Question asked by James
Hi pastors
I was apart of a Gelupa organisation where they trick you into taking empowerments and impose their guru on you, I took a lower tantric empowerment and do the practice well, but I feel a strong connection with Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, is it too late now to hold guru devotion to Tsem Rinpoche? For me personally the only guru I have sincere admiration for is Tsem Rinpoche and I've learnt so much from him, however when I took the empowerment I was told by the teacher to visualise his Guru granting the empowerment, which I did even though I didn't want to. I respect and love all gurus and pray for their wishes to spread the dharma but I have found my connection is with Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, for me Tsem Tulku Rinpoche holds the qualification of a guru I wish to hold at my heart. Thankyou pastors I miss Rinpoche dearly
Dear James,
According to the practice of tantra, if you have have taken initiation, then you definitely have a guru-disciple relationship with that particular teacher. Given that, you should protect and nurture that connection. In addition to that, if you really want to take Tsem Rinpoche as your Guru, you can do, but you tantric relationship with the original Guru still stands. Actually, you can think Tsem Rinpoche as being one with that Guru. As per the tradition of tantra, we need to view our teacher as Vajradhara. So he is a Buddha. If we have more than one Guru, we need to view them both as Vajradhara. So they are in essence, one and the same when it comes to our personal practice. I hope this helps.