Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher

Reading 2: Who is my Guru?

This lesson covers the various functions that Buddhist teachers can perform, such as lecturer, preceptor, guru, etc., and we will learn how the teacher-student connection is formed in various situations. We will see what the qualifications are for certain types of teachers and how to decide whether to take someone as a guru.

The readings here are drawn from: • Session One of DBaH course 4: "The Spiritual Teacher" by Ven. Constance Miller • Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship by Alexander Berzin • The Heart of the Path, Kyabje Zopa • Online Advice Book, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche • Biographies of FPMT , www.fpmt.org

Meditation: • “Why We Need a Spiritual Guide”

Excerpts from:

Session One of DBaH course 4: "The Spiritual Teacher" by Ven. Constance Miller

Discovering BUDDHISM at Home: Awakening the limitless potential of your mind, achieving all peace and happiness; SUBJECT AREA 4, The Spiritual Teacher.

The meaning of “guru” Before we move on to other topics, it might be instructive to explore the meaning of the term guru. Guru is from the Sanskrit; it means “heavy, weighty.” A guru is someone who is weighty in the sense of having a substantial presence, having charisma. There are several ways to analyze the term guru etymologically.1 First, gu comes from the Sanskrit guna, which means “good qualities” and ru comes

1 What follows here is a not a true etymology, but rather a teaching tool. This is a common occurance in Buddhist commentaries where a word is broken down in a certain way to give more instruction on the topic. The actual Sanskrit root of guru is gr, which does mean 'heavy' as already explained.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 1 from ruchi, which means “collection” so a guru is someone who is heavy with good qualities. Alternatively, gu comes from guhya, which means “hidden, secret,” and ru comes from rupa, which means “body, form”; this indicates someone whose qualities are hidden and far exceed our expectations. In the Tibetan language, guru is translated as lama. Etymologically, la means “unsurpassable” and “sublime,” which indicate the method side of the , or bodhichitta; ma means “mother,” in this case the “mother of all spiritual attainments,” which is the wisdom side of the Dharma. Thus, a lama is “one who has given birth internally to what is unsurpassable and sublime,” and therefore exhibits the unified realization of both the method and the wisdom aspects of the Dharma. A lama, or guru, has the power to tame wild emotions and therefore to become as stable and substantial as a mountain in their mind and in their realizations on the path. This power or life-force finds expression as bodhichitta, the culmination of both love and compassion. Because of his (or her) bodhichitta, a guru is able to tame wild disciples so that they can live their lives meaningfully. Whether the guru, who is the active expression of the buddhas’ infinite kindness, manifests to us as a teacher of the Dharma or in the form of ordinary beings, situations, even inanimate objects in our life, whatever the outer form, the guru always serves to reveal to us our minds, our best and worst inner natures, so that we can grow in wisdom and compassion, so that we too can surpass our limitations on the path to awakening. It is simply up to us to open our minds to these manifestations of the guru in our lives.

Choosing a spiritual guide When you go hiking in totally unknown territory and you hire a guide, you are entrusting yourself into the hands of that person – your body, your safety. In the same way, when you enter into a serious teacher-disciple relationship, you are entrusting yourself into the hands of that person. Along the spiritual path, whatever you encounter, you are entrusting your progress to the hands of that person and that person’s advice. It’s a very serious relationship and it’s a very serious decision when you decide to enter into such a relationship. So how do you choose a qualified spiritual guide? When you discover a prospective spiritual teacher who interests you, it is extremely important to check, check, check. Examine that person … thoroughly. Take time; take as much time as it takes. The says you should observe and “spy” on a potential teacher for twelve years before you choose him or her as your guru. Twelve years? This may be a general guideline rather than a hard-and-fast rule. But in any case, you should be very thorough and very sure of your decision before you commit to such a relationship and the commitments that it entails. What do we look for as we observe and examine and check a prospective guru? Over time, you absorb impressions and feelings about this person. You check out how the teacher relates to his or her students; you talk to the students themselves about their own experiences. Does that person exhibit patience, compassion, and energy? What kind of example are they to the world? How do they ground their teachings, that is, do they practice what they preach? Again, over time, on the basis of your observations and experiences, an impression about that person will begin to form in an organic kind of

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 2 way. Once you establish a relationship with a teacher, you will start to emulate that person. By following your teacher’s example, you’re eventually going to turn out like that person. We become like our teachers in so many ways. Remember this as you check out prospective teachers: Do you want to become like that person or not? Does that person have qualities that you would like to develop in yourself? A very important point to understand here is how extremely damaging it is to break this relationship once you have entered in. Our teacher-disciple relationship is at the core of our spiritual path. It is the foundation of our connection with the Dharma, which is the vehicle to achieve freedom from suffering and every temporal and ultimate happiness. To damage or break this relationship can bring deep spiritual despair. It is often said in the Christian tradition that hell is simply the state of being separated from God. I would say that this is quite similar. If we damage or destroy our relationship with our spiritual teacher, we can easily fall into the lower realms in our future rebirths, but we can also find ourselves in a kind of human hell realm in this very life, having poisoned our connection with the source of happiness, the enlightened beings and the Dharma they have given us. We open ourselves up to many negative influences, illnesses, psychological depression, and other maladies and difficulties. We can even find ourselves falling into a nihilistic view of the world in which we cease to care for either ourselves or others. This is not to scare us away from pursuing and entering into a teacher-disciple relationship – not at all! It is just very important that we understand the gravity of such a relationship so that we can choose a spiritual teacher very, very carefully. This can ensure that our experience of this relationship can be rewarding and joyful and bring great benefits to our lives.

The qualities of a spiritual teacher Let’s consider more specifically the qualities that we should be looking for when we assess whether or not a person is suitable to be our spiritual guide. In Pabongkha Rinpoche’s Lam-rim teaching, Liberation In the Palm of Your Hand, [in Day Eight], Rinpoche teaches about the ten qualities of a Mahayana teacher. There’s a very succinct little verse, from the text the Ornament of the , that reads:

Rely on a spiritual guide who is Subdued, pacified, most pacified, Who has more qualities than you, Perseverance, a wealth of scripture, Realization into suchness, Who is a skilled teacher, has love, And has given up disappointment [In the disciple’s performance].

These are the ten general qualities of a Mahayana guru. So what do these mean? (1) Subdued: “Subdued” means that this person’s mind has been subdued with the practice of ethics. He or she is an ethical person, one who embodies the practice of

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 3 morality in his or her actions and choices. This means that one’s ethics are more than mere words. (2) “Pacified” means that the mind is also pacified with single-pointed concentration. This means having some control and ability to focus and concentrate the mind. (3) “Most pacified” refers to having a mind pacified by an understanding of wisdom, most specifically the wisdom of emptiness. Then, (4) “having more qualities than you.” This seems rather obvious, but there is one very nice example in the text, in Liberation. If you put sandalwood together with other types of wood, then those other types of wood take on the scent of the sandalwood. In the same way, when you enter into a teacher-disciple relationship, you spend time with your teacher. You receive their advice, you take their teachings. By relying on your teacher, following his or her example, you eventually take on your teacher’s attributes, just as the wood takes on the scent of the sandalwood. This once again points to the importance of choosing your teachers carefully because in so many ways you’re going to become just like them. (5) “Realization into suchness” refers again to the wisdom of emptiness, and specifically to an accurate view of reality, the highest view being the Prasangika Madyamaka view, the most precise articulation of the Buddha’s thought. The other qualities are pretty much self-explanatory. The qualified Mahayana teacher has (6) perseverance and so doesn’t give up easily, and (7) knows a wealth of scripture so that his or her knowledge of the Dharma is rooted in the Buddha’s words. She’s (8) a skilled speaker, a skilled communicator. She (9) has love, kindness, and open heart. And a qualified teacher (10) has given up disappointment, specifically in the disciple’s performance. This goes back to perseverance in that our teacher doesn’t give up on us, keeps going, has patience, even when we mess up or we don’t read our assignments or we don’t do our meditations, whatever. This is what it means to have given up disappointment. Again, it’s incredibly important to check out a prospective teacher most thoroughly, no matter how long that takes. These are some of the fundamental qualities that one can check for. But I’ve been involved in the Dharma for almost 30 years now and have watched many, many people, too many people, easily become enamored of Tibetan teachers, the exoticness of the newest guru in town, and rush headlong into taking initiations, taking someone on as their guru, and then, having not examined well beforehand, later discovering things about that person or having experiences that have shattered their faith. And I can’t honestly say that this is 100 percent the fault of the teacher because unfortunately, these individuals rushed into something without thinking. I don’t know if those of you who have experience of the therapeutic profession as therapists or have entered into therapy with someone are aware of the ethical requirements of individuals who are therapists. In general they’re incredibly strict, the rules are very strong and perhaps even difficult to follow, because of the psychological damage that can take place in an individual if these kinds of ethical considerations aren’t followed. It’s many times more serious as far as your spiritual teacher is concerned. From a karmic standpoint, in terms of the psychological effect on you, the

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 4 long-term effects of entering into a teacher-disciple relationship with someone and then breaking that bond are very serious. I can’t stress enough the importance of being completely sure of the qualities of the spiritual teacher before one enters into that kind of relationship in your mind. I cannot stress enough the profound impact of crossing that threshold into the teacher-disciple relationship nor the damaging effect on you of breaking that indelible bond. 

Different Types Of Spiritual Teachers by Alexander Berzin

Part I: Spiritual Seekers and Spiritual Teachers, Chapter 4 The Different Types Of Spiritual Teachers and Spiritual Seekers in Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship, www.berzinarchives.com .

Premises People at Dharma centers often have difficulty relating to spiritual teachers, even properly qualified ones. Some may feel nothing toward the resident teacher, even if the person is a or a lama. Others may be unimpressed with a famous teacher who visits, though everyone else treats the person with extreme devotion. They find confusing the teaching that they must regard spiritual teachers as Buddhas. They may think that they need to regard all teachers in this way and that they need to do so from the start. Consequently, they feel that they are doing something wrong. The first step for unraveling the problem is to acknowledge certain empirical facts about student-teacher relationships. (1) Almost all spiritual seekers progress through stages along the spiritual path. (2) Most practitioners study with several teachers during their lifetimes and build up different relationships with each. (3) Not every spiritual teacher has reached the same level of accomplishment. (4) The type of relationship appropriate between a specific seeker and a specific teacher depends upon the spiritual level of each. (5) People usually relate to their teachers in progressively deeper manners as they advance along the spiritual path. (6) Because the same teacher may play different roles in the spiritual life of each seeker, the most appropriate relationship each seeker has with that teacher may be different. The presentation in this book follows from these premises.

Terminology The six points listed above are suggested by a distinction that Gampopa made in A Precious Ornament for Liberation, based on the Prajnaparamita literature. During the course of progressing to enlightenment, spiritual seekers become capable of receiving and understanding instruction from teachers who are increasingly more sophisticated in their realization of voidness. Thus, both spiritual teachers and seekers divide into levels.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 5 Here, we shall differentiate levels of spiritual teachers according to other criteria: the increasingly broader contents, perspective, andintent of the instruction that they impart. Further, in conjunction with each type of spiritual teacher, we shall formulate a corresponding spiritual seeker.

Buddhism Professor To clarify the discussion, let us adopt certain conventions. Let us call someone who conveys information about Buddha's teachings from a withdrawn perspective a "Buddhism professor." A person who not merely sits in the audience, but who actually studies with such a Buddhism professor would be a "student of Buddhism."

Dharma Instructor Someone, on the other hand, who imparts the teachings from the point of view of their practical application to life, based on personal experience, we shall name a "Dharma instructor." Someone who learns practical Buddhism from a Dharma instructor would be his or her "Dharma pupil."

Meditation or Ritual Trainer A person who trains others in the pragmatic aspects of meditation or ritual practice, we shall call a "meditation or ritual trainer." The corresponding spiritual seeker would be a "meditation or ritual trainee."

Spiritual Mentor We shall use "spiritual mentor," in the Mahayana sense, for someone who leads others along the graded path to enlightenment. Someone whom a spiritual mentor leads along the graded path would be his or her "disciple," starting with a seeker who wishes first for spiritual goals only in this lifetime, or also for future generations.

Preceptor Among spiritual mentors, someone who confers Mahayana safe direction or either lay or monastic vows, we shall call a "refuge or vow preceptor." Someone who receives refuge or liberation vows from such a preceptor would be a member of the person's "refuge or vow progeny."

Mahayana Master A mentor who teaches the methods for developing bodhichittaand who leads a seeker along the path, we shall name a "Mahayana master." Someone whom he or she guides would be a "Mahayana disciple."

Tantric Master Further, a Mahayana master who leads disciples to enlightenment through the methods of tantra, we shall designate a "tantric master." Corresponding to a tantric master would

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 6 be a "tantric disciple."

Root Guru Further, the teacher who turns a seeker's heart and mind most strongly to the Dharma, we shall refer to as a "root guru." "Spiritual teacher" and "spiritual seeker" will be used as general terms.

The Inner Guru by Alexander Berzin

Excerted from Part I: Spiritual Seekers and Spiritual Teachers, Chapter 6 The Special Need for a Spiritual Mentor in Highest Tantra, in Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship, www.berzinarchives.com . Often, we hear about outer and inner gurus. An outer guru is a human being who serves as a spiritual mentor. An inner guru, on the other hand, is neither a mysterious voice in a disciple's head giving guidance, nor some mystic in a Himalayan cave sending telepathic messages. In A Golden Rosary of Excellent Explanation, Tsongkhapa explained that on the sutra level, an inner guru is the compassion that grows while traversing the spiritual path. Inspired by compassion, disciples develop bodhichitta which, like a guru, is replete with good qualities and inspires them to attain these capabilities themselves. In The Complete Fulfillment of Disciples' Hopes, Tsongkhapa indicated that on the highest tantra level, an inner guru is a disciple's deepest bodhichitta. The First clarified this point in his classic, An Offering Ceremony to the Spiritual Masters (Lama Chopa; The Guru Puja). There, he called deepest bodhichitta Samantabhadra (the Totally Excellent One), a term for pure awareness. In so doing, he revealed that, in the context of serving as an inner guru, a disciple's deepest bodhichitta is his or her clear light mind when it realizes voidness. Moreover, since clear light mind, as a type of Buddha-nature, has the potential to recognize its own face and thus to realize voidness, a disciple's clear light mind may also serve as an inner guru, even before gaining self-realization. This extended sense of the term inner guru follows from the Buddhist analytical tool known as "giving the name of the result to the cause." Tantric empowerment, then, requires both an outer and an inner guru. Inspiration from an outer guru, together with a disciple's realizations during the ceremony, provides "causal empowerment" that ripens into actual attainments. The Nyingma tradition explains the mechanism. The ripening process occurs only because an inner guru, as the deepest Buddha-nature, provides "foundational empowerment." As the foundation for all attainments, clear light mind encompasses all the excellent qualities that ripen into Buddahood. As an inner guru, clear light mind is also the ultimate source of inspiration. We may understand this in two ways. The Gelug tradition, combining its unique presentation of the Indian Prasangika-Madhyamaka school with the Guhyasamaja teachings, analyzes inspiration as a subtle form of energy (lung, rlung; Skt. prana). The deepest source of

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 7 inspiring energy is subtlest life-supporting energy, which is the physical support of clear light mind. Since this subtlest energy flows inseparably with clear light mind, access to it comes only through accessing the subtlest level of mind. The Nyingma, , and traditions follow the Indian mahasiddha (greatly accomplished yogi) style and employ a more poetic description. They call clear light mind the "foundation for everything" (Skt. alaya). In terminology, waves of inspiration are its "effulgent play." In the same manner in which the brilliance of the sun is a quality that is inseparable from the sun itself, inspiration is an inseparable quality of clear light mind. 

Who to Regard as Guru by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche Excerpts from Chapter 6 of The Heart of the Path, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, 2009. [Bold added here by the editor for emphasis on when each particular relationship is formed.]

Taking teachings We establish a Dharma connection with someone when, on the basis of the recognition that that person is our guru and we are his disciple, we then receive even a single verse of teaching from him. Making the very first Dharma contact depends on our merit and our past karma. It is said in the teachings that simply hearing Dharma from somebody doesn’t establish Dharma contact and make that person your guru. You can hear Dharma from someone and study with him without necessarily regarding him as your guru; you make a connection with him, but not a guru-disciple connection. However, once you have taken a teaching by thinking of yourself as a disciple and the other person as your guru, even if it is only a teaching on one verse of Dharma or the oral transmission of one mantra, Dharma contact is established, which means you have formed a guru-disciple relationship, even if you didn’t find the teaching effective for your mind. With respect to accepting someone as a guru, if from the very beginning you don’t have any wish to make a guru-disciple connection, you can listen to that person’s teaching as if you’re learning from a professor in a university. Generally, you can learn Dharma, especially sutra teachings and explanations, from someone just out of educational interest, to acquire knowledge, like studying with a professor or learning Buddhist history at school. Simply hearing the Dharma from someone doesn’t mean you have established a guru-disciple relationship with that person because you do this all the time in Dharma discussions with your friends. When you discuss points with a friend who knows how to explain them, you don’t regard that person as your guru. You are just helping each other. While you can listen to Dharma teachings for educational purposes, you need to make the distinction clear from the very beginning as to whether or not you are going to devote yourself to the person as a virtuous friend. However, after some time, if you feel strong devotion in your heart or you see that you have benefited a lot from someone’s teachings and want to establish a guru-disciple relationship, you can then devote yourself to that person as your guru. At

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 8 that time you can make the decision. Devote means devoting your life to your guru by following his guidance in accordance with the explanations of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha in the sutra and tantra teachings, which is also the way that Lama Tsongkhapa and all the lineage lamas of the four traditions explained and practiced guru devotion. Whether or not you can devote yourself to someone mainly depends on your own attitude, your own way of thinking. What do you do if in the past you have heard teachings from various people but don’t remember making a particular decision to recognize them as your guru? If you don’t remember any particular benefit to your mind from those teachings and didn’t take them with a determination to establish Dharma contact, you can leave those teachers in equanimity. This means that you don’t need to regard them as your guru but you also don’t need to criticize them. Also, if somebody tells you that you don’t need to devote yourself to him as a virtuous friend you can leave the matter in equanimity. But if listening to someone’s teaching has benefited your mind, if you can, it is better to regard that person as your guru. . . .

Do we need to formally request someone to be our guru? You don’t normally need to request someone to be your guru. Forming a guru- disciple relationship depends more on your making the decision in your mind than on your personally asking that person’s permission to attend an initiation or teaching. In , if you were planning to attend an initiation or teaching from a lama for the first time, the tradition was to go see that lama and ask his permission to attend. You would just quickly ask, “Can I take these teachings?” The lama would then check and accept or reject your request. Before listening to teachings from someone for the very first time, if there’s time, you can make a request to attend the teachings; however, because there are often hundreds or thousands of people involved, there’s not usually enough time for each person to personally request permission. For example, thousands of people receive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Not everybody can go to see His Holiness and ask, “Please be my guru.” However, when His Holiness Ling Rinpoche gave some particular initiations and teachings, it seems that people would go to ask permission to attend them. They didn’t go to see Rinpoche, but just asked his attendant whether they could receive the initiation. After the teaching has happened and the connection has already been made, there is no need to ask the person to be your guru. This would be like requesting your mother to be your mother or your father to be your father after you had already been born.

Taking initiations Simply sitting in a line of people during an initiation doesn’t mean that you receive the initiation and the person giving it becomes your guru. Receiving initiation has to do with the mind, not the body. It’s a mental action.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 9 Just being where an initiation is being given doesn’t mean that you receive the initiation and establish Dharma contact. If you don’t take the initiation, just being there doesn’t establish Dharma contact. Many other creatures—flies buzzing around, ants, fleas and other bugs, and sometimes dogs—can also be physically there while an initiation is happening and hear all the words of the explanations of the visualizations. If you simply sit there and don’t do the visualizations, you haven’t received the initiation. Even if you drink a whole bucket of vase water and eat a mountain of tormas, that alone doesn’t mean you have received the initiation. In certain cases you might have to be present at an initiation to ensure harmony within a Dharma center, where various lamas are invited because students have different wishes and different karma or because of your responsibility within an organization. If you have no intention of following the person giving the initiation as a guru and don’t do the visualizations, simply sitting there in the group of people doesn’t mean that you receive the initiation. If you know what to do and how to think, there will be no confusion. Your mind, not your body, takes the initiation. Meditation centers in the West generally invite many different lamas to give teachings. One reason for this is that people have different karma. Each time a lama comes, there are different people who have a karmic connection with that particular lama, and even though many other lamas might come to the meditation center, until that particular lama comes, those people don’t meet the Dharma. Each individual student has to be clear from the beginning whether or not he wants to make Dharma contact with a particular lama. It’s possible that someone could sit in an initiation and not do any of the visualizations at all but that the lama could do the meditations in relation to that person, such as visualizing them as the deity. The initiation can then become the giving of a blessing to that person. The person can receive the blessing but doesn’t necessarily take the lama as a guru because he hasn’t done the visualizations explained. He receives the blessing, but in the manner of having a puja done to give him protection. If from his side he hasn’t done the visualizations or regarded the lama as his guru, he hasn’t received the initiation. However, if you decide to take an initiation, do as much as you can of the meditations and visualizations explained, which are always based on seeing the lama and the deity as inseparable. At the end generate faith that you have received the initiation. If you do all this, you receive the initiation and establish a Dharma connection with the person who has given it. You should regard that person as your guru because he has planted in your mind the seed of Dharma, the seed of the four kayas of Highest Yoga Tantra, which ripen your mind to practice the path. Even if you had no particular thought to accept the person as your guru, if you do the meditations and visualizations, you have taken the initiation and that person becomes your guru. If you treat an initiation like a horse race, with everyone racing to get there first, problems can arise later, especially if you haven’t heard complete lam-rim teachings on guru devotion or if these teachings somehow haven’t touched your heart. If you later regret taking the initiation and the lama becomes an object of criticism, almost like your enemy, you will burn many eons of merit and unnecessarily make your life difficult.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 10 After a connection has been made, things won’t work out if you damage the root of your practice through not having thought deeply about the meaning of the lam-rim.

Taking vows I think that you should regard as your guru anyone who has granted you a lineage of vows: refuge, pratimoksha, bodhisattva or tantric vows, or even the Eight Mahayana Precepts. Whether that person is lay or ordained, Tibetan or Western, male or female, you must regard him or her as your guru. If you do the visualizations when you take the vows, I would say that you have established a Dharma connection with that person, even if at the time you didn’t have any thought of forming a guru-disciple relationship. With respect to the vows and ordinations you’ve already taken where, because of your lack of understanding of the lam-rim, you didn’t regard the person as a guru, you have to regard those teachers as your guru as you have made Dharma contact. You mightn’t have known the important points of this practice of guru devotion, but if you have taken the Eight Mahayana Precepts or any other vows, which are all based on refuge, from someone, I think you should regard that person as your guru. As I have already explained, at the beginning you can listen to teachings without having to regard a teacher as your guru but I don’t think you can do the same thing with vows or initiations. I don’t think that any valid lamas would say that you can take a full initiation from someone without regarding him as your guru; I don’t think that they would accept that in relation to any of the vows either. If you have taken gelong or getsul ordination, you have to regard as your guru not only the abbot but also the lobpön, or preceptor. If you have taken gelong ordination, you have to regard as your guru both the lekyi lobpön, who gives the twenty-one pieces of advice to the gelongs (though sometimes the abbot does this) and also the sangdön lobpön, who comes outside to ask you questions about whether you have any particular sicknesses and so forth and to give you advice. When I took gelong ordination, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche was the abbot; His Holiness Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche was the lobpön; and the chant leader at the Tibetan Temple in Bodhgaya, a very good old monk, was the sangdön lobpön. Some say that you have to regard even the monk who reads the sutra at sojong as your guru because he is asked to say that prayer as the representative of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, but such a person doesn’t commonly have to be regarded as your teacher. If you take the oral transmission of even one verse of a prayer or one mantra, the person giving it also becomes your virtuous friend—not simply by your hearing the oral transmission but by your taking it to receive the blessing. Otherwise it would mean that we could achieve enlightenment without a guru—which is impossible. It would mean that we could achieve realizations of the lam-rim and tantric paths without needing a guru to grant initiations and vows. There is no one who has ever achieved enlightenment in that way. In the strict interpretation, you should regard as your virtuous friend even someone who

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 11 teaches you the mudras found in tantric practices or how to draw mandalas. In the monasteries in Tibet, strict practitioners of lam-rim would learn such things only from someone with whom they wanted to have a Dharma connection. However, it’s possible to discuss such things as friends, without any particular recognition of a guru-disciple relationship. . . .

How many gurus should we have? It is not necessary to have just one guru, like having one boyfriend or girlfriend. Westerners sometimes think that they can’t have many gurus but should have just one. Or they take initiations and teachings but still think that they haven’t met their guru. This is a mistake. You can have many gurus or you can have just one guru and be satisfied with that. It depends on how well you are able to practice guru devotion. Lama Atisha, who had 152 gurus, said that he didn’t do any action that wasn’t wished by all those gurus. Somebody who has enough merit and knows how to practice guru yoga can have hundreds, millions or billions of virtuous friends. There is no danger in such a person regarding anybody as their virtuous friend. Kadampa Geshe Sungpuwa, while traveling on pilgrimage from Kham to , would take teachings from anyone he met along the way who was giving teachings. If a crowd had gathered by the side of the road to receive teachings from someone, Geshe Sungpuwa would go there, listen to the teaching, and then regard that person as his guru. Ra Lotsawa and Dromtönpa, on the other hand, had very few gurus. There is a debate about whether it is wiser to have few or many gurus. The conclusion is that if you can practice guru devotion well, you can devote yourself to everyone who gives you a teaching and have hundreds of gurus without any problems. But if you can’t, it’s better to have fewer gurus, so that you create less negative karma—the more gurus you have, the more obstacles you create. You will make Dharma contact with one person, then generate negative thoughts toward him; you will then make contact with another virtuous friend, then again generate negative thoughts toward that person. For some people, the more gurus they have, the more obstacles they create to their enlightenment. If you find guru devotion difficult to practice, you should make Dharma connections only with teachers with whom you think you can maintain guru devotion. By having fewer gurus, you will create fewer obstacles to the happiness beyond this life up to enlightenment. Basically, it depends on your own capacity, on your own mind. If you have a lot of superstition and always look at the negative rather than the positive, you should be careful. There is a saying that if you can’t practice guru devotion, you receive as many negativities as the number of gurus you have. But there are also advantages in having many gurus—if one guru doesn’t have the lineage of a particular teaching or initiation that you need to benefit yourself or others, you can take it from another guru. In this way you can receive all the teachings. It is fine to plan to have only one guru in your life but you may not be able to always be

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 12 in the same place as that guru and he may not always have time to teach you. If you don’t find other gurus to study with, your understanding may not develop quickly. Generally, whether you have one guru or a hundred, how quickly you generate real understanding of Dharma and realizations of the path depends on your individual skill and practice.

Who is the root guru? With respect to the root guru, anyone from whom you have directly received teachings can be called a root, or direct, guru, whereas the lineage lamas are indirect gurus. However, a common definition of the root guru is the one among all your gurus who has most benefited your mind, the one who has been the most effective in directing your mind toward Dharma. You don’t necessarily have just one root guru; you can have more than one. Among Lama Atisha’s 152 gurus, for example, he regarded five as his root gurus, including Lama Suvarnadvipi and Dharmarakshita. Lama Suvarnadvipi was the guru from whom Lama Atisha received the complete teachings on over a period of twelve years and in whose presence Lama Atisha generated bodhicitta. Whenever he heard someone say the holy name of Lama Suvarnadvipi, because of the power of his devotion, Lama Atisha would immediately stand up from his seat and, with tears in his eyes, place his hands together in prostration on his crown. In the case of tantric deity practice, the lama you visualize as the root guru in the sadhana is the one from whom you have received the initiation of that deity. If you have received the same initiation from many lamas, you choose the one among those many lamas who has most benefited your mind. Again, you can have more than one root guru. We have to meditate and discover that the root guru is not separate from our other gurus. The root guru is one with all our other gurus and all our other gurus are embodiments of our root guru, the one who has most benefited our mind. Meditating in this way helps us to generate the same strong devotion to all our gurus, especially if there are any toward whom we have difficulty generating devotion. By meditating in this way, we stop the thought of seeing faults in those particular virtuous friends, which is the heaviest obstacle to developing our mind in the path to enlightenment. If we are able to look at all our other gurus as we do our root guru and generate the same strong devotion toward all of them, there will be no obstacles to realization. Realizations of the path to enlightenment will fall like rain. Before we decide to devote ourselves to someone, we need to be very careful. We should examine, or check, well at the very beginning before we decide to rely upon someone as a virtuous friend. Once the Dharma contact has been made, however, examining is finished; it is then wrong to continue the examination. Once we have made the Dharma connection, we have to regard that person with a completely new mind, with the determination that he is Guru Shakyamuni Buddha or the deity we are practicing. After we have established a guru-disciple relationship, we correctly devote ourselves to the virtuous friend as explained by Buddha in the sutra and tantra teachings. If we are practicing tantra, we practice the

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 13 special guru yoga as explained in tantra. Generally speaking, there’s a responsibility from both sides once the Dharma connection is made. Guiding the disciple is the teacher’s responsibility and, after Dharma contact has been made, correct devotion to the virtuous friend is the disciple’s responsibility. Once we have made the Dharma connection, by receiving a teaching with the recognition that that person is our guru and we are his disciple, we have to live our life with a totally new attitude toward that person and not with our old thoughts. We have to look at him in a totally different way; we have to look at him as a buddha. Even if we saw faults in that person before, from the time of establishing Dharma contact, we have to change our way of looking at him. We have to decide at the very beginning that no matter what happens, we are going to practice guru devotion toward that person. We have to change our concept and look at him as a buddha. In this way, our mental continuum is protected from the negative karmas and pollution of degenerating samaya. Otherwise, we will be totally destroying ourselves. Every day we will be creating hell. Once we have listened to teachings with recognition of someone as our virtuous friend, whether that person is lay or ordained, male or female, there can be no question of changing our mind. It shouldn’t be that as long as the person is sweet to us and we like him, we regard him as our virtuous friend but when he is no longer sweet to us we don’t regard him in that way. Be careful at the beginning, because once the relationship has been established nothing can be changed unless the guru gives you permission to no longer regard him as your guru. Once the relationship has been formed there is no heavier karma than giving up the guru, renouncing the guru as an object of devotion. It is a much heavier negative karma than committing the five uninterrupted negative actions. Among all heavy karmas, this is the heaviest. This applies once a guru-disciple relationship has been formed, whether or not we have taken a tantric initiation from that person—though I’m sure the negative karma is greater if the person is our vajra guru. Also, even if we haven’t taken a tantric initiation from the lama that we have given up, if we have taken tantric initiation from other lamas, we have to keep the tantric vows, and we should be very careful not to receive the heavy negative karma of the first tantric root fall,2 which is the heaviest. Otherwise, no matter how many eons we practice mahamudra or other secret, profound paths, we will have no result. It will be extremely difficult to develop our mind once we make a mistake in this important point of guru devotion practice. We have to be clear about what we’re going to do at the very beginning so that there will be no problems or confusion later. As Lama Yeshe used to say, we have to make it “clean clear.” We need to be clear about the way we intend to study Dharma teachings, whether as part of a guru-disciple relationship or as in a university. Otherwise, if we are not clean clear in the beginning before we establish Dharma contact, we may later create much negative karma. When problems happen later, we will be like an elephant sunk in mud. We will have already accumulated so much negative karma that it will be difficult to finish purifying it. If we’re not clear about the very root of the path to enlightenment, the very root of all

2 The first tantric root fall is despising or belittling one’s guru.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 14 realizations, no matter how much we study or understand Dharma, it will be difficult for us to complete the practice and really experience the path. If we’re not clear about this point, our life will become a mess. I thought to mention these points about who to regard as guru as it may help people who are unsure about the practice of guru devotion to have a clear understanding in regard to their past and future relationships. 

Qualities of a Guru by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, 2012, www.lamayeshe.com [posted Nov. 2005]. Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who wrote to him asking what are the qualities of a Guru who teaches tantra. My very dear Simon, Thank you very much for your kind letter, sorry for the long delay in replying. Regarding your question about the ten qualities of a guru—there are ten outer qualities according to lower tantra and ten inner qualities according to highest tantra. You can find these in the Guru Puja and in lam-rim commentaries (Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Lam-rim Chen-mo, etc.). It is very good if you read these and study this well. Also, you can find it in the commentary on 50 Verses of Guru Devotion. There are qualities that the guru should have and qualities that the disciple should have. The minimum qualities the guru should have are having the lineage of the initiation (that he is giving) and living according to samaya vows and tantric vows, and that the deities have not prohibited him from offering the initiation by giving signs, for example. You can read and study the section in the Guru Puja that covers the qualities of the guru (before the section which begins “you are my Guru, you are my Yidam …..” First it mentions the ten qualities of a Mahayana Guru: 1. Discipline as a result of his mastery of the training in the higher discipline of moral self-control; 2. Mental quiescence from his training in higher concentration; 3. Pacification of all delusions and obstacles from his training in higher wisdom; 4. More knowledge than his disciple in the subject to be taught; 5. Enthusiastic perseverance and joy in teaching; 6. A treasury of scriptural knowledge; 7. Insight into and understanding of emptiness; 8. Skill in presenting the teachings; 9. Great compassion; and 10. No reluctance to teach and work for his disciples regardless of their level of intelligence.

Even if one doesn’t have all the ten qualities but has five, six, or seven qualities, the main quality is having more knowledge than the disciple and having great compassion.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 15 A tantric master must have even more good qualities. Most important is that he be an extremely stable person, with his body, speech, and mind totally under control. He should be someone in whose presence everyone feels calm, peaceful, and relaxed and even the mere sight of him brings great pleasure to the mind. And his compassion must be unsurpassable. There are two sets of ten fields in which the vajra guru must be a complete master. The ten inner ones are essential for teaching the yoga and maha-anuttara yoga classes of tantra, which stress the importance of purifying mainly internal mental activities. These are expertise in: 1. Visualizing wheels of protection and eliminating obstacles; 2. Preparing and consecrating protection knots and amulets to be worn around the neck; 3. Conferring the vase and secret initiations, planting the seeds for attaining a buddha’s form bodies; 4. Conferring the wisdom and word initiations, planting the seeds for attaining a buddha’s wisdom bodies; 5. Separating the enemies of Dharma from their own protectors; 6. Making the offerings, such as of sculptured tormas; 7. Reciting mantras, both verbally and mentally, that is, visualizing them revolving around his heart; 8. Performing wrathful ritual procedures for forcefully catching the attention of the meditational deities and protectors; 9. Consecrating images and statues; and 10. Making mandala offerings, performing the meditational practices (sadhana) and taking self initiations.

The ten external qualities are required for teaching the kriya and charya classes of tantra, which stress the importance of purifying mainly external activities in connection with internal mental processes. These are expertise in: 1. Drawing, constructing and visualizing the mandala abodes of the meditational deities; 2. Maintaining the different states of single-minded concentration; 3. Executing the hand gestures (mudras); 4. Performing the ritual dances; 5. Sitting in the full meditation position; 6. Reciting what is appropriate to these two classes of tantra; 7. Making fire offerings; 8. Making the various other offerings; 9. Performing the rituals of a) Pacification of disputes, famine, and disease, b) Increase of life span, knowledge, and wealth, c) Power to influence others and d) Wrathful elimination of demonic forces and interferences; and 10. Invoking meditational deities and dissolving them back into their appropriate places.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 16 Lama Tsongkhapa explained that in degenerated times it is difficult to find lamas having all these qualities mentioned above, so if the lama does not have all those qualities then having two, five, or even eight is sufficient. As I mentioned before, the minimum qualities the guru should have is having the lineage of the initiation (that he is giving), living according to samaya vows and tantric vows, and that the deities have not prohibited him from offering the initiation by, for example, giving signs, etc. Since you have received highest tantra initiation from Denma Locho Rinpoche, this means he is your guru. Any time that you take a teaching with the recognition that you are the disciple and the teacher is the guru, then even if the teacher only says a few words, a verse of teachings, or one mantra recitation, that person is your guru from then on and there is no change. After one makes that Dharma connection of guru and disciple, then if you give up it is the heaviest negative karma, the greatest obstacle to your spiritual growth. It brings heavy obstacles and one has to experience, especially at the time of death, eons of suffering in the lower realms and hell realms. According to the texts, the teachings of the Buddha, the lam-rim, one is supposed to think only of the qualities of the guru and only praise them. The heaviest negative karma is if anger and heresy arise, and you criticize him or her. It is said in many tantric teachings—the Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja—that even if one has accumulated the five uninterrupted negative karmas, one can still achieve the sublime vehicle in this life, in particular the maha-anuttara path. This path has the most skills to grant enlightenment in a brief lifetime of these degenerate times. But if you criticize the guru from the heart, even if you practice the sublime vehicle, you will not achieve this. In the Lama Tsongkhapa lam-rim it is clearly mentioned that even the thought that the virtuous friend is ordinary becomes a cause to lose realizations, which means that it also becomes an obstacle to developing the mind on the path. The most important thing is to analyze as much as possible before making Dharma contact. When the recognition of guru and disciple is present, since the Dharma contact is established, then from that time there is no change. One has to have a new relationship with the guru, it is another world, looking at that person with a new and pure mind. It is said by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, the great enlightened being, the Heruka, that if one is able to stop all thoughts of mistakes and look only at the qualities of the guru, looking at the guru only as Buddha, then one can achieve enlightenment in this life. With the realization of seeing all buddhas as the guru and all gurus as the Buddha, one can get enlightened. This is mentioned in all four Tibetan Mahayana sects, in both sutra and tantra. Making mistakes, the arising of heresy, anger, criticism, and giving up the virtuous friend become the cause to not find a guru in future lives. It is said in the Essence of Nectar that one cannot ever hear the sound of the holy Dharma, not to mention find a virtuous friend, and one becomes without a virtuous friend in all one’s lifetimes. If one's own mistakes seem to appear in the guru’s actions, in one's hallucinatory mind,

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 17 one must realize that this is one's own mistake and abandon it like poison. One must abandon the thought that there is a mistake in the actions of the virtuous friend. With this mindfulness, one looks at that person as Buddha, as one who has eliminated all mistakes and has all the perfect qualities. If the guru asks you to do something, and you don't have the capacity to do it at that time, your mind hasn't reached that level, so with this pure thought, with this mindfulness, one respectfully explains to the guru how one is incapable of doing this, and in this way tries to get his or her permission not to do it. This is what is said in the Fifty Verses of the Guru and the Vinaya. If the guru says to do something that is not Dharma, one can ask also permission not to do it. It doesn’t say in the text to have negative thoughts or to criticize or sue him. This is how you deal with that kind of problem without it becoming an obstacle to developing one's own mind on the path. Of course, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentions all the time, if it is a special guru and disciple relationship, then you do every single thing the guru says, like and , and Marpa and , and so forth. I hope this answers your question. You should study the tantric commentaries from qualified lamas such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and, in the future, if you pray, you will also be able to receive direct tantric teachings. With much love and prayers... 

A Joint Biography of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche: 1935 to 1974

From the website of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, www.fpmt.org.

Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935 not far from Lhasa in the town of Tölung Dechen. Two hours away by horse was the Chi-me Lung Gompa, home for about 100 nuns of the Gelug tradition. It had been a few years since their learned abbess and guru had passed away when Nenung Pawo Rinpoche, a Kagyü lama widely famed for his psychic powers, came by their convent. They approached him and asked, "Where is our guru now?" He answered that in a nearby village there was a boy born at such and such a time, and if they investigated they would discover that he was their incarnated abbess. Following his advice they found the young Lama Yeshe to whom they brought many offerings and gave the name Thondrub Dorje. Afterwards the nuns would often take the young boy back to their convent to attend the various ceremonies and other religious functions held there. During these visits—which would sometimes last for days at a time—he often stayed in their shrine room and attended services with them. The nuns would also frequently visit him at his parents' home where he was taught the alphabet, grammar and reading by his uncle, Ngawang Norbu, a student geshe from . Even though the young boy loved his parents very much, he felt that their existence was full of suffering and did not want to live as they did. From a very early age he expressed

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 18 the desire to lead a religious life. Whenever a monk would visit their home, he would beg to leave with him and join a monastery. Finally, when he was six years old, he received his parents' permission to join Sera Je, a college at one of the three great Gelug monastic centers located in the vicinity of Lhasa. He was taken there by his uncle, who promised the young boy's mother that he would take good care of him. The nuns offered him robes and the other necessities of life he required at Sera, while the uncle supervised him strictly and made him study very hard. He stayed at Sera until he was twenty-five years old. There he received spiritual instruction based on the educational traditions brought from India to Tibet over a thousand years ago. From Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Junior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he received teachings on the Lam-rim graded course to enlightenment which outlines the entire sutra path to . In addition he received many tantric initiations and discourses from both the Junior Tutor and the Senior Tutor, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, as well as from Drag-ri Dorje-chang Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, Lhatzün Dorje-chang Rinpoche and many other great gurus and meditation masters. Such tantric teachings as Lama Yeshe received provide a powerful and speedy path to the attainment of a fully awakened and purified mind, aspects of which are represented by a wide variety of tantric deities. Some of the meditational deities into whose practice Lama Yeshe was initiated were Heruka, Vajrabhairava and Guhyasamaja, representing respectively the compassion, wisdom and skilful means of a fully enlightened being. In addition, he studied the famous six yogas of Naropa, following a commentary based on the personal experiences of . Among the other teachers who guided his spiritual development were Geshe Thubten Wangchug Rinpoche, Geshe Lhundrub Sopa Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten and Geshe Ngawang Gedun. At the age of eight he was ordained as a novice monk by the venerable Purchog Jampa Rinpoche. During all this training one of Lama Yeshe's recurring prayers was to be able some day to bring the peaceful benefits of spiritual practice to those beings ignorant of the dharma. This phase of his education came to an end in 1959. As Lama Yeshe himself has said, "In that year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world." Escaping through Bhutan, he eventually reached Northeast India where he met up with many other Tibetan refugees. At the Tibetan settlement camp of Buxaduar he continued his studies from where they had been interrupted. While in Tibet he had already received instruction in prajnaparamita (the perfection of wisdom), Madhyamika philosophy (the middle way) and logic. In India his education proceeded with courses in the vinaya rules of discipline and the abhidharma system of metaphysics. In addition, the great bodhisattva Tenzin Gyaltsen, the Kunu Lama, gave him teachings on Shantideva's Bodhischaryaavatara (Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life) and Atisha's Bodhipathapradipa (Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment). He also attended additional tantric initiations and discourses and, at the age of twenty eight, received full monk's ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. One of Lama Yeshe's gurus in both Tibet and Buxaduar was Geshe Rabten, a highly learned practitioner famous for his single-minded concentration and powers of logic. This compassionate guru had a disciple named Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and, at Geshe Rabten's suggestion, Zopa Rinpoche began to receive additional instruction from Lama

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 19 Yeshe. Zopa Rinpoche was a young boy at the time and the servant caring for him wanted very much to entrust him permanently to Lama Yeshe. Upon consultation with Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, this arrangement was decided upon and they have been together ever since. Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche was born in 1946 in the village of Thami in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal near Mount Everest. From the house where he was born he could look up the mountain side and see Lawudo, where the cave of the late Lawudo Lama was situated. While his predecessor had belonged to the Sakya tradition of , the Lawudo Lama himself had been a great master of the complete tantric teachings of the Nyingma tradition. For the last twenty years of his life he had lived in his cave, attended by his wife and two children, and had spent all his time either meditating or giving teachings and spiritual advice to the people of the Solo Khumbu and neighboring regions. His energy on behalf of all beings was inexhaustible and it is said that in his later years he passed completely beyond the need for sleep. From the time he was able to crawl, Zopa Rinpoche would spend most of his time trying to climb the steep path leading to the cave of this deceased lama. Time and again his family would have to retrieve him forcefully from the precarious route he was intent on traveling and make him return reluctantly to his home. Finally, when he was old enough to speak, he declared that the cave was his and that he was the incarnation of the Lawudo Lama. He further insisted that his only desire was to lead a life of meditation. When he was four or five years old, his claim to be an incarnate lama was subjected to public examination by Ngawang Samden, a Nyingma master meditator who lived nearby. When the young boy was repeatedly able to identify possessions belonging to the Lawudo Lama and pass other rigorous tests, he was formally declared to be the rightful incarnation and received the full investiture of the Nyingma tradition. Later he was to receive the tantric initiations of this tradition from the head lama of the Thami Gompa, known affectionately as Gaga (or Grandfather) Lama. Young Zopa Rinpoche began his education at Solo Khumbu in the traditional Tibetan manner, with the alphabet. One of the first books he read was the biography of Milarepa, the famous eleventh century poet and meditator. This work sparked in him a great desire to become like Milarepa and study under such a highly realized lama as Marpa, Milarepa's root guru. He also heard of the Mindrol Ling Monastery in Tibet, the famous centre preserving and transmitting all the Nyingma teachings and initiations, and wanted very much to go there to pursue his spiritual training. While still a young boy, Zopa Rinpoche was taken on his uncle's back for a pilgrimage to Tibet. When he arrived north of Sikkim at the Dung-kar Monastery of Domo Geshe Rinpoche, he startled his uncle by declaring that he had no intention of returning home with him. Rather, he wanted to stay at this monastery and devote his life to studying and practicing the dharma. The uncle was very upset because the young rinpoche was his responsibility, but when the commissioner of the area decided that the child's wishes should be honored, there was nothing left for him to do but return to Nepal empty- handed. The monks at Dung-kar had no reason to believe that this young boy from a remote region of Nepal was an incarnate lama, but upon consultation with their guardian dharma protector, his claim was confirmed. From that time onwards his diet was kept free of those foods considered unclean. His education would have continued at

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 20 Sera Je in Lhasa, but these plans were also interrupted in 1959. Eventually he found his way to Bwraduar where he first became the disciple of Geshe Rabten and then of Lama Yeshe as described above. Lama Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche's contact with Westerners began in 1965 while they were visiting the Ghoom Monastery in Darjeeling. One day a monk came to their room and said that a friend had come looking for them. It was an American woman, Zina Rachevsky, who had actually come in search of Demo Geshe Rinpoche, but because Zopa Rinpoche had been known as Demo Rinpoche ever since his stay at Dung-kar, she mistakenly believed him to be the lama she had in mind. From this unusual first meeting a strong friendship grew, and the lamas spent nearly a year teaching at her home before Zina had to leave Darjeeling for Ceylon. She then wrote many letters to His Holiness the Dalai Lama entreating him to permit the lamas to join her. When permission was granted she returned to India and the three of them visited the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. There Zina was ordained as a novice nun. In 1967 the two lamas and their newly ordained disciple left India, not for Ceylon as originally planned, but for Nepal. The three at first resided near the Boudhanath stupa several miles from Kathmandu. After a few years, however, they were able to purchase land at the top of a nearby hill called Kopan. There they founded the Nepal Mahayana Gompa Center in 1969. The main building was constructed in 1971-2, funded almost exclusively by the lamas' increasing number of Western disciples. When the first meditation course was given there in 1971, it was attended by about twenty students. By the time of the seventh course, held in the autumn of 1974, interest was so great that attendance had to be restricted to 200 meditators, the limit of the local facilities. In December of 1973 Kopan became the home of the International Mahayana Institute, an organization composed of Western monks and nuns. This fledgling sangha, which at present numbers nearly thirty disciples, follows a schedule of work, study and meditational retreat designed to help them fully devote their lives to the dharma. They also publish teachings and translations prepared by the lamas and organize group and individual retreat facilities for interested meditators from all religious denominations . Kopan is not the only site where the lamas have tried to provide a conducive atmosphere for actualizing the dharma. In 1972 they purchased land in Dharamsala, the North Indian hill station that for many years has been the headquarters of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and since 1971 the site of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. In a house formerly belonging to Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, they established Tushita Retreat Center. Here many serious students from the Kopan meditation courses, the Dharamsala Library classes and other centers have come to use the ever-expanding retreat facilities to advance their spiritual practice. Nor are Westerners the only ones who have benefited from the lamas' compassion, concern and energy. Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche's predecessor had been requested by the Tibetan and Sherpa people of Solo Khumbu to build a monastery near the site of his meditation cave. He declined, excusing himself because of old age, but promised to establish such a monastery for these people in his next life. When Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche returned to Nepal in 1967 he decided to honor this commitment made by the previous Lawudo Lama.

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 21 At that time he was advised by the late lama Lozang Tsültrim, the abbot of a nearby monastery, "not to have a small mind, but build the new monastery as large as possible." Donations by interested Westerners and the Tibetan and Sherpa people of the area enabled work to begin on this project in 1971. In the following year the Mount Everest Center for Buddhist Studies at Lawudo was opened for residence. Attending this center are the incarnations of several great lamas such as Lama Yeshe's guru, Geshe Ngawang Gedun of Sera. And soon the young incarnation of Lama Lozang Tsültrim himself will attend. At present there are fifty children receiving a closely supervised monastic education that includes not only traditional Buddhist studies, but classes in Nepali, English, Tibetan, mathematics and art as well. These monks are mostly Sherpas aged five to nineteen. It is hoped that eventually the Mount Everest Center will be able to accommodate 200 students and provide for both their spiritual and physical well-being. In establishing the Kopan Gompa near Kathmandu, the Tushita Retreat Center in Dharamsala and the Mount Everest Center at Lawudo, the lamas have been very interested in providing students with an interconnected system of facilities to assist their spiritual practice. Thus when a group of disciples from Australia and Mr. C. T. Shen of the New York-based Institute for the Advanced Study of World Religions invited the lamas to their countries in 1974, this was seen as a perfect opportunity to explore what more could be done to help spiritual seekers. 

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 22 Meditation: Why we need a spiritual guide by Ven. Constance Miller This meditation focuses on the points we went over in this session regarding the importance and great benefits of having a spiritual teacher. Through opening our awareness to our need for teachers and by making heartfelt requests to them (even if we haven’t recognized them yet), we plant powerful seeds in our minds to be guided by them in profound ways. The lessons very rarely come in the form that we would imagine they should, and often it is only in hindsight that we recognize, Oh, that must have been my teacher! So until we next meet, try to do this meditation a few times in order to become accustomed to the topic and start to develop enthusiasm and joy in the possibility of finding a spiritual teacher in this life and confidence in the spiritual teacher you may – or may not! – have already discovered.

Preparation: Start by taking just a minute or two to focus on your physical body, finding the most beneficial position with your spine straight and erect, a position in which you can be aware and awake, but not stiff or rigid. Become present in the moment and place where you are. Continue with a 5-minute breathing meditation. Focus the attention on the sensation of the breath flowing in and out at the opening of the nostrils. Let all thoughts go, like clouds in the sky. If distractions arise, be aware of them without getting involved and without judgment, then gently bring the attention back to the breath until your mind is peaceful and clear.

Motivation: Create an altruistic motivation for the meditation session. Without a spiritual guide, there is no way at all to escape from the ocean of cyclic existence and thus to reach full enlightenment. A spiritual guide is the foundation of all the paths to liberation from samsara and enlightenment; it is essential to achieving these states. So think that you are meditating not just for your own well-being or peace of mind or good reputation, but you are taking the time now to meditate and accumulate vast stores of merit to be able to find a qualified spiritual guide in order to reach the state of enlightenment where you can most skillfully benefit all beings.

The main body of the meditation: Contemplate the reasons why we need a spiritual guide.

Step one: First, think of examples of how we need a teacher to learn almost everything in life, from the time we are born until we die. Use your own examples from your own life. Become convinced that teachers have been and will continue to be extremely important to us in order to learn new things in life. (Pause and contemplate.)

Discovering Buddhism 4 – The Spiritual Teacher, Reading 2 23 Step two: Now, think about the significant teachers that you have had in your life. Think of the kindness they showed you and the benefits you gained from their efforts and good qualities. Generate a strong sense of appreciation and gratitude toward them for the kindness they have shown you. (Pause and contemplate.)

Step three: Now, think about the great importance of having a spiritual teacher to teach us what to practice and what to avoid, to lead us on the Dharma path, to lead us out of samsara, and to bring us to full enlightenment. We are entering territory where we have never been before, and we definitely need a guide along the way. We need to rely on a guide who has experience, who has already gone before us along the Dharma path, who knows more than we do. Become strongly convinced of the importance of a spiritual teacher, a highly qualified and admirable spiritual teacher, in your Dharma life. (Pause and contemplate.)

Step four: Contemplate the kind of spiritual teacher that you desire to find. Think specifically about the ten general qualities of a Mahayana spiritual guide (see Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Wisdom Publs., p. 272).

Step five: Generate in your heart and mind an enthusiastic aspiration to find a qualified spiritual guide through opening your heart and through thorough scrutiny and checking. Feel the confidence and joy of finding such a precious spiritual friend to accompany and guide you on your spiritual path. (Pause and contemplate strongly. When you generate those strong feelings of joy and confidence, then stop your analytical reflective meditation and let your mind rest single-pointedly without distraction within that state. Concentrate for as long as you can.)

Dedication: Because of our merits, may I and all sentient beings find a perfectly qualified spiritual guide, and in all our future lives, may we never be separated from our spiritual guide nor from the pure Dharma teachings. May all our precious teachers have long and healthy lives and may all their compassionate projects for sentient beings succeed perfectly without any obstacles. 

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