Q: How can we practice Guru Yoga very simply?
A: Many people when they think about the Guru Yoga, they think there’s something to imagine as a guru, you know, guru figure has to be there.
Actually, you don’t need to have any image of the guru. You visualize a deity, if you are dedication, and devotion and purity is there, that is also guru yoga. If you’re practicing Six Armed Mahakala, you have a purity, intention, and dedication to all sentient beings, that is also Guru Yoga. So the Guru Yoga doesn’t have to be a guru in a human flesh and bones, in a human figure up there in a sky, all these things. You don’t need that. Of course you can do that, but you don’t necessarily need that. Because the Guru Yoga is about having a sense of awareness and connecting with our visualization. So that’s that.
And how to do the simple Guru Yoga. The simple Guru Yoga is:
“MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ
All Sentient Beings, my mothers, who equal [the extent of] space,
CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO LAMA RINPOCHÉ LA CHAP SU CH’I WA LAK SO
go for refuge to the precious Lama who is the embodiment of all refuges”
it’s like that.
“MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ
CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO LAMA RINPOCHÉ LA CHAP SU CH’I WA LAK SO”
“MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ”, “MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ” means all the sentient beings in the limit of the, in the size of the space, or the size of the universe, all the sentient beings. “CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO” means, yourself, myself and all the sentient beings, the ultimate refuge, the only refuge. “CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO”, “CHAP” means refuge, “KUN DU” means the essence, essence of the refuge.
“CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO LAMA RINPOCHÉ LA CHAP SU CH’I WA LAK SO”, “LAMA RINPOCHÉ” means, my guru, precious, genuine. “CHAP SU CH’I WA LAK SO” means, I take a refuge, “LAK SO” means I take a refuge, I bestow my head to the feet of the guru. You, representing all the sentient beings, by placing your guru as a essence of the refuge.
“MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ”, “MA” means all the sentient beings, “NAM K’a” means sky, limit of the space. “MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ”, “SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ” means all the sentient beings.
“CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO”, “CHAP KUN DU” means essence of the refuge, I seek the refuge to the essence of the refuge, and then we bow to your feet, as myself representing all the sentient beings, you know? Little bit like that.
“ MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ
CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO LAMA RINPOCHÉ LA CHAP SU CH’I WA LAK SO”
So that’s that. That’s the only sentence you need to Guru Yoga.
Again, that’s how we do in the Shangpa lineage. In Shangpa lineage we do:
“ MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ
CHAP KUN DU CHI NGO WO LAMA RINPOCHÉ LA CHAP SU CH’I WA LAK SO”
In different tradition, they do:
“ MA NAM K’a DANG NYAM PÈÏ SÈM TCHÈN TAM TCHÉ
LA MA SANG GYÉ RIN PO TCH’É LA SEUL OUA DÈP SO”
they do the Guru, they do the Yidam, Pawo Khandro, then they do the Chos-skyong, Srung-ma and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and things like that, you know?
In the Shangpa tradition we do only, we say, the essence of all the refuge is the guru, you know? Like that. So it’s a one line.
Kalu Rinpoche
FB Livestream – 25 July 2021 (1h 17’50”)
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