Teachings on 50 Verses of Guru Devotion

HELD AT CROYDON
26-27 October 2024

Khenpo la taught on the text 50 Verses of Guru Devotion the last weekend of October. Sangha members gathered in our small “gompa” at Croydon to hear the teachings in person, whilst a group gathered in the main gompa at Kamalashila in Tilba to hear the teachings online. This text provides the perfect guide of how the Guru–student relationship works, in such an incredibly practical way that is so accessible for us to follow. As Khenpo la taught, the Guru holds the “heavy duty” realisations and has the power to pass this to the student. The term Guru has a number of meanings, one is, Gu=knowledge and ru=accumulations. 

Therefore, the Guru is “the library of all knowledge”. All the sutras come from the Guru’s mind like a library. If the student has this true understanding and appreciation of the greatness of the Guru, then one behaves in a manner and adopts an attitude towards the Guru accordingly. 

Khenpo la went through the 50 verses individually, giving detailed and very practical explanations of how this text can be so helpful to the student in regard to their fast-track journey on the path to enlightenment. As Khenpo la taught, the “Guru is like our parent, giving us the birth of Buddhahood”. 

Detailing the profound qualities and knowledge of the Guru, one begins to realise the incredible fortune to meet a genuine Guru in this lifetime. After examining a potential Guru for 12 years, the time the text states, and upon finding your Guru, this is such an incredible joyous moment. For without them we cannot attain full and perfect enlightenment. Alternatively accepting the ungenuine Guru can lead us to a big delay in attaining this state.

So, for this reason alone, we all felt so fortunate that Khenpo la is in our midst, in our lives, the perfect guide leading us on the path. Thank you so much Khenpo la for your incredible compassion towards us in Turning the Wheel of Dharma unceasingly for so many years. At the end of the program Khenpo la and the Centre was presented with a beautiful tangka by Christine, in honour of our most dear late sangha brother Peter Tooth. Thank you so much Christine, we will cherish this.