In Guru Yoga, we pray and direct our devotion towards the master who arouses in us the greatest feeling of devotion. Here, we let him appear in the form of the Lotus-born Guru, Guru Rinpoche, who made a solemn promise that for anyone in this degenerate age who has great confidence in him and devotion to him, his blessing would be swifter than that of any other buddha. In his own words: "Those who accomplish me, accomplish all the buddhas; Those who see me, see all the buddhas."
This is his promise, a promise which can never deceive. For although Guru Rinpoche's compassion is the same for all sentient beings, it is particularly swift and powerful for those who live in this decadent age. Reflecting on our own root master, we will see that his qualities have the same nature as those of all the buddhas, and yet his kindness is even greater than theirs because he has come now, at the time when we need him. Take a group of people, for example, who are equally rich; the kindest is the one who uses his or her wealth to help the poor and those who need it most. It is just the same with the master.
If we practice Guru Yoga, perceiving that our root guru is inseparable from Guru Rinpoche, then the blessings we will receive will be both powerful and swift. When an enlightened master who has wisdom and compassion meets a disciple who has faith and diligence, it is as if the sun's rays were suddenly concentrated through a magnifying glass and focused onto dry grass, causing it to burst into flames at once. In the same way, the blessings we receive will correspond directly to the intensity of our devotion.
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Guru Rinpoche himself made this pledge: "If you have strong faith and confidence in me, I will look on you with compassion: this is my promise, And never will I deceive you."
Without this kind of faith and confidence, we cannot receive any blessings, but if we pray to Guru Rinpoche with unfailing confidence and devotion, then there is nothing we cannot accomplish. Being a fully enlightened buddha, he has the power to manifest his wisdom, his loving-kindness, and his strength. And remember that he will never, never desert us, for this was his promise.
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When the celestial dakinis sang the Seven Vajra Verses, the letter HRIH, emanating from the heart of Buddha Amitabha, descended upon a red lotus blossom on the Lake of Milk" in the northwest of the land of Oddiyana, and transformed into an eight-year-old child-Guru Rinpoche, the Lotus-born. Later, at the time when Guru Rinpoche was meditating in the Eight Great Cemeteries, the dakas and dakinis sang this Seven-Line Prayer to invite him and to request him to turn the Wheel of Dharma.
The Seven-Line Prayer carries the essence of all Guru Rinpoche's blessings. As Guru Rinpoche said: "To this very prayer, you can give your whole mind, in devotion. When a disciple calls upon me with yearning devotion, And with the sweet-sounding song of the Seven-Line Prayer, I shall come straightaway from Zangdopalri, Like a mother who cannot resist the call of her child."
Do not ever think that the buddhafields are far away, or doubt whether the buddhas may or may not come. For as Guru Rinpoche said: "I am present in front of anyone who has faith in me, Just as the moon casts its reflection, effortlessly, in any vessel filled with water."
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By thinking only of the guru, a fervent devotion will arise, and our eyes will fill with tears. As Guru Rinpoche said: "Complete devotion brings complete blessing; Absence of doubts brings complete success."
If we can pray with real fervor to Guru Rinpoche, he will remove all obstacles and enable us to progress along the path. All buddhas have the same compassion and the same love for sentient beings, but Guru Rinpoche has for countless kalpas made powerful prayers to benefit the beings of this difficult, decadent age, who are the victims of so much torment. If we pray fervently to him, he will look on us as his only child, and he will come at once, from the land of the raksasas in the southwest, to appear before us.
Whenever we pray to Guru Rinpoche, we should not just mouth the words, but pray one-pointedly from the core of our heart, from the marrow of our bones, and with a devotion that consumes our mind.
We should constantly keep in mind that Guru Rinpoche is our sole refuge, whether in happiness or in sorrow, whether in the higher realms of samsara or the lower. Without any second thoughts, we should give our whole mind to him, like throwing a pebble into a lake.
We need to turn to Guru Rinpoche, the perfect buddha who vowed especially to help the beings of these decadent times, and call out to him with ardor and with longing: "There is no other hope for me but you! Unless you take me under your protection, I shall sink even deeper into samsara's ocean of suffering." This is how the sun of Guru Rinpoche's compassion, concentrated now through the magnifying glass of our devotion, will set fire to the dry grass of our ignorance and destructive emotions.
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Our master, Guru Rinpoche, and the mantra are inseparable. So when we utter the name of the guru by reciting the mantra, it's as if we are calling out repeatedly to someone who simply cannot fail to reply. The guru cannot but turn his compassion towards us, and so, if we pray one-pointedly like this, there is absolutely no doubt that Guru Rinpoche will come at once to grant us his blessings. When rain falls on the earth, it falls evenly everywhere, but only the good seeds will germinate, not the rotten ones. In the same manner, the compassion of Guru Rinpoche is unbiased; it is directed universally to all beings, and yet his blessings will be swifter for those who have devotion and faith.
It is only through the blessings of a buddha that we can achieve realization. So a prayer like this, one that invokes Guru Rinpoche's very name, must go out from the marrow of our bones, from the core of our heart; then gradually our devotion will become spontaneous and unceasing. Remember that without faith, there will be no accomplishment.
This shows how important it is to have a faith that is very pure and genuine. And so, as a support, we visualize our outer environment as Zangdopalri, the beings around us as dakas and dakinis, ourselves as Yeshe Tsogyal, and above our head Guru Rinpoche, surrounded by his retinue. Then we pray, reciting the prayer in seven branches and the other prayers in the practice, with the confidence and trust that by so doing, accomplishment will surely blossom.
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The essence of Guru Yoga is simply to remember the guru at all times: when you are happy, think of the guru; when you are sad, think of the guru; when you meet favorable circumstances, be grateful to the guru; and when you meet obstacles, pray to the guru, and rely on him alone. When you are sitting, think of the guru above your head. When you are walking, imagine that he is above your right shoulder, as if you were circumambulating him. When you are eating food, visualize the guru at your throat center and offer him the first portion.
At night, when you are about to fall asleep, visualize Guru Rinpoche in your heart center, the size of the first joint of your thumb, sitting on a four-petalled red lotus. He is emanating countless rays of light, which fill your whole environment, melting the room and the entire universe into light, and then returning to absorb into your heart. Then the guru himself dissolves into light. This is the state in which you should fall asleep, retaining the experience of luminosity. If you do not fall asleep, you can repeat the visualization again. When you wake up in the morning, imagine that the guru emerges from your heart and rises up to sit again in the sky above your head, smiling compassionately, amidst a mass of rainbow light.
This is how we can remember the guru and apply devotion during every activity. And should death come suddenly, the best practice then is to blend our mind with the mind of the guru. Of all the sufferings of the three intermediate states, the most intense is the suffering of the moment of death. For this moment there are practices of Phowa, or the transference of consciousness to the buddhafields. The practice of Guru Yoga is the most profound and essential way of doing Phowa.
Through the Guru Yoga practice, all obstacles can be removed and all blessings received. And through merging our mind with the mind of the guru, and remaining in the state of inseparable union, the absolute nature will be realized. This is why we should always treasure Guru Yoga and keep it as our foremost practice.
