“With respect, gifts, service, and practice. One should serve the spiritual friend.” –Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras
“However, if you have a guru who does not have the requisite qualifications, then it is quite possible that they will be more pleased the more you offer them materially. But if you have a guru who has the characteristics, if the guru practices the dharma properly then offering practice is what really pleases the guru. There is nothing that pleases the Guru more. This is what is taught in the Chariot of the Karma Kamtsang.”
“The second attitude is mind like a vajra that makes one’s affection stable and unbreakable. This is the affection or friendly mind which is stable. No- one can break it up, no one can destroy it. No maras, or no matter how anyone harms you, they cannot destroy it or break it. It is like a vajra.” –17th Karmapa
Introduction
In Day 5 of the Fifty Verses on the Guru teaching by 17th Karmapa, he again explains the necessity of a guru for the secret mantra path, and that without a living “human” guru one cannot attain realisations. (see video clip reel from Day 4 about why a human guru is of more benefit than a pure one).
The 17th Karmapa first explained that the reason he decided to extend the teachings is because he wanted to complete the Fifty Verses and start a new topic next year (like the Ocean of Samaya by 3rd Karmapa), and the teachings had been significantly delayed and shortened this year, so he wanted to make up for that (he did not explain why that had happened though).
The Karmapa then began the actual teachings by citing a text by 8th Karmapa called Indivisible Prana and Mind (རླུང་སེམས་དབྱེར་མེད་ཀྱི་ཁྲིད།)[1], which emphasises how the supreme result can only be attained by those following the secret mantra Vajrayana path with a qualified human guru leading them. Without that, one might be able to attain lesser states of the lower vehicles but not the supreme one. In addition, one must follow that guru properly and well.
The next section (based on Je Tsongkhapa’s Commentary Outline) is the Eight Ways to Respectfully Follow/Serve a Guru, which are:
- making offerings (ཡོན་དབུལ་བ།)
- viewing them as a Buddha (སངས་རྒྱས་སུ་བལྟ་བ།)
- fulfilling their instructions (བཀའ་བསྒྲུབ་པ།)
- how to treat the guru’s things/objects (བླ་མའི་རྫས་དང་འཁོར་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བྱ་བ།)
- being pure in your immediate behaviour (འཕྲལ་གྱི་ཀུན་སྤྱོད་དག་པར་བྱ་བ།)
- particulars of serving with body and speech abandon (ལུས་ངག་གིས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བའི་ཁྱད་པར།)
- abandoning pride (ང་རྒྱལ་སྤང་བ།)
- not acting independently (རང་དབང་དུ་མི་འཇུག་པའོ།།)
The 17th Karmapa spoke about the first, making offerings.
Then the Karmapa cited a quote from the Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras (Mahāyāna-sūtrālamkāra-kārikā) that is often quoted in this context, of the way to follow a guru. This is then taught in a text by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje called Evam Mudra: Pointing Out the Three Kayas (སྐུ་གསུམ་སྐུ་བཞི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་ཨེ་ཝཾ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ), and a text by his student, Karma Trinleypa called Chariot of the Karma Kamtsang, which describes four ways of fulfilling serving the guru by offering gifts, respect, service and practice.
Interestingly (perhaps the recent Thailand effect?), the 17th Karmapa mentions washing or massaging the guru with scented oils a couple of time as a form of service/gift to a guru. Does that apply to female gurus as well I wonder? Yet, there was no mention of less “physical contact” service such as translating or transcribing their teachings, or supporting their more obvious Dharma activities and so on. I must be in the wrong job, get me to a masseuse college! Ha ha. Seriously though, there are many more ways to offer service to a qualified guru than a scented oil massage, right? And of course, a qualified guru would happily accept a massage from any man or woman, regardless of their age and physical appearance. Not just from pretty women., right? Also, if the guru is a monk (unless it is a medical massage by a qualified medical masseuse) it would also be breaking Vinaya for a woman to do it.] However, the 17th Karmapa does then go on to say, that such material offering and service are not what will really please a genuine guru, only offering practice of the Dharma the guru teaches will really please an authentic guru. Phew!
The 17th Karmapa then explains the nine attitudes (or mind-sets) of how to serve a guru properly, which are listed in Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary on the Fifty Verses. However, the source of them (Karmapa explains) is Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra[2] which lists twenty-one attitudes. The reason for it being reduced to nine in Tibet, the 17th Karmapa speculates is because of the two Kadampa texts that later became popular in Tibet such as Way of the Bodhisattva and Compendium of Trainings. In any case, the nine attitudes are having a mind like:
- an intelligent child
- a Vajra
- the earth
- a mountain range
- a servant
- a sweeper
- a vehicle/wagon
- a dog
- a boat
So basically, once one has decided a guru is qualified, after thorough examination, then one has to be willing to be controlled like a child, have humility like a dog or servant, and work ethic like a boat or wagon being used to carry the weight and burden of all the guru’s activities. In the following Day 6, the 17th Karmapa speaks more about people offering their body, speech and mind like dogs. Not just when one feels like it, or the job is an easy, or pleasant one! More on that in the next transcript.
Music? Wanna Be Your Dog by The Stooges, Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, and My Beautiful Friend by the Charlatans.
May it be of benefit to the long-life and activities of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa!
Written and transcribed by Adele Tomlin, 8th April 2025.
Fifty Verses on the Guru, 17th Karmapa (Day Five 2025) Transcript
Explanation for the extending of the teachings
One reason we need to continue these spring teachings is that originally, we were unable to do a few of the original scheduled teachings and we would like to make up for those. The second reason is that I would like to take this opportunity to complete the Fifty Verses and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to do that. So, next year we can begin a new topic such as the Ocean of Samaya and will have the opportunity to begin new teaching. So, I think it is best for us to complete the teachings this year. For these reasons we have extended the duration of these teachings and added a few extra sessions.
The necessity of a qualified guru in the secret mantra: 8th Karmapa’s Text Indivisible Mind and Prana
I do not need to say a lot in general, but when speaking about following a spiritual friend or a guru it is not just a dharma thing, it is also a worldly thing. We also consider our teachers and our professors to be extremely important to us as well.
For practice, following a spiritual friend or following a guru is very important. In particular, following a guru is extremely important in the secret mantra Vajrayana. The reason this is so important is described by the Eighth Gyalwang Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje in his text: Prana and Mind Indivisible (རླུང་སེམས་དབྱེར་མེད་ཀྱི་ཁྲིད།). At the beginning of this text, he gives reasons why following the guru is important. I thought it would be good to explain the main points he teaches.
In general, in terms of the vehicle of the Shravakas (Listeners) there were students who achieved results even though the teacher had not. For example, before Ananda achieved the state of arhat, some of the whom he taught achieved the level of arhat, as is taught right? Likewise, when speaking about the Pratyeka Buddhas in their last existence, they can achieve the result without following a guru. This does not mean that they do not need to follow a guru at all. It means in previous lifetimes they followed a guru, but in their final existence, their final lifetime, they are born in samsara but they do not need to follow a guru. They go to China and other such places, and examine how death occurs. They meditate upon the twelve links of interdependence. This is as it is taught right.
For practice, following a spiritual friend or following a guru is very important. In particular, following a guru is extremely important in the secret mantra Vajrayana. The reason this is so important is described by the eighth Karmapa in his text: Prana and Mind Indivisible (རླུང་སེམས་དབྱེར་མེད་ཀྱི་ཁྲིད།). At the beginning of this text, he gives reasons why following the guru is important. I thought it would be good to explain the main points he teaches.
In general, in terms of the vehicle of the shravakas/listeners there were students who achieved results even though the teacher had not. For example, before Ananda achieved the state of arhat, some of the whom he taught achieved the level of arhat, as is taught right? Likewise, when speaking about the Pratyeka Buddhas in their last existence, they can achieve the result without following a guru. This does not mean that they do not need to follow a guru at all. It means in previous lifetimes they followed a guru, but in their final existence, their final lifetime, they are born in samsara but they do not need to follow a guru.
They go to charnel grounds and other such places, and examine how death occurs. They meditate upon the twelve links of interdependence. This is as it is taught right?
So, in terms of the Shravaka vehicles, even if the guru has not achieved the ultimate result, there are students who have achieved result. With the Pratyeka Buddhas in their last existence they can achieve this level of liberation as a result, even without following a guru.
Yet, in the secret mantra you absolutely must have a guru who has higher realization than you. If you do not follow a guru, there is no way to achieve a result. The reason for this is that the paths of the lower vehicles in comparison to the higher vehicles are not so difficult to realize. Likewise, the results in comparison to the higher vehicles are easier to accomplish and to gain. They are not for people who have the best or highest fortunes they are for people of somewhat lesser fortune can practice.
Similarly, Pratyeka Buddhas have pride in their limited prajñā. Yet, because of the propulsion of the power of the previous habituation, because of the power of having relied on a guru and trained in the path and previous existences they are able to realize a certain degree of knowledge.
However, in the secret mantra Vajrayana, the presentation of cause, path and result is extremely profound. Because it is so profound, you cannot realize it through limited or partial prajñā, you cannot achieve it with the limited prajñā of a Pratyeka Buddha. As it is like that, there is the uncommon secret mantra lineage of supreme fortune. For this reason, if you do not follow guru with superior qualities of wisdom, love, and power than yourself, you cannot accomplish that result of the secret mantra.
In relation to the Arhats of Shravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas, there is a lot of discussion about whether they whether they have abandoned all the afflicted obscurations. In any case, they are not able to completely extinguish all the cognitive and afflicted obscurations. The reason they are unable to do that, is because they have not gathered the accumulations to purify the three obscurations and their imprints.
In order to purify the imprints, one needs to fully complete the gathering of the accumulations. In order to gather the accumulations, you must have an individual whom you are going to gather the accumulations in relation to.
For beginners, who cannot meet a Buddha as someone to gather the field of merit or someone whom we can gather merit in relation to. For that reason, you need to have someone who is equal to the Buddha for with whom you can gather the merit. Because that object or recipient of the accumulation of merit and purification you will not be able to gather the accumulations and purify yourself. So, for that reason you will not be able to achieve the accumulation and purification for great awakening. So, there is no other object for accumulating purification other than the Vajra holder. There really is just no way to do without one.
So, the Secret Mantra Vajrayana implicitly teaches that without following a qualified guru you cannot achieve the supreme and common siddhis. In particular, one cannot achieve the supreme siddhi of Buddhahood without following a qualified guru. So that is the main point that he is teaching right? This is what is taught in the beginning of the 8th Karmapa’s text on the teachings on the Indivisible Mind and Prana (Lung).
Generally, as I said before, the spiritual friend/guru is like the root basis of the path, this is in the teachings on the Prajnaparamita Sutras, and the causal vehicle of prajnaparamita. Also, in the resultant vehicle of the Vajrayana, the lama is also the root basis for accomplishing the path.
If we therefore follow this guru that has the characteristics properly, then that will bring us benefit. If one does not follow them properly, it will not happen. We do not need to mention all of the quotes.
As it says in the commentary on Kālacakra, Stainless Light (Dri-me Ozer):
“The true path arises in true students by the kindness of a true guru, who with love for sentient beings, always strives at virtue for other’s sake.”
So, in order to gather virtue and know what one should do when one should reject, it is very important to have a guru. If you do not follow the guru well then there are many faults and difficulties that will arise. So, for these reasons, if the way you follow the guru is bad, then you will fall into the Vajra Hell, or the into the incessant hell and so forth. For example, when you disappoint or disturb the mind of the guru, then you will fall into the Vajra Hell. Whereas, if you follow them well then, the prajñā wisdom will arise that sees the nature of everything as it is and then one can achieve the ultimate result. So, it is a critical point that we follow the guru properly.
How to be respectful to a guru: eight ways
At this point the place that we have come to in the outline according to Je Tsongkhapa commentary is about how to be respectful to the guru.
This has eight different points here:
- making offerings (ཡོན་དབུལ་བ།)
- viewing them as a Buddha (སངས་རྒྱས་སུ་བལྟ་བ།)
- fulfilling their instructions (བཀའ་བསྒྲུབ་པ།)
- how to treat the guru’s things/objects (བླ་མའི་རྫས་དང་འཁོར་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བྱ་བ།)
- being pure in your immediate behaviour (འཕྲལ་གྱི་ཀུན་སྤྱོད་དག་པར་བྱ་བ།)
- particulars of serving with body and speech (ལུས་ངག་གིས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བའི་ཁྱད་པར།)
- abandoning pride (ང་རྒྱལ་སྤང་བ།)
- not acting independently (རང་དབང་དུ་མི་འཇུག་པའོ།།)
Among these eight points, today we will speak about the first of these: making offerings.
1. Making Offerings
Making offerings here and the main point is here is offering things. So, this first one has four different points but we do not need to go through them all right now. When you talk about making offerings and the reason, why there are so many different distinctions or different types is because it is related to making offerings to the guru.
Making Offerings not like serving a King, for worldly or political favours in this life
In the Evam mudra: Pointing Out the Three Kayas by 8th Karmapa, Miko Dorje wrote in a passage on how one should serve the or follow the guru, when we are serving the guru and making offerings to the guru, it is not like the way courtiers will serve a King. The reason is that courtiers when they serve a king when they make offerings to a king, the main reason, they do this is that they want to have the bounties of this life, for this life goals. Their aim is for this lifetime and that is why they flatter the king and try to serve and please the king.
These days most countries do not have Kings, but there are presidents and ministers and so you flatter them, and sometimes like on New Year, or on the birthdays of the president and so forth, you do things to flatter them. One makes some sort of gift, and also if you do not make an offering to them, when it comes to them doing something that will help you then you have some hope that they will help you.
Particularly, in Asian countries this is very strong, it is a bit better in the west. but in Asian countries, for example India, Nepal even if they are not even a big minister, even a lower governmental official, you need to treat them well and need to give them some gifts. This happens right? The reason you have to give them gifts is that is it comes down to getting some sort of profit in this lifetime. That is the reason, that you have a hope for a profit in this lifetime and if you treat the person well normally, then something happens, they will help you in return. This is how it works right?
But when thinking about the guru or the spiritual friend, then we are serving them this is not it is not that we serve, or offer or follow them in order to do something for this life because we are seeking liberation, it is for the sake of achieving the state of Buddhahood, to be able to go down a good path, in next and in future lifetimes. It is with that thought in mind that we proceed. That is the reason, the aim for serving the guru. The basic attitude is different and it is important that we understand this way of serving and paying respects to the guru. Fundamentally the reason we must do this, the aim, and the attitude in doing this, is something that we need to understand clearly.
Serving a Guru with Respect, Gifts, Service and Practice: Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras
When we are serving the guru, what all the masters of Tibet have said is that the essence of serving the guru, most Tibetan scholars, in terms of the Sutras, quote Maitreya from his text the Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sutras. The quotation is this:
“With respect, gifts, service, and practice. One should serve the spiritual friend.”
མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་ལས། བཀུར་བསྟི་རྙེད་པ་དག་དང་རིམ་གྲོ་དང༌། ། སྒྲུབ་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ། །།
This line from the Ornament of the Sutras says serve the spiritual friend with respect, gifts, service, and practice. In terms of secret mantra, this is sometimes combined with the teachings from the Fifty Verses on the Guru. There is this tradition of doing this.
The 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje wrote about this in his text Evam Mudra: Pointing out the Three Kāyas[3] (སྐུ་གསུམ་སྐུ་བཞི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་ཨེ་ཝཾ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ). Also, Karma Trinleypa, whose student was 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorke writes in his text Chariot of Karma Kamtsang that Pegar (or Trophu) Lotsawa takes the ways to serve the guru that are taught in Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sutras, and the secret mantra teaching, of Fifty Ways to Serve a Guru and combines the two.
8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje in his text Evam Mudra: Pointing out the Three Kayas, asks what is the essential nature of serving the guru? First, he cites the quotation from the Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sutras saying: “serve the spiritual friend with respect, gifts, service, and practice.”
In particular, in terms of the tantras/mantra as summarized in the Fifty Verses on the Guru and you should know them from learn them from them
In particular, in the Chariot of the Karma Kamtsang, the citation from the Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sutras about serving the guru in terms of gifts, respect, service, and practice, are listed as four ways of serving or following the guru. The way to serve the guru. Among these four, there is offering with gifts.
- With offering gifts
As for offering gifts what is meant by gifts, following the guru through gifts if we say to understandably is making offerings to the guru. Like offering everything from a kata or offering fruit or various other things. aa material offering to the guru. making offerings to the guru material offerings to the guru and so forth
- With respect
Serving the guru with respect means, paying respect to the guru, and not disrespectful of the guru. Basically, how we pay respect to the guru, this is primarily what this means, through respect.
- With service
Service here means basically attending the guru in terms of the daily life. Whether helping wash, or massage the guru, this does happen right? So, these and other ways of serving the guru are included in this idea of service.
- With practice
Practice means that we practice the dharma the guru teaches. One does not just leave it as something the guru taught but one actually puts it into practice as the guru taught and trying to see if you can do this.
So as Trophu Lotsawa is quoted in Chariot of the Karma Kamtsang, he combines these four points taught in the Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras with the Fifty Verses. In terms of giving gifts he says that giving gifts is offering food, clothing and so forth, whatever you have. If you have something to offer, if you do not have them, then you cannot offer anything. But if you have something then you make the offering to the guru as you wish with enthusiasm.
As for what it says in the Fifty Verses on the Guru, which we will get to:
“The master of your samaya is to be served with the ungivable: your children, spouse, and even your own life.”
So, this teaches giving gifts to the spiritual friend.
Offering respect
Then there is also being respectful. As I said before through practicing respectful behaviour, being polite and respectful, giving up anything that is disrespectful. What it says in the Fifty Verses:
“In the three times with highest faith, with mandalas and flowers between your palms, revere the guru and teacher, and bow your head down to their feet.”
We spoke about this one last year, right? So, this in the other verses also, which speaking about the faults of being disrespectful say:
“If you would not step over their shadow for fear of the misdeed would be like smashing a statue, what need to mention stepping over their shoes and such.”
So, if you are not allowed to step on the guru’s shadow then what to mention stepping on their shoes or seat and so forth. How can we step on those? You would not be able to. So this is like speaking about how to be respectful and how to give up disrespect.
With Service
Offering service means serving, attending the guru whether it is bathing the guru, massaging the guru, or rubbing them with scented oils, drying them and doing whatever you know immediate needs for attending they have. Basically, attending them well.
As it says in the Fifty Verses:
“The greatly intelligent obey the guru’s commands with effort and joy. But if unable to, explain to them the inability properly.”
This will be discussed later. Likewise, when it says you wash their feet and so forth, and give them massage and prepare them before and after. This explains the way to provide the guru with service.
With practice
Serving the guru with practice means basically, cheerfully fulfilling all the guru’s commands and essentially practicing, listening, contemplating, all the medicine of all the dharma and practicing the dharma that the guru taught. Not just leaving that as something the guru said, but actually doing listening, contemplation, and meditation as appropriate, as much as you can and seeing how much you can practice.
For that reason, among the types of options we talk about the best is the offering of practice. The medium is the offering of body, speech, and mind, and the last is the material offerings as this one teaching right?
So, the best and highest offering is that of practice. Basically, that means that practicing the teachings the guru has taught. The reason this is supreme is because a proper/excellent guru is really truly only pleased by the offering of practice, not by the material offerings. The reason being if you practice the dharma the guru taught, then that is what will really, please the guru. Otherwise, you are not just going to please the guru through your material offerings. However, if you have a guru who does not have the requisite qualifications, then it is quite possible that they will be more pleased the more you offer them. But if you have a guru who has the characteristics, If the guru practiced the dharma properly then that is what really pleases the guru. There is nothing that pleases the Guru more. So this is what is taught in the Chariot of the Karma Kamtsang.
Not only offerings, whatever will please the guru
It is little bit different in 8th Karmapa, Migyur Dorje’s One Hundred Short instructions. What that says there, is in general, the best is the offering of practice, but not necessarily so. It is whatever will please the guru and so you should make the offering that will benefit and please the guru most. That is the best offering.
So, for example, there is a lot of work to be done and offering service is going to be most important. If there is a situation when there are many things that need to be done, and if you forget about those, and immediately go off to some mountain retreat and do practice but if the guru likes the offerings of body and speech and mind and has some work that comes up and that task needs to be completed. If the guru says then “you need to come you do not have time to do in the retreat you need to stay and do work”. then immediately, you should leave that retreat and go and do whatever it is the guru needs. One cannot just say, “Oh I’m in retreat, I’m doing practice, I don’t have time to do that.” If you just stay there doing that, then the guru is not going to be pleased if just stay there doing meditation practice. That is not really the best of offerings. Instead, one should leave immediately and go and practice the guru that is what you practice. Do whatever the guru asks you to do that is the most important.
Also, with a material offering sometimes the guru has some sort of need that must be fulfilled and they say one needs to buy this. If you have the skills and the resources then you should immediately go and you buy it and offer to the guru. The main thing is pleasing the mind of the guru. That is what should be considered most important.
Sometimes if one says that “the offering of practice is most important. I am going to do this I do not have time to do what they tell me. I am doing this incredible dharma practice” and you stay there doing it then there is no way that that can be the highest offering. I think that is an important point here.
As to how the teachings from Maitreya’s Ornament of the Sutras and the Fifty Verses can be combined, we will go into more detail of the other eight ways later.
Nine Attitudes for Serving a Guru
As I mentioned before, the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra (སྡོང་པོ་བཀོད་པའི་མདོ།) teaches about the twenty-one attitudes for following the guru. I have mentioned them before, right? Generally, the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra teaches twenty-one attitudes. In the Tibetan translation it says twenty-one. The Chinese translations only teaches twenty, I believe it is one less in the Chinese when they talk about the twenty-one attitudes for following the guru.
Why do we talk about the nine attitudes for following the guru? It is primarily because in the Compendium of Training (Śikṣāsamuccaya: བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་བཏུས་bslab pa kun btus) by Shantideva), when it quotes the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra it only teaches nine of the attitudes, it does not teach all twenty-one. Then, later, the Compendium of Training and The Way of the Bodhisattva were considered two important texts by the Kadamapas and because they emphasize the teaching of those nine. So, I think this is why when speaking about the way to follow a guru, the nine attitudes for following the guru became better known in Tibet. So that is what I suspect, but the Sutra itself teaches twenty-one attitudes for following the guru.
In any case, these nine attitudes for following the guru encapsulate all the main points of the attitudes/mind-set for serving a spiritual friend. The main point of all these, according to Lord Tsongkhapa, when we are following a guru, is what motivation and how you should think. Likewise, the main points of all of these are combined and contained within these nine points. So, I will explain these nine attitudes for serving the guru and introduce them.
1. Mind like an intelligent child to their parent
The first attitude of “handing oneself over to the control/power of the guru, like an intelligent child for their parent”. This is like the attitude of an intelligent child who is entrusting themselves to the guru. What this means is that you give them control over yourself. Then, whatever the guru tells you to do, you do it. You do not do whatever you want you do. You take the guru as most important, not yourself and give your power to the guru. You hand over your power to the guru like an intelligent child. So, an intelligent child here means like a boy or child who knows how to listen. They’re intelligent, and they do what their teachers instruct them to do.
2. Mind like a Vajra
The second is the vajra attitude that makes one’s affection stable and unbreakable. This is the affection or friendly mind which is stable. No- one can break it up, no one can destroy it. No maras, or no matter how anyone harms you, they cannot destroy it or break it. It is like a vajra.
3. Mind like the earth
Third is the earth like attitude of carrying all the burden of the guru’s activities. This is like the great earth that we are on. Like this curse that raises us, we also can also be called like that which sustains everyone this world is the sustainer of all. There is nothing or no one that is not protected by this earth, be they human or animal or whoever they are, the earth is able to hold everyone up. So, if you take any burden of the guru’s activities, you are able to take it up. That is the type of attitude you have, the earth like attitude of bearing that burden.
4. Mind like a mountain range
Fourth, is like the attitude of a mountain range that doesn’t move no matter what suffering occurs. No matter what difficulties you have in accomplishing the guru’s wishes you do not think “I cannot do it.” One’s mind is never affected by that. Your attitude is never shaken by that. It is like a mountain range. We are talking about a range of mountains, like the outer ring of mountains that circles in the earth as described in the Abhidharma. If we talk about in the Chinese, it says the iron mountains that surround the earth according to the Abhidharma. That is what should be understood. As the outer ring of the iron mountains that circle the earth. One should be as unshakable as these mountains.
- Mind like a servant
The fifth is the attitude like a servant that undertakes all unpleasant tasks without any doubts. So, no matter what horrible thing or unpleasant job you need to do, it is not that you do the good jobs and do not do the unpleasant ones. No matter, whether it is a good job or a bad job you do whatever it is, like a servant.
- Mind like a sweeper
The next one says an attitude like a sweeper who gives up all pride and arrogance and considers himself inferior to a guru. So, like a janitor who gives up all pride and arrogance, they take a humble position and do whatever work is needed. Someone like a janitor who is sweeping up. They are always are cleaning and sweeping, they do not have any particular worries about cleaning or sweeping. They do not care if you are from a high caste or high family or that you have certain qualities. So, when they are made to do some sort of an unpleasant job they might think “oh I’m being made to do this.” It is not like that kind of thinking. One has given up all pride and arrogance, sort of like in India like a labourer (kuli) in India.
- Mind like a vehicle/wagon
Seventh, is the attitude like a truck that eagerly carries the heaviest burdens, the extremely difficult tasks of the guru. Here a vehicle means like a wagon, or a truck that you can use to to carry things back and forth. You are doing things for the guru and you need to be able to bear all those burdens.
- Mind like a dog
Eighth is the attitude like a dog who does not get angry, even when the guru criticizes or scolds them. Sometimes there are dogs whose master gets angry but the dog does not get upset about that. So one has a doglike attitude.
- Mind like a boat
Ninth, is the boat-like attitude of never tiring of going back and forth, no matter how much you engage in the group’s activities. So, you are in a boat no matter how far one has to go across and back, the boat never gets tired. Similarly, when you are doing the work of the guru, you might have to go back and forth a lot. So no matter how much you have to run about, you never get tired of it.
In these ways, these are the nine attitudes that you should have. These attitudes I think are a really important point. When we are following the guru, the way you think about it, the motivation that you have. Basically, it is your attitude, you must have this sort of an attitude, right? And I think they are important points. So, there is like a comparison there, like a sharp understanding there and that is how it is.
Earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand
One thing I would like to say is that in the last few days, in the Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia, primarily Myanmar, there has been a terrible earthquake and many people have died and many buildings in the cities were destroyed. There was a lot of harm to many living beings, basically a terrible destruction for everyone. On the news there are international reporters who do not have much opportunity or freedom to travel through Myanmar. We are unable to know the entire extent of all the difficulties that they face. But if you look at it, we think that it must be a terrible situation, I am sure that that many people must have died like some entire small towns that were destroyed, because Myanmar/Burma is at the epicentre of the earthquake. When you go to Thailand in Bangkok it is like a thousand kilometres from the epicentre but there was also a lot of destruction in in Bangkok, Thailand. There was a 37-storey building that collapsed in just a few seconds. So, this is a terrible natural disaster that has occurred.
Whenever a natural disaster occurs in any part of the world, this is something that we need to make aspirations to offer for those people who have perished. We need to make aspirations for the deceased, as well as all the survivors who have been injured. We need to pray that they may swiftly be healed of their injuries, this is very important right? Myanmar and Thailand are important Buddhist countries and they are the same as us in being Buddhist. For this reason, they are like closer to us and different than others, we have this feeling that’s different than others. So, for this reason, we need to make some time over the next few days for the monasteries to gather and perform a puja on their behalf. I cannot announce the time immediately but in the next few days we will make a time and we will gather to make offerings and recite aspirations.
Endnotes
[1] There are two works by the 8th Karmapa in his Collected Works on this topic. However, the 17th Karmapa seems to be referring to this one: Karma pa 08 mi bskyod rdo rje. “rJe btsun dam pa dbyangs can bzang pos nye bar stsal baʼi rlung sems dbyer med kyi khrid.” gSung ʼbum mi bskyod rdo rje, vol. 23, 2004, pp. 3–576. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8039_9508A0.
The other one : Karma pa 08 mi bskyod rdo rje. “rLung byang sems dang bsre baʼi man ngag.” gSung ʼbum mi bskyod rdo rje, vol. 19, 2004, pp. 377–82. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8039_FAEA75.
[2] The Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra (Tib. Dongpo Kopai Do sdong po bkod pa’i mdo) is a Buddhist Mahayana Sutra of Indian origin dating roughly c. 200 to 300 CE. The term Gaṇḍavyūha is obscure and has been translated variously as Stem Array, Supreme Array, Excellent Manifestation,
[3] Karma pa 08 mi bskyod rdo rje. “sKu gsum sku bzhi ngo sprod kyi rnam bshad e wm phyag rgya.” gSung ʼbum mi bskyod rdo rje, vol. 22, 2004, pp. 3–768. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8039_002211.