Breast Cancer

Student's Letter

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in early February.... Further medical diagnostic tests did not detect cancer in any other parts of my body.... I responded to the news that I had cancer with reasonable calm. I accepted (and still accept it) it as my fate/karma. Since being told that my cancer has a good chance of responding to medical treatment, I view this as a "wave" in the ocean of my life, a rough journey I will have to ride out before I am back in the calm ocean of life.

Rinpoche's Response

My very dear Beatrice,
Sorry for the long delay in replying. According to my observation it is very good if you do the following:

1. Medicine Buddha puja. You could do this at your friend’s house and gather your family and friends and do this together regularly. Your friend can help you with the abbreviated way to do Medicine Buddha practice.
2. If you can, do either the full puja or abbreviated one every day. Do the practice with a strong visualization that all your sickness, negative karma, defilements, and spirit harm are completely purified. This is what you think while you are reciting the mantra. If you do the full puja, then recite each of the seven Medicine Buddhas’ names 7 or 21 times.
3. You should totally rely on and have complete faith in Medicine Buddha now.
4. I will bless some water for you to drink a little of every day.
5. Liberate animals every week; if this is hard, then every month. There is a student in your country who is an Olympic champion animal liberator. He has probably liberated the largest amount of animals in the world. It is very easy to participate when he does liberations. Either you can make some offerings towards buying the animals or participate in the practices. Also, sometimes you could do it yourself, in which case your friend can help you.
6. Practice Mixed Colored Garuda practice – attached.
7. There is one text that needs to be recited, called Lui Pang Kyong – I will try to do this for you. If you are at home, then maybe I will do it at your friend’s house with you.
8. One auspicious prayer called In Verses needs to be recited five times.
9. If you are able, practice Lion-face Dakini.
10. If you can, recite the Prayer after Heart Sutra.
11. There is some Tibetan medicine that comes out very good for you to take:
            - Four a day: Kurchung, for three weeks
            - One Chung na for three weeks

If you are at home, then I will bring these, otherwise we can post them to you. I am making prayers for you and also the Sangha in my house are dedicating animal liberations for you and making long-life tsa tsas for you. If there is anything that is unclear, let me know.

With much love and prayers... 

My very dear Tina,
It would be good to check with the Rinpoche you know.

1. What comes out very beneficial is for you to recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra 11 times. This is very important, not only for your own purification, but also for all sentient beings. Also, you can dedicate it to purifying obstacles for the FPMT and for all the FPMT’s projects.

2. Also, it comes out very good for you to recite five malas a day of the Parnashawari mantra (attached).

3. Take one long-life initiation.

4. Liberate 2,000 animals. You can do this at the center. The animals can be frogs, fish, etc—animals that would otherwise be killed. Of course, you can liberate more if possible. Please make sure to do it according to my instructions, taking the animals first around holy objects, reciting mantras, blessing water, etc.

When you do it, you can invite students from the center and their families and children, so they can all join in.

5. Recite the Long-life Sutra 115 times.

I am also making prayers for you. Also, the Sangha at my house are dedicating animal liberations to you, and when they make long-life tsa-tsas each day.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear one,
I am very sorry for the long delay in replying to your letter.

I checked what are the best practices you can do for your health and this is what came out very good for you to do:

1. Print the Amitayus Long-life Sutra forty times. If you go to the FPMT Catalogue you will find links to the Tibetan and English versions of the sutra. You can print either of these and photocopy it forty times on nice paper (maybe yellow-colored).

2. Make fifty long-life tsa tsas (the three long-life deities). If you are able to get the mold for this and try to do it yourself, it is best. Otherwise, you can email the nuns at my house in California and they can make them for you, and you can make an offering to contribute to that. Also, as your sister is involved with the center, she could make them for you at the tsa-tsa studio.

3. Do White Tara long-life meditation every day. You can find the practice in the FPMT Catalogue.

4. Do Red Logyönma practice. You can get this from the FPMT Education Department.

5. You need a puja done for you, called “Betraying the Death.” I will do this puja for you. You could also ask the geshe at the center if he can do it for you.

I am also making prayers for you, also the Sangha at my house are dedicating animal liberations to you and when they make long-life tsa tsas each day.

With much love and prayers...

Student's Letter to FPMT Office

Dearest Lisa,
I regret to say that I have been in hospital for the last two weeks, thus unable to be actively involved in the work of the center. With the Ven. Geshe’s visit approaching it has been quite distressing, since I considered this to be a very important first task as a director. Luckily there has been a good support from the SPC and others.

Unfortunately, the situation with my health seems to be quite serious. Last year I was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor (while breastfeeding my 10-month-old baby), and had a treatment for it all summer. Everything seemed to go perfectly. But now the back pain I thought was due to an injury seems to be from the cancer cell metastasis in my back. I am back home now trying to stabilize my health after one chemotherapy treatment, lots of injections, and everything that the hospital comes up with. I am trying to keep my spirits up. I meditate as much as I can, even though it’s hard to sit still. I also recite Medicine Buddha short mantra, and I have been reading and writing the Long-life Sutra for some time. My friend recommended that, if possible, I should try to seek advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as to what would be the best to do in this situation. I would appreciate it very very much.

PS. The time in hospital was such an interesting lesson for me in compassion, samsara, and pain. It really was.

Rinpoche’s response

Dear Joan,
I was able to check regarding your health, and I advise the following:

1. Recite Black Manjrushri mantra.
2. Have the puja performed called she-nyin du-dög. I will arrange for this to be done for you as soon as possible.
3. Recite the mantra pacifying all the sicknesses 18 times a day.
4. Drink Palden Lhamo lake water (water from Lhamo Lhatso lake in Tibet). This may be very hard to find; maybe your friend might know how to get it.
5. Take these precious pills (Tibetan medicine):
              a) Moon Crystal: Two pills
              b) Rinchen mang-jor: Five pills
   Take one pill every three days. I can send you these precious pills if you are unable to get them. If that is the case, please send me your postal address.
    
6. Liberate animals equaling the number of your age. Use the practice that I have put together on how to liberate animals. 
7. Print 100 copies of the Long-life Sutra (print it on yellow paper). After you have printed them keep them on your altar and later they can go inside a stupa.

I am also making prayers for you and also the Sangha in my house are making prayers for you. Please continue with the practices you are already doing.

My very dear Joan,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. According to my observations, it is best for you to continue treatment with your Chinese doctor and taking Eastern medicine.

It would be very good for you to practice Most Secret Hayagriva. Make strong requests to Hayagriva (visualize him in front of you) to immediately purify all your sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and obscurations and to receive all the qualities, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, especially all the qualities of Hayagriva's enlightened body, speech, and mind, so that you can enlighten all sentient beings. Then, chant the mantra.

It is also best for you to liberate 250 animals. You can do that at my house in Aptos. On the days that the nuns do animal liberation there, you can buy worms, take them there, and liberate them. If you can't buy all 250 worms at one time then you can do it a few times.

As well as dedicating the practice to your long life, also dedicate it to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's long life, as well as all the gurus, all the Sangha who preserve the holy Dharma, and all the benefactors.

In the future, after you have read the complete lamrim (such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and other lamrim books), you can take the Hayagriva initiation.

Please study the lamrim and practice meditations on the graduated path to enlightenment, step by step, as explained in the books.

Please continue to make your life most beneficial for all sentient beings.
With much love and prayers...

My very dear Melissa,
Thank you very much for your kind fax. I have checked regarding your health and it comes out very good for you to make 1,000 offerings to Namgyalma. This can be done at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. If you email them they can organize it all. Also, you can ask them to perform twice the puja called Betraying the Death or gyab-shi. I will also make prayers for you.

It also comes out very good for your health for you to liberate 30,000 animals. You can get the book on how to do this from FPMT International Office [see Rinpoche's advice on animals for more information and a link to the book].

The other puja that you should have Kopan Monastery or Lawa Rinpoche at Vajrayana perform for you is la-küg tse-küg—Hooking the Life.

The other practice that came out very good for you to do, according to my observations, is if you can recite five malas of Medicine Buddha mantra every day. This will purify negative karma and will help you never to be reborn in the lower realms. Medicine Buddha said that even if an animal hears the Medicine Buddha mantra it would never be reborn in the lower realms.

If you don’t purify your negative karma, you will be reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry ghost, or animal, and again and again, without end, have to suffer. Therefore, you need to purify the negative karma now. If you cannot bear the cancer now, how will you bear the suffering of the lower realms? Beings have to suffer in the lower realms for an incredible length of time. It is a billion times more suffering than all the human problems put together.

Medicine Buddha mantra prevents you experiencing all these things. So, it is much more precious than vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and wish fulfilling jewels, because all this wealth means nothing, because it can’t purify negative karmas. Even if you own that much wealth, one Medicine Buddha mantra is much more precious, because it leaves the imprint of the whole path to enlightenment in your mind and it helps you to have realizations of the whole path to enlightenment. It eliminates all the gross and subtle defilements and helps you to achieve enlightenment.

Therefore, besides the benefits you receive from reciting it, also there are benefits just from hearing the mantra. Therefore, this mantra is much more precious than infinite quantities of diamonds and jewels.

With the Medicine Buddha mantra, you can liberate millions of sentient beings from oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, just reciting even one mantra or hearing it just once is much more precious than zillions of dollars. So, with full trust in Medicine Buddha, you recite the mantra, knowing that Medicine Buddha will completely take care of your life and heal you. With full trust, know how Medicine Buddha is always with you, in your heart, on your crown, and in front of you. There is not one second that Medicine Buddha does not see you or have compassion toward you.

One student in Hong Kong performs Medicine Buddha practice daily. She had a very serious brain operation. During the operation she actually saw Medicine Buddha. She had a miraculous recovery, as it was a very risky operation, but she surprised everyone, was able to recover, and is still alive. So, Medicine Buddha looked after her.

Also, a person in Taiwan, who is not Buddhist, could not move his body, could not get up, and he didn’t have any helpers. He very badly needed to take his medicine and the medicine was far away in the bathroom. Next to him was a Medicine Buddha statue and when he turned his head, he saw that the Medicine Buddha statue was holding his medicine. So, he was able to take his medicine. Later, he passed away, and when he passed away he was able to put his hands in the mudra of prostration at his heart to show that he remembered Medicine Buddha, and he passed away peacefully.

You can get the long blue Medicine Buddha booklet that Wisdom published some time ago. [Visit the FPMT Foundation Shop and search for "Medicine Buddha" to see a variety of booklets and practice materials.]

Also, a short way to practice it is by reciting the refuge and bodhicitta prayer. The purpose of my life is to free all beings from suffering and lead them to enlightenment therefore I am going to perform the Medicine Buddha practice, especially to purify the negative karma, defilements, disease, and spirit harm, as well as to facilitate healing, so that I can have a healthy and long life to offer service and actualize the path.

Visualize Medicine Buddha on the crown of your head or in front of you. Beams of nectar emit from Medicine Buddha and enter one’s own body and mind like water. They push away all the dirty things, like pouring water into a glass pipe, and all the dirty water flows out the top. All the disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obstacles are completely purified.

Also, think that all sentient beings are in your heart seated on a moon disc, especially people who have cancer. Think that the nectar is purifying the four things (disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obstacles)—all are purified, including the cancer. At the end dedicate merits in this way:

“Due to all the merits I have collected in the past and present and that I will collect in the future, may the wish-fulfilling, most precious, ultimate good heart: bodhicitta, cherishing other sentient beings and letting go of the “I,” be generated in my heart and within the hearts of all living beings without the delay of even a second. May the bodhicitta that is already generated be increased forever more.

“Due to all the merits of the past, present, and future that I have collected and that others have collected, however many sick sentient beings there are, may they be instantly liberated from their sicknesses and may sentient beings never get sick.

“Due to the merits of the three times, that which exists but is empty from its own side, collected by me and all others, may I, who exists but is empty from my own side, achieve enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, and lead sentient beings, who exist but are empty from their own side, to enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but is empty from my own side.

“I dedicate all the merits as the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjughosha realized and in the way that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate and admire the most.

“Due to all these merits, may I actualize completely the stainless teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa that unify sutra and tantra in this life, and may those teachings flourish and spread in all directions.”
With much love and prayers...