e. How to Follow a Spiritual Friend

Having entered the path of the Dharma, and taken the outer vows of the pratimoksha—the vows of an upasaka (lay practitioner), novice or a fully ordained monk or nun—you still haven’t put a stop to your erring ways and transgress the four root[i] and various branch vows.

You have entered the door of the Mahayana, aroused the bodhichitta motivation of wishing to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings and taken the vows of the bodhichitta of aspiration and application. But you simply repeat phrases like, “May all beings have happiness!” and so on, whilst lacking any beneficial thought for others, and with an attitude that is malicious and deceitful.

Having embarked upon the path of secret mantra, and received the vase empowerment you are required to practice kyérim, or the development phase. Having received the secret empowerment, you should practice mantra recitation; having received the crystal empowerment, you should meditate on dzogrim (the completion phase); and having received the fourth empowerment, you should meditate on the meaning of shunyata. Though you have received these four empowerments many times you do not even do the slightest practice of the development and completion phases of meditation.

Considering how you have strayed onto wrong paths, pray with the words, “O lama, free me from these false paths!” This is a prayer to avoid falling under the influence of your conflicting emotions. Through relying upon a qualified master you should maintain the precepts of the pratimoksha, the bodhisattva vows and the commitments of secret mantra, as they are described in their respective texts. Then, through the coming together of the master’s blessing and your own faith and diligence, like a hook passing through a ring, you will be liberated from samsara, crossing over to its far shore.

Apart from that, there is not some other method whereby the lama just releases you from samsara, without your having to undertake positive actions and abandon negative actions, like a passenger being carried along in a ferry or someone being saved from a murderous attack. If this were the case, then since the buddhas love all sentient beings equally as their very own children, they would liberate all limitless beings in an instant, without leaving a single one behind in samsara. There was not the slightest hair’s breadth of a difference between the love Buddha Shakyamuni felt for Devadatta and the love he felt for Rahula.[ii] If his compassion and blessings alone could have liberated them, it would have been impossible for Devadatta to fall into the hells.

So it is very important that you take the words of the Buddha and your master to heart and put them into practice just as they have taught. As our Teacher said:

I have shown you the path to liberation.

But liberation depends on you alone. So practise with diligence!

And Shantideva said:

Countless buddhas, working for beings’ benefit,

Have already come and gone;

Yet on account of my faults,

I have not been an object of their healing,

And if I continue on this course,

Again and again, it will be the same.

Although you have not realized the view of shunyata, you act recklessly as if you were 'a master of crazy wisdom' and disregard the law of cause and effect. Though you are distracted in your meditation and lack the qualities described in the scriptures, you allow yourself to remain stuck in concepts, and proudly refuse to follow a qualified teacher. If you were really putting your heart into the practice, your body, speech and mind would be in complete harmony with the teachings, as was the case with Glorious Atisha and Geshe Ben. Each time they had a negative thought, they would drop it immediately, and get down from their horse to perform a mandala offering. This is how you should be. But instead of this, even though your mind is filled with disturbing emotions and the actions of your body and speech are at fault, you ignore your own shortcomings and dwell on the imperfections of others. This is like having a ghost at your eastern door and performing the ransom ritual of lü at the door in the west. Having an intellectual understanding of the difference between beneficial and harmful actions and then acting in a way that contradicts the teachings is a sign that you are Dharma-stubborn, like the hide of a butter bag, which is made tough by constantly being in contact with grease.

Pray that the lama may free you from your stubbornness and non-Dharmic behaviour and then practise according to the teachings.

Although you suffer from sickness and could die tomorrow, you are full of craving for and attachment to houses, clothes and possessions. Although your youth has passed and you are quite old, you do not have the slightest disenchantment or renunciation for samsara. Although you possess only the slightest wisdom gained through study, reflection and meditation, like the frog who lived in the well, you pride yourself on all your knowledge. This arrogance comes from falling under the power of delusion, so pray that the lama will free you from such ignorance, and then abandon your attachment to samsara and your pride in your own qualities.

The time of your death is uncertain and, like a candle in the breeze or a little bird on the branch of a tree, you are surrounded by potentially dangerous circumstances. Yet still you forget about death and busy yourself with the affairs of this life, such as taking part in local rituals. With a mind that is distracted, you may physically remain in solitary retreats, but all the while your basic character remains as tough as a block of wood. To remain calm like a jackal in the woods, without having uprooted your disturbing emotions, speaking softly, while attachment and aversion boil inside your mind, is like the behaviour of a crane or a cat. All of this is a sign that you are under the influence of the eight worldly obsessions: gain brings you happiness, and loss makes you suffer; you are happy to receive praise, but blame makes you angry; fame makes you happy, and insignificance saddens you; and you are joyful in happiness, but despair when you suffer. Pray with the words, “O lama, free me from these eight worldly concerns!”

You should not allow yourself to become too preoccupied with concerns such as happiness and suffering, but view them all equally—in one taste—and integrate them into your practice. This is achieved firstly by recognizing that the one who is happy when praised and becomes sad when blamed is essentially empty. Both are equally illusory, dream-like, and lacking in true reality. Secondly, it is said:

When you are happy, dedicate it as a gathering of virtue:

May all of space be filled with benefit and happiness!

Whenever you experience happiness by gaining wealth or renown, or new clothes, or eating a delicious meal, instead of holding onto that pleasure as your own, train your mind by dedicating it. Think to yourself, “May all sentient beings, especially the hungry ghosts, the poor and the homeless, all enjoy this kind of happiness and pleasure!”

When suffering befalls you, such as when, for example, you hear something unpleasant or are afflicted by illness, it is said:

When you suffer, take on the sufferings of all,

May the ocean of suffering dry up completely!

Train your mind by thinking to yourself, “In addition to my own sufferings, may I take on the sufferings of all beings and may they enjoy happiness and well-being!”

Pray in the following way: “Quickly rouse me from this deep sleep of ignorance, in which I am like an animal who does not understand the difference between positive and negative actions!” And pray that you may be inspired by a healthy fear of causing harm and an enthusiasm for beneficial actions.

Throughout the course of your lifetimes without beginning, up until the present, you have not known how to practise the Dharma as a way of gaining freedom from samsara. Instead, you continue to languish in samsara’s prison. Pray that you may develop a genuine heart of sadness and renunciation and be quickly freed from the dismal imprisonment within samsara, thereby attaining the state of liberation and omniscience. Take this to heart.

The Treasury of Essential Instructions says:

One birth is sufficient: cut the ties of attachment today!

One accumulation is sufficient: see the master as the Buddha!

One action is sufficient: accomplish the Lama Buddha!

One training is sufficient: abandon non-Dharmic actions!

One recognition is sufficient: recognize the dharmata!

One practice is sufficient: abide by that very state of reality!