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Tantric Buddhism requires considerable commitment and thought, plus the guidance of a teacher – someone to whom you initially relate as a virtuous friend, and who then becomes your all-important “tantric guru” when you take Tantric initiation from him. It is he who guides you to your deepest spiritual practices, bringing you to liberation from the cycle of samsara and eventually leading you to perfect enlightenment. Taking a guru implies a renunciation of non-virtuous actions, such as killing and stealing. Above all, it implies embracing the bodhisattva’s way of life. This means developing bodhichitta – an intense compassion for the suffering of all beings, which in turn leads to the strong desire to attain enlightenment in order to bring that suffering to an end.

Tantra thus centers on your guru. You can take teachings and even initiations from different gurus, but you only ever have one root guru who is your main guide. Although all Buddhist traditions can be traced back to the same historical Buddha, there are gross and subtle differences in the various lineages, so it is best to find one guru with whom you feel a real affinity. Once you decide to take refuge with him, you should practice intense loyalty, devotion, and obedience to your guru. All traditions, however, say the same thing: the guru is the root of the path, the source of all your goodness, the cause of all your happiness.

The root guru is so central to Buddhist spiritual practice that if you are to make any progress at all, in terms of achieving “realization,” you must practice guru yoga. This is done by visualizing your root guru as encompassing all the buddhas, and having the aspect of whichever deity you are practicing. No matter how many hundreds of thousands of buddhas you get to know, progress along the graduated path to enlightenment simply cannot happen unless you receive the blessings of your guru. So when you visualize a whole sky full of buddhas and lamas – what is referred to as “the meditation of the merit field” (see here) – it is vital to understand that all of them are manifestations of your gurus.

Therefore the real meaning of the guru is that he encompasses the holy mind of all the buddhas purest consciousness, the mind is the experience of the highest complete bliss. This is referred to as Dharmakaya. Thus it is said that when enlightenment is attained, the mind instantly understands this and becomes one with all the buddhas.

So a guru (or Tantric master, if you are taking Tantric initiations from him) is someone whom you should be very careful about taking on. You should check him out thoroughly, feel that you really want to study under him, and revere him as a true spiritual master before committing yourself to the samaya vows.

This book merely points the way. I am simply planting a seed in your mind, sharing what I have learned and experienced, and what I have discovered to be truly awesome. I am not a qualified teacher, but having known and benefited so much from my guru, it is possible for me to open some windows for you.

Lama Lhundrup Khen Rinpoche, the Abbot of Kopan Monastery, Nepal. His guru is Lama Yeshe, whose teachings are the basis of the Yeshe Program at Kopan, where around 360 monks and nuns now study. The monastery was first established in 1971 following Lama Lhundrup’s escape from China in 1959 with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.