Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Lama Ribur Rinpoche outlines the foundational role of guru devotion in Buddhist practice, emphasizing that proper relationship with a qualified teacher is indispensable for progress toward enlightenment. He establishes this through comparison: just as any worldly skill requires a model and instructor, spiritual liberation demands training under a perfect guru. The first of eight key benefits—achieving Buddhahood itself—is explored at length through the example of Milarepa, who attained enlightenment in a single lifetime through unwavering devotion to Marpa. Rinpoche then offers three vivid historical illustrations: Dromtönpa acquiring divine clairvoyance through humble service to Atisha; Amatam Chorinche surpassing full-time meditators through pure-hearted attendance on his lama; and Naktso Lotsawa’s extraordinary realization born from the merit of his devoted care. The teaching concludes by identifying the remaining seven benefits—protection from harm, increase of virtue, decrease of fault, closure of lower rebirth, and future guru meetings among them—inviting practitioners to contemplate these through the same analysis already modeled.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 GD.mp3
UUID: 670da011-ee76-444b-9ebf-23623ada400b
Teacher: Lama Ribur Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Devotion (Lama Ribur Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 29.0 minutes
Words: ~1,845
So whatever you’ve heard in all these six years, then I’m going to put all these subjects together in a gradual way so you can be, you will be able to meditate and to have experience of all this hearing. So right now, if you actually, if you want to meditate, is fine. If you want to, if you really want to meditate from now on, it’s okay. I will tell you whatever all the subjects are and so if you want to, because all these teachings you have already heard, so the only thing you have to do now is to put all this into practice. So from now on, if you want to meditate, it’s fine.
Now I have obtained the precious human rebirth, which gives me the opportunity to practice Dharma in this life and for the benefit of all future lives. And there’s no way how can I practice Dharma without being based on the guru devotion? So I must think about how to relate in the proper way towards the guru or the lama. In the same way as I, the same way as I need an example in order to master all the work or the activities in this life, in the same way, I need a proper guru that gives me the right example in order to reach the freedom or the total or the complete Buddhahood. Just like the works or the jobs that you can do in this life, whatever job it is, you need an example, you need the model, you need somebody that shows you how to do that, otherwise you won’t be able to do. So the same way, if this ordinary job has to be preceded by a learning period, having an example, so in the same way, the Buddhahood and the perfect liberation should be preceded by the training with the perfect example, which is the guru.
And having met, having met what is a perfect guru or a guru having all the requirement or the characteristic in order to be a perfect teacher, so we should understand which are the benefits in having a correct relation towards it or with this guru. And having understood which are the benefits of this correct relationship, we should stick, we should stick to a perfect behavior, to a perfect morality in order to take all the maximum advantages from this teacher himself. The first benefit is, having based on a perfect relationship with the proper guru, we can obtain or we can achieve the Buddhahood. And why is it like that? Because if you relate to a proper guru in the correct way, you are going to receive the instruction which leads you from the ordinary state to the complete Buddhahood through the practice of the gradual path and through the practice of the two main tantric stages. So if you obtain, if you achieve all this instruction and you practice in the same way has been taught to you, there’s no doubt that you’re going to realize all this attainment, all this achievement.
And in the same way like Marpa instructed Milarepa and Milarepa was able to achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime, so the same way you can actually do, because the base on which Milarepa was working on, that is the precious human rebirth, is the same like yours. There’s not actually even one hair of difference between you and Milarepa according to the base that is the human life. So if you relate yourself in the correct way towards a proper guru, having all the characteristics, so through his teachings, practicing in the same way like he teaches you, there’s no doubt that you’re going to achieve the freedom and the perfect Buddhahood. Through the perfect relation with the correct teacher you can achieve what are called the three, or you can generate, you can realize the three principal aspects of the path and you can realize renunciation, bodhicitta and the perfect view based on practicing the teaching that have been given by your guru.
And up to the path of accumulation and up to the path of consummation, you have to base your practice on what your teacher teaches you. There’s not actually just a single moment when you can sort of abandon the practice of guru devotion. You can’t abandon the guru devotion practice till you are complete, till you are complete Buddhahood. And if you are able in your, during your path, if you’re able in your path to perform what is to be practiced and to abandon what is to be avoided or abandoned, this is only due to the kindness of your teacher. This is due only to the teaching or instruction that was being given to you. So the way how to achieve Buddhahood is through practicing or taking experience of the teaching that has been given you by a perfect guru. There’s no doubt. There’s absolutely no doubt that if you practice in accordance with the instruction you have received by your perfect guru, there’s no doubt that you’re going to achieve the Buddhahood. So because of that, because there’s so much value, there’s so much precious to have a perfect relationship with your guru, so because of this, you should strive in order to obtain it, in order to generate the perfect devotion towards your teacher.
So in order to understand if this is true or not, you should read all those biographies of the great saints of the past. How did they achieve all their achievement? How did they achieve the complete Buddhahood? They achieved through a perfect devotion to their teacher, to their guru, and practicing in accordance, in practicing in accordance to the instruction they have received. So, like reading all those biographies, you understand how important is to relate with a perfect, and correctly, in a correct manner to a perfect guru. In order to understand how important is to have a correct relation with the teacher, there are many many many stories. For example, one is regarding Atisha. Atisha had, in his, when he was quite old and he was very close to death, he had two main disciples. One was the Dromtönpa, and the other one, it was called Naktso Lotsawa.
And both of them were servants of, like, all day long a servant of Atisha. So what happened is that Atisha, instead of like, it was not because it was impossible for him to go to the toilet to defecate, but it was in order to, for these two servants, for these two disciples to accumulate merit. What he was doing, he was like, leaving, how do you say, was leaving on, like, part of his feces around the room. So, Dromtönpa, in order to, with really like single-pointed devotion, he was collecting all this and taking outside and holding it above his crown. And due to his single-pointed devotion, when he once, when he got outside of the house and he was going to put the guru’s feces on the earth, yet he acquired what is called the divine eye clairvoyance which is able to see objects and phenomena very far in a very far distance.
So the cause, the main cause for him to achieve that clairvoyance was not meditation. He didn’t get this siddhi or this power through meditation, but he acquired that through the merit that he collected with that, with those actions based on a very pure single-pointed devotion. Again, Atisha had this servant, Ngok Lotsawa Loden Sherab, who was continuously helping him out, serving from early in the day up to late at night. And he was cooking and collecting the food, water and so forth. It’s not actually, being the attendant of a lama is not like easy. It was not easy like it is now where you just cook wherever you want and there is stuff and so forth. It was very difficult at that time. So he didn’t have a single instant or free time where he can apply some meditation, he can devote his time to meditation. He didn’t have a single instant of free time. So there was another, at that time there was another disciple of Atisha who used to spend his whole time up in the mountain meditating.
So sometimes when these two were coming together, so the meditator and Ngok Lotsawa, there was not one single moment when the meditator was able to be as highly realized as Ngok Lotsawa. Ngok Lotsawa, this cook, this servant, always very much more highly realized than the meditator. And the reason it was not because he was secretly meditating or something during night, but just because of his devotion, just because of his action, of his perfect attending or serving his lama. So through this, this, like going on those biographies, reading those biographies, you should understand which great value is in having a great relation with the guru. So this was the first of the eight, among all the eight great benefits of having correct relation with your guru.
So like applying the same techniques, applying the same analysis that we have done now, you should meditate on all the other eight. Lamrim texts actually list all the eight, as I’m going to, I’m trying to do that, but because you have received Lamrim teachings, you know. So the first one is you are easily reaching Buddhahood and then the second is that you are protected by human and non-human harms and that your qualities are going to increase and then the fourth one is that your faults are going to decrease. The fifth one is the lower realm door is closed and then the sixth one is that you’re going to meet another perfect lama in the future and the seventh, the seventh and the eighth. Rinpoche is repeating what I’ve said, but there are still two. I don’t remember which are these two. Are there any good questions here?
So we stop here. So tomorrow will be from eleven to twelve thirty, and in the afternoon from two to three thirty PM. And what I’ve said today would be very good if you can, like, if you can meditate about, so if you can put little bit in practice.
Thank you.