“It could perhaps be said that the appearance of such an authentic master in the perceptions of the disciple is the final and most perfect apparition of the disciple’s Buddha-nature projected into outer experience. It is the culmination of a long and converging process at the end of which the outer and inner gurus finally coincide. It is a moment of revelation when the disciple inwardly recognizes the nature of the mind and outwardly experiences a spontaneous, uncontrived conviction that his or her teacher is Buddha indeed. The face of the inner guru is revealed, and the minds of the master and disciple mingle inseparably together. There are many accounts of this extraordinary event to be found in the lives of the great practitioners of the past.

For Nyingmapas, Guru Rinpoche is the archetype of such a teacher, the ‘perfect teacher’ who is able to place the disciple directly in the enlightened state. In a very real sense, he is our own Buddha-nature. ‘Meditate upon the Guru,’ Yeshe Tsogyal once said, ‘as the glow of your awareness.’ This is doubtless why Guru Rinpoche appears in the world as such a marvelous figure, totally transcending the limitations of ordinary humanity. He concentrates within himself all the enlightened qualities of self-arisen wisdom, our Buddha-nature, which is ever present beyond the confines of space and time.

It may be that some people who feel drawn to Buddhist teachings have yet to meet a fully qualified teacher. Others, for whom this meeting has occurred, may still need to refine their way of seeing their teacher to the point where the master-disciple relationship becomes meaningful in the way that we have tried to describe. Until that moment comes, one is encouraged to practice the guru-yoga using Guru Rinpoche as the meditative support.

If practitioners have sufficient confidence in their own teacher in this present life, it is of course possible, and indeed very effective, to practice this yoga in relation to them, visualizing them as they appear in ordinary life.”

—Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher, from the Translators’ Introduction to White Lotus, Jamgön Mipham