Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The Devadatta story — the companion who shadowed the Buddha for years yet gained no realizations through sheer lack of faith, ending in hell — anchors Khensur Rinpoche’s 44-minute exploration of why faith in one’s teacher is the foundation of all attainment. Rinpoche first completes the seven-limb prayer with its cloud-and-rain analogy for the Dharma wheel request and the dedication verse, then argues that we visualize the lama as a Buddha not for the teacher’s benefit but for our own: the degree of faith determines the blessings received. He explains how the teacher is regarded differently across Vinaya, Bodhisattva, and tantric levels, then closes with the Guru Yoga visualization — seed syllables on sun and moon discs at Tsongkhapa’s heart — and the four-line mantra naming him as Chenrezig, Mañjuśrī, and Vajrapāni combined.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 PP 1989-05-20.mp3
UUID: 57774c21-9461-4890-bb11-f561a112d0a3
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Preliminary Practices (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-05-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.2 minutes
Words: ~2,547
So the next limb is the limb of requesting the turning of the wheel of Dharma. And here we’re requesting the verse is directed toward the Jetsün Lama, the venerable lamas. And this, it’s in the plural, so it denotes that we’re making requests to all three of Tsongkhapa, Gyaltsab Rinpoche, and Khedrupje. And then there’s a use of an analogy. Analogy.
Just as, you know, the clouds rain comes, falls down upon the earth, bringing crops from the earth, bringing all the various grains, according to each person’s needs, according to each person’s desires that some people can eat they eat fruit, that some people eat rice, some people eat wheat. Then according to each of their needs, each of their dispositions, likeness, their desires, that this from this ring of these clouds, there arises the the object of need of each of these various types of desires. Likewise, and thereby bringing great happiness to each of these individuals from the from the great cloud of the of the understanding and compassion of these beings, requesting that a great rain fall of the vast and profound teachings of Dharma, whereby each disciple according to their individual needs can enter into the practice according to their individual dispositions, whether they seek the, their disposition is such to seek individual liberation of the hearers, whether they seek the ultimate liberation of Buddhahood, that in accordance with their desire and dispositions that the practices that they may follow the teachings whereby in order to practice to achieve the bliss of their particular desire. That requesting that this rain of Dharma fall, and thereby asking, in other words, to please give the teachings, that is to say, to turn the wheel of Dharma in accordance with the needs of each individual disciple.
Then the final verse, the final limb is the limb of dedication. And here having in this meditating on Guru Yoga, having performed the first of the six limbs of the seven-limb prayer, that is to say, beginning with the requesting not to pass into nirvana, to paying homage, making offerings, etcetera, that one has created a great deal of positive potential. One has created many types of positive actions in this way. And that taking all of this positive action, this virtue that we have created, this positive potential, not only one’s own, but all of that of others, collecting this all together, and the dependence upon this, dedicating it that the teachers may, that the teachings may flourish and spread in general. But even more so in particular, that the teachings may flourish and last a long time.
So we’ve offered the seven-limb prayer to Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual sons in the abode of the land of joy. The basis for our generating devotion, the basis for our paying homage is our Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual sons. Though in aspect there is the appearance of Tsongkhapa, it’s important to understand that we’re paying this homage and directing this seven-limb prayer to our teacher who has taught us the Dharma, that is our spiritual master, that in nature that the object is our spiritual master. So it’s important for this practice, if it’s going to be an actual practice of Guru Yoga, to imagine that Tsongkhapa is in the nature of your spiritual teacher, which I use as the analogy that though we have some bread, we have an aspect of bread, but its ingredients, it’s made up, the ingredients is wheat. Likewise though, so its aspect is bread, its ingredients is wheat.
Here the aspect is and the ingredients is one’s own spiritual master, that individual who teaches you the Dharma. And this is without this thought, this this understanding, then it’s not the actual practice of guru yoga. Nāgārjuna has said that we don’t need to make offerings to extensive beings. Amongst all the various types of beings to which we can pay homage, to which we can make offerings to, the most important is individual spiritual master, that merely this making offerings to our spiritual master is sufficient. Why is that?
It’s because what we’re trying to attain is Buddhahood. We attain Buddhahood in dependence upon the spiritual master. This is the most important object to which we can offer to. So we should It’s extremely important to pay homage to respect one’s spiritual teacher, one’s spiritual friend. That we should think about in accordance with the teachings within the graduated path, that is the Lam Rim, where it sets forth all the benefits of devoting oneself to a spiritual master and all the disadvantages or faults that accrue when one does not.
That in thinking of these advantages and disadvantages of the benefits and faults, we’re going to make a strong determination to consistently devote ourselves to our spiritual teacher. That thinking about all the attainments will be quickly attained through devoting oneself to a spiritual master and ultimately Buddhahood, that we attain the paths and grounds, that we create positive potential in devoting ourselves to spiritual master. Again and again, devoting ourselves to a spiritual master, we will in the future have someone to guide us on our path. thinking about the, you know, some of the faults that without the devoting ourselves to a spiritual master, there’s no attainments, there’s no creation of the positive potential, there’s no attainment, there’s no paths and grounds. And then in the future when we’ll be without a guide.
So in in general, when we talk about the necessity to devote oneself to a spiritual friend, one often gets the wrong ideas. That thinking that the teacher is teaching this for his his or her own purposes. But this is when we discuss the teaching on devoting oneself to a spiritual friend, we’re not talking about it’s not necessary that one is to devote oneself to the teacher who is talking about the necessity. We are are talking about the necessity to devote to your individual spiritual teacher, whoever that person might be. The necessity to make the determinations, to consistently to pay to devote to depend upon that particular spiritual teacher, your own individual spiritual teacher.
We have to think about all the various advantages that accrue from devoting ourselves to a spiritual teacher and come to determination that I’m going to make a consistent dependence upon the spiritual teacher. Also thinking about the disadvantages and thinking about I’m going to make the determination I’m not going to reverse or give up my devotion, reliance upon my spiritual teacher. So, you know, you are all the students and you’ve, you know, you studied and that, you know, the you know, the actual situation. And if we were, you know, if we were to discuss this to newer student students, they often get the wrong idea that the teacher is saying that you should devote yourself to me, that you should pay homage and respect to me, but this is not what is meant. Whoever your individual spiritual teacher is, whoever you have your main teacher, that you have faith and respect, then that is the person that you are to devote yourself to, that you are to rely on, and to hold in high regard.
So the Guru Tsongkhapa, who was the first Pänchen Lama, attained Buddhahood in one lifetime, said that however much faith we have determines the extent of our attainments. Whether we attain the various paths, the various grounds is dependent upon our faith. If there’s no faith, there’s no attainment. Therefore, our main practice is to develop faith in the spiritual master. So there was a monk by the name of who a brother to the Buddha.
You know, whatever whatever the you know, they they were always together. For many, many years, they they were always together. Whatever the Buddha did, Devadatta did. Copied everything that he did. He heard him do all the various his teachings, he saw his various actions, and he tried to do exactly the same.
He thought he was equal to the Buddha, in other words. That he he thought the Buddha was an ordinary being. He looked upon him as that, and he simply tried to copy everything that he did. Whatever the Buddha said, he said. And the but the Buddha used to say, you know, why don’t you but if you were to, you know, to develop some faith in me, if you were to respect me, then there would be a great advantage to you.
But but, Devadatta disregarded this. Saw Buddha as simply an ordinary person and simply tried to copy him, developed no faith. And though they stayed together for many, many years, he gained no realizations, no attainments, and eventually he was reborn in hell. So the faith in one’s individual lama is likened to a seed. That in the case where there is no seed, that is to say there is no faith, then there’s no positive actions are created and therefore no positive potential.
As if a seed were burnt and though it’s planted in the earth, nothing sprouts from it. So there is a difference in attitude according to levels of practice as to the spiritual master. Within the practice of discipline, that is Vinaya, the one’s individual, the Lama is thought of as a representative of the Buddha. Within the practice of the perfection vehicle, the bodhisattva vehicle, the lama is looked on to be like a Buddha. In the tantric vehicle, the lama is looked on as an actual Buddha.
Develop in the Lama, to that same degree we would attain blessings. Our mind will be blessed. If there’s no faith, there’s no blessings. This is what we need. We need the blessings of our mind in order to transform our mind.
We make use of this practice of the Guru Yoga in order to begin to see our spiritual master as a Buddha. A Buddha has no faults. Therefore, an ordinary person has faults. If we look upon our spiritual teacher as having faults then we will not develop great faith and we need to develop great faith. We begin to see our teacher as a Buddha in the same nature as a Buddha in order to see our teacher as having no faults, as a way of attaining great faith and thereby receiving the blessings of the Buddha and this enables us to transform our mind quickly attaining the various paths and grounds.
This is the reason that we see the Lama as a Buddha. So from the side of the Lama, there’s no need for this practice. You know, whether or not, you know, they’re meditating on the Buddha as Lama, or they say Lama as Buddha, meditating on Lama as Buddha, you know, whether there’s no purpose from the side of the Lama. It doesn’t help the Lama for you to meditate in this way. It doesn’t hurt the Lama if you see him as an ordinary sentient being.
So that’s not the purpose from his side or her side. It is the individual who engages in such a type of meditation who is benefited. By beginning to see the Lama more and more, as a Buddha we create greater and greater faith. Through creating greater and greater faith we receive the greater and greater blessings to our mind. This has the potency to transform our mind, helping us to quickly attain the various grounds and paths.
So the need is from the side of the individual. Trying to the the qualities of the Buddha are unimaginable. I’m beginning to see these qualities imbued in the lama. By faith, we mean seeing these qualities within the lama and longing for those qualities. Then we develop respect and in dependence upon seeing the kindness of the of the lama.
That even the the great the blessed one when the the Buddha appeared in the Bodh Gaya and gave various teachings, that for us presently is of no direct benefit. And even all the great masters who have lived in the past in India, for example, are to us presently directly of no benefit. But it is our individual teacher who we have, who is, who is, or her great kindness is directly benefiting us, who begins to help us to differentiate between what are negative actions, what are positive actions, helps us to, to guide us in our meditation on developing an awakening heart, meditating on emptiness, shows us what is to be adopted, is to reject it, to be rejected. So our actual practice is directly dependent upon the kindness of our individual spiritual teacher. And this thinking of him this way, developing respect for him or her.
Seeking to meditate well on great kindness of one’s spiritual master developing faith and respect, You know, thinking of all the advantages and disadvantages of all that the spiritual lama is, what you can attain in dependence upon the spiritual master. And then thinking thinking about the kindness of the spiritual master in this way until tears begin to flow from your eyes and with remembering the great kindness and developing this respect and faith in the spiritual master. Then imagining that within the visualization before you of Tsongkhapa at his heart, there appears a sun disc, a moon disc. And upon the sun disc is a letter, a blue letter, h u m or in in Tibetan there would be a little bit of circle on top and with this is the seed syllable of Mañjuśrī. And then inside this little circle is the seed syllable of Tsongkhapa, which is Ma, M A.
And then around this, on the sun disc is the mantra of the mantra circling on the moon disc. So the we now we would recite the the mantra or the verse of, the verse of, and this can be either four, five or six lines. And here it’s to be recited with four lines. The first line is, You are Avalokiteśvara, a great treasure of compassion. They are not aimed at true existence.
There are three types of compassion. Is compassion which observes sentient beings, compassion which observes phenomena, and compassion which observes the unapprehendable. Or that is to say, Chenrezig, is the embodiment of all these compassions. Then the second line is saying that Tsongkhapa is also Mañjuśrī. Mañjuśrī is the embodiment of wisdom and that is to say he has the ultimate understanding of the mode of the abidance of all phenomena, understanding completely the two truths.
Then the fourth line is speaking of Tsongkhapa as the sage of the land of snows. The land of snows refers to Tibet. Then mentioning his ordination name that to you, which is Tsongkhapa’s which make requests. So this is the mantra in four lines. So if this were to be done in five lines, was an added line which includes that not only is Tsongkhapa Chenrezig, not only is he Mañjuśrī, but he is also vajrapani.
That these three types emanations of the Buddha are contained within Tsongkhapa himself. So they would be added this fifth qualifier, fifth type of being vajrapani. A third, which would be the fifth line, an extra line.