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    Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book

    Lam-rim Topics: Guru Devotion

    By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpocheat various locations (Last Updated Sep 2, 2008)

    Advice on Guru Devotion

    The Qualities of the Guru

    The Benefits of Guru Devotion

    The Guru/Disciple Relationship

    Offering Service to the Guru

    Obstacles to Guru Devotion

    Guru Devotion Meditation

    Confession to the Guru

    The Power of Faith [posted Oct 2012

    A student advised that after leaving a Dharma center he had studied Western philosophy for 10 years. He

    was critical of Buddhist teachings and practice during this time, however, his faith in Buddhism was

    unwavering. He had recently returned to the study of Buddhadharma, and wrote to Rinpoche to request

    blessings and advice.

    The Qualities of the Guru My dear Patrick,

    Thank you very much for your kind, sweet letter, telling me about yourself and how it has been for you. Asyou know, our permanent residence has been the lower realms, and we have received this upper realm

    rebirth just about one time, and especially rebirth as a human. This perfect human rebirth is even more

    special. We are so, so fortunate; unbelievably, unbelievably fortunate.

    Not only that, we have met the Buddhadharma, and not only that, we have also met Lama Tsongkhapas

    teachings. That is so fortunate. Wow, wow, wow! Anybody who reads, listens to or is able to talk about Lama

    Tsongkhapas teachings, is so unbelievably fortunate.

    Read the entire advice here

    Advice for Students of Geshe Jampa Gyatso [posted Sept 2010]

    Rinpoche sent the following letter to students of Geshe Jampa Gyatso, the resident teacher at Istituto Lama

    Tzong Khapain Italy, from 1980 until he passed away in November 2007.

    To all my dear students, those devoted to Geshe-la and those who he nurtured in the Dharma,

    I understand your feelings upon the sudden great loss of Geshe-la, not just for the students in Italy but for the

    FPMT organization as a whole.

    As I mention in the quick return prayer, Geshe-la was like the father and mother who babies, every day and

    even every second, totally rely upon for everything; to whom children express their difficulties and receive

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    help. Not only that, but Geshe-la was especially the virtuous friend upon whom you totally relied and who you

    trusted for guidance on the journey to enlightenment, the path that transforms a totally meaningless life into

    one of the highest meaning.

    So, dont worry or feel bad. What you should realize is how fortunate you have been; what a miracle it was to

    have come under Geshe-las care, the care of such a perfect teachernot a perfect school teacher but a

    perfect teacher and guide on the path to liberation and enlightenment.

    Therefore, simply crying and abiding in sorrow doesnt at all help fulfill Geshe-las purpose. What you need todo is something that would please Geshe-la. Doing what would please Geshe-la and what he would wish for

    you is the most important thing you can do.

    The basis of attainment is protecting the samaya vows, so protect them as much as possible and on that

    basis continuously study Dharma to the best of your ability. The essential meaning of studying Dharma is

    practicing the lam-rim, which integrates all the extensive philosophy subjects. If you dont develop your mind

    in the stages of the path, youll get lost in the vast field of philosophy. Problems will arise, but despite your

    extensive knowledge you wont know how to put your studies into practice or integrate them with your life;

    you wont know how to actualize the teachings in your heart, step by step, while continually purifying the

    obstacles of negative karmic obscurations, collecting extensive merit, and making requests to the guru with

    single-pointed devotion.

    The external example of this process is a seed. Seeds are the essential element, but they need to be

    nurtured by soil, water, sunlight, air, and so forth. Then they grow, step by step: first the stem emerges, then

    slowly come the leaves, branches, flowers, and fruit. Similarly, your studies need to be nurtured by your living

    in guru devotion and bodhicitta; do everything you do with guru devotion and bodhicitta.

    One thing to discover and realize is that Geshe-las passing away is a great teaching for us, especially his

    students. For example, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed the entire path to enlightenment in an

    all-encompassing way, giving teachings on both the profound and extensive paths, liberating numberless

    beings from the ocean of samsaric suffering, and fully enlightening them. But at the end, as a conclusion, heshowed the holy deed of passing away into the sorrowless state in order to emphasize the teachings of

    impermanence to us sentient beings.

    Thus, Guru Shakyamuni Buddhas passing taught us that if we dont think about impermanence and death all

    the time, well fall under the control of concepts of permanence and think, Im going to live for long time.

    This will allow the eight worldly concerns to constantly arise, preventing our practice of Dharma or at least

    postponing it. So, even if we can recite by heart the entire Kangyur and Tengyur and all the Tibetan lamas

    commentaries on the sutras and tantras, realizations wont arise in our mental continuum.

    Geshe-las passing away gives us the same message.

    In the Sutra of Golden Lightthe Buddha gave another reason for showing the holy deed of passing away into

    the sorrowless state. He explained that if he didnt show impermanence by passing away, people would think

    that he was always there and wouldnt get the feeling of how rare and precious he and his teachings are.

    They would take the Buddha and his teachings for granted, wouldnt practice, and then their samsaric

    suffering would be endless; even though they didnt want to suffer at all, they would have to experience

    suffering without end.

    If, for example, a cook were to serve pizza every day, morning, noon, and nightpizza for breakfast, pizza

    for lunch, pizza for dinneryou wouldnt appreciate pizza. In fact, youd get so sick of it that youd throw it out

    the window before the table could be cleared. If, however, a cook makes pizza only occasionally, you getvery excited when its served and are delighted to eat it: Wow! Pizza! We dont get this very often.

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    Geshe-las passing teaches us the same thing, that his teachings are rare and precious and so is the teacher

    who reveals them.

    Therefore, take this opportunity to practice Dharmanot only basic Hinayana but especially Mahayana

    Paramitayana and Vajrayana. This is the most important thing in life.

    So, this is my message to you all. According to my Mickey Mouse divination, it seems that Geshe-las

    incarnation might come quickly. You can understand this, because there is a very strong bond between

    Geshe-la and his students, especially those in Italy.

    The Masters Program will, of course, carry on. Geshe-la put too much of his life into Istituto Lama Tzong

    Khapa and its many branchesvisiting them again and again to give teachingsfor it not to.

    Therefore, please continue with the activities of the center, making the most of the great opportunity you have

    to give peace and happiness to other sentient beings by educating them in what true suffering and true

    happiness and their causes really are. Because the big mistake they make is to think, even intellectually, that

    the wrong causes of suffering and happiness are actually the right ones.

    So, liberate and enlighten suffering sentient beings. One can spout a billion words, but this is the essence.

    Thank you very much.

    Lama Zopa Rinpoche

    PS: If theres a need, somebody could translate this into Tibetan.

    PPS: For Geshe-las quick return, a stupa should be built. It should be half an arms length in height, made of

    copper, and decorated with silver and gold, or silver with gilded ornamentation. The bottom part can be made

    of copper, the vase silver, and the top plain silver or gilded. The sun can be silver or crystal. This is just a

    rough idea, but basically you, Geshe-la [Geshe Tenzin Tenphel], and Rinpoche [Tulku Gyatso] can decide on

    materials and decoration. Nevertheless, it would be good to decorate it with many jewels. More details on thiswill come.

    Maitreya Puja [posted May 2010]

    Rinpoche made the following comments about Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche.

    The idea of making a thousand offerings to Maitreya Buddha is advice from Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche,

    a great yogi with skies of qualities, who unfortunately recently passed away. Rinpoche was not only a great

    scholar of the sutras and tantras, the extensive Buddhadharma, but a great yogi who had attainment of the

    whole path to enlightenment. He had experiences like the limitless sky, not only of the common pathof gurudevotion, renunciation, bodhicitta, and right viewbut of the uncommon tantric path, the path of secret

    mantra, or Vajrayana. In Tibet, Rinpoche was the abbot of many thousands of monks in Amdo, and then in

    India he lived an ascetic life on the mountain in Dharamsala, where he meditated on the path for many years.

    My connection to Rinpoche started with lung, or wind disease. There is a very secret, very profound

    meditation called mani ha tun, which is very powerful when you have wind disease. There are different ways

    you can get lung. Many people, though not everybody, get lungwhen they do intensive study. Sometimes it

    happens because of uncontrollable attachment; when you dont get what your attachment wants, you then

    get lung.

    At Kopan we had one great teacher, Geshe Lama Konchog, from Sera Je Monastery in Tibet. Geshe-la was

    a great yogi who had completed the path to enlightenment. After he escaped from Tibet, Geshe-la lived high

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    in the Himalayas in Tsum, which is near the Tibetan border with Nepal. He lived for many years near one of

    Milarepas caves, and he lived like Milarepa. He ate no food, but just lived on taking the essence of wind.

    There are different techniques for taking the essence of stones, water, flowers or wind. Like Buddha, who

    practiced austerities for six years, and like Milarepa, Geshe Lama Konchog lived in a cave for six years with

    nothing, meditating on the path to enlightenment. When some people from the valley below came up and saw

    him in the cave, they didnt know that he was a meditator. They got very frightened because his hair had

    grown long and he was living there with nothing. They threw rocks at his cave. A few days later a group of

    about sixteen people came up and dragged him out of the cave.

    He then moved to another of Milarepas caves on a very high mountain. When he left there, he did retreat for

    two years under a tree. There wasnt a house or any walls or even a tenthe just meditated under the tree

    for two years. He totally sacrificed himself to attain the path to enlightenment for sentient beings.

    Anyway, after Geshe Lama Konchog had come from the mountains to Kopan Monastery in Nepal, he

    mentioned many times that he needed the oral transmission of this technique to heal lung.At that time I was

    spending a lot of time in Dharamsala, because there were problems at Kopan Monastery because of a

    misunderstanding with some Nepalese government officials. A student from Washington was the director of

    the FPMT International Office at that time. He had become stressed out and had lung, so I asked him to look

    for a lama who had the lineage of this meditation. I sent him to Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, who had the

    lineage. The student received the oral transmission of this special meditation technique. Even though there

    was no translator and Rinpoche simply read the text, it helped the student to recover from his lung.He got

    better just by hearing the oral transmission, without any explanation.

    I then went to receive the lineage of the oral transmission of this meditation, which I then passed to Geshe

    Lama Konchog and Lama Lhundrup, the abbot of Kopan Monastery. That was the start of my connection to

    Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. When I asked Rinpoche some questions about tantra, I noticed that

    Rinpoche had incredible experiences of the tantric path. I then took more and more teachings from him.

    Thats how it started, and thats how the channel was opened for Western students and those from

    Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to receive teachings and guidance from Rinpoche. Rinpoche guided

    students not just with words from the texts but from his own experiences. Rinpoche also gave one of the mostprecious things, the Kalachakra initiation, many times, as well as many other initiations. He turned the

    Dharma wheel all over the West and in many other parts of the world, including Russia and Latvia. Rinpoche

    went all over the world many times and turned the Dharma wheel very extensively. He practiced and

    preserved Dharma very purely and spread it very purely to sentient beings.

    Unfortunately, when Rinpoche was in Israel during the recent war to give teachings, he manifested some

    sickness, which the doctors discovered to be cancer. Rinpoche then canceled all his programmes and went

    straight to Dharamsala. Rinpoche recently passed away, after being in meditation for a few days. His holy

    body has been cremated in Dharamsala.

    Benefit of Attending an Initiation [posted May 2010]

    An attendants mother went to an Amitayus long life initiation given by Kyabje Choden Rinpoche, a talk by His

    Holiness the Dalai Lama, and a talk by Rinpoche. Rinpoche made the following comments on the benefit of

    attending an initiation.

    So, your mother took the initiation. Usually people would not dare come to an initiation because you have to

    sacrifice something, its a more serious thing, so then they don't come. But if she took it as a blessing, just

    sitting there, of course, still it's very good. Even just being there is incredible. Most people don't want to come.

    If you tell them, they won't come. So, they don't have the karma to have the opportunity. They don't havegood karma. That means your mother has created merit just to be there. If you listen, even if you don't

    understand, it leaves an imprint on the mind. Sooner or later, from that, you get a higher rebirth in the next

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    life.

    As far as the Buddhadharma is concerned, just by hearing it, even if you don't understand, you get a higher

    rebirth. In the next life you are able to understand the teachings so clearly, are able to practice and have

    realizations of the path and cease the defilements, and achieve liberation. Then, by ceasing the subtle

    defilements you achieve full enlightenment. Like that, great preparations have been made.

    Also, it is amazing that your mother took the oral transmission of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. Even if she

    was just sitting there, and didn't take the oral transmission, or didn't pay attention, it is an incredibleadvantage, and many benefits are received. Just seeing Choden Rinpoche, sitting in front of him, is

    incredible. We see billions of people in New York, but we don't get that blessing or benefit for the mind as

    when we see Choden Rinpoche. Seeing him, she gets that benefit, purifying the mind, receiving peace, and

    that deep feeling. She got that from somebody who not only has the realization of bodhicitta, who is a

    bodhisattva, which is an incredible blessing, but from a yogi who has the clear light realization, who is a

    Chakrasamvara practitioner. Even just being in front of this person, she receives blessings and is purified.

    Also, this persons neighbors and the insects and people around this yogi receive blessings and are purified.

    Being in front of Rinpoche is incredible. It is said that if this kind of practitioner crosses over a bridge, then

    under the bridge the insects, worms, and beings are liberated, their negative karma is purified. This is very

    fortunate.

    Praise of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche [posted Apr 2010]

    Rinpoche gave the following praise of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, who passed away in 2006.

    The idea of making a thousand offerings to Maitreya Buddha is advice from Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche,

    a great yogi with skies of qualities, who unfortunately recently passed away. Rinpoche was not only a great

    scholar of the words of the sutras and tantras, the extensive Buddhadharma, but a great yogi who had

    attainment of the whole path to enlightenment. He had experiences like the limitless sky, not only of the

    common pathof guru devotion, renunciation, bodhicitta, and right viewbut of the uncommon Tantric path,the path of secret mantra, or Vajrayana. In Tibet, Rinpoche was the abbot of many thousands of monks in

    Amdo, and then in India he lived an ascetic life on the mountain in Dharamsala, where he meditated on the

    path for many years.

    My connection to Rinpoche started with lung, or wind disease. There is a very secret, very profound

    meditation called [mani ha tun], which is very powerful when you have wind disease. There are different ways

    you can get lung. Many people, though not everybody, get lung when they do intensive study. Sometimes it

    happens because of uncontrollable attachment; when you dont get what your attachment wants, you then

    get lung.

    At Kopan we had one great teacher, Geshe Lama Konchog, from Sera Je Monastery in Tibet. Geshe-la wasa great yogi who had completed the path to enlightenment. After he escaped from Tibet, Geshe-la lived high

    in the Himalayas in Tsum, which is near the Tibetan border with Nepal. He lived for many years near one of

    Milarepas caves, and he lived like Milarepa. He ate no food, but just lived on taking the essence of wind.

    There are different techniques for taking the essence of stones, water, flowers, or wind. Like Buddha, who

    practiced austerities for six years, and like Milarepa, Geshe Lama Konchog lived in a cave for six years with

    nothing, meditating on the path to enlightenment. When some people from the valley below came up and saw

    him in the cave, they didnt know that he was a meditator. They got very frightened because his hair had

    grown long and he was living there with nothing. They threw rocks at his cave. A few days later a group of

    about 16 people came up and dragged him out of the cave.

    He then moved to another of Milarepas caves on a very high mountain. When he left there, he did retreat for

    two years under a tree. There wasnt a house or any walls or even a tenthe just meditated under the tree

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    for two years. He totally sacrificed himself to attain the path to enlightenment for sentient beings.

    Anyway, after Geshe Lama Konchog had come from the mountains to Kopan Monastery in Nepal, he

    mentioned many times that he needed the oral transmission of this technique to heal lung. At that time I was

    spending a lot of time in Dharamsala because there were problems at Kopan Monastery because of a

    misunderstanding with some Nepalese government officials. A student who was the director of the FPMT

    International Office at that time had become stressed out and had lung, so I asked him to look for a lama who

    had the lineage of this meditation. I sent him to Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, who had the lineage. The student

    received the oral transmission of this special meditation technique. Even though there was no translator andRinpoche simply read the text, it helped him to recover from his lung.He got better just by hearing the oral

    transmission, without any explanation.

    I then went to receive the lineage of the oral transmission of this meditation, which I then passed to Geshe

    Lama Konchog and Lama Lhundrup, the abbot of Kopan Monastery. That was the start of my connection to

    Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. When I asked Rinpoche some questions about tantra, I noticed that

    Rinpoche had incredible experiences of the tantric path. I then took more and more teachings from him.

    Thats how it started, and thats how the channel was opened for Western students and those from

    Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to receive teachings and guidance from Rinpoche. Rinpoche guided

    students not just with words from the texts but from his own experiences. Rinpoche also gave one of the most

    precious things, the Kalachakra initiation, many times, as well as many other initiations. He turned the

    Dharma wheel all over the West and in many other parts of the world, including Russia and Latvia. Rinpoche

    went all over the world many times and turned the Dharma wheel very extensively. He practiced and

    preserved Dharma very purely and spread it very purely to sentient beings.

    Unfortunately, when Rinpoche was in Israel during the recent war to give teachings, he manifested some

    sickness, which the doctors discovered to be cancer. Rinpoche then canceled all his programs and went

    straight to Dharamsala. Rinpoche recently passed away, after being in meditation for a few days. His holy

    body has been cremated in Dharamsala.

    Qualities of a Guru

    [posted Nov. 2005]Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who wrote to him asking what are the qualities of a Guru

    who teaches tantra.

    My very dear Simon,

    Thank you very much for your kind letter, sorry for the long delay in replying.

    Regarding your question about the ten qualities of a guruthere are ten outer qualities according to lower

    tantra and ten inner qualities according to highest tantra. You can find these in the Guru Puja and in lam-rim

    commentaries (Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Lam-rim Chen-mo, etc.). It is very good if you read these

    and study this well. Also, you can find it in the commentary on 50 Verses of Guru Devotion.

    There are qualities that the guru should have and qualities that the disciple should have. The minimum

    qualities the guru should have are having the lineage of the initiation (that he is giving) and living according to

    samaya vows and tantric vows, and that the deities have not prohibited him from offering the initiation by

    giving signs, for example.

    You can read and study the section in the Guru Puja that covers the qualities of the guru (before the section

    which begins you are my Guru, you are my Yidam ..

    First it mentions the ten qualities of a Mahayana Guru:

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    1. Discipline as a result of his mastery of the training in the higher discipline of moral self-control;

    2. Mental quiescence from his training in higher concentration;

    3. Pacification of all delusions and obstacles from his training in higher wisdom;

    4. More knowledge than his disciple in the subject to be taught;

    5. Enthusiastic perseverance and joy in teaching;

    6. A treasury of scriptural knowledge;

    7. Insight into and understanding of emptiness;

    8. Skill in presenting the teachings;

    9. Great compassion; and10. No reluctance to teach and work for his disciples regardless of their level of intelligence.

    Even if one doesnt have all the ten qualities but has five, six, or seven qualities, the main quality is having

    more knowledge than the disciple and having great compassion.

    A tantric master must have even more good qualities. Most important is that he be an extremely stable

    person, with his body, speech, and mind totally under control. He should be someone in whose presence

    everyone feels calm, peaceful, and relaxed and even the mere sight of him brings great pleasure to the mind.

    And his compassion must be unsurpassable.

    There are two sets of ten fields in which the vajra guru must be a complete master. The ten inner ones are

    essential for teaching the yoga and maha-anuttara yoga classes of tantra, which stress the importance of

    purifying mainly internal mental activities. These are expertise in:

    1. Visualizing wheels of protection and eliminating obstacles;

    2. Preparing and consecrating protection knots and amulets to be worn around the neck;

    3. Conferring the vase and secret initiations, planting the seeds for attaining a buddhas form bodies;

    4. Conferring the wisdom and word initiations, planting the seeds for attaining a buddhas wisdom bodies;

    5. Separating the enemies of Dharma from their own protectors;

    6. Making the offerings, such as of sculptured tormas;7. Reciting mantras, both verbally and mentally, that is, visualizing them revolving around his heart;

    8. Performing wrathful ritual procedures for forcefully catching the attention of the meditational deities and

    protectors;

    9. Consecrating images and statues; and

    10. Making mandala offerings, performing the meditational practices (sadhana) and taking self initiations.

    The ten external qualities are required for teaching the kriya and charya classes of tantra, which stress the

    importance of purifying mainly external activities in connection with internal mental processes. These are

    expertise in:

    1. Drawing, constructing and visualizing the mandala abodes of the meditational deities;

    2. Maintaining the different states of single-minded concentration;

    3. Executing the hand gestures (mudras);

    4. Performing the ritual dances;

    5. Sitting in the full meditation position;

    6. Reciting what is appropriate to these two classes of tantra;

    7. Making fire offerings;

    8. Making the various other offerings;

    9. Performing the rituals of

    a) Pacification of disputes, famine, and disease,b) Increase of life span, knowledge, and wealth,

    c) Power to influence others and

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    d) Wrathful elimination of demonic forces and interferences; and

    10. Invoking meditational deities and dissolving them back into their appropriate places.

    Lama Tsongkhapa explained that in degenerated times it is difficult to find lamas having all these qualities

    mentioned above, so if the lama does not have all those qualities then having two, five, or even eight is

    sufficient.

    As I mentioned before, the minimum qualities the guru should have is having the lineage of the initiation (that

    he is giving), living according to samaya vows and tantric vows, and that the deities have not prohibited himfrom offering the initiation by, for example, giving signs, etc.

    Since you have received highest tantra initiation from Denma Locho Rinpoche, this means he is your guru.

    Any time that you take a teaching with the recognition that you are the disciple and the teacher is the guru,

    then even if the teacher only says a few words, a verse of teachings, or one mantra recitation, that person is

    your guru from then on and there is no change. After one makes that Dharma connection of guru and

    disciple, then if you give up it is the heaviest negative karma, the greatest obstacle to your spiritual growth. It

    brings heavy obstacles and one has to experience, especially at the time of death, eons of suffering in the

    lower realms and hell realms.

    According to the texts, the teachings of the Buddha, the lam-rim, one is supposed to think only of the qualities

    of the guru and only praise them. The heaviest negative karma is if anger and heresy arise, and you criticize

    him or her.

    It is said in many tantric teachingsthe Kalachakra and Guhyasamajathat even if one has accumulated the

    five uninterrupted negative karmas, one can still achieve the sublime vehicle in this life, in particular the

    maha-anuttara path. This path has the most skills to grant enlightenment in a brief lifetime of these

    degenerate times. But if you criticize the guru from the heart, even if you practice the sublime vehicle, you will

    not achieve this.

    In the Lama Tsongkhapa lam-rim it is clearly mentioned that even the thought that the virtuous friend isordinary becomes a cause to lose realizations, which means that it also becomes an obstacle to developing

    the mind on the path.

    The most important thing is to analyze as much as possible before making Dharma contact. When the

    recognition of guru and disciple is present, since the Dharma contact is established, then from that time there

    is no change. One has to have a new relationship with the guru, it is another world, looking at that person

    with a new and pure mind.

    It is said by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, the great enlightened being, the Heruka, that if one is able to stop all

    thoughts of mistakes and look only at the qualities of the guru, looking at the guru only as Buddha, then one

    can achieve enlightenment in this life. With the realization of seeing all buddhas as the guru and all gurus as

    the Buddha, one can get enlightened. This is mentioned in all four Tibetan Mahayana sects, in both sutra and

    tantra.

    Making mistakes, the arising of heresy, anger, criticism, and giving up the virtuous friend become the cause

    to not find a guru in future lives. It is said in the Essence of Nectarthat one cannot ever hear the sound of the

    holy Dharma, not to mention find a virtuous friend, and one becomes without a virtuous friend in all ones

    lifetimes.

    If one's own mistakes seem to appear in the gurus actions, in one's hallucinatory mind, one must realize that

    this is one's own mistake and abandon it like poison. One must abandon the thought that there is a mistake inthe actions of the virtuous friend. With this mindfulness, one looks at that person as Buddha, as one who has

    eliminated all mistakes and has all the perfect qualities.

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    If the guru asks you to do something, and you don't have the capacity to do it at that time, your mind hasn't

    reached that level, so with this pure thought, with this mindfulness, one respectfully explains to the guru how

    one is incapable of doing this, and in this way tries to get his or her permission not to do it.

    This is what is said in the Fifty Verses of the Guruand the Vinaya. If the guru says to do something that is not

    Dharma, one can ask also permission not to do it. It doesnt say in the text to have negative thoughts or to

    criticize or sue him. This is how you deal with that kind of problem without it becoming an obstacle to

    developing one's own mind on the path.

    Of course, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentions all the time, if it is a special guru and disciple

    relationship, then you do every single thing the guru says, like Tilopa and Naropa, and Marpa and Milarepa,

    and so forth.

    I hope this answers your question. You should study the tantric commentaries from qualified lamas such as

    His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and, in the future, if you pray, you will also be able to receive direct tantric

    teachings.

    With much love and prayers...