Protection from Spirit Harm

Dear one,
I updated Rinpoche and he spent a long time checking for you.

You need to have Most Secret Hayagriva Tsog Kong done twice at Sera Je Monastery. This is the extensive, elaborate torma offering to Most Secret Hayagriva.

You also need to recite migtsema mantra (Lama Tsongkhapa’s five-line mantra) and make strong prayers to the guru. Visualize the guru above your crown, with nectar coming down and purifying all your sickness, spirt harm, negative karma and defilements collected from beginningless rebirths.

This is Rinpoche’s advice for you.

My most dear wish-fulfilling ones,
Definitely don’t do anything with this space. What needs to be done is to respectfully place a photo of Most Secret Hayagiva there, with the thought to help the spirits residing there. Then pray for them to not create harm but to help. Never use the space.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your kind email. Generally, you should do anything that is good for others, that is better than what they are experiencing now, which is suffering. If you can benefit others, then do that. If you can give more pleasure and comfort to others, then you can do it. It is very good to do that, as you can see and help the spirits. It’s good, so try that, as you are doing.

It is very good if you can do sur practice (smell offering practice) for the hungry ghosts. That would be very good. Also, do water charity for the spirits if you can. That is the highest benefit, the highest way to benefit them, like giving them oceans of food and drink.

The other one is sur offering practice. Generally it is offering to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and in particular, offering sur, the smell of food, to the people who have been killed, who have died and are born as spirits. They are in the intermediate stage, so it is their food. This is so beneficial.

In Tibet, one person who was imprisoned said that the portions of flour or dough that they got were so tiny, so small, that they were unbelievably hungry, so hungry. When the Chinese workers and prison guards cooked their food, the cooking smell would drift over to where the prisoners were held. He said even the smell of the food helped them very much, even though was just the smell. The other thing they would do is they would go outside and if they found an old piece of bone, they would suck it. They also found that very helpful. By sucking the old bones they got energy.

Also, there was a monk, an expert in Buddhist philosophy, who was put in prison in Tibet. He was very hungry, so he would go outside and check where the Chinese workers did their kaka. He would check inside the kaka to see if he could find any whole beans, then he and the other prisoners would eat the beans. This is a little side story. Because this monk ate human kaka he didn’t die of hunger. Later he was able to leave Tibet and come to India.

In India they have rebuilt Sera Monastery, particularly the college of Sera Je, which I belong to. Within Sera Monastery there are two colleges, Sera Je and Sera Mey. The other great monasteries rebuilt in India are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. has There are two colleges within Ganden Monastery: Shartse and Jangtse. Drepung is another very large monastery with two colleges, Loseling and Gomang. Within each college there are many groups, so it depends on which area you originally came from in Tibet. These are the main monasteries in the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition. They originally started in Tibet and are now established in India. Many monks still come from Tibet, India and Mongolia to study Buddhadharma philosophy.

After the Chinese occupation, of course, the monasteries in Tibet were destroyed, but now they have restarted in India. They have also restarted in Tibet, but not as much as before. Of course, there’s not much freedom like before.

Because His Holiness the Dalai Lama came out to India, so many high lamas—actualized and learned ones, great geshes and lamas—came to India and the monasteries started again in India and then developed.

The monk who I mentioned before, who ate kaka when he was in prison, later came to India to the monastery and he became the abbot of Sera Je Monastery. He was able to teach and spread the great knowledge that he had of Buddhism. He educated maybe over one thousand monks, but he passed away a long time ago. Many of the resident teachers that we have in FPMT were his disciples from the time when he was the abbot of Sera Je Monastery. If he didn’t eat human kaka when the Chinese held him in prison, he would not have been able to come to India and educate and spread Buddhadharma and help it to develop. He wouldn’t have been able to do that. As he was so learned he had many learned disciples who became geshes and teachers, who are now teaching in FPMT centers and around the world.

This is another side story. There was another man in prison who was unbelievably hungry, starving. When he became free from prison, due to the amount of suffering of hunger he had when he was in prison, when he got out, he began to practice sur, giving smell to the spirits. This was because of the smell of the food being cooked by the Chinese prison guards. Even just that smell was so good for him, it was beneficial for him, so because of that he never missed offering sur practice, the smell practice for the spirits, for many years.

So for you, it would be very good if you could do sur practice, especially as you can see the spirits and communicate with them, so you can see what kind of spirits come. I don’t see spirits, but I do sur, not every night but from time to time. In certain places I do it many times, when we stay longer. You are supposed to do the practice every night once you start. It is like giving food to a beggar—if you do that then of course the beggar expects to get food from you again and again, so that’s why it’s good to do sur practice every day. If you can, do it every day, but if not, that’s OK, just do it when you can.

The sur needs to have a smell similar to food, so normally we use tsampa [roasted barley flour]. We burn that in the fire, mixed with twenty-five substances and butter. You can read more here about the twenty-five substances and also read about the benefits of sur offering practice. This practice is so good for the spirits.

Do the practice in the morning or anytime. The time is similar to when we are looking for food—I think in the morning and in the early evening. Anyway, generally, the water charity and giving food to the pretas and hungry ghosts you can do anytime. Giving them food and drink. That is unbelievable. The text I am using and that I created is not yet translated into English, but it is my great wish to translate it into English well. There are three or four ways of giving food and charity to the numberless pretas. Each one has different ways to make charity of water.

First you offer to Buddha Dzambhala, who is Chenrezig, the Compassion Buddha, to release the sentient beings from poverty, so then he manifests as Dzambhala to give wealth. Then with that same water you make charity to the pretas, so then it’s more beneficial. 

To give you an idea, this quote is extremely important.

As Buddha said:

Any sentient being who, during the period of my teachings,
Makes charity well (even if the material is the size of a hair),
For 80,000 eons there will be great results of great enjoyment:
No pain, no disease, and enjoyment of happiness.
Like that, one will be enriched with the desirable things.
At the end, you can actually achieve the result: the peerless cessation and completion (enlightenment).

This is to give you the idea. If you are making charity well, even if it’s the size of a hair, there is unbelievable merit. 

From the root text of Manjugosha:

Manjushri said to Buddha:

At the moment, the object for sentient beings to make offerings and collect merit is you. After you pass away what can they do? Please give advice.

Then Buddha said:

There is not the slightest difference if my four surrounding beings (getsul, getsulma, gelong, gelongma) make offerings to me now or make offerings to my statues (in the future).
It is equal in merit and ripening aspect (result).
That is due to the blessings of the Buddha.
Undeveloped (ordinary) beings don’t know this and that is why there are no Buddha statues in their world.
Where are there no statues?
In the outlying barbarian countries and where the teachings of the Buddha have degenerated (stopped).
Therefore, non-Buddhists and animals do not see Buddha statues.
Therefore, the statue is a manifestation of Buddha.

By knowing this, you understand how your mind can create happiness, not only the happiness of this life, but also from life to life up to enlightenment. So then if it is done with bodhicitta, you collect more than skies of merit. By offering to pictures or statues of the Buddha, stupas and scriptures, it is exactly the same as having made an offering to the Buddha. This is to give you the idea. Any offering that we make to a statue or painting of the Buddha, we get exactly the same merit as having actually made an offering to Buddha. It’s the same!

In order to benefit the numberless sentient beings, to be able to offer perfectly, to benefit every single being—every single ant, every worm, even the tiniest insects, everyone—perfectly, according to their level of karma, we need to achieve full enlightenment, the state of omniscience. Only then can we do this, without the slightest mistake; only then can we do perfect works for other sentient beings.

Therefore, we need to collect extensive merits and to purify as much as possible, so then with this motivation we can make offerings to the statues or paintings of the Buddha, to the stupas and scriptures, even if it’s a stick of incense. Then also do sur offering and water offering practice.

What I would like is to meet you and I can do sur practice and then you can tell me what you can see. I hope that will be possible in the future.

Many people in Taiwan do sur practice, but they use wood powder, which is sold to use for sur. We shouldn’t use that powder as it doesn’t have any food smell. I told some of the Sangha in Taiwan this.

It seems from your email that what you see are people who have died and are in the intermediate state. It is very important that you read one book that clearly explains the ordinary death, intermediate state and rebirth. It is called Death, Intermediate State, and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism by Lati Rinpoche and Jeffrey Hopkins. This will deepen your understanding, so then you can help the spirits more.

In the future it would be very good for you to take Most Secret Hayagriva initiation and Great Chenrezig initiation, so you can benefit others more. Chenrezig is so that you can benefit sentient beings with compassion, so Chenrezig is very much needed.

With much love and prayers ...

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

You need torgya puja (ten wrathful deities burning torma), to be done by Gyume Monastery in South India. It’s a really big puja and I’m not sure if they will accept to do it, but let me know. If not Gyume, then ask Ganden Shartse. They have to do preparation for a few days and then do the puja. It’s a big puja, so you’ll need to discuss it with the monastery.

Lü dang sadag gi don drol (ཀླུ་དང་ས་བདག་གི་གདོན་སྒྲོལ་ ; Liberating from the naga and landlord harm), to be done by Geshe-la at your center. You need to be present for this puja. So please request this from Geshe-la.

You also need to recite the Most Secret Hayagriva mantra. If you have received the initiation then try to follow the sadhana but at least recite the mantra. Do more mantras and pray hard to Most Secret Hayagriva.

Please try this.

With much love and prayers ...

My dear one,
Rinpoche checked for a really, really long time, and said this was quite complicated and not so simple. He said it was quite hard, as many things did not come out to help.

What did come out is lü tor (ཀླུ་གཏོར་). This is a naga puja and it has to be done from time to time, like on regular naga puja days. Rinpoche said that according to his observation, no one came out well to do the puja for her, so he will check again.

The text Serwa Nada needs to be recited for her three times by the Kopan umdze, Losang Sherab. Give her name and explain her condition briefly. Explain that Rinpoche is advising it is best that Losang Sherab does the recitation, to free her from naga harm.

Rinpoche is going to read Dorje Dermo (Vajra Claws) five times for her over the next few days.

This was Rinpoche’s advice at this time.

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

As you know, most or all diseases are related to spirit harm, which is something Western doctors don’t accept. To cure this, there are pujas without medicine and pujas with medicine, and there is medicine without pujas. For you, pujas have been done; I have done them and I am doing prayers, so slowly this condition will get better.

Anyway, rejoice. Think that this small sickness finishes the heavy negative karmas collected since beginningless rebirths, and in the future there will be happiness, like the sun shining in the world. Rejoice in your building the center. Eons of negative karma are purified by doing that.

The good news is that the self-cherishing thought that you have been following from beginningless rebirths, which created the negative karma and which harms you, is now being harmed or destroyed.

Without Dharma practice, without bodhicitta, the self-cherishing will continuously harm you. This harm to self is like a tiny atom of a building, unnoticeable. From beginningless rebirths we have harmed numberless sentient beings in numberless realms, causing them suffering up to now and in the future. This is the most frightening thing, the real enemy.

This is exactly what is needed to destroy the self-cherishing and the ignorance holding the I [as truly existing]. This is exactly what is needed to destroy the enemy. It is the best, so good. Without self-cherishing there’s bodhicitta, then enlightenment for oneself and for every sentient being. There is temporal and ultimate benefit.

Without ignorance, karma and delusion and the seeds of these are destroyed, then we become free from samsara, then it’s incredible how we can benefit sentient beings. Our obscurations are destroyed by the wisdom realizing emptiness, not by bodhicitta. So we need to have the realization of emptiness.

Generally, those causing harm to our life are the 424 diseases, the 360 types of spirit harm (Tib: don), and 1,080 interferers. Then, of course, there are 84,000 delusions, the inner harmers. Until we are free from samsara it is like this.

Until we are free of karma and delusion, it is like this, so we need to become free from samsara. Therefore, we need places like Nalanda Monastery, we need to practice the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom. So, people at the monastery need to help each other do this.

This is what sentient beings need to practice. This is how to get out of samsara and of course, how to get enlightened. Thank you very much!

With much love and prayers ...