My very dear Thomas,
Thank you very much for your kind letter and offering of $100.

Regarding your question on how to proceed after achieving calm abiding, put effort into realizing emptiness. It is good if you do lots of mandala offerings to collect merit and also meditate strongly on guru devotion in order to receive blessings. Put more effort into collecting merits in order to realize emptiness.

You can do this according to the Mahamudra tradition. You make prayers requesting to the Mahamudra lineage holders, then perform Lama Chöpa, and before the very end, before the lam-rim prayer, after you finish the request, before the guru enters your heart, watch the mind. Recognize the object of refutation; try to recognize the inherently existent “I” that doesn’t exist. Then, take a minute or a second to realize emptiness, and use emptiness as the object of your one-pointed concentration. Put effort here in developing renunciation of samsara – this is the door to the path.

Check well the teachings from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand to check the stages that you have reached. Make sure there is no mistake.

Also, you have to put effort into guru devotion, until that realization comes all the time – that every single buddha is all the gurus and every single guru is all the buddhas. One is like all and all is like one, like the water, rain, river and oceans are mixed up and coming out of a waterfall. They are all oneness with the water, or like milk and water mixed as one. Your mind realizes this.

All the buddhas, bodhisattvas and sentient beings are thanking you for developing your mind in the Dharma to benefit them.

With much love and prayers and good luck...