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

THE SPIRITUAL PATH 147their masters all their lives. Even at the age of eighty-two, whenDilgo Khyentse Rinpoche spoke of his master Jamyang Khyentse,tears of gratitude and devotion came to his eyes. In his last letterto me before he died, he signed himself "the worst disciple."That showed me how endless true devotion is, how with thegreatest possible realization comes the greatest devotion and themost complete, because the most humble, gratitude.GURU YOGA: MERGING WITHTHE WISDOM MIND OF THE MASTERAll the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and enlightened beings arepresent at all moments to help us, and it is through the presenceof the master that all of their blessings are focuseddirectly at us. Those who know Padmasambhava know theliving truth of the promise he made over a thousand yearsago: "I am never far from those with faith, or even from thosewithout it, though they do not see me. My children willalways, always, be protected by my compassion."All we need to do to receive direct help is to ask. Didn'tChrist also say: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and yeshall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. Everyonethat asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth"? 6 And yetasking is what we find hardest. Many of us, I feel, hardlyknow how to ask. Sometimes it is because we are arrogant,sometimes because we are unwilling to seek help, sometimesbecause we are lazy, sometimes our minds are so busy withquestions, distractions, and confusion that the simplicity ofasking does not occur to us. The turning point in any healingof alcoholics or drug addicts is when they admit their illnessand ask for aid. In one way or another, we are all addicts ofsamsara; the moment when help can come for us is when weadmit our addiction and simply ask.What most of us need, almost more than anything, is thecourage and humility really to ask for help, from the depths ofour hearts: to ask for the compassion of the enlightenedbeings, to ask for purification and healing, to ask for thepower to understand the meaning of our suffering and transformit; at a relative level to ask for the growth in our lives ofclarity, of peace, of discernment, and to ask for the realizationof the absolute nature of mind that comes from merging withthe deathless wisdom mind of the master.There is no swifter, more moving, or more powerful practicefor invoking the help of the enlightened beings, for arousing