What Is Guru-Yoga?

Defining the Term “Guru-Yoga”

“Guru” and “yoga” are Sanskrit words. We need to learn what these mean in order to know what we are going to be talking about.

First, a guru is a fully qualified spiritual master. The word literally means someone who is heavy, and in the case of guru-yoga we mean someone who is heavy with good qualities. Guru is translated into Tibetan in various ways. One way is with the word “lama” (bla-ma), which also can mean a very highly realized master. Lama is used in a variety of ways, though, in different Tibetan cultures.

In some Tibetan cultures it refers to any monk, but that would be too limited a definition for guru-yoga. In other Tibetan cultures, it can be somebody who has done a three-year retreat, which qualifies them to be a village priest and do rituals. We certainly don’t mean that when we talk about guru-yoga. There are, then, some Western people who just declare themselves “lama” pretentiously for various, and possibly not the purest, reasons. That is not what we mean here either.

In addition, the term “lama” is used for a reincarnate lama, and such a person is called a “tulku” (sprul-sku) in Tibetan. They are referred to with the title “Rinpoche.” We don’t necessarily mean that either. Just because someone is a reincarnate lama doesn’t mean that they are a qualified teacher.

That type of reincarnate lama could still be a child. Even as an adult, it may be that the ideal conditions and circumstances for a tulku being raised, and the necessary education and environment, were not met. The vast majority of tulkus are not enlightened. In fact, most have not even had non-conceptual cognition of voidness. They continue to experience the ripening of previously built-up negative karmic potentials, so they might not act like a proper teacher at all.

It is important to recognize that just because somebody has the title of tulku, or reincarnate lama, doesn’t mean that they are a great master. It just means that the person who originated their lineage was a great master. His Holiness the Dalai Lama always advises very strongly that these tulkus, the reincarnate lamas, should not rely just on their names. He emphasizes that their followers as well should not rely on the teacher’s great name and high title, and that each reincarnate lama must prove themselves and their qualifications in this life.

Another name for a guru comes from a slightly different Sanskrit term, kalyana-mitra, which is sometimes translated as “spiritual friend.” “Spiritual” is not actually the correct word here. Instead, it is a friend who helps us to become constructive. The word that’s translated as “spiritual” (kalyana) actually means constructive. The constructive or spiritual friend is someone with whom we are very close, who treats us like a dear friend or a family member. It doesn’t mean somebody with whom we go drinking and to the movies, but someone with whom we have a heart-to-heart, very close connection. The whole purpose of the relationship is to help us to be more and more constructive, more and more positive, and to gain more and more good qualities.

The Tibetan word for such a spiritual friend is “geshe (dge-bshes, dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen).” It was only much later that geshe became a title for someone who has completed the education system in the Gelug tradition. Its original meaning was a spiritual friend. The equivalent term in the other Tibetan traditions is “khenpo” (mkhan-po), which in other contexts means an abbot of a monastery. Literally, khenpo means a learned one.

Just because somebody is a geshe or a khenpo doesn’t mean that they are spiritually developed or that they are necessarily a good teacher. It does mean, however, that they are very well-educated and have passed a lot of exams, as we might see with university professors. Being well-learned is certainly a qualification for being a great teacher, but just being well-learned is not enough to be considered a guru. Gurus also must have the personalities that go with the title, in that they actually have developed in themselves all these good qualities that they have learned about.

Second, the word “yoga” of guru-yoga, comes from the same root as the English word “yoke,” which means to join something or someone. For example, we say that we take two oxen and yoke them together to draw a plow. The Tibetan word has two syllables (rnal-’byor), and they mean to join or yoke to what is authentic, or the real thing. What we are trying to join together in guru-yoga are our qualities of body, speech and mind with the qualities of the guru.

In other words, we join how we act, how we communicate, and how we think and feel, with the qualities of body, speech and mind of an authentic, qualified spiritual teacher. Now in order to do this, we need to be receptive and open to our own basic qualities of body, speech and mind being joined with those of our guru. In other words, we need to be properly qualified as well.

The whole purpose of guru-yoga is to be inspired by the example and guidance of the spiritual teacher. The word byin-rlabs is usually translated as “blessing,” but I find that to be a completely inappropriate translation coming from Christian sources. The way that I prefer to translate the term is “inspiration.” The word also means to uplift, or to brighten. In other words, through practicing guru-yoga, we are opening our ways of acting, communicating, thinking and feeling to being trained, to being uplifted, to being brightened to a more beneficial level through this inspiration.

When we speak about this joining, we are certainly not talking about copying the teacher’s behavior. For example, if the teacher speaks bad English, we are not going to imitate the teacher’s bad English and speak bad English as well. If their habit is to drink a lot of butter tea, we are not going to copy them and drink butter tea. We are not talking about these superficial qualities. What we are referring to is being inspired by and joining our qualities with the positive good qualities, the Buddha-qualities, of the teacher. That is the significance of seeing the spiritual teacher as a Buddha. It was never intended to be taken literally. Nowhere in the Buddhist literature does it list among the qualifications of a spiritual master that the person has to be an enlightened being. If the teacher were literally a Buddha, they should know the telephone number of everybody on this planet, and they obviously don’t. They could walk through walls and do all sorts of things like that. They obviously can’t.

More deeply, what seeing our guru as a Buddha is referring to is seeing the Buddha-nature qualities in our spiritual teacher and focusing on the not-yet-happening enlightening qualities that are imputations on them. An imputation phenomenon is one that is tied to a basis and cannot exist or be known independently of that basis. In this case, the not-yet-happening good qualities cannot exist or be known independently of the presently-happening good qualities.

We focus on those, as represented in guru-yoga by the qualities of one of these Buddha-figures, or yidams, in Tibetan. When we see the teacher as being inseparable from these Buddha-figures, what we are doing is focusing on these imputations that are based on our guru’s Buddha-nature qualities, as represented by the form and qualities of the Buddha-figure.

Focusing like that on our guru’s good qualities as represented by a Buddha-figure inspires us to be able to focus, with tantra practice, on our own not-yet-happening Buddha-qualities based of our own Buddha-nature qualities and to see ourselves as a Buddha-figure. This is an effective method because it is easier to see the Buddha-nature qualitied in the spiritual teacher than it is to see them in ourselves.

In the cases of both our spiritual teacher and us, however, the whole practice is based on the understanding of the voidness of the Buddha-nature factors. They are not actually findable inside our teacher or inside us. Nevertheless, we are connecting our own Buddha-nature with the Buddha-nature of the spiritual master. That is why Gampopa said, “When I realized the unity of my spiritual master and the yidam with my own mind, I realized mahamudra”. We are linking our own Buddha-nature with the Buddha-nature of the spiritual teacher in order to gain the inspiration to realize our own Buddha-nature and fully actualize all its potentials.

That is the whole point of guru-yoga. The yoking is represented by streams of light connecting the three places (the forehead, throat and heart) representing body, speech and mind of the spiritual teacher, and the good qualities of each, with our three places and our own good qualities. It’s like they are a conduit that energizes the aspects of Buddha-nature in us.

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