Commentary 4

Our aim is to gain tantric realisations which are accomplished principally through faith and correct belief. Wisdom and compassion alone are not enough. We need to be motivated mainly by compassion and wisdom, but tantric realisations are accomplished through correct belief and faith. It is said that some people who are relatively unintelligent, because they do not understand many things, can gain tantric realisations easily because of their faith.

Relying upon the Spiritual Guide is the root of spiritual realisations. Guru in Sanskrit means Spiritual Guide. They can be Eastern, Western, male or female, lay or ordained. They lead us on the correct path to enlightenment and show us a good example. Sometimes there is a little confusion on who is our Spiritual Guide. A Mahayana Spiritual Guide has at least 10 qualities [look them up in JPGF].

Guru Yoga is a special training on how to rely on a Spiritual Guide. You can read stories about how Naropa, Milarepa, Dromtonpa relied on their SGs."

Why do they do those things? Because they want to make quick progress in their practice. Showing a good example is more important. Even if the teacher doesn’t give many teachings, if the teacher shows a good example they will follow because they see their example. They will deeply appreciate this and want to follow, make progress along, and complete the path to enlightenment.

The purpose of this sadhana is to accumulate merit, purify non-virtuous actions, and receive the blessings of Buddha Maitreya. By engaging in this practice, we can make progress and complete the path to enlightenment.

Virtuous potentials which are the seeds of Dharma realisations is the real good fortune. To increase this we need to increase virtue and purify negativity. Through this the seeds of virtuous potentials continually growing - then very easy. First as Kadampa practitioners try to understand this truth. One of the main reasons why we need to practice Guru Yoga is because we need to increase good fortune. We must understand what is real good fortune. What does good fortune mean? According to Dharma if we have good external conditions - these are not good fortune. Even higher position like king queen, prime minister, president - this is not real good fortune. These conditions - using. They will destroy the good merit they accumulate in previous lives. It will not accomplish anything meaningful. Wealth, good business - this is not good fortune. They are very proud, but in reality, nothing. Only through the realisation of Dharma, we will gain the ability to control the inner poison of delusion so we can solve all our daily problems. So we can maintain a happy mind, a peaceful mind all the time. At the beginning of Modern Buddhism and other books I explained this very clearly. In our mental consciousness there are so many potentials - a huge store in our mind - virtuous, neutral, non-virtuous. If the virtuous potentials which are the seeds of Dharma realisations are increasing, our fortune is increasing.

Generally anyone who sincerely relies upon a qualified SG with faith and not attachment will receive the blessings of all the Buddhas of the 10 directions through this teacher. This teacher can have a higher position or a lower position, be rich or poor, even be blind or deaf. This makes it easy for them to make progress in their Dharma practice.

How do we practice the yoga of Buddha Maitreya? In the space above our crown we visualise our Spiritual Guide from whom we receive the empowerment blessings and transmission of the practice of Buddha Maitreya.

We can apply this to other Guru Yoga practices like Heruka and Vajrayogini.

After visualising we should understand 3 things:

Buddha Maitreya accomplished enlightenment to benefit each and every living being every day with his emanations. This was his only purpose. He attained enlightenment not for his own purpose but to benefit each and every living being every day with his emanations. We strongly believe that our root Guru is in the aspect of Buddha Maitreya.

This belief recognition is only in our mind. Physically we should behave naturally, normal. We should not say our teacher is a Buddha blah blah blah. Ordinary people see them as an ordinary suffering person.

I believe that even I have received Je Tsongkhapa’s blessing. I understood this when I was engaged in retreat.

Sometimes we feel that Dharma is not working. But it is just this time. Never allow discouragement to arise. Like Asanga and the man with the iron block: with effort we can accomplish anything. This means we should practice patiently. It does not matter if results come quickly or if we have to wait for a long time. In every moment we are creating the causes and sowing virtuous potentials.

We are never wasting our time, therefore continually apply effort without discouragement and it will work.

I promise. I will never deceive you.

With strong faith in our Spiritual Guide as Buddha Maitreya, we meditate on this.

Then 2nd we sincerely engage in the practice of the 7 limbs [see JPGF]

3rd we apply effort to shine the sun of our faith upon the snow mountain of our Spiritual Guide, Buddha Maitreya, and make strong requests to gain the realisations of generation stage, non-dual profundity and clarity and so forth. Through this the blessing water of all the Buddhas of the 10 directions will flow down into our very subtle body and mind, and we will receive a special power to transform our very subtle body and mind into the enlightened body and mind.

If we emphasise these 3 things in this way we will attain enlightenment very quickly. I promise. Previously Je Tsongkhapa’s students attained enlightenment very quickly because of the special blessings and the Ganden Oral Lineage Instructions. We have this.

However the effectiveness of our Guru Yoga practice depends on our belief in karma. We should know that from non-virtuous actions come suffering and from virtuous actions comes happiness. To illustrate this, Buddha gave so many examples to show the truth of karma. We should judge for ourself if we believe this. If we don’t believe this, we will make no effort to accumulate merit and purify negativity. And our practice of Guru Yoga will be empty.