Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 30-minute session from a Gyalwa Gyatso retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche addresses a core obstacle: praying defensively. He challenges practitioners to notice how they hedge their prayers—”staying safe so I’m not too disappointed”—and teaches how to redirect the intensity of neurotic mind into genuine devotion. Rather than wasting that energy on samsaric preoccupations, he instructs retreatants to channel the same urgency into fervent prayer to the guru as the one true friend. He then leads the full Guru Puja: refuge, bodhicitta generation, detailed visualization of the guru as Vajradhāra, renewal of Bodhisattva and Tantric vows, offerings, confession, and guru yoga with dissolution. For practitioners already empowered in this practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 GGR.mp3
UUID: 7c07eb0c-8abf-48f9-ae2b-277c4ccc2a6b
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: z Gyalwa Gyatso Retreat (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 2004 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 30.2 minutes
Words: ~4,053
So eight days of our retreat are finished. We’re halfway finished. Those eight days are gone, they’ll never come again. And so we have about eight days remaining in this precious condition to transform our minds, to blend our minds with the mind of the Guru. I know for myself sometimes when I pray, I pray in a way that I stay safe so that just in case the Guru doesn’t respond to me I’m not too disappointed.
I wonder if any of you do that too. And so just think about how we spend so much time in our neurotic stories, caught up in the eight worldly concerns, grasping after reputation, grasping after comfort, grasping after people, after experiences, thinking about the future, thinking about the past. All that neurotic stuff that we do, we need to take that energy and transform our prayer into that kind of intensity, use that energy in our praying so that we don’t pray that we’re safe. We pray so that we get results, so that the Buddhas have to respond to us. So as we do the Guru Puja this morning, don’t be afraid to call out from the depth of your heart all that longing that you feel, all that loneliness that you experience, experience, all that confusion that you’re embroiled with, turn all of that into a heartfelt, fervent prayer to the Guru, the one true friend who can help us come out of suffering.
Starting with verse two. From the state of an exalted white virtuous mind, I and all mother beings vast the space. From this moment until our enlightenment, go for refuge to the gurus and the three precious gems. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I transform myself into a Guru Yidam, and thus shall I lead all sentient beings to a Guru Yidam’s supreme enlightenment. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I transform myself into a Guru Yidam, and thus shall I lead all sentient beings to a Guru Yidam’s supreme enlightenment.
For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I transform myself into a Guru Yidam, and thus shall I lead all sentient beings to a Guru Yidam’s supreme enlightenment. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, shall quickly, quickly in this very life attain the state of a primordial Buddha Guru Yidam. I shall liberate all mother sentient beings from suffering and lead them to the great bliss of Buddhahood. To this end, I shall now practice a profound path of Guru Yidam Yoga. So we pause here to do a brief dharmakaya meditation, imagining that the field of refuge in front of us dissolves into Śākyamūni Buddha, the central figure who comes to the crown of our heads and dissolves into us as blissful light, transforming our body and mind into blissful emptiness.
Instantly one arises in the simple form of Gyalwa Gyatso. From the seed syllable hūṃ at our heart, light goes out into the ten directions, transforming all environments into the celestial mansion of Gyalwa Gyatso. And all sentient beings become Gyalwa Gyatso. These dissolve into white light and absorb into our hearts. And then we imagine going through the eight dissolutions at the time of death, beginning with the mirage vision, seeing it as empty, the mind very blissful, arising as the three kayas.
First one. Within great bliss I manifest as a Guru Yidam. From my clear body profusions of light rays radiate forth to the ten directions blessing the environment and the beings therein. All becomes most perfectly arrayed with only excellent qualities infinitely pure. Pure Clouds.
Verse nine. In the vast heavens of indivisible voidness and bliss, amidst billowing clouds of Samantabhādra offerings, at the crest of a wish granting tree embellished with leaves, flowers, and fruit, is a lion throne ablaze with precious gems on which is a lotus, sun, and full moon. On this sits my root guru who is kind in all three ways. In essence, all Buddhas, an aspect of saffron robed monk, with one face, two arms, and a radiant white smile. Your right hand is in a gesture of expounding the Dharma.
Your left hand is in meditative pose and cradles a begging bowl filled with nectar. You’re draped with three robes of lustrous saffron. Your head is adorned by a pandits gold colored hat. In your heart, the all pervading lord, vajradhara, with the body blue in color, one face and two arms, holding vajra and bell and embracing Vajradhatu Ishvari. They are the play of simultaneous voidness and bliss, are adorned with jewel ornaments and many designs, and clothed in garments of heavenly silks.
Radiant with thousands of light rays, you are emblazoned with the major minor marks of a Buddha, and sit in the vajra position in haloed by a five colored rainbow. Totally pure, your mind is the vajra mind of the five Buddhas gone to bliss. Your four elements, the four motherly consorts, the bliss of your senses, your energy channels, sinews, and joints are all in reality bodhisattvas. The hairs of your pores are the twenty-one thousand arhats. Your limbs are wrathful protectors.
The light rays, directional guardians, lords of wealth in their attendance, while all worldly gods are but cushions for your feet. Surrounding you in their respective order is an encircling sea of actual and lineage gurus, Yadams, hosts of Mandala deities, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Viras, Dakinis, and protectors of the teachings. The three doors of each are marked with the three Vajas, from their syllables of whom light rays go out and hook-like draw forth from their natural abodes the wisdom beings, so they may become inseparable. Verse sixteen. Though all things are totally free of inherent coming and going, still you arise through your virtuous conduct of wisdom and loving compassion in whatsoever form suits the temperament of various disciples.
Oh holy refuge protectors, please come forth with your entourage. You who are the source of goodness, bliss and perfection, O root and lineage gurus, yidams, Three Jewels of refuge, dakas, dakinis, dharmapalas and protectors, with entourage of the three times, by the power of compassion, come forth and abide. We prostrate at your lotus feet, oh vajradhara Gurus. You urge your illusory body through compassion. You show in an instant even the supreme attainment of the three bodies, the sphere of great bliss..
We prostrate at your feet, oh holy refuge protectors. You are the pristine awareness while infamously playing the role of a saffron robed monk as a supreme skillful means to appear in whichever way suits your disciples. We prostrate at your feet, oh venerable gurus, sole source of benefit and hope without exception. You eliminate the root of all faults and their instincts and are a treasury of myriad jewel like qualities. We prostrate to you, oh benevolent gurus.
You are in reality all believers, teachers of all, including the gods, the source of eighty four thousand pure dharmas. You tower above the whole host of aryas.. With faith, esteem, and a sea of lyric praise, manifesting with bodies as numerous as the atoms of the world. We prostrate to you, the Gurus of the three times and ten directions, to the three supreme jewels, and to all who are worthy of homage. To you, all refuge protectors, treasures of compassion, eminent and supreme, field of merit, we present with pure faith Mount Meru, the four continents a billion times over, the seven precious royal emblems, the precious minor emblems and more, perfectly delightful environments and those dwelling within, and a grand treasure of all wishes and wealth of Gods and men.
To please you, O venerable gurus, we offer these objects, both actually arrayed and those envisioned, as a pleasure grove on the shores of a wish-granting sea. It is strewn with thousand petal lotuses, captivating the hearts of all. These are the offering objects arising from Samsāra nirvana’s white virtues. Everywhere is dotted with flowers, the virtues of the three gateways of ourselves and others in this world and beyond. It is diffused with a myriad fragrances of Samantabhādra offerings, and is laden with fruit the three trainings, two stages and five paths.
We offer a libation of china tea, the color of saffron, steeped in the glories of a hundred flavors with a delicate bouquet. This, the five meats, the five nectars, and so forth, is purified, transformed, increased into a sea of nectar. We offer even voluptuous illusion like consorts, a host of messenger dakinis, born from place, from mantras, and simultaneously born, having slender figures aglow with the vibrance of youth, and skilled in the sixty four arts of love. We offer you supreme ultimate bodhicitta beyond words, thought and expression, spontaneous and visible, the void sphere of all things free from mental fabrications of true existence, unobstructed great pristine awareness simultaneous with bliss. We offer sundry types of potent medicines to cure the plagues of the four hundred and four afflictions.
And in reverence, offer ourselves as servants to please you. Pray, keep us in your service as long as the heavens endure. Now renewing the Bodhisattva and Tantric vows. The purpose of my life is to free all my kind mother sentient beings from suffering and to lead them to enlightenment. To do this, I must receive enlightenment.
Without the Bodhisattva vows, this is not possible. Therefore, I’m going to take the Bodhisattva vows for the benefit of all my kind mother sentient beings. I go for refuge through the Three Jewels. I confess individually all my negativities. I rejoice in the merit of migrating beings.
I take hold of my mind to the perfect state of a Buddha. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the Supreme Sangha assembly, and I do so to attain an enlightened mind. In order to fill the aims of myself and others, I shall develop a supreme enlightened motive, and toward all sentient beings, my invited guests, I shall act with supreme enlightened conduct. May I become a Buddha to benefit all? I go for refuge through the Three Jewels.
I confess individually all my negativities. I rejoice in the merit of migrating beings. I take hold of my mind in the perfect state of a Buddha. To the Buddha, the Dharma, the Supreme Sangha assembly, and I do so to attain an enlightened mind. In order to fulfill the aims of myself and others, I shall develop a supreme enlightened motive, And toward all sentient beings, my invited guests, I shall act with supreme enlightened conduct.
May I become a Buddha to benefit all? I go for refuge to the Three Jewels. I confess individually all my negativities. I rejoice in the merit of migrating beings. I take holds my mind to the perfect state of a Buddha.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Sangha assembly, and I do so to attain an enlightened mind. In order to fulfill the aims of myself and others, I should develop a supreme enlightened motive, and toward all sentient beings, my invited guests, I shall act with supreme enlightened conduct. May I become a Buddha to benefit all. That an infinite number of my kind mother sentient beings are suffering in Samsāra is so unbearable. I must free them from suffering and lead them to enlightenment as quickly as possible without even delaying one second.
To do this, I must become enlightened. Without tantric vows, this is not possible. Therefore, I’m going to take the tantric vows to the benefit of all my kind mother sentient beings. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, please listen to me. I, from now until I reach the essence of Buddhahood, shall generate the sacred, peerless bodhicitta, just as all the Buddhas of the three times have ensured themselves awakening by generating it.
I pledge to uphold the vows of the Buddha family to rely on the peerless triple gem, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and the three disciplines of observing proper behavior, gathering virtuous Dharma and benefiting sentient beings. I pledge to uphold the vajra of the great vajra family and to honor my teachers. I pledge to practice four types of giving six times each day, keeping in mind the delightful commitments of the great family. For the great jewel family, I pledge to uphold individually the holy dharmas that arose from great enlightenment, those of the outer, inner, and secret three vehicles. For the great supreme karma family, I pledge to uphold all vows well and to make as many offerings as possible.
I shall generate the vows of peerless bodhicitta for the sake of all and uphold all samayas without exception. I shall deliver those not delivered, liberate those not liberated, give breath to those unable to breathe, and place all beings into the state beyond sorrow. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, please listen to me. I, from now until I reach the essence of Buddhahood, shall generate the sacred, peerless bodhicitta, just as all the Buddhas of the three times have ensured themselves awakening by generating it. I shall uphold all the general and specific tantric vows and commitments of the five families without exception.
I shall deliver those not delivered, liberate those not liberated, give breath to those unable to breathe, and place all beings into the state beyond sorrow. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, please listen to me. I, from now until I reach the essence of Buddhahood, shall generate the sacred, peerless bodhicitta, just as all the Buddhas of the three times have ensured themselves awakening by generating it. I shall uphold all the general and specific tantric vows and commitments of the five families without exception. I shall deliver those not delivered, liberate those not liberated, give breath to those unable to breathe, and place all beings into the state beyond sorrow.
So now think strongly that you have received the complete pure set of Bodhisattva and tantric vows. Verse thirty eight. Before the eyes of those having great compassion, we lay bare with a mind of regret whatsoever non virtuous actions bound to misfortune we have committed from beginningless time, caused others to do or in which we have rejoiced, and we vow never to commit them again. Though all things are like a dream lacking inherent or natural existence, we sincerely rejoice in the happiness and joy of all aryas and ordinary beings and every right virtue that has ever arisen. We ask that rains of vast and profound dharma fall from a hundred thousand clouds, billowing with sublime wisdom and loving compassion, to nurture, sustain, and propagate a garden of moon flowers for the benefit and bliss of those limitless beings.
Though your vajra body is subject to neither birth nor death, and is a vessel of unity’s wish granting gems, please abide forever and in keeping with our wishes, pass not beyond sorrow until saṃsāra’s end. We dedicate the collection of white virtues thus created, that we may be inseparably protected throughout all our lives by venerable gurus possessing the three kindnesses, and that we may attain the vajradhara state of unity. We make our request to you, O holders of the Elder’s Vinaya, O master second Buddhas clad in saffron, you brim with a treasury of the jewels of much hearing, and are a source of excellence and immense ocean of moral discipline. We make our request to you, oh Mahāyāna Gurus, Lords of Dharma, representing the victorious ones without exception. You possess the ten qualities that render you suitable guides along the path of those who’ve gone to bliss.
We make our request to you, oh foremost holders of the vajra. You are skilled in explaining and composing, are endowed with both sets of ten qualities and a knowledge of Tantra and its rituals. You are honorable without pretense or guile, patient, broad minded with your three doors well subdued. We make our request to you, O compassionate refuge protectors. With precision, you impart the good way of those gone to bliss, to the unruly beings of this degenerate age who are difficult to curb and were not tamed by the countless Buddhas of the past.
We make our request to you, oh, compassionate refuge protectors. You enact the deeds of the victorious ones for the many beings who lack a protective refuge. At this time, when the sunlight teachings of the sage are setting, we make our request to you, compassionate refuge protectors. Even a single hair from your pores is for us a field of merit, more highly praised than all the victorious Buddhas of the three times in ten directions. We make our request to you, O compassionate refuge protectors, from an intricate lattice of mirage like skillful means, emblazoned with the three body wheels of those gone to bliss.
You manifest in an ordinary guise to lead all beings. We make our request to you, O supreme gurus, the essence of the Three Jewels of refuge. Your aggregates, elements, sensory bases and limbs are in nature the fathers, mothers, male and female bodhisattvas, and the wrathful protectors of the five Buddha families. We make our request you, oh, protectors of primordial unity, foremost holders of the vajra, all pervading lords of hundreds of Buddha families, unfolding from a play of omniscient, pristine awareness. You are the quintessence of ten million Mandala cycles.
We make our request to you, immaculate Samantabhādra, who are in reality ultimate bodhicitta, free of beginning or end, the nature of all things pervading everything in motion and at rest, inseparable from simultaneous bliss and emptiness. You are our gurus, you are our yidams, you are our dakinis and Dharma protectors. From this moment until our enlightenment, we need seek no refuge other than you. In this life, the bardo and all future lives, hold us with your hook of compassion, free us from Samsāra and nirvana’s fears, grant all attainments. Be our unfailing friend and guard us from interferences.
You are our gurus. You are our yidams. You are our dakinis and Dharma protectors. From this moment until our enlightenment, we need seek no refuge other than you. In this life, the Bardo and all future lives, hold us with your hook of compassion.
Free us from saṃsāra and nirvana’s fears, grant all attainments. Be our unfailing friend and guard us from interferences. You are our gurus. You are our yidams. You are our dakinis and Dharma protectors.
From this moment until our enlightenment, we need seek no refuge other than you. In this life, the Bardo and all future lives, hold us with your hook of compassion. Free us from saṃsāra and nirvana’s fears, grant all attainments, be our unfailing friend and guard us from interferences. By the force of having thus requested three times, nectars and rays, white red and dark blue, stream forth into the centers of our Guru’s body, speech and mind. And one by one and altogether, they absorb into our own three centers.
Individually and then altogether, the four obstacles are purged, the four pure empowerments implanted, and seeds of the four kayas received. A smiling emanation of the Guru dissolves into us, and we are blessed with inspiration. Foundation of All Good Qualities. The foundation of all good qualities is a kind and perfect pure guru. Correct devotion to him is the root of the path.
By clearly seeing this and applying great effort, please bless me to rely upon him with great respect, understanding that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once, is greatly meaningful, and is difficult to find again. Please bless me to generate the mind that unceasingly day and night takes its essence. This life is as impermanent as a water bubble. Remember how quickly it decays and death comes. After death, just like a shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow.
Finding firm and definite conviction in this, please bless me always to be careful to abandon even the slightest negativities and accomplish all virtuous deeds. Seeking samsaric pleasures is the door to all suffering. They are uncertain and cannot be relied upon. Recognizing these shortcomings, please bless me to generate the strong wish for the bliss of liberation. Led by this pure thought, mindfulness, alertness, and great caution arise.
The root of the teachings is keeping the Prātimokṣa vows. Please bless me to accomplish this essential practice. Just as I have fallen into the sea of saṃsāra, so have all my mother migratory beings. Please bless me to see this and train in supreme bodhicitta and bear the responsibility of freeing all my mother beings. Even if I merely develop bodhicitta, but I don’t practice the three types of morality, I will not achieve enlightenment.
With my clear recognition of this, please bless me to practice the Bodhisattva vows with great energy. Once I pacify distractions to wrong objects and correctly analyze the meaning of reality, please bless me to generate quickly within my mind stream the unified path of calm abiding and special insight. Having become a pure vessel by training in the general path, please bless me to enter the holy gateway of the fortunate ones, the supreme vajra vehicle. At that time, the basis of accomplishing the two attainments is keeping pure vows and samaya. As I become firmly convinced of this, please bless me to protect these vows and pledges like my life.
Then having realized the importance of the two stages, the essence of the vajrayana, by practicing with great energy, never giving up the four sessions, Please bless me to realize the teachings of the holy Guru. Like that, may the Guru who shows the noble path and the spiritual friend who practice it have long lives. Please bless me to pacify completely all outer and inner hindrances. In all my lives, separated from perfect gurus, may I enjoy the magnificent Dharma. By completing the qualities of the stages and paths, may I quickly attain the state of vajradhara.
Verse one fifteen in the Guru Puja book. Having thus been entreated, O Supreme Gurus, pray grant this request, so that you might bless me happily light on the crown of our heads, and once again set your radiant feet firmly at the corolla of our lotus hearts. And so the Guru Puja Merit Field dissolves into Lama Losang Tubwang Dorje Chang, who comes to the crown of our heads, dissolves into blissful light, and absorbs into our central channel, coming to rest at the eight-petal lotus at our heart, where he remains until our complete enlightenment. Whatever white virtues we have thus created, we dedicate as causes, enabling us to uphold the holy Dharma, scriptures, insights, and to fulfill without exception the prayers and deeds of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the three times. By the force of this merit in all our lives, may we never be parted from Mahāyāna’s four wheels, and may we reach the end of our journey along the path of renunciation, the pure view in the two stages.
Through the excellence of whatever white virtues there are in saṃsāra nirvana, may all be auspicious for us to be freed here and now from all misfortune and hardship, and thus enjoy a glorious and perfect celestial treasure of. May all be auspicious for the Buddha’s teachings to endure long through your centers of Dharma omniscient being filled with house of monastics and yogis striving single-pointedly in the spirit of the Dharma. Having requested your blessings, who from the time of your youth made request to the supreme Guru Yidam. May all be auspicious for you, oh spontaneously arisen one, may all be auspicious for all our desired endowments to swell like a lake in the summer rains, bringing an unbroken flow of rebirths of leisure and faultless families, so that we may pass our days and nights with your holy dharma, O Losang, and thus delight and glorious by the collection of whatever virtues I and others have done and shall do from now until enlightenment. May all be auspicious, oh holy venerable one, for your body of form to remain in this land.