It's drupchö season here at Lerab Ling and our first one, which has just finished, is Rigdzin Düpa, 'The Gathering of Vidyadharas,' the inner lama practice from the Longchen Nyingtik, the terma revelation of Jikmé Lingpa. So it seems appropriate to focus on and say a little about the practice of Guru Yoga―especially as I've found a short Guru Yoga and piece of advice from Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, my translation of which appears further down in this article.
According to 'The Lamp that Iluminates Wisdom' (Yeshe Saldrön )―a commentary to 'The Lamp that Illuminates the Heart Essence' (Nyingtik Saldrön), a Guru Yoga practice composed by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö―there are three ways of taking the practice of Guru Yoga to heart linked to the three capacities of individuals; supreme, middling or average.
“For ordinary people the lama is our supreme guide, the embodiment of all buddhas and bodhisattvas in one manifesting in an ordinary form as a spiritual friend in order to show us the way to enlightenment. So, to imagine the lama before us in the sky and meditate on him as he usually appears, or as Guru Rinpoche, and to pray to him with true devotion and faith then, because of the very nature of interdependence (tendrel), the blessing of the lama will be transferred into the mind of the student just like the form of the moon will appear reflected in a vessel of clear, smooth water. This is to practise and accomplish the lama as the nirmanakaya.”
“Those whose minds are more expansive will have an unshakable conviction that the secret body, speech and mind of the lama are primordially spontaneously perfect as the mandala of the vajra body, speech and mind. With this certainty they recognize that the display of the inherent nature of their own minds appears as the lama in peaceful or wrathful forms and they meditate on them with the four branches of approach and accomplishment practice. This is to practise and accomplish the lama as the sambhogakaya.”
“Those whose minds are greater still can rest in the clear light of their own rigpa awareness which is beyond duality of subject and object and transcends all characteristics, symbols or expression. Unborn, it is dharmakaya, unceasing, it is sambhogakaya, not abiding anywhere, it is nirmanakaya.
The three kayas are indivisible in this self-knowing rigpa that is the very essence of great bliss and to leave it naturally just as it is without action, effort or grasping is to practise and accomplish the lama as the dharmakaya. Moreover this is the innermost, secret practice.“
“Once you have decisively resolved the mind in the space of dharmata and rest in the confidence of naked rigpa-emptiness then whatever you meditate on, be it Guru Yoga or whatever it may be, is extraordinary and extremely profound.”
The Guruyoga entitled 'Gathering of Blessings'
I take refuge in my own mind, free from elaboration,
As I know it to be my true nature,
All delusion―mistaken perception due to ignorance―
I shall establish in the primordial state.
A. My own pure perception is the stronghold of absolute space―
Self-knowing awareness free of dispersal and gathering.
The unobstructed dynamic energy of pure awareness manifests everything―
All pervasive samsara and nirvana, the splendour of existence and peace is
Awareness emptiness, without grasping, within the vast expanse: A.
Thus, present right now in the nakedness of ordinary mind, unaltered, is pure awareness―uncompounded empty clarity. Decide on that with certainty and maintain exactly that state of the glorious lama's wisdom mind.
Written at the request of Lama Mardri who is endowed with the three higher trainings.
