Onward to Guru Yoga, p.6The fifth benefit, it says because of the kindness of guru, having teacher, good relationship, the path will increase and realizations will increase. Insights will increase, one's own siddhi will increase.
So there are many stories. We have many stories. Atisha's disciple, famous disciple called Dromtonpa. There was also another disciple called Ami Jangchub Renchen. So Dromtonpa had very high realizations right from the beginning when Atisha met Dromtonpa. And people are wondering why Dromtonpa had so much realizations before he even met Atisha. Because Atisha knew through his psychic mind and clairvoyance, and Atisha said that Dromtonpa practiced perfect guru devotion. He had another guru called Lama Setsun. Dromtonpa, when he was young, he served Lama Setsun, and he received teachings and he practiced perfect guru devotion with the Lama Setsun. Therefore he accomplished high realizations.
And so we have many stories about the guru-disciple relationship and also benefit of serving the guru. For example, Dromtonpa was great disciple and example of disciple or yogi who practiced guru yoga perfectly. And there is a story, for example, when Atisha becomes very old and he was quite ill and he couldn't get up from the bed and he couldn't go out to field to pee, and he couldn't go to the outhouse. So Dromtonpa took his pee pot out and he even scoop up his feces by his hand and he did service for his guru. It says one day he was taking out Atisha's pee pot and walking down the steps, and all of a sudden Dromtonpa achieve, accomplished a very advanced clairvoyance because due to the power of serving guru purify obscurations of the mind. So there are lots of stories like this.
There is also a story of Sakya Pandita, the great scholar and great tantric master, teacher according to the Sakyapa tradition. He was serving his guru and Dyalpa Gyaltsen was also his uncle, and so they have a not only relationship of teacher-student, but they have uncle-nephew relationship. So sometimes Sakya Pandita felt there was some kind of obstacles. And he found out the obstacle was he felt somehow he couldn't have a deep feeling or devotion to his uncle Dyalpa Gyaltsen as a Buddha. Because Dyalpa Gyaltsen was a fully-enlightened one, he achieved the holy state, enlightened state of Vajrayogini and Chakyasambara Heruka because these lamas are in the lineage of Heruka and Vajrayogini tantra. So he couldn't really accept Dyalpa Gyaltsen as a fully-enlightened being, Buddha, because he felt always in part of his mind says, "He is my uncle. We have same blood, we are in the same family." He felt too close, and somehow he couldn't accept as a fully-enlightened one.
Then he was serving, and one day this obscuration was gone, and of course he knows Dyalpa Gyaltsen was his uncle, but same time he realized that when you're very, very close, when you have blood relationship and when you grow up in the same family, sometimes, too close, you don't see the greatness of this person. Like sometimes children don't want to ask help from their mother or father, even mother or father can be great psychologist or philosopher. They feel they have to go to somebody else, because they feel too close. Even lamas, highly realized beings, have these kinds of human feelings. These things become an obstacle. So one day these obstacles is gone. And then Sakya Pandita become great scholar and great yogi, enlightened one. Like that, there are so many stories, we don't have time now to talk about. You're going to study the text, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, and then you can have the pleasure to study and to do analytical meditation.
The sixth benefit of having guru is serving guru and having guru, is in the
future you will never feel lack of teacher, lack of spiritual guide. Because if
you have good spiritual teacher-student relationship, if have guru, because due
to that good karma, continual karma. So that in the future lives one always find
the right teacher, because you are creating this condition to meet other
teachers from same lineage, from the same path.
