Dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Sorry it took eons to reply.

You are very fortunate to have met the Buddhadharma and even more than that you are extremely fortunate to be able to practice, because the Buddhadharma is the only complete path to remove the suffering of the cycle of death and rebirth and all the sufferings in between. It is the only complete path to purify all negative karma and its causes—karma. It is the complete path to achieve full enlightenment by eliminating all the subtle defilements, and to be able to enlighten all sentient beings. So, you are extremely fortunate.

Your main practice should be lamrim. Try to have realizations of the Three Principles of the Path, on the basis of guru devotion. So that you can be successful, I am sending you some preliminary practices to do. You can do one preliminary practice a little each day while you are working and sometimes you can do a semi-retreat for a weekend or 10 days and do preliminary practices combined with lamrim. It is very good also to do deity retreat sometimes, combined with lamrim.

Please continue to practice Guru Shakyamuni Buddha meditation every day, and combine the lamrim meditations on the basis of that, using a lamrim text such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Then, before going to sleep, please practice Vajrasattva using the four powers.

If you are able to read the King of Prayers each night, which is the extensive dedication prayer, that would be very good. If you can’t recite it every day, then read it when you have time.

Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta.

You can do the following preliminary practices:

• 300,000 prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas
• 300,000 mandala offerings
• 50,000 water bowl offerings
• 5,000 tsa tsas
• 700,000 OM MANI PADME HUM recitations

Please meditate for three months on the lower path, four months on the middle path, five months on bodhicitta, and five months on emptiness.

With much love and prayers...