The Nine Attitudes of Guru Devotion

What follows is not from the Lam-rim Chen-mo itself, but these nine attitudes are mentioned there. The text, Practicing Guru Devotion with the Nine Attitudes, was actually written by Shabkar Tsogdrug Rangdrol, a Nyingma lama who received teachings from Gelug lamas who taught the lam-rim in the way that Lama Tsong Khapa did. Shabkar’s presentation is so effective that I translated it.

‘‘I am requesting the kind lord root guru,
who is more extraordinary than all the buddhas—
Please bless me to be able to devote myself to the qualified lord guru
With great respect, in all my future lifetimes.

‘‘By realizing that the root of happiness and goodness
Is correctly devoting myself to the kind lord guru,
Who is the foundation of all good qualities,
I shall devote myself to him with great respect,
Not forsaking him even at the cost of my life.’’

Thinking of the importance of the qualified guru, Allow yourself to enter under his control.

Well, I said I wasn’t going to talk, but sorry, it says ‘‘control,’’ so I think I have to say something, because nobody likes to be controlled! Especially in the West. Nobody wants to be controlled by anybody. Not even by mosquitoes! Anyway, I’m joking. But if you don’t understand what this verse means, you might take it the wrong way when you hear that you should put yourself under your guru’s control. However, a simple example will clarify this.

If you put yourself under the control of a good friend and follow that person’s advice, you too can become good person, but if you let yourself be controlled by a bad friend, you might become a bad person yourself. If you do what a good friend says, you don’t create problems for yourself or others; you only make others happy. In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo talks about two people, one of whom was an alcoholic, the other who didn’t drink. The drinker went to Reting Monastery and became a teetotaler. The non-drinker went to Lhasa, where, influenced by others, he began drinking and became an alcoholic. Each man became the complete opposite of what he was before, due to the influence of the type of friend he followed. If you listen to the advice of the Buddha—who has only compassion for sentient beings and no trace of self-centered mind; who is perfect in power, wisdom and compassion; whose holy mind is omniscient—all you get is benefit. Putting yourself under the control of the Buddha brings you every happiness up to that of enlightenment. You get happiness now and every possible future happiness. Similarly, if you put yourself under the control of a virtuous friend, you get the same benefits as you do from putting yourself under the control of the Buddha. There’s only benefit and not the slightest harm.

Now, relating this teaching to those of us who met the Dharma a long time ago, if we had been under the control of our gurus from that time forth, we would have achieved many realizations by now. We could have realized guru devotion, renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness; we could have received realizations of tantra; we could have been totally liberated from samsara. We might even have become enlightened. At the very least, we would have received some lam-rim realizations. But none of this has happened because we have not opened our hearts to our guru; we have not put ourselves under the control of our virtuous friend. Because of this mistake, our minds are totally devoid of any realization whatsoever.

The first two attitudes are:

1. Be like an obedient son
— Act exactly in accordance with the guru’s advice.

2. Even when maras, evil friends and the like
Try to split you from the guru,
Be like a vajra
— Inseparable forever.

The yogi Drubkang Tsangpa Gyari, a Kagyu lama, said, ‘‘If something goes wrong in your relationship with your guru, even if all sentient beings become your friend, what’s the use?’’ In other words, if something damages your connection with your guru— the auspiciousness of the relationship or your samaya—then even if all living beings become your friend, what’s the use? What can they do? What can you do? Since something has gone wrong in your relationship with your guru, until you repair that relationship, until you do something to restore it, even if everybody becomes your friend, you cannot achieve liberation from samsara, enlightenment, or even realizations of the path.

I don’t remember the next verse of this lama’s teaching word-forword, but the meaning is that if you maintain a good connection with your guru, if nothing goes wrong with it, then even if all living beings desert you or become your enemy, it doesn’t matter.

Ordinary people would think that everybody becoming your friend or enemy is a big thing, but in Dharma practice, once you have made a connection with a guru and not made any mistakes in the relationship, that’s all that matters. Even if everybody becomes your enemy, it’s of no consequence, because from the foundation of that good relationship you can attain all realizations and enjoy every success up to enlightenment, and after that, you can benefit all sentient beings by enlightening them too. That’s the meaning of this great yogi’s teaching.

3. Whenever the guru gives you work,
No matter how heavy the burden,
Be like the earth
—Bear it all.

4. When devoting yourself to the guru,
Whatever suffering occurs,
Be like a mountain
—Immovable.

Here, suffering means hardship or problems, and when this happens, your mind should remain immovable and not be upset or discouraged.

5. Even if you are given all the difficult tasks,
Be like the servant of a king
— Perform them with an undisturbed mind.

6. Abandon pride.
Be like a sweeper
— Hold yourself lower than the guru.

I’m not sure how this comes across in the West, but in the East, a sweeper is the lowest of the low. In the West, people like to think that everybody’s equal, but in the East, a sweeper is regarded as very low.

7. No matter how difficult or heavy the burden,
Be like a rope
— Hold the guru’s work with joy.

8. Even when the guru criticizes, provokes or ignores you,
Be like a faithful dog
— Never respond with anger.

No matter how much a dog gets beaten by its master, it always shows respect and never gets angry. When it sees its master coming, it starts wagging its tail and runs to lick him, showing much happiness.

9. Be like a boat
— Never be upset to come or go for the guru At any time.

‘‘O glorious and precious root guru,
Please bless me to be able to practice in this way.
From now on, in all my future lifetimes,
May I be able to devote myself to the guru like this.’’

If you recite these words aloud and reflect on their meaning in your mind, you will have the good fortune of being able to devote yourself correctly to the precious guru from life to life, in all your future lifetimes.

If you offer service and respect and make offerings to the precious guru with these nine attitudes in mind, even if you do not practice intentionally, you will develop many good qualities, collect extensive merit and quickly achieve full enlightenment.

This last verse explains that even if you don’t study or do any particular practices, like preliminaries, retreats and so forth—in other words, you don’t practice intentionally—if you devote yourself to your virtuous friend correctly with thought and action, you will naturally develop many good qualities, constantly collect extensive merit and quickly achieve full enlightenment.

Therefore, each time you do even one thing your guru told you, you take a step closer to enlightenment. Whenever you do something that your guru has advised, it becomes great purification. Many lifetimes’ heavy negative karma gets purified, you collect inconceivable merit and you get closer and closer to enlightenment.

For example, even cleaning your guru’s room. Each time you clean it, you get closer and closer to enlightenment. This is because, of all the powerful objects, your guru is the most powerful; more powerful than the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas. This power comes into being the moment that person becomes your guru. The moment you make a Dharma connection with the recognition of another person as guru and yourself as disciple—whether from their side the other person is enlightened or not, a bodhisattva or not a bodhisattva—that person becomes the most powerful person in your life; more powerful than all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Therefore, whatever service you offer, even one cleaning of your guru’s room, purifies much negative karma and brings you closer to enlightenment. Therefore, you should remember that each time you offer service to your guru, whatever it is, you are purifying your mind and getting closer to enlightenment.

Towards the end of his life, Lama Atisha showed the aspect of sickness and incontinence and made pipi and kaka in his bed because he was unable to get up and go to the toilet. His translator, Drom Tönpa, with no thought of dirtiness, offered service by bathing Lama Atisha and cleaning his bed. As a result, Drom Tönpa purified so many karmic obscurations that he developed the clairvoyance of being able to read the minds of even tiny creatures, such as ants and worms, that were as far away as an eagle can fly in eighteen days.

By serving your guru, realizations just come. The potential of all realizations is there within your mind. You just need purification to reveal them. The more you purify, the more realizations you receive.

Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, the author of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, had a disciple who couldn’t read. I think his name was Jamyang. He didn’t even know the alphabet. Before Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo passed away, he told this attendant that eventually he would be able to read the entire Guru Puja by himself, without being taught. And that’s exactly what happened. After going into exile from Tibet, Jamyang finished up at the refugee camp at Buxa, where I lived for eight years and received philosophical teachings from my three gurus, Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe and another lama, also called Gen Yeshe.

During the British rule of India, Buxa was the concentration camp where Mahatma Gandhi-ji and Prime Minister Nehru were imprisoned. Nehru-ji’s place of imprisonment became the Sera Monastery prayer hall and Gandhi-ji’s, a nunnery.

At Buxa, the incarnate lamas lived on a mountain high above the rest of the camp. The abbot and main teacher at Kopan Monastery, Lama Lhundrub, who supervises the education and discipline of the three hundred Kopan monks, used to live up there in the same building as Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo’s incarnation, where the attendant Jamyang also lived. When Jamyang first arrived at Buxa, he couldn’t read a thing, but suddenly one day he was able to read the entire Guru Puja. He himself told Lama Lhundrub that Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo had predicted that this would happen.

If you purify your mind, realizations will come. What you need is purification and the most powerful purification is correct devotion to your virtuous friend; obeying your guru’s advice. The best way to devote yourself to your virtuous friend is through practicing his teachings, the second is by offering service and respect—cleaning your guru’s place, cooking for him and so forth—and the third is by offering material things, if you have them to offer [see Liberation, p. 299 ff.].

The story goes that Lama Atisha’s cook, who spent all his time cooking for Lama Atisha and never had time to meditate, had much greater realizations than the Kadampa geshe Gombawa, another of Lama Atisha’s disciples, who spent all his time meditating in a cave. So that’s how it is, and now it’s time to finish.

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