From the student’s original letter:

“When I met you two years ago, I felt an immediate connection. I have felt you guiding me in many ways since that time, including in dreams. I am so appreciative of your kind and generous help as I struggle toward becoming enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. Recently, you asked FPMT centers to recite the Sanghata Sutra and dedicate it to the Maitreya Project. I decided to do this—recited it twice for that purpose, but I continue to recite it now in my daily practice because I just love it. I find it very useful in helping me have a good motivation during the day, and having a more peaceful state of mind. My cat is usually with me when I recite it, and I keep my window open so as to benefit all the creatures in my garden. So, I am extremely grateful for your guidance in asking us to recite this amazing sutra. I have a goal to some day actually write it out as well. I have previously memorized the Heart Sutra, and enjoy reciting that as well.

"I am a minister in a Christian church. This is not a traditional church, and I am not a traditional minister. Most people in my church are happy that I am also a Buddhist, and I often include Buddhist readings and ideas in my services. I imagine you will wonder if I believe in or teach about a ‘creator God,’ because that would go against my Buddhist precepts. I do not believe or teach about that kind of God. My emphasis is on Jesus’ teachings about love and compassion. When I refer to God, I almost always just use the word Love, because I don’t believe in a God that is an entity. A Buddhist monk and I have many conversations about this. I don’t know how long I will remain as a Christian pastor, but for now, I am happy to be the spiritual guide in this community. I believe my Buddhist practice helps me to be a better teacher and pastor for this community.

"I am writing to you to ask if you will consent to give me help and advice on my path to become a bodhisattva, on my way to becoming fully enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. I know I have been a Tibetan monk in other lifetimes, and I look forward to continuing that in future lifetimes. This time, I am a mother, wife, spiritual guide, and so late in remembering my Buddhist path! Maybe that is why I am so eagerly reading, practicing, and listening to teachings now—to catch up, to make up for lost time!

“As I said earlier, I have felt you were my precious teacher from the moment I met you. I have your picture all over my house, my office, and on my cell phone. In fact, my cell phone ring is your laughter! The monk I know has encouraged me to write to you to ask if I may formally be ‘under your wing’ as a student. Since the time I met you, my practice has steadily gotten much, much stronger, though I do still have a very long way to go. I have seen some little progress in my mind, in becoming a calmer, perhaps a little bit kinder person. My mind still becomes quite agitated sometimes, but much less anger arises than it used to. So, I do need someone to help me on this path, and I would be so grateful if you would agree to guide me. I will continue to hold you as my very precious guru, and I will perhaps be able to begin to learn guru yoga.”

Rinpoche replied as follows:

My Most Dear Jean,
Thank you very much for your great, inspiring story, which touched my heart. That you immediately felt a connection with me definitely shows a past life connection between us. Billions of thanks for reading the Arya Sanghata Sutra for the success of the Maitreya Project. I highly appreciate it. You read it two times, and now you want to continue as a daily practice. That is even more incredible and mind blowing.

I am so happy that you have found reading the Arya Sanghata Sutra very useful in helping you to have good motivation during the day and a much more peaceful state of mind. If you are able to do this, all your wishes will be fulfilled—all the heavy negative karmas are purified, and you will achieve all happiness –of future lives, all temporary happiness, and the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara and full enlightenment.

Probably I don’t need to tell you what the text says about how much merit you collect each time you hear this sutra. Each time you hear it, how much merit do you collect? One buddha has completed the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue—there is nothing more to collect. The merit you collect by hearing the Arya Sanghata Sutra is equal to the merit of the number of buddhas equaling the number of grains of sand in the Ganga River, multiplied by 12. And these grains of sand are not the ordinary type. It is explained in the teachings, in the great enlightened Pabongka Rinpoche’s notes, that these grains are made of extremely subtle atoms. There are seven kinds of subtle atoms: water atoms, earth atoms, and so forth. These sand grains are much, much finer than the normal kind.

In addition to that, when it comes to talking about the benefits of bodhicitta, or the benefits of the Arya Sanghata Sutra, the Ganga does not refer to the Indian River Ganges but to the Pacific Ocean. The merit of just one set of buddhas equaling the number of sand grains in the River Ganga is beyond words, unimaginable. Even just the merit that one buddha has collected is beyond words. So, beyond that, the merit that you collect every time you hear the Arya Sanghata Sutra is equal to 12 times the merit of the number of buddhas equal to the grains of sand in the River Ganga. That is just through hearing it. That means anyone—animals, frogs, birds—no question about your beautiful cat, your darling cat—or even spirits, outside or inside—collect so much merit. Can you imagine? It is like an impossible thing in life that happens. When those animals, your cat and other animals, hear you recite Buddha’s teachings, it definitely enables them to receive a higher rebirth and to meet the Dharma.

The minute you hear it, the five uninterrupted negative karmas—the extremely heavy negative karmas that send you immediately after death to the lowest hot hell, which has the heaviest suffering of the lower realms, with a lifespan that lasts for one intermediate eon—are completely purified. Therefore, in the past, when I was in Washington, I played a CD of the sutra in the car on the way to do shopping, which is a 40-minute drive. I was sitting in the front of the car, so I kept the window down. Sitting behind me were two nuns. The weather was not sunny; it was a bit foggy and cold. The wind was going back through the window and making them cold. But if I had cared only for them, then all those people living in the houses along the road and all the animals would not have heard the CD. There is a big difference. So, I kept the window down and played the CD very loud, like young people playing music in a car.

So, just while going to do shopping, you are liberating so many sentient beings on the way there—just one way. During that drive there was a deer in the road, so the car stopped and then the deer had the opportunity to hear a little bit of the sutra. So, if the five uninterrupted actions are purified, there is no question about the ten non-virtuous actions—they are also purified. I thought that was a great thing to do. Also, the people in the car are purified of all those negative karmas and collect incredible amounts of merit. It is such an easy way to make life meaningful. You just put the CD on in the car and play it, that’s it. As long as you are not deaf and can hear, you don’t need to use much effort. It’s the easiest way to purify negative karma and collect vast amounts of merit. It is the quickest, easiest way to achieve liberation from samsara and end all the oceans of samsaric suffering that one has experienced over and over, countless times, without beginning. It is a quick way to achieve enlightenment for anyone who hears it. Also, more merit makes it easy and quick to realize the emptiness of the “I,” the aggregates, and phenomena; it is a quick way to eliminate the root of samsara, ignorance, and a quick way to actualize bodhicitta. You need so much merit to actualize bodhicitta. If you have bodhicitta, you are a bodhisattva. In that second, you become the spiritual son of all the buddhas; you become the supreme object of offerings of all sentient beings. They collect so much merit when they make offerings to you—when they see you, hear your voice, touch you, or offer something to you. Even if some sentient beings harm you, after you have the realization of bodhicitta, then from your side, you only benefit in return. You pray for good things to happen to that person. There is a saying regarding bodhisattvas, “If you can’t make a good connection by doing good things, then by doing some harm, make a connection with a bodhisattva.”

This does not mean that you must harm a bodhisattva, but that in case that happens, it is saying it is worthwhile. In return the bodhisattva only benefits, only prays, so in return that sentient being is guided by that bodhisattva from life to life. For example, the Buddha, during his time as a bodhisattva, sacrificed his blood for the five yakshas; they drank his blood. Then, due to that connection, in the next life, they became his disciples as human beings—they became the first five disciples and Buddha gave them teachings at Sarnath. That was the first turning of the Dharma Wheel. They drank his blood, but the bodhisattva made a prayer for them in the next life to be his direct disciples, to be able to receive teachings and so forth. Of course, they then go on to liberation and enlightenment. There is incredible benefit for sentient beings if one is a bodhisattva. Only with bodhicitta can you complete the two types of merits and achieve the two kayas. Without bodhicitta, even if you have wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, you cannot achieve the two kayas. The highest you can achieve is arhatship, liberation from samsara—eliminating the delusions and karma.

If you read the Arya Sanghata Sutra, you collect far greater merit than just through hearing it, and if you write it, there is even more merit. Remember the merit of the buddhas equaling the number of grains of sand in the Ganges River multiplied by 12? The amount of merit if you write it is eight times that (eg, 96 x one set of buddhas).

The last time I went to South-east Asia, because of my little advertisement about how much more merit you collect if you write it, many people had written it and had finished already. This is wonderful. The director of a Dharma center there told me that when they recited it incredible things happened, for example, somebody offered $100,000 to build a school. In another country, a student read it one time. When he read it, he thought, “Buddha wouldn’t lie,” and he read it with that strong faith. He then won the lottery and built a large house with the money to sell and use the money for Dharma projects. Also, when a woman who had been smoking her whole life read the sutra the first time, she was able to stop smoking just like that. This means that Buddha is really working and blessing through this text. Buddha is really in action.

Through the merit you collect, you are able to fulfill all the wishes of all sentient beings. You are able to liberate the countless hell beings and bring them to a higher rebirth, liberation from samsara, and to enlightenment. You are able to help the countless hungry ghosts, animals, humans, sura beings, asura beings, and intermediate state beings. Please remember each time you begin to recite the Sanghata Sutra these incredible advantages you can offer yourself and others from collecting so much merit.

Of course, naturally, you can dedicate the merit to all the projects I intend to do, as you have done already, not only to complete the Maitreya Project but for the statue to last a long time on this earth, until Maitreya Buddha descends to this earth, and for it to be most beneficial for all sentient beings, to purify sentient beings’ karma, enable them to collect extensive merits, and cause them to actualize bodhicitta, bring perfect peace and happiness to them, and bring them to enlightenment quickly. Also, another urgent project is in Tibet, a Padmasambhava statue, also an eye operation hospital in Kham, then to build as many holy objects as possible in different parts of the world, for the same purpose—1,000 Maitreya Buddha statues—one story or two stories—around that size, in different parts of the world—some bigger than that. This helps to shorten the eon of famine, the eon of war, the eon of weapons, and the eon of sickness that are going to occur in this world. It makes them shorter and for the teachings of Maitreya Buddha to come sooner. Then, there is building monasteries and nunneries in different parts of the world, and providing education for the Sangha, fulfilling their needs. Also, there is preserving Dharma, spreading Dharma for sentient beings and continuing what has already been done, serving the Sangha in the large monasteries and Sanghas of different nationalities, providing many social services, like hospices and so forth, and establishing more projects like this, helping the centers who have financial difficulties, and for all the projects in all the centers to be most beneficial for all sentient beings. Of course, the very first thing is to fulfill His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wishes immediately and for His Holiness to have a stable life.

Not only you, but so many people who have recited the Arya Sanghata Sutra have received so much benefit to their mind and heart, becoming more and more in the Dharma. Writing even a few lines of the sutra every day is extremely good. When you write it, of course you don’t finish many pages, it is quite slow, but when you write, also you read, so that is the benefit. If you only read it, you can finish it that day, in hours. One can do a few lines of writing and then read the whole text. Like that then, gradually, you can finish writing it. I am extremely happy that you enjoy it so much. You see the benefit for your mind and you see that it is an amazing sutra.

You said you have memorized the Heart Sutra. That is unbelievable. You must have a lot of good karma already because you are also enjoying reciting the Heart Sutra. I didn’t properly memorize the Heart Sutra. I don’t remember if I purposely memorized it, usually it is recited in the pujas. If I had to recite it from heart, I wouldn’t be able to recite it. I might jump around here and there. I don’t remember it exactly, only some number of years ago I got it right.

A few years ago, many students and I did a Mahamudra course in Adelaide, Australia. I thought I got the Heart Sutra right. I was leading the prayers and meditation. Someone corrected me because I left out the section counting the five aggregates at the beginning, the part after “form is emptiness emptiness is form, there is no form other than emptiness, no emptiness other than form.” After that, I jumped to the sense objects—no eye, no ear, etc. Since that person corrected me, I try to make sure, but still sometimes I miss it out, like slipping over the ice, and slip out to the next part where there is no form, no sound, no smell. I thought I would share my story about the Heart Sutra with you.

You are going to take the bodhisattva vows from the geshe at the Dharma center. That is incredible. That is like taking on a new life, you are newly born into a new life which leads to enlightenment, and you can bring sentient beings to enlightenment. That is like having zillions of birthdays. In the West, people regard birthdays as very important. This is like having much more than zillions of birthdays. That is how important it is. You are acting as a minister in a Christian church, but you present Buddha’s message or teachings and present Christian religion in that way. That is incredible. That is exactly what I would try to do if I were talking to Christian people. I would do the same thing if I were the minister of a church. It is all Buddha’s teaching, actually it is universal. When you talk about compassion, loving kindness, and patience, it is universal. When you know that, when you know the meaning, there is no problem, it is all universal, it is the same. Without the Sanskrit label, “Buddhist,” if you put it into English, it is universal.

In Tibetan “Buddha” is sang gye. Sang means purified, gye is developed, so “purified, developed”—fully purified of all the gross and subtle defilements and, because of that, having fully developed all the understandings. So, here again, it becomes universal. It is like when you say “professor” or “doctor”—it is universal. It means those who have that education, someone who is able to diagnose problems, and knows all the medicines to be given. The name is given on the basis of education and the work that is being done. With Buddhism it is the same. If you don’t use the Sanskrit name “Buddha,” if you just say the meaning, there is no confusion; it is universal.

It is extremely good that you emphasize loving kindness and compassion when you talk about God and all those things. When you emphasize God, emphasize love and compassion. Everything comes from that, all happiness for yourself and others. That is what you say in normal life: the essence of religion is loving kindness and compassion. Without that, you can’t really help or solve people’s problems. World problems can’t be solved.

One can call “God” compassion—your good heart. The other thing is, in Buddhism there is the Dharmakaya. The transcendental wisdom of omniscient mind is the Dharmakaya—that pure mind is Dharmakaya. The very nature of that, the emptiness of the Dharmakaya is the Svabhavakaya, the body of true nature. So, you can make the meaning of God very profound, very deep. I am not saying that you must talk about it this way. I am not saying that. I am just chatting with you.

As you mention in your letter, definitely the more we learn Buddhism, the more we can explain Christianity in a better and deeper way. Also, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has mentioned this. There used to be a meeting of His Holiness with priests. The priests talked about Buddhism and His Holiness spoke about Christianity. They did this in Bodhgaya under the Bodhi tree. One time, His Holiness chose the FPMT Root Institute to host the two or three days of meetings. That is the perfect place for such a meeting. It doesn’t have a very heavy Tibetan monastic culture. It is a little bit Indian—it fits the Indian country—with more space, kind of easy. Of course, there are Buddhist statues there of the Kadampa geshes and Buddha, and other thangkas.

I think it is very to good help as much as possible while you are a minister. We have another student, a lady, who is a minister of a church. Now she has become a nun.

I am extremely happy that since you met me your practice has steadily gotten much, much stronger and you are becoming a calmer and kinder person, with much less anger arising. Those things are the best signs of spiritual development, of Dharma within your heart, in your life, the best Dharma. It reminded me that during the Kalachakra initiation, His Holiness the Dalai Lama talked a lot about how to practice patience, how bad anger is for you and for others. My brother, who is called “Sangye,” was there, and while there he made a vow to never get angry. When I met His Holiness, I informed him of this. That made His Holiness very happy. His Holiness gives a lot of advice before the initiation and teachings, also practical advice. It benefits so many people, who come from all over India, Nepal, and especially from Tibet. The people get so much incredible benefit. They are able to change their minds and abandon bad thoughts. That is His Holiness’ main goal. Of course, the initiation makes them come. I just thought I would chat with you about this.

Definitely, of course, I agree to guide you, to help in whatever way possible, and accept you as a student.

So, I am going to give you some advice. In the future, when your responsibilities with family are not so great, then it is more beneficial to become a nun than to be a lay person. I think it is more beneficial to be a nun in the future when the children are OK and can take care of themselves. This is just a general idea from my divinations.

For your quickest enlightenment, to be able to enlighten sentient beings most quickly, you need a deity of highest yoga tantra to practice. For you, that is Guhyasamaja. The other one is Yamantaka. You can practice both, but the main one is Guhyasamaja. It doesn’t mean you can’t take other deities’ initiations and practice them, but this is the main one to practice being one with day and night. Then, through this practice, you actually become the deity (which means enlightenment, which means your body, speech, and mind become the deity’s body, speech, and mind) and then through this, you can enlighten all sentient beings. Through this practice, you bring all sentient beings to this deity’s enlightenment. You are able to free all beings from the ocean of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment.

If you haven’t taken this great initiation, then in the near future, when the opportunity comes, you can take it. I, myself, have done the retreat, but I am not satisfied enough with that to give the initiation. I will have to check. I guess if I am giving any of those, like Yamantaka, in the future, you are welcome to take them, or if another high lama, like Chöden Rinpoche gives it, then you are able to take it. You can do the practice of the deity after the initiation. You can do retreat and daily practice and study the commentary.

However, now, especially now, before practicing tantra, even after you receive the initiation, until you realize bodhicitta, I would emphasize putting most effort into lam-rim. You must have realizations of renunciation, bodhicitta, and right view, and, of course, the root—guru devotion. That makes for successful practice of the lam-rim and the uncommon path of tantra. The tantric practice is second. Spend most of your time on the lam-rim, then a little bit on tantric practice. Then, when you have the bodhicitta realization, you put more effort into tantra. Sometimes the person can do both, lam-rim while also there is some development in the first stage of the tantric path.

Lamrim Meditations
Graduated path of the lower capable being—11 months
This means from precious human rebirth up to karma. It doesn’t mean you have to finish all the meditations in one day, you can do them in brief. What I am saying here is you should go through the details of these meditations. When you reach karma, then go back and practice them again. Try to achieve the realizations of these meditations. That is the main object that you are looking for.

Graduated path of the middle capable being—7 months

Graduated path of the higher capable being—7 months (this means on bodhicitta)

Right view—10 months

This does not mean you can’t meditate on other things, but this is the main focus. Of course, you should meditate on emptiness a little bit every day. Since you have memorized the Heart Sutra, recite the Heart Sutra and then meditate. The emptiness meditation analysis is looking at the real “I,” that which is appearing to you, in the sense of existing from its own side, as a hallucination. Looking at it as a hallucination because it is a hallucination. Another way of thinking is looking at it as empty because it is empty, because that real “I,” in the sense of existing from its own side, is the object of ignorance, is the object to which self-grasping is grasping and in which it is believing. Because there is no such thing as reality, self-grasping is a wrong concept, a hallucinated mind. It is the same when we cherish the “I.” For us, that real “I,” existing from its own side, is cherished. On the basis of believing that it is true, through self-grasping, then that “I” is cherished as the most precious thing among sentient beings, including the bodhisattvas and the buddhas. You can see there is no such thing. First of all, there is no such “I”. Second there is no such “I” that is more precious than others. Therefore, that selfish mind is a wrong concept. It is also a hallucinated mind.

In the future, also, another possibility is a three-year retreat on the deity, when the causes and conditions come together. What makes one’s life very profitable for the time being, as a lay person, is to take lay vows. You have taken refuge already, but there are also the five lay vows, if you haven’t taken them already. Why take them? Because the lay vows are taken until death. You are always collecting merit from having taken the vows, the precepts—however many hours you sleep, while eating, walking, even lying down at the beach. I am not sure whether you lie down at the beach, I am just giving you some idea. Even during those times, you collect the merit of having taken those vows. Even during many hours of work, you always collect merit. So, it makes life so meaningful, incredibly meaningful. Then, after taking vows, whatever merit you collect increases so much. It multiplies it by hundreds and thousands of times. It makes life so meaningful. The bodhisattva vows are a very high level of vow to take because of the many numbers of vows taken with bodhicitta. Whatever merit and virtue you collect once you have taken the bodhisattva vows increases millions of times. That is incredible, making your life so fruitful. After you have taken the bodhisattva entering vows, then every second you collect merit as vast as the sky. If you cannot take all five of the lay vows, you can take any number of those: one, two, three, or four. Generally, the more vows you take, the more merit you collect. You collect merit all the time and whatever virtues you collect also increase much more.

I will say that living in the pratimoksha lay vows helps also to be able to practice the bodhisattva vows. If you can’t practice any of the lay vows, it makes it difficult to practice the bodhisattva vows. The pratimoksha vow is the foundation for the bodhisattva vow. The bodhisattva vow is the foundation for the tantric vows, and from these three vows you are able to achieve liberation from samsara and enlightenment. Even within one life, by practicing tantra, and by practicing highest yoga tantra, you can achieve enlightenment within some number of years in a brief lifetime of these degenerated times.

Generally, in life, there are some practices that are good to do. One practice that is very good to do is Medicine Buddha. If you can chant one mala of the mantra each day, that is good. You can recite the names of the Medicine Buddhas. There is one small booklet that is a very good practice, very powerful and short, not the healing one (The Healing Buddha), but the Medicine Buddha Sadhana—this is very powerful purification, but also it brings success. Your wishes are fulfilled for attaining enlightenment, as well as for helping others and enlightening others. It is very good to pray to Medicine Buddha every day and do that practice. After you recite each name seven times, then you pray: “Whatever prayers, you, the Medicine Buddha, made in the past, may they be received by me and all sentient beings. Whatever prayers I make, may they be actualized immediately.” When you do that, then make a strong request to be able to complete the path to enlightenment as quickly as possible in this life and to be able to offer extensive benefit to others and be able to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment as quickly as possible. When you do this, if you want to make specific prayers for somebody who has passed away, is sick, or whatever, you can do them when you make this request “Whatever prayers I make, may they be actualized” At that time, you make the prayers, whatever you want to happen for a person.

The other practice to do is the Chenrezig meditation and the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM. That is extremely important in life to develop compassion—the root—then bodhicitta, the whole path, and to achieve enlightenment. The practice of bodhicitta, the Compassion Buddha (Chenrezig), is to take full responsibility onto oneself to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. You can recite the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM for one mala or whatever—six malas or ten malas. Even if you have not received the Chenrezig great initiation (and so cannot generate yourself as Chenrezig), you can visualize Chenrezig in front of you and visualize that beams of nectar are emitted, enter your body and mind, and you are purified of all sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements—these four things. So, if you are reciting one mala, then do half of the recitation to purify yourself and half to purify sentient beings. Then, make prayers to Chenrezig and dedicate the merits:

Due to all the three times merits collected by me and by others,
May (name) generate the bodhicitta which has not been generated,
And may the bodhicitta which has been generated,
Never decline but always increase. (three times)

The first time you recite it, recite it for yourself, your family members, and all sentient beings; the second time recite it to generate bodhicitta in the hearts of all the leaders in the world; and the third time to generate bodhicitta in the hearts of all the terrorists, anyone who has harmful thoughts toward others—that they generate bodhicitta in their hearts without the delay of even a second.

Then recite “Gang ri wa rai…”—the dedication prayer for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Then recite:  

Due to the three times merits collected by me and by others,
May I become only like you, Chenrezig, Buddha of Compassion;
Whatever your holy vajra body, retinue, lifespan, and pure land,
May I and others attain only these.

And:

Due to all three time merits collected by me and by others, that which exist but are empty, may the “I” who exists but is empty, achieve Chenrezig’s enlightenment, which exists but is empty; and may I lead all sentient beings, who exist but are empty, to that enlightenment, which exists but is empty, by myself alone, who exists but is empty.

You should recite this last dedication after you finish each practice. By dedicating to enlightenment, your merit becomes inexhaustible; it cannot end until you achieve enlightenment. By sealing it with emptiness, looking at it as empty, it protects the merits; if anger or heresy arises afterward, not only can it not destroy the merits completely, but it cannot make the merits weaker or less.

It is extremely important to know how to dedicate merits. Even a short dedication prayer like this is very unique, very powerful. So, this is what you should do each time you create merits, each time you recite mantras, or offer charity to the Triple Gem—whenever you finish a practice. After each practice, you should do this. For example, you sit down and begin a practice. Then, before you get up after finishing the practice, after the whole practice is done, then you make this dedication. Usually, with any practice you do there is a motivation, actual body, and completion. The completion is the dedication.

For the time being, maybe this is enough. I was telling the scribe that you are not here, but your letter is here in front of me, and it is like having an interview with you, chatting with you, it is the same.

As you always think of me and rely on me, you are always in my prayers. So, I am sending you a photo of my thangka of 1,000-Armed Chenrezig that was blessed by His Holiness and has his handprint, and a White Tara thangka for long life. That will be sent to you. I hope to see you soon.

With prayers for the most meaningful life, to achieve enlightenment quickly, and with much love...