My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Not so many other preliminary practices came out [in my observation], but what came out is for you to do two thousand nyung näs. This is what Geshe Lama Konchog and many other disciples of Drupa Rinpoche did also.
Drupa Rinpoche was a great lama, who first became a lharampa geshe and then took teachings and initiations from other sects and other lamas. He then benefited so many sentient beings in the Himalayan Mountains. He organized many one hundred million OM MANI PADME HUM recitations for the people in many places, and he also started monasteries and nunneries that are still there. Now there are more nunneries.
The incarnation is in Nepal or around. He was not well, so he asked me to look after his monastery and nunnery in Tsum, which is close to Tibet. So we took care of the monastery and nunnery, and built a new monastery and developed it in many ways, with social service and education and debate and Buddhist philosophy. [See FPMT's Tsum Project.]
This lama did two thousand nyung näs himself, and I think maybe he did more than that. He had disciples who did three thousand nyung näs, many have done one thousand and now there are Western students who have finished one hundred. There is a nun who has done more than five hundred nyung näs a long time ago, and maybe she is now close to one thousand. I have been sponsoring ten people to do one hundred nyung näs each year at Institute Vajra Yogini in France.
For you, nyung nä is a great preliminary practice, so do two thousand; do as many as you can, it’s so good. This is the most powerful way to purify negative karma collected from beginningless rebirth and to collect extensive merit and in particular to develop compassion for all sentient beings. By developing compassion you will achieve enlightenment quickly, and that means you are able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings quickly and bring them to buddhahood quickly, by yourself.
If you do one nyung nä well, then you will go to the pure land. So it is really important to do the nyung näs with the motivation of impermanence and strong bodhicitta. Do the nyung näs only for the sake of other sentient beings, who are numberless—the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts and numberless animals—those living in the ocean, which are the size of a mountain; those that so small you can’t see them with your eye, only with a machine; those living on the ground, the tiny flies that fly up when you walk on the grass; and those that live in the bushes and in the sky. There are not only those in this world but also in numberless worlds and numberless universes, so do it also for the numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras and numberless intermediate state beings. Do the nyung näs for all of them. This is the most exciting, greatest happiness, to do nyung näs for them. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!
You can do that and also study Dharma always. Sometimes you can do more retreat and meditation, and sometimes do more study, or sometimes do these things together.
With much love and prayers ...
