Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 9-minute talk, Lama Ribur Rinpoche teaches the essential role of guru devotion within the Lamrim path structure. He explains the three kindnesses of the guru and why generating the conviction that sees one’s teacher as a Buddha is foundational, drawing on the example of his own teacher who spent an entire year developing this realization. Rather than waiting to complete one topic before moving to the next, Rinpoche recommends practicing guru devotion and precious human rebirth simultaneously in morning and evening sessions to accelerate progress. He emphasizes that the Lamrim’s three principal paths—renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness—must be established as a stable foundation before expecting real results from tantric practice. This teaching clarifies the proper sequence and balance needed for sustained spiritual development.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 GD.mp3
UUID: a54d2f28-cf2f-43de-b770-6982c328cac7
Teacher: Lama Ribur Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Devotion (Lama Ribur Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 9.5 minutes
Words: ~808
The teacher is teaching you the like, in the three, they’re calling the three kindnesses, and then being the embodiment of all Buddha Buddha of the three times. And so going from each and every of these reasons, you should generate what is called the devotion towards your guru that sees your guru no different from the Buddha himself. And, and then from that point on, you should start the precious human rebirth topics. But you see, especially regarding the generation of firm conviction, generation of the devotion towards your guru is not something very easy, especially if you want to generate the top one, the top range one, the one that sees the lama as the Buddha. And I remember once he told me that when he did his retreat on Lamrim, it took a year, it took a year just to generate the firm conviction that his teacher was a Buddha and to generate a strong devotion towards him.
And so if it if it if it took one year to him, I’m I’m pretty sure that it will take no less than three years for us. And so in order to be maybe quicker, what we can do is that we can start the Lamrim from two doors simultaneously from the door of the Guru devotion and from the door of the precious human rebirth. In this way what you can do is that you can meditate in the morning session, on the topic of guru devotion, going over and over the six benefits and the six shortcomings, and so trying to generate as much as possible the, guru devotion, and then in the evening session, in the afternoon session you can meditate on the precious human rebirth topics. So in this way, simultaneously you might improve in in in two different tracks. Otherwise, if you have to if you if you have to wait, to have some experience about precious human rebirth while you’re meditating, guru devotion, it might take a long time.
Again, Pabongka was saying that in Lamrim, the two main difficult topics to have experience, it’s the first is generating guru devotion, the second is recognizing all beings as your mother. So these two are the one that takes very long time. To him also the second one, the realization of all beings being our mother took a year, so I guess also for us it would take long time. So instead of dealing with one topic every time, we can do like some simultaneously, we can deal with some simultaneously. So first of all, we should practice the Lamrim path in order to have experience of the three principal paths, the renunciation, altruistic mind of enlightenment and the superior view because in this way we are going to build a very stable basis for our tantric practice.
So after we have trained in the in the what is called common path, then we are able to enter in the tantric path and to practice two stages. Generation completion stage. And because if we if we think that we can have experience of the tantric path without having the base of the Lamrim or the common path, then is really like an an utopia, like, well, and hopeless and hopeless hopeless things. And it’s like, if you want to build a house, the first things which you have to, take care of are the the foundation. If you don’t build a very stable foundation, then you’re not going to build the first floor and neither the second or the the roof.
So it’s stupid to think that you can build something on the top if you don’t have the one at the bottom. And Kedrup Je was saying, he said in his text, the one who think that the one who think that without having the base, he can meditate on the drops and winds, is a poor thing. And, it’s like object of compassion. And, and, the base in this case is the common path. Without having experience of the three principle of the path, without having renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness, it’s hopeless that you’re going to achieve some realization in the tantric path.
But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t practice. What I mean is that it’s also it is it is nonsense trying to get realization of tantric without having the common path. But it is also not very skillful way to practice only Tantric method while waiting till after you have complete realization of the three principle of the path. So, because it it can be, it may it may be possible that you die before having any any realization of these three, so you don’t have even the experience of tantra. So it’s much better if you do the two things in tandem.
[unclear]