur Lingpa's prophecy, where he gives a prophecy about the connection between the 12th Tai Situpa and the 17th Karmapa. Tai Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsap Rinpoche were students of the previous 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, and now the 17th Karmapa has taken birth and is a young person. Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Tai Situ Rinpoche became his teachers. T his is based on the lineage: one is young and the older people look after them and then it changes around from time to time. Generally, there is a prophecy, which is a statement of connection, and also from his side His Holiness Karmapa has a genuine faith in Tai Situ Rinpoche. This is based on the teachings and transmissions that the Karmapa has faith arising for Tai Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. The lineage goes in such a way that the Karmapa bestows all of the teachings on his main students, but then when the Karmapa takes rebirth, although he has all the teachings in their entirety because he is Buddha, he has to go through the motions of taking instructions from human beings and human teachers. Now he has manifested as 17th Karmapa and his teachers will be Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Tai Situ Rinpoche. They in a way symbolically give back all the teachings that they received from the previous 16th Karmapa. The Karmapa himself already possesses them, but because of the students, in order to show how to do it, then they go through the motions of giving him back everything.

Q: Who is your personal guru (tsawe lama)?

R: Tai Situ Rinpoche.

Q: We have noticed that lamas wear special hats from time to time. What do the hats and crowns signify, black hat in particular?

R: Generally speaking when one wears the crowns on the head, it's the sign of respect to the nature of reality and respect to all the gurus. Generally the teaching comes or is connected with the individual being's own perception. In olden days a king could give somebody respected a crown to wear, the idea of that crown is a token of respect, so there is this respect associated with wearing a crown. Another reason for wearing it at that time was that when sentient beings saw the crown it gave them joy.

And why does the Karmapa have particularly the black crown? Before the arising of the first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa, a long time before he manifested as Karmapa he was meditating in a cave. Along came a great gathering of dakinis and they said to him: in the future you are going to manifest as a being who will be of immeasurable benefit for sentient beings, because of that we have great faith and devotion for you and we want to make offerings to you. So they all pulled lots of their hair out and they wove a crown and placed it on the Karmapa's head. "Now you become like the king of Dharma." So the nature of this crown placed on the head was rather like a rainbow, insubstantial and most people can't see it. It's with the Karmapa always, where ever he goes. He doesn't have to take it on and off, it's always on his head. And then the Karmapa at one time went to China. At that time the emperor of China was an emanation of Manjushri. Immediately when the Karmapa came the emperor perceived the crown on the Karmapa's head. The emperor said, "Oh, that crown on your head, everybody needs to see it, so we are going to make a copy of it, a visible copy. So the emperor of China made a replica of the crown which was on Karmapa's head and he offered this to Karmapa. When he put it on his head, everybody could see, because it was a physical object. Because of the interdependence of the self-existing hat and the one made as a replica, blessing can be obtained from seeing the hat.

Q: In the Dorje Chang tungma there is a line that says: "Grant me your blessing that uncontrived devotion may arise in me." In that context, what does blessing mean?

R: It is a particular type of power. Various medicines have various types of strength or power. Water has a power to wet things and clean things. Fire has a power to burn. When we put water in a field it helps to grow flowers or crops. All phenomena have a particular power associated with them. Through the power of interdependence, when we ask for the blessing, blessing comes as a particular type of power. What happens is, that one receives that power, the blessing, and one's defilements and obscurations are purified and dispelled. If one gives rise to devotion and faith and supplicates, then one has the blessing connected with arising of faith and devotion.

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