A Hundred Blazing Lights: Chapter Eight

This chapter is on the final common preliminary practice of Guru Yoga. Taranatha goes into extensive detail about the master-student relationship and the examination of such a relation. He also introduces the ‘ten principles of secret mantra’ and why it is essential for the master to be proficient in them. It is divided into eight sub-sections:

  1. The characteristics of master and student: this chapter discusses the qualities of a master and student relationship and the ‘ten principles of secret mantra’.     
  2. The examination of a master-student relationship
  3. The identification of guru yoga
  4. How to meditate with devotion and reverence
  5. The benefits combined with scriptural quotations         
  6. The meaning of the phrase ‘the profound path’             
  7. The categories of the guiding instructions of the profound path.  This is divided into two sections: the guiding instructions on practice and the guiding instructions on supplication.
  8. The way of serving the teacher