The Inspiration of the Guru
Guru yoga, the other tantric preliminary described in detail by Lama Tsongkhapa in Having the Three Convictions, is practiced to receive inspiration and blessings. It seems to be the most difficult practice for the Western mind, but it is really quite simple if you try to understand it in a rational way.
Shakyamuni Buddha revealed the tantras and other teachings two thousand five hundred years ago, but are these teachings real for you? He taught the Four Noble Truths, but is that enough for them to become truth for you? Shakyamuni Buddha, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, and Lama Je Tsongkhapa have already taught
the essentials of the Six Yogas of Naropa, but without someone to introduce them to you, are they real for you? You may have books that explain exactly how to practice the Six Yogas of Naropa, but the results of following instructions from a book are questionable. Tantra is highly technical, internally technical, so a teacher is essential. Someone has to show you the practices so that they become an organic experience.
If you went to buy a Rolls-Royce and instead were given all the parts of the car and an instruction manual on how to assemble it, you would panic: “What’s this? Where’s my car?” You would need someone to show you how to put it together. It’s the same here. We need someone to show us how to put everything together in our minds.
When our guru teaches us the Four Noble Truths, he gives us inspiration and blessings. He makes the Four Noble Truths real for us, so that they become our own realizations. Our wisdom that realizes the Four Noble Truths is the inspiration and blessing of the guru. When somebody shows you the Four Noble Truths
and you then understand them, that in itself causes you to follow the path. This is logical and simple. It is not that the guru says, “I have shown you the Four Noble Truths; you must believe in them.”
In this respect, I think the relationship between Western students and their teachers is better than that between Eastern students and their teachers, because no formal customs are involved. Westerners question everything, and I find this a very honest approach. If something does not make sense to you,
you say so openly. If something makes sense to you, you say, “Yes, this is helpful. I will use it.” There is no custom obliging you to answer or behave in a certain way. If you like or don’t like something, you simply say so. This is very difficult for Eastern students to do, because they feel a social obligation to behave in a certain way. I feel the Western way is more realistic.
Because of the cultural differences, Tibetans sometimes don’t understand the devotion of Western students, nor do Westerners understand the devotion of Tibetans. Different cultures have distinctly different perceptions.
I will give you an example of this. When my student Claudio is working as my attendant, he will casually ask me, “Lama, would you like some tea or coffee?” Tibetans would be shocked by Claudio’s behavior. In Tibetan culture it is unacceptable for a student to approach his teacher so informally. The approach must be very respectful. But what is it all about? Only a cup of coffee! Whether the student behaves according to Tibetan or Western custom does not make
it better coffee. It is just a cultural difference. Tibetans would say, “Look at the way that Italian student approaches his teacher! Western people have no humility or devotion.” But the criticism is not really valid. It is illogical to say that Claudio is disrespectful simply because he behaves according to his culture.
When I first started to teach Westerners many years ago, most of my Tibetan friends were shocked. “How can you teach Westerners?” they asked. “How can they understand Buddhadharma? You are trying to do something that is impossible.” Much negativity was directed at me.
As a matter of fact, it is more difficult to teach Western people than Tibetans. If Tibetans ask me whether they can purify all their negative karma by reciting the Vajrasattva mantra, I can simply answer by giving a relevant quotation from Shakyamuni Buddha or Lama Tsongkhapa. I don’t have to think much
about my answer. I can just cite some words from a text, and they will be satisfied. If you quote the right words, Tibetans will stay quiet. A Westerner, on the other hand, would demand, “Lama Je Tsongkhapa said what? Why did he say that? How can he say that? Does it work?” This is good; but because of the cultural differences, Tibetans are going to project that Westerners know very little about Dharma.
A few years ago, a learned Tibetan lama whom I had invited to teach at my Dharma center in England said to me, “Maybe you don’t really need a highly qualified teacher for Western people. A simple one might be enough.” He told me this quite seriously. I didn’t say anything. There was no point in arguing with him since he had already accepted my invitation. He had to find out for himself.
I met him again six months later when I went to England to give teachings. I did not mention our previous conversation, but one day he commented to me, “What I said to you when I was in India was a mistake. I think it is very difficult to teach Westerners.” This is an experiential report!
To meditate on guru yoga, visualize the essence of your guru manifesting in the space of nonduality in front of you in the form of Vajradhara. Guru Vajradhara sits on a lotus and sun seat on a throne supported by eight snow lions. He is radiant blue in color, holds a vajra and bell, and embraces a consort of the same color. Seeing their radiant blue light-bodies in space arouses great bliss and the wisdom of nonduality within you. Blue light and space automatically remind us of nonduality.
At their crown chakra is a moon seat with a white syllable oṃ on it; at their throat chakra, a lotus seat with a red āḥ; and at their heart chakra, a sun seat with a blue hūṃ.
Think about Guru Vajradhara’s great kindness and concern for you as explained in the lam-rim teachings. Although Guru Vajradhara is not your father or mother, not your husband or wife, not your boyfriend or girlfriend, he is still greatly concerned about your welfare. It is as though he exists solely for you.
Seeing the essence of Vajradhara as your own root guru brings a feeling of closeness, of personal kindness; and visualizing the guru in the aspect of Vajradhara brings inspiration and realizations quickly.
Light radiates from the hūṃ in Guru Vajradhara’s heart into the ten directions. On each ray of light we can visualize one of the lineage lamas of the Six Yogas of Naropa, such as Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa, Pagmo Drupa, Butön, or Lama Je Tsongkhapa. These are the masters who practiced and achieved realization of inner fire and who discovered the totality of the illusory body and clear light wisdom.
When I visualize all these lineage gurus, I like to see each of them in the aspect of a mahasiddha. Mahasiddhas have vajra bodies vibrant with blissful kundalini energy. They have no desire for external objects because they have achieved perfect samadhi and simultaneously born wisdom. To see the lineage lamas in this way encourages and energizes us. Merely imagining them in this aspect causes tantalizing, blissful kundalini to flow in the central channel. Lama Tsongkhapa did not actually instruct us to visualize the lineage lamas in this way, but it does not contradict his advice. We should not think we cannot do something simply because it was not mentioned by Lama Tsongkhapa.
The usual way of depicting Lama Tsongkhapa, as a Buddhist monk, emphasizes his purity. In Tushita Pure Land, however, he has a different name and a different manifestation.1 Also, I mentioned earlier Khedrub Je’s five visions of Lama Tsongkhapa. In one of these Lama Tsongkhapa manifested as a mahasiddha riding on a tiger. I like to visualize him in this form.
As I mentioned earlier, Naropa was originally a monk at Nalanda Monastery; he was a superintelligent professor whom nobody could defeat in debate. Later, dissatisfied with this role and with mere intellectual knowledge, he went in search of Tilopa. After Naropa became Tilopa’s disciple, Tilopa told him to give up dressing like a mahapandit. So Naropa took off his respectable robes and put on mahasiddha clothes, complete with a tiger skin. The professor became a wildlooking hippie.
Even though the Gelugpa tradition places strong emphasis on ethics and monastic purity, when ordained lamas give initiations, they sometimes take off their ordinary robes and wear the clothes of a mahasiddha. When I received a Heruka initiation from one of my gurus, he came dressed like this. There are also
photographs of Je Pabongka Rinpoche and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche wearing mahasiddha clothes. Visualizing all the lineage gurus in mahasiddha aspect is very powerful in breaking down our ordinary concepts. A different manifestation inspires a different vision.
It is the same for us. If we want to engage in tantric practice, we should follow Naropa’s example and give up our concern with our appearance and reputation, with the way we look and what people think of us. Perhaps we should take off our clothes and sit on a tiger skin with ashes on our body like an
Indian sadhu. When Claudio and another of my Italian students, Piero, first came to see me years ago, they came dressed as mahasiddhas. When they came to the teaching, they even brought an animal skin to sit on.
Different aspects can give us different energy according to our needs. For me, Milarepa is a good example. When I was studying philosophy as a young monk, I often read Milarepa’s biography. It made a deep impression on me and took away
all difficulties. Another image that inspires me is the fasting Buddha. It is useful sometimes to look at this ascetic aspect of Shakyamuni Buddha. It makes us think, “He was a human being like me. How did he do these things?”
So, Guru Vajradhara is in the space in front of you. Light radiates from his heart into the ten directions, where all the lineage lamas as mahasiddhas sit paying attention to you.
At this point you can perform the seven-limb prayer with a mandala offering, as well as external, internal, secret, and suchness offerings. 2 Offerings do not necessarily have to be material. Giving material offerings, such as money, is easy; the offering of practice is much more difficult. Milarepa said, “I
have no worldly offerings to give my guru. I have only the offering of meditation.” That is the very best offering. The best offering in the world that you can give your guru is to practice sincerely, be integrated and happy, and achieve realizations.
Next, with strong recognition of Guru Vajradhara as the deity, the daka and dakini, and the Dharma protector, pray strongly to Guru Vajradhara and the lineage lamas for whatever realization you need. They energize and inspire you to develop all the realizations. Because we are practicing the Six Yogas of Naropa, we should make strong prayers for success in inner fire meditation and for quick accomplishment of the inner fire realizations; for successful meditation on the illusory body and for quick realization of the illusory body; and for successful meditation on clear light and realization of clear light. Or if you are feeling anxious, dissatisfied, and in need of blissful kundalini energy, pray for your entire nervous system to become intoxicated with this blissful energy and for you to realize the eternal state of bliss.
After making such strong requests, visualize that all the lineage lamas dissolve into Guru Vajradhara. Rays of white, red, then blue light emanate from the oṃ, āḥ, and hūṃ respectively at the crown, throat, and heart of Guru Vajradhara. Radiant white light enters your crown chakra, radiant red light enters your throat chakra, and radiant blue light enters your heart chakra. Your three main chakras are filled and energized with blissful, radiant light. Imagine
that all your negativities of body, speech, and mind are purified and that you receive the vase, wisdom, and secret initiations. Much radiant light again emanates from the three places of the guru, but this time simultaneously. Feel that all the imprints of the negativities of body, speech, and mind are simultaneously purified and that you receive the fourth, the word initiation.
To conclude the guru yoga practice, visualize that Guru Vajradhara comes to the crown of your head and absorbs into you. Even though many things manifest in your life to help you, they have one nuclear source: Guru Vajradhara is the guru, the deity, the daka and dakini, and the Dharma protector. Guru
Vajradhara comes down your central channel into your heart chakra. Your body is unified with Guru Vajradhara’s body; your speech is unified with Guru Vajradhara’s speech; and your mind is unified with Guru Vajradhara’s transcendental, blissful wisdom, which is the dharmakaya experience. You experience totality.
The power of totality, no matter whether we call it God-power or Buddha-power, is not somewhere “up there” or “out there.” The power is within each of us. Great compassion is within you; wisdom is within you; God and Buddha are within you. If you have a dualistic concept that you are down here and Guru Vajradhara is somewhere up there, you will never comprehend the unity. Guru yoga is profound; it cannot be expressed in mere words.
You can understand the qualities of Guru Vajradhara only according to your own level of spiritual development. You cannot push and you cannot intellectualize. When you understand that there are many different levels, the practice of guru yoga becomes quite reasonable.
In Buddhism, we say that you can see your own level and perhaps project a little above it. For example, when you reach the advanced level of realization known as the path of accumulation, you will be able to see a little of the next stage, the path of preparation. When you reach the path of preparation, you will be able to project some concept of the path of seeing, because you will already have some experience of emptiness; and so on, all the way to enlightenment.3
For example, consider the external, internal, and secret meditations of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. First you communicate with the external level of Lama Tsongkhapa’s knowledge. Next, at a deeper point, you communicate with the internal level. Then, when you go still deeper, you communicate with the secret level. It is the same with Guru Vajradhara.
You should not feel any separation between you and Guru Vajradhara. You should not think, “The guru is so high and I am so low.” Instead you have to unify with Guru Vajradhara, dissolving him into you. You recognize your own mind as the dharmakaya experience of Guru Vajradhara. This blissful wisdom consciousness is the absolute guru, and in order to experience it, you need to practice guru yoga.
The dharmakaya is nonsuperstitious and nonconceptual in nature, but our minds are full of superstition. However, merely imagining the dharmakaya experience summons the inspiration and taste of it, just like imagining cheesecake. Simply thinking of the dharmakaya stimulates the dharmakaya experience and automatically stops superstitious thinking. The main idea of guru yoga is to unify our mind with the utter clarity of Guru Vajradhara’s wisdom, which is free from superstition.
We must also learn to recognize the guru in each moment. Even if our most egotistical, miserable, dissatisfied mind is present, instead of expanding this egocentric mind we must recognize its dharmakaya nature, its totality-of-the-guru nature. This direct, organic energy is digested into the great wisdom of unification: “You are the guru, you are the deity, you are the daka and dakini, you are the Dharma protector.” This is the teaching of tantra.
This is similar to Christianity, which accepts one God as an embodiment of the principle of totality. The Buddhist tantras describe many deities, dakas and dakinis, and Dharma protectors, but in fact they are all embodiments of the one reality of totality. As we develop in the path to enlightenment, we ourselves become the guru, the deity, the daka and dakini, the Dharma protector. We practice guru yoga in order to discover this unity.
