My very dear Joan,
I first of all want to express great thanks for your kind heart and the services you have done to fulfill my wishes and to serve the teachings of Buddha, which is the only source of peace and happiness for all sentient beings. It is also the only medicine to cure all the sufferings of sentient beings, including the causes of those sufferings. By making offerings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the Dharma center, you have greatly benefited sentient beings.

There is a very precious condensed teaching on how to deal with life’s daily problems. It is not just to stop problems, but to utilize them on the path to actualize full enlightenment. This means the cessation of all the mistakes of mind, including gross and subtle defilements, as well as the cessation of all sufferings. It is the completion of all the realizations of all qualities and also understanding what is beneficial for oneself to achieve, namely to free all sentient beings from suffering and bring peerless happiness, complete bliss, and total peace to all. This is the ultimate goal of life, the purpose of our surviving every day, every minute, every second. That means during every second of our life, our purpose is infinite, like the sky. Therefore, since this is the meaning of our lives, we need to direct our lives toward that goal by living in that way in each second. This is done is by using the problems and difficulties in life to develop the two bodhicittas. The two bodhicittas are: 1) developing compassion and cherishing sentient beings, and 2) the wisdom realizing emptiness, using problems to practice awareness of the nature of phenomena – that which is empty. This is achieved by recognizing the false view of reality that we hold onto in our daily lives.

You should read a very important meditation text called Eight Stanzas of Thought Transformation and see if you can make a song either of all eight stanzas or of one. There are other teachings that I believe you could make songs from, such as teachings that express how sentient beings are so precious and kind to you in your life. They can be very important songs that make other people feel loving kindness simply by wishing them happiness. Songs on loving kindness and compassion are extremely beneficial, and so are songs on emptiness, the ultimate nature of phenomena, which talk about the false view and the reality of life. These are very important songs because they can directly pacify and curb emotional problems, depression, unhappiness, and so forth, by developing loving kindness, compassion, and bodhicitta toward others. So, this is one way you can transform these problems into happiness and then use that happiness to achieve satisfaction and fulfillment in your own heart.

It would be good if you could read Dharma books and attend Buddhist teachings. Then you can make very beneficial songs that benefit so many millions of minds by developing loving kindness and compassion in others’ hearts. This is what you can do. You have the opportunity because of your ability with singing and because of your fame. You have the opportunity to use these to give wisdom, to open the Dharma wisdom eye, which sees what is right, to practice, and what is wrong, to be abandoned, in order to develop a good heart in the minds of many millions of people.

This means you are able to bring so much peace and happiness, all the way to enlightenment, to them. Not only can each person develop a good heart from your example, but each of these people can also bring so much happiness, up until enlightenment, to all other beings. So, through your songs and fame you become the source of peace and happiness up until enlightenment, including peace and happiness in this life and satisfaction and fulfillment, which is what so many people in this world are hungry for. Sentient beings are looking for this every second, including ants and other small insects that keep so busy for this purpose, to find happiness. So, you become the source of so many living beings’ future happiness, their long term happiness, and then also the cause of their ultimate happiness (liberation from all suffering and its causes), enlightenment.

Later, you could give talks on Dharma meditation and also teach, after you have done some study, meditation practice, and retreat. That will make all your efforts in singing songs since childhood until now and developing your skill and fame become extremely meaningful. You have the potential to bring so many beings to the right path, the unmistaken path to happiness, liberation, and enlightenment. That means so many sentient beings can achieve so much peace and happiness, up until enlightenment, from you. You have the responsibility to cause this.