from Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche's extended commentary on the Lama Chöpa:
In the case of this particular teaching you may ask where it comes from.
Was it Manjushri talking to Tsongkhapa and Tsongkhapa teaching about it then or is it originally coming from Buddha? According to the tantras it comes from the Guhyasamaja tantra. They tell you there that the guru is actually the creator of the mandala and they tell you how the guru creates the mandala, how the mandala develops and how you make offerings to the mandala in order to accumulate merits. It tells you how to see the lama as inseparable from Gyelwa (Dorjechang Gyelwa: Conqueror; Dorje Chang: Vajradhara.) and it is the yoga leading you through the two stages, the development and the completion stage. This is totally mentioned in the Guhyasamaja tantra.
Although it is mentioned, it was done so in a hidden way, under six knots and four systems. If you look at it, you won’t see it, if you read about it you won’t understand it. You have to untie these six knots in four different ways. You may think that you can just pick it up from the sutras and tantras, getting it from the horse’s mouth. But that doesn’t work. That is why the me ngags, the practical instructions, are so important. In the me ngags there are a few hidden things, but not so much. You can get it quite easily. In the Guhyasamaja root tantra Buddha talks about the six knots and the four ways, but no- body could do it. So he himself had to give a commentary on it. He himself had to loosen up the secrecy a little bit. So, from the Vajrayana point of view, the Lama Chöpa is completely rooted in the Guhyasamaja tantra.
First you have to know the criteria for a guru. Then also you have to know the criteria for the disciple. The guru may be good but if the disciple is useless, it does not do anyone any good. Likewise, if the disciple is good and the guru is not, then again it is totally useless. Once you find a qualified guru, you have to check how you maintain the relationship with that guru. You also have to see how the guru is inseparable from the yidam and how you meditate the body of the guru into the mandala and how you make offerings to that body, how you make offerings to that guru and mandala, in particular the outer-, inner-, secret- and suchness offering, then after offering, how to develop the two stages, the development stage and the completion stage.
All these teachings were clearly mentioned by Buddha himself. Yet he gave that teaching to Vajrapani. That is why Vajrapani is so important. They talk about the three castes of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri and Vajrapani. Manjushri is wisdom, Avalokiteshvara is compassion, and Vajrapani is power. Because he is so powerful, he has been given the tantras: to protect them. That is why Vajrapani is called ‘Holder of the yantras and tantras.’ And that is why he carries that vajra. He is saying, ‘Anybody who is trying to take that away, I am going to hit.’
Do you want to hear a joke? Avalokiteshvara picked up a pebble and threw it at Tara. She got hit by that. At that time Manjushri raised his sword and said to Vajrapani, ‘Aren’t you going to stop that?’ Then Vajrapani said to Manjushri, ‘Go ahead and hit him!’
This teaching was actually given to Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri and Vajrapani. All of these teachings are then coming through Nagarjuna and his disciples, Asanga and his disciples, the King Indra Bodhi and the great Indian Mahasiddhas Mahasukha (Also known as Padmavajra. Ninth or tenth century. Ref. K. Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra, pg. 345-46.) [Tib. Dewa Chenpo], Saraha (Eighth or ninth century. Ref. and Literature: Keith Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra, pg. 66-72.), Luipa (Eighth century. Ref. and Literature: Keith Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra, pg. 33-38; Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Guide to Dakiniland, pg. 10; Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Essence of Vajrayana pg. 13-16; Hans Wolfgang Schumann, Buddhistische Bilderwelt, pg. 301.), Sharawa, Lalitavajra, Tilopa (988-1069. Literature: Life of the Mahasiddha Tilopa [11th c. text]; Keith Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra, pg. 151-155; Khenpo Könchog Gyaltsen, The great Kagyu masters, pg. 33-54.) and Naropa (1016-1100. Literature: Gehlek Rinpoche, Vajrayogini Teachings; H. Guenther, Life and teachings of Naropa; Chögyam Trungpa, Illusion’s Game; The Life and Teachings of Naropa; Keith Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra, pg. 142-147. Khenpo Könchog Gyaltsen, The great Kagyu masters, pg. 55-89.)
The reason why both, Manjushri and Maitreya, are mentioned is this. Normally the wisdom lineage goes through Manjushri, Nagarjuna and so forth. (You can see that in the Lamrim lineage tree.) And Maitreya Buddha, Asanga and so forth carry the vast teaching lineage. In the Lama Chöpa you see both lineages combined. Saraha and Sharawa are from the Guhyasamaja part, Luipa is the Heruka part and Lalitavajra is the Yamantaka part. Then you have Tilopa and Naropa and this is their essence practice.
Each one of them has given certain teachings but it was not comprehensive. They just wrote pieces and parts of it. Then the great Mahasiddha Mahasukha wrote a commentary on the Guhyasamaja called tön se or also sangwa drupa (Skt. Guhyasiddhi. E. Establishing the hidden factors. Ref. Dalai Lama, The Gelug/Kagyü Tradition of Mahamudra. enlightenment songs.). Within that particular commentary he made very clear how an individual practitioner can do the guru yoga as the backbone of all yoga practices. The guru yoga is the backbone of all our practice. You may have this and that sadhana, but your backbone is the guru yoga. If you can do all your practices within that guru yoga, it is great. All the practices, including the Bengali doha practices have been included in this practice by Mahasukha.
Eventually, all the practical instructions were finally carried by Atisha. He made it absolutely clear to all the Mahayana practitioners that the success of all the practices depend on the guru-devotional practices and not only that, they depend on the guru himself and the relationship with him. If you look at Atisha’s life story and that of the other Kadampa lamas, many of them have gained their development through their relationship with the guru rather than through sitting and meditating. Remember the story of the great meditator and the cook and his translator. When they compared their development, the meditator could not even reach the cook, let alone Dromtönpa, his translator. The meditator, who had taken teach- ings and had been meditating for years, even could not get anywhere near the cook who had not had any time at all to meditate on anything for a single minute. That was Atisha’s way of showing this within his own group. He did not just teach about it.
His chief disciple Drom Rinpoche asked Atisha once, ‘In India there were so many great masters with great development. In Tibet we are also putting so much effort in, but nobody is getting anything. So what is the matter?’ We probably think the same way nowadays. There are so many western teachers of Buddhism around and they wonder why nobody is getting any recognition! Anyway, Atisha replied,
Mahayana qualities, big, small or whatever, totally depend on the guru. They grow because of
the guru. You Tibetans think that the guru is just a simple, ordinary bum [guy] like yourselves,
so how can you gain development?
Atisha himself had guru yoga as his main practice. That is why he had a great number of disciples and they were all great. Atisha’s teachings are continuing even today, not only in Tibet, in China and Mongolia, but even in this part of the world now. Atisha lived in the eleven hundreds, became popular and famous and his teachings have been so helpful in many parts of the world for a thousand years. All of us are trying to follow Atisha’s teachings. That is all because of the guru-devotional practices.
Likewise Tsongkhapa. Wherever he moved, thousands of people moved with him. Sometimes, when he was already giving teachings somewhere else, there were still people arriving at the place where he had just finished. That sort of thing happened all the time. One of the Sakyapa teachers thought that Tsongkhapa must know some secret yantra and tantra technique in order to collect such large numbers of people. So he asked him directly about it. Tsongkhapa said, ‘I have no idea. But whatever little help I have been able to contribute is totally due to my guru-devotional practice, nothing else.’ So we can see how important it is.
Even today, in our own lifetime it is like that. Remember our good friend Allen Ginsberg. Think about how he died. There were all these hours where we did not move his body when he died. I did not say it at the time but literally what happened was that he was sitting in the meditation, nothing more and nothing less. And that only happened through his devotion to his teachers.
Then look at Ram Dass, how helpful he is to so many people. That has been possible through his total devotion to Nim Karoli Baba.
I have given you examples from the Buddha’s time, from the time of Tsongkhapa and even from our own lifetime from people that you know. So there must be some reason why the earlier masters have emphasized the guru yoga so much. I am not here to demand your respect and devotion. Honestly speaking, personally I don’t care. You know me, I have no hidden agenda, I don’t care. Whatever you do, I fight with you, I challenge you, I give you a hard time. It depends on the individual. I can fight with you, but I cannot fight with my own gurus.
Atisha himself considered Serlingpa, his teacher of the bodhisattva teachings, as his guru. Whenever he mentioned his name, he did not just say Serlingpa, but always put his hands together at his forehead. Without that he would not even utter the name of his guru. Tsongkhapa did the same with Lama Umapa, Manjushri, Rendawa and all of his great teachers. You can see that in all of his writings and in the stories. Even in my lifetime, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, whenever they talked about their teacher, the famous Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, they would never call him Pabongka but always refer to Lama Dorje Chang, which means Lama Vajradhara.
The guru-devotional practice is very important in the beginning, in the middle and at the end. It functions that way. It is the root, it is the nutrition that you receive for your spiritual development and it is the fruit as well. That is why the Lama Chöpa is so important.
This practice includes the development of bodhimind, both absolute and relative, and at the end it picks up the essence of Vajrayana practice, development stage and completion stage, along with combined sutra and tantra Mahamudra. That is its real essence. It is really very fortunate that we can do such a practice.
Whether in combination with, or without the Mahamudra, the Lama Chöpa is an extremely important practice. It can be done in a very simple and easy way, by just reading and understanding the words, and it can be done in a very profound way. When you do it the profound way, almost the whole essence of both sutra and tantra is brought in. It is such an interesting practice: if you’re not that intelligent or diligent you can do it in the simple, easy way of just reading, and when you go a little bit deeper in it, its depth is tremendous! You can go one step down, or ten feet down or three thousand feet down. If you do it superficially, it will give you good benefit and, if you do it in depth, it will give you tremendous benefit!
Also, the teaching itself conveys its message on different layers. Each word carries a different message on every level. That is what I meant, saying it is deep and it can be done either the easy way or really going very deep into the spiritual path. This is why it is said,
It is the only path earlier enlightened beings followed
and it is only this path that they will travel in future.
We’ll go the simple way, because I don’t have the knowledge available.
I received this teaching from Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche forty years ago, somewhere across the river from Tsechor ling valley in Lhasa. A number of people who are known in the West now were there, too: Lama Yeshe, Dagyab Rinpoche, Tomo Geshe Rinpoche, and also Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. We received the teachings at the same time. Song Rinpoche was not there, because he was already a senior lama in those days.
I tried to remember the prayers we said and the order in which it was done, but I couldn’t remember. Some lamas in the tradition do and others don’t really pay much attention to it. I do, because Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche used to emphasize how every teaching was to be done, and what prayers were to be said where. Tradition was very carefully followed. It is said that this helps to maintain the unbroken lineage and supports development within practitioners. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche paid a tremendous amount of attention to it.
They would say, “Oh no, this is not done that way, although it would definitely fit, it is not said that way.” His Holiness doesn’t put too much emphasis on how it is traditionally done, he’ll do it as is convenient. Because he is the Dalai Lama, he can’t really follow it, because the security people control his schedule, and that is perfectly okay.
I wanted to follow how it was done traditionally, so I called Dagyab Rinpoche, Tomo Geshe Rinpoche, and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso to ask them, “Do you remember...” They didn’t. Then I wrote to Trijang Rinpoche’s attendant and I asked him whether he could remember how it was done. He wrote back: “At that time I was a servant and therefore had no opportunity to sit down. I was in the category that had to say prayers sitting at the back, so I don’t know anything about what was said then. But Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche gave the teaching twice after coming to India, once to Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and once to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and, at that time, this lineage prayer was said.” He sent me a copy of this prayer and a commentary that Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche used during those teachings.
I think as far as the lineage prayer is concerned, we have done perfectly without making any mistake. But as far as the teaching is concerned I don’t remember much, because forty years makes it very hard to remember. I thought I would read some books and prepare, but unfortunately I’ve only reached to the ninth non-leisure. (For the ninth non-leisure see Gehlek Rinpoche Lam Rim Teachings.) Anyway, we will go through together and I’ll try to give you, without going into detail, a short essence, something you can think about as you say the words.
You have to remember that the main purpose is to meditate on what you know so far. To sit and close your eyes, think nothing, and give yourself mental relaxation is very good and important, no doubt, but in the Tibetan tradition, especially in this Vajrayana tradition, meditation goes with saying the words. This practice is slightly sophisticated, there is order in it, and there are a lot of things you have to think about. To make sure you don’t miss anything, the earlier masters composed these few words so that you can do the meditation and say the words together. This way, it is a combination of body, speech and mind; all three work together. I should say here that this is a better meditation than only sitting, though there are times that you have to sit; they come, too.
When you say the words, something more than the words only has to come up in your mind. Words are symbolic; they carry a message behind them, each word a different message. All these messages symbolized by words are here composed together. By picking up the words, you can pick up the different messages. What I’ll try to give you here is the essence of those messages, so that when you say the words, you can recall the message. If you keep on recollecting the messages, you are training your mind, tuning in to those messages, and that is really what is called practice. In that way you tune in to this path and that will bring you further along.