Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Atisha’s entire response to a student who twice asked for teaching was three words — “Faith. Faith. Faith.” — and that exchange anchors this 45-minute Lamrim commentary by Geshe Pema Tsering on relying on one’s guru as a Buddha. He clarifies the logic: this orientation does not assert the teacher is literally perfect, but generates blessings proportional to one’s faith, illustrated by Devadatta, who saw only the Buddha’s faults and received nothing. A three-part method from the Khedrub Jangchub lineage then explains how to cultivate faith despite apparent faults. Two vivid stories make the argument concrete: a man who misheard a dismissal as a mantra and healed illnesses, and another who mispronounced the Cunda mantra yet survived famine through conviction alone. The Hevajra Tantra’s assurance that Vajradhāra committed to appear as teachers in degenerate times closes the session.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 LR 2002 02 19.mp3
UUID: d48e6591-3bd2-458b-b555-636adbe65921
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim 2002 Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-02-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~2,929
It’s not possible, as it says in the text, will not develop the other parts. So whether in fact one spiritual friend is a Buddha or not is really beside the point. By regarding them as a Buddha, then one gains the merit, the benefit of relying on them as a Buddha. As it’s said in different scriptures, that great benefit arises from regarding one spiritual friend as a Buddha. Also, we shouldn’t then indulge in speculation about the spiritual friend, one’s spiritual friend, thinking, well, actually, they do have these faults and they’re not really perfect.
They’re not don’t have the qualities or those qualities. In fact, I have better qualities than they do, and so on. So by thinking in this way, then that prevents us from actually developing the practice. So we should avoid that at all costs. So simply by holding one’s spiritual friend to be a Buddha doesn’t make them a Buddha.
It doesn’t convert all their faults into nonfaults or qualities. But what happens is that one gains the benefit, of regarding them as a Buddha, the benefits of which have been outlined, in various scriptures. Of course, this doesn’t, mean that, in this practice of holding one’s spiritual friend to be a Buddha that then one must, actually begin to make presents to them and offer money and so forth and gifts and and so on. All it doesn’t, mean that this is necessary. In fact, there’s the Buddha himself has mentioned that in future, after he passes away, that he will appear as the spiritual friend and teach beings in the form of a spiritual friend.
And so the spiritual friend can be regarded as the actual Buddha because the Buddha himself has made that commitment. As Geshe-la mentions from his own side, that he’s here teaching the lamrim at present. But this doesn’t mean that by teaching the lamrim, he suddenly is transformed into a Buddha simply by discussing the meaning of the words and so on. In fact, this is not the case. As Geshe-la mentions, he’s an ordinary being with various faults and so on.
However, simply by reading and explaining the words that are set out in Lamrim, there is a certain blessing that is bestowed on this very practice, and the source of that is Śākyamūni Buddha himself, who, has said that in future, when such treatises are taught, then they would be blessed by Śākyamūni Buddha. So therefore, in teaching the Lamrim, there is a benefit on the side for the side of the students in regarding the teacher of the Lamrim as being a Buddha in accordance with the former teachings or the former statements of the Buddha himself. It doesn’t mean to say that the person actually teaching the Lamrim is a Buddha. It doesn’t mean that at all. But there is a certain blessing that comes through having that type of discrimination.
And as it said in the lamp of the Three Jewels sūtra, faith is the preparation. It gives birth like a Buddha. So in fact, here, faith is the basis for the development of all positive things. It’s it is like the preparation which the practice of which in the end gives rise to many virtues. So therefore, particular sūtra called the lamp of the Three Jewels sūtra says that faith is the preparation.
It gives birth like a mother. It nurtures all good qualities and increases them. So therefore faith is required for it. It prepares and develops and matures all good qualities, all of the virtues that one possesses. And then further, there’s an instance where it says that once a man asked Atisha twice, Atisha, please give me instruction.
Atisha said absolutely nothing, and the man made his request yet again, this time by shouting it. Hey, hey, said Atisha. I’m afraid my hearing is sound, quite sound. Here is my instruction. Have faith.
Faith. Faith. So this was the the essential instruction at this point given by Atisha in realizing the qualities of faith. So then also there’s a statement by Gyalwa Ensapa. Gyalwa Ensapa was a meditator similar to Milarepa.
And he stated, in brief, your experience and realizations will be great or small, just as your familiarity with faith is great or small. So here he really gives, some instruction on the on the, the great benefits of faith, on the importance of faith. Your kind guru is the source of siddhis. Contemplate his qualities and ignore his faults. Hold his instructions in your palm and promise to keep them to the last.
So then we should also recognize that the kind guru or the spiritual friend is the source of all our attainments. So one requires faith in that being, to develop faith in that spiritual friend. So we contemplate, therefore, his qualities and ignore his faults. If we think about his faults, then our faith and regard for that being will tend to decline. So we contemplate their qualities.
And we hold his instructions close to ourselves as if they’re in the palm of our hand and promise to keep them to the end. So therefore, as it states, in other words, your development or our development of realization depends on whether we have faith or whether our faith is great or small in our spiritual friend. So we must have the faith regarding our spiritual friend as really being a Buddha if we are to achieve the supreme siddhis or the supreme attainments of enlightenment. Therefore, we definitely must not be mistaken about the instruction we receive. However, even if we get the instruction wrong, we can still achieve at least common attainments if we actually have conviction in it conviction in it or believe in it.
There’s an instance given in India. A man asked a guru for instruction, and the guru said, which actually means go away. Don’t stay here. Go away. And the man did not understand this and took it as an instruction and managed to heal his own and other people’s illnesses by reciting the words many times over.
There’s another example here of a person who mistook a mantra that was given to him, a particular mantra of the goddess Cunda, which is Om Cale Cule Cunde Svāhā. And he mistook the mantra and thought of it differently and he pronounced it in that way, but actually it shouldn’t be recited wrongly. It should be Cale Cule Cunde And anyway, he mistook that and recited it the wrong way a number of times. And in so doing, even so that he was stating the wrong mantra, in a famine, was able to cook and eat rocks by reciting the mantra wrongly over them and blowing on the rocks. So therefore, faith is central.
And if we lack faith, we will not produce anything from our wisdom. So therefore, we need to generate faith. And there are three types of faith. The faith that we should train in during this section of the Lamrim is dang-ba’i depa or lucid faith or here cleansing faith, the faith of regarding one’s spiritual guide as really being a Buddha. So as Pabongka Rinpoche then goes on to mention, a technique to develop this type of faith, that is cleansing faith or lucid faith, is in accordance with the lineage stemming from Khedrub Jangchub and his disciples, has three paths.
So here, there’s a certain reasoning that’s given in order for us to generate this type of faith. So here’s the first reason why we must regard the spiritual friend as a Buddha. So the first reason given is that because we want to gain something, we want to profit in something, we don’t want a loss. We don’t want to lose or be at a disadvantage. So because of that, therefore, we should have faith in a spiritual friend as being a Buddha.
So if we want to profit here, we must regard our spiritual friend as a Buddha, no matter whether he is or he isn’t or she is or she isn’t. By doing so, we will effortlessly achieve all the wishes in this and future lives. And this of course is a great profit indeed. There’s an example given here. An old woman had faith in a dog’s tooth, thinking that it was a tooth of a Buddha.
The tooth, through her faith and the tooth produced relic pills. And also another text states that a guru’s blessing is not really great or small. It all depends on you. So as it says that the the guru’s blessings don’t really vary in size. It’s just sort of a uniform general blessing that is given by a spiritual friend.
Its greatness or smallness depends on oneself, depends on the student. So this is clear that the blessing one receives depends on one’s faith in one’s spiritual friend. This is clear from the life of the Buddha himself because during the time of the Buddha, he had a cousin by the name of Devadatta. And Devadatta really had great jealousy of the Buddha and tended only to see the faults of the Buddha. And by seeing only the faults or what he thought were the faults, then he didn’t receive blessings.
So, really, the blessing that one receives is very much dependent on how one observes the spiritual friend. If one regards the spiritual friend as a Buddha, then one receives blessings in accordance with that. Or if we see a spiritual friend as a bodhisattva or as an arhat or as someone on the lower vehicle or as an ordinary being and so on. The way that we look at the spiritual friend determines the type of blessing that we receive. And this was So therefore, whether we receive attainments, the great attainments or not, it really depends on our reverence or respect for our spiritual friend, whether that reverence is great or small.
And Atisha has mentioned that in Tibet, there were no masters or adepts because Tibetans tended only to regard their teachers or gurus as ordinary people. And because they regarded them as ordinary, then it was very difficult for them to receive the blessings or great blessings from their relationship with their teacher. So then as it stated, the guru may actually be a Buddha, but unless we train ourselves to have faith in their qualities, we will not see their qualities. Unless we have faith in them, will not see their qualities. Instead, we will only reap a disadvantage or a loss, and through that, then various kinds of suffering.
So this arises because even though we’re not actually sure whether our teacher or whether our spiritual friend is a Buddha or not, because we haven’t trained ourselves in having faith, and this section of the text here is all on developing faith, because we haven’t developed faith in their qualities, having the qualities of a Buddha and so on, we sustain a loss instead. As it’s mentioned, the Buddha had infinite qualities of excellent qualities, perfect qualities. But Devadatta, his cousin, and Devadatta could see only the aura of light that extended an arm’s length from his body. They could not see Buddha’s others the other qualities of the Buddha. So because of that, they only saw one quality.
They didn’t see the others. They were at a disadvantage. They suffered a loss from that. And Geshe Potowa mentions that if we have no respect for our gurus, even relying on the Buddha himself will not help, just as with Upadaka. Then the the second is the reason why we are able to see him this way.
So therefore, we reflect not only do we need to see our spiritual friend as a Buddha, but in fact, we can do that. We can actually achieve this. And there are two means by which we can. So this, even if we appreciate only a part of his qualities, we can put an end to our lack of faith. So and this faith will then overwhelm any trivial fault that we may happen to see.
So then in seeing his qualities, this faith will then overwhelm the trivial faults that may manifest or may appear to us when we observe our spiritual friend. So therefore, we should apply these two methods, appreciate only a part of his good qualities, we can put an end to our lack of faith, and then developing this faith that should overwhelm any appearance of faults that arise for us. So, therefore, we apply these two methods to make the faults we see in our spiritual friend to bolster our faith in them. So we should think over these two facts, these two parts of this, method. And it’s also stated in the vajrapani initiation tantra.
Apprehend your master’s qualities. Never seize on his faults. You will gain siddhis or attainments when you apprehend his qualities. You will not gain siddhis or attainments when you seize on his faults. And then as the text goes on to say, in other words, because of our evil karmic instincts, we dwell on our guru’s faults.
Instead, we should dwell on his good qualities. And this will automatically stop any thoughts of seeing the faults of our spiritual friend just as the sun outshines the moon in the sky. So really, just as the sun outshines the moon, even though the moon may be in the sky, Similarly, when we reflect on our spiritual friend, we should think only of their good qualities and not their negative qualities just as the sun outshines the moon. So this is illustrated by the fact that we didn’t do not think about our own faults, so we cannot see them from see them ourselves. So we may see some small faults in our guru, but thinking over his skillful means of subduing his disciples, should be enough to bolster our faith, in our spiritual friend.
So therefore we dwell on the positive, the positive aspects of our spiritual friend, not on the negative in order to achieve those benefits. So therefore, at present, because we’re beginners, our teachers, spiritual friends appear as ordinary people. But that’s appropriate because that reflects just where we are at present. This is to be expected. When, in fact, we develop them, we achieve calm abiding, we achieve this concentration of a continuum of Dharma, then it’s possible for us to even meet Buddhas who are supreme Nirmanakayas.
And then when on the first bodhisattva level, we shall meet Sambhogakayas or Buddhas who appear in enjoyment bodies and so on. And in even one day, the universe itself will appear to be completely pure. So in fact, according to our current level, seeing our spiritual friend as being an ordinary being is quite natural and expected. But as we progress in our practice, we then become aware of the of purer aspects of those around us until this appearance of purity becomes quite stable and enduring. So then in the next section, So then the next section is how to regard the spiritual friend in a proper way.
So here, we must establish the spiritual friend to be a Buddha using both scripture and reasoning. And on that basis we gain unshakable conviction. And there are four subheadings. And the first of those is that Vajradhāra himself has stated that the guru is a Buddha. And here it states that there may be some danger that some think that spiritual guides are not really Buddhas.
So we must rethink this section of the Lamrim on devotion to a spiritual guide. So at that point, some may think, well, this is not really necessary. And in fact, it’s going too far and so on. We don’t actually have to regard the spiritual friend as a Buddha. But the point of this heading is that we should not put wrong concepts or wrong conceptions such as these into the deepest recesses of our mind.
We shouldn’t think in that way, in other words. We should think as follows: the guru is a Buddha, but we do not perceive it. We do not see it as that. The reason is as follows: Vajradhāra is at present amongst us, abides amongst us, taking the form of gurus, of teachers, spiritual friends. And Hevajra tantra states: in future times, my physical form will be that of masters.
Also for five thousand years, I will take the form of masters. Think that they are me and develop respect for them in those times. In future degenerate times, my form may be that of uneducated beings of ordinary, unremarkable, unqualified beings. These are the various means I shall employ to show myself in these forms. And one sūtra also mentions that, oh, how meaningful to behold me in future times.
I will show myself physically as abbots. I will abide in the form of masters. So therefore, in many ways, vajradhara and in many treatises and sutras and tantras, vajradhara has mentioned that he will appear in various forms, in all manner of different aspects in order to teach, in order to interact with other beings. This one? The presentation.
That’s all yours. Does anyone have any questions? Actually, it was mentioned that they were they should have at least five here. So your question then was if they had only one good quality out of the ten. Oh, four.
Yeah. Can you rely on them?