Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The importance of guru devotion
Padampa Sangye advised the people of Tingri, 61
You should regard the guru as more exalted than the Buddha. If you do that, realization will come in this
life, people of Tingri. 62
Kadampa Geshe Chayülwa 63 was an incomparable practitioner and disciple who correctly
devoted to the virtuous friend, following his guru Geshe Chengawa perfectly. If he was
doing his mandala offering, piling up the mandala to collect merit, and his guru called him,
the moment he heard his guru’s voice, he would immediately stop his mandala offering and
run to his guru. If he was writing something, for example, the Tibetan letter na, the moment
he heard his guru’s voice, he wouldn’t even wait to finish that letter but would immediately
run to his guru’s room to offer service. He had unbelievable devotion.
He cleaned his guru’s room every day, collecting the garbage in his lower robe, his shem-thab,
holding the robe in one hand and going down the steps to throw it out. Cleaning was part of
his practice. It was not a question of cleaning if there was garbage and not cleaning if there
was none. It was a preliminary practice, a daily practice he did every day before sitting to
meditate, whether there was garbage or not.
One day he collected the garbage, put it in his shem-thab and went down the stairs as usual,
but when he reached the third step he gained a realization. We think that we can attain
realizations only by doing formal meditation, with our eyes closed, but it’s not like that.
There have been many practitioners who have attained vast numbers of realizations while
actively practicing guru yoga, busy serving their guru. In his great commentary Pabongka
Rinpoche has cited many stories of guru devotion, correctly devoting to the virtuous friend,
that illustrate how many practitioners have achieved realizations by actively serving their
guru rather than by sitting on a meditation cushion. My memory’s very bad, so some stories
I don’t remember very clearly.
Anyway, on the third step Geshe Chayülwa’s level of mind reached the path of merit and of
that path’s three levels—lower, middle and great—the great path of merit. Then, just there,
because his mind had become purer, he was able to see numberless buddhas—not on the
altar or somewhere else but from that step, just as he was going to throw out the garbage.
He suddenly saw numberless buddhas in their nirmanakaya aspect.
This incomparable practitioner who correctly devoted to the guru, correctly followed the
guru, said,
If you wish to attain something special separate from the guru—Vajradhara or a mind-seal deity—no
attainment will happen in your mental continuum. You have to keep this in mind.
This was his own experience. He had the realization and was expressing what he knew. If we
think that something special, like Vajradhara or our mind-seal deity, is other than the guru,
then we will not attain it. Mind-seal is how I translate yidam. I don’t know what other people
do. 64
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