Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Lama Ribur Rinpoche establishes guru devotion as the foundational step of the spiritual path, comparing it to the root of a tree from which all branches, flowers, and fruit depend. In this 30-minute talk, he explains the critical importance of developing a correct relationship with one’s spiritual teacher, drawing on Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching that guru devotion is the root of all virtue and realization. He contrasts the Tibetan emphasis on detailed guru devotion instruction with the Western context, where beginners may misinterpret such teaching as the lama seeking self-interest rather than student welfare. Ribur Rinpoche walks through the first benefit of proper guru devotion—that it accelerates the path to Buddhahood by providing clear, direct guidance—and outlines the meditative method: analytical reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of the guru relationship, followed by stabilizing concentration on that understanding. He emphasizes that mastering guru devotion gives practitioners “the beginning of the path in your hand,” after which all further progress becomes a matter of gradual training.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 GD 1994 04 15.mp3
UUID: e0594b2a-445e-4ab4-a3fd-f0852f4ef901
Teacher: Lama Ribur Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Devotion (Lama Ribur Rinpoche)
Date: 1994-04-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 29.6 minutes
Words: ~1,666
Let me just start it with a quotation saying, from the sūtra saying, we are involved in this round or cyclic existence since beginning of this time. And, right now, we have found this, real precious opportunity, this, boat that can take us out of, the ocean of suffering of saṃsāra. And this boat is the precious human rebirth. So we should try to take the essence of this. So in order to do that, we should know how to accomplish our task in a gradual manner.
So just like, we should train ourselves in doing, like, climbing stairs, and knowing how to put the first step in order to be, in order to be ready to put the second step and so forth. And we should be we should train ourselves in the spiritual path, understanding clearly what we should do in the big in the very beginning. So what it should be contemplated and what should be experienced at the very beginning of the path is what the Lama Tsongkhapa expresses in verses saying the root of all the experiences and the root of all the virtues is the spiritual friend or the guru. So just like trees, just like the branches, fruits, and flowers of the tree and leaves are all depending from the, root. And without root, all all the leaves, branches, and so forth are not going to be, are not going to exist.
In the same way, if your aim is to reach Buddhahood and to improve your spiritual practice, your spiritual level. So the root of all these the the essential root of all these is the correct relation with the spiritual teacher. So because being so important, the correct relation with the guru, we should understand clearly which are the advantages of of having a correct relation and what are the faults or the shortcomings of breaking that relation or having a bad relation with this crucial teacher. So what is the first again, what’s the first step of these stairs is the, of this, like, spiritual stairs is the, guru devotion. And so I should be really emphasized, which are the benefit, in order in order to generate a a genuine, a genuine, reverence or a gen a genuine devotion towards our spiritual teacher.
And we should also contemplate with our which are the shortcoming or the disadvantages or of not having that relation because in this way, we are going to enhance even more our, our respect and our devotion in the in in actions and in thoughts towards our spiritual teacher. This is all because if your aim, if your task is the Buddhahood, so then the first step of of of the spiritual stares is the guru devotion. So there’s no other way, like, there’s no other way around. So the devotion to guru is really important during, like, during the beginning, the middle, and the end of our practice, and is is very important during sūtra during sūtra like training. And but it’s much more important during tantra.
During tantra training or instructions, it’s, is, like, absolutely necessary or is absolutely necessary to have a correct relation towards the spiritual teacher because that is the source of all your attainment. And, because of this, His Holiness Dalai Lama is used is used to, after during, during the, one of the Mahanuttara Yogatantra initiation, one of these great initiations, he gives always after the the preliminaries, let’s say, the preliminary initiation, it gives always the and the complete explanation of the fifty stanzas of guru devotion by Ashvagosha. And this is because after, like, receiving an initiation becomes absolutely necessary to devote yourself in mind and and in thoughts and actions to your spiritual teacher. So because of this, His Holiness is giving a detailed explanation of the of the main text of the guru devotion, which is actually these fifty stanzas of guru devotion by Ashvagosha. Guru devotion was a topic very well explained in in Tibet.
The lamas like or His Holiness himself was used to explain in a very detail, in a very extensive manner this subject, especially this object, because being so, being so important. And, now the difference is that, here in the West, is not really emphasized. I mean, it’s the students knows that it’s very important, but it’s not as emphasized. It’s it’s so emphasized like it was in Tibet. And, it’s actually it should be because, you’re receiving a lot of lower tantra initiation as well as highest tantra initiation.
So it becomes very important for you to understand how you should relate in a proper way towards your spiritual teacher. And one one reason that the lamas usually don’t emphasize a lot the guru devotion is because, Dharma in the West is a very new thing. So, so the people basically are beginners, and, the lamas as the teacher, they should be very careful in how do they how do they explain the Dharma to, the beginner. Because, if if, for example, they emphasize a lot about guru devotion, then it can be misunderstood. The student being new, they and they can they can misunderstand, the teaching as a form of, self-cherishing by the part of the by the side of the lama.
They can understand that the lama wants the wants the student to be devoted to himself and to give his offering to him. So so, actually, the this maybe one of the reason why the lama didn’t give such a detail and vast explanation of the guru devotion. But it’s absolutely necessary to to understand which is the proper way of relating to the, spiritual guide. And, especially during tantra because then you have to, you have to impose or to superimpose the the, like, the understanding of your lama being the, the Buddha himself. Especially during the tantra, during the tantra training, you should see your teacher as being the Buddha himself.
So, and that is like the peak or the top of the guru devotion. So all this should be explained in a very, very well way, like, in a very detailed way. And so it’s very important to do that because once you have once you have practiced, once you have contemplated and practiced the guru devotion, then you have a hold of the entire path, like you have the beginning of the path in your hand. And from that moment, from that point on, whatever you accomplish is just a matter of training. It’s just a matter of putting the practice put into practice, put the instruction into practice.
And there’s no there’s no real sense. There’s no much sense in trying to achieve different task, practicing something like high or lower and trying to get something in the left or in the right. But instead of this, especially regarding spiritual path, you should do everything very gradually from the base up from the bottom up to the top. So first, you should first, you should really emphasize what is the, beginning of this spiritual path, which is the spiritual, which is the devotion to the spiritual guide. So so you should you should meditate on the guru devotion in in a gradual way in order to rise, in order to generate the right feeling towards the right feeling of devotion towards the spiritual guide.
So you should do this in a gradual manner. And what you should do is that you should apply first the the analytical meditation on the various point of the guru devotion. And then when you reach a certain understanding, when you reach a certain feeling, then at that at that time, you stabilize your mind, you place your mind on that on that feeling, on that understanding, utilizing the concentration and the concentration meditation or concentrative meditation. So what you should do, for example, at the beginning is that you should understand which are the benefit of the correct relation towards the spiritual guide, and which are the shortcoming in not having that proper relation. And you should meditate over and over on the various points up to the moment you feel that you like you grasp the essence of the guru devotion, and then at that moment, you you place your mind on this.
And for example, the first point, which is the the first benefit of having a proper relation to the guru, says, if you relate properly to your spiritual guide, then the Buddhahood will be closer and closer, or you are going to achieve very quickly the Buddhahood. So this can be it can be divided in two points, this analysis. The first reason because you are going to read very quickly the Buddhahood is because it says that training yourself or practicing as your teachers explains you to do, this is going to lead you direct and straight towards the final goal, the Buddhahood. And this is because understanding the way or yeah. Understanding the way the path is structured, the way how the path starts and the way how it ends, you’re going to you can can practice just as the just as the teacher instruct you to do.
And in this way, you’re going to achieve very quickly without any mistake, without any error. You’re going to achieve very quickly the what’s all the achievements you you want to realize and the Buddhahood itself. The other the other reason why it is very easy or why why if you have how comes if you have a very proper relation towards your teacher, then the buddhahood comes closer and closer? That is because he says that teacher is the highest of all the objects of refuge and is the highest of all the objects of offering.
So it says that just like just like because the Buddha is like the representation of the embodiment of all Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha’s refuge, so the lama becomes the highest