Member of the FPMT

Dear most precious one, you who are not a seeker of liberation for yourself but a seeker of enlightenment for all sentient beings.

I am extremely happy with what you are doing because you are practicing the heart of the eighty four thousand teachings of the Buddha (the lamrim), not just what’s “called” meditation or just only “one” meditation technique from the path.

What you are doing is putting into practice and trying to actualize what you have learned all these years. What you are doing is the real, ultimate solution for world peace, not only global peace but also for all countless universes, for all sentient beings. First one gets rid of one’s own delusions, so countless sentient beings don’t receive harm from you, only receive peace and happiness, and are liberated from the oceans of samsaric sufferings caused by delusions and karma by your revealing the path to them through your experience.

Doing retreat means you’re making war with your inner enemy—delusions, to conquer them, which have defeated you from beginningless samsaric rebirths, from time without beginning. All other enemies (external enemies) cannot last as long as that.

Therefore, it is extremely worthwhile spending time with your precious human life to make war with the inner enemies, to defeat them, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how many lifetimes or eons it takes.

Once defeated (including the seed of delusions) then that’s it, they never come back because there is no cause, because the imprint (seed) is eliminated. Therefore, this is the one time to make war with Dharma practice (the antidote to delusions), to destroy the delusions, even though it may take many lifetimes, even eons. We have this just one time to work on them with our Dharma practice.

With external enemies, even if you kill them, other beings become your enemy, and that same being will become your enemy and harm you, again and again, in other lives, without end! As long as you have the inner enemy, delusions, the external enemy will never end. If one is in harmony with other beings and offers service to them, all of them will offer benefit and happiness to you. If one devotes oneself to a delusion, it will harm you and will continue to cause suffering again and again in the future.

Even if suras, asuras, and all living beings rise up as an enemy toward me, they can’t lead me into the fire of the inexhaustible hell realm. Doing retreat is also a blessing for the area in which you live, especially if you are meditating on bodhicitta and also when you perform tantric practices.

Each of the eighty four thousand teachings taught by Buddha, every single word of the Dharma, the whole Kangyur and Tengyur, including OM MANI PADME HUM is to tame the mind, to take care of the mind. The mind enables us to achieve enlightenment and to experience hell, to experience samsara and to experience liberation, to experience peace and happiness in our daily lives and problems in our daily lives.

Whatever you experienced in the past and whatever you are experiencing now—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, and memories, including imagining the future, all of it comes from the mind. All the mountains that you can see around here came from the mind, from karma; the colours and forms, the shape of the rocks, and the mind which labels this and that—all come from the mind.

For success, one needs morality, samaya, and a good heart. Perform your practice with a good heart, and live your life with a good heart based on developing guru devotion.

In the Six Session Guru Yoga it says:

Please grant me blessings to see that achieving all the common and sublime attainments is by correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. Give up even one’s own body and life to accomplish what only pleases you.

In the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion it says:

Do everything that pleases the guru. Abandon all the things that displease him!

Why? By pleasing him or her one will achieve the sublime transcendental wisdom of omniscience.

Please enjoy these offerings and the picture of Tara for long life. But don’t have a concept of a permanent life. Death can come any day, at any moment.

There is also a photo of Mickey Mouse for you, with prayers for success in your practice.

Any experiences, any development in the heart (or actual realization), even a strong experience of lamrim, is a great development, a great progression for the FPMT organization.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear Carolyn,
I hope you are well. It is a great opportunity to be able to do retreat, please do it with bodhicitta. However, the best one is to do it with the thought of impermanence and death. At the beginning of each session think: “ I may die today, even in the session, today, or by the end of the week.”

Please dedicate the merits to His Holiness' long life and for all his holy wishes to succeed. Please also make dedications for all the obstacles to receiving funding for the Maitreya Project to be removed, as well as all the obstacles to receiving funding for all the FPMT projects, and that may all the projects that I have planned for the FPMT be successful. If you can, dedicate at the beginning and end of each session. Also, dedicate the merits so that the projects may illuminate the world, that all sentient beings’ sufferings may end, and that sentient beings may achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Regarding your question, there are two methods:

1) According to the fifth Dalai Lama, recite 400,000 of the main deity’s mantra. Then you don't need to recite the entourage mantras.

2) The normal way, because we are in degenerate times, is to recite 400,000 of the main deity’s mantra, or, if you cannot do that or do not have enough time, then it is OK to recite 100,000 of the main deity’s mantra, then 10,000 of the entourage mantra, and 50,000 (half the number you recite of the main deity’s mantra) for the mother.

I checked and, according to my observations, you should recite 10,000 entourage mantras—this would be the best. For the main deity’s mantra, you decide according to your time (ie 400,000 or 100,000).

With much love and prayers...

When looking for a suitable location for your retreat it is important for the place to be somewhere pleasant where you have the feeling that you want to stay.

First you need to do preliminary practices to pacify hindrances that may arise while abiding in retreat.

Your object of shiné can be either self as the deity or tummo. It is good to combine the generation stage with attainment of shiné, then you can do the two things at the same time. It is good to read Geshe Lamrimpa’s book that explains his experience of shiné – the proper diet and conditions. Some of this advice may not be in the Lam-rim Chen-mo. For general explanation and guidelines for shiné, rely on the Lam Rim Chenmo and Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

Every day, you need to do many prayers to complete the meditation, and also to accumulate a lot of merit. When the meditation is progressing you can cut down the prayers, but at the beginning do many mandala offerings and request to achieve the Three Great Purposes. When you reach the third or fourth stage of mental development, the main object is to complete the attainment of shiné and you can begin to gradually cut down the number of prayers. At the time your mind is stabilized in virtue, if you try to do prayers etc., they may distract you from shiné and that is not useful. So, with the purpose to attain shiné, cut down the prayers, not all at one time, gradually. Also, your usual daily sadhanas can become shorter. Once you are starting to progress, do more and more shiné.

During the Vajrasattva retreat it is good to do a self-initiation, short or long, every day, also, Lama Yeshe's Vajrasattva Tsog. This is to make your samaya vows pure, as that is the main qualification for attaining shiné.

More effort is required at the beginning; otherwise there will be obstacles later. One old student received advice from Gen Jampa Wangdu, then he went to some Hindu sadhus. He studied and debated with Geshe Rabten and was extremely well educated at an intellectual level. Then, somehow during retreat, he came to the conclusion that his gelong vows were an obstacle to attaining shiné. It was strange. He understood the detailed points but could not see this most simple one. I think it is karma that decides one’s life, it is not something to do with intelligence. If the obstacle is karma, it can be purified.

Another senior monk went up to the seventh stage, then he felt that he needed more merit and so decided to stop retreat and help his mother sell flowers. He did not continue, but he had much experience.

Then, there was the lady who thought she had overcome subtle excitement. She told me that she could enter meditation at any time. When I was living in Dharamsala she spent one year with Geshe Lamrim and in America. Then she had the idea to marry another student and a strong plan to do this developed in her mind. Shiné requires a quiet mind and renunciation; if you have a plan with attachment, then you cannot achieve shiné. His Holiness told one student to do shiné, and she became very upset – this became an obstacle to achieving shiné. When seeking advice from your teachers you must have a very good translator. If you are relating your experience, especially detailed points, you will not get the exact answer if the translator cannot understand.

Another method to collect extensive merit to complete shiné is to read the Sanghatasutra, which I have been recommending all the centers to read to collect merit for the Maitreya Project. Read this 500 times. Do it by combining reading with lamrim meditation. In the morning perform Lama Chopa and meditate on guru devotion. In the next session, meditate on the perfect human rebirth, karma, and meditations of the first scope for 30 minutes to one hour. Then read the sutra for 30 minutes to one hour. In the afternoon, do the same. A little lamrim meditation and then read the sutra for 30 – 60 minutes. This is mainly to collect merit so that when you actually do shiné there will be no obstacles. Also, it will create the cause to have a very enjoyable retreat. When all the conditions are pacified then the actual retreat does not take much time, there will be no heavy obstacles. If you do not do this you can experience lung and other obstacles.

*Note: For more information on overcoming lung and other practice problems, see the Practice Advice section of the Advice Book.

My very dear Vajrasattva retreatants,
Thank you very much for your kind email.

The fact that you have been able to complete the Vajrasattva retreat is amazing. Even just being able to do one session, let alone completing it, is incredible. So many sentient beings in the world do not have this opportunity, even many Buddhists (Buddhists are just a small group compared to other religions). Most beings do not have this opportunity, and don’t even know about such a purification practice, that can purify even broken tantric vows, and is so powerful that it can purify even the heaviest negative karma. So, the fact that you have all completed it is incredible.

Especially, it is wonderful that you have performed the retreat with bodhicitta. That makes it incredibly powerful. Even reciting one Vajrasattva mantra can purify the karma of a fully ordained monk having broken all four root vows. Even one recitation is so powerful.

The fact that you have practiced Vajrasattva with the thought of emptiness makes the practice perfect.

If you rejoice in this, your merits increase, they double, which is great! Every time you rejoice you double your merits. It is like having done the retreat twice.

So, thank you very much. I will dedicate the merits for your quick enlightenment, and thank you very much for every single breath and every single passing bead of your mala. Even if you recited a mantra mentally or in your sleep, thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

Just being in a cave… What is retreat for? It is to realize the three principles, and to create merit and purify. This is what is required for realization.

Look at Marpa and Milarepa. Marpa spent so much time scolding Milarepa and so forth, but then when Milarepa’s mother took him away to another lama, and Milarepa went into a hole to do retreat, there was nothing! No signs, zero! Then, the lama asked whether Milarepa had received permission from Marpa to come to him and do that retreat.

[For the rest of this story, see Milarepa’s biography.]

Three-Year Retreat
Rinpoche gave the following advice to a nun who wanted to do a three-year retreat in Nepal.

My very dear Melanie,
Thank you for your kind email and postcard. Sorry for the long delay in replying. According to my observations you should perform these practices:

40,000 refuge prayers
4000 mandala offerings
300,000 water bowl offerings
400,000 Dorje Khadro fire pujas
1000 recitations of the Diamond Cutter Sutra
9 Nyung Nyes

You need to do these preliminary practices and achieve whatever realization of the lam rim that you don’t have already. Put effort into actualizing realizations of the lam rim.

If you are able to have very stable deep realizations from the depths of your heart, and you can see the guru as one with all the buddhas and a buddha as one with all the gurus, with no difference between them, then it is OK, but if you don’t have this realization yet, you must put effort into this until it is stable.

If you feel no attraction to pleasurable things in your heart, including reputation and people praising you, it is OK, but if not, then you need to totally change this in your mind. You need to be stable when you meet with the four undesirable objects and four desirable objects, such as being happy when you acquire something and being unhappy when you don’t, wanting to be happy and not wanting to be unhappy, wanting fame and not wanting notoriety, and wanting to be praised and not wanting to be criticized.

When you receive praise, your mind should not change. When people criticize you, your mind is stable. Your mind is not bothered whether you receive desirable objects or not. When these things are exactly equal your mind is stable.

This is the best definition of having realized the graduated path common to the lower capable being, the first stage of the lam rim: renouncing this life. In other words, you totally change your attitude, and, instead of seeking happiness for this life, seek happiness for your future life.

You need to feel that the desire realm, form realm, formless realm, and the whole of samsara are only in the nature of suffering, and you feel aversion to them as you do to dirt or to being in the center of a fire. You are totally uninterested in being in samsara for even one second, and you have aversion to and fear of being here.

It is like how it feels to be caught in prison, trapped. You can’t stand it even for a minute, and all you can think about is to be free from that, totally wanting to be free from it day and night. So, if this is how you feel toward the whole of samsara, day and night, unable to find any attraction in all the samsaric pleasures, not just for a short time but for weeks and months, then this is having the realization, as Lama Tsong Khapa explained in the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, of really renouncing samsara, realizing the nature of samsara, and feeling that it is unbearable and that you have to be free from it.

In the same way, you realize that hundreds of sentient beings feel like that, exactly like yourself, and this is unbearable. You want them to be free from all sufferings and their causes. This is realizing great compassion, when it spontaneously arises without any effort, day and night continuously.

Then there is the way a mother feels who has one child who has fallen down a deep hole into a fire. She wants to save her child from that suffering, by herself alone, so she jumps down herself to rescue her child. Or there is the way a daughter or son feels who realizes that their mother, the most kind being, has fallen down the hole into the fire, or is drowning in the ocean, and they, alone, want to go and save her. Not only do they have that wish, they actually go and do it. This thought to work to liberate all sentient beings from all sufferings and their causes and to bring them to full enlightenment by yourself alone, and that you are going to achieve enlightenment in order to do this must spontaneously arise day and night. Whenever you see a sentient being in your daily life and you feel this spontaneously, then you have realized bodhicitta.

Then, after having trained in this, you see all phenomena as empty, and you have a definite understanding that they are empty in your heart. Realizing that an object/ phenomenon exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, means seeing how a phenomenon exists as a unification of emptiness and dependent arising. This is the middle way view, which Buddha Shakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Lama Tsong Khapa, Marpa, and Milarepa and so forth realized and expressed. This is the view of the Prasangika school, the most subtle one. When you have this realization, you have the unmistaken realization of emptiness. This is the sign of completion, as is mentioned in the Three Principal Aspects of the Path.

Then comes the tantric path, realizing the gross and subtle generation stages and the five parts of the completion stage.

So, please check what realizations you have of the lam rim and if you find any that you don’t have, then please put all your effort into those. Read Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, Lama Tsong Khapa’s Lam-rim Chen-mo, and try to have extremely valid realizations. This is the most important thing, not only the most beneficial thing for you but for the whole world. This is the best gift to the world and for all sentient beings. Especially put effort into achieving bodhicitta.

According to my observations, it came out very good for you to practice shiné, calm abiding, meditation. This came out most beneficial.

Pure morality is the most important cause of shiné, and I am sure you have that, there is no question. Whether you do a three-year retreat on a deity or not, try to practice shiné. The object that came out most beneficial for you is to practice shiné on the clarity of your mind. Use the nature of the mind as the object of shiné. If that is very difficult, then choose another object the various objects of shiné, something on which you can easily keep concentration.

If you are able, try to achieve the nine stages of shiné, as is explained in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. According to my observations, it is best for you to do a one-year Hayagriva retreat and then practice shiné. Maybe that is because the retreat will create a lot of merit and purify a lot of obstacles so that you can achieve shiné. So, this is my advice.

I still regret that I didn’t really get to spend time to talk to you at Kopan the last time when you asked if it was OK to practice Lama Tsong Khapa guru yoga. However, if, after all these years, your mind has lived in the lam rim, then that is the main point of one’s life.

Whether you receive commentary on guru yoga and all those specific meditations or not, the main point is to have those experiences of guru devotion as I mentioned before. That would be incredible. Then, this mind becomes a wish-fulfilling jewel that brings all success up until enlightenment, and eliminates all the defilements, besides liberation from all the sufferings and causes and completing all the realizations. At the same time, you are able to cause this for all sentient beings. From being able to accomplish that mind of guru devotion, you bring all the success to yourself and to so many sentient beings.

I hope you have really meaningful time, very happy, satisfied time on retreat, and, of course, that is how it will be if one’s mind is in the lam rim. Then, one’s life is satisfied, happy, and wish fulfilling; it all depends on that.

Hopefully, some time in the future, we can do some work together translating Dharma texts.

With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa

PS. Here are three precious inner offering pills to bless and purify your mind, to help you achieve realizations.

Please write if you need any other help, either physical or regarding any other things you need or that I can help you with. I really hope to see you soon.

PPS. Also, here is an offering of US$100 for you.

Fire Pujas
Rinpoche gave the following advice on fire pujas.

The secret Mahayana Vajrayana teachings include the “offering burning” practice (Tibetan: jin.sek). Every item offered in burning pujas is good for some purpose. There are various substances that are offered to the deity during the fire puja. Each substance has potential power to affect your life. You offer grains to pacify sicknesses and to give strength; for long life you offer crepe grass; to purify pollutions you offer kusha grass; and for wealth you offer butter. Like this, all the substances offered are to actualize different potentials and types of success.

Normally, the burning pujas are offered at the end of great nearing retreats, three-year retreats, or short retreats of the enlightened being deities. These retreats are done with mantra recitation that brings you closer to the deity. The burning puja is offered to restore parts of the practice that were left out, or mantras that have been incorrectly recited or mixed up, performed with unclear concentration. It also generally purifies defilements and negative karma.

In general, there are four types of burning puja:

1. Pacifying. This is to pacify sicknesses, spirit harms, and to purify negative karma and defilements.

2. Increasing. This prolongs life, increases merit, wealth, realizations, and wisdom attainments.

3. Controlling. This gives you control over sentient beings so that they will listen to you and you can bring them into the right path, not only bringing them temporal happiness but also ultimate happiness, total liberation from suffering and its causes, to great liberation, full enlightenment, and peerless happiness. Having control over them is in order to benefit them. Also, by having control over evil beings, they stop continuously harming others and will listen to you. By having control over wealth, you can use it to benefit other beings and the teachings of the Buddha, as well as to create conducive conditions for your own practice.

4. Wrathful. This is used when other methods don't work and only wrathful action can benefit. If evil beings are giving harm to sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha, wrathful actions can stop them. If you have realizations and power, it is possible to split the consciousness from that being and transfer it to a pure land, where there is not even the word "suffering," as in suffering of rebirth, old age, sickness, relationship problems, AIDS, cancer, tsunamis, and so forth.

Of course, these wrathful fire pujas cannot be done without a motivation of strong compassion, by one living in pure morality and tantric samaya. Anyone who doesn't have pure morality cannot have pure tantric samaya. Morality is based on the fundamental virtues: abstaining from killing, stealing, telling lies, slander, hurting with words, heresy, etc. This is the very first Dharma to practice—abstinence from these negative actions that harm oneself and others. Living in morality brings happiness to oneself and others—not only temporal happiness but also liberation from suffering and all its causes.

Wrathful action needs a very stable divine pride and clarity of oneself as a deity. It cannot be done in the aspect of an ordinary being—your ordinary self is viewed as an enlightened being, a deity; the pure "I" labelled on the pure aggregates is actualized by purifying the impure aggregates and the impure "I."

Then, of course, if you have the realization of the clear light and illusory body that is very powerful. The most qualified being is the fully enlightened one, who has all the qualities.

So, offering the fire burning puja is done for these reasons.