Host: So Rinpoche, if you don’t mind, I want to explore a little bit more of this Guru Yoga, that’s okay?
Kalu Rinpoche: Yeah, yeah.
Host: And so, assuming like what Rinpoche says, we have a teacher that is a good teacher like His Holiness and assuming that we don’t have blind faith and then we also don’t have this fear that if I do something wrong I will go to hell or something … This is a given, right?
And then Rinpoche starts to say that the role of Guru Yoga is to create inspiration, right? And so what if someone like: “Okay I want to do this Niguma Illusory body course, I’m so inspired already, I’m very eager and excited to do this course. So maybe I don’t need Guru Yoga because I have already have the inspiration”. The reason why I’m asking this question is to tease out what inspiration really means here and how it might be different from excitement? That’s my question.
Kalu Rinpoche: If we go to some different countries, people worship spirits and then they say: “Okay I worship this spirit and this god and goddesses so that I gain fortune, so that I gain fame, so that I gain longevity, so that I gain power, influence”. So there’s a kind of not really a religion but there’s a kind of culture that exists. And some religion they even promote that ideas and people make a worship and prayers based on these ideas that attract them and then they keep themselves in that idea in that bubble.
When you are doing Guru Yoga, you are not seeking longevity or fortune or misery. You’re not going to the extreme good, you’re not going to the extreme bad, you’re not seeking suffering, you’re not seeking punishment, you’re not seeking a miracle, you’re not seeking fortune or pain or any of the worldly things.
But when you are reciting the prayer to the Guru Yoga, mentioning his name or his mentors, you are saying basically: “With your presence, please give me a sense of reflection and energy and the blessings so that I can truly see my own ego, so that I truly see my attachment, I can let go of my attachment, so that I can let go of my ego, so that I can overcome my illusionary mind, all the causes of suffering. Please empower me, reflect upon me with your blessings so that I can let go all those things, so that I can be more meaningful to myself, I can be more meaningful to others.” That is more or less the prayer that you’re doing. You’re not just saying “Ah Guru” and just sitting there with a sense of silence.
You are reciting that prayer again and again, again and again. And what it does is that the Guru, whether he was there or not, that is not really the point. The point is that you are repeating that, sense of ultimate truth, ultimate meaning to yourself, again and again, so you can really, sincerely, practice the Dharma.
Wisdom Dharma Chat | Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche – April 2024 (38′ 40”)
During this Wisdom Dharma Chat host Daniel Aitken and Rinpoche discuss his Wisdom Academy course Illusory Body and Mind, along with his new and upcoming Wisdom Academy course on Niguma’s dream yoga, and much more.
To be continued …
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