Mar 28

Kalu Rinpoche | How to generate devotion to guru (Part 2)

Many people they say “Oh I have a great devotion!” but then they end up lying and betraying their own guru. Eventually, it doesn’t hurt the guru anyway, if the guru is genuine. So if the guru is not genuine, then of course all this human reaction will start.

So therefore, I think the most important is that, devotion will not come because you read the guru yoga prayer. The devotion will not come. Making a request to have devotion, that will also not come. The only way to generate devotion is to always analyze the reality of the suffering, and the cause of suffering. If you understand the cause of suffering, and then you will understand the importance of the doctor, the importance of the medicine, isn’t it?

When you never get sick, you never understand the importance of the medicine, you never understand or cherish the people who have dedicated their whole life being a doctor and nurse and so on, so forth. Because you are not sick, you are well. You think that “Okay, now that I’m well”, so you assume that everything is okay. Everything is not okay. People are constantly in suffering.

So therefore, that is our natural behavior. So when we become a Buddhist practitioner, we have this idea “Oh, yeah, I want to have more devotion, I want to have more devotion, because my guru tells me, my people tells me, my sangha tells me, my Dharma center tells me, my Lama tells me, to have more devotion

You cannot have a devotion by making prayer. You cannot have more devotion by copying other people, pretending to be other people, like “Oh, those who have little bit of tears, and little bit emotional”. Being emotionally unstable, that is not devotion, that is just being emotionally unstable. You might need some professional help, to make some therapy, probably. So therefore, in order to develop a devotion, you need to have an acceptance to the truth. If you don’t have the acceptance to the truth of the reality of the suffering, there will be never a devotion, there will be never a sense of inspiration or dedication.

When we have sense of depth, understanding in ourself of the reality of the suffering, then we reflect naturally to the teachings of the Buddha. And when we relate to the teachings of the Lord Buddha, then we see all the relative truth, the reality of the suffering, the truth of all the relativity.

 

Kalu Rinpoche
FB Livestream – 14 March 2021

To be continued…