Here are two new video clips from Day 6 of the Fifty Verses in the Guru teaching by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
1) Abandon gurus with “unacceptable faults” like one would abandon hell
The first clip is about what kind of guru one needs to pay respect to and make offerings to. It has to be someone with the main qualities of a guru, however, the 17th Karmapa then cited the Kālacakra Tantra about the absolute need to abandon a guru who has “unacceptable faults”like one would reject or abandon going to hell. That one should regard them in the same way one regards hell and stay as far away as possible from them. Such a guru is not a suitable object for making offering to, and one does not break any samaya by not doing so.
The list includes a guru who has broken samaya themselves (with their guru or students), easily angered, without love and compassion, arrogant and proud, has desire for sensory pleasures, money, wealth, material objects, or who deceives students, or has little patience, and gets angered easily, or is always talking harshly and scolding students, and has no ethical discipline.
2) The qualities of an authentic student and what is meant by “giving oneself and everything one owns” to a qualified guru
In the second video clip the 17th Karmapa explains that it is not only a guru who must be qualified but the student too. It is not just anyone who qualifies for a Vajrayana guru-student relationship. Important qualities in a student, such as faith in Dharma, devotion to the guru, renunciation of worldly life and aims, compassion, and wishing to be liberated from samsara and more are essential before a qualified guru can form a genuine connection with a student. In addition, the 17th Karmapa explains in five points what is meant by saying one should give the ungiveable, such as one’s spouse or children. Meaning a qualified student with be willing to give up all precious things they hold dear to a qualified guru, and that they will be able to do that “naturally” without needing to be asked, or being forced or pressured to do so by the guru. Again, this has to be to a qualified guru, not to someone who is not qualified at all.
However, it does not mean giving them up without any real purpose, it has to be because the person giving and the guru think there is a better way for them that the guru can offer. Such as when King Trisong Detsen gave his wife, Yeshe Tsogyel to Guru Padmasambhava. Finally, the 17th Karmapa discusses how we often “talk the talk” and blabber on about offering our life and body, speech and mind all the time when offering a mandala, and especially when taking an empowerment, but very few people actually “walk the talk” and do that genuinely and with meaning. Very few people are willing to give up everything they own, including their body, speech and mind when it comes to the guru taking full control and “ownership” of those things we say we have offered.
[Translator’s note: it is interesting that the 17th Karmapa himself mentions how giving away all one owns, and spouse and child to a monastic guru would be odd, and the advice mainly applies to a non-monastics guru. Again this raises the whole issue as to whether monastics were ever really meant to be teaching and practising secret mantra Vajrayana other than the exceptionally realised ones, who they say are very rare and on the Bodhisattva levels. Certainly not ordinary monk Khenpos or Geshes and so on.]
Full transcript of Day 6 teaching here.
Note about the videos
Also, please note these videos are specially translated and subtitled into English (with the original Tibetan) by myself manually. They are not automatic captions or translations, because Youtube (nor any video editor) will provide captions for Tibetan. In addition, they certainly cannot translate or transcribe the Buddhist or Tibetan references and names to things. Someone asked why these clips are not available in other caption languages, and that is why. It takes time, knowledge and language skills to make these clips, but I do them for the benefit of the teachings, for the flourishing and spreading of the 17th Karmapa’s activities and for followers of Buddha Dharma.
With metta and compassion, Adele Tomlin, 15th April 2025.