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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: Damian.D on July 23, 2011, 04:32:17 PM
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To teach the Dharma,
To subdue the students minds so that Dharma can go in,
To be forever on the lookout for any opportunity to share Dharma that minds may be transformed,
To continually look for ways to purify Karma, create merits, and soften a persons mind,
To make Dharma grow with a large scope in mind,
To be the devils advocate,
To tell it like it is,
To show you love and compassion,
To show wrath, and forbearance,
To scold, coerce, cajole,
To mould, meld, and construct,
To be a protector,
To let you fall,
To build you up,
To show you the workings of your mind,
To be an example of all our potentials,
To show us the way
What other things would you add to this list, those of you who have a Guru, such a big expectation to live up to, all created in the minds of the students at large...
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What other things would you add to this list, those of you who have a Guru, such a big expectation to live up to, all created in the minds of the students at large...
A lama is the outer guru who acts as the mirror that reflects the inner guru in us.
A lama is the source of all our realisations of Dharma and the basis of the path.
There are four kinds of lamas in Tibetan Buddhism:
A lama is the individual teacher who is the holder of the lineage
A lama is the teacher which is the word of the buddhas
A lama is the symbolic teacher of all appearances
A lama is the absolute teacher, which is rigpa, the true nature of mind
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Wow ! Its a challenge to think of anything that has not been mentioned here already. I close my eyes and immediately this thought came out . A Guru/Lama is someone who cares more for us than ourselves. He will never give up on us to reveal all there is to know. He sees to it that we are walking correctly along the path and will remain with us lifetime after lifetime until we can control our own karma and firmly heading towards liberation and enlightenment. Hence we can say our Lama/Guru is the perfect Refuge we need.
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Lama in Tibetan is a contraction of the phrase 'Lama Maypa', which translates as 'One Without Fault'. That does not necessary mean that the Lama is without fault as he is human but for us to train in our perception of him as without fault. This is the fundamental practice of Tantra in relations to our Lama. When we are able to perfect this practice, we achieve the highest form of perception that our Lama is the direct embodiment of Vajradhara. This practice of course transcends the realm of mere words and into actual every day practice of how we maintain our samaya, which is a key indication of how we regard our Lama. It is not the amount of offerings we give or the amount of praises we sing of our Lama but our real practice that holds the key to this - our success in the practice of Tantra.
The equivalent of Lama in Sanskrit is Guru, which is a contraction of 'Guna Ruchi' and this translates as a collection of spiritual attainments. The Guru is the exemplar of spiritual attainments, whether we have are at the level to witness this or not. We can however, look at his Gurus and see what sort of lineage is being passed down. It is said by Patrul Rinpoche in his amazing classic, Words of My Perfect Teacher that our practice should be like logs of scentless wood that surround sweet-smelling Sandalwood trees and soak its sweet fragrance over time. What Patrul Rinpoche is saying is that we should be close, not necessary in proximity but in heart. We soak all of the teachings and good qualities that the Guru exemplifies so we eventually gain the same spiritual attainments or at least hold onto our sacred vows in doing so.
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That's pretty deep @Big Uncle, but I think I can grasp what your saying to view a perfect Lama through the human faults, to soak up the qualities and teachings of the Lama whether near or far will change our practice from perceptual to a sort of "knowing / faith" and this is what will propel our practice further.
Distance in the Guru Disciple relationship should not be a concern. I guess this could theoretically transcend life and death.
Something like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, the original. Guess I am sharing my age here. But Luke always communicates with Obi-Wan from the other side.
Thanks for your insights friend:)
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All of us have Buddha nature in us and the function/purpose of our Lama is to help us uncover our Buddha nature that lies beneath all our obscuration and find the inner guru within our mind.
The Lama teaches us the Dharma, guide us, give us advice and many other methods of practice so that we can eventually gain realization of the Dharma. When this happens, we have found the inner guru within our mind and that would be the guiding light for us even when our Lama is no longer around.
Therefore, the purpose of a Lama or an outer guru is to help us find our inner guru so that we can eventually be able to protect ourselves with our realization of Dharma and be independent of him.
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That's pretty deep @Big Uncle, but I think I can grasp what your saying to view a perfect Lama through the human faults, to soak up the qualities and teachings of the Lama whether near or far will change our practice from perceptual to a sort of "knowing / faith" and this is what will propel our practice further.
Distance in the Guru Disciple relationship should not be a concern. I guess this could theoretically transcend life and death.
Something like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, the original. Guess I am sharing my age here. But Luke always communicates with Obi-Wan from the other side.
Thanks for your insights friend:)
Yes, you are right. The Guru doesn't need to be near us or even alive to benefit us. If we have strong Guru devotion and samaya, our Guru can help us to take rebirth by just focussing on him and relying upon him as we always had when he was alive. The blessings of our Lama would help us to take a pleasant rebirth or ascension into the pure realm of our Yidam. It would almost seem like opening a door and walking into a nice home.
Therefore, my point is that the Guru need not be alive or physically near us to benefit us. It is our own practice of Guru devotion and pure samaya that would propel us towards our next rebirth. However, to ensure that we not take another 'good' rebirth in Samsara, there is the practice of Powa or mind transference that is designed by great Lamas and great saints of the past to propel or eject our mind stream into a pure realm. However, most powa practices shorten our lives except for a few. The dissolution part of Gaden Lhagyalma where we dissolve Lama Tsongkhapa into our hearts while visualizing a trail of clouds all the way to Maitreya is a powa visualisation that anyone can do regularly without requirements or initiation. In fact, if we perfect this practice, it will be of tremendous benefit and power to help us to take rebirth amidst the very ranks of students of Maitreya in Tushita.
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Follow Lama's instruction without doubts.
Treat Lama as living buddha
Offer Lama our mind transformation as best offerings
Practice gratitude as Lama said
Conquer fear as Lama advice
So important, and precious to have a lama in this human life !
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@Reena....
FEAR is a MIND KILLER
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(c_*)
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To quote a famous book - A Lama is the most dangerous friend.
From "Dangerous Friend" - The Teacher-Student Relationship in Varjayana Buddhism by Rig'dzin Dorje
Page 13 -
"The Lama is the ecstatic, wild, and gentle figure who short-circuits your systems of self-referencing. The Lama is the only person in your life who cannot be manipulated. The Lama is the invasion of unpredictability you allow into your life, to enable you to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional processes. The Lama is the terrifyingly compassionate gamester who re-shuffles the deck of your carefully arranged rationale."
Page 12 -
"The vajra master is dangerous in the sense of the danger a vacuum cleaner poses to a carpet, or that a bath poses to body odour. The Lama is dangerous to our dualistic conceptions - but beyond that, he or she is the compassionate surgeon who saves our lives. The surgeon's knife cuts us open - but if there's a cancer to be removed, then the operation is to be welcomed."
As Milarepa said, "The day that I recognised my teacher as a Buddha, that was when I understood the nature of my own mind."
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To quote a famous book - A Lama is the most dangerous friend.
From "Dangerous Friend" - The Teacher-Student Relationship in Varjayana Buddhism by Rig'dzin Dorje
Page 13 -
"The Lama is the ecstatic, wild, and gentle figure who short-circuits your systems of self-referencing. The Lama is the only person in your life who cannot be manipulated. The Lama is the invasion of unpredictability you allow into your life, to enable you to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional processes. The Lama is the terrifyingly compassionate gamester who re-shuffles the deck of your carefully arranged rationale."
The title of this book,"Dangerous Friend" is interesting enough but upon contemplation it does make a lot sense.
Why a friend? It is because a real friend is someone that cares for your well being and your happiness now and in the future and will do whatever it takes to ensure that.
Why dangerous? We all have a formless system of self referencing within us which propels our actions of body, speech and mind. This referencing system have existed since beginningless time and have evolved over our past life times up to our current life depending on the actions, karma and imprint we have created. This self referencing system most of the time is highly defective resulting in defective actions of body, speech and mind that arise from it causing mulititude sufferings for us. The function of a lama is to revamp this self referencing system. When the Lama does this, it challenges the norm and the comfort zone within us. Our defense mechanism instantly see it as a threat and dangerous.
However, this is a mistaken perception. This mistaken perception can only be overcome only we have pure faith in the Lama. We must believe that his only intention to correct this highly defective self referencing system so that we do not continue to act out of our defective beliefs and views and create more sufferings for ourselves just as a doctor's intention to do an operation on a patient is to remove the death causing cancer from him.
Hence, in my opinion, the term dangerous friend refers to a Lama that does whatever it takes out of compassion to "cure" a student from his/her "mental illness" even if by doing so the student will see him as "dangerous".
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I have gone through/am still going through a lot of personal obstacles and one thing I was just reminded very recently by a dear friend and Dharma sister answers this question without a doubt!
The purpose of our Lama - in this case I am taking it in context of the Lama being my Guru of whom I have taken refuge, is very simply our guiding light in this often dark and deluded existence. Our Lama/Guru has ONLY our best intentions in mind, If we recognise this and trust and have faith in our Lama, no obstacle or hurdle is too large to leap over...
Sure at times our fear gets the better of us when we see a mountain right in front of us and we are going full speed ahead with no brakes... and we think to ourselves "how the hell do i leap over this - help or no help?" It is only human to feel that real sense of fear and doubt. However we need to realise what is manifesting before our eyes is our own doing (through our many many many years of negative karma ripening) and with the help of our Lama we CAN and WILL get past it.
As an analogy:
Perhaps the mountain maybe too large to move and we are going to hit that mountain if we do not stop in time. Perhaps our perception or ideals of what we want to happen may not happen. Perhaps the only way to stop is to trip and fall flat on our face. Better than smashing into the face of the mountain. The lesser of two evils so to speak. Guess who was the one that tripped us? Our Lama? :) I know I know, sounds like a Brothers Grimm story but life is not always a bed of roses.
The analogy I am sharing above could be seen in a spiritual sense as a form of purification but to our limited and deluded minds it seems like the sky is falling down! The past week or so has made me look on the brighter side of things whether or not it "seems" brighter at the moment. Only in hindsight may we look back on it and say "hey, I was darn lucky!"
On that note, with my Lama/Guru's guidance, I am looking forward to looking back on these obstacles of mine and know for a fact without a doubt what I can only hope and trust in my heart at the moment!
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My lama mentioned to a few of us students not so long ago. That through the Guru we can create soo much more merit than on our own. And that by having a Guru we have a chance to benefit soo many people. The Guru's job is to benefit people, and if we help the Guru to do his work then we too collect the merits from the many different projects a Guru may have on at any one time.
The Lama / Guru, will have the resources and people to make projects manifest. Can you imagine trying on your own from scratch say building a monatery or a chapel for the
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From a Theravada background, it is quite something to absorb to for Vajrayana, and one of the special things for Vajrayana is Guru/Lama. The other day my Guru told me something about helping others, and I am so touched, and started tearing. Then my Guru/Lama said I may have made aspiration in my previous life to help others, and when He talked about it, I felt touch and started tearing.
He said I have the imprint in me, but it is just a seed. The job of a Guru is to keep pouring water onto the seed and make it grow. I thought to myself, "Wow!"
Having and Lama/Guru is really a very special privilege, He can point things out so fast to help us to walk the path much faster!
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I remember growing up, there were some teachers whom i was afraid of and some i was pretty fond of and established a friendship which lasted way past high school till today. I did better in the classes with teachers whom I was fond off. To think back, was it because i was being selective and didn't like the subject or could the teacher have helped to make a difference in my mind. Some of my friends did better or just as well in classes with teachers from hell or heaven!
The qualities or skills of a lama as most of you have already listed out are multi faceted, just like a diamond and is so hard to find. Driven by compassion, a lama embodies wisdom which enables him/her to apply various skillful ways to show us and cultivate our own potentials,..be it wrathful, gentle, etc.
Due to our deluded minds, we may not ALWAYS see our lama as described ie., kind, compassionate, patient eventhough it's for the best intentions towards us.
The first step we could learn to cultivate a most beneficial relationship with having a lama is by reading the 50 stanzas of Guru Devotion by Ashvagosha http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/50_verses_guru_devotion.html (http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/50_verses_guru_devotion.html) It's not something we can immediately apply to our lives, but something to work on each day.
The question at the end of the day to ask ourselves is this -- > Is graduating with flying colors and reaching our goals more important than our likes and dislikes towards our classmates and our teachers, our dharma brothers and sisters and our lama?
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The first step we could learn to cultivate a most beneficial relationship with having a lama is by reading the 50 stanzas of Guru Devotion by Ashvagosha [url]http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/50_verses_guru_devotion.html[/url] ([url]http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/50_verses_guru_devotion.html[/url]) It's not something we can immediately apply to our lives, but something to work on each day.
Some of the verses people might find it quite difficult to follow, but it is not about the action but more on the attitude which we need to develop in our mind. Even if not for spiritual purpose, if we carry this kind of attitude to learn, to be aware, we will be successful in worldly affair too.
Follow our Lama wholeheartedly, there is nothing to lose. Sorry to say ,even if we feels that found a "unqualified Lama", there is nothing to lose as we experience the training all the way, and next time when we found the Guru which we think is more "qualified" then we will be more appreciative and progress even further. Either way is good. But I would say it is not about the Lama, it is us whether we have the merit to see the good qualities of the Lama.
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A Lama is someone we take refuge in because he encompasses the quality of a Buddha's teachings, and methods to help liberate us out of samsara. However, in our tradition many misunderstood the purpose of a Lama. A lot of them relate a Lama is to give blessing and had the powerful to bring us "luck" and everything will be okay.
True lama will teach us the dharma, wanting us to transform. Yes, no doubt they do have the power to bless due to upholding their vows and practices but we are still subject to our own karma after all. So it's up to us to really understand the purpose of having a lama. There is no short cut.
I sincerely hope everyone would have the fortune to meet powerful lama, a powerful dharma teacher who can guide us and liberate us from samsara.
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We need a Lama, especially one who is qualified and accomplished, to guide us surely and swiftly on the Path to Full Enlightenment.This is because he knows us, knows how to push our buttons and gives us direct and personal instructions and practices( that are tailored to suit our individual propensities and needs).
When we develop unwavering faith and total respect in him, when we see him as a Buddha, then proper devotion to him will mean that we use up our throwing karma that would take us to the lower realms( when he 'purifies' this throwing karma) even by a scolding from him! This is what is stated in the Lamrim. (Of course if we react negatively to a scolding or to any difficult task that our Lama assigns us, no purification would have taken place).
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Ultimately the purpose of the Lama is to bring Buddha's teachings to the student and guide him on the path until Enlightenment. To correct the student when he goes off the path, to clarify his doubts, to answer his questions, to skilfully train the student to develop the 6 paramitas, to be a living breathing example of the BuddhaDharma in action. Essentially, it is to actualize Buddha's teachings and relate it to today's generation of degenerate people.
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The purpose of a Lama is to guide us in our spiritual path until we reach Enlightenment.
He imparts Buddha's teachings to us using skilful method, He is a living Buddha.
The best way to repay the kindness of our Lama is mind transformation.
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The purpose of a Lama is to spread the Buddha's teaching to everyone and ultimately to reach enlightenment.
The Lama is very skillful to plant seed, create the condition for us to gain merits and purify our karma in order for us to be able to receive, understand & practice the great teaching.
The Lama is very kind and compassion to all the people. They always think of the best for our practice to quicken us to transform our mind. By transforming our mind that shows that we appreciate the effort and teaching of our Lama.
Just like my Guru, introducing Lord Shugden practice to me to help me to pacify my negative karma and at the same time to collect more merit not only for this life time and future too.
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Having a Lama with us is like a guardian yet a dangerous friend to us. He's there to drag us out of our own created wrath and to guide us towards ultimate enlightenment. To gain enlightenment one has to go through a long and treacherous grounds that we have created umpteen times for ourselves to experience the suffering and pain. Hence, having a Lama to guide us is a much quicker path to weed us out of our delusions.
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The purpose of a lama is to take us out of samsara or to enlightenment. This is why enlightened beings take rebirth in a nirmanakaya form, so that we can see them and receive teachings from them. If you have found a lama in this life, you are indeed very fortunate as it is the result of merits accumulated in previous lives. The lama is a Buddha but due to our delusions we do not perceive him as such. It is said in Pabongka Rinpoche's "Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand" that Vajradhara is at present among us, taking the form of gurus. "Hevajra's Royal Tantra" says:
In future times, my physical form
Will be that of masters...
And:
Also, in the last five centuries,
I will take the form of masters.
Think that they are me
And develop respect for them.
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Wow! All that needs to be said about the purposes are already mentioned!
For me, the purpose of a Lama is to teach and guide us to the correct path. He is here to water the seed in us to awake our inner Buddha mind so that we can understand and do more Dharma. When we trust our Lama, we surrender and do the best we can in helping Him to help and benefit other people. Taking refuge in 1 of the 3 Jewels will definitely protect and bless us all the way to do more.
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When you have full faith towards a Guru, sure you'll benefited from a Guru's wisdom and compassion.
What we could see/feel is so limited and superficial. A guru is the person who point out the 'unknown-me'. Sometimes a Guru would use a wrathful way just to make us a better person, to show us the better path to live a better life, not only this lifetime but even our next life!
Guru is just like our lovely parents. We may think that Guru intends to turn us into His slave, but when we 'do the Guru a favour', we collect uncountable merits! A slave could gain merits and sometimes get paid at the same time? We can even transform ourselves to be a better person to have a better life when we 'do the Guru a favour' by following the Guru's instruction to perform something in our lives. Which slave could gain all this?
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The purpose of our Lama is also to bring out our innermost fears, to push those buttons long hidden... in order that we may overcome the obscuration and fears we have built up through many many lifetimes. Sounds grim? Not at all... How do we really grow and transform if we still "hold on" to our inner most demons?
Our Lama creates the situations whereby we are "forced" to engage with our innermost fears in oder to overcome them. We need to trust our Lama and his methods for our benefit. Remember we took refuge in our Lama... he is our Guru. He has ONLY the best intentions!
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The purpose of having a Lama is to guide you on your spiritual path to eventually attaining enlightenment. The lama is your living Buddha, as he embodies the qualities that you aspire to gain. He is there to teach you, to scold you, to compliment you, to nurture you, to bring the Dharma to you, to train and guide you so that you are on the right track in your spiritual practise.
Your lama is not there to always praise you, or be nice to you, otherwise that would defeat the purpose of being trained and guided. Anyone can be nice to you, therefore your lama will manifest many different methods, as taught by Buddha himself, to help you in this life so that you can gain a better rebirth for the next life, and closer to enlightenment.
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A Lama is someone we take refuge in because he encompasses the quality of a Buddha's teachings, and methods to help liberate us out of samsara. However, in our tradition many misunderstood the purpose of a Lama. A lot of them relate a Lama is to give blessing and had the powerful to bring us "luck" and everything will be okay.
True lama will teach us the dharma, wanting us to transform. Yes, no doubt they do have the power to bless due to upholding their vows and practices but we are still subject to our own karma after all. So it's up to us to really understand the purpose of having a lama. There is no short cut.
I sincerely hope everyone would have the fortune to meet powerful lama, a powerful dharma teacher who can guide us and liberate us from samsara.
If we are serious about our spirituality it is important that we are geographically near to our Lama so that we can receive lots of teachings and guidance from him frequently. Our Lama will be able to spend more time with us to understand us better so that he knows what else we need to progress spiritually.
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There are different role of Lama in Vajrayana and other paths. In Vajrayana, having a Lama is very important and it's the core practice to follow and serve a Lama.
If you see happiness is the enlightenment and free from all sufferings, then you see a Lama is the foundation and source of all happiness.
In the process of following and serving a Lama, it might be tough, we feel discomfort and anger, these qualities that make us unhappy are exactly the blockages for our way enlightenment, by living out of comfort zone and do what the Lama want us to do, we will find more happiness and ultimately to enlightenment.
So what I would like to add to the list is "The foundation and source of happiness" =)
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"As merit increases, the Buddha-nature begins very gradually to stir. Within the mind, a certain interest in spiritual values will begin to constellate, and at the same time, like an answering echo, signs of the doctrine will slowly start to appear in outer experience.
"Metaphorically speaking, these could be seen as the externalization or projection of the Buddha-nature manifesting from within. A person in whom such a process begins to unfold will imperceptibly gravitate toward spiritual teaching, finding herself in situations where instruction and the practice become possible.
"She will come into contact with teachers who can lead her on the path, and finally she will meet a master who is able to place her in the ultimate state of freedom, introducing her in a way that far exceeds a merely intellectual comprehension. . .to his own true and primordially perfect nature.
"This final encounter is the most crucial meeting in the person’s entire samsaric existence, for it is here that the interdependent process just described reaches its completion and fulfillment. It might be said that the appearance of such a master is the last manifestation of the person’s Buddha-nature on the dualistic level, that master's function being to bring the disciple to the direct experience of the nature of, and the discovery of, the so called inner Guru--the Guru within."
- Yeshe Tsogyal (777-837), disciple and consort of the renowned Buddhist master Padmasambhava (a.k.a. Guru Rinpoche--the 8th Century Indian tantric master mainly responsible for the establishment of Buddhism, including the teachings of the Vajrayana, in Tibet, revered by all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism), is the most widely-worshipped and well-known female saint in Tibetan history, as her nation's most famous enlightened woman (a.k.a. Chief of the Dakinis of Great Bliss).