Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 31-minute talk, Lama Ribur Rinpoche establishes guru devotion as the foundational step of spiritual practice, using the metaphor of a tree’s root to illustrate why a correct relationship with the spiritual teacher is essential to reaching Buddhahood. He explains why this topic, central in Tibetan Buddhism and drawn from Ashvaghosha’s Fifty Stanzas of Guru Devotion, is less emphasized in the Western context—teachers must avoid giving the impression that devotion serves the lama’s self-interest rather than the student’s liberation. Rinpoche then outlines the practical approach: analytical meditation on the benefits of proper guru relation and the shortcomings of a broken one, followed by stabilizing meditation once genuine devotion arises. He emphasizes that this foundation, once established, puts the entire path within reach, and that without it, further practice lacks direction. Suited for practitioners beginning or deepening their understanding of tantric training.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 GD.mp3
UUID: ebfe14ac-3cdd-4642-9ffa-905e9dd32ddb
Teacher: Lama Ribur Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Devotion (Lama Ribur Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 31.0 minutes
Words: ~1,617
This round or cyclic existence since beginningless 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 order to be ready to put the second step and so forth and we should train ourselves in the spiritual path understanding clearly what we should do 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 Lamrim Chenmo 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 on the root and without root 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 spiritual practice, your spiritual level. So the root of all this, the essential root of all this 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, what are the shortcomings of breaking that relation or having a bad relation with this spiritual teacher. So what is the first again, what’s the first step of these stairs is the of this, like, spiritual stair is the guru devotion. And so it should be really emphasized and which are the benefit in order in order to generate a a genuine a genuine reverence or a genuine devotion towards our spiritual teacher.
And we should also contemplate what are the shortcomings 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 stairs 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 is like absolutely necessary or is absolutely necessary to have a great relation towards the spiritual teacher because that is the source of all your attainment.
And because of this reason Dalai Lama is used to after during the one of the Maha Anuttara Yoga Tantra initiation, one of these great initiations, it gives always after the preliminaries, let’s say, the preliminary initiation, he gives always the complete explanation of the Fifty Stanzas of Guru Devotion by Ashvaghosha. 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 this fifty stanza of guru devotion by Ashvaghosha. 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 and a very extensive manner this subject, especially this object because so important.
And now the difference is that here in the West is not really emphasized. I mean, students know that it’s very important but it’s not that it’s emphasized, it’s so emphasized like it was in Tibet and it’s actually it should be because you are receiving a lot of lower tantra initiations as well as highest tantra initiations. So it becomes very important for you to understand how you should relate in a correct 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 the people basically are beginners and the lamas as the teacher they should be very careful in how do they explain the Dharma to the beginner beginner because if if, for example, they emphasize a lot about guru devotion, then it can be misunderstood.
The student being new, they they can they can misunderstand the teaching as a form of self-cherishing on the part of the Lama. They can understand that the Lama wants wants the student to be devoted to himself and to give offerings to him. So so actually, the this may be one of the reason why the lama, they don’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 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 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 contemplate 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 a 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, 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 generate the right feeling, the right feeling of devotion towards the spiritual guide. So you should do this in a gradual manner.
What you should do is that you should apply first 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 the correct relation towards the spiritual guide and which are the shortcoming in or not having that proper relation and you should meditate over and over all the various point up to the moment you feel that you like like you grasp the essence of the guru devotion and then at that moment you place your mind on this. For example the first point which is the first benefit of having a proper relation to the Guru says, if you relate properly to your spiritual guide, then Buddhahood will be closer and closer or you are going to achieve very quickly the Buddhahood. So this can be divided in two points, this analysis.
The first reason because you are going to reach 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 as the teacher instruct you to do and in this way you are going to achieve very quickly without any mistake without any error you’re going to achieve very quickly all the attainments you want to realize and Buddhahood itself. The other reason why it is very easy or why if you have how it is that if you have a very proper relation towards your teacher then the Buddhahood comes closer and closer. That is because he says that the teacher is the highest of all the objects of refuge and is the highest of all the offering object. So object of offerings.
So it says that just like just like because the Buddha is like the representation of the embodiment of all Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha refuge, so the lama becomes