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THE TORCH OF CERTAINTY THINKING OF THE GURU AS THE BUDDHA
In reality, your guru may be an ordinary being or a manifestation of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. But if you can pray to him while meditating that he is the Buddha, all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and yidams will enter the body, speech and mind of your Vajrayana master and work for the benefit of all beings. According to the Mulehagama of Manjushri :u All those who have contempt for a future Vajradhara Have contempt for me; hence, I abandon them. And further: It is I who dwell in the guru's body, I who receive offerings from aspirants. They please me, thus their karmic obscurations are removed!U Thus, to please your root·guru is to please all the Buddhas. Mistreating him is like mistreating all the Buddhas. Presenting offerings to him earns the merit of presenting offerings to all the Buddhas and removes obscurations. Many sutras and shastras say that our attainment of siddhi is entirely dependent on the guru, and that immeasurable benefits will "ccrue through our devotion, reverence and presentation of offerings to him. In the tantras it is said: A hundred thousand visualizations of a deity's form, performed a hundred thousand times, lue no match for one unwavering visualization of the guru's form. A hundred billion Nyendrub practices, performed a hundred thousand times, Are not as potent as a prayer to the guru, sincerely offered thrice. One who performs a kalpa-worth of Fulfillment Stage meditation, and does this twenty thousand times, Is no match for one within whose mind the guru but appears. From the Pratlipodyolana:•• Oh, son of good family, the merit earned by worshiping one pore on the master's body is greater than the heap of merit earned by worshiping