Transforming Depression Through Practice

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.