Obstacles to Guru Devotion

You have to understand that what causes all the realizations of the path and all the limitless qualities of the Buddha, whether you get enlightened or not, is guru devotion. Whether you get enlightened, and whether you are able to free countless sentient beings who are experiencing the intense sufferings of the lower realms and cause them to achieve the peerless happiness of liberation and enlightenment: all this depends on guru devotion. Therefore, when you are practicing, obstacles will arise from outside and within. Evil beings try to harm you because they don’t want you to get enlightened. They create obstacles for you, so you must be aware of this and constantly be on guard, never letting up even for a moment.

You must always be watching the mind, without a second’s break, because these interferers try to prevent you from gaining realizations. When obstacles do arise, whether from outside or inside, it is very important to make an effort, and never give up.

You must put effort into it, and inspire yourself. Encourage yourself, thinking: “I have Buddha nature, so therefore I can do this. No matter how much my mind goes down, I can bring it up again, because I have Buddha nature. Countless buddhas and bodhisattvas were once just like me, with delusions and obstacles, but they put effort into it and were able to gradually overcome them. Therefore, I must do the same. No matter how difficult, I must try and try.”

No matter what happens, no matter how much the mind goes down, no matter how many obstacles arise, you must make an effort, and try and try to overcome them.

Your main goal in life is not just to study. Your main goal is to achieve enlightenment, to free all sentient beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment. For that, you need realizations on the path to enlightenment. And for that, you need to purify your mind and collect merit. Therefore, study cannot be your only goal in life.

Everything depends on correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, so you might find a big difference once you change your motivation. The emphasis should be to do what most pleases the guru, and correctly devote yourself to the virtuous friend. Everything comes down to that, and that’s the essential practice. Study is not the main aim of life.

Afterward, Rinpoche commented that later it seemed the nun changed her idea about the goal of her life, and this opened a different view up for her. This made it easy, and released her from the difficult thoughts toward her guru and his not teaching her various subjects.

My very dear one,
Thank you for your kind letter. I understand your situation. Don’t worry at all about the thoughts that arose. They do happen. I was once doing prostrations some years ago, and the thought came that maybe the Buddha doesn’t exist. It didn’t last long, though. This comes from heresy from strong negative karma from past lives. You should practice Samayavajra during guru puja, at the section after the offerings and before the confession.

You can also offer tsog to the guru to purify that, and also a few malas of OM AH HUM.

It is also good to do prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas, particularly to the last Buddha. This purifies negative karma connected with the guru, and should be done three times or more.

Much love and prayer...