Guru Yoga
Prayer, visualization and meditation connecting the practitioner with the teacher’s awakened qualities in Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
Connecting with awakened qualities
Guru yoga is a family of Tibetan Buddhist practices that brings devotion to the teacher into meditation. The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive describes it as seeing the spiritual teacher as inseparable from the buddhas. Its forms include prayer, visualization, offerings and meditation, with different presentations in different lineages.
Different practice traditions
In Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s guide to A Shower of Blessings, the Seven-Line Prayer is the basis for a guru yoga of Padmasambhava. Refuge and bodhicitta frame the practice, followed by visualization, supplication and meditation. This is one particular Nyingma presentation.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche · Guide to A Shower of Blessings
Gelug examples include Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga and Guru Puja. The Yuthok Nyingthig has its own sequence of Outer, Inner, Secret and Concise Guru Yogas. These practices belong to their respective transmissions; ask the teacher or organizer about the preparation and commitments for a particular practice.