Lama Zopa Rinpoche

So now, this is a real story. At Buxa, there was a monk called Jamyang, who was Pabongka
Dechen Nyingpo’s attendant in Tibet. Even though he couldn’t read texts because he was
illiterate—he couldn’t even read the Tibetan alphabet—Rinpoche had told him that in the
future he would be able to read the Guru Puja by himself, without anybody teaching him.
Then, one day in Buxa, he was suddenly able to read the entire Guru Puja from beginning to
end. This was the blessing of having served Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Tibet. By serving
him he purified his mind and it happened exactly as Pabongka Rinpoche had predicted. This
was the great benefit of having impeccable guru devotion to Pabongka Rinpoche. He didn’t
tell me this himself; Lama Lhundrup told me.
Lama Lhundrup and Jamyang both stayed at Lal Bangla, which was not within the grounds
of the Buxa camp itself but on the hill just outside. This was also where Pabongka Dechen
Nyingpo’s incarnation stayed, so Jamyang was again able to serve him in his next
incarnation. I went up there to do Dolgyal puja with them a couple of times. While we were
doing the protector practices there was a wind blowing and he was able to see the different
protectors coming.
Dromtönpa was Lama Atisha’s translator in Tibet, translating Sanskrit into Tibetan. Toward
the end of his time in Tibet, Lama Atisha showed the aspect of having sickness. He was sick
for quite some time, making kaka and pipi in the bed. Dromtönpa cleaned it up with his
hands with no thought of its being dirty. It was unbelievable purification; he purified many
eons’ obscurations and collected extensive merit. Suddenly one day Dromtönpa was able to
read the minds of sentient beings—even insects like ants—for a distance as far as an eagle
can fly in eighteen days.
There are many other stories of people serving the guru who have suddenly realized
emptiness or seen deities. That is the power, the benefit of showing devotion to and serving
our guru. Our mind is not oneness with ignorance, with obscurations. It is only temporarily
obscured and by serving our guru we can purify many eons of negative karma and develop
higher realizations such as a direct perception of emptiness.
Correctly devoting to the virtuous friend is the root of the path to enlightenment. If we
don’t know how important it is, nothing can happen. It is the root of all realizations from
here up to enlightenment, on the Hinayana path to achieve nirvana and the Mahayana sutra
and tantra paths to achieve enlightenment. If we correctly follow the virtuous friend with
thought and action, if the root is there, we can have success up to enlightenment. Everything
depends on this practice, on how much we know of it. This is the reason I have spent a bit
of time explaining it, even though I got distracted here and there.
Otherwise we might have done this retreat or that retreat, this practice or that practice,
received this teaching or that teaching, this initiation or that initiation, this and this and this,
but nothing happens in our mind. Our mind is still like an empty container. Maybe we know
the Dharma intellectually, but when a problem comes it looks like we don’t know it at all,
like we have never learned it. This is why correctly devoting to the spiritual friend is called
the root of the path to enlightenment.
Feeling regret purifies mistakes made in the past but in the West regret is considered bad.
Therefore, since we don’t feel regret for the negative things we have done, our mind never
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