Advice for Seven-Month Retreat

Advice for Seven-Month Retreat

Date Posted:
November 2009

Rinpoche sent the following advice to a very dedicated student, about to do seven months’ retreat. The student had been working for more than seven years in the FPMT International Office.

1. Do some nyung-näs while you are there. You can finish the twenty that are left, out of the 100 you are doing.

2. Recite each of the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names 100 times daily. You can recite them thirty-five times in each session, with three sessions.

3. Do some Vajrasattva practice.

4. Recite Chenrezig mantra: one million or three million.

5. Meditate on the lam-rim.

6. Every day, do tsog offering. You can combine this with Vajrayogini sadhana or Lama Chöpa, or short tsog offering.

7. Do one session of the Thirty-five Buddhas in the evening, lam-rim, and the Thirty-five Buddhas in between. In the afternoon, do your other commitments.

First thing in the morning, make prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas, then do Lama Chöpa, which counts as one six-session yoga, without chanting, performing it with meditation. Then, in the evening, do a short self-initiation, the one I wrote.

Regarding which deity to base the short self-initiation on, eat 100 potatoes then decide which deity (I’m joking). Sometimes you can base it on Heruka or Yamantaka. Vajrayogini doesn't have the vajra master initiation, and it is said that without the vajra master initiation, one doesn't restore broken vows. Trijang Rinpoche said you need this. So, purification happens with Vajrayogini definitely, but you need to do the vajra master initiation. Also, Cittamani Tara has incredible blessings (Trijang Rinpoche has told me this) and because of this you are purified. Sometimes you can do the tsog with the Vajrayogini self-initiation.

After finishing the lam-rim prayer of Lama Chöpa, and before the guru absorbs into you, do analytical meditation on guru devotion. After that, do fixed meditation, holding the feeling. Do the first session every day like this, using the outlines of guru devotion. Whatever you do not finish, do it the next day, and like this, go through the outlines. Then, focus on the perfect human rebirth and impermanence, going through all the lam-rim, but mainly focusing on perfect human rebirth and impermanence and death. So, the first session can be lam-rim with guru devotion, and the second session can be renunciation, from lower capable beings up to karma. Carry on like this for the first month.

Then, in the next month, continue with guru devotion but practice the meditations of the medium capable being, the three types of suffering and suffering of the devas and humans.

In the third month, meditate on bodhicitta.

In the fourth month, meditate on emptiness.

In the fifth month, practice tong-len with mani mantras. Practice the short tong-len while counting manis (you can do Nagarjuna’s prayer, the tong-len verse in Lama Chöpa, or the more extensive tong-len meditation). While meditating on the lam-rim, recite manis. You can always do that, and can still count them. When practicing tong-len take on:

  • All the suffering 
  • The causes: delusion and karma
  • The imprints: the negative imprints, including the subtle imprints
  • The unpleasant conditions.

Then give: 

  • Yourself and your body
  • The three time merits
  • The results, up to enlightenment, to all the hell beings.

All becomes a pure land, they cease all defilements and achieve all attainments, including enlightenment. After taking their suffering, they achieve all qualities of cessation.

When they attain all the perfect qualities, you can chant OM MANI PADME HUM at any time. Also, during the lam-rim meditation, you can chant OM MANI PADME HUM. Light from Chenrezig purifies all beings. Also, recite praises to Chenrezig, then recite malas. You can recite the long mantra 21 times, then OM MANI PADME HUM. After one or two malas, Chenrezig absorbs into you, then becomes emptiness. This emptiness is the emptiness of Chenrezig's holy mind. Then you become Chenrezig and beams from your heart go out and purify the six realms. You can do this in the same way as in nyung näs. So, one session should be just on Chenrezig.

If you are turning a prayer wheel, you can use the prayer wheel to purify yourself. Beams are emitted from the prayer wheel and suck all of your negative karma and defilements each time you turn it. Then, purify sentient beings in the same way. Use different Chenrezig prayers—there are many that I want to translate. These move the mind. Also, you can chant the Songtsen Gampo prayer that I translated, then the one that Jampa Chokyi translated, which purifies the six realms. You can also chant the eight verses.

The lam-rim sessions can also be performed with Chenrezig practice.

After eating lunch, you can recite the Heart Sutra, which becomes a meditation on emptiness. You don't have to recite the long version, but meditate on emptiness or the Heart Sutra, spending one day on meditation on the emptiness of the I/aggregates, the next day on the five sense objects, the next on the twelve links, etc.

Also, when you recite the lam-rim prayer, meditate on emptiness. It doesn't have to be the long one, it can be the short one, for two minutes. Also, you can practice the Dharmakaya meditation.

Then, if there is extra time, do more meditation on emptiness. After five months, do Vajrayogini retreat and nyung näs.