Devotion To Guru Rinpoche – Key To Siddhis*

4.8.2019, Dawu, Golok

To be able to remove obstacles it’s important to pray, to think of, and to practice Guru Rinpoche, to recite Guru Rinpoche mantra. When one receives blessing from Guru Rinpoche, one can practice without obstacles, one can move on the path without any difficulties.

The essence of Guru Rinpoche is the same as the essence of Buddha Shakyamuni. In Sutrayana there’s Buddha Shakyamuni. In Tantrayana there’s [Buddha] Padmasambhava. But in fact they’re the same. Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, is from the Lotus Family. I’d like to say Amitabha, Green Tara, Avaloskitesvara are also from the same family, Lotus Family. So we can say that Guru Rinpoche is the embodiment of the Buddhas in the 10 directions and three times. Therefore, actually it is enough for one person to just practice Guru Rinpoche.

But since we have different karmic connections with different deities, and we have different faiths in different deities, and we have different desires for different things, so we need many different deities. We need all of these: Guru, Yidam, Dakini, and Protectors. But sometimes having too many practices can cause problems, because we can’t focus on [one] thing. When we try to do too many things, try to accomplish too many things, then we lose power, and we’ll probably achieve results smaller. In the tradition of India, one person one Deity, one person one path. In Tibet, one person many Deities, one person many paths. Therefore, the Indian masters are making fun of Tibetan practitioners: because they have too many Deities, so they cannot have confidence in one Deity. Sometimes that causes problems. So if you have faith to just practice Guru Rinpoche, that’s enough.

This afternoon, I mentioned the importance of faith, believing or confidence, in the Dharma, the practice, in the Guru, or in the Three Jewels. That is the key to any Dharma practice. Whether you receive any blessing, any power from Guru, or Yidam, or Dakini, or Protector depends on samaya, the pure samaya between you and that Deity. Always samaya is the key to siddhis. Whether you accomplish a siddhi or not depends on how you keep your samaya. If you cannot keep the samaya correctly, you’ll never receive anything. If you can keep the samaya pure and unbroken, that is enough to accomplish great results from your practicing.

What is the meaning of samaya? Samaya is to listen. If you listen to what your Guru says that is enough. That means someone is trying to keep samaya in pure way. But if you does something and your Teacher says something else, that is not keeping samaya. So to follow the orders, the instructions exactly, what you was given, is to keep the samaya. Sometimes it is difficult. Sometimes Guru or the instructions teach you to have very pure perception for all phenomena. Do not have negative thoughts for any phenomena. This is very difficult. And one of the essences of samaya is related to Longchen Nyingthig Dzogpa Chenpo. It is not to get distracted by emotional thoughts. To remain in the non-dualistic state, to remain in that kind of state without any distractions, without any thoughts. It’s very difficult. We are not able to do that.

Varjayana requests people to remain in that state. To remain in the state is difficult for us because there’s no way not to have thoughts. Always thoughts. If there’s no thoughts we are lost somewhere. Therefore, we have to understand that we are not able to give keep samaya according to the instructions all the time. We break samaya very easily therefore we are making mistakes every day. Therefore, we need to confess every day at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day and in the middle of the day. With mindfulness you are able to aware whenever you make mistakes and so you confess whenever you aware of anything. But most of the time we are not aware of [our] mistakes. So at least before you go to sleep you have to think of what you did [during the day]. If you remember any mistake you made, confess. If you don’t remember it is still there. You don’t remember doesn’t mean you did not do any wrong things. Therefore, before going to sleep, you must do some things like [reciting] Om Benza Satto Hung, or Hundred-Syllable. Such confessions are very important. That’s the way to keep one’s samaya in pure way.

Varjayana teaches people to have pure perception toward all phenomena, all sentient beings, because we see everything in the ordinary way. We see people in ordinary way. We see phenomenon are sufferings. We don’t see anything in pure perception. We only see [things] in the way we normally see, which means our view is actually formation of ignorance. Due to ignorance, all appearances are polluted [for us]. We always think: “This is bad. He’s bad. She is bad. Bad conduct. Bad person …” We only say these things. But if we have pure perception toward all phenomena then we do not say that. [As for] Buddha Shakyamuni, for example, I think in His perception everything is very pure. He said there’s no samsara and there’s no nirvana, [and both are] equally pure, which means there’s no ordinary people and there’s no such deities, but everything is equally empty, pure.

Everything is pure. For us to see things through a pure perceptions is almost impossible. But this doesn’t mean such thing doesn’t exist. Therefore, practicing Varjayana means one tries to develop pure view. One must try [to do] this, otherwise, we are always in samsara, in suffering; there’re no good things, only bad things. So, practicing Varjayana means to see everything is pure. But we don’t believe they are pure. That [thinking] is not true. The truth is that there is purity in all phenomena, but since mind is polluted by ignorance and we are not able see everything is pure. Now you have to understand: “Oh my view is wrong, my perception is polluted. Because of that I have to purify my negative thoughts.” If you understand that, if you try to practice in that way then only that way you can make some improvements.

But if you believe whatever you see, whatever to hear is real, truly-established, you’ll never get anywhere; in fact, you develop grasping at all phenomena. Therefore, you need to purify yourself: body, speech and mind [and] especially the negativities in the mind, impurity of the mind. That is [you are] really someone who is doing actual practice. If someone is not doing that, someone is doing the opposite of that, that’s not a Dharma practitioner.

It is important to pray to Guru Rinpoche for your practice, the improvements in the practice, to remove all the obstacles. [If] you believe in Guru Rinpoche’s power, whatever you do you will succeed. It’s good idea to pray for Guru Rinpoche. For the people who do business when you meet some obstacles in the business, for example, you can pray to Guru Rinpoche. You can have some prayers to be done [for you] in the monastery, or some monks in the sangha to do some pujas for your business. There’s so much power [in the rituals]. We have some experiences [relevant to this]. We do this for people and a lot of people said they get big benefit from that. Or [they say:] “Because of that I was able to do that,” and “Because of that my business is OK now.”

There are people, when they get sick, they go around to many hospitals and see many doctors, but they get no improvements for health. But when you pray to Guru Rinpoche, to purify, you get some results and you get healed through that way. All of these benefits are actually alive, they are true. They are real. So practicing, praying to Guru Rinpoche and other deities may be very helpful for your life. Sometimes some problems happen you only believe in doctors. When you get sick and [think] only doctors can solve the problems, nobody can solve. This is not very true in many cases. As I said earlier, many people return back from hospitals and then they come to the monastery. [They] do some circumambulations around stupa, and do many prostrations to the stupa, and then they get cured. That is common, that is true, that is happening. That’s not a lie.

Guru Rinpoche is an important deity, very important person in Tibet, to Varjayana practitioners generally and especially to those who have faith in Guru Rinpoche. There are strong karmic connections with Guru Rinpoche, [for] Tibetan people and Varjayana practitioners in general. But if people do not have common knowledge they cannot understand how important Guru Rinpoche is to Varjayana and Varjayana practitioners. Sometimes people do not have enough faith and devotion in [Guru] Rinpoche and do not see the importance of praying to Guru Rinpoche. That’s something I think a big mistake.

In fact, according to history, according to Buddha’s teachings, Varjayana system was established by Guru Rinpoche. Guru Rinpoche was a Teacher of Varjayana, and Teacher of all Varjayana practitioners. Same situation in Tibet. Many Tibetan people who do not understand this so they do not believe in Him. They do not pray to Him. In fact they sometimes criticize Guru Rinpoche. They do not accept some of His conducts and some of His activities. Therefore, such problems cause difficulties around Tibet, because they do not have a wisdom to solve problems. Due to their negative thoughts, due to their attachment to their own tradition, they do not see the value the other traditions. They do not care to respect other traditions due to their mental distraction.

Still, I believe, [there are] a lot of people [who do] believe [in Him]. And also there’re many masters of great wisdom already talked about this situation. Therefore, you can believe that it is important to pray to Guru Rinpoche and recite mantra of Guru Rinpoche. That is some advice for you. I didn’t aim to keep you so long. Maybe I did it. Sorry (Rinpoche laughs). It is important for you to think of Guru Rinpoche, and important for you to practice Guru Rinpoche. It is very beneficial for you to go on without obstacles.

The end of talk

__________________

^* The title is created by the rewriter-translator for the reader’s convenience.