My most dear, most kind, most precious Anita,
I received your message that you have a recurrence of breast cancer. If possible, please try to read the Diamond Cutter Sutra three times a day for five days. This is a very, very, very powerful teaching of the Buddha and a very quick way to purify negative karma. You will understand this by reading it.

People in the world are very scared of cancer, except for those who have a very good heart and who know that they can experience the cancer for others, for all sentient beings. In reality, consciousness continues even when the body disintegrates and separates from the continuity of consciousness. So there is reincarnation. And so much of the everyday happiness and problems that we experience in our lives is the result of our past lives’ karma, or action, which is of course physical, verbal and mental. So there is a reason why everything happens.

Even a person who looks very beautiful, so beautiful, can totally change in the later part of their life and the body can become completely different and deformed. Then nothing can be changed and they have to suffer more and more and more pain. This kind of change can happen even within one life; in the early part of our life we can be very beautiful and later in life that can totally change and it can be very upsetting and disturbing. Then we think, “What have I done? I haven’t done anything negative.” It makes us think like this. So when we experience this kind of result we think that we really haven’t done any very bad negative action, but of course that’s because of ignorance, not knowing the details of karma. Whatever happens to us in this life, much of it is the result of past karma. It could even be karma that was created a million, billion, or zillion eons ago. We can’t really say, “Oh, I haven’t done this negative karma.” It could be even longer ago than that, so many eons in the past. Karma is very frightening if it’s not purified.

So one way you are thinking now to purify, to do some practice, and that’s very wise. Even if you do purification for only one day or one hour it is still worthwhile, especially if you do the purification not for yourself but for numberless sentient beings; to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment.

This is mentioned in the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, which was taught by the Buddha, practiced by the great Indian yogis who achieved enlightenment and analyzed by the great pandits, such as Nagarjuna and so forth, to check whether the Buddha’s teachings were correct or not. So many of these holy beings became enlightened.

In the Mahayana teaching by Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung, it says,

Even this small suffering finishes past negative karma 
And there will be happiness in the future. 
Therefore be happy with the present suffering.

This is one of the ways to transform suffering and worry into happiness by looking at it as positive. Experiencing suffering now definitely finishes past negative karma. There are more things mentioned in the teaching,

Bad conditions are the virtuous friend, 
Obstacles are a means of persuading you to practice virtue. 
Disease is the broom to clean away negative karma.

Also,

Disease is a manifestation of emptiness only, ultimate reality.

And,

Sufferings, such as disease, are the blessings of the guru to purify you.

That means the guru is purifying you especially by using suffering, obstacles, bad conditions and sicknesses. Experience these for numberless sentient beings and let them be totally free and achieve the dharmakaya. Give sentient beings all your happiness—not only temporary happiness, but also liberation from samsara, the blissful state of peace, and the peerless happiness of full enlightenment; and give them all the causes of happiness—your virtues of the past, present and future. Give this to every single sentient being: every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura, asura and intermediate state being. There are numberless beings in each realm, so give to every one of them and let them become enlightened, to become a buddha.

Especially when you use suffering for tong-len, the practice of taking and giving, and bodhicitta, this is the best healing, the best purification and the way to collect skies of merit, or good karma, the cause of happiness. This is also what pleases all the buddhas and bodhisattvas most. And even if death comes while you are doing this practice, you never get reborn in the lower realms; it is fully guaranteed that you will be reborn in a pure land.

Tong-len means dedicating your life not just for your family, not just for one hundred people, but dedicating your life for numberless sentient beings. Wow, wow, wow, wow! Dedicating your life for numberless sentient beings. Wow, wow, wow, wow! For example, there are numberless ants. There are numberless creatures in the ocean; some large like whales and others so small you can only see them through a microscope. There are numberless creatures on the ground and in the sky.

Practicing this way brings the happiest inner life and the greatest satisfaction. It is the most wish-fulfilling and quickest way to achieve full enlightenment, peerless happiness, the total cessation of all the obstacles gross and subtle, the complete realization, for sentient beings, to free every one of them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. Using suffering in this way is the best way to achieve full enlightenment, the fully awakened state, for others.

Now the next thing I’m going to mention is why it is important to practice even if there is only one day or one hour left. In reality, cancer is nothing. After death if our negative karma has not been purified we will have to go to the lower realms and then it’s not sure when we will be able to come back to the human and deva realms again. We may have to experience many eons of suffering and that suffering is unimaginable. Wow, wow, wow, wow, you can’t imagine that suffering. You can’t imagine it. The suffering of the lower realms is like the sky. You can’t imagine it. People in the world have no idea of reincarnation, karma, the next life and the suffering of the lower realms that results from negative karma. They have no idea.

Therefore, doing things such as reciting the Diamond Cutter Sutra is unbelievably, unbelievably, most unbelievably powerful to purify negative karma, even if the present disease doesn’t go away immediately. So it’s unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably fortunate to read the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Then later you can read also once or twice a day. So continue to read the sutra. While you are reading the sutra think that the Buddha is teaching you and that you are actualizing the path within you. Also think that as you recite the words of the sutra you are teaching all the numberless sentient beings and they are actualizing the path to enlightenment. That’s very good.

Thank you very much

With much love and prayer...