Geshe Lama Konchog
Reincarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog (2005) From right to left - Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tulku TenzinPhuntsok Rinpoche, his relative, Dari Rinpoche, Ven Tenzin Zopa,Khenrinpoche Lama Lhundrup Photographer Ven Roger Kunsang

THE INCARNATION OF GESHE LAMA KONCHOG

The Letter from Kyabje Lama Thupten Zopa Rinpoche to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for the Request of His Omniscient Observation to Find the Unmistaken Reincarnation of the late Great Mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog. October 23rd, 2005.

Sole refuge of myself and all migrant beings; jewels adorning samsara and nirvana, to which even the gods cannot compare; one kinder than all the Buddhas of the three times; Supreme Leader of gods and humans; general ushering peace and happiness into this world; leader of all the world's Buddhists, spiritual and political lord of the Land of Snows, Arya Avalokiteshvara; appearing as a monk to accomplish the liberation of humanity, all powerful refuge and protector; all-knowing great seer; supreme one, at your lotus feet upon a throne supported by fearless lions, I prostrate.

In utter respect with my body, speech, and mind, I the reincarnation named Thubten Zopa on behalf of Kopan Monastery Ogmin Jangchub Choling, Kopan Nunnery Kachoe

Gyaling; Mu Monastery and Rachen Nunnery on the Nepal and Tibet border; Jinsiu Farlin Center of Taipei, Shakayamuni Centre of Taijung, Heruka Centre of Kaoshung, and Hayagriva Centre of Taoyuan in Taiwan; Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore; Lobsang Drakpa Centre in Malaysia; Chamtse Ling of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mayahana Tradition; with countless billions of billions of arms and hands reverentially folded together and placed atop the crown of my head, mind single-pointedly absorbed in faith and devotion, I pray from my heart to you.

In this time of degeneration, the world descends from lower to lower states of extreme degradation and all migratory beings have fallen upon terrible sadness and misfortune. Great Supreme Refuge and Protector, not only for migrating sentient beings of the Snowy Land of Tibet, but now also for all the innumerable sentient beings of the East and West who are without a spiritual protector, you are a true refuge and protector; you holy one are the source of all ultimate happiness and benefit arising from the hopes and prayers of all the sorrowful beings of this world; for all those obscured, submerged in the darkness of ignorance and completely without the eye of wisdom able to discern which actions to adopt and to abandon, you are the one dispelling darkness and opening the eye of wisdom that they may see what is right to adopt and what to abandon. Sentient beings controlled against their will by the power of delusion, although desiring happiness, turn their back on the causes of happiness, white virtuous deeds. Although not wishing to experience suffering, sentient beings perfectly accomplish its causes, negative and non-virtuous actions, thereby becoming immersed in just sufferings. At this time, through utterly misunderstanding which behavior to adopt and which to abandon, this world has become snarled by violent militants, warring famines, natural disasters, and various malign conditions, unfolding ceaselessly one upon another like turbulent twisted torrents of ill fortune.

Supreme Protector, you have become the guardian of myself and all other wondering beings. Your profound advice on actions to be adopted and abandoned, like a nectar free from sectarianism, absorbs into the hearts of all this world's humans, transforming these lives without hope into lives full of promise. With powerful mind and perfect deeds you strive to accomplish the welfare of not only Buddhists, but also those who embrace religions and those who embrace none including materialists and so forth. Especially, you establish happiness and bliss in the minds of all. You cultivate in us the root producing the attainment of precious omniscience, great compassion benefiting others which is free from obscurations and possessed of the two collections of merit and wisdom. In general, you introduce us to the teachings of the compassionate teacher, the fourth Buddha of this world system, Buddha Shakyamuni. In particular, you reveal to us Tibetan Buddhism, vast and profound, not as something merely to be believed, merely understood intellectually, or as only words to be studied. Rather, you show us how Tibetan Buddhism has the ability to benefit us by pacifying the mental sufferings we experience in everyday life. Even after the present time, this work of yours is famed to have brought great benefit to innumerable Westerners in their daily lives. In short, you show this world's numberless sentient beings the Compassionate Buddhas' wholesome paths of non-violence and peace in order to lead us from birth to birth, happiness to happiness, and lead us to the ultimate omniscient state of a conqueror. We must actualize the unsurpassable intentions of you, the Great Refuge and Protector, during all our lifetimes by remembering in our hearts, for as long as time remains, the immense kindness of these - your deeds.

Further, many hundreds of thousands of people of this world are attracted to you by merely hearing your speech for an hour or two, merely meeting you the supreme refuge protector, or merely seeing your loving affectionate smiles to people and the way you joke with them. People are able to understand the sacred importance of those called Tibetans and their culture etc. through such contact with you. Even if the Compassionate Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha, the Bodhisattva Maitreya, Manjushri and others were to actually come to this world in person, they could not possibly accomplish more than the great waves of your current activities have accomplished. Moreover, by respectfully expressing the above, I thank you for giving protection to all of us miserable migratory beings, for your kindness in performing perfect deeds equaling the limitless sky which are beyond all thought and expression.

Although the holy Geshe Lama Konchog was not famed as one who was designated as the highest degree (Lharampa) by his monastery, He is held on the crown of our heads with greatest esteem as one who embodied the essence of what it means to be a True Guru, the root of the spiritual path. This is so because He perfectly practiced guru devotion in thought and deeds. Having thoroughly trained his mental continuum in all the stages of the Bodhisattva's path, renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct view which are the essence of all the eighty-four thousand heaps of Dharma, Geshe Lama Konchog reached in one short lifetime of this degenerated age the unified state of omniscience by the profound path of offering to the guru and the completion of Vajrayogini practice. In short, though he appeared as a simple ordinary monk, in actuality he was the very quintessential meaning of a spiritual guide, the holy Guru.

Through His great kindness, Geshe Lama Konchog explained the three fundamental rituals of Sangha communities and then established the pure Vinaya teachings, essence of all the Buddha's precious instructions, at several monasteries in Himalayas and other places near Tibet's border and so on. By many means He inspired others to purify negativities and obscurations and to accumulate the two oceanic collections of merit and wisdom. For the welfare of the many impoverished peoples of various localities of those regions, Geshe Lama Konchog established several annual group meditations on and recitations of the MANI mantras 100 million times every year as well as other such amazing virtuous activities, thereby bringing great benefit to the teachings and to migratory beings.

In general, to give an idea of Geshe la's practice to common appearance, I hear from his own word, for example, that he completed two thousand sets of Nyung Nye (2-day fasting retreat on compassionate Buddha Chenrezig) with this life's holy body. Similarly, one time, while meditating, in a remote mountain cave, some shepherds of the area thought he was a Yeti on seeing his large and rugged body and threw rocks at him. No longer able to stay in the cave, he never gave up the meditation and lived under a tree without shelter for three years practicing austerities and deep meditation. Later, at the request of our holy teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe, Geshe la kindly accepted to come to Kopan and gave incredible instructions on Dharma practice at Kopan Jangchub Choling Monastery and Kachoe Gyakyling Nunnery. Likewise, he gave teachings on the preparatory practices, the graduated path, mind training, and various empowerments etc. to numerous foreigners who came from many different countries. Not only that, Geshe la also taught on the heart of all the Buddhist Sutras and Tantras, the essential graduated instructions on the bodhisattva's path in many places abroad including:- Australia; four Dharma centres in Taiwan, comprising Jinsufarlin

Centre of Taipei, Shakyamuni Centre of Taijung, Heruka Center of Kaoshung, Hayagriva Centre of Taoyuan; also at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and other centres in Singapore; Losang Drakpa Centre of Malaysia and Chamtse Ling Centre of Hong Kong. Geshe Lama Konchog performed an incredible kindness by teaching the secret instruction of the generation stage which ripens and the completion stage of the Tantra which liberates sentient beings, thereby setting many miserable migratory beings on the noble path of liberation and omniscience and bringing vast benefit to the Buddha's teachings and to samsaric beings. For these reasons, I truly think that if his reincarnation were to arise as one to spread Buddha's teachings of this world far and wide; one to be the root of all the collections of excellence in the minds of migratory beings; one to be the basis for the accomplishment of all attainments; one to compel the subjugation of negativities and the collection of merit and wisdom; one to generate faith in the Guru and belief in the cause and effect and more; in short, one bringing vast benefit would surely arise. Subsequently, the current situation apart, I feel that Tenzin Nyudrup's story is so extremely clear that it is as if the holy Geshe Lama Konchog himself actually prepared all the optimum conditions for his own reincarnation. However, I pray with unbounded reverence that you the supreme refuge and protector completely free from obscurations, you who are omniscient and wise, will in your great love kindly guide us as to whether the Tsum boy Tenzin Nyudrup is or is not the reincarnation of our late Guru Geshe Lama Konchog.

I, the deluded one, and those who give their lives in service to the Dharma centres, and all the students and benefactors and friends together request that the lotus feet of yours, the supreme protector of all remain firmly in this world for hundreds and billions of eons. Please, please always in all times may you the refuge and protector of all migratory beings look upon the prayers of ours, your disciples, with love and affection.

As the representative of all the Dharma centres, I the deluded one, given the title reincarnate Thubten Zopa, make this prayer of request.

Courtesy of FPMT.org

The Confirmation Letter of the Unmistaken Reincarnation of the Late Great Mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. December 17th 2005.

I have received a request for observation together with prayers and offerings from the faithful Lama named Thubten Zopa. He made this request on behalf of Kopan Ogmin Thubten Jangchub Choling Monastery and the Nunnery Khachoe Gyakiling and various Dharma centres.

I have checked in several ways whether the boy named Tenzin Nyudrup is the unmistaken reincarnation of the late Lama Konchog. My observations in various signs as well as my divination also came out very auspicious. I feel very comfortable and confident identifying Tenzin Nyudrup as the unmistaken reincarnation of the late Lama Konchog.

I advise Tenzin Nyudrub to recite as a daily practice the mantra of Manjushri and the Tsong Khapa Guru Yoga Prayer Migtsema Prayer.

The Dalai Lama, Shakya's Gelong, Tenzin Gyatso

________________________________________

Please visit http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/konchog/konchog.asp for a photo of the young incarnation!

Letter by Ven Tenzin Zopa

On Thursday October 22, 2001, at 4.30 am Geshe Lama Konchog's cremation stupa was opened. From 7.30 AM onwards under the guidance of Cherok Lama, Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Thubten Lhundrup and Tenzin Zopa the relics were taken out.

So many relics were found so that what was supposed to be a two-hour job turned into eight hours. We found incredible items in the ashes, all different types of relics:
200 - 300 white relic pills
o 1 golden and a few black-colored relic pills
o 3 pieces of red relics
o 10-20 grey-colored relic pills.

We also found Geshe-la's heart (high tantric practitioners' eyes, heart, and the tongue don't usually burn); when we first found the heart it was still soft, like fresh, and after a few minutes it became hard, like resin. We also found an eyeball and we think we have found the tongue.

Geshe-la had white hair, but we found bunches of black hair and I am convinced it is Vajrayogini hair. We also found a bunch of red/grey hair, like wrathful deities (or so people say), also one handful of thin silver wirelike hair. Quite a few relics look like pearls, also something looking like turquoise; some relics looking like mud pills, very hard. We also found a lot of bones.

When cremating a high lama, usually a plate turned upside down is put under the seat, with smooth sand in it. We also did that, and we found a lotus petal (looking like the lotus petal in a sand mandala) 1-½ inches high under it, with two footprints pointing towards the gompa, exactly like Geshe-la's feet. We then covered this one up again, on Lama Lhundrup's advice, and then when we looked again the lotus petal was higher, up to 2" high, and there was a crown on top of the lotus.

The footprints indicate that Geshe-la will definitely return.

At 2.30 PM we invited Geshe-la's relics to the gompa, with music and auspicious banners, and flowers. In the gompa the request for Geshe-la's incarnation to come quickly was repeated. Then the relics were taken in procession to Geshe-la's house. In the entrance of the house there was a table with three types of food prepared: bowl of milk, tsampa mixed with three whites and three sweets and 6 medical substances, and also auspicious sweet rice. This was offered to all coming into the house. All the monks and nuns and many lay people came to look at the relics.

There is still one big container with ashes and relics that needs to be looked through and we are working at it every day. Lama Lhundrup said it is like Geshe-la's whole body was a precious jewel.

The relics will be kept in Geshe-la's room, together with a large picture of Geshe-la, and many of his holy objects, and this will be accessible to everyone.

This morning there was a meeting with Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Gelek Gyatso Rinpoche, Tenpa Choden, in which we discussed the building of a huge stupa in the space where the cremation stupa was. The stupa will be around 20 feet high, and surrounded by statues of the 5 Dhyani Buddhas. There will be beautiful gardens surrounding it. The motivation for building this stupa is to fulfill all Geshe-la's wishes, and for his incarnation to come to Kopan, to be able to help Lama Zopa Rinpoche and to serve all FPMT students and all sentient beings.

It will be dedicated to all Geshe-la's students, to those who knew him and to those who didn't. Just by seeing the stupa extensive merit will be accumulated, and so much negative karma will be purified. It will be there for everyone to meditate and to make offerings there. The building of the stupa will start on the 13th December.

It is very sad that Geshe-la left his body and is now away from us. He gave us the opportunity to feel fortunate to have met him and to rejoice in his great realizations, which he manifested in his relics. Definitely, Geshe-la will come back as soon as possible.

His prayers and blessings are always with us and our prayers make us never to be separate from him. For me he is without doubt right now Buddha. He did convince us of this at the end of his life by taking on the aspect of Buddha. He tried to show as that while he was alive. His humility and simplicity and our own extensive delusions prevented us from seeing this while he was alive. However there is no doubt now.

I am planning to make a book about Geshe-la's life story, as well as a video; that will be a one-year project. I am hoping to show Geshe-la's activities to all his disciples and students.

Thank you very much for all your messages and a special thanks to those who offered money towards pujas for Geshe-la. Tenzin Zopa

Lama, think of me.
Lama, think of me.
Lama, think of me.

The wisdom of great bliss of all buddhas, one taste with the dharmakaya, is itself the ultimate nature of all kind lamas. I beseech you, Lama, dharmakaya, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

Wisdom’s own illusory appearance, the conqueror with seven branches, is itself the ultimate basis of emanation of all kind lamas. I beseech you, Lama, sambhogakaya, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The play of various emanations, suiting the dispositions of the many to be subdued, is itself the behavior of the sambhogakaya of the kind lamas. I beseech you, Lama, nirmanakaya, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The play of the inseparable three kayas, appearing in the form of the lama, is itself one with the very essence of all kind lamas. I beseech you, Lama, the inseparable three kayas, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

All the infinite peaceful and wrathful yidams are also the lama’s nature, and since no yidam exists apart from the kind lama himself, I beseech you, Lama, who comprises all yidams, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The ordinary form of all buddhas arises in the aspect of the lama, therefore no buddhas are observed apart from the kind lama himself. I beseech you, Lama, who comprises all buddhas, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The very form of all conquerors’ wisdom, compassion, and power arises as the lama, therefore the supreme arya lords of the three families are also the kind lama himself. I beseech you, Lama, who combines three families in one, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The hundred, five, and three families, however many elaborated, are the lama. The pervasive master himself in whom they are all included is also the lama. I beseech you, Lama, as master of all the families, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The creator of all buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha is the lama. The one who combines all three refuges is the kind lama himself. I beseech you, Lama, whose presence combines all refuges, please look after me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

Thinking of how the actual form of all buddhas arises in the aspect of the lama and mercifully looks after me – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of how you show the excellent unmistaken path to me, an unfortunate wretched being, abandoned by all the buddhas – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of this excellent body, highly meaningful and difficult to obtain, and wishing to take its essence with unerring choice between gain and loss, happiness and suffering – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of the experience of not knowing what to do when the great fear of death suddenly descends upon me – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of the experience of just now suddenly separating from all the perfections of this life, and going on alone – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of the experience of my naked body falling into the terrifying fires of hell and being unable to bear it – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of how the suffering of hunger and thirst, without a drop of water, is directly experienced in the unfortunate preta realm – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of how very repulsive and wretched it is to become a foolish stupid animal and what it would be like to experience it myself – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of a refuge to protect me from this, since I am now about to fall into the wretched states of bad migration – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of how white and black actions are experienced and of how to practice thorough and precise engagement and restraint – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of a method to escape this prison of endless existences, the source of all suffering – reminds me of you, Lama.

Thinking of the plight of my pitiful old mothers, pervasive as space, fallen amidst the fearful ocean of samsara and tormented there – reminds me of you, Lama.

Therefore, Lama, please bless me to generate in my mental continuum effortless experience of the profound three principles of the path and the two stages.

Please bless me to strive in one-pointed practice of the three trainings with the intense thought of renunciation, in order to reach the secure state of liberation.

Please bless me to train in the precious supreme bodhichitta with the special attitude taking responsibility to liberate all migrators by myself alone.

Please bless me to follow after the ocean of conquerors with the will to cross to the very end of the great waves of deeds of the conquerors’ children.

Please bless me to realize the supreme view, free of extremes, in which emptiness and dependent arising, appearance and emptiness, complement each other.

Please bless me quickly to generate the experience of taking the three kayas into the path, ripening the bases of birth, death, and bardo.

Please bless me to arise as the illusory divine body itself, the play of the four joys and four emptinesses when the wind and mind absorb in the central channel.

Please bless me to meet the ultimate lama – the bare face of my innate mind with the covering of perception (of true existence) and perceiving (it as true) removed.

Please bless me to be one with your three secrets, Lama, in the vast dharmakaya of great bliss, which has exhausted the elaborations of the two obscurations.

In short, please abide inseparably in the center of my heart until the great enlightenment, and mercifully bless me, the child, to follow after you, the father.

Lama, think of me.
Lama, think of me.
Lama, think of me.

Calling the Lama From Afar
Abbreviated Version

Lama, think of me!
Lama, think of me!
Lama, think of me!

Magnificently glorious guru, dispelling the darkness of ignorance;
Magnificently glorious guru, revealing the path of liberation;
Magnificently glorious guru, liberating from the waters of samsara;
Magnificently glorious guru, eliminating the diseases of the five poisons;
Magnificently glorious guru who is the wish-granting jewel;
I beseech you:
Please grant me blessings to remember impermanence and death from my heart
And to generate the thought of no-need in my mind.

Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me to abide one-pointedly in practice in isolated places, not having any hindrances to my practice.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me so that all bad conditions appear encouraging.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me to accomplish effortlessly the two works of self and others.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me soon, very soon.
Please grant me blessings on this very cushion.
Please grant me blessings in this very session.

After reciting these verses, recite any requesting prayers to your own guru that you wish.

May I not arise heresy even for a second
In the actions of the glorious guru.
May I regard whatever actions are done as pure.
[With this devotion] may I receive the blessings of the guru in my heart.

Then recite the following verse and meditate on the guru entering your heart.

Magnificent and precious root guru,
Please abide on the lotus and moon seat at my heart.
Guide me with your great kindness,
And grant me the realizations of your holy body, speech, and mind.

Colophon for the short version: Author unknown. Translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1985. Transcribed and edited by Ven. Thubten Dondrub. The two final verses following the main prayer were also translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Lightly edited by Ven. Constance Miller, FPMT Education Department, January 1999.

http://www.lamayeshe.com/otherteachers/pabongka/afar.shtml

Calling the Lama from Afar

by His Eminence the 3rd Jamyan Kongtrul Rinpoche

What we presently call Buddhism arose out of India; the Buddha Shakyamuni originally taught there and his dharma teachings spread from there. Later on in history, it was possible for the Buddha's teaching to arrive in Tibet. This was due to inviting skillful translators, teachers and other accomplished beings. These masters who came to Tibet translated all of the Buddha's original words and teachings into the Tibetan language. Likewise, all the commentaries (which explain the dharma) available at the time, authored by Indian masters, were translated into Tibetan. Over time, even the great scholars and accomplished yogis of Tibet wrote commentaries on the basis of the Buddha's words as recorded in the scriptures.

Through these efforts, all the teachings of the Buddha Shakyamuni which include the view, the path of meditation and the fruition of realization spread and disseminated. This enabled Buddhist to practice the spoken words of the Buddha.

In general, there are two specific ways in which one can practice the Buddha's teachings:

The first way is when the practitioner uses the power of one's own intelligence. One learns about the pure dharma, and afterward deeply contemplates its meaning and understands it. This is accomplished through years of meticulous study, so that an extensive understanding is acquired. Through this method, confidence is developed in the dharma. The practitioner uses one's own intelligence and discernment to recognize the right and accurate path; a certainty and confidence unfolds which allows us to gradually meditate, and then integrate the teachings into our own experience.

The other possible way is to have deep conviction in the most important points of the dharma; one understands and follows the basic teachings of the Buddha without failure. One is not ignorant or blindly following the dharma, since we must understand the teachings accurately. However, the practitioner does not go too deeply into study and contemplation regarding the teachings. Instead, one has confidence and turns towards meditation practice. It is then through meditation practice and actual experience that one develops all the inner understanding and knowledge of the dharma.

Now, what is the connection or commonality that these two specific ways to practice, from which we choose between, have? They both aim at enabling the practitioner to understand the Buddhist view of the world and reality; this view is that the mind should develop true awareness. Even when studying, a Buddhist should not be attached to the mere words themselves.

The Buddha said, "Do not be attached to the words themselves, but trust and understand the (true, inner) meaning."

So, the we must first accomplish this state of awareness; if one is not aware then nothing can possibly be accomplished in practice. For example, the principle insight gained by a Buddhist on the path is that worldly life and goals do not achieve anything ultimately; they have no real meaning. However, if one has no awareness or mindfulness, one is just stuck on the words of this insight; one does not have any experience to understand the meaning of it (this profound insight about the selfless nature of worldly life will not be integrated into one's own experience). It becomes useless.

Therefore, one must hold onto this awareness for more than a fleeting moment. Once this awareness about the world is integrated into one's own experience, then whenever a positive or negative situation (or action) arises, we will react properly and virtuously. We should recognize the true nature of our actions. Awareness is helpful to still all the disturbing emotions, it is the basis for all practice and good-doing.

In Tibetan, we say meditation is not merely just sitting down, it is not just "meditation." This sounds like a wordplay, but it simply means that meditation is not just this; true meditation is when we become accustomed or more closely aware of the truth, to be aware throughout one's entire experience.

When we practice meditation, one can focus the mind on different objects. But, this is not really the goal of meditation. The point is what develops out of this single-pointed concentration of the mind, which is the basis of awareness integrated into our own experience.

So, meditation is not only just a phase of sitting down and meditating, it is really about using awareness everyday, every moment. Usually our awareness is disturbed and becomes uncontrolled due to distractions created by the five sense organs. Once awareness is there, distraction cannot be spoken of. True meditation is not merely sitting or concentrating on something special, that is just the method to develop the real practice of holding onto awareness.

Once this true meditation is there, one realizes that out of our mind (or consciousness) a continuous stream of thoughts emerge. This fact alone demonstrates that the mind's true nature is emptiness and clarity. Through awareness, one comes to carefully study the consciousness. We see directly that it is emptiness; one cannot find it or hold on any aspect or thought! Through awareness, one sees the different thoughts going and coming, one recognizes the clarity of the mind this way. Emptiness and clarity are the clear aspects of the mind or consciousness.

If there is this clarity and emptiness, there should not be any fault in the mind. But, then, how does confusion arise? Confusion arises when one does not know or understand what the clear aspect of the mind is about. One runs after thoughts and tries to possess them, one attempts to describe the mind with words and expressions, and gets stuck on ideas and beliefs; this is what brings forth real confusion!

Awareness must then be counted on; it is needed so that the clear aspect is fully seen, so that the practitioner does not run after the notional process which ends in confusion. Awareness leads to seeing the clarity and emptiness of the mind. What leads to this awareness and understanding? First we study, and then contemplate the teachings, and then meditate; we rely on these methods to accomplish our task of gaining true awareness.

However, this entire task of gaining awareness has preconditions. To develop this sort of wisdom, one needs a spiritual friend. The need for a spiritual friend has different meanings within the Three Vehicles (yanas) of Buddhism; the role of the spiritual friend is different for the various lineages and vehicles of Buddhism.

In the Hinayana, or lesser vehicle which aims for the self to be freed from suffering, the spiritual friend is a good friend who shows you the teachings and starts the process of understanding.

In the Mahayana, or greater vehicle which aims for the self and others to be freed from suffering, the spiritual friend is a very special person. In the Mahayana, the spiritual friend should not just merely understand the words; he or she should have integrated the teachings into his life. For Mahayana practitioners, the spiritual friend should be at least a Bodhisattva, a noble being who can be a role model in every situation.

In the Vajrayana, or vehicle of expedient means of tantra, the spiritual friend is even more important, he or she is seen as the Buddha himself. One does not just simply see the spiritual friend as the Buddha, but develops deep respect and devotion, and treats him like he really is the Buddha.

The spiritual friend then does not just repeat the words of the Buddhadharma. He guides the practitioner through all his appearances, words and expressions. This is really what a Lama, or Guru, is.

A Root Guru in particular is more than just a spiritual friend then, there is a difference because with a root guru there is a genuine close communication which transcends mere words. There are many people who explain the dharma only with words, they use many, many words. Sometimes even though they use many words, the dharma becomes less and less clear, and one's meditation does not improve.

But the root guru uses both words and the whole environment to express the Buddhadharma; his entire expression influences the practitioner. So, one can effectively use the teachings in one's life and the practitioner can be guided to recognize the true nature of the mind, the clear aspect of the mind. It is important to know that the root guru is the one who enables the practitioner to see the nature of the mind. That is why one must develop a genuine relationship with a root guru.

In the beginning of such a relationship, the practitioner should develop a deep sense of devotion and respect towards all his actions. His actions guide our mind to understanding and to a positive state; his actions liberate our consciousness. We deeply trust the guru, knowing that all of his actions guide us the right way.

One must not simply have trust in the root guru as a thought, this must spontaneously arise from inside oneself. Devotion is not imagined! It never changes, it is stable, it stays within you. Once this is developed, there is a true sense of devotion and confidence that arises spontaneously. One understands that the Root Guru and the Buddha Shakyamuni are not different, one does not serve the two of them differently.