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Dec 14

Kalu Rinpoche | Don’t hurry. Don’t pretend. Don’t copy.

To have a complete understanding of devotion, be patient! Be patient. Don’t tell yourself that you need to have a devotion right now, just because that you read some beautiful books. Don’t make yourself in a hurry. Of course, we have a respect, we admire, we are astonished or encouraged by the Lord Buddha’s teaching. Of course, these basic qualities should be there… and will be there… that’s why you are here, trying to learn the Buddhism. But don’t tell yourself that you have understood the meaning of devotion, right away. When you understand the true meaning of devotion, then it’s already in selfless act. You have no longer the attachment to yourself. You are no longer in the illusion of yourself. You are truly, deeply inspired by your master. Therefore, you are devoted. Therefore, you have devotion. Therefore, your devotion would never cause you any trouble at all, in your whole life.

Nowadays and also throughout the history of all the different lineages and traditions and masters and students, if you look carefully, many of them had certain misconceptions of the meaning of devotion. That’s why they got stuck with the guru so many times.  And some of them, because of misconceptions of the devotion, they don’t meet their master for very very long time.

If you look at the Gampopa’s history… Gampopa was already doing such a great practice, Shamatha practice, lot of studies and practices. He’s already a scholar or a philosopher or whatever you called it, basically a great enlightened being already. When he was on his way to see Milarepa and he was stopping by in some place, because the journey is quite long. When he was about to sleep, he asked his navigator: ‘Where is Milarepa, since you are the navigator?’ The navigator said: ‘Milarepa is in this direction’. And then when Gampopa heard that with such a great inspiration, with great encouragement, and of course undoubtedly a pure devotion and with that in mind, he slept in that direction, and the next morning when he woke up, he understood the meaning of Buddha nature.

There are the possibilities, if we practice ourselves gradually. But pretending to be like them, don’t do that. I think that can cause a big trouble. Pretending to be a great yogi, pretending to be already an advanced practitioner, and that is a terrible lie that we tell ourselves. And we should never do that. I think that is the most important.

And there has been many great masters in the past, but what we should not do is trying to copy them. Like I said to other practitioners,  if you are trying to copy other practitioners, then maybe your spiritual journey has not started yet. Because if you are trying to copy other people, just because they are doing Nongdro, just because they are doing this and doing that, it will not lead you anywhere.

 

With Love and Respect from Kalu Rinpoche
22th, Sep. 2018 @ Vancouver, Canada
Guru Yoga Teachings (Part4)