The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Guru Yoga”
According to the Buddha, the state that is the pure undefiled primordial wisdom state—this precious awakened state that is luminosity and emptiness inseparable from one another—is our true nature. But since time-out-of-mind, we have been involved in the incorrect assumption of self-nature as being inherently real. So due to our fixation on specific awareness and therefore our constantly defining and reestablishing the distinction between self and other, and the resultant attraction and repulsion that we are constantly involved in, we have never tasted this nature. We don’t know it.
It isn’t that it’s far away. It isn’t that we don’t have it yet. It isn’t that we have to grow it. It isn’t like that. That nature is right now! It’s right here. It isn’t anywhere else; it isn’t far away. And yet it is beyond here and now, beyond here and there. Due to our fixation on self-nature as being inherently real, due to the delusion of division within our mindstreams, we cannot taste that nature. We are involved in the process of fixation, and that nature which is all pervasive is not understood.
Guru Rinpoche is that nature. In his Dharmakaya form, he is displayed as Lord Buddha Amitabha—the Absolute Nature, free of any contrivance, free of any distinction, that nature which is emptiness. In his Sambhogakaya form, he is considered to be Chenrezig, that Nature which is pure luminosity, free of any contrivance. seen in a miraculous blissful display—a dance, if you will.—that shows itself in an emanation form displaying Wisdom and Miraculous Accomplishment, Emptiness and Method, or Luminosity and Compassion. It is so hard for us to understand what that really means.
For us, what we see is the Nirmanakaya, the physical form. Through thinking about it, we can understand the great benefit that Guru Rinpoche has brought. We can understand the extraordinary good fortune that we have to be able to do the practices that he has taught. We can understand that this is compassionate activity. We can understand that by the virtue of what he has done, we have a shot (if you will) at achieving some realization. We have hope; we have a path; we have a method. Through reliance upon his blessing, we come to realize that his very nature is the door to liberation.
If we go deeper, we realize that he is not only the Nirmanakaya form, but also, he is the deeper and more subtle forms. In fact, he is the very display of enlightenment itself. We realize then that Guru Rinpoche is inseparable from our own nature. How do you cut that nature up? The Buddha Nature is the Buddha Nature. And so, when we look at Guru Rinpoche, and we practice devotion in order to achieve a certain natural transmission, aren’t we actually walking through the door of our own nature? Aren’t we actually looking at the true face which is our face as well? Aren’t we actually doing what we do best—seeing something as external which is actually inseparable from us? That’s what we do very well. That’s all that we know how to do.
And so we practice Guru Yoga. Ultimately, we understand that by receiving the empowerment of the Lama, and practicing deeply, to understand the nature of the Lama, is to understand our own nature. That to meditate accordingly is to see the true face which is that nature. Ultimately, we will practice in such a way as to dispel the delusion of separation. We will come to dispel such distinction. We will come to realize that nature as our own nature, an event that is not ordinary.
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