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Guru / Guru Yoga

• When you are able to see the sufferings and miseries in samsara, then you will be able to appreciate the need for a guru – an enlightened being who can guide you out of your delusions.
• As much longing we have to liberate from suffering, that much longing we will have for teacher.
• If you have love and compassion, you are with the Lama. “La” refers to mindfulness of all sentient beings. “Ma” refers to mother.

• Think about what you have seen, heard, felt about your teacher. This is the essence of body, speech, mind, qualities, activities of all the buddhas.

• Devotion includes three things: a) Love for teacher, b) Trust that he can liberate, and c) Fear, because we cannot hide anything. Lama is majesty.

1) Guru is buddha.

• Buddha said he would appear in the form of teacher. Buddha is teacher. If buddha is not the teacher, there is no one else who is working for us.
• Have the same devotion to all teachers.
• It is not as if Buddha came, gave teachings, and he left. He never left.
• Guru’s mind is buddha. From guru’s point of view, guru and student are not two.
• Have faith buddha is guiding you.
• See guru as buddha, then blessings will flow.

2) Everything Guru does is buddha activity.

• Do what the lama says.
• Sometimes guru is difficult to please. Don’t resent skillful actions.
• Respect, honor, serve a teacher for bodhisattva training.
• By allowing us to perform small task, guru is giving us opportunity to gain merit.
• Responsibility for project is blessing from guru. It is like teacher giving you clay. You can make anything out of it.
• Have faith guru is liberated. Guru’s mind is turned away from samsara. His only concern is to show us the path.

• Scolding from guru is like a wrathful mantra to purify hindrances.
• Work for the teacher. It is impossible to repay the kindness of being shown the complete path of enlightenment.

3) For us, guru is even kinder than the buddha.

• All buddhas are equal in their qualities. But in terms of kindness, guru is more kind. We have been wandering in samsara lifetime after lifetime. Guru teaches us how to liberate from many aeons of negative karma, many inconceivable aeons of suffering in the lower realms. He guides us to rebirth in the upper realms. He teaches us how to liberate forever. This kindness is inconceivable.
• The benefit that parents, educators, country gives us are many, but these are limited. The compassion guru has for us is profound. Remember guru because of this compassion.
• Understand the value of what teacher is giving you to appreciate his kindness. Through guru we learn how to renounce samsara. Through guru we learn how to obtain happiness and avoid suffering. He teaches us how to increase merit every moment by giving us precepts. He gives us seed of bodhicitta. He shows how to make our actions a cause of enlightenment by thinking about the needs of others. He gives us pointing out instructions. Guru is one advantage that contains all.
• Guru gives us pith instructions. Guru gives us empowerments.
• Without guru, we would not even hear of all the buddhas that have come and gone.
• Guru is doing the work of the buddha. Guru shows us what to do and what not to do.
• We receive blessings. What does this mean? Mind changing to dharma is a blessing. We purify negative karma is a blessing. We develop love and compassion is a blessing. We overcome concerns of this life, that is a blessing. We sense danger of negative emotions, urgency to purify, that is a blessing. Teaching on impermanence is a blessing. Compassion is the greatest blessing.
• How does guru protect us? Through our faith and devotion, we practice the teachings. We maintain awareness.
• Through guru we see our faults.
• Guru is the source of practice.
• Guru leaves imprints for us to practice. Blessing is realization from that practice.

• Guru came in degenerate age. He took us as disciple. Remember this kindness again and again.

• Whoever helps you generate bodhicitta is a guru.
• When we were little, parents gave us medicine when we were sick. Guru gives us dharma for the same reason. It is an expression of love.

• Countless buddhas have come who we did not have the karma to meet and receive teachings from. If we received teachings, they did not succeed in bringing us to liberation. Now we have met the guru. It is rare to meet a teacher.
• Teacher gives us pith instructions. Our life is too short in this degenerate age to learn all the teachings of the buddha.
• Our ability to benefit others is due to kindness of the teacher.
• Do practice diligently to please the teacher.

4) Guru is the embodiment of all refuges.

• Guru represents all the buddhas of the past, embodies all the buddhas of the present, source of all the buddhas of the future.
• Giving to guru is the same as making offerings to all the buddhas. When we offer to the guru, all enlightened beings receive.
• See that guru has qualities of the Three Roots. Devotion is the key to receiving blessings.
• Yidam is guru’s manifestation. Like Naropa manifested Hevajra to Marpa.

• Teacher is essence of all the buddhas of the three times - union of the Three Jewels, Three Roots, and Three Kayas.
• Teacher’s body is sangha, speech is dharma, mind is buddha.
• Teacher’s body is lama, speech is yidam, mind is dakini.
• Teacher’s body is nirmanakaya, speech is sambhogakaya, mind is dharmakaya.

5) If we pray to Guru, we can become realized without depending on any other factors.

• By the power of devotion some tears come in the eyes. Devotion here means confidence in the guru.
• When guru dissolves into light and dissolves into you, we are receiving an empowerment. This purifies our obscurations. In this state we receive the guru’s realization of mahamudra. Meditate in this state.
• Have conviction that your mind and guru’s mind become one.
• Guru Yoga is training to receive blessings. We cannot see the Three Jewels and deities in person so we cannot receive blessings directly. But guru in ordinary form is combined shrine of all the Three Jewels and Three Roots. His five aggregates are the Five Buddhas. His five elements are the Five Taras. His sense organs are the Eight Bodhisattvas. His sense faculties are the Eight Goddesses. His joints are Wrathful Deities. Guru is like a lens that focus the blessings of enlightened beings. We receive merit and wisdom.

• Devotion prepares the mind for realizations such as sudden strong thoughts of impermanence, love and compassion. These feelings can become so powerful, one sincerely, unbearably, wants to be reborn in hell, immediately, to benefit sentient beings. Unexpectedly, some experience of emptiness arises.

• External guru is teacher. Internal guru is awareness. They are inseparable when we realize the nature of mind.
• Awareness of what to do and what not to do, this is our internal guru.
• In the beginning one relies on external teacher. In the middle one relies on scriptures and gains experiences. In the end one relies on nature of mind.
• We invoke the masters to be with us by calling their holy names.
• Distance does not matter.
• Guru has the syllables Om, Ah, Hum. This represents all the Buddha’s qualities of body, speech, and mind are contained within.
• The task is to transform our five aggregates into Five Buddhas. Guru has already done this.
• We have Buddha Nature. When guru introduces us to True Nature, all ordinary emotions cease. We become Buddha.
• If you feel lonely, at that moment think of guru on the crown and merge the mind.