Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the monks from Kopan Monastery doing Lama Chopa on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On last year’s Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a teaching on the true meaning of the guru at Kopan Monastery, while seated in front of the large statue of Lama Tsongkhapa in Kopan’s main gompa. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of that teaching:
I mentioned one quotation: “Even if you have complete qualities, without a guru you cannot be liberated from samsara.”
For example, you can say by heart more than a hundred volumes of the Buddha’s teachings, called the Kangyur, then more than two hundred volumes by Nagarjuna, Asanga, and all the great yogis and pandits from India—their commentaries are more than two hundred volumes—so you know all this by heart and you can explain it, but if you don’t have a guru, you cannot be free, you cannot be liberated from samsara, the oceans of suffering of samsara. You cannot be free. Do you understand?
Then it says, “Without an oarsman, the boat alone cannot cross over the water. Without the guru, there is no name, even the name ‘buddha’ doesn’t exist before the guru. Before the guru there is not even the name of buddha.” So numberless past buddhas, numberless present buddhas, numberless future buddhas, all came from the guru. That is the understanding, the realization, that we, including myself, need.
The mind has a gross mind, a subtle mind, and an extremely subtle mind. The body has a gross body, a subtle body, and an extremely subtle body. Why all sentient beings can become enlightened is because the nature of the mind has no mistakes. The mind is temporarily obscured, like the weather, the sky covered by clouds. The sky is not oneness with the clouds; it is temporarily obscured by the clouds. The mind is temporarily veiled. The nature of the mind is not oneness with the mistake. The nature is pure. That is why sentient beings can become enlightened; what it says in the philosophy is all sentient beings can become enlightened.
So here I’m talking about subtle consciousness, not only is it in nature pure, not only that, but even the primordial mind—this is highest tantra subject actually, normally you don’t hear about this except when you are studying highest tantra—but I think for you, to practice the most important subject for you, to really know what the guru is, you have to know that. That which is totally pure, having ceased, not only its nature is pure, but also free from temporary obscurations, so now [it is] bound with infinite compassion embracing us sentient beings.
This is what is mentioned in Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s Calling the Guru from Afar, the real thing, what is guru. At the beginning it says three times LA MA KHYEN, LA MA KHYEN, LA MA KHYEN, which means “may the guru understand.” It doesn’t mean that the guru doesn’t understand, doesn’t see, is totally blocked, totally dark. It doesn’t mean that. But that you have a very serious matter, that you have been suffering from beginningless rebirths, most serious, so you want to express that. Even the guru understands, but you want to express it. It is kind of emphasizing it.
SANG GYÄ KÜN GYI YE SHE DE CHHEN CHHÖ KUR RO CHIG The wisdom of all buddhas, one taste with the great bliss dharmakaya,
DE NYI DRIN CHÄN LA MA KÜN GYI RANG ZHIN THAR THUG Is itself the ultimate nature of all kind gurus.
LA MA CHHÖ KYI KU LA NYING NÄ SÖL WA DEB SO I beseech you, Guru, dharmakaya,
DI CHHI BAR DO KÜN TU DRÄL ME JE SU ZUNG SHIG Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.
That is an incredible, unbelievably important subject. It takes time to understand and to feel. SANG GYÄ KÜN GYI YE SHE, “all the buddhas’,” YE SHE, “transcendental wisdom,” DE CHHEN CHHÖ KUR RO CHIG, “one taste in dharmakaya, dharmakaya the great bliss.” It says it is “one taste in the dharmakaya, the great bliss.”
[DE NYI DRIN CHÄN LA MA,] “That is the kind guru.” That is all the transcendental wisdom, the transcendental wisdom of all the buddhas is one taste in dharmakaya, dharmakaya, great bliss. That one is the kind guru. [KÜN GYI RANG ZHINTHAR THUG,] “That is the nature of all” means all the buddhas. LA MA CHHÖ KYI KU LA NYING NÄ SÖL WA DEB SO, “To you, the guru, dharmakaya, from my heart I make requests.”
Then the request is: DI CHHI BAR DO KÜN TU DRÄL ME JE SU ZUNG SHIG, “In this life, intermediate state, bardo, this life, next life, intermediate state, all the time.” “All the time” means every second, all the time. Then “without separation” means the guru and yourself without separation. “Please guide” means bring yourself to that same state, the dharmakaya. That is the meaning of “guide.”
We have the same prayer in Lama Chopa, “You are the guru, you are the deity, dakini, Dharma protector …”; that request is the same. Even if you are going to die today, or even if you have one hour to die, one minute, a few seconds, this is what you request to the guru. It is like that. That is the most important. …
Watch the teaching “The True Meaning of the Guru and How to Find and Follow Him Part 1”: https://youtu.be/AUmsvrAwfdo
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Watch the teaching “The True Meaning of the Guru and How to Find and Follow Him Part 2″: https://youtu.be/_DFpJdKXN1U
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery, December 12, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, November 2018.
