Oral Instructions on the Practice of Guru Yoga (Part 1)

by Chogye Trichen Rinpoche

When a great Lama passes away, everyone feels sad. His disciples are heartbroken, all the teachers feel very sorry, and the other high Lamas also mourn the loss of a great teacher. I am always very sorry when a master passes away. Nonetheless, when the time comes for a master to pass away, there are different signs that occur, and these can be confirmed by methods of Mo divination, and so on.

Once the Guru has passed, there often remain other teachers who have a close connection with him, and this is very helpful for the disciples. Many prayers and rituals are offered, and these bring blessings, and benefit everyone greatly. In our tradition, we generally perform the Vajrayogini rituals, as well as many other rituals, when a great master passes.

Now the Guru has passed into the pure realms (zhing khams), so there is no need to feel dejected, as the master has now manifested his own pure realms. All the lamas and disciples are praying, and the blessings of the Guru will reach the disciples, they will reach whoever has faith. I myself will also pray for the disciples.

While we may feel sad when our Guru passes, we should also let ourselves be at peace; there is no need to feel unhappy all the time. The most important point is that we practice Guru Yoga. If we practice Guru Yoga well at these times, we will receive blessings and we will see signs of these blessings in our practice. This will be helpful for our faith and our connection with the Guru. If we are able to do retreat sometime soon after the passing of our Guru, this will bring even greater benefit, and the signs of practice will be very good.

During the time when a great teacher has passed away, everyone prays together that the teacher will swiftly return to us. For example, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche passed away here in Nepal and has come back to us; it is the same for Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, and for many other Lamas. During their years of following the teacher, disciples accumulate a great deal of merit. At the time of the Guru's passing, the disciples can dedicate all their merit and pray for the swift return of their teacher. This will help the teacher return quickly to guide his disciples. It is also important to maintain good friendships and harmony among the disciples, as this will also help bring the Guru's return.

Although your Guru has passed away, do not feel that he is separate from you. Your Guru is in the pure realms now, and this is something wonderful. At the same time, he knows everything that is taking place, and he knows about you and your situation. Do not feel that your Guru is now separate from you. You are still together, just as you have been. He will always take care of you, now and in the future.

When the master is in the pure realms, the benefits and blessings available to disciples are very special. If you practice Guru Yoga, his blessings will continue to be with you, and they will increase through your practice.

All the disciples have worked very hard, and have pleased the mind of their Guru. I will pray for you and dedicate your merit. Your teacher deeply appreciates your hard work, and does not want you to feel disheartened. Most of all, the Guru will show his disciples how happy he is with them by continuing to bless them. For this, the practice of Guru Yoga is most helpful.

THE GURU-DISCIPLE RELATIONSHIP

According to the teachings of Secret Mantra (sang ngag), the relation between the Guru and the disciple should be like that of a father and child, where the disciple regards the Guru as their father. The ideal relationship between Guru and disciple is that of a parent and child who share a very close bond and a deep affection for one another. In normal life, the parent will place great trust in his child, and the child will have the same trust in his parents. The disciple needs this to have this kind of trust in the Guru. While it is of great benefit to know about the spiritual qualities of the Guru, in order to truly have deep, heartfelt devotion (mogu) toward the Guru, it needs to be based on our own experience.

It is also important that disciples maintain the kind of affection for their fellow disciples that they would feel for a beloved brother or sister with whom they share a unique, deep bond. To regard one's Guru as one's parent, and one's Dharma brothers and sisters as one's siblings, is the best way to maintain the Samaya vows. If we begin by being mindful of these ways of relating to the Guru, our faith will grow.

To maintain the relationship between teacher and student, we have the three groups of vows (dompa sum; sdom pa gsum); those of the Hinayana, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana. Guarding the vows we have received, and keeping them pure, maintains our relationship with our Guru, which is the basis for all of the vows. When the vows are properly respected, the teacher has become like a father to us, and we have become like a child to our teacher.

These vows are the sacred commitments between the Gurus and disciples, the vows of Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The vows represent the discipline and training we have undertaken with our Gurus, and they guide and protect the nature of our relationship with them. In brief, by maintaining a very positive attitude at all times toward the Guru and his disciples, all will be well. The Guru's wishes and activities will be fulfilled.The essence of the three vows is that the Guru is a loving father, and the disciple is a devoted child. With this kind of relationship, the disciple's qualities of faith and devotion will continue to improve and flower.

Just as a child is given everything by his parents, the disciples should always think that whatever qualities (yonten) they may possess, such as renunciation and morality, love and compassion, faith and devotion, knowledge and wisdom, everything has been given to them by their precious Gurus. When you pray to the Guru, say to him. "Whatever I have comes from you!" I am grateful to my Gurus for everything I have received from them. In the tradition of Secret Mantra (sang ngak), the source of all spiritual qualities is the Guru.

GURU YOGA AND FREEDOM FROM EGO-CLINGING

The Buddha said that the cause of suffering is ignorance. Ignorance takes many forms. One aspect of this is clinging to a personal self, which leads to attributing a self or identity to other persons and to phenomena in general. Clinging to a personal self manifests as a kind of pride and sense that oneself is more important than others.

We constantly give great weight to our thoughts and emotions, to the ideas and images we hold about ourselves. This is ego-clinging (dag dzin), our sense of self-importance (che 'gying). Whether we think we are a very good person or a very bad person, in either case we attribute great importance to ourselves in our thoughts and feelings. Thus there is a subtle pride involved.

This sense of self-importance results in selfish behavior. The mind training (lojong) teachings of the Mahayana vehicle explain many meditations on love, compassion, exchanging self for others, and bodhicitta. All of these meditations will greatly help to eradicate selfishness from our mindstream of being, and diminish our sense of self-importance.

Furthermore, the very idea of self is a delusion, yet we may hold very definite ideas about ourselves in mind, and cling to them very adamantly. This clinging to oneself, or ego-clinging (dag dzin) is grasping on to the sense of "I am" (nga yin dzinba). Due to egoclinging, we experience a constant cycle of emotions that all have the same reference point (tay so; gtad so), which is our idea and image of ourselves.

This reference point is like a magnet (khad long), a point of attraction for all our confused thinking and afflictive emotions. It is the idea and image we have of ourselves as a defined identity, as an independent entity (ngopo; dngos po). To develop clear insight (vipashyana; lhag tong) and transcendent intelligence (prajna; sherab), we need to move beyond this reference point of self.

If we wish to rid ourselves of the delusion of self centered pride, which is the ongoing sense of our own importance, the supreme method is to rely on the Guru. When practicing Guru Yoga, the unification with the Guru, once the Guru dissolves into us and we merge our body, speech, and mind with that of the Guru, we rest in emptiness. In the state of emptiness, there is no self, no personal reference point.

As soon as we have a sense of self, immediately there are others, other persons and phenomena that have a relationship to our self. As the Vajrayogini texts explain, based on the initial ignorance that arises through the uniting of the mother and father's red and white elements, we subsequently have attachment toward some things and aversion toward others. From this point, birth and the whole of conditioned existence unfold within our experience. Once there is no self, there is nothing that we can say is "mine". We do not cling to persons and things, as there is no one to hold on to them, no one to possess them. Once there is nothing we possess, there are no friends and relatives to whom we are attached, nor foes and enemies to feel anger and aversion toward. Rather, we experience equanimity toward friend and foe, free of hope and fear. We become free of all this tension, liberated from a host of cares and woes. Once the self is empty, the other is empty as well.

To liberate ourselves from clinging to the self, we need to rely on the Guru. When we have merged with the Guru and come to rest in emptiness, the clinging to our ordinary sense of self is gone. We have merged with the pure body, speech, and mind of the Guru. Our ordinary body, speech, and mind have disappeared into emptiness. We disappear and instead assume the pure vision of ourselves as the enlightened body, voice, and mind of the Gurus and Deities.

The reason we visualise our Gurus and ourselves in the enlightened form of deities, which is the practice of pure vision (dag nang), is to cut away ego clinging  the sense of grasping at a self. It is to remove our deluded sense of the importance of our ordinary self, of our ordinary body, speech, and mind. The practice of Guru Yoga purifies the delusion of clinging to a self and clinging to the existence of the world and beings.

FAITH AND DEVOTION: THE PURE VISION OF THE GURU

All of the Buddhas of the past, present, and future attained Enlightenment only through relying on the Guru, through the practice of Guru Yoga, the unification with the Guru. Without practicing Guru Yoga, there would be no Buddhas of the past, present, or future. Shakyamuni Buddha had his own Indian teachers, and He was the disciple of many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout His past lifetimes. The Buddha definitely relied on the practice of Guru Yoga, for without this practice, he would not have attained Enlightenment. Guru Yoga is the real path to attaining Enlightenment. In order to practice Guru Yoga, the most important point is to have deep and abiding faith (depa) and devotion (mogu; mos gus).

There have been countless great Gurus of Tibet. Each of the schools of Buddhism in Tibet has its five founding masters, such as the five founding masters of the Nyingma, those of the Kadampa, of the Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug, twenty-five in all. Every one of these masters became enlightened through the practice of Guru Yoga.

All of the twenty-five masters that founded Buddhism in Tibet demonstrated miraculous signs of accomplishment (drub tag; grub rtags), such as plunging their phurba into rock as though it were butter, or leaving handprints and footprints in solid rock. Scientists have made machines that can cut through stone, but these masters accomplished this through the realisation of emptiness. Milarepa, for example, rode up into the sky and back to earth, gliding on the rays of the sun.

If we see the Guru as an ordinary person, we will receive the blessings and qualities of an ordinary person. If we see the Guru as a fully enlightened Buddha, we will receive the qualities of the Enlightened Ones. Even if the Guru does not have many special qualities and is just a simple person, if the disciple meditates on the Guru as a deity, he is able to receive the blessings of a deity. This is illustrated by the story of a woman who prayed to a dog's tooth, believing it to be a relic of the Buddha, and gained spiritual accomplishment. It is important to know that all of the results of practice depend on faith (depa). If we wish to enhance and develop our practice of Guru Yoga, this requires increasing our faith (depa) and devotion (mogu). Faith and devotion, together with applying the teachings on how to recognise clear luminosity (osal), lead to realisation of Dharmata, the true nature of phenomena. Realisation depends on one's quality of faith, as faith is the seed of all spiritual qualities (cho kyi yunten). If the seed is ripe, it will germinate, grow, and bear harvest.

Without faith, no matter how much you try to merge with the Guru's mind in the View, you will not receive the blessings of the Guru's wisdom (yeshe). Faith is the root of accomplishing the practice of Guru Yoga, which leads to the realisation of Dharmata. Faith and devotion are like fertile seeds that give rise to the fruits of wisdom, the recognition and realisation of the View.

If we wish to increase and enhance our faith, we must not think of our master in his ordinary form, but in the enlightened form of a Guru or deity. This is a practice of pure vision (dag nang). Normally, monks will think of their Guru in the form of a noble abbot (khenpo) or an Arhat. Those on the Bodhisattva path of the Mahayana may visualise the Guru in the form of one of the Bodhisattvas. For practitioners of Vajrayana, the Guru is visualised in the form of one of the enlightened Gurus or deities (yidam). One visualises one's master as a deity, or in the Buddha’s Dharmakaya or Sambhogakaya form, such as Buddha Vajradhara.

In the practice of Vajrayogini, we visualise the Guru as Buddha Vajradharma, as Vira Vajradharma, as Chakrasamvara, or as Vajrayogini. In the Hevajra tradition, we visualise the Guru as Buddha Vajradhara or as Hevajra. In this way, we begin with pure vision (dag nang), looking upon the Guru and his surroundings with utter purity. In this way, the whole basis of our faith is the pure vision of the Guru in enlightened form.

If we look upon the master with pure vision, our faith and devotion will begin to increase. The qualified Vajrayana master will always manifest his own body, speech, and mind in the form of the deity's body, mantra, and wisdom mind. His body is the form of the deity, his speech is mantra, and his mind recognises emptiness.

In this way, the Guru remains in the pure vision of the deity (yidam) and embodies the deity's qualities, which he transmits to the disciple in the form of blessings and teachings. If the master has perfected the qualities of the deity practices, and teaches them to the disciple, this makes the relationship between them one of pure vision.

Why is it said that the most important point is to have strong faith and devotion? All other spiritual qualities (yonten) of the Dharma depend on faith. Whatever Dharma practices of study, contemplation, and meditation we may do, without faith and devotion they will not be successful. Faith is known as the gate that opens the way for all of the enlightened qualities of the Dharma to manifest, and pure vision is the basis for faith (depa).

Even if the master is a very simple person with no qualities, if the disciple thinks that the master is a deity, then the disciple can, through his faith, receive the blessings of the actual deity. Whatever qualities children have, they receive through their parents, don't they? Whatever qualities practitioners have, they have received them from their Gurus. The Siddhis, the accomplishments (ngodrub; dngos grub) of Tantric practice, come about through blessings that depend on maintaining our sacred commitments, our samaya relationships with our Gurus.

In general, there is self-visualisation and front visualisation. The most important is visualisation of the Guru. Why is this so? For the practitioner, all of the Buddhas of the three times have their source in one's own master, our kind root Guru. Without the root Guru, even the name of Buddha is not truly heard or understood. Every great and noble Enlightened One has depended on the Guru. Thus it is said that to attain Enlightenment, the Guru is the most important of all.

All the great masters, the Buddhas, and enlightened beings are included within our root Guru (tsawai lama) himself. All sources of the Dharma are condensed into (chig dril) the master himself. Whatever Buddha or deity we may think of, we should not consider them as separate from our own Guru. They are all included within one, the kind root Guru, though they may appear in a myriad of different forms. The Guru must be seen in a body of light, which dissolves into light and is absorbed into one’s heart. Then, one’s own state merges with the mind of the Guru, so that there is no separation.

FAITH

The Buddhist Teachings speak of three kinds of faith. The first of these is sincere faith (dangwai depa; dang ba'i dad pa). Some people may feel this kind of faith arise spontaneously upon meeting a master or after spending a little time with him, due to their past life connection with him. Milarepa had spontaneous faith (lhan kye depa) upon merely hearing the name of Marpa for the first time.

In general, many Tibetan people have this first type of faith, sincere faith, and this is quite beneficial for them. Although they might not have a detailed understanding of the qualities of the Guru and the Dharma Teachings, still they deeply believe that these qualities are present, and this faith comes very naturally to them. They have others around them who know the qualities of the Dharma, and so they naturally feel admiration for the Gurus and the Teachings. Because of this, they are able to receive a lot of blessings. In contrast, someone with no faith is like a burnt seed; a parched seed will not bear fruit in the future. If you plant a burnt seed, the plant might grow roots and leaves. But it will not produce any seeds from itself. Similarly, without faith, the seeds of spiritual qualities within us will not appear and ripen to fruition.

Sincere faith is not the same as superstition or blind faith (mong day; rmong dad). In his work, "The Stages of Meditation on the Perfection of Wisdom" (par chin gom rim), the Master Rongton, founder of Nalendra Monastery, says that there are many people who believe that a cow is a jewel. In fact, the cow cannot give them anything but milk, but when they see the cow there, they are convinced that it is a precious jewel. This means that they have blind faith, not knowing the real nature of the object of their faith.

For this reason, to develop our faith, we need to know the qualities of those in whom we place our faith. If we do not have any intelligent basis for our faith, someone may say, "Oh, that cow is a precious jewel", and we might believe them!

Longing faith (dodpai depa) develops out of sincere faith (dangwai depa). Starting out with sincere faith, we admire the qualities of the Guru and the Three Jewels, and we aspire to know and develop those qualities. Then, the quality of longing faith develops as we strengthen those aspirations further. We contemplate the qualities of the Guru, aspiring and yearning to draw near to those spiritual qualities, to emulate them and bring them forth from within ourselves. This is longing faith ('dod pa’i dad pa). Longing faith is very helpful for receiving the descent of blessings (jin bab) from the Guru and lineage masters. As we become more confident in the qualities of the Enlightened Ones through knowledge and through longing faith, we will gain the third type of faith, confident faith (yid chepai depa).

It is also called the faith of knowing the reasons (rgyu mtshan shes pa'i dad pa). We have contemplated the qualities of the Guru and the Three Jewels, and through aspiration we have received blessings and have gained some experience of these qualities for ourselves. We discover many reasons for our faith that are based on our own experience. Seeing the spiritual qualities of our Guru, we have also been able to find them in ourselves, through the Guru's blessings and our own diligence in practice.

At this point, faith arises naturally, by itself, without our needing to generate and develop it in meditation practice. This natural faith (rangzhin depa) that arises by itself (rang jung) is a sign of having gained the stage of confident faith. It is no longer necessary to contemplate the qualities of the Gurus through reading biographies and learning the qualities of the Enlightened Ones. This faith is always present within us, through our own practice.

In some teachings, the final kind of faith is also called irreversible faith (chir mi dogpai depa; phyir mi ldog pa'i dad pa). This is when one has gained experience and realization of the qualities of the Guru within oneself. One is able to see the Guru as the Buddha, as possessing all qualities. Irreversible faith comes about through blessings that have ripened into realisation.