“Kind and precious root lama who knows me.” The Guru is kind and precious because due to His kindness we’re able to receive teachings and to be taken to the correct path. “Knowing”. The Guru has to know you, because that’s the Guru and you’re His student. Still, this is not only about knowing about student, but also knowing you’re in a dangerous situation.
Everyone knows that a teacher, any kind of teacher, has to have good qualities and be well-learned, otherwise [he] cannot teach the students. It’s the same in the Dharma.
When Like Jigme practiced Guru Yoga, he visualized Longchenpa as the Buddha. There was no impure thought towards Guru. For the Dharma practitioners, specifically Vajrayana practitioners, the Guru is very important.
We need to understand the Guru is inseparable from all the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas and all the mandala. The Guru is the main deity in the center of all the mandalas.
The idea to practice Guru Yoga is to receive the blessing from Guru, which means one becomes inseparable from Guru. One doesn’t have to have too many thoughts but only faith, only mindfulness, only visualization of Guru.
These teachers that I just mentioned are not ordinary teachers but they were really important teachers, very important teachers in this century.
I mentioned earlier that [Guru is] someone who is able to point at one’s nature; someone, who is able to show you the path to the nature of the mind. And therefore, it is a very important person in one’s life, because for a Dharma practitioner, most important is to realize one’s own nature; and that has to go through teacher’s instructions and guru’s blessing.
I actually explained earlier. One student may have many teachers but “Root” means the main teacher. Then come to “Yoga”. “Yoga” is like a union in fundamental reality. “Yoga” is the realization of that happy state. For a dharma practitioner, the main reason to go for dharma practice is to have that realization, the genuine realization. And that has to rely on the meditation. What kind of meditation?
A good dharma teacher means very knowledgeable, good conduct and good experienced. Those three qualities make one a very good Dharma teacher.
Diligence is the third one. Because when one doesn’t put any efforts, then one still doesn’t get anywhere, even one have knowledge.
