Advice on Developing Bodhicitta

Recite the Tara prayer every day with this motivation: “May I achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible and enlighten all sentient beings as quickly as possible, and free them from samsara.”

Of course, with any prayer you can think this way. You can also pray that the center is most beneficial for sentient beings, to save them from the lower realms, to free them from samsara—from the oceans of suffering and its causes—and bring them to enlightenment.

Pray this way when you do the Tara prayer.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
How are you now? I am very happy that you sent information about yourself and family. I will pray for your and others’ health.

You know the most important thing is bodhicitta. Always live your life with that, doing things to free the sentient beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment. For that, you need to achieve enlightenment yourself, so whatever you do, do it with that [motivation] as much as possible. Even if you die, die with that, and even if you get better, get better for sentient beings. Whatever happens—suffering or happiness—everything you experience is for sentient beings.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much your kind letter, I am sorry for the long delay in replying. Your daughter needs to wear one Dzambhala protection amulet.

My advice for your daughter is to live the life with a good heart, to not harm others and to benefit others. I think she is good in that way; I remember in the past when tsog was distributed, she would get up and help. Anyway, for her always to be kind to others, however, I think she might be doing that. That is so important in our life. If we are kind to others—not only people, even animals—then this good heart creates the cause for everyone to be kind to us. The essence of life and conclusion for her is that. Of course, you also understand that. For you to have success this is needed.

According to my observation you have to recite two mantras for success [See p. 21, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment)]. If you can, recite two malas of each of these mantras every day:

Holy Name Mantra that Fulfills Wishes

Recite the homage and mantra together for each recitation:

DE ZHIN SHEG PA SA DZIN GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To Tathagata Earth-Holder King, I prostrate.

TAYATHA / OM DHARE DHARE / DHARANI BÄNDHE SWAHA (108x, 54x, or 21x)

Whoever memorizes the name of this tathagata and the words of this mantra will have all their wishes fulfilled without exception.

If you are doing Six-Session Guru Yoga, which I am sure you are, when it comes to offering, you can offer all the offerings in all the FPMT gompas, as well as all the offerings of flowers, lights and water at my house in Aptos, and all the lights, water and flowers offered at the house in Washington. All of these you can offer to Guru Vajradhara, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whoever is your root guru, Vajradhara, oneness, in that aspect, so then make the offerings. So [you can make] numberless offerings to numberless buddhas.

Offering even a cup of tea or water, or candy or biscuits, to the pores of guru—this means disciples of the same guru; or the guru’s dog or horse, those that belong to the guru; or if the guru is a lay person, then his child or wife or whatever, his brother or sister or nephew, these are the guru’s pores—making offerings to the guru or to the pores of the guru, you collect unbelievable, much greater merit than having made offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha and numberless statues, stupas and scriptures. The guru is the highest, most powerful object, so you collect the highest merit even by making a small offering to the pores of the guru.

If you can, offer all the offerings in all the FPMT gompas, every center’s offering, and you can think you are making offerings to Guru Vajradhara. You can do this in the morning, afternoon and at night, but mainly when you have time. If possible, if you have time, do one mala of offering, each time offering to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha; count with your mala and do one mala or more. If possible, think of yourself as the deity, whichever great initiation you have received, and all the offerings are in the nature of great bliss, non-dual with emptiness.

After each time you offer to the guru, Vajradhara, generate infinite bliss, non-dual with emptiness. That’s really the most powerful way to collect the most merit and it is the [cause of] success and happiness. You need to collect merit as much as possible, then if you have a lot of merit, you will have much success. If you have no merit, then however much you try, you won’t succeed. So, creating merit is very important.

Also, you should do tonglen for sentient beings, and even if you have nothing, you can visualize. You can read my advice on tonglen, and if you have time watch this recent teaching I gave in Bodhgaya. In essence visualize that your body is a wish-granting jewel, numberless, and give that to numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings, so everyone gets everything—what they want, what they wish for and what they need, such as meeting the guru, meeting the Mahayana teachings, and actualizing the path to enlightenment—and they are all enlightened at the end.

After that make charity of all the enjoyments and give this to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings, so they receive everything—what they desire, what they wish for and whatever they need—and they all become enlightened.

Rejoice each time and then dedicate all your past, present and future merits to all the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. Think that they have received everything that they wish for and that they need, which means actualizing the path, from guru devotion up to enlightenment. Think that they have received all the happiness in this life and future lives, liberation and enlightenment.

Think that everyone is enlightened. If you can, do this in the morning, afternoon and evening, whenever you have time. Do this at least a few times a day if you can, however, do it at least one time a day or at different times, whatever you can. This collects unbelievable merit each time you give the enjoyments, for example, your clothes or your hats. By making charity to numberless sentient beings you collect unbelievable merits, and if you do this with bodhicitta then it is unbelievable what you create; you collect more than skies of merit with each item that you offer, like the hat and so forth.

You collect the most unbelievable merits if you do this with bodhicitta. You collect more than skies of merit if you do all these practices with bodhicitta motivation, in order to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara by yourself and bring them to peerless happiness, buddhahood—the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations—by yourself. For that you need to achieve enlightenment, therefore you are going to practice tonglen.

The second one, when you make charity by offering all the enjoyments, for example, your hat; by making charity  to all sentient beings, if it is done with bodhicitta then you collect more than skies of merit, even if you just offer to one sentient being.

Now you can understand that if you offer $100 to each sentient being, can you imagine if this is done with bodhicitta, then you collect more than skies of merit. If you know how to practice Dharma, it is very easy to create merit, but those who haven’t met the Mahayana teachings don’t know, for instance there are many Buddhists who follow the Lesser Vehicle [Hinayana] path and so forth.

So you have to understand, toward sentient beings, this is how you can collect the most extensive merit. Each time you take the suffering of sentient beings on your self-cherishing thought, it destroys the self-cherishing thought, and when you do that you collect numberless merits, because sentient beings are numberless and suffering. There are the different sufferings, such as the suffering of the hell realms and hungry ghosts, and the suffering of animals, humans, suras and asuras, as it is explained in the lamrim. You have to remember all those if you don’t know the various sufferings in samsara, all the inconceivable sufferings.

Also each time you give, you collect unbelievable merits, but if you give with bodhicitta then you collect more than skies of merit. It becomes great purification, the most powerful way to collect merit, and this makes you achieve enlightenment quickly.

So this is my suggestion for you to see, to give you an idea of how you can have success. It depends on creating the cause, creating merit, causing others to have success, even in general life, in daily life. Day and night think of the kindness of others, even the insects, even the ants, making charity of sugar and so forth, reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, blessing them, offering charity to human beings, and when they have problems, helping them, doing whatever you can. That is very important. When you create the cause for others’ success they achieve happiness, then that becomes the cause of achieving your own happiness. When you help others, this is always what happens—your wishes get fulfilled easily, by the way, without much hardship.

The most important thing is that other sentient beings, numberless sentient beings, receive happiness and success. That is the main thing and then, by the way, without even thinking, when you put effort into achieving the happiness of others—even dedicating the merits and praying for them—then your success and your happiness happens naturally, by the way.

Please keep this in your heart; this is my ultimate advice. Even without talking about the karma for you to have success, money and so forth, the first thing is that you have to cause happiness to others, success to others.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear one,
I hope that in all your lives you will be like one sun shining in this world, that the plants enjoy—to rise up from small flowers to big flowers—and that animals can enjoy, and people too.

May your life be most beneficial, right up to enlightenment. Please pray like this—to be like a wish-granting jewel or a wish-granting tree, so that whatever you pray for is granted.

Pray that you can become more than a wish-granting jewel or a wish-granting tree; pray to be useful to all sentient beings until enlightenment, to immediately fulfill all their virtuous prayers and virtuous activities, all their desires.

Then when you die, you can die very happily for all sentient beings, for those who have to die because they are not free from delusions and karma, the cause of all samsara.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear one,
I hope you and your whole family are very well. I am sure you are finding more meaning in your life by doing more and more continual practice of Dharma. You are really seeing your true life and I hope it is very beneficial for your mind and for all the sentient beings, as you are doing it with bodhicitta.

I am very, very happy with the way you are thinking and bringing your life higher and higher to enlightenment by meditating on lamrim, especially with bodhicitta—meditating on bodhicitta and living with bodhicitta, eating with bodhicitta, walking with bodhicitta, sleeping with bodhicitta and so on.

Is there anything I can do for you, besides my daily prayer for you and for all the students and benefactors of the centers, for all the people who offer service to the organization and for all those who rely upon me, whose names are given to me, those who are living and those who have died. Please let me know if I can do anything for you.

With much love and prayer...

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your most kind letter. You can see my right side hand which had the stroke wrote this letter. You can see!

Here is one very small symbolic present that I am sending with the cards.

What makes life most beneficial is living with bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart, so you are dedicated to all the friends, enemies and strangers, to cause happiness, enlightenment.

Big love and hugs...