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Whether to Have an Abortion
When a pregnant woman sought Rinpoche’s advice
on having an abortion, Rinpoche responded in the following
way.
If you are considering abortion, it is better to plan for
adoption than abortion, unless the baby may be deformed or
have terrible suffering. Even so, there is no comparison between
that suffering and the suffering of a hell realm. It is better
to be born in the human realm, even for one day.
Having an abortion could shorten both your lives, as one
of the results of killing. The negative karmic effects of
killing also include many diseases—even food could cause
you disease.
It is also an unpleasant thing for the child. If the child
were to go to a better rebirth or to a pure land, there would
be something better than this life for the child. But we can’t
tell. So it is better off here in the human realm than in
a worse realm.
Purifying Abortion
Rinpoche gave the following advice to a woman
who wanted to perform purification practices after having
had an abortion.
My very dear Janine,
I am very sorry it took eons to reply to your letter. I have
been carrying it around with me to all the countries I have
visited since I saw you. You asked me what practices you should
do to purify having had an abortion.
My suggestion is that you perform:
1) 400,000 Dorje Khadro fire pujas;
2) Prostrations to
the 35 Buddhas every morning, reciting the names of
the 35 Buddhas at least three times; that means you perform
over a hundred prostrations each day;
3) Read teachings on impermanence and death, such as Pabongka
Rinpoche’s Heart-Spoon;
4) Recite one or half a mala of Vajrasattva
mantras each night before bed.
These practices came out best in my divinations not just
to purify this life’s negative karma but generally to
purify negative karma from past lives as well. In one day,
we commit so many of the ten non-virtuous actions, many negative
karmas are created repeatedly, such as covetousness, gossiping,
etc. Therefore, these practices are not just to purify negative
karma connected with the abortion. We have created so much
negative karma in just this life, not to mention past lives.
The negative karma we have created since beginningless time
is unimaginable. We have created the cause for so much suffering
and we have yet to experience it because we have not purified
it yet.
Any action performed with the motivation of attachment,
seeking pleasure in and clinging to this life (not only anger),
creates negative karma, except actions done in relation to
holy objects (statues, stupas, and scriptures of the Buddha).
Actions performed in relation to holy objects become virtuous
because of the power of the holy object, even if you do the
action with the motivation of seeking pleasure for this life.
One’s negative karma collected since beginningless
rebirths is inconceivable – so many imprints have been
left on the mental continuum. We need to purify all of these
in order to have less obscurations and to have more opportunity
for realizations on the path. Therefore, purification is essential
in daily life, as well as collecting extensive merit, meditating
on the stages of the path (the lamrim), and onepointedly making
requests to the guru, with guru devotion, seeing the guru
as the Buddha.
Among these, it is said that purification is very important,
as well as abstaining from committing the negative karmas
again. Therefore taking vows: lay vows, the eight Mahayana
precepts, etc., helps very much. Also, the Bodhisattva vows
and Tantric vows are very powerful – the Bodhisattva
vows to achieve enlightenment and the Tantric vows to achieve
enlightenment quickly.
Therefore, the 400,000 Dorje Khadro fire pujas are not just
to purify the abortion but all the negative karmas I mentioned.
Again, many apologies that it took me so long to reply.
I really hope you will plan to do these practices. You can
do some in the form of retreat, combining with the lamrim,
and you can do some a little each day with your work. In this
way, they get done.
There is nothing more precious in this life than sentient
beings, so that means benefiting sentient beings is the most
important thing, more important than anything. The best benefit
you can offer them is to free them from all sufferings and
liberate them forever, such as freeing them from the cycle
of death and rebirth. How does one liberate them from all
the causes of suffering, delusion, and karma, so they can
achieve everlasting, ultimate happiness and total liberation,
bringing them to peerless, full enlightenment, and completing
all realizations? The only way is by Dharma, nothing else
can really benefit them except Dharma. The best way to free
sentient beings from sufferings and their causes and bring
them to enlightenment is by Dharma. To liberate others you
have to liberate yourself from all suffering and its causes:
delusion and karma. Therefore, Dharma is the most important
thing, which brings your own benefit as well as others’.
Dharma is the most important thing in one’s life.
The best practice is to meditate on the lamrim each day, to
achieve realizations in the lam rim, step by step. During
your job, whatever you are doing, eating, sleeping, etc.,
try to do it with the lamrim, especially with bodhicitta:
the thought of benefiting others. In this way, all your actions,
because they are performed with bodhicitta, become pure Dharma,
the cause of enlightenment, and the cause of happiness for
all sentient beings.
I hope this advice helps you see how urgent it is to practice
Dharma and why it is the most important thing in your life
and for others.
With much love and prayers...
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