Feeling Suicidal

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you so much for your letter explaining all the very important practices that you have been doing. Everything, every practice that you do is so good, and that you are doing more than one hundred prostrations every day is excellent, by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas, I hope so. That is excellent. As you are young and healthy, you can do this. Later, when you are not young, it is harder to do and then you have to visualize.

You can visualize that the whole earth is full of your bodies the size of mountains, and they all prostrate with you. It’s unbelievable if you visualize like that. Visualize that they are prostrating toward the merit field and you are all doing prostrations together. You can visualize yourself as Thousand-arm Chenrezig and think all your bodies are prostrating.

But now you can actually physically do prostrations. That is extremely good, particularly in Lama Tsongkhapa’s lineage, the lineage of lamrim, those lamas. It is one of the most important practices and you should continue your life like this. That is so good. If you are doing more preliminary practices, then you can do them in sessions in the morning, with the visualization of the lineage lamas.

You can do two or three sessions or whatever you can. Anyway, please continue with the practice and your life like this. It is excellent. Everything you do is excellent, so please continue like this.

When you are depressed and feeling sad, what is the cause? Is it that you see samsara is in the nature of suffering and you want to be free from that? Is it like that? Or do you just see your life as deeply sad? Or, you don’t know the reason? That can be depression.

We have to understand [this quotation] from the Kadampa geshe Khamlungpa, the great meditator in Tibet who realized bodhicitta and so forth and was a practitioner of tantra but very secretly. He said:

By experiencing this present small suffering,
It finishes the past heavy negative karmas,
And there will be happiness in the future.
Therefore rejoice, be happy that you are experiencing this suffering.

The mind should be happy, so train the mind in that, in being happy with that suffering. The very last words of the quotation in Tibetan mean to meditate on that. So you train the mind in that—how to have a happy mind when experiencing suffering.

One way to explain it is that because you did so much Dharma practice, your past heavy negative karma has ripened in this life, instead of waiting and then ripening in the lower realms where you would experience suffering for many eons. In the lower realms you can’t hear even a human voice, besides not receiving a human body. Due to the power of your strong Dharma practice, many of your past lives’ heavy negative karmas have ripened in this life. This manifests as depression or chaos or some problem, some sickness or problem, then it gets finished by that and in that way you don’t have to be reborn in the lower realms and suffer for eons.

So that’s how you can enjoy [the problems] and in the future lives there will be so much happiness, like the sun shining in the world which numberless people and animals can enjoy, like that. That’s how you enjoy [the present suffering], even if there is depression. That is a good sign, when it happens like this. Even without knowing the reason for the depression, it can happen like that.

Sometimes depression happens in the morning, every morning, and sometimes in the evening. I have seen in the texts that it is the result of our past life’s negative karma of sexual misconduct. Morning or evening, when it comes like that, it doesn’t matter, it’s related to our past lifetimes’ sexual misconduct. I have seen this in the texts. Many times, there is a reason for depression, but depression often arises without a reason. Just feeling upset can come without a reason; there are many times it is like this.

Therefore, you should read my book, Transforming Problems into Happiness. Since you can’t read Tibetan, please read my book in English and study those things, [to transform] those problems and those thoughts which arise, and also for any other problems in your life. Also meditate on the lamrim.

One practice you should do every day is the daily motivation, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness, Including Enlightenment. This also has the blessing of the speech and daily mantras.

It is very important to meditate on the lamrim every day. You can recite one lamrim prayer every day, reading it slowly and going over the meaning. Lamrim is what you need to actualize, no matter how long it takes, so please put your effort there. You should do your lamrim meditations during your guru yoga practice. Stop before the guru absorbs into you and meditate on whatever section of the lamrim you are up to.

A meditation that you must try to do every day is on guru devotion. If you miss it sometimes, that’s OK, but then just continue. There is no question of how much time you take, it is up to you, what fits. Then continue with whatever lamrim topic you are on, doing the meditation every day and going through the subjects slowly. Whatever meditation you did in the morning, continue with that mind during the day, so in that way your mind is in lamrim all day.

Please try to meditate on the lamrim based on guru yoga; on this basis you will get all the realizations and the most success in your life. It is important to try to achieve all the realizations in order to actualize enlightenment. This is in order to liberate numberless sentient beings and enlighten them. That’s the real project, the real goal of our life.

So please practice as much as you can. Life is not long, the nature of this life is impermanent and death can happen at any time. This is the foundation of the Buddha’s teachings, and this was the last advice the Buddha gave before showing the aspect of passing away.

Don’t worry so much about finishing or not finishing; just do it continuously. That is the most important thing, to practice as best you can. What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim and living your life with bodhicitta motivation.

You are most welcome to enlightenment. Goodbye to samara. Thank you very much

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

PRELIMINARY PRACTICES

Refuge recitations: 150,000. The explanation is in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You can do this in retreat format with four, three, two or one session a day, depending on your life. When there is no time for retreat you can do one session every day. You can do it in a most strict way or a loose way, even if it is one session in retreat. Depending on how you feel, sometimes it can be strict and sometimes loose. It depends if there are many other things for you to do.

Prostrations to the Thirty-Five Buddhas: 400,000. Lama Tsongkhapa did so many 100,000 prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas in retreat and then realizations came like rainfall. So by doing one hundred prostrations per day, you can count them toward this number, or you can do them in retreat, in sessions. Even when you finish 400,000, you can try to continue with one hundred prostrations every day until enlightenment.

Dorje Khadro Burning Offering: 50,000 mantras. This is a golden Dharma of Lama Tsongkhapa. You can get the Dorje Khadro statue for this practice from Nepal, but don’t get a statue that is too small. The height or size should be the size of your forearm, not smaller than that, as the seeds have to go in the mouth and in the pot below there is the burning fire.

Eight Mahayana precepts: Take these 24-hour vows on the four Buddha days.

There are four Buddha days, such as showing miraculous power. This occurs from the first to the fifteenth day of the first Tibetan month [the Fifteen Days of Miracles; Day 15 is Chotrul Duchen.] This is the best time for retreat or any practice. Taking the eight Mahayana precepts collects most unbelievable, unbelievable merits because the precepts are taken with bodhicitta, to benefit every sentient being and bring them to enlightenment.

Another holy day is Saka Dawa, celebrating the Buddha’s enlightenment, passing to the sorrowless state and conception. On that day there are these three things to celebrate; before that there are one or two of the Buddha’s holy activities, but mainly the enlightenment is celebrated.

Then there is descending from Tushita [Lhabab Duchen] and the Buddha’s first turning of the Dharma wheel [Chokhor Duchen].On these four special days, take the eight Mahayana precepts if you can.

Also take the eight Mahayana precepts on the solar and lunar eclipse days. On the lunar eclipse days, the merit increases 700,000 times. Regarding the solar eclipse, it’s not actually an eclipse but sa zhin, the enemy who attacks the sun. Sa means the enemy and zhin is to catch, like the cat that catches the mouse or the tiger that catches the deer. The word eclipse is a wrong explanation, but that is according to the Western way.

On each of the Buddha days, the merit created is multiplied by 100 million, so on those auspicious Buddha days, generally do whatever creates the most merit, like rejoicing. Rejoice in our past, present and future merits, rejoice in the numberless sentient beings’ merits collected in the past, present and future, and rejoice in all the Buddha’s merits of the past, present and future.

Also on the special days do prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names or reciting the Vajra Cutter Sutra or any Prajnaparamita texts. Read the very precious scriptures, those sutras such as the Golden Light Sutra, the Arya Sanghata Sutra, and the Sutra of Great Liberation. [Find links to the sutras here.]

I don’t know if these are all translated into Vietnamese, I’m not sure, but they can be translated into Vietnamese language one-by-one, by someone who is a very good translator and if possible, someone who knows Tibetan. If they are not translated yet and if they do get translated in the future, it will help so many Vietnamese people, especially if they cannot read Tibetan.

Also on those special days, it’s best to do meditation on lamrim, bodhicitta and emptiness. This is unbelievable, unbelievable, and also to do whatever actions please the guru most. 

I’m not saying you can’t do these things on other days, but on the special days it is what creates the greatest, most extensive collection of merit and what purifies the defilements and negative karma.

Practice like this on those days. So try to take the eight Mahayana precepts on those days if you can. You can also help your friends engage in this practice.

Four immeasurable thoughts: 30,000 recitations. This is such a good practice and with each one, again there are skies of merit. It is a really good practice.

Tonglen meditation: 110,000. This is an unbelievable practice for developing bodhicitta, and it’s a way to quickly become enlightened. Each time we create skies of merit, so it’s unbelievable, and a quick way to enlightenment.

Tsa tsas: 70,000. The deity for you is Twenty-one Taras. See if you can find this tsa tsa, because it is quite rare. See if you can order and get it. So one tsa tsa has the Twenty-one Taras on it. I have seen four different aspects of Green Tara and Lama Atisha’s Green Tara has the hand holding the vase, giving the action of that Tara.

You need to make a tsa tsa mold of the Twenty-one Taras that you then use to make the tsa tsas. That is incredibly good. But do not make some funny thing that will make people angry if they see it. The people who know how to make molds can do the work in very fine detail, so it is exact.

After making the tsa tsas, people can use them on their altars. You can paint them all in gold for offering, and you can use them for prostrations or for filling large statues and stupas.

In Solu Khumbu, Nepal, the tsa tsas are put inside caves so they are protected from the rain. Don’t put them on the floor, but in a respectful place, or you can put them in a small square house (a tsa tsa house). Put them there respectfully, with the house having a roof or cover, like that. Sometimes the roof has a Chinese-style temple roof.

The main lamrim text for you to study is Essence of Refined Gold by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. That is the main lamrim text for you, but you can also read Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Lamrim and Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by the great Heruka, Pabongka Rinpoche.

Read Essence of Refined Gold five times from beginning to end, and read the Middle-Length Lamrim and Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand twice, studying each text from beginning to end.

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,

Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing the problems of your family.

You should recite Vaishali Sutra (Entering the Great City of Vaishali Sutra). This is the painkiller sutra, to be recited until the pain goes down. Normally, after reading it three or four times this happens, but sometimes it could be recited nine times before the pain goes down. You should read it near her so she can hear the sound. The Buddha’s teachings are unbelievable.

I’ve been carrying this text for many years and I had never used it, until one time there was a girl from Argentina who was sick for some time, so I remembered the prayer and I took it for this. I recited it three times and Tsering, the monk who writes the Prajnaparamita in gold for the success of the Maitreya Project building, also recited it three times. I had to bless water, so that’s why he did it. After that, she got better.

Then she got sick again and went to the hospital. So I went to the hospital to see her and recited this sutra. Her face was kind of dusty and white, then while I was reciting, her face came back to normal, then her pain stopped. The next day or sometime after that, she had so much pain and the nurses brought her drugs, but she remembered that I had left the tape recorder there and she listened to the recording and her unbelievable pain stopped immediately. So from there, I started to use it when some people had pain.

Recite it loudly next to her, because she has to hear it. By doing that, the beings who help her will stay and those beings who harm her will leave. It’s due to much compassion and loving kindness. Also, those beings who harm her create negative karma, so this practice is done with compassion.

She should take the moon crystal precious pill four times, and between each one have three days break. This medicine is covered, and she shouldn’t expose to the blue sky or to bright light. She should bite it and drink it with warm water. These can be sent to you if you give your postal address to Holly.

Then make prayers to Medicine Buddha. There is a verse from one practice that says:

Bhagavan with equal compassion for all,
Whose name, when merely heard, dispels the suffering of lower realms,
Dispeller of disease and the three poisons:
I prostrate to Medicine Buddha Lapis Light.

Pray to Medicine Buddha with this verse, for her to immediately recover and for her life to become beneficial for sentient beings. You don’t have to eat the medicine for her; you just have to do the prayer for her.

Then recite the great mantra five times. My attendant, Ven. Sherab, should do this by knowing her name, and also understanding the problem that the prayer is for. I will arrange this for you.

Also, chag sum puja needs to be recited once by the Lama Gyupa at Kopan who is the son of a ngagpa. You need to give him the name and explain the problem. If you want to arrange this, you can write to Holly. There will be a small cost for offering to the Lama Gyupa to do the puja, so if you email Holly, she can help to arrange this.

Tell your daughter that the thought to commit suicide is not worthwhile, as I told her before. Having received a human body is most precious, more precious than skies of wish-granting jewels.

A wish-granting jewel is more precious than gold or diamond, but of course there are hardly any people in the world who have them. In the past, great bodhisattvas and wheel-turning kings who had unbelievable merit got these from the ocean and then after cleaning them in three ways, they put them on the banner of their house. Then whatever they prayed for—the happiness of this life, whatever comfort they needed, anything—appeared in the next minute in that form. So it’s unbelievably precious.

With a wish-fulfilling jewel, we get everything, so it’s like that. It is unbelievably precious but that alone doesn’t stop the cause for being reborn in the hell realm, in the hungry ghost realm, in the animal realm. It doesn’t stop our negative karma, it doesn’t cause us to be reborn with a deva or human body that has more happiness and less suffering of pain. It doesn’t cause us to be free from delusion and karma; it doesn’t cause us to be free from samsara and achieve everlasting happiness. 

Also, it doesn’t make us free from the self-cherishing thought, and the king of delusion, the wrong concept that there’s a real I existing from there. There’s an I merely labeled by the mind that experiences the sufferings of samsara in mere name, but we can remove the cause of suffering in mere name, and we can practice the path to everlasting happiness and liberation in mere name. We can become free from the self-cherishing thought, holding the I as real while it is not. The way the I exists is existing only in mere name. 

So the wish-fulfilling jewel can’t cause us to achieve bodhicitta, the most precious thought, and it doesn’t cause us to achieve enlightenment, buddhahood, the cessation of the mistakes of mind, gross and subtle, and the completion of all the realizations, sang gye in Tibetan.

However, with a human rebirth [we can achieve enlightenment], just like Milarepa, who achieved full enlightenment probably almost a thousand years ago. He was not a monk, but he achieved enlightenment in his lay life within a few years, by practicing on the basis of sutra and tantra, as taught by his guru Marpa. He followed the advice exactly and he became free from samsara, all the sufferings of rebirth, old age, sickness and death, everything. He not only achieved enlightenment in that life, but within a few years.

Milarepa didn’t have even one rupee, but he practiced Dharma and he achieved enlightenment by following exactly the advice of his guru Marpa, who was an enlightened being. Like that example, having a human body is so precious.

Like that, because you have a precious human body, you can do the same work as Milarepa. You can do that. With this body you can do everything. Even if you have skies of wish-granting jewels, you can’t do that. With the wish-granting jewel alone you can’t do it, you cannot achieve all that. Therefore, this body is very precious.

Committing suicide is influenced by the spirits. When you have suicidal thoughts or some problems, the spirit finds a way to harm your life. This is very common and it happens in the West and in the East. For many people this happens, but in the West they don’t know that it’s caused by spirit harm.

You should read the Vajra Cutter Sutra for her three times to start with. Her father also needs to read it for her three times. After that, read the Vajra Cutter Sutra three times each week. Continue doing that for some time. It is most powerful for pacifying problems. That’s all.

With much love and prayer ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I am very sorry for the long delay in replying to your email.

You need to liberate animals for your stepdaughter: 200 fishing worms, or 200 lives, but worms are very easy to do. I will ask the Sangha at my house to do this for her. Liberating animals, saving them from death, creates the karma to cause long life for other sentient beings. Saving those that were otherwise going to be killed causes the sick person to have a long life and pacifies any life danger. [See FPMT's Liberating Animals.]

Thank you very much for explaining to me the help you need, and the difficulties that you have.

Firstly, about your stepdaughter, these problems happen due to either anger or very strong attachment, which can cause a spirit to find a connection to harm the person. Sometimes the person even hears noises, and it looks like someone came to meet them and is talking to them, but when you check, they never came. So that is related to the spirit, when no one comes.

First there is a problem in the mind, and it’s related to that. Sometimes it makes that person think of nonsense, something which has not much meaning, and they also can’t think of other things. It doesn’t allow them to think of many other important things; instead they just want to kill themselves.

There are many stories that have happened like this, but I’m not going to mention them here. This kind of thing is unknown in the West, even among psychologists. If someone commits suicide, they think the person did it, but there were actually others involved in it.

At those times, if there are good practitioners, they can do pujas and practices asking the deity to give protection. The puja is called ga gön. This is a puja where you give an order to protect the person. Also, the person themselves can do mantras to protect from outer hindrances and inner hindrances. It’s very, very important to check during those times when hearing sounds that aren’t there. Sometimes the sound is even coming from the trees; it’s a kind of lung or wind disease.

Lama Yeshe’s monk disciple in Buxa had lung and for him, the trees were talking to him. It’s always good to check, so you don’t follow that completely. Otherwise, you can completely follow the wrong way, the wrong direction. It’s like you’re walking and [a voice] is saying there’s a road, but it’s actually a precipice and you fall down from the mountain and then you die. So the message you’re hearing is, “There’s a road, go this way.” It’s like that.

You need to check and to not follow immediately by listening to what the mind says, but instead to check and analyze, like I said. For example, you want to see someone very much, and you think that person came and talked to you; you heard a noise but later when you checked, the person never came. So there are things like this. This is an example; it’s not particularly suicide, but it’s similar.

So checking up is very important. Then by checking, at that time you know that it didn’t happen, then you know it’s spirit harm. You realize, you know, and then the mind can relax completely when you realize it’s not true, that it didn’t happen.

I’ll recite some prayers for her, and some monks here can do drugchuma puja for her. That’s a very powerful practice for her.

She should recite the Black Manjushri mantra. This is a great healing mantra from our great teacher, Geshe Lama Konchog, who passed away some time ago. His reincarnation is now studying at Sera Monastery in South India.

You can find the oral transmission, mantra and practice here, and find links to the ebook here. This is a great healing mantra. There was one time when he recited it for someone who had a foot infection and that person recovered from the infection right there and then.

You can recite half a mala in the beginning. If you can manage to get a mala for your daughter to use, that’s very good. Recite half a mala of Black Manjushri, understanding that it’s all the Buddha’s wisdom manifested as Manjushri, in order to give wisdom to sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.

Then from the Buddha’s heart visualize light rays, like sunbeams, are sent to her, totally purifying her life obstacles, spirit harm, negativities and defilements from beginningless rebirths. They are totally, instantly purified, gone! It’s like turning on the light in the dark room and the darkness is gone.

Think her body is totally filled with white light, so the body becomes white, clear, like a natural light, and receives all of the qualities of Manjushri. Think that.

Then like a sunbeam, the light goes out to numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless humans, numberless suras and asuras, and to those numberless beings with the same problem, who want to suicide, and it purifies their life problems, disease, spirit harm, negativities and defilements. They are totally purified and receive the same qualities as Manjushri.

Also think bodhicitta is generated within her mind and all sentient beings’ minds. Bodhicitta is the ultimate good heart, which stops us from giving harm to anyone, not just human beings, but even to insects, and only benefits others. It gives all the happiness, including buddhahood, and ultimate wisdom realizing ultimate view, and all of the rest of the qualities of Manjushri: omniscience, understanding directly all the past, present and future at the same time; perfect power to benefit sentient beings depending on their karma; and great compassion, embracing us, and generating within us and within all sentient beings. That’s very good.

At the end dedicate the merits. First, do this dedication:

“Due to the past, present, future merits collected by me, and three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may I actualize bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart, which is the source of all the happiness and success up to enlightenment, including buddhahood. May it be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all sentient beings without delay of even a second. And may that generated in the hearts of others increase.”

Then dedicate for the enlightenment of the sentient beings:

“Due to the past, present and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, by reciting this mantra, may I achieve buddhahood, Manjushri’s enlightenment, and lead all sentient beings to that enlightenment, by myself alone.”

Before actually reciting the mantra, think:

“The purpose of my life is not just to achieve happiness for myself, even ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, enlightenment. The purpose of my life is to free the sentient beings, to not harm any sentient being, even the insects, and to cause only their happiness and bring them to peerless happiness and buddhahood. Therefore, I must achieve buddhahood, the cessation of all the gross and subtle obscurations and the completion of all the realizations. So for this I’m going to recite this mantra.”

There’s another mantra for you to recite that is most beneficial for all sentient beings, and that means generating compassion for all sentient beings. And from that, not only freeing yourself from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, but especially freeing sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to enlightenment.

So recite OM MANI PADME HUM, the Compassionate Buddha’s mantra. Try to recite one mala, then two slowly, then three, so that each day you are reciting three malas. Use the same meditation as for Manjushri, it’s excellent.

I am sending a letter and Chenrezig picture for her as well.

With much love and prayers ...

Later Rinpoche sent this further advice:

You can show your husband the letter for your daughter, but first you should read it and your stepdaughter should read it and study it, in case your husband gets angry and tears the letter up, which is possible if he doesn’t have the merit to understand it.

Then after some time, you can pass it to him, because he should also know this. It’s so important to know the meaning of life. Many of the problems in the West occur because of not knowing the meaning of life.

For example, so many army people fought in the Iraq War, experiencing bombs, etc. It’s unbelievable, an unbelievable life—every day, every hour like that. Then those who didn’t die, those who came back to America, for them, every day twenty died, committed suicide, because of not knowing the meaning of life.

They had an unbelievable life, what they went through, so [after they returned home] their minds were not relaxed and they were really confused, not knowing the meaning of life. The American government used mindfulness meditation, because it encourages us not to think of the past, not to think of the future, just to think only of the present, and in this way it helped them relax their minds a little bit.

There was one army man from there who was involved in high technology, and somehow, because of that, he was checking in Nepal where he could go for retreat, and it came out to go to Lawudo. Lawudo is the place where in my past life I did practice for many years and died there. It’s a cave, and actually, the enlightened being, Padmasambhava, came there for a short while. So it’s a holy place and because of that, nectar is coming from the cave, from the ceiling. It doesn’t depend on the weather—wet or not, nectar comes.

During my time, nectar didn’t come from there, from the very center where there are no cracks, nothing. In the past life, nectar came from there and on one or two tables with a vase on top, the nectar was received from there, drop by drop.

So, with that he initiated people and gave long-life initiation to the people. So there’s a mark, like wax, a mark put there, like that. During my life I never saw nectar coming from there, so I didn’t have the merit in my past life.

I invited the army man to the cave and I asked him some questions, and he described his experience to me. He didn’t talk much, but this is what he told me.

It is good if your son can wear White Umbrella Deity protection and the Ten Wrathful Deities protection.

Both parents should do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga and then send light to your son, freeing him from thoughts of suicide created by spirit harm. You can make strong prayers for him to start to practice and purify negative karma.

Then strongly dedicate the merits for your son and for all the sentient beings to be healed from the COVID-19 virus and for those who haven’t had the virus to not get it.

Also, read the Amitayus Long Life Sutra (Tse Do) five times.

[Find links to these practices in the FPMT Catalogue.]

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
This precious human life is a miracle and we have received it this time. It’s almost impossible to achieve again, but somehow this time it happened. It’s difficult to achieve, but it doesn’t last long.

In the world today, beings can die in their mother’s womb as the consciousness is received or they die after they come out of the mother’s womb, or they are born but they have no karma to grow, and they die when they are children. People also die in middle age and old age, and even today people are dying. So there are all kinds of ways sentient beings can die.

Therefore, we can’t say one hundred percent that we will live for a long time. Therefore, it’s very important that during our life we don’t waste time and our life becomes most beneficial. This is so that we will have a happy life—not ordinary happiness, but Dharma happiness, for the mind to be healthy, positive and virtuous.

Let me explain, as it takes time to understand. Perhaps now you don’t understand completely, but it’s very, very important to understand this. The understanding—knowing about the meaning of life—will come later.

First of all, we should engage in actions of body, speech and mind which are positive, healthy and virtuous. This Dharma stops us from being born in the hells, as a hungry ghost or in the animal realm, and causes us to be born as humans and devas. The best type of rebirth is a perfect human rebirth, qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses.

The devas experience pleasure which is many hundreds, thousands or millions of times greater than humans, but it is samsaric pleasure, which is just suffering. They are born and stay there [in the deva realm] for a long time, but when the karma finishes, then they’re reborn in the lower realms. We’ve done this numberless times.

For humans, what is supposed to be a good human rebirth is being able to meet the Dharma and then [having the opportunity to] practice Dharma. Then through that, we become free from samsara, the ocean of samsaric suffering, and not only that, we also achieve peerless happiness, buddhahood, the total cessation of gross and subtle obscurations, and the completion of realizations for sentient beings.

The second thing is that when our actions of body, speech, and mind become holy Dharma, positive, healthy, virtuous, that which causes us to become free from the oceans of samsaric suffering, free from all the worries, fears, depression, everything, then we can achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara for ourselves.

Thirdly, our actions of body, speech, and mind become holy Dharma—the best Dharma, the most pure, the most healthy—when our actions are done with the ultimate good heart of bodhicitta. With that [good heart] everything becomes the cause of omniscience, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations, enlightenment. Then we can free other numberless beings from the three lower realms—the hells, the hungry ghost realm and the animal realm—and not only that, we can free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever, and not only that, we can bring them to peerless happiness, the cessation of suffering and the completion of realizations.

So we must know the meaning of life, and what is that? To not harm sentient beings and to benefit them in whatever way we can. So the more we learn Dharma, the more our learning and practice becomes deeper and deeper, greater and greater, more and more advanced, in order to benefit others, to bring happiness to others.

Even benefiting the ants looking for food. I’m using the example of giving charity to ants by giving them small pieces of food, sugar or whatever they like. In Washington, I have two monks who do water bowls and take care of the house. They do many water bowl offerings to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

There’s one monk, Tharchin, who goes to make charity to the ants for several hours every week. There are so many ant nests, like hundreds sometimes, or less. There’s tsampa, which is like wheat flour, and it is mixed with blessed water which is blessed with mantras. There’s also Padmasambhava, a great enlightened being, whose mantra is carved on crystal and that also blesses the water. Then there are His Holiness’s OM MANI PADME HUM pills. [The monks in Washington] recite mantras on the tsampa, so it is able to not only stop hunger, but to purify the mind so that the ants don’t get reborn in the lower realms. So the monks do like that.

Also, each week we buy many worms, which are used as fishing bait, and we liberate them in the right place. Before liberating them we take them around inside where there are many tsa tsas and buddha statues. We take them around the holy objects like that. Outside there’s a Medicine Buddha made of volcanic material from Indonesia. Then we have an Amitabha from Vietnam, carved from marble, which was being painted, a big one. And now we have the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha donated by somebody in America.

We take the worms around the holy objects in two buckets and we recite mantras, so then the worms purify the karma to be born in the lower realms and they create the karma to achieve enlightenment. It is not only freeing them from samsara; however many times they go around the holy objects, that many times it creates the cause of enlightenment. So those worms are incredibly, incredibly fortunate compared to many people in the world who have no opportunity like that, even though they may be millionaires or billionaires.

In Aptos, California, we also make charity [to the animals] each week. Sometimes we also liberate frogs and other different animals, like that. We do this not only in those two places, but also in other places in China. In the past we did it in Hong Kong and now we do it in Singapore, like that.

The idea is that even in a bus or another type of vehicle where people don’t have seats, you can offer your seat to others. You can try to benefit and help others even with small things as much as possible. Or just as an example, you can help a beggar on the road or if someone is carrying a heavy load which is difficult, you can help them carry it.

You can help insects on the road so they don’t get stepped on and killed. If you kill them the consequence is that for five hundred lives you are killed. And even you don’t kill them, you can blow them away or put them on the side [of the road or pathway] so that others don’t step on them. Whatever small benefit you can do, that’s so good.

The result of this is happiness, unbelievable happiness in this life and success from life to life. Your success will be unbelievable, greater and greater. Then all your wishes are fulfilled from life to life, hundreds, thousands, millions, it makes you achieve success like this.

People in the world don’t know this, even though they are very high level scientists. If they haven’t met Dharma, if they don’t know Dharma, if they haven’t studied Dharma, and if they don’t know karma or haven’t studied that, then they don’t know these things. Only those who have met Dharma and studied, also those who know and study karma, only they know these things.

So it’s very, very, very important for you to know what is the meaning of life. Yes, it’s not to suffer, but to enjoy life. The way to do that is to not harm others and to benefit others, that’s the best way.

The Buddha said in the Arya Sanghata Sutra that even if you make charity the size of a hair to a sentient being, the result is that in all your future lives you will have so much happiness and wealth. All your wishes will succeed and you will have a healthy life, on and on.

Like the Hindus who worship Indra and Brahma, you will have that power, then ultimately, you will achieve buddhahood, enlightenment. So this is how to live your life—not to harm, but to benefit others as much as you can. This is how to enjoy the life, how to make the life happy. This is the way.

There are many other wrong ways, hallucinated ways to have a happy life with a hallucinated, negative mind. You’ll understand this gradually the more you read Dharma books, slowly, slowly. You don’t have to worry.

So thank you very, very, very much. I talked quite a bit, I’m very sorry for that. I hope you can understand. This advice is for you, and also, from my side, it is for your stepmother. If you have questions, I can try to answer them.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter and for expressing yourself. I am sorry for the delay in replying.
 
Yes, we have received this most precious human life just about one time, as it is mentioned in the Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha said that each day, each hour, each minute, each second, however many sentient beings get reborn as hell beings from the intermediate stage, it is like the number of dust [particles] on this earth. The number of sentient beings who get reborn as pretas, hungry ghosts, is like the sand grains in the Pacific Ocean, and the number of sentient beings who get reborn as animals is like the number of [blades of] grass growing on the mountain and on the ground, everywhere. 

Then the number of sentient beings who are reborn as devas or human beings is so rare; it’s like when you scratch the earth with your fingers, how much dust collects beneath your fingernails, it’s that rare. Receiving a deva or human rebirth is like that. When we have a human rebirth we are able to receive more happiness, especially with a perfect human rebirth, which is qualified with eight freedoms and ten richnesses. 

You should try to learn, to find out what the eight freedoms are and what the ten richnesses are. This perfect human rebirth is unbelievably rare. If you throw grain at a glass window, no grain stays there; it is so difficult for the grain to stick to the glass window. It is like that. Or if you have a needle standing up and you throw grain at the needle, no grain will stay on it. It is so difficult to receive, then especially the perfect human rebirth, which we have received now. 

What we can achieve with this human rebirth if we practice Dharma—if we learn Dharma and if we practice Dharma, we are able to purify negative karma, which is the cause of lower realms. Through Dharma practice we are able to achieve the higher rebirths as a deva or as a human being, and we can even go to a pure land. We can be reborn in a pure land by taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and by relying upon them and protecting our karma, we abandon negative karma and practice good karma.

Generally you need to avoid the ten nonvirtues and practice the ten virtues, then you can take precepts, the five lay vows. So you can take all five vows or four or three or two or one vow, or even just the refuge vow, the upasaka refuge vow, if not all five vows. There are also the eight Mahayana precepts. 

It is through the practice of the three higher trainings—the higher trainings of morality, concentration and wisdom—that we can become free from samsara and achieve nirvana, the total cessation of suffering and its cause. We can be free from samsara and its causes forever. Then by generating compassion through the numberless sentient beings, by generating bodhicitta and practicing the six paramitas we can achieve full enlightenment, buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all realizations. We can achieve this for the numberless sentient beings of the six realms, then we can liberate them from the oceans of samsara’s sufferings and bring them to buddhahood. So we can achieve the three different levels of happiness—the meaning of life—through Dharma practice. 

Therefore you should rejoice that you have this perfect human rebirth and what you can achieve with it. Please understand this and think about this.

It is very, very important for you to do the morning motivation every day, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment).

I want you to read the lamrim book Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Please study this book and read it four times from beginning to end if you can. Reading this text is like reading the whole essence of Buddhadharma. Each time read it mindfully; that is your meditation. Read it from beginning to end and anything you don’t understand you can write down in a book and ask a student who has studied the lamrim a lot or ask a geshe.

There are two types of meditation, analytical and fixed. After doing analytical meditation, for example on the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, you realize that your life is so precious. Then hold that feeling for a little while—that is fixed meditation.

At this stage just start with this, and practice this for now. Please also read my advice on how to meditate on the lamrim.

There is one Tibetan medicine, a precious pill called Ratnasamphel, which also came out as beneficial for you. Take one pill each week for five weeks if you are able to get Tibetan precious pills. When you take the Tibetan precious pill you can’t expose it to light or to the blue sky. That is why it is wrapped in cloth, so you can crush it in your mouth with your teeth. If you can’t do that, you can soak it in warm water (but do this in the dark, not exposing the pill to light) and in the early morning maybe drink the water and slowly crush the pill after it is softer. 

You need to practice a deity for purification called Dorje Namjom (Skt: Vajravidarana). We don’t have the full practice translated yet, but you may be able to find it on the internet and also a photo of the deity.

Anyway, you visualize the deity above your crown, sending nectar with love, kindness and compassion to you and all sentient beings. Dorje Namjom sends nectar to you and purifies all the disease, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements collected from beginningless rebirths. Think these are totally purified, then with that visualization, recite the mantra of Dorje Namjom:

NAMAH TSENDRA BENZA KRODAYA  HULU HULU DITA DITA BENDA BENDA HANA HANA AMITAY HUM PHAT SVAHA

It is very important at the end to dedicate with the correct dedication prayers:

“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may bodhicitta, the source of all happiness and success for all sentient beings, be generated in the hearts of all the sentient beings of the six realms, and especially in the hearts of everybody in this world, including all the students, center benefactors and volunteers in the FPMT organization. May bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all those who rely upon me, all those for whom I have promised to pray, and all those whose names have been given to me. May it be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all my family members, those who are living and those who have died. May the bodhicitta that has already been generated increase.

“Due to the three-time merits collected by me, the numberless buddhas and the numberless sentient beings, may I, my family members, all those who rely upon me, all those for whom I have promised to pray, all those whose names have been given to me, all the students, benefactors, and volunteers in the FPMT organization, and all sentient beings, be able to meet perfectly qualified Mahayana virtuous friends in all our future lives. From our side, may we always see them as enlightened, may we always do only actions most pleasing to their holy minds, and may we always fulfill their holy wishes instantly.”

Recite the Extensive Dedication Prayers and seal the merits with emptiness. [See the FPMT Catalogue for dedications recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche].

Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta day and night and in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers ...