General Practice Advice from Rinpoche

My very dear one,
How are you? I have seen you many times at the teachings this time. I am sure you are very busy, you have many things to do. It is good if you can do some practice at home, even if you don’t have time, try to create some time. If you are able to give more time for Dharma, that means you are really trying to do something worthwhile for yourself. The rest of the use of our time is not really the most meaningful use. If there is benefit it is only a small benefit, and we don’t achieve the bigger benefit for ourselves and especially for others, who are countless, who are deluded and suffering so much, and need our help to free them.

Much of our day and much of this life is spent or used in harming oneself by harming others, like the ten nonvirtuous actions. Some actions accidentally harm others, like heresy. It looks as if it is your own or that person’s business, with no effect on others, but it indirectly harms others because it destroys your merits and good karma, which means it destroys the cause of your happiness, which includes ultimate happiness (liberation from samsara, full enlightenment) because it prevents you from having realizations. That is the worst, biggest enemy of realizations of the spiritual path. It makes you unable to liberate and enlighten other sentient beings, who are countless. Actually, it is the greatest harm, even though there is no injury to the body or mind of others.

Heresy means heresy against Buddha’s qualities, saying or believing that Buddha doesn’t have that quality while Buddha does have it or saying there is no Buddha or nirvana, no cessation of suffering and path to achieve that, no sangha having these realizations, no karma, renunciation, and saying what Buddha said in the teachings, such as stories of karma or realizations and experience of the path, is not true.

I was very very happy to see you at the teachings this time. Maybe one or two times you were not there, at least one time. Of course, I am still very happy at the memory of seeing you at the teachings. I have faith that you are very good human being, and are trustworthy. For example, even though there has not been much change in the prosperity of your life, you still recite the Tara prayer after so many years. This shows that you are a reliable person, not like a yo-yo, changing this way and that way.

Especially, Dharma practice is the most important thing, and the root practice is guru devotion, relying on the guru, following the guru, obeying the guru. It should be like that, not a changing mind. It should be indestructible, like a mountain, a vajra, only then can you achieve enlightenment, liberate others from suffering, and enlighten countless other beings. I definitely want to come and see you, your husband, and family at home next time, okay?

You are a wonderful person; it is also very nice to see your husband.

With big love and prayers...

P.S. These letters and cards cover the past years of communication to you.

The main thing is to read. So much of your understanding is dependent on your own study. Of course, when you receive teachings you also receive the lineage and the blessing, but unless you develop an understanding during the teaching, you can forget what you have heard. So, it is very important to read continuously. If you don’t read for a while, then there is so much to catch up on, and you may not be able to get it all done. Studying a text before the teaching and the class is the best.

My very dear one,
Thank you for your kind letter.

Regarding the lamrim meditations (see below) – this means for these numbers of months you study texts related to those specific subjects. Then, no matter how many months or years it takes for you to have stable realizations, continue until then. This means when you have a stable realization on the perfect human rebirth and karma, then move on to the next section, then after you have a stable realization on that, then move on to bodhicitta. However, each day also practice some meditation on emptiness. Maybe you can study different books on emptiness that have different techniques on how to do this meditation. Some suggestions are:

• Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, by Pabongka Rinpoche
• Virtue and Reality, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Echoes of Voidness, by Geshe Rabten
• Essence of the Heart Sutra, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

There are also some teachings I have given on emptiness. You can get these from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. From these, find different techniques on how to meditate on emptiness. You can write the different techniques down in a little notebook and use that each day, using different techniques.

You sound like you have a very determined mind to take ordination; that is excellent. These practices are what you need to do as preparation for ordination. These practices purify your mind, negative karma, and defilements, and also help you to collect extensive merit, to have realizations on the path to enlightenment, and to be able to enlighten numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demi gods, gods, and intermediate state beings, so they can achieve enlightenment. That is the goal: to do all your practice, every mantra, every prayer you recite, every text you read, everything, with that in your mind. It also creates the causes for your ordination.

I am making prayers for your father and also I have asked the nuns in my house to make tsa-tsas dedicated to him (three stupas, thirteen Mitukpas, seven Medicine Buddhas, and three longlife tsa-tsas).

With much love and prayers...

Practices given:

• Refuge: 10,000 
• Mandala offerings: 100,000
• Vajrasattva: 10,000
• Water bowl offerings: 300,000
• Tsa-tsas: Thousand-arm Chenrezig (some can be large, but mostly small): 400,000
• Tonglen: 10,000, using the prayer from the Guru Puja. If this is difficult then just do the meditation that is bodhicitta.
• Diamond Cutter Sutra: 400
• Sanghata Sutra: twice a month and carry on like this. You can read a little each day and in this way finish reading it twice a month.
• Golden Light Sutra: 100
• The graduated path of lower scope: five months
• The graduated path of intermediate scope: four months
• The graduated path of highest scope:
  - bodhicitta: three months
  - emptiness: four months
• Main deity: Tara Chittamani, Kalachakra, and Hevajra. From these choose which one you feel closest to.
• Other deities: Most Secret Hayagriva and Secret Hayagriva

This means you can take all these initiations, as you have a karmic connection to all these deities. You can practice these deities if you want to, and also do retreat, etc.

My very dear Lorna,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. It has been a little while since I got it. Thank you for thinking about bodhicitta. To have the actual realization of bodhicitta you need to understand the suffering of samsara, for that you need renunciation of future lives’ suffering, and for that you need the preliminary renunciation of this life.

Then, you need to transform the mind into the mind of the lower capable person. This comes from contemplating the eight freedoms and the ten richnesses; how a perfect human rebirth has great meaning and is extremely difficult to find again; and the benefits of reflecting on impermanence and death and the disadvantages of not thinking about these things. This is the essence.

My emphasis for you is the need to contemplate the lamrim. I will send you further advice on how to meditate on the lamrim and daily practice.

With much love and prayers...

The main thing is the lamrim—to practice the preliminaries to have lamrim realizations. First, gain the realizations of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, then tantra.

With tantra, first train in seeing yourself as the deity in your mandala. Start with the image of yourself as the deity in the simple aspect. Start with your face, then arms, then go on to each of the details. When you visualize the face, hold that with one-pointed concentration. Later on, add the consort and then the mandala. When you add on each detail, you should not forget the earlier ones.

First, try to develop concentration. When that becomes more stable, try to see the image more clearly, and hold that. If whenever you visualize, it comes like that, then that’s the sign of being trained. In the completion stage, you can hold that visualization for many hours.

On the 10th and 25th of the Tibetan month you should perform tsog—that is very important for going to the pure land.

In the morning, make prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. As you prostrate, recite the Buddhas’ names many times. In the evenings, recite each name once with each prostration.

Regarding what you said about not being able to keep awake during your prayers, remind yourself that you cannot know which will come first: tomorrow or your next rebirth. Or recall the other meditations on impermanence. In the Lama Chöpa it says: “Even if I must remain in the hells of Avici for the sake of one sentient being, please bless me to complete the perfection of joyous effort, not to be discouraged.” So, if you are going to work in the Avici hells, think how much more you can do now? Think: “I have this precious human rebirth just this once, I must not waste it for even a second.” You can copy the verse from the Lama Chöpa and put it on your table. Or maybe you can put a cold towel on your head to stay awake. It may too warm.

Regarding what you said about not being able to do the prostrations to Vajrasattva because of continuing problems with your arm, you can visualize the prostrations, you don’t have to do the actual prostrations.

Also, regarding your problem of not knowing whether to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts because of your history of health problems, take seven precepts and don’t take the one about food.

Regarding your question about trying to visualize the guru at your heart, is he in the aspect of Lama Tsongkhapa, and how to visualize the guru when you do different sadhanas with different visualizations, the guru does not have to be in the aspect of Lama Tsongkhapa. It is very beneficial to visualize Lama Tsongkhapa, because he did so many great things to benefit sentient beings, but the guru does not have to be visualized in that aspect. Whatever sadhana you are doing, you are the yidam and the guru is the seed syllable at your heart, so there is no contradiction. The guru can be any deity, he does not have to be Lama Tsongkhapa.

In the sadhana, if you have to visualize the guru and you have received the same initiation from many gurus, think of the guru from whom you have received the most benefit. Lama Tsongkhapa and all the gurus are one.

Regarding how to recite longlife mantras, I wanted to talk about this at the Namgyalma initiation, but I forgot. When you do the practice, dedicate especially for the long life of the gurus, the Sangha, and those who bring benefit to others. At the end of the mantra recitation, visualize all the buddhas and bodhisattvas dissolving into you, and your guru’s blessings entering your heart. Feel strongly that you have been purified of all disease, sickness, spirit harm, and obstacles—those four things are stopped.

It would also be good if you could print the Amitayus Longlife Sutra. Printing some every week is very beneficial. Give the copies away or place them in statues.

 My very dear Christine,
Thank you very much for your kind emails, and I am very sorry for the many eons of delay in replying. My assistant told me you emailed a number of times, so I am sorry it took so long to reply. I hope you didn’t get angry. I am very happy to hear from you, to hear you express your good heart, and that you really want to make your life most beneficial for sentient beings.

My suggestion to you, what is most important to develop, the best way to benefit others, is to develop your heart and to develop your mind on the path to enlightenment. If you are able to complete the path to enlightenment, then you are fully qualified to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara’s sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment. This is what sentient beings need. This is what is most beneficial for them. There is no greater success than this. This depends on your actualizing and completing the path to enlightenment.

Therefore, what I suggest is for you to meditate on the lamrim, really meditate on the lamrim. Each week focus on a different subject by following EXACTLY the lamrim outlines, up to emptiness. Then, go back to the beginning again and do this for a few years. This means to meditate every day on the lamrim. You can do two sessions a day. This doesn’t mean you only do meditation when you are sitting down, you can also do meditation on the lamrim outside, on your way somewhere, at the beach, etc. It does not have to be only on your cushion, but you can do one or two sessions a day on your cushion. The rest of the time you can meditate on the lamrim when you are walking, driving, when you are doing your job, so all the time your mind can be in meditation. Whatever you were focusing on in the morning, you keep your mind in that the whole day. In this way, you protect your body, speech, and mind from engaging in negative karma. It is very easy to create negative karma, so, in this way, whatever you do becomes a very easy way for all your activities to become virtue. This helps make your meditation sessions more effective, so your sessions help you in your break time. It makes them more effective and helpful in order to achieve the realizations more quickly. Each week take a different lamrim meditation – follow the outline. This means you don’t just make up the meditation, you need to follow the outline as it is laid out.

Follow the outlines, starting with the perfect human rebirth for one week, then the usefulness of it for one week, and how it is difficult to find again for one week. Like this, go through the entire lamrim. That would be extremely good.

I don’t know if you have received a great initiation. If you have, then you need to do six session guru yoga. You can stop within the six session, before the guru absorbs into you, and begin the lamrim meditation. Or you can do it based on guru yoga. You can also do your lamrim meditation within a lamrim prayer, such as the Foundation of all Good Qualities, the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, Calling the Guru from Afar (Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo composed this), or the Hymns of Experience (Lama Tsongkhapa).

Each day you can recite a different lamrim prayer or, if you prefer, you can recite the same one each day (like the Foundation of All Good Qualities). Then, before the guru absorbs into you, you do your lamrim session.

No matter what lamrim outline you are up to, you still need to do one meditation on guru devotion every day, regardless of the other lamrim meditation. It could be for 25 minutes, 30 minutes, or one hour, the time is up to you. Every day, if possible, meditate on guru devotion by following the outline. When you finish the guru devotion outline, then go back again and start from the beginning until you achieve stable realizations that all the buddhas are one’s gurus, including however many gurus that you have a Dharma connection with, that you have received teachings from, received refuge vows, pratimoksha vows, bodhisattva vows, tantric vows, or taken initiations from, whoever you have a connection with, thinking of the teacher as a guru and oneself as a disciple. You feel from the bottom of your heart that all one’s gurus are all the Buddhas, one’s guru is numberless buddhas. It is a stable realization, not only for a few hours or days, but is stable.

One thing is to develop your mind so you can benefit other sentient beings. As you achieve the realizations, you are more able to benefit other sentient beings. This is why it is most important to have the realizations. This is what you need to achieve, from the perfect human rebirth up to enlightenment, the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being, and the graduated path of the higher capable being. You must develop your heart into these three. It is extremely important to attain renunciation, the determination to be free from samsara, bodhicitta, and right view.

Your goal is to benefit so many sentient beings by having the realization of renunciation of samsara, then you enter the path to liberation. By having the realization of bodhicitta, you enter the path to full enlightenment (this is the total cessation of all the suffering in samsara and the causes – karma and delusion). With this realization you are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and the causes: karma and delusion. By having the realization of emptiness, then you eliminate the very root of samsara, which is ignorance. Now you can see here that it is very urgent that you achieve the realizations, and achieve liberation and enlightenment. If you are not free from samsara, then you can’t liberate others, so what is needed is for you to achieve enlightenment quickly.

The way to achieve liberation and enlightenment quickly, so that you can liberate numberless sentient beings, is to practice highest tantra. This is extremely important, unbelievable, and most beneficial, not only for yourself but for all sentient beings.

So, to go over the main points:

1) Every day you need to study Dharma, and you can do this not only when you are sitting but when you are doing your job. You can perform your actions with your mind in renunciation of samara, with a pure motivation, non-attachment to samsara and its perfections, so that all your actions become the cause to achieve liberation from samara, from all the sufferings and the causes. If you perform all your actions with your mind in bodhicitta, then all your actions become the cause to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. If you perform all your actions with your mind in right view, then all your actions become an antidote to samsara and an antidote to karma, delusion, and ignorance.

2) Every day it is important that you practice one guru yoga, it can be Guru Puja (Lama Chöpa) or Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. Do this early in the morning. You can do your lamrim meditation on the basis of the guru yoga. Also, if you want to, you can do the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha daily meditation practice that I put together, as your guru yoga practice.

3) Every day you must recite one lamrim prayer. Each day you can do a different one, or you can recite the same one each day.

4) In the morning generate a strong motivation; you can use the one His Holiness the Dalai Lama composed (“never give up…”). My assistant can send you this if you do not know it. Also, you can make different prayers to generate your morning motivation.

5) Then do prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. This is extremely good to practice. Doing this practice is like an atom bomb to purify one’s negative karma, which is the main obstacle to attaining the realizations.

6) In the evening do Vajrasattva practice. You can do one mala of the Vajrasattva long mantra or half a mala, but you must recite at least 21 mantras. This purifies one’s negative karma. You need to do the practice with the four remedial powers. There is a big book of teachings that I gave during the Vajrasattva retreat in the USA. Also, there is a book by Lama Yeshe on Vajrasattva, and it would be very good if you were able to read these. This is so you can understand the practice more deeply. Since you asked how you can benefit others, this is extremely good to do for your own liberation and so that you can liberate all other sentient beings.

You can do the prostrations to the 35 Buddhas in the morning and at night; it depends on your time in the morning. You can go through them once or, if you have time, three times, five times, or ten times. It would be incredible if you can do them three times in the morning and three times at night (this means prostrating to each Buddha and reciting the name three times, so it comes to 100). Doing prostrations by reciting the 35 Buddhas’ names is extremely good to do, even once, so if you can do it more it is even better. You need to read a little how to do prostrations well, how to think and visualize, etc.

As well as doing daily meditation on the lamrim, you must first read a book on the lamrim. You must study this first, such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Read it from the beginning to the end. I don’t mean to read fast, you read it slowly by thinking of the meaning. Anything that you don’t understand or that you have questions about, you write that down and then discuss your questions with an older student or geshe.

7) The other thing that is very beneficial for all sentient beings is nyung nä retreats. This is an unbelievably powerful practice to develop compassion and bodhicitta, so that you can achieve enlightenment quickly. If you can, do 500 nyung näs throughout your life. This doesn’t mean all at one time, you can spread them out over your whole life. This is to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment.

There is a Brazilian nun who has now done 200 nyung näs and is continuing to do another 100. This practice is unbelievable; it is the best practice to purify, collect extensive merits, and particularly to develop compassion. If you develop compassion, that is the root of enlightenment, and you have no regrets now or in the future. If you can do 500 in your life, you can do some on the Buddha days, as the merit is multiplied then. Many centers do three in a row. So, like this, continue throughout your life. Do some each year and later you can do many together.

I am posting you some photos and cards. Also attached is some information on these practices; it is a lot, but it can help you. You can print it out and slowly go through it, so you learn more about the different practices.

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 Buddha gave before showing the aspect of passing away.

What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim, then to live your life with a bodhicitta motivation. This is the best.

With much love and prayers...