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Lama Zopa Rinpoche felt strongly that it was important for him to offer the following advice to the students of Dagri Rinpoche out of concern for their guru-disciple relationship. Rinpoche also offered advice on guru devotion to all students.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna, Bilbao, Spain, May 6, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

From my understanding, in my view and according to my mind, Dagri Rinpoche is a very positive, holy being—definitely not an ordinary person.

One night a very long time ago at Tushita in Dharamsala, Dagri Rinpoche told me that he had a dream that he visited the pure land of Lama Tsongkhapa (Yiga Chozin). He was saying how unbelievably, unbelievably wonderful it was, with all the beautiful enjoyments and view, wow, wow, wow!

Then in Sera Je Monastery, when I was having dinner at his house, he told me another story. After he recited Rinjung Gyatso mantras, he led the pujas of the Hayagriva group in Sera Je. During the puja he himself was a huge Hayagriva and all the monks were very little. When he was telling me this, his way of expressing it was bringing himself down, saying that maybe he was hallucinating. These are just a few stories that I have heard. But this is definitely not an ordinary being, someone scared of death and the lower realms. That is one hundred percent certain. This is according to my personal view, according to my mind.

Therefore, I want to tell the students who have received initiations and teachings from Dagri Rinpoche that you should definitely one hundred percent rejoice, no matter what the world says, no matter if some people criticize him. Even after Buddha became enlightened, he showed the aspect of having pain in his foot when a piece of wood went through it. Buddha said that the suffering was the result of sexual misconduct with a woman in one of his past lives, a long time ago. Of course, even arhats, who haven’t achieved the five Mahayana paths, the ten Bhumis or the tantric path, don’t have pain. They are free from samsara, since they are totally free from delusions and karma, the cause of samsara. How is it possible for someone to experience pain, rebirth, old age, and death if they have totally ceased the cause of suffering? It then becomes that Buddha is not true and Buddha’s teachings are not true. It becomes like that. Numberless beings have become enlightened: yogi-pandits such as Saraha, Tilopa and Naropa, and many beings from all four sects of Tibetan Buddhism, including Padmasambhava and other Nyingma lamas, Marpa and Milarepa, the five great highly attained Sakya Lamas, Lama Tsongkhapa himself, and many others in the Gelug tradition. With this reasoning everything becomes not true.

Buddha showed the aspect of a piece of wood going into his foot and said that a long time ago, in one of his past lives, he committed sexual misconduct with a woman. He did this to show the karma to the disciples, to the sentient beings who are the objects to be subdued. So, Buddha himself showed suffering, even though he didn’t have suffering.

This also includes the present Dalai Lama. You can see that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is all that is explained by Buddha, the great yogi-pandits and Lama Tsongkhapa. You can see that his holy mind possesses all the qualities of the path. His holy mind has all the supreme qualities, all the inexpressible qualities beyond the path, that have been explained in the texts by Buddha and up to the present buddhas’, enlightened ones’, experiences, as well as being unbelievably practical and cherishing others like a mother cherishes her most beloved child. No matter whether someone is rich or poor, educated or uneducated, His Holiness sees everyone in the world as equal and gives the most practical advice. Now, even this would not be true. But here you can see this with your own eyes, so then how could you say that it’s not true. The incredible qualities of His Holiness’s gurus and so many other holy beings that you have seen would also not be true. You would then have to say that there are no holy beings. So, these mistakes would arise.

You can see for yourself that if you practice Buddhism—lamrim, for example—your mind has greater and greater peace and becomes more and more holy. How can you then say that even that doesn’t happen? It’s the same as saying that everything you did, everything you experienced, is a hallucination. Of course, this is not related to the view of true existence. The hallucination, in this case, is that nothing exists in mere name: suffering, the cause of suffering, cessation of suffering, the path. Nothing then exists: there’s no hell, no enlightenment, no karma, no samsara, no nirvana.

Then, in the sutra Meeting of the Father and Son, it says, “Buddha works for sentient beings by taking the costume of Indra, Brahmin, sometimes as mara, (but people in the world do not know this). He also shows the conduct, the costume, of a woman. Also, Buddha takes animal forms. There is no attachment but he shows attachment; there is no fear but he shows fear; there is no ignorance but he shows ignorance; there is no craziness but he shows craziness; there is no lameness but he shows being lame. In various aspects, Buddha works for sentient beings and subdues the minds of sentient beings.”

Please understand this. Even enlightened buddhas work for sentient beings like this. So we, including myself, need to see things as positive. From our minds, from our side, we have to try to see the positive side. 

Otherwise, it means you don’t need to meditate, you don’t need to practice Dharma, from your side. Otherwise, why do you need to meditate? Why do you need to practice Dharma? Without needing to put effort from your side, you expect everything outside to be positive. To be able to see the Guru is numberless past, present, and future buddhas, to be able to realize that, you have to put effort from your own side.

That’s why Lama Tsongkhapa said in The Foundation of All Good Qualities:

The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and perfect, pure Guru;
Correct devotion to him is the root of the path.
By clearly seeing this and applying great effort,
Please bless me to rely upon him with great respect.

The verse says: “The kind, perfect guru is the basis of all good qualities and correctly following the virtuous friend is the root of the path to enlightenment. By seeing well, which means seeing the guru as numberless past, present, future buddhas, WITH MUCH EFFORT, please grant me blessings to be able to follow the guru with great devotion and respect.” So, this means from your own side, with great effort. Lama Tsongkhapa said this from his own experience.

Since we (myself, for example) don’t have that understanding, we expect that we don’t have to do anything from our side. We only expect to see the guru’s qualities, to see the guru as pure, as the essence of buddha, from outside. It doesn’t happen like this.

Even if you saw the person before as full of mistakes, after you make a Dharma connection with them, you need to practice the root of path to enlightenment: correctly following the virtuous friend. By training your mind in that, then you are able to see that is buddha, which means one who has totally ceased the gross and subtle obscurations and completed all the qualities. You then realize the root of the path to enlightenment: correctly following the virtuous friend. From there, you then actualize the graduated paths of the lower capable being, the middle capable being and then the higher capable being. Bodhichitta and then tantric realizations happen easily.

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened eons ago, according to Mahayana, according to reality. Gelong Lekpai Garma, Buddha’s attendant, served Buddha for twenty-two years, but he always looked at Buddha as a liar. This was because one time when Buddha was on alms round, a young girl offered a handful of grain in Buddha’s begging bowl. At that time Buddha predicted that from that karma she would become enlightened as Buddha Tseme. Gelong Lekpai Garma thought that was a lie and that Buddha was just flattering her. He thought it was too much: “How is it possible for that to happen from offering one handful of grain?” So, for his whole life he saw Buddha as a liar and as an ordinary being. Buddha was a buddha, but he never saw him as a buddha. He had more faith in his Hindu guru. One time his Hindu guru was sick and Buddha advised his Hindu guru not to eat brown sugar. Gelong Lekpai Garma didn’t believe Buddha, he thought he was lying, so he offered his Hindu guru brown sugar. His Hindu guru died and was reborn as a preta; one time this preta made a sound as Buddha was walking by on a road. When Gelong Lekpai Garma died, he was reborn in the hell realms for eons. It is important to know these stories.

Thank you very much. Have no regrets. The only thing is to enjoy life, which is very short and can be ended at any time.

Thank you very much,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

May 12, 2019, Lavaur, France. Scribe: Ven. Holly Ansett, edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.