Q: The teacher/student relationship is fundamental in Tibetan Buddhism. In reality, in the West, only a few can be so lucky to have a traditional guru/student relationship. So, often it happens to a practitioner that after some years there is less enthusiasm and interest. What can you advise to those in such a situation?
JTP: The important thing is to realize that even in a traditional guru/student relationship, it’s not really so necessary to always be around the guru. Once one has made a connection, even if one doesn’t see the guru very often and the guru is very far away, still one can keep the inner heart connection. For example, in the Tibetan tradition, there are very beautiful prayers for calling on the guru from afar. And especially if these are set to a melody and one can sing them from the heart—they create that connection with the guru, because it’s a mind-to-mind connection. Sometimes, even if the lama is sitting in front of you, you can feel there’s a thousand miles between you; likewise, you can be a thousand miles away and feel that the guru is right there, sitting in your heart. At the same time, one has to realize that the ultimate guru is one’s own buddha nature: it’s the nature of the mind, and one has to cultivate being able to be centered within one’s own innate awareness and not depend so much on an external relationship. Because when one is in the nature of the mind, then one is indeed one with the guru. This is why when we do guru yoga we absorb the guru into ourselves—to realize that his/her mind and our own mind have become one. This is very important to realize. The ultimate guru is our own innate wisdom, and if we can access and cultivate that, then the enthusiasm for the Dharma just bubbles up endlessly. It doesn’t depend on external shots of inspiration from an actual person. ■
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