General Practice Advice from Rinpoche

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 Jan,
Here are your practices to develop compassion and bodhicitta; you recite the longest Chenrezig mantra seven times a day. This is to develop compassion and bodhicitta, the root of the path to achieve enlightenment and the root of the path that enables you to enlighten all sentient beings. This is also for healing your sicknesses, so please practice well.

The southern continent is the best one in which to achieve enlightenment quickly by actualizing the path of compassion and bodhicitta, the basis of highest tantra, which enables one to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime in a degenerated age.

Doing 10 nyung näs for the most powerful purification and to collect extensive merit, to develop strong compassion for all sentient beings, that means also bodhicitta, and thus to quickly achieve enlightenment to cause all happiness to all sentient beings.

Lamrim meditation and the preliminary practices are according to the practice sheet. No other preliminary practice came out good for you.

The Diamond Cutter Sutra is your main preliminary practice. If you can memorize it that would be very good. Then you can recite it while walking or driving the car. Just do it as much as possible, don’t worry.

You are the most fortunate girl that it came out to do 100,000 Diamond Cutter Sutra recitations. You are the most extremely fortunate girl in the world. If you need to receive the lung (transmission) I can do it when I come back.

Your other preliminary practice is to write the Arya Sanghata Sutra twice.

With love and prayers...

Many other religions have good things to offer different people for their happiness and peace. But what is missing in these other religions is the complete path to liberation and enlightenment - total renunciation of the whole of samsara. If you study and check, you will not find such things mentioned there.

The other very special things missing in other religions are right view (emptiness) and bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is not just a kind, generous mind - it is the ultimate good heart which is developed in a step-by-step way. The first step is to realize (1) the root of the path: guru devotion, next is (2) the realization of renunciation of this life and renunciation of future lives, and then comes (3) bodhicitta.

Why these three are so important, not only for your own complete inner development but especially for others, is because there are numberless other sentient beings who want happiness and do not want suffering and they need your help. So, you have the responsibility to help them. But without renunciation you cannot achieve liberation, without bodhicitta you cannot achieve enlightenment, and without right view you cannot cut the root of samsara, which is delusion and karma. Without cutting the root and cause of all the sufferings of samsara, you can never be liberated from all of samsara’s sufferings, which means you cannot liberate others from suffering.

This is something you need to know in order to practice Dharma, the knowledge that leads to awakening.

What is most important for this world's peace, which has so much suffering, both globally and individually, is the practice of Dharma. For numberless sentient beings from whom we have received all our happiness from beginningless time, and from whom we are receiving and will receive all happiness, including liberation from samsara and full enlightenment – for those sentient beings who are totally obscured, in order to give them all happiness, one should learn Dharma.

One should learn not just one meditation, giving some peace, but the whole path, including Mahayana tantra. To be a scholar is not enough. One needs to train in the path, transform the mind into the path, including the root, guru devotion, transforming the mind from the mistaken thought to the guru, which is the biggest obstacle to enlightenment. One also needs to develop renunciation of the whole, entire samsara, and transform the mind into renunciation, the determination to be free from samsara, to emerge from and to be liberated from it, which is to let go of the attachment which ties one to samsara, to all the suffering, including death and rebirth. Also, one needs to develop the realization of emptiness, which cuts all suffering and gives the possibility to achieve all happiness, and as well to develop bodhicitta.

The root of samsara, ignorance, holds phenomena such as the “I” and aggregates as truly existent, while they are empty of that, and causes delusion and karma, and the results, the oceans of suffering of samsara, all the sufferings of each realm. One needs to transform the mind into bodhicitta, the ultimate thought of cherishing others, seeking enlightenment for sentient beings, giving up the selfish mind which interferes, stops, and blocks developing the whole path to enlightenment for oneself. Bodhicitta causes the cessation of the mistakes of the mind, the development of all understanding, and causes others all the happiness of this and coming future lives, including liberation from samsara and full enlightenment, causing all this for numberless suffering, obscured sentient beings.

Then one needs the two stages of highest tantra for quickest enlightenment, to liberate numberless sentient beings of each realm from suffering and to lead them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. This makes your life most meaningful and beneficial and allows you to use your life most productively for sentient beings.

A life spent practicing Dharma by meditating on the path and actualizing the path is the best life and the best service for sentient beings. Why? If your mind is not liberated from delusion and karma and the suffering of samsara, then you can't liberate others from samsara, its suffering and causes. It's like if you are drowning, you can't help others who are drowning. Through your experience you have to show sentient beings the path to enlightenment and bring them to enlightenment. Why do you need to do this? Because they, the sentient beings, need the highest happiness and the most long lasting happiness, and that is enlightenment. To do that, of course, first you have to become fully qualified. Therefore, you need to become fully enlightened. Life spent in ways other than this, other than meditating on the path and transforming the mind into liberation and enlightenment, are suffering, and you repeat this endlessly, just as it had no beginning.

My suggestion is to do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga every day, as it contains the path in its stages up to enlightenment. There is the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga that I put together and also its commentary, and within that there is guru devotion. To know guru devotion in the beginning is extremely important, then one can practice correctly, most carefully, without mistakes and with awareness. Otherwise, there are only mistakes and nothing good happens; things only get worse. Life, already with so much suffering, then becomes worse, heavier, only suffering. Practicing this guru yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa and lamrim has skies of benefits, now and in the future. To read it every day, with mindfulness, brings one closer to liberation and enlightenment, which means closer to enlightening sentient beings, closer to their liberation and enlightenment. Practicing Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga has many special advantages, such as allowing you to develop wisdom, to be born in Tushita, Maitreya's Pure Land, and to meet Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings in the future. Why this result is important is that Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings are the clearest, purest teachings of the Buddha, having no mistakes. So, for practice, this is the quickest and easiest. Even if the teachings are the purest, if the person doesn't practice correctly, then enlightenment can't be achieved. Through this practice, one is also able to develop guru devotion, and then receive the blessing of the guru and achieve all the realizations. This way, all realizations, up to enlightenment, come from within. It is like when one has soil and water, a sprout comes from a seed, and then all the rest comes out.

Concerning practice, then one also needs to study. If one has found a qualified guru, who is living in the practice, having the attainment of the path, which I mentioned before, then there is no question (about suitability). If from the teacher's side, he/she is not an enlightened being – if one can't find a reliable teacher – then the most important text to study is lamrim, in valid translations, containing the complete lamrim. Valid teachings are not missing the lamrim. Other philosophical teachings are there to understand lamrim teachings in depth, clearly.

Read and meditate by following the lamrim outlines. Also, study to give oneself a chance, beginning with the lamrim and writing down questions if one doesn’t understand. Then check with others and with lamas who study well. So, like this, understanding can be developed. If one cannot decide if someone is a guru, then study with him or her for some time, then by being close, after some months or a year, or one to two years, then if you are able to trust and have devotion, then you can take this person as one's guru. In this way, you are protected, saved, and secure. Otherwise, later you end up with huge mountains of confusion and the heaviest negative karma.

In the meantime, read books which are valid. After having gone over the lamrim once, two, or three times, then go through each meditation topic from Perfect Human Rebirth, spending maybe a month on each topic and meditating on it for some time. The time for meditation is not fixed, it's one's own choice – even half an hour is good. The most important thing is continuity. Then, one can achieve liberation and enlightenment and then enlighten others.

Spend one month per meditation topic, except to achieve shamatha you need a solitary place (that is the correct way) and all the conditions. When you finish emptiness, come back and do the meditations again till you achieve stable realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta, and right view. This means not just a few days’ experience but something long lasting, stable, and without effort, without needing to go through the reasons and quotations. The mind naturally goes on that path. One should meditate on guru devotion a little bit every day, with whatever time you have, till one gains a stable realization, till one guru is all Buddhas and Buddha is all the gurus.

In the breaktimes between meditations, keep the mind in bodhicitta, the thought of cherishing sentient beings, benefiting sentient beings – a bodhicitta motivation. Whether walking, sleeping, or eating, whatever one is doing, keep this mind. Keep the experience of the morning meditation throughout the day. Then one will be able to progress in the development of the realizations of the path, of renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness.

Some general advice for everyone is to do the practice of Chenrezig every day, together with the recitation of the mantra. There are skies of benefits which come from this, but the main point is to develop compassion for all sentient beings, for your friend, for strangers, and not only that, for the enemy. Otherwise, working to benefit them becomes very partial, very limited. Without compassion for all sentient beings, one can't have the realization of bodhicitta, which is the source of happiness for oneself up to enlightenment and the source of happiness for infinite sentient beings.

Without great compassion, one can't have the realization or entrance into the Mahayana path to enlightenment and hence can't achieve enlightenment and can't liberate countless sentient beings from the oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment. One can't fulfill the purpose or objective of one's life – to free sentient beings from all sufferings and enlighten them. So, for anyone who desires happiness and doesn't want suffering, and especially those who want to help others, one must do Chenrezig practice.

The other practice to do is Medicine Buddha, both mantra recitation and practice, reciting the names of the Medicine Buddhas, together with the Medicine Buddha mantra:

TADYATHA / OM BHEKANDZYE BHEKANDZYE MAHA BHEKANDZYE [BHEKANDZYE] / RADZA SAMUDGATE SVAHA

This is for powerful purification, merit, and success, and to fulfill all wishes, benefiting oneself and all sentient beings. This practice makes life so easy, grants happiness, liberation, and enlightenment and causes that to be received by others, who are numberless.

I can't say when I will be able to meet you, but I thought to give you this advice. Now it is up to you to make this one time, precious human rebirth useful.

My giving practices to people, instructions, is so important. This way, whatever practice or activity they do directs their life towards benefiting sentient beings: to cause them all happiness, temporary happiness, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment. So, people don't waste their most precious human life, which they achieve just about once. This opportunity is just about once.

I thought to mention this. In order for oneself and others to have a healthy life - I don’t mean healthy in the sense of diet and exercise, I am talking about a healthy life in the sense of one’s mind and attitude, the actions of one’s body, speech, and mind being positive, healthy, virtuous, and pure—the main cause for this is to abstain as much as possible from negative actions, which result in suffering. This means actions performed with a negative mind, with ignorance, anger, attachment, and the self-cherishing thought. One way to do this is to abstain from the ten nonvirtuous actions, which are killing, stealing, telling lies, and so forth. In Christianity there are also the ten commandments.

If you harm others, there are consequences – immediate consequences and also long-term consequences—that you experience for many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. These are the result of karma. The immediate consequence of harming others is that others are angry with you and upset with you. They find out your mistakes, you get in trouble, you are killed by others, etc. In order not to be killed by others, to have a long life and be healthy, then it is important that you do not create the cause to experience this karma.

It is important to abstain from harming other living beings, including animals, any being that has a mind and feels suffering and happiness. This is different from plants, which do not have a mind. Happiness and suffering are dependent on causes and conditions, having the right causes and conditions. For example, there are specific causes and conditions needed for a plant to grow (stem, trees, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit) and then also to die. Living beings have suffering and all the causes of sufferings—the delusions, meaning ignorance, anger, and attachment, and the actions arising from these delusions. These actions plant more seeds, causing more delusions to arise, and in this way, the karma doesn’t end.

By harming others out of ignorance, anger, and attachment, you cause suffering. Actions created from the disturbing obscuring negative thoughts—including the root, ignorance – are what cause us to die and be reborn and experience all the sufferings again and again.

So, this is the fundamental solution: Don’t harm others, and then you will not receive harm from others—even if a child shoots you, or an unknown person shoots you, or an animal attacks you, or mosquitoes bite you, or an ant bites you, or even the tiniest insect harms you. This includes all the problems in the world, from suicide up to war. All your suffering and happiness is due to either a lack of education of your mind or a correct education of your mind.

Here, what I am suggesting is at least to avoid the ten nonvirtues, at least as much as possible.

With much love and prayers...