Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book
Health :
Other Illnesses
- Other Illnesses
- Other Illnesses, continued
- Chronic Fatigue
- Headaches and Stress
- Children's Illnesses
- Heart Disease
- Paralysis
Other Illnesses
| Tuberculosis | |
| Rinpoche sent the following advice to a student who had tuberculosis. | |
Please do this practice for your tuberculosis. Recite the following Black Manjushri mantra:
OM TA SOD CHU SOD TUR TA SOD TUR MI SOD NGING GO LA CHOD KHA LA TSA AM TAM BAD PHET SOHA SARWA JORA LOCA DURA BUDDHANAM KOPATARE SHIN TING KURU SOHA
Recite this, follow this sound, and if you have devotion there will be great benefit. Black Manjushri mantra is highly beneficial for healing ulcers, tuberculosis, and so forth. Generate a bodhicitta motivation by thinking:
"I have received all my happiness from countless transmigratory beings, who have been my father and mother numberless times, and have been extremely kind numberless times. I must lead them to enlightenment, and therefore I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I am going to recite this mantra to benefit the transmigratory sentient beings who are devoid of happiness and who are tormented by suffering.”
Then, thinking in this way, recite the mantra.
Visualize Black Manjushri and calm, clear nectar being emitted and purifying your negativities and all disease, negative karma, and defilements, and then generate strong faith that when you stop reciting the mantra you have received all Manjushri’s qualities within you.
| Liver Disease | |
| A student’s brother was in hospital with a very bad liver condition. The liver wasn’t responding to the medicine. The brother had abused alcohol and heroin for many years. | |
My very dear Jack,
This is what came out best for your brother:
1) He should sip a few drops of blessed water three times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening).
2) You should bless some water with at least two malas of Hayagriva mantra, blow on the water, and send it to him. He should drink that four times a day.
3) He should take four mani pills every day.
4) He should take six Khungna pills for five weeks.
5) He should have Chi Lu puja (Betraying the Death) performed for him.
6) If possible he should take a long life initiation.
7) He should recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra seven times.
8) He should recite the Golden Light Sutra six times.
9) He needs to make 1000 long life tsa-tsas.
10)You should read the attached text for him four times.
I am also making prayers for him and also I asked the Sangha in my house to dedicate the next few months’ animal liberations for him (they do three a month), as well as to dedicate some long life tsa-tsas they are making to him.
With much love and prayers...
| Fatigue and Lyme Disease | |
| A student had been very sick with fatigue, depression, and recently caught Lyme Disease. She wrote a letter explaining all the practices she had done and asking for advice. | |
My very dear Loretta,
Thank you very much for your kind letter and offering.
The first thing you should do is think that all your sicknesses are the result of past negative karma. Accept this as purification and then it is also healing. Think that the sickness is also bringing inner peace and on top of that incredible joy. When you take all the suffering on or when you experience the sickness you have for others, with strong compassion, then it can bring incredible happiness.
Sometimes, also perform Medicine Buddha puja. If you can, practice the middle-length version.
It comes out best for you to practice Vajrapani/Hayagriva/Garuda and also to practice Secret Vajrapani for the Lyme Disease.
If a lama is giving either of these two initiations, you can take them. Usually they don’t have a sadhana commitment, unless the particular lama is giving that.
Secret Vajrapani came out best for you to do for healing the Lyme Disease. It is good if you don’t just recite the mantra but also do the visualization purifying all your sickness, disease, spirit harm, and negative karma, with a strong meditation.
After you receive the initiation, then you can visualize yourself as the deity. The ten direction buddhas, who are the deity, emit beams of nectar, which absorb into your heart. Nectar emits from that, illuminating you and purifying the four things (sickness, disease, spirit harm, and negative karma). Then, you receive all the realizations up to enlightenment.
Recite the long mantra 21 times or more, then the short mantra as much as you can. After each mala generate strong faith that everything is purified. Before you finish the 21 recitations, think that you are purifying other sentient beings. Beams emit from you, the deity’s heart, and they all achieve enlightenment through you.
As far as your practice, you are a very sincere and wonderful person that you are able to do all this practice. However, if you have difficulties continuing to do all the practices, then do most of what you can in the morning and the rest in the evening before you go to bed, or anytime in the night.
My suggestion, first, is that everyone should recite OM MANI PADME HUM to develop bodhicitta in order to enlighten all sentient beings. Also, everyone should recite Medicine Buddha mantra for success and to purify.
These two mantras are fundamental to practice every day. After that, perform any other commitments you have been given by other lamas. If you don’t have commitments for the other practices that you do, then just do them when you have time and are able, but the main thing is to do the practices that you have a commitment to do, try as much as possible, and if you miss them then continue the next day.
I recommend you put all your effort into what the lama has given you or advised you to do. The practices usually have long, middle, and short sadhanas, so for the deities you can do the short sadhana, except for the deity with which you have strongest connection with. For that one, it is good if you are able to do the long sadhana. In each sadhana the main thing is to focus on the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya meditations. These are the three practices you should focus on. According to His Holiness Serkong Rinpoche, you should do more practice and perform the longer sadhana of whichever deity is your main deity. If you don’t have much time, you can practice the other deities quickly, but in each sadhana focus on the three kayas.
It is important to remember death each day, that life is short, even though you are doing practices and pujas and taking medication for your sicknesses to prolong your life. In your mind you should use the sickness in the path to enlightenment, not just in the path to happiness. This is caused by experiencing all sicknesses for the benefit of all sentient beings, or on behalf of all sentient beings.
With much love and prayers...
| Ross River Fever | |
| Rinpoche recommended the following practices for a student who had been diagnosed with Ross River Fever, a mosquito-borne illness. | |
Dear Colin,
My advice is as follows:
1. Recite two malas a day of the Secret Vajrapani mantra.
2. Recite the Vajra Armour mantra. [Find the practice on the FPMT website.]
3. Make offerings to the Buddha and the ten pandits.
4. Take the "eating mantra for healing" three times a day for eight weeks.
5. Wear protective seeds.
6. Take three mani pills a day.
| Meniere’s Disease | |
| Rinpoche sent the following note to a student suffering with Meniere’s Disease. | |
My very dear Winnie,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I’m sorry for the long delay in replying. I checked what you can do for your health and this is what came out:
1) Two Trukchuma pujas. Ask the geshe in the Dharma Center to do these for you.
2) Gyabshi Puja—Also ask the geshe to do this for you.
3) Request the geshe at the center to chant Hayagriva mantra and blow in your ear.
Also, you should practice Medicine Buddha and animal liberations. Often at the center they organize them, so you can participate in them there.
I am also making prayers for you and I have asked the Sangha at my house to dedicate long lifa tsa-tsas for you and to dedicate the merit to you when they perform animal liberations.
Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta.
With much love and prayers...
| Very Sick Student | |
| Rinpoche sent the following advice to a very sick student. Her symptoms are listed below. | |
Student’s symptoms: Extreme fatigue and weakness, soreness throughout the body; feeling as if she was burning up and freezing (perhaps due to menopause); cervical and uterine growths (one cervical growth was removed); episodic painful aching inside the bones, especially in the arms, legs, hands and feet, and episodic stabbing pain in the neck, shoulders, mid-back, lower back, feet and hands; numbness in the hands and feet; lack of range of motion in the neck (degenerative arthritis with spondylosis [arthritis making holes in the bones] at C4 and 5 and L4 and 5 and degenerative disc disease); spasms in the intestine causing immediate explosive blood, feces and mucus (which she cannot control); burning in the intestine and anus; gas and bloating, with digestion impaired; blood clots and bloody mucus with discharges that look like flesh/skin; cramping and feeling of painful knotting up of the intestine (ulcerative colitis); joints make a cracking sound when she moves.
This is my advice for you:
1) I need to bless some mantra water for you to drink a sip of every day until the water is finished.
2) His Holiness the Dalai Lama Vajrakilaya powder: Take two teaspoons a day (morning and evening) for five days. I will give you this.
3) Padmasambhava mantra: Eat ten a day for one month. Your friend will make this up into tsampa balls. You need to put the head of the mantra in your mouth first. Don’t bite it, but swallow it whole.
4) Most Secret Hayagriva mantra: For you to eat. Your friend will make this. I have hand-written the mantra and I will make a stamp of it. You should eat eight a day for five weeks.
5) Khung la pill: Four a day for ten weeks. I will give these to you.
6) Hayagriva Tsong Kong: This is a very extensive Hayagriva puja. I will organize this at Sera.
7) Wear the protection mantra liberating body, speech, and mind. I will give this to you. Make sure you wear it all the time.
8) Wear the six syllable mantra. I will write this and give it to you. Also, wear this all the time.
9) I asked a monk to read a number of texts for you yesterday, for protection. Maybe it would be nice to make a small offering to him for this.
10) You need to do White Heruka practice every day for five weeks. [This practice is available from the FPMT Foundation Store.]
11) You need to make 100 long life tsa-tsas (divide them between you and the two nuns). When you have finished, it would be good to make a small offering to both of them for this.
| Insomnia | |
| A student who suffered with insomnia wrote to Rinpoche for advice. | |
Dear Sonia,
The mantra you need to recite is as follows:
HAY HAY LI YO PAK TAI YA
Please recite half or one mala, or recite it 21 times, and then blow on your food. Also, you can hang the mantra around your neck or put it under your pillow. If you wish to be able to sleep, you should do this practice. If you do this, then definitely you will be able to sleep, without doubt.
Another remedy is to take some nail clippings and hair from a girl born in the year of the tiger, and write the mantra on a piece of paper. Put these things and the mantra inside the mouth of a frog made of wax. In the daytime, turn the frog toward you; in the nighttime, turn the frog away from you, then you will sleep well.
You can also paint saffron on the mantra below:
OM TSEDAREA GOR TIN LA PEMO MU KYE MAL CHOR CHOR
There are also other methods for lack of sleep due to spirits.
| Asthma | |
| A student with severe asthma wrote to Rinpoche for advice. Her new medication was also giving her depression and mood swings. | |
My very dear Paula,
Thank you very much for your email. I am sorry for the long delay in replying.
According to my observations, you need to do purification practice and confession to the gurus. This is not necessarily only your gurus in this lifetime but also all your past lives. To do this, Samayavajra practice would be very beneficial, also Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga practice [which is available from the FPMT Foundation Store.] Do these practices as much as you can.
Then, specifically for your health, it is best for you to recite the White Umbrella prayer and mantra as much as possible. Four malas a day would be best or at least one mala a day. This practice has many benefits, one particular benefit is healing asthma. This practice is very powerful for purification and protection.
Also, it would be very good if you could sponsor a big puja of wrathful White Umbrella in one of the great monasteries, but this may not be possible to do. It may cost a lot and be difficult to organize. However, you can organize 5000 White Umbrella prayers to be recited at Sera Jhe Teho Khangtsen. This would be very beneficial for you and I can help you to organize this. I don't think this puja would be too expensive. When the bill comes you should think when you are paying it that you are making offerings to the Sangha, so you collect a lot of merit, because there are so many monks at the monastery and most of them are fully ordained; there is more merit in offering to a fully ordained monk. Also, all these monks are disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so by making one offering to them you are making offerings to the pores of the guru. Offering to the pores of the guru collects far more merit than making offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sanghas, statues, stupas, scriptures, and all the holy objects. So, when you make the offering think that you are offering to the guru’s pores, by remembering His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and then you collect a lot of merit.
Then, you can dedicate all this merit not only to your healing but to all sentient beings achieving all happiness, especially enlightenment. This way it benefits everybody, every single sentient being. Also, the merits can be dedicated to the long life of His Holiness and all other holy beings, that all their wishes are fulfilled. Dedicate that Buddhism, from where all sentient beings’ happiness comes, will last long, flourish, and spread. Also, make dedications to actualize the whole path up to enlightenment as quickly as possible, for you to achieve enlightenment. I will send you a picture of White Umbrella Deity.
Then, it would be very good for you to liberate 400 animals. Try to do this yourself. You can do this at the Dharma center and with other people. I have asked the Sangha at my house in the USA who practice animal liberation three times a month to dedicate it to you for some time. Do the animal liberation practice that I have put together, put as many holy objects as you can on a table (tsa-tsas, statues, scriptures, etc) then circumambulate the animals around the holy objects, chant mantras and bless water, which you then sprinkle on the animals before you release them.
Take a long life initiation 100 times. This means that during the initiation the geshe should put the torma on your head 100 times, and at that time you should visualize the long life deity absorbing into you 100 times, and that you are achieving immortal realizations. As you hear the geshe repeating the mantra DZA HUM BAM HO think the torma deity absorbs into you.
You need to have the puja called "Betraying the Death” (in Tibetan, Chi Lu) done for you. It can be based on Sang Cho, Kha Bar, Tara Cittamani, Lama Atisha, Tendrel Chi Lu, or other deities. Ask the geshe at the Dharma center if he can do this for you. You should make an offering to him when he does the puja.
You need to make 150 Long Life tsa-tsas. It is best if you can do this yourself. You can think that this is part of your preliminary practices. You do need to know well how to make them so there are no bubbles or faults in the tsa-tsas, otherwise you might spoil many tsa-tsas.
Ask the geshe to do tul dup five times. Also, try to do the practice “Torma Purifying the Obscuring Pollution” five times.
If all these pujas can be done within two weeks then maybe it would be best to stop taking western medicine. In my observations, there would seem to be some harm in this case. However, to stop taking it before doing all these practices could be dangerous, there could be obstacles. If you do all these practices then maybe it would be good to stop taking the medicine, but still you need to check with your doctor to make sure. If I have any more information I will let you know.
I am very sorry for such a long delay in answering you. I must apologize for that.
With much love and prayers...
| Eliminating the Defects of the Eyes | |
| Rinpoche gave the following practice advice on how to cure defects in the eyes. | |
Motivation
The purpose of my life is not to achieve happiness for myself but to free all livings beings from suffering and its cause and lead them to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. Therefore, I am going to practice the purification and healing of defects of the eyes.
Visualization
In front of the sky is Blue Tara. Her right hand is holding a vase healing sicknesses of the eye. With this visualization, make the seven limb offering.
Visualize that on your two eye balls are the black syllables BAM, the essence of which is the defects of your eyes, defilements, and negative karma.
Make a request to Tara to pacify all the defects of the eyes.
At the front of Tara’s heart is a moon disc. In the center of the disc is Tara’s ten-syllable mantra circling clockwise.
Then, white beams of cooling nectar flow from Tara’s vase into your eyes. They eliminate and purify the black BAMs.
The black BAMs, which in essence are the defects of your eyes, all defilements, and negative karma are completely purified.
Your eyes become exactly the same as Arya Tara’s transcendental wisdom eyes (seeing directly all phenomena and the past, present, and future).
Then recite the mantra:
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA/ OM SALAY SALAY MUN SALAY KUN HRIK SVAHA/
Recite one mala of this mantra or as many times as you like.
Then, the front deity Tara melts into light and is absorbed into your eyes, completely eliminating and purifying all defects of your eyes, all defilements, and negative karma.
| Bird Flu | |
| Rinpoche gave the following advice regarding which practices would be helpful in stopping the bird flu epidemic. | |
The mantra destroying negative karmas
Thang Tong Gyalpo—Prayer liberating Sakya from disease
Black Garuda practice
Vajra Armor mantra. It would be very useful to do retreat on the vajra armor mantra. It doesn't have to be a strict retreat; it could also be just reciting one mala a day.
Guru Rinpoche prayers to clear away obstacles
[Note: There is a page on the FPMT website dedicated to Rinpoche's advice related to the bird flu.]
| Advice for Kidney Stones | |
| Rinpoche gave the following instructions to a student suffering with kidney stones and was informed that it worked within two days. | |
Dear Angela,
Mix water and butter and add an Inner Offering pill. Recite many OM MANI PADME HUM mantras (at least 4000) over it, blowing on the mixture after each mala, then drink the mixture for three days.
| Sleeping |
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| A student in Australia had a big problem with not being able to sleep. She had tried conventional medicine and natural healing, to no success. She asked Rinpoche for advice. | |
My very dear Camilla,
Thank you very much for your kind e-mail. I am sorry it took so long to reply.
Actually, my job is putting people to sleep. I think you know this.
If you can't fall asleep, one method is to recite prayers and read the lam-rim. Often, when you perform practices, obstacles arise such as falling asleep. So, maybe if you try to meditate for a long time, you will fall asleep.
One time, Geshe Legden was in Delhi with Rhongta Rinpoche and they were sharing the same room, and Geshe Legden said he could not fall asleep. Rhongta Rinpoche said, “If you recite prayers, you will fall asleep.” Partly, he was joking.
People in the West think that it is a problem if you do not sleep, like there is something wrong with you. But it is only a problem if it is causing harm to your health. Otherwise, it can be very useful. Maybe people who need to practice clear light meditation need to sleep.
Anyway, according to my divinations it seems that eating meat comes out very beneficial for you, as well as eating garlic and onions. These things can help with lung (wind imbalance). Also, you can drink the broth from bones, boiling the bones in hot water.
The best thing to do is the practice of the 35 Buddhas: prostrations and recitation. If you do this as much as possible, it may help, because it purifies your negative karma and creates the cause for you to achieve enlightenment. You can do it in the morning or evening, whichever is best.
I will also make prayers for you.
With much love and prayers...
| Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding |
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| A nun had problems with excessive uterine bleeding and wrote to Rinpoche for advice. The bleeding stopped after she took the pill that Rinpoche sent her and did the meditation he recommended. | |
Please take this inner offering pill for the bleeding. Please also do White Tara meditation.
A student in New Zealand was bleeding every day. When she did prostrations to the 35 Buddhas, the bleeding stopped after two days. Her mind, which had been unhappy, also became happy.
