The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

THE SPIRITUAL PATH 141Chiefly we must always remember the excellent qualities of theteacher, especially his kindness to us. By repeatedly generatingconfidence, appreciation to the guru, and devotion toward him, atime will come when the mere mention of his name or the thoughtof him will stop all our ordinary perceptions, and we will see himas the Buddha himself 2To see the master not as a human being, but as theBuddha himself, is the source of the highest blessing. AsPadmasambhava says: "Complete devotion brings completeblessing; absence of doubts brings complete success." TheTibetans know that if you relate to your teacher as a buddha,you will receive the blessing of a buddha, but if you relate toyour master as a human being, you will only get the blessingof a human being. So to receive the full transformative powerof the blessing of his or her teaching, the complete unfoldingof its glory, you must try and unfold in yourself the richestpossible kind of devotion. Only if you come to see your masteras a buddha can a buddha-like teaching come through toyou from your master's wisdom mind. If you cannot recognizeyour master as a buddha, but see him or her as a humanbeing, the full blessing can never be there, and even the greatestteaching will leave you somewhere unreceptive.The more I come to reflect on devotion and its place androle in the overall vision of the teachings, the more deeply Irealize that it is essentially a skillful and powerful means ofmaking us more receptive to the truth of the master's teaching.Masters themselves do not need our adoration, but seeingthem as living buddhas will enable us to listen to and heartheir message and to follow their instructions with the greatestpossible fidelity. Devotion, then, is in one sense the most practicalway of ensuring a total respect for, and therefore opennessto, the teachings, as embodied by the master andtransmitted through him or her. The more devoted you are,the more open you are to the teachings; the more open youare to the teachings, the more chance there is for them to penetrateyour heart and mind, and so bring about a completespiritual transformation.So it is only by seeing your master as a living buddha thatthe process of transformation of yourself into a living buddhacan be truly begun and truly accomplished. When your mindand heart are fully open in joy and wonder and recognitionand gratitude to the mystery of the living presence ofenlightenment in the master, then slowly, over many years,