Study and Practice Advice for a New Student 

Study and Practice Advice for a New Student 

Date Posted:
September 2009

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a new student.

Your main deity is Guhyasamaja. Other deities are Chenrezig/Gyalwa Gyatso and Most Secret Hayagriva. When the opportunity comes you can take the initiation. The most important thing is having a foundation in the lam-rim. You should now be studying the lam-rim.

The main lam-rim book for you to read now is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Read it at least four times, also Lama Tsongkhapa's middle lam-rim. Also, use the book The Essential Nectar, like a pocket lam-rim. It is good to use during your meditation. Also, there is a lam-rim outline in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche

Meditate on guru devotion now, from the outline. Practice one meditation on guru devotion and one meditation on the perfect human rebirth. Use The Essential Nectar as the outline. Also, practice one meditation on emptiness; read the commentary on emptiness in The Principal Teachings of Buddhism by Je Tsongkhapa, translated by Geshe Lobsang Tharchin.

After this, chant OM MANI PADME HUM, Medicine Buddha mantra, and Namgyalma mantra.

For the rest of the day do your activities with the thought of guru devotion; another day do them with the thought of renunciation of samsara (nature of suffering), impermanence, and death. You can use this verse to help you reflect on this, from “Praise to Shakyamuni Buddha”:

Like a star, a mirage, a lamp,
Illusion, drop of dew, bubbles,
Dreams, lightning, and clouds
Look at all conditioned phenomena as such

Another day with the thought of bodhicitta.

Another day with mindfulness of emptiness, what appears is not true, it is false, recognize the hallucination.

So, practice like this, alternating daily. Of course, daily, you always motivate by generating bodhicitta:

“The purpose of my life is to free sentient beings from all the suffering causes and bring them to enlightenment, therefore I am going to do….” Add whatever activity you are doing. Bodhicitta turns ka ka into gold, turns iron into gold. Even if it is the day to focus on emptiness, still always have bodhicitta.

Tsa-tsa practice: Make 5,000 tsa-tsas of Tara and Medicine Buddha.

Other tsa-tsas, on top of those, that you can make, are some Most Secret Hayagriva and Gyalwa Gyatso.

Water bowls practice: 7,000.

Sur practice: for your father. This has great benefit, and creates the cause to go to the pure land, to have success, and pacifies obstacles. The spirits eat the smell. It pays back karmic debts, and is a great practice of charity.

It would be good to have the text Ser Wo Nada at your father’s house, and the Zungdu text at your friend’s house.

Mostly, you should study Dharma, practice meditation, and do retreat.