Help
Sign In
buddhism
November 2008 
Guru Yoga
Posted on Sep 23rd, 2006
by 
dragpa gyaltsen
dragpa gyaltsen
The deeper my devotion for my Lama (Jetsunma Akhon Lhamo), the deeper the blessing; the faster my progress; the deeper my devotion.....
I'm really living this now. I began re-reading Dangerous Friend this week, after recommending it to a Zaadzter just entering the Vajrayana Path. Its been a year since I read it the first time. Things that went 'whoosh', right over my head, now resonate deeply. It is one thing to read about such things, and to understand them intellectually; another to live it.
This Friday, working at the Temple (KPC) I was supervising, and pitching in, with some laborers having just finished unloading a truck full of lumber we had cut from dead trees at the Peace Park (http://www.stupas.org/md_projects.html). Ani Alana (Jetsunma's Chief Attendant) came over and advised me that we needed to move the load (hundreds of pounds of wood) from where we'd stacked it. I hadn't been mindfull enough about the instructions I received and mis-interpreted Jetsunma's request. Ani Alana indicated that to further cut and split the wood, where we had placed it, would have created too much of a racket, too near to Jetsunma residence.
It was a revelation to watch my mind receiving this news. Simply the gift of even having the ability to watch my mind, at all, fills me with gratitude. It was a curious experience to 'see' the 'niggly thread' of irritation and resentment begin to arrise in my mind. What simple joy to intercept this silly bit of delusion and, with a blessing, send it on its way :).
We continued to reload the truck and then offload it accross the Temple grounds; every log was another prostration, every grunt of effort--mantra, every breath--a blessing from the Lama.
What a gift; what a lesson from the Lama; what an opportunity to transform poisonous patterns of thought into a stream of merrit, for the sake of sentient beings.
Yesterday Ani Alana and I had occasion to reflect on this moment. She said she saw the entire process flow across my face, and through my body language, over the course of about 3 seconds. We shared a good laugh remembering :)
"The Lama is the terrifyingly compassionate gamester who re-shuffles the deck of your carefully arranged rationale"
-- Ngak'chang Rinpoche in "Dangerous Friend"
"The Vajra Master is dangerous in the sense of the danger a vacum cleaner poses to a carpet, or that a bath poses to body odour. The Lama is dangerous to our dualistic conceptions--but beyond that, he or she is the compasssionate surgeon who saves our lives. The surgeon's knife cuts us open--but if there's a cancer to be removed, then the operation is to be welcomed."
-- Khandro Dechen in "Dangerous Friend"
This Friday, working at the Temple (KPC) I was supervising, and pitching in, with some laborers having just finished unloading a truck full of lumber we had cut from dead trees at the Peace Park (http://www.stupas.org/md_projects.html). Ani Alana (Jetsunma's Chief Attendant) came over and advised me that we needed to move the load (hundreds of pounds of wood) from where we'd stacked it. I hadn't been mindfull enough about the instructions I received and mis-interpreted Jetsunma's request. Ani Alana indicated that to further cut and split the wood, where we had placed it, would have created too much of a racket, too near to Jetsunma residence.
It was a revelation to watch my mind receiving this news. Simply the gift of even having the ability to watch my mind, at all, fills me with gratitude. It was a curious experience to 'see' the 'niggly thread' of irritation and resentment begin to arrise in my mind. What simple joy to intercept this silly bit of delusion and, with a blessing, send it on its way :).
We continued to reload the truck and then offload it accross the Temple grounds; every log was another prostration, every grunt of effort--mantra, every breath--a blessing from the Lama.
What a gift; what a lesson from the Lama; what an opportunity to transform poisonous patterns of thought into a stream of merrit, for the sake of sentient beings.
Yesterday Ani Alana and I had occasion to reflect on this moment. She said she saw the entire process flow across my face, and through my body language, over the course of about 3 seconds. We shared a good laugh remembering :)
"The Lama is the terrifyingly compassionate gamester who re-shuffles the deck of your carefully arranged rationale"
-- Ngak'chang Rinpoche in "Dangerous Friend"
"The Vajra Master is dangerous in the sense of the danger a vacum cleaner poses to a carpet, or that a bath poses to body odour. The Lama is dangerous to our dualistic conceptions--but beyond that, he or she is the compasssionate surgeon who saves our lives. The surgeon's knife cuts us open--but if there's a cancer to be removed, then the operation is to be welcomed."
-- Khandro Dechen in "Dangerous Friend"
Access: Public
Please write more about Guru Yoga in the Vajrayana tradition. My meditation practice has been in the Shambhala (Trungpa Rinpoche) tradition and so it is quite close to Vajrayana. Would love to read more about your experiences.
Love
Anand
Obviously its a matter of semantics and taxonomy as to what we mean by tradition. However, I don’t believe that you can characterize Vajrayana as a tradition; but rather, as a vehicle or path (yana). One might follow a particular Tradition (Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug, *Shambhala*) with its own ‘flavor’, ‘methodologies/technologies’, and emphasis on particular teachings given in a particular order, etc.; but each of those ‘Traditions’ is essentially following the same ‘path’; driving the same ‘class of vehicle’ (The Vajrayana); albeit, with their own ‘style’.
I see the use of the label Vajrayana used as an attribute of a Tradition; but, I don’t believe this to be quite accurate.
From all I’ve read of Trungpa Rinpoche published books (Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Myth of Freedom, The Sanity we are Born With–and a few more, I think) I believe he refers to the later stages of what he teaches as Vajrayana. I don’t believe that the Shambhala tradition could be characterized as divergent from Vajrayana at all.
I know that Trungpa Rinpoche emphasized that a student needed to move through the Yanas; IE, first accomplish the Hinayana (1st turning of the wheel), then to the Mahayana (second), and finally to the Vajrayana (3rd) and to the Vajrayana’s ultimate teachings: Mahamudra and Dzogchen (and the Gelug’s Clear Light). Since the latter build on the former.
In fact Trungpa Rinpoche’s son, Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, in:
http://www.shambhala.org/programs/VS/
Uses Vajrayana and Shambhala in the very title of the above URL:
“Shambhala Vajrayana Seminary”
The way I read this is that Shambhala is a Tradition of the Vajrayana, an emergent ‘Tradition’ which is, essentially, a union of Nyingma and Kaygu Traditions (and Lineages of transmision passed through Trungpa Rinpoche from both Traditions) which can be best characterized as upholding the values of the Rime (non-secterian) movement.
Therefore, in my opinion (though I’m far from an authority), I don’t believe that Guru Yoga in the Shambhala tradition is, in any fundamental way, different from the Guru Yoga which I practice as a practitioner in the Palylul Lineage of the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Of course, there are almost certainly differences in the practices, and the texts; I’m sure that the Guru Yoga sections of the Ngondro practiced in Shambhala is different from what I practice, but their meaning, the essence of Guru Yoga must be identical.
BTW: I highly recomend Dangerous Friend
http://books.zaadz.com/88835/dangerous_friend/by_rigdzin_dorje
In fact, Trungpa Rinpoche is quoted quite often in the book.