My very dear Lisa,
I’m very happy to know your thoughts. That is the correct way to think. There is no need to go into the details, otherwise there is greater danger of creating negative karma. If you keep the details to a minimum, to what is necessary, then there is less negative karma.

We have to take responsibility for our life and future lives. Most people don’t accept future lives, so they don’t understand this. We have been suffering since beginningless time under the control of karma and delusion and we can’t continue to suffer like this—we have to get out of samsara now by actualizing the path. The path isn’t created out of the sky; it  isn’t created in a factory. We have to actualize the path.

There is a need to benefit numberless sentient beings: the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings. We have to free all these suffering beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to liberation and enlightenment. This is the main purpose of our life. This is what we need to do.

In essence, the main thing is to meditate on the lam-rim, starting from guru devotion.

With much love and prayer...