We disciples who follow in the footsteps of the victorious forebears of
our lineage are here today to practice. From that perspective, I
thought it would be good if during this session, I spoke briefly on the
guru-disciple relationship in connection with the beginning of the Kagyu
Monlam.
Also, we have expanded a number of the features of
the site where we are holding the twenty-sixth Kagyu Monlam, including
the main gates and so forth, and I thought it would be good to briefly
point out what the tormas represent. The main decorative tormas are
those with images of Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa on the right, and on
the left, those with images of the forebears of the Nyingma school of
the early translations, the glorious Sakya lineage, and the Gelukpa
order.
The main principle these tormas illustrate is that when
we consider the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, there are basically no
lineages that are not mixed with the others. When the three Dharma kings
Songsten Gampo, Trisong Deutsen, and Tri Ralpachen first established
the Dharma in Tibet, the lineage that emerged at that time became known
as the “Nyingma school of secret mantra.” Thus the Nyingma was Tibet’s
first Buddhist lineage. Later on, during the reign of King Langdarma,
the teachings were wiped out of Tibet, and the later propagation of the
teachings began. That is the difference between the Nyingma and Sarma
vajrayana schools.
Then the oral lineage of the Kadampa
masters was passed down from the glorious Atisha, and the Sakya, Kagyu,
and Geluk lineages successively appeared. The stages of the teachings of
all of these lineages, along with their basic starting points, are the
same. The different individual lineages arose out of different lineages
of lamas and instructions, but fundamentally there is not even a single
lineage that is not mixed with the others. In sum, all Tibetan lineages
have been passed down intermingled with the others—all of them share
Dharma connections and connections of samaya.
There have
sometimes been some minor incidents between the lineages because of each
lineage’s different way of acting and different placement of emphasis.
Some people who don’t understand practice might have occasionally found
such differences discomfitting, because of which various minor incidents
have occurred. But as Lama Marpa said, when he put Milarepa through
innumerable, unthinkable hardships, although an ordinary person might
think at first glance that he was showing Milarepa absolutely no
compassion, what was actually happening was that Marpa was acting in
this way so that Milarepa could purify his negative actions and
obscurations. It is clear that Marpa was not behaving in this way for
his own private good or without any reason or purpose.
Thus if
we take such accounts as an example, in the long history of the Dharma
lineages of Tibet that have survived to this day without excluding any, a
few lamas have displayed different sorts of activities and life
examples. Ordinary people who do not understand the Dharma might perhaps
look at these various acts and get the wrong impression, lose faith,
and develop misconceptions. But there is nothing that would allow one to
say that such activity was in its essence inconsistent with or
contradictory to the Dharma.
Therefore the presence of images
of the root and lineage gurus from all of the Tibetan Buddhist lineages
here today means that all Tibetan Buddhist lineages are nothing other
than the teachings of the Buddha: They are all the same. For instance,
it is like the eighteen schools of early Buddhism. All eighteen schools
were the same in being the Buddha’s teaching, as affirmed by the account
of the prophecy from King Krikin’s dream. Similarly, it is very
important for each of us to be able to consider this and think about it.
I think that only when that happens will we be able to remain in
harmony with our samaya to our root and lineage lamas without
contradicting or breaking it. It is important for all of us to stretch
our minds in this direction.
Another important point is that it
is insufficient to think of the “guru-disciple relationship” only in
terms of the teachers we have directly met and made a connection with,
without considering other gurus. There are many kinds of gurus, such as
root and lineage gurus. Therefore we need to broaden our view of what we
mean when speaking of “gurus.” We cannot just consider those teachers
we have met and seen with our own eyes in this lifetime to be genuine
teachers, while pretending not to know of any other teachers at all.
Whenever we recite a meditation liturgy, even a short one, we always
begin with a supplication to each of the lineage gurus from Buddha
Vajradhara down from one lama to another all the way to our own root
guru. It is very important for us to reflect on what the need to value
the lineage lamas and recite their names is actually about.
Within our lineages, there have been many great, genuine masters of all
sects, and we meditate on them as the field of merit present as a line
of crown jewels at the pinnacle of our lineage. But if we cannot bring
them to mind at other times when we are actually endeavoring to benefit
beings and the teachings, then meditating on the field of merit itself
is meaningless. Just as we visualize vibrant images of the lineage lamas
in the field of merit when we meditate, when we work to perform benefit
for beings and the teachings we must be able to remember the kindness
of our root and lineage gurus and emulate their life examples. If we
think it is basically sufficient to merely keep ourselves in line with
the commands and views of our monastery’s main teacher, perhaps we are
not really thinking about the teachings themselves. Perhaps we are only
thinking about our own food and clothing.
The master of our own
monastery is the one who kindly supports us with food and clothing. If
we only focus on taking his side and supporting whatever he does or
says, we will not be able to think expansively and in harmony with the
general themes of the Dharma as a whole. Eventually it will be as if the
vibrant square shape of the Buddhist teachings has been shattered into
many different fragments and we will be unable to point to anything and
say, “That’s the teaching of the Buddha.” We will find fault with
everything and only have misconceptions. Thus, just as we know how to
say the words “root and lineage lamas,” it is very important for us to
know what those words mean.
We should have faith, interest, and
trust in all the root and lineage gurus, adopting a posture of being a
disciple of each of them. With this sense of well-grounded faith,
whatever activities of practice and study we may engage in, they will be
in harmony with the Dharma, and we will meet all the characteristics of
a genuine student of the gurus. Without this faith, things will be very
difficult for us. This is the reason why the gurus of the lineages are
depicted on the tormas we have here. Their images are not there solely
to decorate or show off to people: These tormas were made in order to
help us remember the kindness of our genuine root and lineage gurus.
When we see these tormas, we should remember these gurus’ kindness, and
we should reflect on how difficult it would have been for us, without
these gurus, to have entered the gateway of the precious teachings of
the Buddha and to have an opportunity to benefit sentient beings, free
from bias. It is very important that we all think about this.
We need to study the life stories of Marpa and Milarepa that I was just
reading aloud, but it is not enough just to read the books: We must
reflect on their meaning and engage in the practices following these
masters’ life examples, and find some method by which we can apply these
teachings in an immediate way in our lives. Otherwise there would be no
purpose in reading the life story of Milarepa here. We would be better
off studying philosophical texts or learning more about the mind
training teachings instead.
The reason why I feel I absolutely
must give this transmission of The Life of Milarepa is that we can get a
feeling of the practice that an authentic being actually did in his own
life. We can get a feeling of being able to make an intimate human
connection as if we could take his hand. There are of course many other
biographies of inconceivable masters, such as those of the buddhas and
bodhisattvas. But ordinary people cannot even get their minds around
those life stories, much less put them into practice. Yet with Milarepa,
we have the story of how he started out as a completely ordinary person
and committed serious wrongs, but in the end accomplished the genuine
Dharma with whole-hearted commitment. I think it is the story of such an
authentic master that it stays in our minds and moves our hearts.