Training the Mind in Lamrim

Dear John,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Regarding faith, it depends on which faith and faith in what. Generally speaking, we need a lot of merit to generate faith, and we also need to purify negative karma and defilements. So, we need both of these practices.

If we wish to generate devotion, then we must one-pointedly make requests to the guru and meditate on the lamrim (as Manjushri advised Lama Tsongkhapa), following the outlines from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Spend two weeks each on the sections on benefits and disadvantages, referring to the commentaries on Liberation and other texts. Spend four weeks on the four outlines in the section on recognizing the qualities and two weeks on the section recollecting the kindness of the guru. In terms of actions, we should obey the advice, offer service, and if we have offerings, then offer these. These four outlines on how to meditate in relation to guru devotion are mentioned in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

If we wish to generate faith in the truth of karma, we need to read about it while also making strong purification and accumulating merit with one-pointed requests to the guru. In the Jorchö practice (preliminary practice for meditating on the lamrim), there’s a long section of requests to the lineage lamas and the guru. We can do the long version or a shorter version, but with many requests to the guru. We can do the short request to the guru many times—ten, fifteen, fifty times, or one mala—not just saying the words but from the heart.

Nectar emanates and purifies all the negativities and obstructions to realization. Basically, if the mind is blocked this is due to defilements. Even geshes who have studied using many kinds of logic have things they don’t understand. Continue the three (purification, accumulation and requests), and if these are done purely, we realize that the teachings are true. Basically, it is like that. Studying the teachings is not enough—in order to realize them, we have to make strong requests. Similarly, generate faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That’s about it.

The deities for your practice are Secret Vajrapani and Hevajra. Of the two, Secret Vajrapani is your yidam.

With much love and prayer...

PS. Please make your life meaningful with bodhicitta, as this life is received just once. Even if there are skies filled with wish-granting jewels, without this jewel of a perfect human rebirth we can’t achieve a perfect human rebirth or higher rebirth again. Pay attention to not wasting this human body.

Student:  I heard that if you have studied the five great treatises in past lives it’s not necessary to go through extensive studies of them in order to attain realizations, and that by just studying and meditating on the lamrim you can traverse the grounds and paths completely. When I heard this I had a few questions. First, how are you supposed to know if you studied the five great treatises in past lives? Second, it seems that most of the past great lineage lamas went through exhaustive and extensive studies. Je Rinpoche showed an extraordinary example of the meeting of study and practice, and so did great lamas like Baso Chokyi Gyaltsen, Sangye Yeshe, Gyalwa Ensapa, etc. Some even showed aspects of great realization at a young age and still went on to study extensively. Relating to my own future practice and study, I plan to stay at Shine Land until it is sold and to continue retreat somewhere after leaving Shine Land. I also thought going to a monastery to study might be helpful. Do you have advice relating to this? I also have some places in mind to check with you.

Rinpoche:  You can attain realizations. You need to study the lamrim, meditate and practice correctly, and then realizations will come. The realizations are the main purpose, just as butter comes through churning milk.

Whether you know a little Dharma or whether you know everything, the point is to have realizations. This is the key thing—to have realizations. Without realizations, it’s as if you don’t have any wealth and you’re only talking about other people’s wealth, "This person has this, this, this." It always becomes like that. Also, the mind isn’t subdued unless you have realizations. No matter how much education and understanding you might have, the mind is not subdued. It becomes like a big collection of DHI, DHI, DHI, DHI, DHI. Without realizations, the mind becomes the same as a computer. The essence is realizations; what is most attractive is realizations. No matter if you have a small understanding or big understanding, that’s what you should look for. Somebody who has realizations—that’s success.

Sometimes study and sometimes retreat is good. Also, sometimes you can do retreat and study together. That’s another thing. Also, there are the benefits of understanding. Like the experienced great teachers, the more you learn the more you understand, which means you make fewer mistakes. There is less misunderstanding and less mistakes in your practice and more correct realizations. You will have a broader understanding of what are mistakes and what is correct. Then, if you want to practice you will know how. Otherwise, you can make a lot of mistakes. If your understanding is limited, a lot of mistakes can arise.

It is all according to your state of mind. You need to judge your mind and decide whether it needs to be in an isolated place or with people. If your mind is very disturbed, very easily affected, and you can’t practice Dharma, then go to an isolated place. Sometimes when you need to learn more, then you can be with people to practice and study. You have to watch your mind, then, according to your mind, do what is better—go away to practice, study or do retreat. In this way it’s safer. If you have a fixed idea, then think that it is no longer beneficial when many things are disturbing you, then you lose out, are unable to practice, and waste your life.

Basically, I think this is better—just watch your mind. Wherever is more beneficial, stay longer there. Otherwise, if you’re fixed about staying somewhere and things aren’t going well, there is no benefit and you lose your precious human life. I’m giving you a general idea. Judge how your mind is and basically protect your mind, for its development. That is better than having a fixed idea, like always being at the center, always studying, or always in retreat. It all depends on what’s more beneficial at the time.

It is amazing that you are reading and reciting the Middling Lamrim. That is amazing, really unbelievable, so good. Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middling Lamrim is quite extensive and his explanation is very deep and extensive. When you read Lama Tsongkhapa, even if you’ve read many lamrims for many years, it is so deep and profound—a very different flavor. You are the most lucky one. Many people don’t read it again and again. To complete the reading is very rare, and on top of that, so many times; this is extremely rare. If you don’t get to read Lama Tsongkhapa, no matter how many other lamrims you read, you’ll feel regret. I think once you’ve read Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim, you won’t have much regret about not having read other lamrims. 

Student:  After I finish what you advised, reciting and meditating all the way through the Middling Lamrim 20 times, should I then go back to your previous advice of breaking the lamrim up into periods for each scope for a certain number of months. Or can I take one topic at a time and just work on that topic until I attain the realization, then move on to the next one. Of these two methods, which one would you advise? 

Rinpoche:  You can do the second way. Since you will have read the lamrim many times, do this—one by one, for how many weeks or months it takes. Proceed like that until you have stable realizations. After you have read it that many times, wow, this is what you should do. 

Student:  I’m wondering how much lamrim realization you need in order to do a three-year tantric retreat? 

Rinpoche:  The best is to have the realization of bodhicitta—this is unbelievable. Whether you have the realization of emptiness or not, if you have the realization of bodhicitta, that is unbelievable. Then, you will do a great retreat. Great retreat means the number of mantras. That’s amazing, fantastic. It’s like you have already made the cake and then you put the cream on top. 

Student:  You advised to recite the graduated path of my tantric deity prayer every day. Should I continue to recite this? 

Rinpoche:  Yes, that is very important, if that’s the main deity for your practice. Each day recite at least one lamrim prayer (such as The Foundation of All Good Qualities) and then the tantra stages of the path. These two should be recited whether you’re meditating or not, at least to plant the seed for enlightenment, the complete path of lamrim and tantra. This must be done. 

Student:  In 2003, you advised reciting the Vajra Cutter Sutra once a week. I’ve been reciting it since then, and I’m wondering if you would advise to continue? 

Rinpoche:  That’s unbelievable. Yes, you should continue this for your whole life. That’s unbelievable merit, and the quick way to realize emptiness. It is unbelievable purification. Actually, I started to memorize it in Washington. There’s a lady who is working in a supermarket, and she has started to memorize it. She has done half. She inspired me to memorize it, though after that I didn’t finish. Memorizing is very good if it can be done.

Sometimes you can learn some of the meanings and you can do meditation on that. Maybe you can do meditation with a group of people some time in the future, and explain and study commentaries.

My very dear Lisa,
I’m very happy to know your thoughts. That is the correct way to think. There is no need to go into the details, otherwise there is greater danger of creating negative karma. If you keep the details to a minimum, to what is necessary, then there is less negative karma.

We have to take responsibility for our life and future lives. Most people don’t accept future lives, so they don’t understand this. We have been suffering since beginningless time under the control of karma and delusion and we can’t continue to suffer like this—we have to get out of samsara now by actualizing the path. The path isn’t created out of the sky; it  isn’t created in a factory. We have to actualize the path.

There is a need to benefit numberless sentient beings: the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings. We have to free all these suffering beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to liberation and enlightenment. This is the main purpose of our life. This is what we need to do.

In essence, the main thing is to meditate on the lamrim, starting from guru devotion.

With much love and prayer...

Student:

Dear Lama Zopa,
I wanted to send you my best wishes for the year 2008, but I didn’t have your address with me. Anyway, I hope this year will bring peace to the world—friendship between races (the possible new US premier is the demonstration of that!!!), peace and love in our families, countries, and especially in our hearts, peace for Tibet, better care of mother nature, with less pollution, and more bread for everybody.

My mother, after a difficult period of radiotherapy, is getting better. I recite every day Tara and Medicine Buddha mantras etc. for her, my father, my kids, my lover, my friends, and everybody. I do a lot of mantras and praying for people with AIDS, drug and alcohol addicts, etc.

Please bless that puja to help my friend and all people who have fallen into alcohol or drug addiction, or are now fighting to overcome their problems, also people with AIDS.

Rinpoche's Response:

My very dear Laurence,
Thank you very much for your kind letter.

You gave detailed information in this letter, but what is most beneficial for you and all sentient beings is to live life with the bodhicitta motivation. You do everything with the bodhicitta motivation, so eating, sleeping, working, everything is done with this motivation, with the thought to benefit all sentient beings. “All sentient beings” includes your enemies, those who you hate or who hate you, so you do everything with the thought to benefit them by freeing them from oceans of samsaric suffering. As much as possible, you live with the thought to benefit others—no matter how much difficulty there is in life, or how much excitement, the thought is to benefit others.

I have two points of advice for you:

1. The most important thing is to meditate on the lamrim.
2. Study one lamrim text from beginning to end, then any questions you have, you can write down in a notebook, then you can discuss them with an elder, someone with more experience than you, like that.

Meditate every day on guru devotion until you have stable meditation every day and see all the gurus as Buddhas and all the Buddhas as gurus. Once you have stable meditation from your heart, if you achieve the realization, then you just think a little bit of the topic rather than going deeply into meditation on the specific topic.

Train in the graduated path for one year until you have realization in your heart. Take one topic each month. For instance, start with the path of the lower capable being and meditate on the precious human rebirth, death and impermanence, the suffering of the lower realms, and karma—one month for each topic. You can meditate on death and impermanence for three months. Then, move on to the path of the middle capable being and meditate on those topics for one year. Then, move on to the path of the higher capable being. Meditate on this for one year, like this: one year on bodhicitta, alternating between one month on the seven-point cause and effect instructions and one month on the method of exchanging oneself with others, to develop bodhicitta. Then, meditate for one year on emptiness.

If you don’t have realizations, you do these over and over again. Put your main effort into having realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness, and then move on to tantra. If you have a realization of bodhicitta, then you can spend most of your time on tantra.

This is my main advice for you. Whether there is more difficulty in life or more excitement, keeping the mind on Dharma is the most important thing, not money or friends. Without Dharma, you can’t benefit sentient beings. Without the good heart, you can’t benefit others. Also, you need Dharma wisdom to benefit others. Without Dharma wisdom, you don’t know how to benefit others. So, please develop compassion.

Thank you very much.

With love and prayer...

I regard as the most important thing in the world anybody who dedicates his or her life to achieving lamrim realizations, with the goal to liberate numberless beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. 

My dear one,
I understand your questions. Yes, definitely have a break. I understand very well your concerns and the feelings that you express. Regarding the boyfriend, I can’t really say, but generally it doesn’t really work out the way we expect. I think, mostly, it doesn’t really work out. So, I can’t really comment on the boyfriend part. I think you should try to do your best with this one.

Regarding the center, when the mind isn’t able to keep in the lamrim meditation, maybe because it wasn’t strong enough in the beginning, then it isn’t easy, even if you are at a Dharma center. There are many difficulties, financial difficulties, a small number of people helping (not enough people), so, with the stress of these things happening all the time for a long time, this is what happens with our students in the centers. Their minds become filled with problems, meditation on the lamrim becomes less and less, the feeling of the lamrim becomes less, then there is less compassion and feeling, less guru devotion, less bodhicitta. With this, the feelings becoming less and less, and then, of course, one becomes distant or feels distant from the Dharma. Even one’s commitments become dry words. One’s heart is distant, one’s heart is like being in a very hot desert, where there is no water, or in an extremely hot room with no air conditioning, so it becomes difficult to feel the Dharma.

I really appreciate your thinking to meditate on the lamrim and to bring Dharma back in your heart. So, I think your plan is a good one. So, definitely take a break and try to bring Dharma into your heart through the lamrim.

You are in my prayers every day, as you were in the past.

With much love and prayers...