Member of the FPMT

Dearest Lisa,
I regret to say that I have been in hospital for the last two weeks, thus unable to be actively involved in the work of the center. With the Ven. Geshe’s visit approaching it has been quite distressing, since I considered this to be a very important first task as a director. Luckily there has been a good support from the SPC and others.

Unfortunately, the situation with my health seems to be quite serious. Last year I was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor (while breastfeeding my 10-month-old baby), and had a treatment for it all summer. Everything seemed to go perfectly. But now the back pain I thought was due to an injury seems to be from the cancer cell metastasis in my back. I am back home now trying to stabilize my health after one chemotherapy treatment, lots of injections, and everything that the hospital comes up with. I am trying to keep my spirits up. I meditate as much as I can, even though it’s hard to sit still. I also recite Medicine Buddha short mantra, and I have been reading and writing the Long Life Sutra for some time. My friend recommended that, if possible, I should try to seek advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as to what would be the best to do in this situation. I would appreciate it very very much.

ps. The time in hospital was such an interesting lesson for me in compassion, samsara, and pain. It really was.

Rinpoche’s response:

Dear Joan,

I was able to check regarding your health, and I advise the following:

1) Recite Black Manjrushri mantra.

2) Have the puja performed called Shernyi Do Dok. I will arrange for this to be done for you as soon as possible.

3) Recite the mantra pacifying all the sicknesses 18 times a day.

4) Drink Palden Lhamo lake water (water from Lhamo Lhatso lake in Tibet). This may be very hard to find; maybe your friend might know how to get it.

5) Take these precious pills (Tibetan medicine):

a) Moon Crystal: Two pills
b) Rinchen manjor: Five pills

Take one pill every three days. I can send you these precious pills if you are unable to get them. If that is the case, please send me your postal address.

6) Liberate animals equaling the number of your age. Use the practice that I have put together on how to liberate animals.

7) Print 100 copies of the Long Life Sutra (print it on yellow paper). After you have printed them keep them on your altar and later they can go inside a stupa.

I am also making prayers for you and also the Sangha in my house are making prayers for you. Please continue with the practices you are already doing.

My very dear Joan,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. According to my observations, it is best for you to continue treatment with your Chinese doctor and taking Eastern medicine.

It would be very good for you to practice Most Secret Hayagriva. Make strong requests to Hayagriva (visualize him in front of you) to immediately purify all your sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and obscurations and to receive all the qualities, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, especially all the qualities of Hayagriva's enlightened body, speech, and mind, so that you can enlighten all sentient beings. Then, chant the mantra.

It is also best for you to liberate 250 animals. You can do that at my house in Aptos. On the days that the nuns do animal liberation there, you can buy worms, take them there, and liberate them. If you can't buy all 250 worms at one time then you can do it a few times.

As well as dedicating the practice to your long life, also dedicate it to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's long life, as well as all the gurus, all the Sangha who preserve the holy Dharma, and all the benefactors.

In the future, after you have read the complete lamrim (such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and other lamrim books), you can take the Hayagriva initiation.

Please study the lamrim and practice meditations on the graduated path to enlightenment, step by step, as explained in the books.

Please continue to make your life most beneficial for all sentient beings.
With much love and prayers...

My very dear Joanna,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I am sorry it took so long for me to reply; I was traveling in Nepal and Asia for the last four months.

According to my divination it would be very good for you to do these things for your breast cancer:

1) Recite Black Manjrushri mantra.

2) Do Medicine Buddha practice.

3) If you can, every week (on the 8th, 15th, 20th of the Tibetan calendar, any Buddha days, or also on any day that is convenient) liberate not less than 100 animals, if possible more. You can liberate worms and insects, but also sometimes you can liberate bigger animals. It is very useful to have an altar set up with many tsatsas, stupas, statues, scriptures, and pictures of Buddha. You can put them all on a large table, and then take the animals you are going to liberate around the objects as much as you can, keeping the animals at the same level as the holy objects. Also, your family and friends can join you. You can organize this to be done at the center sometimes, with Geshe-la. It is very nice if you invite children, as they can also take the animals around the objects and liberate the animals. Then, you feel you are really giving something to the children, like giving life.

4) You should do Amitayus Long Life practice. This is also a very powerful purification practice. By doing it you purify so much negative karma and also you collect so much merit.

5) You can make photocopies of the long life text on yellow paper, once a week or whenever you can, also making strong prayers and dedications. Afterward, you can put the long life texts inside holy objects such as stupas and statues.

6) If you are able you can sometimes make long life tsatsas, of the three long life deities.

7) You should recite the Naga King mantra. As you recite the mantra, visualize beams of nectar emanating from Naga King and entering your body, speech, and mind. Instantly you are purified of all sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and obscurations, including the breast cancer. Everything is purified. All of these things come out of your body in the form of pus and blood, as well as the forms of scorpions, snakes, and dirty liquid. Your body becomes completely purified and illuminated, like the sun shining in a room. All your sickness is instantly destroyed.

Remember to do all the above practices with a bodhicitta motivation, doing them for all sentient beings as well as yourself.

Also, according to my divination there are some pujas that need to be done for you. If you ask the geshe at your Dharma center he can help you.

1) Lagyu Segu puja
2) Chag Sum puja
3) Lu Tor (Naga torma)
4) Puja of four major protectors

Also, it would be good for you to take the following Tibetan medicines:

1) Rinchen Manjor – take one a week for one week
2) Ratnasambhava pill – take one a week for two weeks
3) Moon Crystal – take one a week for one week

You should take these precious pills on alternate days. Do not take the pills together and have at least one to two days’ break between taking the pills. I am sending you these pills as it might be hard for you to get them. Soak them in hot water overnight then take them first thing in the morning, chewing the whole pill, which has softened. On the days you take precious pills you should not drink coffee or alcohol, or eat meat.

I will also make prayers for you.

With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa

P.S. Please make your like most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta.

Breast Cancer
A student in Australia was diagnosed with breast cancer and was asking for practices to perform. This is Rinpoche’s advice.

My very dear Melissa,
Thank you very much for your kind fax. I have checked regarding your health and it comes out very good for you to make 1000 offerings to Namgyalma. This can be done at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. If you email them they can organize it all. Also, you can ask them to perform twice the puja called “Betraying the Death or Gyabshi.” I will also make prayers for you.

It also comes out very good for your health for you to liberate 30,000 animals. You can get the book on how to do this from FPMT International Office [see Rinpoche's advice on animals for more information and a link to the book].

The other puja that you should have Kopan Monastery or Lawa Rinpoche at Vajrayana perform for you is Laguy Tsegng—“Hooking the Life.”

The other practice that came out very good for you to do, according to my observations, is if you can recite five malas of Medicine Buddha mantra every day. This will purify negative karma and will help you never to be reborn in the lower realms. Medicine Buddha said that even if an animal hears the Medicine Buddha mantra it would never be reborn in the lower realms.

If you don’t purify your negative karma, you will be reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry ghost, or animal, and again and again, without end, have to suffer. Therefore, you need to purify the negative karma now. If you cannot bear the cancer now, how will you bear the suffering of the lower realms? Beings have to suffer in the lower realms for an incredible length of time. It is a billion times more suffering than all the human problems put together.

Medicine Buddha mantra prevents you experiencing all these things. So, it is much more precious than vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and wish fulfilling jewels, because all this wealth means nothing, because it can’t purify negative karmas. Even if you own that much wealth, one Medicine Buddha mantra is much more precious, because it leaves the imprint of the whole path to enlightenment in your mind and it helps you to have realizations of the whole path to enlightenment. It eliminates all the gross and subtle defilements and helps you to achieve enlightenment.

Therefore, besides the benefits you receive from reciting it, also there are benefits just from hearing the mantra. Therefore, this mantra is much more precious than infinite quantities of diamonds and jewels.

With the Medicine Buddha mantra, you can liberate millions of sentient beings from oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, just reciting even one mantra or hearing it just once is much more precious than zillions of dollars. So, with full trust in Medicine Buddha, you recite the mantra, knowing that Medicine Buddha will completely take care of your life and heal you. With full trust, know how Medicine Buddha is always with you, in your heart, on your crown, and in front of you. There is not one second that Medicine Buddha does not see you or have compassion toward you.

One student in Hong Kong performs Medicine Buddha practice daily. She had a very serious brain operation. During the operation she actually saw Medicine Buddha. She had a miraculous recovery, as it was a very risky operation, but she surprised everyone, was able to recover, and is still alive. So, Medicine Buddha looked after her.

Also, a person in Taiwan, who is not Buddhist, could not move his body, could not get up, and he didn’t have any helpers. He very badly needed to take his medicine and the medicine was far away in the bathroom. Next to him was a Medicine Buddha statue and when he turned his head, he saw that the Medicine Buddha statue was holding his medicine. So, he was able to take his medicine. Later, he passed away, and when he passed away he was able to put his hands in the mudra of prostration at his heart to show that he remembered Medicine Buddha, and he passed away peacefully.

You can get the long blue Medicine Buddha booklet that Wisdom published some time ago. [Visit the FPMT Foundation Shop and search for "Medicine Buddha" to see a variety of booklets and practice materials.]

Also, a short way to practice it is by reciting the refuge and bodhicitta prayer. The purpose of my life is to free all beings from suffering and lead them to enlightenment therefore I am going to perform the Medicine Buddha practice, especially to purify the negative karma, defilements, disease, and spirit harm, as well as to facilitate healing, so that I can have a healthy and long life to offer service and actualize the path.

Visualize Medicine Buddha on the crown of your head or in front of you. Beams of nectar emit from Medicine Buddha and enter one’s own body and mind like water. They push away all the dirty things, like pouring water into a glass pipe, and all the dirty water flows out the top. All the disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obstacles are completely purified.

Also, think that all sentient beings are in your heart seated on a moon disc, especially people who have cancer. Think that the nectar is purifying the four things (disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obstacles)—all are purified, including the cancer. At the end dedicate merits in this way:

“Due to all the merits I have collected in the past and present and that I will collect in the future, may the wish-fulfilling, most precious, ultimate good heart: bodhichitta, cherishing other sentient beings and letting go of the “I,” be generated in my heart and within the hearts of all living beings without the delay of even a second. May the bodhicitta that is already generated be increased forever more.

“Due to all the merits of the past, present, and future that I have collected and that others have collected, however many sick sentient beings there are, may they be instantly liberated from their sicknesses and may sentient beings never get sick.

“Due to the merits of the three times, that which exists but is empty from its own side, collected by me and all others, may I, who exists but is empty from my own side, achieve enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, and lead sentient beings, who exist but are empty from their own side, to enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but is empty from my own side.

“I dedicate all the merits as the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjughosha realized and in the way that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate and admire the most.

“Due to all these merits, may I actualize completely the stainless teachings of Lama Tsong Khapa that unify sutra and tantra in this life, and may those teachings flourish and spread in all directions.”
With much love and prayers...

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a woman who recently found out she had cancer and requested prayers from Rinpoche.

My very dear Neela,
I heard that you have cancer and they have to operate on your breast, unfortunately. Many women in the world have had to experience this. There are numberless others who have cancer and who have to have their breasts removed.

You are quite a spiritual person, so you don’t need to be afraid of death—it is normal, after one is born one has to die. Like plants grow and die, it is a part of nature.

Of course, sentient beings can reach arhantship by actualizing total aversion to samsara, realizing that the whole of samsara is in the nature of suffering, including the desire realm—where we are—the deva realm, form realm, and formless realm. Then, by achieving the five Hinayana paths: the path of accumulation, path of merit, path of seeing, path of meditation, and path of no more learning, one is able to overcome death.

Then there are the five Mahayana paths: the path of accumulation, path of merit, path of seeing, path of meditation, and path of no more learning. When the Mahayana paramita path is achieved, one completely abandons the sufferings of old age, sickness, and death. Then one actualizes the highest tantra generation and completion stages in order to achieve enlightenment quickly. The completion stage has five paths: isolation of body, isolation of speech and isolation of mind, illusory body, clear light, and the state of union—the path of no-more-learning. Clear light has two kinds—example clear light and meaning clear light. When one achieves the meaning clear light, then one overcomes death and one is totally, completely free.

If you are able to achieve even one path then you are free of death, with no more rebirths, no more suffering between birth and death. If not, then we have to go through the cycle of death and rebirth and all the suffering, such as the three types of suffering: the suffering of change, the suffering of pain, and the suffering of conditionality. Then there are the six types of suffering: the suffering of uncertainty, the suffering of insatiability, the suffering of casting off bodies repeatedly, the suffering of repeated rebirth, the suffering of repeatedly descending from high to low, and the suffering of having no companions. Also, there is the general suffering and four types of suffering: of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

There are also the specific sufferings, such as being reborn in the eight hot hells, eight cold hells, and 16 surrounding hells, with the inconceivable suffering of heat and cold, being killed, beaten, tortured, etc.

There is the suffering of the pretas: the heavy suffering of hunger and thirst for thousands of years, unable to find a spoonful of food or to find a drop of water, and suffering extreme heat and cold.

There is the suffering of the animal realm: being eaten by others, always having incredible fear, the suffering of being hot and cold, being used for work, and being beaten.

There is the suffering of humans: of pain, hunger and thirst, unpleasant sensations of heat and cold, the suffering of searching for sustenance, becoming fatigued, as well as the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

There are the sufferings of the demi-gods: being tortured by envy and fighting, enduring the suffering of having their bodies cut; and the suffering of being intelligent but unable to see the truth because of mental obscurations.

There is the suffering of the god realm: the suffering of dying and falling to a lower rebirth.

Therefore, we need to actually practice. Just worshipping is not sufficient; we need to actualize the path. If we don’t like suffering then we need to eliminate the causes of suffering: the delusions and karma. Only then can we achieve ultimate happiness, liberation, and freedom from samsara.

Then, if one can actualize the Mahayana path, one eliminates even the subtle defilements and achieves full enlightenment, and one is able to liberate numberless sentient beings, freeing them from the vast suffering of samsara and bringing them to full enlightenment; one is able to enlighten all sentient beings. That is the main object of our life, the purpose of our life and purpose of living. The purpose of our survival is to accomplish this.

So, we really need to learn what Buddha taught. Buddha is the only one who taught the whole path to liberation. Other religions are good but do not include the complete path to enlightenment.

I send you my love and prayers and also I am making prayers for you.