My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one and father,
Thank you very much from your kind message. Regarding your father’s questions: yes, he can do the mantras anywhere he wants to. That is completely fine. Please find attached a morning meditation for __ and for your father, and also a link to a bodhicitta booklet, which you may already have.

I want to mention that the lam-rim came from Lama Atisha, who came from India, and the Buddhadharma came from India, from the Buddha.

The whole sutra and tantra came into Tibet and was practiced there. From that, so many buddhas and bodhisattvas happened in Tibet, as well as arhats, who blessed the whole country. Tibet is unbelievably, unbelievably blessed, because so many practitioners had realizations and subdued their minds. So many people practiced—not only monks and nuns, but also lay people—in so many caves, which were full of practitioners; and in so many mountains, but now they are ruined. They really practiced and renounced their lives, and it is because of this that Buddhism has lasted a long time. Even when communist China took over Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many high lamas had to escape, then the great monasteries were reestablished in India and Nepal, so now Buddhism has been able to spread all over the world and especially in the West.

So sutra and tantra came from India. It was translated from the Kangyur, which is the Buddha’s teachings of 100 volumes, and then the Tengyur, which is the commentaries by Asanga and many great pandits from India, from Nalanda Monastery.

There are more than 200 volumes in the Tengyur, which was translated into Tibetan and has been practiced and studied in Tibet. So you can see the Kangyur, the Buddha’s teachings, came from India, and the Tengyur, the commentaries on the Buddha’s teachings, which came from many Indian pandits, who came from India. So originally it all came from the Buddha in India, then later it was practiced by Tibetans. So many numberless buddhas, bodhisattvas and arhats came from this, then actualizing the path they wrote it down. What they wrote is similar; it is the basis of the pandits’ commentaries (Tengyur) and the Buddha’s teachings (Kangyur). If it is contradictory to those teachings, then it is wrong. This is the way to check it is pure Buddhism.

So the basis, the essence of sutra, the root of the path to enlightenment, is guru devotion, renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. Then there is the tantric path (not Hindu tantra but Buddhist tantra), the generation and completion stage, the two kayas—the dharmakaya and rupakaya. So this is what is to be achieved. There are the four levels of tantra [Kriya (Action), Charya (Performance), Yoga and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra].

So this is basic explanation that all these teachings came all from the Indian pandits and from the Buddha.

Buddha has taught not every single teaching, but most. There were 84,000 teachings taught by the Buddha, including the Hinayana, Pali teachings, and also the Mahayana teachings. So by practicing the Pali Hinayana teachings, we can achieve the four noble truths: true suffering, the true cause of suffering, the true cessation of suffering and the true path—the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. So we can be completely free from the oceans of samsaric suffering, the ocean of sufferings of the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings.

By practicing the Mahayana teachings, which were taught by Buddha, which have sutra and tantra; by practicing the sutra path, the Paramita teachings, we can achieve the whole path, on the basis of the Hinayana. So the whole path—the five paths and ten bhumis—can be achieved. We can achieve the state of omniscient mind, the total cessation of disturbing-thought obscurations and subtle thought obscurations, and we can complete all the realizations, with nothing missing. Then we are able to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment, the state of omniscient mind. So all this happens by having compassion for every sentient being.

I am sorry it became long, but for your understanding, I am explaining this.

With much love and prayers...