“In order to realize the nature of your mind, spiritual instructions alone will not help you alone, you also need to receive the blessings of a guru who has realization. So, it’s not just the lineage of the words but the lineage of the meaning that is important.”
“Like these days, in foreign countries people call all the monks, anyone who’s wearing red robes, they call them lama, that’s the custom there, right? In particular, it’s even scarier than that. These people don’t know how to distinguish good lamas from bad ones, or they don’t distinguish good lamas from bad ones. Because of this they are deceived and this also brings great harm to the teachings and to sentient beings in general.”
“The guru should be someone who has a really stable character and in addition to that, in terms of the Dharma they should have a stable faith, and a stable wish for liberation. These intentions should be really stable. Also, their affection and care for their students should be really stable. So liking their students one day, and not liking them the other, they shouldn’t like changing like that, they shouldn’t be fickle at all.”
Introductory summary/report
On 12th March 2025, the 17th Karmapa who has neither personally attended the Kagyu Monlam nor the Arya Kshema this year (with no explanation), began the first day of the online Arya Kshema teachings yesterday. Originally advertised as starting from February 16th (previous teachings have been for one month), this time the teachings have been delayed and changed twice to start 12th March for five days only, consecutively until 17th March 2025.
The 17th Karmapa is continuing the teachings on the important Vajrayana text The Fifty Verses on the Guru (Skt: Gurupañcāśikā) which he introduced (and I transcribed last year, Days 1-6 2024) see here. I had a strong inner resistance to writing anything this year, especially after the 17th Karmapa’s (and his close tulku friend Drupon Dechen Rinpoche’s) unexplained absence at the major Karma Kagyu events in Bodh Gaya, who told me at the Kagyu Monlam Thailand that his next destination was India for the Monlam. This change of plan, combined with the 17th Karmapa’s participation in a private meeting (at an undisclosed location) after the Monlam, with a small group of “young-looking” laywomen participants and HE Zurmang Rinpoche was puzzling to say the least. Frankly, it was difficult for me to see any real ‘wisdom’ in doing that.
However, as I have a long-time ‘vajra connection’, love, compassion and devotion for the 17th Karmapa (which still ‘holds strong’ despite the events of the last few years), the text/teachings is important in terms of Dharma and Vajrayana, and the Kagyu Office reports often leave things out or mistranslate them, I thought it would be in the interests and benefit of the Karma Kagyu and Karmapa legacy and followers, to do it this year again too. Many people have thanked me for doing them, even if the Karma Kagyu Office/administrators do not! So, if that is not genuine devotion to the teachings and the lineage, then what is?
Summary: the nine general essential qualities of a guru
Turning to the Day One teaching, the Karmapa himself re-iterated not only the importance of relying on a Guru in Vajrayana and that without the blessings of a qualified guru one could never attain the common or uncommon siddhis. However, the Karmapa also again emphasised that simply wearing monastic red robes, being called Lama or Rinpoche or having a big following does not in itself make someone a qualified guru. In particular, qualities such as the presence of genuine love and compassion and not abandoning the student at the slightest offence or ‘sign of trouble’ is an essential characteristic and of a stable, patient and ‘tamed’/subdued guru.
The 17th Karmapa cited a Sanskrit commentary on the Fifty Verses in the Tengyur by Vanaratna, translated by Go Lotsawa Zhonu Pel called Textual Commentary on Serving/Following the Guru (བླ་མའི་བསྙེན་བཀུར་གྱི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ bLa maʼi bsnyen bkur gyi dkaʼ ʼgrel) which divided the characteristics into general and specific characteristics.
The 17th Karmapa noted that Je Tsongkhpa’s Commentary on the Fifty Verses does not mention this commentary and wondered if it was because Tsongkhapa had no access to those commentaries or they had not been translated and/or he did not know Sanskrit and was unable to translate it.
There were nine common/general qualities listed as being essential for a guru. These are being:
- steadfast/stable
- subdued/tamed
- intelligent/wise
- patient,
- upright/straight/honest,
- without duplicity/guileless,
- skilled in the use of mantra and tantras,
- loving and compassionate, and
- learned in treatises.
Here is a video clip I made of the first day teaching (with original Tibetan, and my translated subtitles), in which the Karmapa speaks about the quality of compassion and how an authentic guru will never abandon their students, no matter how unruly or difficult they are [2]. And how a genuinely compassionate guru would do anything possible, even at the cost of their own life, to prevent a student going to the lower realms. A genuine guru would certainly not wish negativity and a bad result on them, or think they ‘had it coming to them’ when the student experiences suffering. The reason being that a Vajrayana guru will equally suffer and go to the lower realms if they take on an unqualified student (for more on that see previous year’s video clip on the importance of examining a Vajra Guru well here, and how to leave an unqualified guru, here).
The 17th Karmapa said the following day’s teaching would be about the ‘specific characteristics’ of a guru.
Personal Observations: “Do as I say, not as I do?”
The 17th Karmapa appeared on the screen in a plain, simple unadorned room, he looked rather tired, sad and depressed. As I looked closer again at the live streamed video (which has been edited out now), as the Karmapa was reciting his opening prayers, I could see the clear glistening tracks of tears that had poured down his face and his eyes were filled with tears and sadness. None of that brilliant glow and energy of former years when he first came to India in 2000 and during the Marme Monlam concerts he personally cirated[1].
Nonetheless, despite my own weariness, annoyance and disbelief at what has been happening to and with the 17th Karmapa over the last few years, and the feeling that some of these words of this text are not being practised by many of the Karma Kagyu teachers and monastics themselves, it was still a privilege and pleasure to see the 17th Karmapa’s face and voice, speaking about one of the most important topics in Vajrayana, the question of the student-guru relationship and what makes a guru qualified and unqualified. As I entered the secret vajra union for the teaching’s duration, I felt strongly bound and compelled by his commitment, love and compassion to listen and participate, despite my temporary, personal feelings and observations.
As the teaching ended in the secret vajra union, tears streamed down my face in sadness and heartbreak at the Karmapa’s current situation and the worldly people around him who have put, and kept, him there. I wondered how much longer he (and others) could go on this way, and prayed for his long life at the end with the chorus of nuns and monks. The heartbreak would be even greater if we were to lose the 17th Karmapa in terms of his life, for sure. Fickleness when things don’t go as we want, is not a quality of a vajra guru, nor of a vajra student. Real diamond ‘connections’ cannot be bought and sold and last forever, as Bassey sang”Diamonds never lie and nothing hides in their heart to hurt me”.
Music? Calling the Guru From Afar chanted by Lama Gyurme, Tracks of my Tears by Smokey Robinson, Solid as a Rock by Ashford and Simpson, and Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey.
Compiled and transcribed by Adele Tomlin, 15th March 2025.
Fifty Verses on the Guru by 17th Karmapa (Day One Transcript)
The 17th Karmapa first started by re-iterating what he had said before in the previous teachings on the Fifty Verses on the Guru, that it was important to know the main reason for understanding this text. In the Sutra and Tantras it is mentioned again and again how it is important to follow a lama or spiritual friend.
“In particular, in the secret Mantra it’s often said that if you do not follow guru you can’t meditate on a guru or recite mantras and if you don’t serve a guru, you won’t be able to do most of the practice of the secret mantra you could even say that you wouldn’t be allowed to.
For example in the entry to the path of the secret Mantra, the beginning point, or the Gateway into it begins with asking for an empowerment. You ask for the empowerment and you enter the Mandala so you take the empowerment but when you take empowerment if you don’t have a guru, then you don’t have someone to give or receive the empowerment from. So if there’s no guru there’s no way to take the empowerment. Then it is very difficult to practice secret Mantra.
Likewise after you which received the empowerment there are many vows and samayas that are taught. All of these come down to the guru fundamentally. Then, as you do the practice of the creation and completion stages and you progress along the path and the levels, if you don’t have the instruction or advice on the creation completion phrases you need a lot of pith instructions on them. So, if you don’t have a guru, you won’t know how to do the practice, so there’ll be no way that you will be able to practice.
Finally, when you’ve already awakened to Buddhahood, the guru you previously followed becomes the Lord of your family who is above the crown of your head. So it’s like we see this with many Buddhas for example, like Avalokiteshvara with Amitabha and so forth. This is because he followed him as his Guru during the training on the path. So even though he is achieved ultimately achieved Enlightenment he appears in the form of a Bodhisattva, but above his crown there is the Lord of his family the Amitabha.
In any case, if you think about the secret mantra practice, at the beginning middle and end the guru is extremely important. For this reason, it says in the Short Text on the Root Downfalls of the Vajrayana (Skt: Vajrayānamūlāpatti) by Master Aśvaghoṣa states, because accomplishment depends on the Vajra holder. the master, the Supreme and ordinary accomplishments all depend on the way you serve the guru. If you don’t follow a guru, there’s no way to achieve the Supreme and ordinary accomplishments.
In particular, with our Kagyu tradition the blessings of the guru are considered extremely important. For example, from Pandita Naropa to Marpa to Je Gampopa downwards , whether you develop realization and experience or not depends primarily on the blessings of the guru. “The root of blessings is the guru”, as we always say.
In Je Gampopa’s Garland of the Nectar of Advice ( གྲོས་འདེབས་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཕྲེང་བ།) it says is you might have spent many years striving at keeping your generosity ,keeping discipline, have developed infinite clairvoyance and miraculous powers but these are not of benefit. You might have seen the yidam, achieved the siddhis of long-life span as long as the sun and moon, and all the causes of Buddhahood, but they won’t be able to bring you to the other side of samsara.
In order to transcend samsara you need to realize the nature of your own mind. In order to realize the nature of your mind, spiritual instructions alone will not help you alone, you also need to receive the blessings of a guru who has realization. So, it’s not just the lineage of words but the lineage of the meaning that is important. The guru has themselves to realize to their mind, and if you receive their blessings only then will you be able to realize the nature of your own mind.
Likewise, the same text also says the Garland of Nectar Advice it says if you have not received the guru blessings, the mind essence cannot be realized by looking, you can’t catch it by grasping your hand, you can’t stop it by blocking it, you even think that if you want to eliminate all your perception you can’t discard them or demolish them. Therefore, to all those who want to gather the accumulations prefer the obscurations, pacify obstacles, develop realization in their beings, overwhelm appearances and perfect the benefit for themselves and others, the one thing that one “piece of work” needed to be done is to serve the guru only, and to respect the guru. There’s nothing other to do than to supplicate them. There’s basically nothing else it says. You need to make devotion to the guru like the central aspect of our practice. So those who have developed realization need to practice like that and those who have developed realization, also should supplicate the guru over and over again. Not letting oneself be distracted, but to nurture the experience of the realization itself. Through this they’ll resolve that their own mind is free of all obscurations and they’ll see that it is like a display, or like an illusion. And they will actually realize, that they have no hopes or fears Nirvana.
Thus, if we look at the words of the Buddha and the treatises, if you look at the life stories of the masters of the past, in particular, if we look at the deeds and lives of the Kagyu gurus, whatever you read, you will see that serving and serving a guru is a really crucial point.
Similarly, the characteristics of the Guru that you follow, and the manner that you should serve them, are something that we absolutely have to understand. It is really critical to understand it.
For this reason, many texts of the secret mantra explain that once you have received an empowerment, you should first study and contemplate the Fifty Verses on the Guru. The reason for doing so is that all of the common and supreme siddhis of secret Mantra depend upon following the guru. So, if you study this if you serve the guru properly, you’ll be able to know how to practice the Dharma and be able to achieve the Supreme and ordinary accomplishments, it is said.
However, these days, people don’t really understand what the word Lama or the word guru means, they just don’t understand. Like these days, in foreign countries they say all the monks, anyone who’s wearing red robes they call them all lama, that’s the custom there, right? In particular, it’s even scarier than that. These days, people don’t know how to distinguish good lamas from bad ones, or they don’t distinguish good lamas from bad ones and because of this they’re deceived by them. This also brings great harm to the teachings and to sentient beings in general.
Likewise, these days, those with the names of Rinpoche as a title. I’m thinking primarily about myself people like myself, we have the names like Rinpoche or tulku, but we ourselves we don’t really know what to do ourselves to be gurus and how we can live up to ourselves. We don’t know what we should do. We have the title lama but in actuality we’re not really able to take on the responsibility of a guru, this happens quite a bit, doesn’t it?
Also, there are many people who receive all the empowerments, teachings and transmissions, as many as they want from the guru, but they’re completely unable to keep the samayas. Particularly, if they are people who are in the physical presence of the guru. They go see the guru and they live with the guru, and they see them every day. They only see the guru as like an ordinary person, and they don’t think of the guru as being like a Buddha or a spiritual master. They say many things that are disrespectful, and criticize them and this happens quite a bit.
So if we think about this, the explanation of the secret Mantra text of the secret mantra says we should absolutely not do that. What it says in the text of the secret Mantra is that that if you’re disrespectful of the guru that you will be incapable of receiving any blessings or qualities in this life. Then, in future lives you’ll be reborn in like the incessant hells and so forth. So, it is important for us to understand perfectly well what’s it meant when you follow and serve an authentic Guru, how should we pay respect to a Guru, how do we make a good connection with a guru. It’s very important for us to understand this.
Right now, we’re speaking about the Fifty verses on the Guru. My plan is that in the future we then move on to teach a little bit about the secret mantra. So, once we finish these verses then there’s Rangjung Dorje’s Ocean of Samaya so I thought I’ should teach that.
However, as I mentioned earlier, when speaking about the texts of the secret mantra the first one we should study is the Fifty verses of the Guru because that is the tradition. So we will continue with the Fifty Verses.
The point we’ve come to in the text is about the characteristics of the guru to follow. There are the characteristics of the guru to avoid, and the characteristics of the guru to be followed. So, basically these two points. Last year, we discussed the first of these the characteristics of the guru to avoid. Today, I will begin teaching on the characteristics of the guru to be followed we talk about the characteristics the guru to follow.
Here, what we really have to understand, the most important point in general, in the secret mantra that you should think of the guru as being like an actual Buddha. We consider the guru to be extremely important. We think if I could only see the guru. Actually, we have should have faith in the Guru and dedication to the guru as being like the actual Buddha. So this means that we should hold whatever the guru says to be authoritative and to view whatever they do is excellent. This is very important and something we have to think about.
Sometimes what we think is, when we say Buddha, it is something really far away from us because none of us have ever actually met the Buddha. We only see them in dreams or in visions, but we don’t actually see the Buddha, because the Buddha passed away 2,500 years ago. He appeared in the world then and passed into parinirvana. The Buddha appearing the world is an event that happened 2,500 years ago. We weren’t born 2500 years ago. It is only now that we’ve been born and even our parent ancestors had yet to be born. So we were unable to actually meet the Buddha, we didn’t have that excellent fortune to meet him.
However, when we look at it, when we say a Buddha and the idea of a Buddha, we think the Buddha is like this, we have an idea of what a Buddha is like. So the primary thing is that we we’ve seen a lot of statues or paintings with the Buddha. So when one says Buddha when you think about a Buddha, then you think of the statues or the thangkas that we see, that’s probably what we think of right?
Actually, the Buddha was the one who actually was born in the Indic sub-continent 2,500 years ago as a prince and human being. If we think about it, if we had been there 2500 years ago we might have met the Buddha, but would the Buddha have been like someone we think? Like someone incredible, with a body several storeys high. It probably wouldn’t seem like that. If we looked at them, they would probably seem like a natural person. Among people we would probably think Buddha was a very handsome person, who had a beautiful face but it wouldn’t be a Buddha like we think. If we looked up to the top of their head to see the invisible topknot ushnisha, the head is like difficult to see it right?
Actually, the Buddha in actuality is like the guru, a spiritual friend. The Buddha who was actually there for the people who saw him, was actually like a spiritual friend, like a human. He wasn’t like some sort of like incredible being as we have this idea. As a person he was a little bit different in the way people saw him because of their capabilities. People would see the Buddha in different ways, but in general, in terms of the general way, the guru would have appeared as like a lama, or like a spiritual friend.
So this is something we have to think about when we actually we have the spiritual friend, we actually meet in our own perception actually there’s no difference between them and the Buddha. The person, who teaches us the path of virtue, the spiritual friend, is that type of a person like the Buddha or the spiritual friend. It is important for us to think about it like that.
Of course, in general, the secret mantra one has to think about the Buddha as being as an actual Guru and we have to hold whatever they say to be authoritative, this is what it says. But we need to understand that merely having the title of Guru or lama does not mean that we have to view them as being a Buddha. Everyone who is called by the name lama, “O there’s a lama over there and there’s a lama so and so there”, like that, just because they have the title lama doesn’t mean that we necessarily have to think that they we see them as a Guru, and do everything that they tell us to do. Merely saying that someone is a lama doesn’t mean that everything they do is good, or that everything they do is something you should hold to be authoritative. It doesn’t mean that.
When you say a Guru it doesn’t mean that you should serve everyone who is said to be a Lama the way that Marpa followed Tilopa, and Milarepa followed Marpa. It is really important for us to understand this too. So first, we need to examine whether the individual we are thinking of serving as a Guru has the qualifications that make them worthy of being a guru. As it is taught in the secret mantra, you have to examine this. All the texts of the secret mantra do not mean you can just close your minds and believe they are a guru and then follow them, it is not like that at all. If someone introduces a person and says “this is a good lama”, that’s not enough, you also have to examine them, and see “is this really a good Guru or not? Is this a guru who has all of the qualities that make them worthy of being a Guru or not?” Only then, can you follow them. You should not just follow what other people say. You cannot just listen because of them being well-known.
So, when you’re looking at first, you have to look for whether they have the greater and lesser qualities, we can talk about there being some greater ones, middling ones and lesser ones. We can describe them, but at the bare minimum, they have to have these qualities. Even if you cannot find the best or greatest of gurus, at the very minimum they have to have these particular qualities. Otherwise, if they do not have those, then you should not follow them as a guru. It is so important to understand what the minimum characteristics and qualifications for being a guru are.
From the perspective of all of us who have the titles of lama or tulku, we have to look at ourselves, as we have those titles, people will hold us to be a lama, and a spiritual friend and so we need to examine and see ourselves. Do we have these minimum qualities for being a guru? If we don’t, then we need to what think about what do we need to do to see whether to develop those qualities in ourselves.
If we are thinking in terms of being the student, you have to look and see whether the guru has the characteristics of a guru as taught in the text. To see which ones they have, which ones they don’t have. You cannot just say because they are said to be a Lama, because they’re known to be a guru, or because someone said “this is a good lama”. Not just because some wanted to introduce them to you. It is important for your own part to look at them impartially and see whether they have the characteristics of the guru as taught in the texts or not.
Now, generally, we think about the characteristics of a lama or a spiritual friend, these are taught in the Hinayana and Mahayana vehicles. The Vinaya speaks quite a bit about the characteristics of a spiritual friend. The Mahayana Sutras also have various descriptions of the characteristics of a spiritual friend. From one perspective, this is not the topic that we have today and from another perspective, we don’t have the time to speak about that, so I won’t speak much about them now.
Within the tantras of the secret mantra there are quite a few and they are scattered throughout the different tantras. They are in many different areas of the Tantras. If we take the essence of all and combine them all, the text that does that is this Fifty Verses on the Guru. So for the characteristics of the guru, like the essential character or the essence. If you want to go and look and read and see what’s taught in the many Tantras of the secret Mantra there’s so many different tantras, and what’s taught in them they’re all scattered about. And so it’s difficult to combine them all into a single thing. For that reason, the characteristics taught in the Fifty Verses on the Guru are gathered all in one place. So these characteristics that are taught in the Fifty Verses, if we know them well, then we can have a good summary of the characteristics of the gurus that are taught in the secret mantra.
Two Stanzas in the Fifty Verses: Distinguishing between common and uncommon characteristics, Sanskrit commentary and Je Tsongkhapa’s omitting to mention them
There are two stanzas in the Fifty Verses on the Guru that teach the characteristics of a guru In terms of these two, there are many different commentaries and among them there is one that’s in the Tengyur, that was translated by Go Lotsawa Zhonu Pel, and so this is called the Textual Explanation on Serving the Guru (Skt. Gurvārādhana-pañjikā བླ་མའི་བསྙེན་བཀུར་གྱི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ་) [3]. This is a Sanskrit commentary on the Fifty Verses this is the only one. In this commentary it says that:
“There are two stanzas on the characteristics for serving the guru. The first stanza, teaches the general or common characteristics of a guru, and the second teaches the specific and special characteristics of a guru.”
In Lord Tsongkhapa’s commentary on the Fifty Verses of the Guru it does not really distinguish between the common and specific characteristics in general. This shows that he probably had not read the Sanskrit commentaries. Perhaps that he was not able to translate them or they had not yet been translated at that time. Or perhaps Lord Tsongkhapa was not able to get a copy of it. However, he probably did not read that commentary. So Je Tsongkhapa in his commentary of this does not does not seem to divide the common and particular characteristics as they are in that.
Je Tsongkhapa says that the characteristics of the guru taught in the Fifty Verses on the Guru are according to the intention of the Tantra of the Net of Illusion (Skt. Māyājāla-tantra). Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye also teaches it slightly differently, it’s kind of similar to the Sanskrit commentary. It is similar in distinguishing between common and specific characteristics but when researching it in detail, he says that the first two lines of the first are the common characteristics, and the rest teaches the specific characteristics. So Jamgon Kongtul Lodro Thaye’s way of explaining it is a little bit different.
Counting the characteristics
Similarly, there are different ways to count the characteristics. For example, Tsarchen Losal Gyatso ( ཚར་ཆེན་བློ་གསལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, tshar chen blo gsal rgya mtsho) (1502-1566) has a commentary on the Fifty Verses of the Guru titled Opening the Gateway to Precious Siddhi (བླ་མ་ལྔ་བཅུ་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་དངོས་གྲུབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ bLa ma lnga bcu paʼi ʼgrel pa dngos grub rin po cheʼi sgo ʼbyed) [4] Also, there is the explanation in Jamgon Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge (ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་མཛོད།), which says there are six common characteristics and nine specific characteristics, a total of fifteen.
In brief, we don’t need to talk about all these differences at the moment, the main point is that if you’re a master/teacher of the secret mantra, even if you don’t distinguish the common and specific characteristics, there are these characteristics that one must have. I think it’s okay for us to understand that, even if we can’t distinguish between the common and the specific. We can think of the characteristics that a master of the secret mantra vajrayana must have, so we need to know these. Today, I will speak about the first of these two stanzas.
The first stanza
Here it says a master should have nine common (or general) characteristics:
- steadfast/stable (brtan)
- subdued (dul-ba),
- intelligent (blo gros)
- patient (bzod)
- upright/straight/honest (drang) and
- non-duplicitous/guileless (glo sgyu med)
- skilled in the use of mantra and Tantra (snags dang rgyad kyi sbyor ba shes),
- compassionate and loving (snying brtser ldan), and
- learned in treatises (bstan bcos mkhas).
This is the first stanza.
So if we consider this, in terms of the textual explanation of these, they are the nine common characteristics [Karmapa repeats the list].
- Steadfast/stable
The first of these is being steadfast/stable (brtan). In the Sanskrit commentary (On Serving the Guru), it says because they hold strongly with their intentions and minds, they are steadfast. Holding strongly here is basically very similar I think to what Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen says in his commentary that they’re imperturbable in their body, speech and mind, they’re very stable. They are not all hectic, and dependent on conditions. They’re always very stable and steadfast.
In brief, the guru should be stable and have a very stable character someone you can trust. They are not shaken and upset by circumstances. They are someone solid. You need that right? Because if they will be your refuge in this and future lives, you need a steadfast and stable person. If they’re not stable, then if you ask them to do this, and they’re not stable, then how can they do it? Forget about it. You need to have a stable friends. If you have friends who are fickle and sometimes there, that gives us a lot of problems right? Like when doing business, your business partners need to be people you can trust. Not someone who does various things that gives you difficulties, right? The guru similarly should be someone who has a really stable character.
In addition to that, in terms of the Dharma they should have a stable faith, and a stable wish for liberation. These intentions should be really stable. Also, their affection and care for their students should be really stable and solid. So liking their students one day, and not liking them the other, they shouldn’t like changing like that, they shouldn’t be fickle at all.
So for example, if there is the student Tashi for a couple of months, and he has an argument or fight with another student Lobsang, then all of a sudden the Lama stops and becomes unhappy with Tashi, that does sometimes happen right? But it shouldn’t be like that, it shouldn’t be someone that change so easily like that. The Guru should be very stable in their mind and if the guru is stable, then the student can develop really stable confidence.
What it says in Je Gampopa’s Garland of Nectar Advice is in the past, after Rechungpa had gone to India once and came back, he went to India a few times, right? So once when he came back from India, Rechungpa asked Gampopa how are you doing and greeted him and asked how are you doing and asked him, “Have you had any obstacles in your spiritual practice of Dharma?” So, Milarepa said “No, how could I have any obstacles?” And Rechungpa wondered “Why is it that the guru has no obstacles?” Then, Milarepa said “this is because I’ve never listened to what other people say, so how can I have any obstacles? I never let myself listen to what people say, I never let me myself get fooled or deceived by other people. I just don’t worry about it and don’t listen to all their gossip. I never follow the gossip.”
So, in general, whether it’s someone practicing Dharma, in particular, whether it is a guru and a spiritual friend, they have to have a really stable character, they have to be someone really steadfast and stable. It shouldn’t be someone who’s able to be influenced by other people or should be easily fooled by other people, you have to be stable.
2. Subdued/tamed
The second is being subdued/tamed (dul-wa). If we look at the textual commentary in Sanskrit, subdued means you have to very peaceful and subdued according to the Dharma. You shouldn’t be someone who’s kind of rough in your character. Someone when you see them, they’re peaceful and subdued, they have that appearance of being peaceful. That is what they should be like. [Transcriber’s note: that would seem to exclude someone like Marpa Lotsawa then who was said to generally seem wrathful].
Jetsun Dragpa Gyeltsan writes that they have the mind training, their mind is subdued. So, they have tamed their own being. When we think about the characteristics of the spiritual friend in the Mahayana what it says in the Mahayana Sutras is that a spiritual friend is subdued, peaceful and pacified. So, there are many different ways to explain this and combining it with the three different types and three Superior trainings. The main point is that the guru has to have tamed their own being. They should be someone who is able to tame their own being. This is really important according to Buddha, because if you’re not able to subdue your own being, how can you tame other people’s beings? So their own being should not be rough or harsh and they shouldn’t be someone who’s unable to control themselves, as they say in English. If they are someone who is not able to direct or control themselves, and they are always following their afflictions in the wrong direction, that is not okay. They must be able to tame their own being, so that they don’t follow their bad characteristics, and bad parts of their character.
As Zhabkar Tsogdrug Rangdrol (zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol, 1781)) wrote:
“If you have not tamed your own being, bad thoughts, internally,
A few little words will increase greed and aversion.
This is because of the afflictions.
Bless this beggar to tame the afflictions.”
As they haven’t tamed their own being, if someone says just a few bad words, then immediately their blood pressure rises and they get angry. This shows that they’re unable to tame their own afflictions, or unable to subdue their own mind-stream.
There’s another story about that, and it is taught in the Blue Annals, what it says there is that when Gampopa’s older brother he had three different nephews. The first was Dagpo Gomtsul. During the life of Gampopa all of Dagpo Gomtsul’s students who followed him as a guru saw him as inseparable from Gampopa. So, Dagpo Gomtsul went to a place to teach the public, and while he was teaching at a place called Nyamo Ka, and while he was there two sponsors got in a fight. It was like they were about to punch each other and were yelling at each other. When Dagpo Gomtsul saw this he felt really depressed.
So there was a student of his, called Dagpo Dulzin (dulwa zinpa) and Dagpo Gomtsul told him to come and said:
“In the future I’m not going to teach Dharma, I just can’t do it. I can’t teach the practice, there’s no point to it and I confess what I did in the past all my mistakes. I make a confession of that. Now, in the future, you will have to take care of this Daglha Gompa Monastery.”
When he said this, then Dagpo Dulzin replied: “O please do not say this about teaching the Dharma in public, you should continue to teach the Dharma in public to the people.” He supplicated him but he didn’t accept.
So Dagpo Dulzin thought to himself well “How am I possibly going to be able to hold this seat?” He thought about this and then, not many years not afterwards, Dagpo Gomtsul passed away. After he passed away, his younger nephew Dagpo Gomchung thought he was able to hold the monastic seat of the monastery for two years. Then after that he basically probably passed away.
At that time, there were many other great masters, but he entrusted the monastic seat to Dagpo Dulzin and told him to take care of it. At that time, when Dulzin was at the monastery, it was kind of difficult he had a lot of problems. The monks didn’t really consider him, they kind of went all over the place, they didn’t stay at Daglha Gampo, and they went to all these different areas and it was rather difficult for him.
Because he was having such difficulties and what thought to himself that the reason why he was having such problems and why no one is staying here and everyone is going around and why he was not able to nurture any students is because he had not done enough virtuous practice. He thought, that “because I haven’t practiced, this is why this has happened”.
So, he then spent eight years in a retreat practicing in one place. Then, after eight years, many monks came, and he was able to gather many other students. For example, the Drigung Je Jigten Sumgon praised Dagpo Dulzin extremely highly. This is like an example of it.
Actually, Dagpo Dulzin was a student and master of three of Je Gampopa, and Gomtsul and Gomchung, and this is the way he thought about it. So this is his example we need to learn from. What he thought about it is that the monks aren’t listening to me but he didn’t blame them. Instead, he looked and saw that the reason they are not listening to me and listenig to others, is because I am not able to that and because I have not tamed my own being. It is because I haven’t done the practice, it is because of that.” He focused one-pointedly on taming his own being and only then did he become able to subdue other people’s being. So this is a really important point.
3. Intelligent
The third characteristic is being intelligent. In the Sanskrit Textual Commentary on Serving the Guru, it says, “intelligence means discernment with prajna/sherab.” It says that “because of having the prajna of being able to discern, they’re called intelligent.” This means that they are discerning.
Similarly, Je Tsongkhapa says that intelligent means that they have great wisdom/prajna. The seventh Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso, also writes that intelligent means that they have the prajna/wisdom that examines what is good and bad.” They have to have this sort of prajna/wisdom.
For example, if you think about the common vehicles on the characteristics of the guru or the spiritual friend, in the common vehicles in particular, the characteristics of a guru says that they should be both subdued and learned. Being stable means and they are able to practice the Vinaya. Being learned, means that they have discernment and prajna.
Likewise, Je Tsongkhapa says in his commentary on the Fifty verses of the Guru explains that stable and steadfast means that the stability of their body being restrained. Subdued means the stability of having restrained speech. Being intelligent means that they are free of duplicity, the stability of having restrained their mind. Master Kunga Nyingpo also explains this in the commentary of the Net of Illusion. This is the way we need to understand it. We need to join it to the body, speech, and mind: restraint of the body; restraint of the speech; and restraint of the mind. This is how it is explained.
4. Patience
The fourth is being patient. What it says in the textual commentary on serving the guru is that patience is: the patience of forbearing and disregarding suffering, the patience of accepting harm from others, and the patience of having contemplated the Dharma. So these are all three of the types of patience.
Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen writes that being patient, means being patient with the guru and student’s actions and turning away from anger. Because there are many difficulties in dealing with a student, it is being able to be patient and forbearing with all of these. Even when students are unruly and disrespectful, being able not to get angry, even when that happens. So this is important.
Likewise, when we think about the characteristics of the spiritual master The Ornament of Mahayana Sutras says: “someone with a loving character and is not wearied.” This means they don’t consider offerings or respect when they teach the Dharma, but they teach from compassion and have a loving character, and they’re not wearied by explaining something over and over again. They are patient with the angry and so forth. In brief, someone who is a spiritual friend or a guru, will be able to bear the difficulties when doing things for students’ sake and be able to accept what happens. This is what they should be like.
5. Being upright/straight/honest
The fifth is being upright/straight. In the Textual Commentary on Serving the Guru, it says they have a view with no duplicity. Dragpa Gyaltsen says the upright prevents this character the positive direction. So upright is talking about it in the affirmative. Below that we have being guileless/non-duplicitous, which is talking about the negative. So this is different. The next quality, where it says guileless, or honest means they’re talking about the negative.
6. Guileless/non-duplicity
So it is also related to the sixth which is being without duplicity or guile (the interpreter says guileless). In the textual commentary, it says being non- duplicitous means having no guile. Such as having a cognition of wrongdoing but hiding one’s own faults. It’s a mind that’s not honest. So this is what we call deceit or teaching. So, here it is teaching in the negative.
Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen writes that being duplicitous is a mind that’s trying to hide one’s own faults. Here it means that someone has the intention to deceive somebody. The first means trying to hide your own faults. Whereas deceit means to try and fool other beings, and this is the opposite of both of these is being honest and upright. Guileless is presenting it in the negative, and honest is presenting it in the positive.
7) Being learned in the Sutras and Tantras
The seventh is being skilled in the use of the Tantras. In the text, it talks about the three types like the root mantras, the extracted mantras, and the Tantras are like the Wheel of Repulsion and so forth. The uses of them are the activities of pacifying, increasing, magnetizing, wrathful and so on. Then if you know how to do those, then you’re skilled in the activities of Mantra and Tantra.
Jetsun Dragpa Gyeltsan says mantra means the four activities of peaceful, enriching, magnetizing, wrathful activities of the Mantra. Tantra means like the practice of the six of streams, the six instructions, the five aspects and so forth.
Je Tsongkhapa writes that in the Commentary the Net of Illusion by Kunga Nyingpo, it means being skilled in the use of mantra. Tantra means being able to use the activities of mantra and medicine. Joining these two are the usages of the rituals of the substances and the mantras. In the commentary on the 32nd chapter Vajraḍāka-tantra (Ḍākārṇava, “Ocean of Ḍākas or Heroes”) Vajrabhadra explains that mantras are used for accomplishing activities by peaceful, enriching, magnetizing or wrathful means. So using the mantras for the activities for doing something by peaceful, enriching, magnetizing and wrathful means.
8) Compassionate
So the eighth of these qualities is being compassionate. Being compassionate here according to the Textual Commentary on Serving the Guru means having compassion for all sentient beings. So, in general being compassionate is taught in all the Sutras all the way up to the Tantras. They all talk about the important characteristics of a teacher.
In the Three Hundred Verses of the Vinaya (Skt: Triśatakārikāvyākhyāna) it says: “having compassion and love for those who are sick is an important characteristic”. Likewise, in the Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras says, as I mentioned before, “follow the guru with a loving character who has given up weariness.” So the Guru and spiritual friend should be someone with a loving and compassionate character.
In particular, it is very important for a guru/spiritual friend to have love and compassion for any sentient being no matter who they are, but especially for their own students. Je Gampopa says in one of his Dharma talks said that among the Tantra trainings, in terms of having love compassion for others, when he was asked about it, he said: “individuals who really care for you lovingly are rare”. He said: “Individuals who really care and love people from their heart are very rare.
Je Gampopa speaks about different characteristics of a guru, there being two, or three or four characteristics, he spoke about some of them. One of these characteristics out of the three characteristics, is “out of their compassion the guru must never forsake their students.” This is what it says. I think the first of the three, is that they should be not relying this life. The second, that they should never abandon or forsake their students out of compassion. The third is that with their great prajna wisdom, they should be able to guide people down the path.
So, when Gampopa says that out of their compassion a guru must never abandon their students, to explain that, there is the way Dusum Khyenpa explained it in a Dharma talk. If we are talking about the main point here, it means if they lack compassion then when they have a small problem, a little bit of suffering, they think I’m not going to be able to care for the students. They’ll get discouraged and think they will not be able to care for people around them.
Similarly, if they have a contentious and disrespectful student, someone who is kind of unruly or a bit difficult, they think to themselves “I’ve tried to teach them this, I’ve worked hard for them, but they’re saying all these bad things to me”. Sometimes, there is a danger that they will feel like that, they can’t bear it in their minds.
So, if there are these kind of unruly and bad students, if the guru does not have compassion, they will think “I’ve given you Dharma, I’ve worked hard for you but do you see these people aren’t listening to me, I don’t care what happens to them. I can’t take care of them at all”, and think like that. There’s the danger that the guru will give up completely on their students and forget about them.
Similarly, if they have just a little bit of compassion what happens is that they won’t be able to do anything to care for their students like when a student gets sick if they’re suffering because sometimes you know with sick people particularly, one has to act as a nurse for the sick. That’s going be really hard, so when the students are having difficulties such as an illness. They might think to themselves: “It is really difficult and this problem is so annoying and irritating. Don’t let them come anywhere near me.” It shouldn’t be like that.
The guru must feel such great compassion, that even at the cost of their own life they’ll do anything to prevent the students who place their trust in them from to the lower realms. “Even if it’s at the cost of their own life, this is my student, I’ll do whatever I can for them, I’m not going to let my students go to lower realms even if it costs my own life.” This is the sort of great compassion a guru should have. If they do not have that, it is not alright.
When we look at the life stories of the gurus, we can think about those gurus who have held students in their heart. As they held their students in their heart, they have been able to bless them and care for them. Likewise, in our Guru yogas and Calling the Guru from Afar, and all of these other supplications, we supplicate and say “ Lama Khyenno! View me with compassion Guru, care for me Guru!”, we have many supplications like this, right? The compassion of the guru shows how important it is to have the compassion of the guru for the students.
In particular, if the guru themselves has loving compassion for them, then they will naturally also have the characteristics of being honest and so forth. Because if you have compassion for someone you’re not going to fool them. If you don’t have any compassion for them, it is possible that you might try to fool them, it is possible right? So, if they have that compassion, all the other compassionate characteristics we have spoken about of being upright and so forth, then the others naturally happen.
So the [8th Karmapa] Mikyo Dorje wrote about this in his Hundred Short Instructions ( ཁྲིད་ཐུང་བརྒྱ་རྩ།) said, I will give the main point in brief. “ These days, there are some lamas who don’t have compassion and they want to use the students to accumulate virtue, but instead to do unethical non-virtuous actions. They don’t want to use them for doing virtuous actions, and they make them do negative actions. In order to this, first the guru gives a kind of foolish explanation to do this. In the end, they disturb them. First they kind of brainwash them that you have to do whatever the guru says. They say: “ If you don’t do it, it’s not okay, you have to do what the guru says.” And they give many explanations and instructions. First of all the teacher says you have to do whatever the teacher says. Then, in the end the guru makes the students accumulate many negative actions. There are a lot of people like this.
In brief, some gurus take the students who place their hopes in them but do not let them do things that will gather merit. They consider it’s more important for them to do things that make it possible to forget that teaching the Dharma is more important, and have them sewing their clothes as being more important and make them spin yarn too. They don’t let them practice Dharma first, but instead they make them sew and tailor their clothes, and have them do that first. There are such gurus that do that and the way those gurus think about the people who rely on them is completely mistaken. It is taught like that. So this is another thing that we need to consider.
9) Being Learned/Knowledgable
The ninth is being learned in the treatises. Now, what it says in the Textual Commentary on Serving the Guru about being learned in the treatises means this means that they’re being learned in the twelve type of treatises and so forth. Now, we don’t need to go through all of those. He is speaking about 12 different type of Treatises, these are not the generally known ones. Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen writes that being learned in the treatises means being learned in the Prajnaparamita Sutras and Treatises. So basically, being learned in the treatises means not only the secret mantra, but also the treatises the sutras you have to be have a fair degree of learning of these as well. It is explained like that.
The seventh Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso writes that being skilled in learned in the ten areas of knowledge, the three pitakas, the four classes of Tantra and so forth.
Je Tsongkhapa writes that : “Being learned in the treatises, the Vajra-Pañjara says, “Being learned in all areas of knowledge”. This means to know the three baskets of knowledge and so forth. In brief, it means the best of all is learned in the ten areas of knowledge. If not knowing the text and the commentaries of the both sutras and Tantras, then having some degree of knowledge of all those this is basically what it means. So understanding what the meaning of the Buddhist sutras and words and knowing what is said in the teaching, to be able to understand this to a certain degree.
in any case, if the teachers are teaching the secret mantra because they’re teachers of secret mantra it’s unnecessary to mention they need to be able to teach the secret mantra. They also have to some sort of basic knowledge of the grand path and fruition of the great Foundation Vehicles. They need at least a basic knowledge of that. If they don’t have that then it will be difficult for them to care for their students.
However, Je Gampopa when speaking about the characteristics of the guru said that they must guide others along the path with great prajñā, this is what he explained. What Je Dusum Khyenpa said in his Dharma Talks was if you don’t have any prajñā/wisdom what happens is that the master won’t know how to teach the Dharma that actually is appropriate for the student’s mind. The reason for this is because different students have many different inclinations and ideas, different things they like, and things that they are more interested in and because they have so many different interests, in order to be able to benefit them, you need to be able to teach those who are interested in the Hinayana. For those who are interested in the Mahayana one should be able to teach them that. It they are interested in the secret Mantra, one needs to be able to teach the secret mantra.
Likewise, Maitreya that if said that if they do not become learned in the five areas of knowledge, even supreme normal beings will not be able to achieve omniscience. Also, Lord Atisha also said in this brief momentary life of ours, we don’t have the time or leisure to be able to hear the many different treatises on subjects such as grammar. We don’t have the leisure to study them. What is most important is that we study the many treatises on Buddhist topics. So, the best is if one can study with someone who knows all the areas of knowledge. If that does not happen, then at least with someone who has a certain degree of knowledge of all the different treatises of Buddhism.
If one follows someone who is always “I don’t know” when you’re question them, that’s not okay. If you say “well please teach me this one” and they say “I don’t know that, and I don’t know I can’t do that” that kind of teacher is not alright. So it is important they are someone who is able to guide others along the path with great prajna/wisdom, no matter what they’re talking whatever someone’s interest is, they should be able to give that type of Dharma to them, and be able to guide them on the path of that Dharma.
So, for that reason these are the nine characteristics that are taught. It says these are the general, overall characteristics. In terms of the general and the specific characteristics, there is a little bit of a difference in terms of how to think about them and what is meant by the specific characteristics. I will speak about that tomorrow.
Endnotes
[1] There was none of that glow and brilliance of the young Karmapa who first came into India in 2000, and spoke so magnificently about sectarianism to the 14th Dalai lama and the Ganden type people in Tibetan exile, who all looked on rather bored and Ganden Tripa was even sleeping as the 900 year old lineage head spoke! Or the smiles present during the Marme Monlam 2018 pop concerts. No doubt the various factions that have been working against him, even with his own ‘circle’ have taken a dire toll and karmic result.
[2] This struck me as particularly interesting, considering that is exactly what has happened to me with the Benchen Monastery organisation and Rinpoche, see their letter in February 2020Letter from Benchen sent February 2020_compressed (1), sent six months after my initial ‘raising the alarm bells’, just immediately banning me from their centre/monasteries with false accusations in retaliation, and no discussion, proper or objective investigation of the allegations against their teacher.
[3] Vanaratna. Textual Explanation on Following the Guru. “བླ་མའི་བསྙེན་བཀུར་གྱི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ་ bLa maʼi bsnyen bkur gyi dkaʼ ʼgrel.”
–bsTan ʼgyur (sde dge), edited by Zhu chen tshul khrims rin chen, translated by ʼGos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal, vol. 79, Delhi Karmapae Choedhey, Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 1982–1985, pp. 25–73. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_3722.
–bsTan ʼgyur (snar thang ), translated by ʼGos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal, vol. 86, [sNar thang dgon], 1800, pp. 3–60. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2KG5015_3802.
[4] Tsarchen Losal Gyatso. Opening the Door to the Precious Siddhis: An explanation of Fifty Verses on the Guru. Tshar chen blo gsal rgya mtsho. “བླ་མ་ལྔ་བཅུ་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་དངོས་གྲུབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ bLa ma lnga bcu paʼi ʼgrel pa dngos grub rin po cheʼi sgo ʼbyed.” bKaʼ rnying gi sgrub thabs sna tshogs, vol. 1, pp. 115–68. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW4CZ307771_0BA943. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025. [BDRC bdr:MW4CZ307771_0BA943]