Praise to our spiritual teacher

Long Life Puja for Ven. Geshe Sopa
given after Summer Course 2001 - text read by Linda Atkins

I am not really competent to adequately thank and praise our spiritual teacher, Geshe Lundrup Sopa, but I will try my best, from the heart, to represent the students here.

I have been fortunate to have been among your earliest Madison students. At that time, there was very little Buddhism practiced in America. Although this country was materially rich, no one had the background to appreciate your great learning and spiritual accomplishments. This situation can be compared to Atisha going to Tibet to spread the Dharma.

Atisha left the great monastic centers of India, where the practice of Buddhism was flourishing, to travel to a distant land where the language, customs and religious culture were totally different. He did this solely for the benefit of others: he spread the Dharma in Tibet to give the medicine that cures the sickness of samsara.

Geshela - you came to America. If you had stayed in India, where you were already known and respected, you would have continued on the path that many great scholars, teachers and practitioners had taken before you. You would have had hundreds of diligent and competent disciples who would have recognized and honored you for your achievement of great qualities.

You sacrificed that life for us. You came to a land that was totally unknown to you and, from the American side, we did not know the value of our teacher and the teachings you brought to us. Not only did you come to America, but you stayed and overcame every obstacle and difficulty with a smile and kindness. Even today, your American students still don’t know the traditionally proper way to serve a spiritual teacher.

Despite all the difficulties of bringing the Dharma to America, Geshela, you are the perfect embodiment of the teachings. You never deviate in the slightest from the practice of virtue. Your conduct of body, speech and mind, exemplifies what is described in the scriptures as the behavior of the perfect teacher. You show us the Dharma in many ways.

From your teaching, Buddhism has spread throughout the Americas. Many of your students have continued to spread the Dharma in the academic world; it seems to me that the majority of the Buddhist scholars in America today can trace their lineage back to you. Further, you have brought so many other great Tibetan teachers to America over the past 25 years.

Equally, or perhaps more important, is how you spread the practice of Buddhism everywhere you go. Thousands of people have had their lives altered by meeting you. Some of us may only have made small changes, others greater, but you have always been there to guide us in the way best suited to our individual needs. You have made it easy for us to recognize you, our spiritual teacher, as the Buddha.

I cannot think of a better way to express all of our gratitude and love for you than to paraphrase the words of the Bodhisattva Sudhana in the Gandavuha Sutra.

I have come here.
Thinking you are my teacher, my instructor in the Dharma.
You totally reveal the nature of all things.
And fully teach the Bodhisattva way of life.

You are like my mother because you give birth to all my good qualities,
And you create and then nourish my spiritual life.
As my teacher you turn away the harm that comes from acting out of ignorance of the law of karma.
Like a doctor you offer me the medicine that can free me from the sufferings of old age and death.
Like a god you let a rain of nectar fall that can save me from the drought of my own faults.

You are like a full moon filling me with the white light of virtue.
Just as the light of the sun clears away all darkness, you eliminate our black nonvirtues and show us the way to peace.
Your equanimity is like a mountain, unwavering toward friend or enemy.
Your mind is as peaceful as the great ocean.
You are my guardian, and like the captain of a ship, you can deliver me to the far shore: taking me completely out of samsara.

Thinking this way, I have come here.
You have caused my mind to develop.
You have produced my wish to become a Bodhisattva.
Geshela, my teacher, your actions are praised by the Buddhas.
With such virtuous thoughts I have come here.

As you protect the world, you are like a hero.
You are a captain, protector and refuge.
You provide me with happiness.
Thinking this way, I respect and serve you.

Geshela - When I think of your kindness and great qualities in this way, all that I have left to say is

On behalf of all your students,
Please remain as our spiritual teacher for many years.
Please remain as our spiritual teacher for many years.
Please remain as our spiritual teacher for many years.

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