GURU
DEVOTION
-
Practising Guru Devotion With The Nine Attitudes
By
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
(November
& December 2000 Newsletter)
"I
am requesting the kind lord root guru,
Who is more extraordinary than all the buddhas -
Please bless me to be able to devote myself to the qualified lord guru
With great respect, in all my future lifetimes."
"By
realising that the root of happiness and goodness
Is correctly devoting myself to the kind lord guru,
Who is the foundation of all good qualities,
I shall devote myself to him with great respect,
Not forsaking him even at the cost of my life."
Thinking
of the importance of the qualified guru,
Allow yourself to enter under his control.
| 1. | Be
like an obedient son - Act exactly in accordance with the guru's advice. |
| 2. | Even
when maras, evil friends and the like Try to split you from the guru, Be like a vajra - Inseparable forever. |
| 3. | Whenever
the guru gives you work, No matter how heavy the burden, Be like the earth - Bear it all. |
| 4. | Whatever
suffering occurs (hardship or problems) When devoting yourself to the guru, Be like a mountain - Immovable (your mind should not be upset or discouraged). |
| 5. | Even
if you are given all the difficult tasks, Be like a servant of the king - Perform them with an undisturbed mind. |
| 6. | Abandon
pride. Be like a sweeper - Hold yourself lower than the guru. |
| 7. | No
matter how difficult or heavy the burden, Be like a rope - Hold the guru's work with joy. |
| 8. | Even
when the guru criticises, provokes or ignores you, Be like a faithful dog - Never respond with anger. |
| 9. | Be
like a boat - Never be upset to come or go for the guru At any time. |
"O
glorious and precious root guru,
Please bless me to be able to practise in this way.
From now on, in all my future lifetimes,
May I be able to devote myself to the guru like this."
If you recite these words aloud and reflect on their meaning in your mind, you will have the good fortune of being able to devote yourself correctly to the precious guru from life to life, in all your future lifetimes.
If you offer service and respect and make offerings to the precious guru with these nine attitudes in mind, even if you do not practice intentionally, you will develop many good qualities, collect extensive merit and quickly achieve full enlightenment.
The
Importance Of Seeing Your Guru As Buddha
As a disciple, one must regard one's guru as an enlightened being.
Even if the guru does not regard himself as an enlightened being and claims
that you, as his disciple, gain buddhahood before him, you must still
show respect and pay homage to your guru. For instance, the fifth Buddha
- Maitreya, who now presides over Tushita pureland, enlightened before
his teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha. To show respect for his guru, Maitreya
has a stupa on his forehead. In the same way, Chenrezig, the embodiment
of compassion of all the Buddhas, in his eleven-headed aspect, has on
his crown his teacher Amitabha Buddha, the one who presides over Western
pureland. So learning from a guru or spiritual teacher should not be the
same as killing a deer, extracting its musk and then discarding its body.
Even after attaining enlightenment, one must continue to honour one's
guru for without him realisation is simply impossible.
The
ability to see your guru as identical to Buddha depends on your motivation
of developing bodhicitta - the pure wish to become Buddha yourself in
order to be able to benefit other sentient beings. If your mind is strongly
motivated in this way and always thinks of enlightenment and the means
of achieving it, you will naturally see your guru in the same state because
nothing else will be in your mind. The more you wish to attain buddhahood,
the clearer you see the need for your guru as Buddha. We need to train
ourselves to see our guru as Buddha; otherwise, even if your guru is Buddha,
you will not see him as Buddha. For example, all the compositional phenomena
are impermanent, but you do not see them as impermanent, it is then difficult
to meditate on impermanence to realise things as impermanent. In the same
way, all the things we see are empty of inherent existent, but we do not
see it that way, then we need to put tremendous effort to meditate in
order to gain realisation of emptiness. So the faults are within us, not
out there.
Source:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (2000). Teachings
from the Vajrasattva Retreat. Lama
Yeshe Wisdom Archive: USA.
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