Wherever we imagine a Buddha, a Buddha goes; and wherever they go, they accomplish their function, which is to bestow blessings and guide living beings along the paths to enlightenment as swiftly as their karma allows. This is equally true for ourself and for us imagining Buddhas in the lives of those we love.

To understand this, we need to first consider both the nature and function of enlightenment and enlightened beings. The definitive Buddha is the Dharmakaya, which is an “I” imputed upon a very subtle mind of great bliss realizing the emptiness of all phenomena. This is a person whose body and mind are one entity – a mind of great bliss that realizes directly the emptiness of all phenomena (4th profundity, not just 1st profundity from Heart of Wisdom). This means a Buddha is necessarily the ultimate nature of everything. The real nature of every appearance is the Dharmakaya, or a Buddha.

The function of a Buddha is to be with each and every living being every day, bestowing blessings and guiding them towards enlightenment as swiftly as their karma will allow. It is like the sun always shining behind the clouds. The whole reason why they attained enlightenment is to be able to be with each and every living being every day, bestowing blessings and guiding living beings along the path. This means wherever a Buddha goes, they are always accomplishing their function, which is to bestow blessings.

In all the sections on guru yoga, it explains that our most important recognition is to strongly believe we are actually in the living presence of the guru deity. This is not just some fake imagination, but it is correct imagination. Correct imagination is imagining something that is actually there (not inherently, since nothing exists inherently, but conventionally, functionally), even if we don’t (yet) directly perceive it with our sense awarenesses. The more we meditate on correct imaginations, the more we start to perceive directly what we are imagining because it is what is actually there.

If you saw a snake on the hiking path, and your friend said, “no, no, that is just a stick, look carefully,” you would then start to look more closely trying to see what is there. The more you look, while checking to see if indeed your friend is right, the more vividly the stick would start to appear directly to your sense awarenesses and the appearance of the mistaken appearance of the snake would disappear. It is exactly the same with correct imaginations. The Buddhas are actually there, everywhere in everything, and the more we look at things with this correct imagination, the more they start to appear directly to our sense awarenesses until we see, “oh yeah, there is a Buddha directly in front of me. In fact, they are everywhere!”

Geshe-la explains that while the sun is always shining, if we are inside and all our blinds are closed, the sunlight does not come in. For us to see its light and feel its warmth, we need to open our blinds. We need to do something from our own side to gain direct access to these blessings. So what do we need to do to open our blinds? We primarily need to do two things: purify our motivation for why we want to see the light and generate a mind of faith. A good heart and a mind of faith are the keys that unlock the blinds in our mind, enabling the light of our guru’s blessings to flow directly into our heart and mind. The sun of our guru’s blessings is always shining and providing a degree of warmth to our home (otherwise it would be as cold as the vacuum of space), but how much brighter and warmer will it become when we open our blinds?

So wherever we imagine a Buddha, a Buddha goes because they are already actually there. Technically, what is happening is when we imagine (with a good heart and a mind of faith), we make manifest within our own mind the Buddha that is actually there – we open the blinds of our mind and allow the light and warmth to pour in. The Buddhas from their side of course want to do this, this is the whole reason why they attained enlightenment in the first place.

Where it gets really interesting is when we consider the emptiness of all phenomena. Are the things in our life ordinary samsaric things or are they all emanations? The answer is they are neither from their own side, but they can become either depending upon how we mentally project/relate to them.

For example, I can make a request to Dorje Shugden, “please take care of and protect my family always, from now until they eventually attain enlightenment; and please bless me with the wisdom to see and understand directly how you are doing so.” I then – correctly – imagine that he is doing precisely that. In dependence upon my good heart and my mind of faith, when I look at what is happening in their life, I will gradually come to see directly how he is doing exactly that for them. If I ask Guru Heruka Father and Mother to please parent my children through everyone and everything they encounter, then Heruka Father and Mother will enter into everything (technically, they are already there in everything, but it is my good heart and mind of faith that make them manifest within my mind, gradually at first but then eventually through direct perception) and accomplish exactly this function.

So even though I am not able to be with my family all the time, I know people who can, namely Dorje Shugden, Heruka, Mother Tara, Medicine Buddha, and so forth. My good heart and mind of fatih, combined with my prayers and correct imagination, will make them manifest in their lives and in my perception of their lives, gradually at first but then eventually through direct perception.

The power of this is limitless. Eventually, through my own training in the stages of generation and completion stage, I will impute my own “I” onto the Dharmakaya and all the Buddhas doing all this for all living beings. At first, they are accomplishing their function through the power of my prayers and my karma with the people in my life, but later I will experience it as if it is “me” doing it – not the Ryan me, but the enlightened me. I will feel and experience it directly as I am with each and every living being every day, bestowing blessings and guiding them along the paths to enlightenment as swiftly as their karma will allow.

When I think like this, not only will all my worry and concern go away (well at least as much as I actually believe these instructions, I still have negative karma of holding onto wrong views and deluded doubt obstructing my belief), but also both my bodhichitta and appreciation for the Tantric path will explode in power. I find that spark within me that enables me to be like a child at play, confident in the knowledge that I will soon bring my samsara and the equally empty samsara of everyone I know and love to an end and nothing can stop me from doing so.

Amazing!