Stories from a Chela – The Teaching in the Tea
A ‘chela’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘student’. In particular this word refers to the student of a spiritual teacher. Within this series of short posts, I will be sharing stories about His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche. Hopefully through these stories, you will get a glimpse of how Tsem Rinpoche and the Dharma that Rinpoche shares has not only benefited me but countless others.
The Teaching in the Tea
One day I had the good fortune to serve Tsem Rinpoche his morning tea. As I passed Rinpoche the tea and he drank a little, Rinpoche gave an impromptu teaching to those in the room. It was a teaching on the benefits of having Guru Devotion. Rinpoche said serving your teacher is one of the best ways to get rid of all your unwanted emotional baggage so that you can progress spiritually.
Rinpoche used an apt metaphor. Imagine the Antarctic, a great land mass covered under a huge amount of ice and snow. No matter how hard you try to find the ground beneath, it is always obscured by the ice. This is like the mind. The ground is the true nature of the mind – our potential to become a Buddha, an enlightened being. The ice covering it is our delusions, our afflictive emotions, the Three Poisons (hatred, desire and ignorance), and everything else in our minds that stop us from becoming enlightened. To get to the ground, the mind and our true essence, we need to melt the snow.
Following the instructions of your teacher or serving them is like plunging a flaming hot sword into ice, it melts away all our delusions.
Though Rinpoche did not mention this, the melting of the snow is achieved through the practice of the Dharma. But what Rinpoche did mention is that serving your teacher is like plunging a flaming hot sword into the ice, which itself is Dharma practice. It melts the ice a lot faster. And every time you serve your teacher, you are plunging that flaming hot sword again and again into the ice. It is a perfect method to melt the ice as every wholesome action you take as you serve your teacher melts away everything holding us back from greater states of consciousness. No wonder that in the Ganglongma Prayer to Manjushri, it says Manjushri wields the sword of wisdom that hews down the sprouts of suffering wherever they appear. In the same manner serving your teacher does the same.
You may ask how is this possible, and there are a couple of explanations:
- Your teacher is an enlightened being manifesting in an ordinary body to teach the Dharma and benefit sentient beings
- You view your teacher as an enlightened being, even though they may not be. This accords with the highest teachings in Buddhism – Tantra. This view is entirely necessary to progress on the Tantric path and gain spiritual attainments.
Viewing your teacher either way, generates vast amounts of merit and following your teacher’s instructions will ultimately destroy the root cause of the snow and ice (delusions) that covers our real nature (our potential to be a Buddha). When we view our teacher in this way and follow the instructions they give us, whether we know it or not, we are generating vast amounts of merit.
In the small 10 minute teaching, inspired by a simple cup of tea, Rinpoche taught the real meaning behind Guru Devotion. And that is, to devote yourself fully is to find your own liberation.
Pastor Niral Patel
For more interesting information:
- Complete Commentary on 50 Verses of Guru Devotion
- The Promise – Tsem Rinpoche’s Inspiring Biography Now in eBook Format
- All About Manjushri
- Tsem Rinpoche’s Great Guru Devotion
- Updated: Dorje Shugden Teaching Videos
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Great and interesting article in explaining the real meaning of Guru Devotion. When we let go of our own ego and serve our Guru well, it is in fact a great method to find our own freedom and engage in the path to enlightenment. Short and powerful teachings on Guru Devotion by Rinpoche. Serving our guru and following his advice generates tremendous amounts of merits for oneself. Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Niral for this lovely sharing. ?????
Great article in explaining the real meaning of Guru Devotion. When we let go of our own ego and serve our Guru well, it is in fact a great method to find our own freedom and engage in the path to enlightenment. Guru Devotion also means to do what we have promise and follow Guru’s instruction well. It is actually a training and transformation of our mind. Thank you Rinpoche for your teaching.
Short post yet profound powerful teachings on Guru Devotion by Rinpoche. Serving our guru and following his advice generates tremendous amounts of merits for oneself. Rinpoche gave an example on guru devotion and few explanations in serving our guru. Rinpoche had shared many teachings even in a moment with his student. It has benefited countless of those fortunate ones even is just a 10 minute teaching inspired by a simple cup of tea.
(To devote ourselves fully is to find our own liberation. )
Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Niral Patel for this sharing.
Guru devotion is essential in the path to enlightenment. Anyone who are fortunate to have a guru, we should always remember the kindness of our guru and meditated about it on daily basis. Our faith to our Guru will be strengthen when we are constantly practicing correct devotion. Serving the Guru is never a task but a honorable dharma practice for us to collect enormous merits and in the same time purifying negative karma.
Thank you Pastor Niral for sharing this with us.
Thank you very much Pastor for sharing this wonderful but profound teaching. We all need small Dharma bites like these to keep ourselves on the true path
Humbly yours
Thank you, Pastor Niral Patel, for this short article about Guru Devotion and the example Rinpoche gave regarding Antarctica and a flaming sword. It said in stanza 21 on guru devotion by Avagosha that giving to your Guru is the same as making continual offerings to all the Buddhas. We collect so much merit, and from him, powerful attainment comes.
We should relish this opportunity to progress along the path. In stanza 22 a disciple with the good qualities should never regard his Guru and the Buddha Vajradhara as different.
From stanza 25 it specifically states that it is from the guru that powerful attainments and higher rebirth and happiness comes; therefore we should never transgress our guru’s advice and follow it wholeheartedly with great effort and devotion.