Guru Principle

“Question: Is the guru a cultural phenomenon or a universal principle?

… I don’t think the guru should be looked at as a cultural thing, it should definitely be treated as a spiritual and universal issue… We should not confuse spiritual practice and culture… the authentic guru is nothing other than the universal truth. We are not really talking about the human body of the guru who you are looking to, or who you are sitting in front of, we are talking about the ultimate goal of the spiritual path itself. This is what the guru principle represents. However, until you realize the nature of your mind, you need support from a human being, in the form of instructions on meditation and so on. Whoever can give this kind of guidance skillfully is also known as a guru. But this is what I would call the conventional guru, or the relative, external guru, as distinct from the ultimate guru which is the enlightened mind. The conventional guru is someone who leads you in the right direction. Without him or her we would all be lost; we don’t have wisdom so we are unsure what to do or where to go. This is why we need a guru… Everybody, everywhere, needs such guidance…And since the actual meaning of the guru is the realized state of mind, there is no reason why we cannot say that this is a universal principle…



Question: … some of the Western Buddhist teachers said that …the master is no longer so important… Maybe the model of the Vajrayana guru doesn’t fit the Western mentality? If this is a cultural barrier, how can we cut across it?

… the guru principle is extraordinarily effective in helping us to understand the universal truth… I see the Vajrayana as a great door to universal truth. It takes you out of all types of relative blockage. For example, the Vajrayana doesn’t let you become blocked with the idea of the guru; and if your enthusiasm at becoming a Buddhist leads to you becoming attached to Buddha and Buddhism, the Vajrayana doesn’t accept that either. Vajrayana has many deities—wrathful deities, peaceful deities, female deities, male deities—but as soon as you are attached to them, you are not a practitioner of Vajrayana. You are not meant to be attached even to your enlightenment...

Now to find a guru needs skill. When the Buddha gave Vajrayana teachings, he knew the risks involved, therefore he himself said you have to take your time to find a guru. You shouldn’t just say, upon meeting a lama, “I like him very much, he’s such a nice chap. He welcomes me warmly, he’s obviously a good person, he’s the man I want as a spiritual guide”. No, this is not good enough. There are hundreds of thousands of nice guys in the world, you can’t be so naive. If Westerners are disillusioned with masters now, it is their fault. They are so hungry for a spiritual touch that as soon as ‘a master’ comes they take to him or her and don’t check first. Some simply fall in love. People are so hungry, firstly for spiritual guidance, and secondly for emotional support. They cannot now blame their problems on the culture of Tibet.

Question: You said on one occasion that the difference between emotion and devotion is that emotion is misunderstanding and devotion is understanding. Could you say more about that?

You develop devotion once you have taken many years of your life, and considerable trouble, to check that the person who claims to be a master is indeed an authentic master. You don’t choose him as your teacher because you are attracted to him, or to Buddhism. You test him first. But it is important to know how to test. In fact, there is a wisdom in knowing how to test. It is not the sort of test you give a student at the end of a university course, or a sort of job interview to see whether someone is rich, well educated, computer literate etc. You need some spiritual wisdom before you can check a master, and intellectually you have to be informed. This preparation comes through listening to basic Buddhist teachings, or reading spiritual books. Then at least you have an understanding of what is meant by a guru, and what a master’s qualifications have to be. So you develop devotion on the basis of understanding. When I say that emotion is misunderstanding, I am thinking of someone whose reaction to a master goes something like this: “I just met you today, and I fell in love with you because you smiled at me, or you hugged me, or whatever. I sense you are the man, the guide, the guru, who I have been looking for all these years.” But at that moment of reaction, such a student is not checking himself to see what is really going on inside. Instead, he or she is simply slipping into emotion. This is a mistake.

Question: You said that the guru is the gateway to the universal dimension. Could you also say that he is the gateway to the absolute?

The guru will open the door for you, open the door of your understanding. The guru will discriminate for you, pointing out misunderstanding, and pointing out understanding. It’s as though he is drawing a map for you. He is able to do this because he is an experienced person. For example, I don’t know London and am completely lost here. I have been lent a car, but I can’t go anywhere because I don’t know the city. A spiritual master has to be as expert in spiritual experience as a London taxi driver is in knowing all the roads and short cuts. Only someone with that degree of experience is able to lead you. The universal truth I am referring to is the ultimate state of life, and of the world. This is really difficult to express in words. It is something that is beyond what we are seeing right now. This is the relative level, and that is the ultimate level. The relative level is the level we normally relate to, and where things relate to each other, but ultimately there is no truth in it…

Question: The main practice in Vajrayana is guru yoga. Could you say in a nutshell what the point of guru yoga is, and how it works?

The point is to realize the buddha nature, enlightenment, the universal truth, which is primordially there within yourself. But guru yoga is just a technique: it is not a universal technique, it is a particular Vajrayana technique which relates only indirectly to the universal. The practice of guru yoga—the recitations, the visualization—is just relative, conventional. We live in the conventional world, so we practice conventionally. Guru yoga is actually a process of cleaning the mirror of ‘rigpa’, our intrinsic, pure awareness, and that process is known as blessing. You can use different names for this, but we use the word ‘blessing’. The reflection of your face is already there, in the mirror, and through this process you will be able to see it clearly. This is the point.

Question: So you think it is a mistake to give up on the guru?

Yes. Some masters are taking advantage of the situation too, of course. It’s too easy to be a master in America, for example. Hundreds of disciples can gather around a master as soon as he teaches in America. It is fine to have thousands of fans if you are a rock star, but for a spiritual teacher that is not the point. I want students to have enough knowledge to check me, and to take time to check me. People are too quick in this modern world, their mind is very computerized, life is very fast, and they think there is no time to check. So people complain about masters and decide they don’t need one and can practice by themselves, because the buddha nature is within them anyway. Unfortunately, it will never work. On the other hand, if you take time to check, you will find there are hundreds of genuine masters, so if you are careful you will never be cheated.”

~ The Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, Jigme Pema Wangchen (b. 1963), is the head of the Drukpa Lineage school, which is one of the independent Sarma (new) schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered to be an emanation of the Buddha of Compassion, as well as an incarnation of several great masters of the past including Naropa and Gampopa. His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa's teachers include Kyabjé Thuksey Rinpoche, Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, Kyabjé Bairo Tulku Rinpoche and Pawo Rinpoche. He has re-established a home for the Drukpa Lineage in exile at his monastery in Darjeeling and Kathmandu. He oversees many monasteries in this tradition in Ladakh, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and the Far East, and now has centres in the West. Rinpoche speaks excellent English, and his teaching is noted for its directness, frankness and freedom from convention.

Photos:
~ Kyabje Thuksey Rinpoche, Gyalwang Drukpa’s first guru
~ Gyalwang Drukpa as a teen
~ Kung Fu Nuns of the Drukpa Order