Verse 6 of 37 practises for Bodhisattva's

When you rely on them your faults come to an end, And your good 
qualities grow like the waxing moon, Cherish spiritual teachers even more 
than your own body, This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa said:

Practice no: 6 speaks of the need to rely on the spiritual master,
as stated in The Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Tsong
Khapa. Devoting mentally, physically and wholeheartedly the spiritual master is the root of all of one’s attainments. The spiritual master inspires and helps us to enhance our virtuous mind, just like how the moon increases from the first day to fifteenth day. The Guru steers us away from creating negative
actions. Therefore relying on the Guru is one of the practices bodhisattvas.

One should always view the spiritual master as the supreme
virtuous friend. Why? Because one’s spiritual master is rare
to find and thus to be treasured and listened to. Secondly, a
qualified spiritual guides us against committing negative action
instigated by delusions and in so doing, protects us from lower
realms. Therefore, being properly devoted to the spiritual master
will lead one to Buddhahood.

A qualified spiritual master should as a minimum, be someone
who has compassion, is un-biased, of pure ethics, more
knowledgeable than oneself and seeks to benefit others more
than himself. In particular, a Mahayana master must provide the
complete teachings of the Buddha.

How do we correctly devote and rely on a spiritual master?
There are two different aspects: One is through thought and the
other is through action. First one should at least generate sincere
faith in the master. Secondly, one should always remember the
kindness of the master because one is able to receive Dharma
knowledge from him with relative ease. When one has faith
and a remembrance of the master’s kindness, one can guard
against seeing faults in the master. When you do not have faith,
you quickly start to see faults. When you do not remember
his kindness, you start to have expectations or question the
spiritual master’s actions or request. Example if your spiritual
master ask you to donate “nasi lemak” to a beggar, you might
challenge him and say why not donate “char kuay teow” instead.
If your spiritual master advises you to behave because you are
talking too much and you argue about that with the master, it is
a sign that you as the spiritual son or daughter have no genuine
faith in the master and have forgotten his kindness in teaching
you. If qualified Mahayana spiritual masters like Kyabje Lama
Zopa Rinpoche or His Holiness the Dalai Lama ask us to do any
practice or work, we must say yes and do our best to fulfill the
task. It is inappropriate to question the task before really putting
effort into performing it. When you question under in these
circumstances, this means you do not have full faith as you think
the spiritual master might lead you in the wrong direction.

Having understood the qualities of the master, generating faith
is important. Faith equates with trust. Even in normal life, in
order to accomplish something, we need faith to accomplish
that particular action. If you do not have faith or trust in what
you or others are doing, you may achieve part of the goal but
entirely. Doubt becomes a hindrance.

In the sutra teachings, it is clearly stated that faith (based on
valid reasoning) is the preliminary and initial practice which all
practitioners should embark upon. Sometimes we misunderstand
what “pleasing the spiritual master” means. We think we please
the spiritual master with praise and with offerings. In truth, the
spiritual master is pleased when one practices the Dharma,
applying the master’s Dharma advice. If the spiritual master
advises you to develop more compassion and you put more
effort in compassion, you please the guru. Avoiding non virtuous
and cultivating virtuous actions is pleasing the spiritual master.
Lama Atisha put it plainly when he said that there is no way one can
obtain full enlightenment without relying on the spiritual master.

Further, the Mahayanic realization of bodhicitta conjoined with
the realization of emptiness, including the union of emptiness
and great bliss of wisdom and method, can only be attained by
relying on the spiritual master. So when we receive initiation
Lama Atisha put it plainly when he said that there is no way one can
obtain full enlightenment without relying on the spiritual master.
Further, the Mahayanic realization of bodhicitta conjoined with
the realization of emptiness, including the union of emptiness
and great bliss of wisdom and method, can only be attained by
relying on the spiritual master. So when we receive initiation
without a qualified tantric master, there is no way one can receive
the initiation. And without receiving the tantric initiation, there is
no way to enter into the deity’s mandala and to practice the four
kayas to achieve enlightenment within one life time. So in order
to do that, you need a qualified tantric master who possesses the
tantric vows and the initiation commitments and who has been
initiated into the unbroken lineage of the Buddhas. It cannot
be over-emphasised that one should rely in every way on the
qualified spiritual master.

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