Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Buddhism came from the Buddha, from India, and then from the great pandits, Nagarjuna,
Asanga and all the Nalanda pandits and so forth. Then it went to Tibet, where the four
traditions—Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug—developed, depending on the place and the
lineage lamas. The essence is the same but there are different presentations according to the
minds of the disciples. That is the evolution.
In the Sakya tradition there are five great masters, including Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and
Sakya Pandita. I have mentioned that if you please one guru you please all the buddhas. With
respect to that, Sakya Pandita said,
Even though sunbeams are very hot,
Without a magnifying glass, they cannot ignite a fire.
It is the same with the blessings of the buddhas:
Without the guru, they cannot enter the disciple. 40
Just as we need a magnifying glass to ignite wood using the sun’s rays, in order to receive the
blessings of the buddhas we need a guru. Even though all the buddhas have incredible
qualities such as unbelievable compassion, without a guru we cannot receive their blessings.
Sakya Pandita also said,
All the merit you accumulate by practicing the perfection of charity for a thousand eons—giving not only
your head and limbs to other sentient beings but even the merit you receive by offering your body in this
way—is accumulated in an instant with the path of the guru. Therefore, offer service and feel happy. 41
We can practice the perfection of charity or any of the six perfections for thousands of eons
but fulfilling the guru’s wishes for even a second equals this. The merit we gain from
practicing the charity of giving our hands, our limbs, our head and so forth for thousands of
eons and even giving away the merit we gain from that is much less than what we could
accumulate in an instant by following the guru’s advice and fulfilling his wishes.
For example, if we are in retreat following our guru’s advice to recite OM MANI PADME
HUM, then each second we recite it we collect the same amount of merit that we would in a
thousand eons of practice in connection with sentient beings. This is because we are
following the advice of the guru and fulfilling his wishes. Whether we are ordained or lay,
when we keep the vows given to us by our guru, every day, every hour, every minute, every
second we purify unbelievable amounts of negativity and collect unbelievable merit.
Say we follow the guru’s advice to do the preliminary practices every day. In the morning,
when we clean the meditation room—not even the guru’s room but just our own—even if
the room is spotless, each sweep of the broom we make to purify our own and other
sentient beings’ negativities, is incredible purification and creates extensive merit because we
are following the guru’s advice.
Our Dharma study is similar to this. When we are memorizing or reciting texts, because each
word we memorize is following the guru’s wishes, we collect the most unbelievable merit
every day, every hour, every minute, every second. As Sakya Pandita mentioned, what takes a
thousand eons to collect in connection with sentient beings, we collect here in connection
77