of one of the Dhyani buddhas or deities who are in the type of one of five. In Highest Yoga Tantra you also take what are known as the “samaya vows” which transcends your attitude toward the guru and which keeps your attitude pure – not separable from the guru who is giving the initiation. These vows are repeated six times daily in a practice known as the six-session guru yoga – recited three times in the morning and three times in the evening.
Six session guru yoga contains the samaya of the Five Dhyani buddhas and through the practice of six-session guru yoga it causes to achieve the tantra path, method and wisdom, which purifies the five impure aggregates and the purity of each aggregate manifested as the five types of Buddha. As there are doctors who are specialists in dealing with cancer and different types of sickness, these five Dhyani buddhas help overcome these five delusions, which makes us sentient beings suffer. By ceasing these five delusions you can achieve wisdom. When you achieve the five wisdoms you can achieve the five buddhas as well.
The Dhyani buddhas are always shown in meditation pose and are sometimes referred to as buddhas in meditation. In Nepal they adorn many stupas. These four forms are inset around a small shrine at Bhaktapur, Nepal.
THE DHYANI BUDDHAS AS FIVE SYMBOLS OF PURIFICATION
1 Purified ignorance causes it to cease in our consciousness. Purified ignorance manifests as Buddha Vairochana.
2 Overcoming, or purifying, anger and aversion manifests as Buddha Akshobhya.
3 Purified pride and miserliness manifests as Buddha Ratnasambhava.
4 Purified jealousy manifests as Buddha Amoghasiddhi.
5 When the delusion of attachment is purified, this manifests as Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light.
Meeting the five Dhyani buddhas implies the start of a spiritual journey, which always begins with purification.
Tantric Buddhism and the root guru
Tantric Buddhism requires considerable commitment and thought, plus the guidance of a teacher – someone to whom you initially relate as a virtuous friend, and who then becomes your all-important “tantric guru” when you take Tantric initiation from him. It is he who guides you to your deepest spiritual practices, bringing you to liberation from the cycle of samsara and eventually leading you to perfect enlightenment. Taking a guru implies a renunciation of non-virtuous actions, such as killing and stealing. Above all, it implies embracing the bodhisattva’s way of life. This means developing bodhichitta – an intense compassion for the suffering of all beings, which in turn leads to the strong desire to attain enlightenment in order to bring that suffering to an end.
Tantra thus centers on your guru. You can take teachings and even initiations from different gurus, but you only ever have one root guru who is your main guide. Although all Buddhist traditions can be traced back to the same historical Buddha, there are gross and subtle differences in the various lineages, so it is best to find one guru with whom you feel a real affinity. Once you decide to take refuge with him, you should practice intense loyalty, devotion, and obedience to your guru. All traditions, however, say the same thing: the guru is the root of the path, the source of all your goodness, the cause of all your happiness.
The root guru is so central to Buddhist spiritual practice that if you are to make any progress at all, in terms of achieving “realization,” you must practice guru yoga. This is done by visualizing your root guru as encompassing all the buddhas, and having the aspect of whichever deity you are practicing. No matter how many hundreds of thousands of buddhas you get to know, progress along the graduated path to enlightenment simply cannot happen unless you receive the blessings of your guru. So when you visualize a whole sky full of buddhas and lamas – what is referred to as “the meditation of the merit field” (see here) – it is vital to understand that all of them are manifestations of your gurus.
Therefore the real meaning of the guru is that he encompasses the holy mind of all the buddhas purest consciousness, the mind is the experience of the highest complete bliss. This is referred to as Dharmakaya. Thus it is said that when enlightenment is attained, the mind instantly understands this and becomes one with all the buddhas.
So a guru (or Tantric master, if you are taking Tantric initiations from him) is someone whom you should be very careful about taking on. You should check him out thoroughly, feel that you really want to study under him, and revere him as a true spiritual master before committing yourself to the samaya vows.
This book merely points the way. I am simply planting a seed in your mind, sharing what I have learned and experienced, and what I have discovered to be truly awesome. I am not a qualified teacher, but having known and benefited so much from my guru, it is possible for me to open some windows for you.
Lama Lhundrup Khen Rinpoche, the Abbot of Kopan Monastery, Nepal. His guru is Lama Yeshe, whose teachings are the basis of the Yeshe Program at Kopan, where around 360 monks and nuns now study. The monastery was first established in 1971 following Lama Lhundrup’s escape from China in 1959 with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
THE MERIT FIELD MEDITATION
Meditating on the Buddha merit field is an excellent way of practicing guru devotion. The practitioner begins by considering their root guru as the absolute guru – the Dharmakaya – the unity of all the buddhas’ holy minds. A painting of the merit field is visualized, with the root guru sitting in the center of the sky (see here). He manifests as Shakyamuni Buddha, who is called Tubwang; and as as Vajradhara, the buddha at the heart of Tubwang. Vajradhara is the embodiment of all the gurus.
Now one being is visualized: the lama, the guru, one aspect. This is the absolute guru, who manifests as a conventional guru to guide a person to enlightenment. The guru is also visualized as all the lineage lamas, who send their blessings.
Visualized on the right side of the picture is Maitreya Buddha, the buddha of loving kindness (see Chapter 9) and all his lineage lamas and disciples. On the left, Manjushri, the Buddha of wisdom, is visualized, with all his lineage lamas and disciples.
By manifesting thus, the guru guides the practitioner from one happiness to another happiness and ultimately to enlightenment. Now s/he thinks:
My guru also appears as all the lineage lamas of the old Kadampa traditions, which start with Lama Atisha* to guide me from happiness to happiness to enlightenment.
Then my guru appears as all the lineage lamas of the new Kadampa traditions, including Tsongkhapa, to guide me from happiness to happiness to enlightenment.
My guru manifests as the direct gurus surrounding Shakyamuni Buddha/Vajradhara, and as the tantric deities Highest Yoga tantra, Yoga tantra, Charya tantra, and Kriya tantra to guide me from happiness to happiness to enlightenment.
My guru manifests as the 1,000 buddhas of this fortunate eon, including the thirty-five Confession buddhas and the Medicine buddhas to guide me
