Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour commentary on the Guru Puja Lama Chöpa practice, Kyabje Rinpoche walks through the ritual step by step, beginning with the essential foundation of motivation and the understanding that all Buddhas appear to us in the form of the guru. He unpacks the visualization of the guru as Vajradhāra, explaining the symbolic meanings of the deity’s form, postures, and implements, including detailed teachings on the five Buddha lineages and how they manifest in enlightened wisdom. Moving through the six-session structure, Rinpoche covers the invitation of wisdom beings, the making of offerings, and the protection of the nineteen uncommon pledges of the five Buddha families. He emphasizes the critical importance of understanding and examining one’s vows six times daily to prevent their corruption, and explains how every stage of practice—hearing, reflecting, meditating—plants essential karmic imprints that ripen into realization. Woven throughout are profound reflections on why the guru manifests in ordinary form for our sake, why we must practice to plant those imprints, and why devotion to the teacher who embodies all Buddhas is the heart of the path. Intended for practitioners with some familiarity with tantric Buddhism and the Guru Puja practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: SSGY 110830 000 – KR.mp3
UUID: 1febe41e-7516-404d-ad1f-64f3cda75e20
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Puja – Lama Chopa
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~4,150
So to explain the Dharma, to listen to the Dharma, one must have a good motivation. And initially, such a motivation entails taming one’s mind, and then working for the benefit of others, understanding that mother sentient beings as vast as space, all wish for happiness, but do not know how to create the cause for happiness, and all wish to eliminate suffering, but do not understand how to eliminate the cause of suffering. They have no protector. They have no refuge. This is a very sad situation.
And then from our side, striving to eliminate all suffering and to place them in a state of unalloyed happiness, we try to attain the state of great enlightenment and having attained the state work for the sake of all sentient beings. This is as a motivation. We should engage in the three activities of hearing, thinking and meditating and generate this motivation for a couple of minutes. Since this is a very straightforward passage, Rinpoche would just read it directly. And on page seven of the translation of Pabongka Rinpoche’s commentary, since in the middle of the text, since all the Buddhas came in the aspect of the Guru to lead us, if one understands one’s Guru as the embodiment of the emanations of all Buddhas, one will have fulfilled the crux of Guru Yoga.
And moving onwards, here one meditates in the six-session Guru Yoga on the root guru in the aspect of Vajradhāra. Also, one’s guru from former lives, having come over and again to lead one. As this very guru, there is no turning away to another, as is said in the account of liberation of Atisha and Dromtönpa. And moving onwards, in addition, all fields and realms appear as bodies, and bodies pervade all fields and realms. Also, every pore of bodily hair is akin to the complete manifestation of the 12 deeds, which will send new emanations to the myriad fields of the 10 directions for the sake of sentient beings.
And one should think that the emanations which have finished enacting the wheel of sentient beings are resorbed. So here we have a process of emanation and resorption. There are two types of Gurus, the Guru of definite and of interpretable meaning. The Guru of definite meaning is the wisdom of the inseparable union of bliss and emptiness, while the Guru of interpretable meaning is the Guru of the present occasion or the virtuous friend. The very bottom of page seven, the definitive Guru is the wisdom of inseparable bliss and emptiness.
This is the basis of emanation of the five Buddha lineages, the 100 lineages, as well as all Buddhas. Therefore, he is called omnipresent on page eight, since he is the lord of both the resorption of the 100 lineages into the five lineages, the five into the three, the three into the lineage of the great secret, as well as of their outer emanation. Here, the 100 lineages refer to the 20 lineages of each of the five lineage Buddhas. This includes Vairochana, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, Amoghasiddhi, and Akṣobhya, each having 20 different lineages to their names, which makes 100. The five lineages simply refer to the five Jñāna Buddha lineages.
The three lineages do not technically refer to lineages, but actually refer to the body, speech, and mind of the Buddhas, or the lineage of the great secret refers to the inseparable union of the method aspect of the path, great bliss, and of the wisdom aspect of the path, the clear light. And he is called omnipresent because he is the lord of both the emanation outwards and the resorption inwards of all of the lineages. And still on page eight, the color of the consort here of Vajradhāra can either be blue, similar to that of the renowned Vajradhāra. Khedrup Je says this is a normal or ordinary way of doing things. Or uncommonly, it is also allowable to make her body red in color since she is of the nature of the embodiment of tummo or bliss.
And since he is heroic and eternally holding or brandishing the definitive Vajra, which is the wisdom of great bliss, and the definitive bell—here in which he says a clear light, the wisdom realizing emptiness—he is known as Vajradhāra or Vajrasattva. And the garments of Vajradhāra are known as a Pañcalika. They have numerous qualities. They are extraordinarily cool in the summer. They are warm in the winter, thin but soft.
They can be gathered in one hand, and yet when allowed to spread out, they pervade the entire universe. In commentary on page eight, regarding dispels all anguish. This is a quote from your six-session Guru Yoga on page four, middle paragraph. His mere recollection dispels all anguish. There are many modes of existence of the different modes of dispelling the anguish.
So here specifically, there are three. They are the mode of dispelling the anguish of the being of small, middling, and great scope. For the being of small scope, the guru dispels the anguish of the fear of the lower realms. For the being of middling scope, he dispels the anguish of the fear of the general suffering of cyclic existence. And for the being of great scope, he dispels the anguish and the fear of peace and existence.
So this is a presentation of dispelling the anguish from the negative standpoint, from the standpoint of refutation. Dispelling the anguish from the positive standpoint is for the three beings: for the being of small scope, it dispels the anguish through teaching, or the teacher dispels the anguish through teaching the liberation from the lower realms. For the being of middling scope, through teaching liberation from cyclic existence in general, and for the being of great scope, through teaching liberation from the fear of existence and peace. And moving onwards with the commentary, Je Tsongkhapa and so forth teach that adopting the Vajra posture indicates the means of the signs of enlightenment, which have the nature of the four postures. Here, Khedrup Je says this refers to the posture of the feet, the posture of the channels, the posture of the winds, and the posture of the union of method and wisdom.
Enlightened, one is enlightened in the aspect of the five lineages. If any one of the five lineages is missing, enlightenment is not possible. So for instance, if Vairochana were absent, then the Buddha’s body, the Vajra body would not exist. If Amitābha were absent, the Vajra speech would not exist. And if Akṣobhya were absent, the Vajra mind would not exist.
This is why they are symbolized by the three syllables, Om, Ah, and Hung on the crown, at the throat and at the heart. Without them, there is no Buddhahood. And then moving onwards in the commentary on page eight, at the bottom of the page, as to the invitation, in keeping with the quote, whatever wisdom pervades will also be found to be pervaded by the body. So here, beams of light emanate from the Hum at the heart of the guru deity visualized in front of oneself, and invite the wisdom beings which pervade the totality of space. In keeping with the quote from Je Tsongkhapa’s song of realization, I pay homage to Buddha Śākyamūni whose body is born from countless virtues, whose speech sates the wishes of all beings, and whose mind knows all objects of knowledge.
The dharmakaya knows all objects of knowledge without exception. And therefore, wherever there is an object of knowledge, there is a dharmakaya. And since the Rūpakāya, the form body of the Buddha is merely a manifestation of the wind which underlies the dharmakaya, and is necessarily of one made nature with it, wherever that dharmakaya is, the Rūpakāya is as well. Therefore, it is not necessary to invite from afar the wisdom beings, since every object of knowledge is pervaded by the dharmakaya, and the form body itself is present wherever the dharmakaya itself is present. Our text reads onwards, the mind of the Buddha, the omniscient wisdom pervades all objects of knowledge, and since whatever is pervaded thereby is pervaded by the body, even though it is unnecessary to invite from afar when it just arises as a form body from the midst of the truth body.
Nonetheless, an invitation in the aspect of an emanation body from fields of the enjoyment bodies is uttered for the sake of those who have not found such a certainty. This invitation is uttered for those who are not certain of this fact. And at present, in the context of the invitation, one visualizes the wisdom beings which are invited, settling on top of the pledged beings. One then utters the syllables. When one utters Jah, the wisdom being settles on the crown of the samaya being. When one utters Hum, it dissolves within the samaya being without, however, blending or mixing with it.
When one utters Bam, the syllable actually blends in the same way as when water is poured in, when milk is poured in initially the mixture is not complete, one must mix them for the mixture to be complete. And finally, when Ho is uttered, they are totally inseparable. This is the same as when one invites through hooking and entering, and then satisfying. And here, having invited the wisdom beings and after the wisdom beings have dissolved in the pledged beings, one makes offerings to the guru deity, and this is on page six of the root text of your six-session Guru Yoga. I offer oceans of various clouds of outer, inner, and secret offerings which are owned and ownerless, actually set out and mentally emanated.
And moving onwards on page nine of Pabongka Rinpoche’s commentary, this is said to maintain the pledges of Akṣobhya and the Vajra Master in the footnotes to the root text of the six-session Guru Yoga. So in this context, one is protecting the 19 uncommon pledges of the five families of lineage Buddhas, the families of Vairochana, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, Amoghasiddhi, and Akṣobhya. And these include the six pledges of Vairochana, of which the first three are taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha, as well as the four pledges of Ratnasambhava, which are engaging in the four types of giving, such as giving material objects, giving protection, giving love and so forth, as well as the pledges of Akṣobhya, which include the Vajra Mind Pledge, the Bell Speech Pledge, and the Mudra Body Pledge. And at present, the uncommon pledges of Amoghasiddhi, which include protecting all of the 18 remaining vows, as well as performing specific offerings. These are the uncommon pledges of the five lineages of Buddhas.
And therefore, it is critical for us to understand clearly what the vows are and to examine carefully six times every day which vows we have kept and which unfortunately we have broken. If we do not do this, it is impossible for us to protect the vows and the pledges. Then in turn, if one does not know what the root downfalls are, how can one hope to protect oneself from them? In the same way as if one does not know who the thief is and can’t recognize him, how can one hope to apprehend him? Therefore, in the context of the six-session Guru Yoga, specific verses and practices are dedicated to protecting each of the 19 uncommon pledges of the five lineages.
Starting with taking refuge, which protects the first three of the vows or the pledges of Vairochana, followed by specific practices to protect two of the four pledges of Ratnasambhava, which is giving love and fearlessness. Followed by verses and practices to protect three of the vows of Akṣobhya, which are the vows of the Vajra, Bell, and Mudra. And finally, one of the vows of Amoghasiddhi is protected through performing the offering of suchness. So we ourselves have freely chosen to take the 18 root Bodhisattva vows and the 14 root Tantric vows. And if we do not know and understand what they are, we will quite easily break these root vows.
Without vows, it is impossible to attain full enlightenment. For this reason, these vows are repeated and ascertained six times each day. And the verse extolling the munificence of Vajradhāra on page five of the six-session Guru Yoga encapsulates this. I bow to the Vajra bearing feet of the jewel-like Guru by whose benevolence great bliss dawns in one very life. In one very instant here refers to one very short precious human rebirth, which is fleeting when compared with the beginningless expanse of cyclic existence in which we have suffered until now.
And the benevolence of the Guru is understood in terms of his kindness and of the blessings imparted to us. And in this context, you have two terms in Tibetan which are used, the one with the Vajra, Dorje Chang, and the Vajra Holder, Dorje Chang, they are synonymous. And at present, those who have received mother tantra initiations and them alone recite the eight verses of praise, which are on page five of your six-session Guru Yoga. The commentary is on page nine of Pabongka Rinpoche’s commentary. One does this through visualizing that the root guru visualized in space in front of oneself in the aspect of Vajradhāra transforms into Heruka.
And after offering praise, it is appropriate for him to return to the state of the appearance of Vajradhāra. And here, Vajradhāra and the Guru are one. They are only different in terms of their aspect. In terms of nature, they are one. In the context of tantric practice, there is no difference between Vajradhāra and the guru.
The Sanskrit term guru means one who is heavy or one who is extremely holy. Apart from the Buddha, there is no such being. So there is no Dharma practice, Rinpoche says, in which one separates the guru from the tutelary deity. The tutelary deity is the guru. The guru is the tutelary deity.
And at this point, in the context of reciting the praise and eight verses, after the root guru has transformed into Heruka, one emanates from one’s heart beams of light, which perform offerings of outer, inner and secret as well as suchness offerings and it is important here to visualize that great bliss has arisen within the mind of the guru. And at this point, one offers mandala. One can either offer the concise mandala or the extensive mandala offering. And at present, in keeping with Ārya Shura’s 50 verses of guru devotion, one is held to offer mandala to the guru six times daily. This is one of the pledges of the 50 verses of Guru Devotion. Now, in the context of the six-session Guru Yoga, one offers mandala in each of the six sessions.
Therefore, one will fulfill this commitment. And here, regarding the eight verses, there are two subdivisions of these eight verses of praise, the eight verses of praise of definite meaning and of interpretable meaning. The definite meaning is extraordinarily profound, and Rinpoche will not explain it here. As for the interpretable meaning, the meaning of some of the terms would be, for instance, on page five of your six-session Guru Yoga, Om I prostrate to the conqueror lord of heroes, Om Hum Phat. Om here refers to the body of the Buddhas.
The conqueror is Chomdende. Chom here refers to Vajradhāra. De refers to his having qualities. So such a word by word commentary is very profound and cannot be given here. Those who are interested can read the texts.
And the verse on page seven of your root text of the six-session Guru Yoga after the Mandala offering is a verse of beseeching, which is connected with generating faith in recollecting the qualities of the virtuous friend. I beseech the precious guru endowed with the deeds of the conquerors in countless fields—in other words, immeasurable fields—just as those gone to bliss. These are the Buddhas of the three times and the 10 directions. The three times of the past, present, and future, and the 10 directions are the four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions, the zenith and the nadir, tame whomsoever by the play of saffron. So here, clearly, those gone to bliss of the three times and the 10 directions include all of the Buddhas, whichever were and might ever be. In other words, the sum total of Buddhas.
And they manifest to tame beings in the aspect or by the play of saffron. In other words, in the aspect of one who is fully ordained. This is their main mode of manifestation. They manifest in countless numbers of emanations, performing countless deeds and in countless fields. And of the three deeds of the Buddhas, the deeds of the body, speech, and mind, supreme are the deeds of the speech, since it is they which actually train beings.
All the deeds of the body are for the sake of acting as a refuge for beings, and the deeds of the mind are a necessary corollary, or a necessary underlying cause of the deeds of speech. Vajradhāra said in a very profound quote, truthless, turning away from the truth, and true indeed. Truthless refers to the practice of ordinary beings such as ourselves, without realizations, who claim to understand Dharma, but who actually have no realization of the grounds and paths. The grounds and paths are truthless for them, because they have no realizations of this. They are unable to give rise to them.
Turning away from the truth, the second two words, refers to the practice of all bodhisattvas, such as ārya bodhisattvas, and so forth, who even though they have an understanding of the truth, in as much as they are still obscured by the ignorance of apprehension, are unable to understand the actual nature, the ultimate nature of phenomena. True indeed refers to the state of full enlightenment and the capacity of the Buddha to see all of the needs and wishes of all trainees without exception. And when it is said in this quote, truthless regarding those who lack realizations. This does not mean, however, that Dharma practice for them is meaningless, since they are able to lay imprints in their minds in the same way as a farmer sows crops in his field. Without the sowing of crops, there is no hope to reap a crop.
Likewise, without implanting these karmic imprints, there is no hope to obtain a result. As is said in a famous passage in verse, had the grain not been sown, even the king of gods letting forth the rains of deluge could not give rise to a crop. So through listening to dharma, one actually accomplishes a great purpose. One imprints the karmic imprints, which will later on give rise to a virtuous crop. There are three types of imprints which can be implanted.
The imprints of hearing, of thinking, and of meditating. The imprints of hearing are the weakest. The imprints of thinking are stronger, and the imprints of meditating are the strongest. In dependence on the imprints of hearing and so forth, later on, when the Buddha teaches and we hear these teachings, realizations will effortlessly dawn within our minds. So, to try to meditate without hearing or study is compared to a fool who is trying to erect the roof of a house after having lopped off both of his hands. It is not possible. Therefore, one has to progress incrementally, studying or hearing first, then reflecting, and finally meditating. So to have studied or listened to a lot of teachings for the sake of teaching others is of no great benefit. It is actually for one’s own benefit that one should initially listen.
And the following stands on page seven of your six-session Guru Yoga. I beseech the precious guru praised by Vajradhāra, thinking of those of dull acumen as excellent among the holy superior fields from within all the circles of the myriad of Conquerors. Here, it is thinking of the beings of dull acumen, in other words, beings who have not studied the dharma that manifests for the benefit of beings. The circles here of the myriad of Conquerors refer to the three circles of the body, speech, and mind, which are the specific ornaments exclusive to the Buddhas. We ourselves are fully aware of the fact that Buddhas have come in the past, and yet that we ourselves have not met them.
We have not encountered them on account of the delusions within our minds. It is because of the afflictive obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience that we have not encountered the Buddhas. And if the Buddha came as a plane making a booming sound in the sky, this would not be of great benefit for us. Instead, the Buddhas manifest in the form of Gurus for the benefit of trainees. Specifically, Vajradhāra manifests his body, speech, and mind exclusively for the benefit of trainees taking on a human appearance, an ordinary appearance for our sake.
This is what is meant by the great kindness of the spiritual teacher. It is for this reason that we say that the guru encapsulates all of the Buddhas. Once one has attained enlightenment, one acts exclusively for the welfare of others. This is the goal of attaining enlightenment. What Buddha would they be who did not manifest for others?
And for this reason, it is said in one of the stanzas of entreaty of the Lama Chöpa, circle which ornaments the three bodies of the ones gone thus. I beseech thee who manifests as compassionate protector for the welfare of beings in an ordinary guise, manifesting a net, a webbing of magical emanations of skillful means. This refers to the fact that the spiritual teacher manifests in an ordinary guise for the sake of beings, manifesting for the sake of beings as desirous when he himself is not desirous, manifesting as angry when he is not angry, manifesting as ignorant when he himself lacks ignorance. And therefore, it is for this reason that we owe respect and gratitude to the spiritual teacher who has manifested in an ordinary form for the sake of leading us. Had it not been for his or her manifesting in an ordinary form, we ourselves would never have encountered the teaching and would not have the slightest chance to be liberated or to attain full enlightenment.
It is not at all the case that we have been abandoned by the Buddhas. The Buddhas have manifested countless times. As Śāntideva says, countless have been the manifestations of the Buddha, and yet I have met none. It is our lack of merit, which means that when Buddha Śākyamūni manifested, we did not encounter him. It is our afflictive obstructions and the obstructions to omniscience within our minds.
It is from the spiritual teacher that we receive these teachings and are able to progress. And, as is said in a quote, even though every single Buddha came without exception, nonetheless, we were not able to see any of their major or minor marks. In other words, the totality of the Buddhas have manifested for our sake, and yet, due to our lack of virtue, we were totally unable to establish a connection with them. Returning to page seven of the six-session Guru Yoga, the first two stanzas which we covered, explain how to rely on the spiritual teacher through thought. The last stanza, how to rely on him through behavior.
Upon seeing that all common and uncommon attainments without exception follow correct reliance on thee, Lord. Bless me to delight thee alone even at the cost of body and life. Without exception means that it is all attainments without exception. The common attainments refer to the eight siddhis, and the uncommon attainment refers to full enlightenment. And one should focus on delighting the spiritual teacher at the very cost of one’s life.
Generally speaking, within these three modes of relying on the spiritual teacher, the foremost is relying on him in actual practice, because this refers to relying on his instructions to practice. This is the main teaching of the spiritual teacher. The spiritual teacher teaches us how to attain enlightenment and then tells us, I have taught you how to attain liberation and enlightenment. Now it is up to you. Practice and you will, do not practice and you will not.
So we have finished the elapsed time and therefore today, unfortunately, there will be no questions.