Meditation and Practice in Prison

Meditation and Practice in Prison

The Real Prison
Date of Advice:
December 2020
Date Posted:
December 2023

This advice was for a person who was incarcerated and would be going to court. Rinpoche recommended Kurukulla practice for success in the court case.

Artwork by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

My most dear one,
This advice is for the person who is having the court case. I’m sorry this letter has taken so long.

There are two things he needs to do to win the court case. There’s prayer and he also needs to do Kurukulla practice, but he may not have received a great initiation. If he has received a great initiation, then it would make it easier. I don’t know, but you can check. If he has not received a great initiation, then he cannot visualize himself as Kurukulla but he can visualize the deity in front and make strong requests and recite many mantras every day.

I also want to ask him to please do the morning practice, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness, the morning motivation, receiving blessings of body, speech and mind and blessing the mala. You can send a mala to him if it’s allowed. I’m not sure if it’s allowed in prison.

It is very important for him to practice Kurukulla. Normally there’s a long Chenrezig mantra, the longest one, and if prisoners recite that a lot and really take refuge in Thousand-arm Chenrezig then they get out of prison. Normally the longest Chenrezig mantra has that benefit, but for him that didn’t come out. So in the morning he should do this prayer and meditation. That’s the best. It will help very much.

Then being in the prison becomes the happiest thing for sentient beings, to experience that for sentient beings. That becomes the best thing. It’s the greatest happiness if you can understand that.

He can also recite the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha name and mantra:

LA MA TÖN PA CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHA KYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To Guru, Teacher, Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Glorious Conqueror Shakyamuni, I prostrate.

TADYATHĀ OṂ MUNE MUNE MAHĀ MUNAYE SVĀHĀ

He should know that there are the two things. He can recite it in Tibetan, that is the correct one, or in English. It doesn’t matter which language. That’s very important.

Do you know how much negative karma it purifies? It’s unbelievable, more than Vajrasattva. You should know that, as it is so important when helping people. I think 80,000 billion eons of negative karma get purified, but I have to check. It could be more than that. You should know this very well, because it can help many people. Just reciting this name and mantra one time purifies more than Vajrasattva, according to the Kangyur. In the Nyingma Monlam prayer book it is said, but it is missing one thousand. That’s so important, but usually people don’t know that.

What looks like prison to common people is actually like being in retreat. It looks like an unpleasant place but for a Dharma practitioner, it’s like being in retreat. It’s exactly the same as being in retreat. We don’t see other people when we’re in retreat and we are very isolated. It is exactly the same. It just depends on the name. The physical part is the same, but of course, retreat is more than that. We are retreating from attachment to this life, from the eight worldly dharmas, from that which brings all the problems. Attachment brings all the hundreds, thousands, millions of problems of this life and it also brings the future lives’ sufferings. Wow, wow, wow! So understand that in retreat we are retreating away from attachment. We’re renouncing attachment because we don’t like suffering. This is the first thing.

The second thing, we don’t follow attachment to the future lives’ sufferings. From that, so much suffering of samsara arises for us. The very root is ignorance, holding the I as real while it is not. I’m not saying there is no I. There is I and there is action. We create the cause of samsara and nirvana—liberation from samsara, cyclic existence, and its suffering nature. We create the cause of everlasting happiness, enlightenment, and we create the cause of hell. We create the cause of our problems every day and we create the cause of happiness every day. The I exists because there’s the action of I and there’s our experience of enlightenment, hell, samsara and nirvana, happiness and problems, every day.

How is it possible if there is no I, but there’s the action and the experience? How is it possible? There is I, but of course, it is so subtle, existing only in mere name. It’s like it doesn’t exist. By retreating away from that, our meditation becomes the antidote to samsara instead of the cause of samsara. It frees us from the oceans of suffering of samsara.

We are also retreating away from the self-cherishing thought, which brings all the obstacles. If we follow the self-cherishing thought, it harms us and harms all sentient beings, as it has done from beginningless rebirths, now and continuously in the future. We are retreating from that.

That’s incredible, these last two things. This is excellent and the most important retreat. This is without talking about tantra. In tantra we retreat away from impure appearance and impure concept. This is still basic tantra, without talking about the practice of completion stage, the retreat from impure wind and mind.

Compared to the real prison, this ordinary prison is nothing. It is nothing. The real prison is attachment, from where all the problems and sufferings arise. Attachment to the future lives’ samsara and ignorance holding the I as real, which is the root of the oceans of suffering of samsara. This is the biggest prison.

The self-cherishing thought is another prison, as is impure appearance and concept, and impure wind and mind. What ordinary people call prison is nothing.

Compared to the real prison [of samsara], as I have explained, this ordinary prison is not a real prison. Actually, for a Dharma practitioner, a meditator, these are the best circumstances for retreat and for meditation. We can utilize the unfavourable conditions on the path to achieving buddhahood, the total cessation of gross and subtle obscurations, and the completion of realizations, by experiencing those conditions on behalf of every single sentient being—the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asura beings and numberless sura and intermediate state beings. We can use these conditions, which are most beneficial and useful, not only for ourselves but for every sentient being. We can practice the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta, [wishing] to free the sentient beings from suffering. We can receive all their suffering of being in the prison [of samsara] and experience it for them, so they can be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and achieve enlightenment.

Also, he should do what’s called the Black Court Case, which I have translated into English. [See The Exalted Mahayana Sutra Called ''Pacifier of Black Court Cases''.] It’s a short practice which has now been is translated into English.

If he hasn’t received a great initiation, then he can’t visualize himself as Kurukulla. Without doubt, totally take refuge, then request to be out of prison and not only that, to receive total control over those people who put him in prison, so they are happy to set him free. Visualize Kurukulla, filled with compassion and loving kindness, sending red beams to them and totally transforming their minds into positivity and totally freeing him from prison right away. He can make very strong prayers and recite the mantra many times every day.

In relation to himself, beams are emitted from Kurukulla, purifying his negative karma and all the defilements collected from beginningless rebirths, from where this karma to be in prison came. Visualize that everything he wants purified is totally purified.

With that meditation, then recite [the mantra], not only for himself but also for all those people who put him in prison, purifying all their negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths. Of course, at the end think all sentient beings are purified of all the negative karma and defilements collected from beginningless rebirths, from where all the suffering arises. Think their negative karma is totally purified. He can do this every day. This is very, very good.

At the end he receives the blessings and all the qualities of the holy body, holy speech and holy mind of Kurukulla within him. Kurukulla melts into red light and absorbs into him and blesses his body, speech and mind. This is on the basis of not having received a great initiation.

At the end, dedicate the merit:

“Due to the merits collected in the past, present and future by me and by other sentient beings in the three times and numberless buddhas in the three times, due to all these merits, may bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart and the source of enlightenment, buddhahood, be generated within me, in the hearts of all the prisoners and all those who put the people in prison and in the minds of all sentient beings. For those who have generated bodhicitta, may it be increased.”

Then dedicate like this,

“Due to the merits collected in the past, present and future by me, who exists in mere name, that exist but it’s like they don’t exist, and the past, present and future merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, also existing but it’s like they don’t exist, so subtle, existing in mere name, may the I, who exists but it’s like it doesn’t exist, existing only in mere name, achieve buddhahood, the state of omniscience, which exists but it’s like it doesn’t exist, so subtle, existing in mere name, and lead all the sentient beings who exist but in reality, it’s like they don’t exist because they exist only in mere name, to that enlightenment which exists in mere name, by myself, who exists in mere name.”

Give him a picture of Kurukulla so he can visualize the deity and know that this is an enlightened being, free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and free from all the defilements, both gross and subtle. Kurukulla has completed all the realizations and has omniscience, perfect power to help sentient beings and compassion embracing all sentient beings.

That’s it.

With love and prayers ...

The Self-cherishing Thought Is the Real Enemy
Date of Advice:
April 2021
Date Posted:
July 2022

Rinpoche sent this advice to someone who was in prison and had memorized The Wheel of Sharp Weapons text.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche adorned with flowers, 2010.

My very dear one,
I am very happy to hear what you are doing in prison and how you are using your Dharma understanding and have memorized The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. This is so, so good. This is really how to use your time in prison. Then it becomes the path to enlightenment.

The great Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa said:

By experiencing this present small suffering,
The past negative karma is ceased
And there will be happiness in the future.
Therefore, rejoice, be happy in this present suffering.

Even with the small suffering of this life, we are able to finish so much negative karma from our past life, and then we will have happiness in the future. So rejoice in the suffering that you are experiencing now. Look at this present suffering and this difficult situation as being on the path to enlightenment and transform it into great happiness.

How? This present suffering is causing you to finish your past negative karma, so instead of being born in hell etc., you are in prison in this life. That causes you to finish your past negative karma, by manifesting undesirable things in this life. Then you will have so much happiness and you will experience this in lives to come. Then like the sun shining, your life will go up to enlightenment. Most amazing! Most amazing! Most amazing!

So you can utilize this experience on the path to enlightenment. Therefore, experience this on behalf of the six-realm sentient beings, so that they become free from the oceans of suffering and achieve enlightenment. So use this for tonglen practice. If you need to learn about tonglen I can send you some information.

You have memorized The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which is so precious because it destroys the ego. The Wheel of Sharp Weapons destroys the self-cherishing thought, which is the real enemy and the cause of all the sufferings of samsara, in all six realms of samsara. If we continue to follow self-cherishing, there will be no end to suffering. Self-cherishing has made us harm numberless sentient beings in the six realms in the past. So we can see this is our worst enemy.

The Wheel of Sharp Weapons is destroying the self-cherishing, so now being in prison you can use it to destroy the self-cherishing thought. Therefore, do this while you are in prison and also [use this method for] the people who put you there. This is an extremely important practice and method to destroy the self-cherishing thought. This is the most precious method to use when you are in prison. So rejoice! Then this will make your life so happy.

With much love and prayers ...

How to Achieve Real Happiness
Date of Advice:
August 2018
Date Posted:
August 2020

Rinpoche sent this letter to a prisoner who asked for advice on how to think while incarcerated.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing yourself. I am sorry for the long delay in replying.

First I want to introduce this to you. Right now you have received just this time a perfect human rebirth which allows you to develop your mind in wisdom and compassion, as a human being. Generally every insect, every worm, every spider, and even the tiniest insects that even human beings can’t see, like those under the earth, all have mind and all their minds have the power of buddha nature. There is no mind existing from its own side, even though it appears that way and we believe in that with ignorance. The emptiness of that is buddha nature. That’s why everyone can be free from the suffering of samsara, everyone can achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations—this is the meaning of Buddha.

In particular, human beings have so much potential. We can have education, much deeper and more subtle, a greater education than animals and other beings. So in this life, while we have a perfect human rebirth we can become free from the lower realms after this life and we can receive a higher rebirth, as a human being, a deva or even in the pure land of Buddha.

[We can achieve this by] relying on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and by practicing positive thoughts, virtuous thoughts, and by abandoning negative actions, harming ourselves and harming others. Practicing virtue is that which brings happiness to ourselves and others; this is what is called protecting karma.

Even higher than that, we can achieve peerless happiness—not just ordinary happiness, but the cessation of the oceans of samsaric suffering, the blissful state of peace for oneself. This is achieved through the practice of the three higher trainings—the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom. Then even higher than that, we can achieve the peerless happiness, the total cessation not only of gross obscurations but also subtle obscurations, and the completion of realizations, buddhahood.

We can achieve that forever and after that we become the perfect guide, a buddha, then we can free the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura and numberless asura beings, in the numberless universes. We can free everyone from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to buddhahood. So it’s unbelievable what we can do with the mind and especially with a human mind, which has the special capacity to learn all this, to learn and to not only bring us ultimate benefit, to free us from the oceans of samsaric sufferings forever, but also to ultimately bring benefit to the numberless sentient beings.

All that is achieved by developing compassion, bodhicitta, the precious thought of enlightenment, toward all the sentient beings. So it is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, most unbelievable, the benefit that we can achieve with our human life and mind.

I want to request you to please do the practice The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) every morning.

Then day and night, whenever, if you can recite the Compassion Buddha mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM. This condenses the entire holy Dharma that the Buddha has taught. This includes the Lesser Vehicle teachings, which contain the four noble truths: true suffering, the true cause of suffering, the true cessation of suffering and the true path. The true path is in particular the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, ultimate reality, but then of course that depends on concentration and that depends on morality.  

It also contains the Mahayana sutra path, through the practice of compassion, bodhicitta, toward sentient beings, the practice of the six paramitas and then to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. Then there is an even higher practice that the Buddha has taught—secret mantra, Vajrayana, which has four types: Kriya (Action), Charya (Performance), Yoga and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra (Highest Yoga Tantra).

By practicing the Mahayana sutra path we can achieve enlightenment, but we have to collect the merit of wisdom and merit of virtue, which creates a buddha’s holy body and holy mind for three countless great eons. Then because we feel that is too long we generate great compassion, we feel great compassion that sentient beings need to be enlightened by us quickly. Therefore, that is the reason for practicing tantra, so that we can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. This is the quick path to enlightenment. The quickest path is the fourth one, Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra, where we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate time.

The Mahayana sutra teachings have a greater method then the Lesser Vehicle path, however, Mahayana tantra has even greater methods than Mahayana sutra, because we can achieve enlightenment in one life. Here now with Highest Yoga Tantra, this has the greatest skill, the greatest method as well as wisdom, so that we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate time.

All the Buddhadharma subjects that the Buddha has taught—more than 100 volumes called the Kangyur in Tibetan language and more than 200 volumes of the Tengyur, the commentaries that the most learned, highly attained pandits from Nalanda taught—all these, the Kangyur and Tengyur, are contained in OM MANI PADME HUM. So just this much I am going to say now, so you can start to recite this mantra right away.

It’s very good if you read my book Teachings from the Mani Retreat. I will post this to you.

To study, to open up your mind, to become more enlightened, to become a buddha, to become omniscient, you should read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Can you get this in prison, or do you have a way to get this book? You should study this book from beginning to end while in prison. Whatever you don’t understand then maybe Venerable Drolkar could help you with that.

Study it at least four times from beginning to end.

I am also sending you advice about other practices for you to do for your life.

The lamrim, however many months to meditate on each section and so forth, this is so important, the most important one in your life.

As I explained in the beginning, the three stages, how your life can be developed, so this is a commentary on how to do that. This is how to make your life most meaningful, most fruitful, happiest, most meaningful and beneficial to every single sentient being, to bring them to enlightenment. This is the way to make the life happiest.

Ordinary people in the world, what they think happiness is, it is not pure happiness, it is suffering, but it is called happiness. So as you read through the lamrim you will learn about the different levels of happiness and what is real happiness.

Please look at the advice I have given to others in prison, to help you and inspire you.

Here I am giving you your main practice and what to study. The main practice for you is OM MANI PADME HUM and lamrim, to really meditate on that and to actualize that. There are more practices I can give you later, but at this stage this is the basic thing, so at the moment do this much. This is enough for a while. Later if you want to you can ask for more practices.

With much love and prayers ...

Chenrezig Practice in Prison
Date of Advice:
July 2018
Date Posted:
September 2019

This advice was given to a student who was in prison and wrote to Rinpoche requesting him to be guru and asking for life practices. Rinpoche advised how to use the situation to develop the mind and recommended Chenrezig mantra as the student’s main practice.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, North Carolina, 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I was very happy to receive it. I am very sorry it took so long to reply, so many eons. You can also read advice I have given to other people in prison.

According to my observation, if you can, read the Guhyasamaja Tantra root text. Unfortunately it is not yet translated into English; it is only in Tibetan phonetics, so you will probably need to wait until it is translated. It is in the process of being translated and hopefully that will be done soon.

In reality, yes, you are in prison, in the ordinary way of how we think about what prison is. But looking at it in reality, from the positive side, it’s like being in retreat, in a cave where there is nothing. Of course, the prison has more things like food; there are more things there than if you were in a cave. That is the positive way to think. You can think, “This is the best thing that I need for my life, to develop my mind.” The mind is wild, not only in this life but from beginningless rebirths. It is wild, like a crazy person or a crazy elephant. It has been like this from beginningless rebirths and that is why we are still suffering in samsara.

Numberless sentient beings who were the same as us—who had been suffering from beginningless rebirths, who were totally wild from beginningless rebirths and totally controlled by delusion and karma—so many of them changed their mind. They changed from cherishing the I, which is the source of all the suffering, all the difficulties and all the obstacles to achieve enlightenment, the highest, peerless happiness. Not only that, cherishing the I is an obstacle to achieving nirvana and ultimate happiness, everlasting happiness; not only that, it’s an obstacle even to achieving the happiness of future lives and success in this life. So they changed from cherishing the I to cherishing others, who are numberless. They were just like us, however they ceased not only the gross defilements but also the subtle defilements, and did not experience them again and achieved full enlightenment, buddhahood. That includes Guru Shakyamuni Buddha.

There have been prisoners in the past who did many millions of mantras while in prison. Even if they didn’t have malas, they put thread from their bedsheet through breakfast cereal that had holes in it. They put the thread through the cereal and used that as a mala and recited many OM MANI PADME HUM mantras.

My advice to you, the main thing is to be there in prison with bodhicitta, the thought of cherishing all the numberless sentient beings. It’s important to really understand that there are numberless universes and numberless human beings. So think with bodhicitta, “I am here in prison for the sake of all sentient beings—the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts and numberless animals.” That means every single fish in the ocean, including those of the tiniest size, and all the different kinds of animals, including every single chicken. There are billions and zillions of chickens killed in the world every day for five star hotels and the numberless restaurants and so forth. Also there are numberless goats, sheep, cows and numberless ants, mosquitoes and slugs. So think of all that.

Recently I went to a big lake near the border of Canada and I sat on a carpet on the grass to eat lunch there, sort of like a picnic. Anyway, there were so many millions of tiny insects and when the sun was shining we could see them all. Also, normally when we walk on dry grass so many insects run away or jump up; so many tiny ones escape when we walk.

Due to our negative karma day and night—our negative motivation, our negative mind—generally speaking that is the cause of the lower realms. Even if we try to practice Dharma, our Dharma practice is very little and instead our nonvirtue is much stronger; our anger, ignorance and attachment are so much stronger.

Even if we try to practice Dharma it is very difficult. The motivation is not holy Dharma or it is very weak, or we do not dedicate properly afterward—we don’t seal the dedication with emptiness. Then the virtue created doesn’t last or it gets destroyed by anger very easily.

We can destroy so much merit with anger and it also depends on who we get angry with. If we get angry with a bodhisattva, because of the level of their holy mind, even if we get angry for just one second it destroys the karma created from offering our body, speech and mind to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and from having made charity to every single sentient being. It destroys the karma created from that, and also one thousand eons of good karma and merit are destroyed in one second. If we get angry with a buddha for one second, then 10,000 or 100,000 eons of good karma and merit are destroyed. And if we get angry with our guru, then millions of eons of good karma are destroyed.

So please think of all the beings in the lower realms, for instance, all the animals and insects. It is unbelievable. We have to think like this, in very extensive way. For example, scientists say there are 11,000 or 12,000 different types of ants in the world.

If we think about this, then the amount of beings who are reborn in the hell realms in every second is like the number of dust particles of this earth. Those who are reborn as hungry ghosts are like the number of sand grains in the Pacific Ocean. The amount of sentient beings that are reborn in the intermediate state is like the number of blades of grass in the world. The Buddha explained that the amount of sentient beings that are reborn as devas and humans beings is like when we scratch the earth, then however many dust particles come between our fingernails, that is how many get that deva or human rebirth. So you can see there are very few, it is so rare. Then how many get this special perfect human rebirth, qualified by the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, is so rare. It is like throwing grain on a piece of glass—how much grain sticks to the glass. Or if you stand a needle up straight and throw grain at it—how much grain stays on top of the needle. That is how rare it is.

When you recite OM MANI PADME HUM, and whatever practice you do, it’s not just for you; it’s for numberless sentient beings. It is so important for you and for everyone, for every small ant and every tiny insect. They all want happiness and do not want suffering.

It seems that reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, Chenrezig mantra, is the main thing for you to practice in your life. Recite the longest Chenrezig mantra, if possible. At the beginning it may take time, but if you recite the longest mantra three times at the beginning, then after some months you can recite it seven times or more at the beginning. The longest mantra is the best, most precious one. If you can recite the longest mantra of Chenrezig—the Compassionate Eye Looking One—once or three times or seven times every day, then you get the same benefits as having recited 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantras. It is so unbelievable, unbelievable!

Please read the benefits of the mantra. Reciting the longest mantra has incredible benefits. It can benefit so many animals, for example, if you recite the longest mantra and then wash in a lake or ocean, whoever touches or drinks that water, whether humans or animals, will never be reborn in the lower realms. It purifies their negative karma to be born from a womb, an egg or heat (like lice), so they won’t be born from those three things.

Also, so much heavy negative karma that has been collected in the past is purified and in future lives you are always with the buddhas and bodhisattvas and go toward enlightenment.

Even when you are walking and your breath is going in and out, then wherever the wind goes after touching your body, it purifies the negative karma of other humans and animals so they won’t be reborn in the lower realms. So there are unbelievable benefits. Therefore please recite OM MANI PADME HUM as much as you can.

Some benefits mentioned are that even a fully ordained monk who has broken the four root vows—killing a human being, sexual intercourse, taking things not given and lying about one’s realizations, which is the biggest lie—from this karma the result is being born in the hell realms, but by reciting OM MANI PADME HUM it purifies all those heavy negative karmas received from these four defeats. By reciting this even one time, it is so powerful. By reciting it seven times, twenty-one times or a mala there are incredible benefits. Please read the benefits of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, so you know more.

If you can, recite OM MANI PADME HUM 100 million or 300 million times in your life. Don’t worry about the number, that is not the point, but recite the mantra for all sentient beings. Recite every mantra for all sentient beings, to free them from samsara and bring them to enlightenment.

Your main lamrim text should be Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. This should be the main lamrim text for you to study. The more you read this text, it is very good, and not only the graduated path of the lower capable being but also the graduated path of the middle capable being. Then you will understand how much suffering sentient beings are in and the urgent need to be liberated. This means you are taking responsibility for every sentient being, not only for their temporary happiness of this life but the happiness of future lives, and not just that, as that is still temporary happiness, but ultimate happiness, the blissful state. You are taking responsibility to offer not only temporary happiness to all sentient beings, but also ultimate happiness—enlightenment.

In this way recite OM MANI PADME HUM 300 million times if possible, and if not, recite the mantra 100 million times. This is a quick way to be free from the actual prison that you have been in since beginningless rebirths. The actual prison is attachment, ignorance and anger, so to be free from that prison.

This is just one example of the benefits: by reciting one time OM MANI PADME HUM, Chenrezig mantra, it purifies the four defeats of having broken the four root vows, so this is totally purified.

Also, the five heavy negative karmas without break are totally purified. The five heavy negative karmas without break are karmas that are created by deeds that are so heavy that they ripen immediately as rebirth in the hell realm. The five heavy negative karmas without break are: killing one’s mother, killing one’s father, drawing the blood of a buddha, killing an arhat and causing disunity among the Sangha.

If we recite the mantra seven times it purifies one hundred lifetimes of negative karma. If we recite it twenty-one times it purifies 4,000 eons of negative karma and we are able to have bodhicitta realizations. If we recite it 108 times it purifies 40,000 eons of negative karma. If we recite the mantra in the ears of animals, then as soon as they die they are reborn in the human realm or as a deva. They are not born as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal.

The benefits are infinite if you recite this mantra. Then you can enjoy your life. Maybe in the view of ordinary people, being in prison is something very bad, but for you because of practicing Dharma and being able to recite this mantra—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. For you it’s the best thing to happen as it brings you quickly to achieve enlightenment.

The conclusion is that if we recite OM MANI PADME HUM it is so easy to purify the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths and to collect extensive merits, and especially to generate compassion for all sentient beings. We want to take the responsibility on ourselves to free the numberless sentient beings from suffering. We are not only wishing for that but we are also generating compassion. So then we achieve enlightenment quickly, by the way. Then it is so easy way to be born in the pure land of Amitabha Buddha.

By reciting OM MANI PADME HUM we collect more merit than the number of drops of water in the ocean; than the number of snowflakes in a snowfall; than the number of drops of water in rainfall; than the number of sand grains in the Pacific Ocean, and if we do it with bodhicitta then it creates the cause of happiness up to enlightenment. Then we are able to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment, by purifying the negative karma and collecting more than skies of merit.

I am in the process of writing a new book and when it is done you will get it. The idea of this book is to spread through the whole world, so not only in English, but to translate it into as many languages as possible. It is about the benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha mantra and it will contain many different prayers to Chenrezig that you can recite.

Regarding your request for me to be guru, OK. I am not qualified, but I will try and you try.

At the moment you can’t generate yourself as Chenrezig, because for that you need to have received a great initiation. Just receiving a jenang, (short initiation) does not qualify you for that. However you can still recite OM MANI PADME HUM and think you are receiving nectar from Chenrezig; mountains of Chenrezig, in the nature of light, huge, looking at you with loving kindness and compassion and also looking at all sentient beings, seeing how much suffering there is and sending beams to you and to all sentient beings. Think that this purifies the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths.

If someone recites the longest Chenrezig mantra then one of the benefits mentioned is that suddenly the king of the land—or it could also be the president—generates compassion for that person and liberates them from prison. Things like that can happen; suddenly changes can happen.

Chenrezig liberates us from the first prison and also liberates us from the second prison of attachment to future samsara. We are liberated from that, which has caused our suffering from beginningless rebirth. So we are liberated from that by reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and practicing Dharma. The third prison we are liberated from is the self-cherishing thought, which from beginningless rebirths has caused us to suffer and has caused us to harm to numberless sentient beings. Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and practicing Dharma frees us from these three prisons.

The fourth prison is the root of samsara—the ignorance holding the I as real while it is not, while it exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind. That is the creator of samsara and that makes us suffer from beginningless rebirths. Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and practicing Dharma frees us from the fourth prison.

In tantra, the ordinary concept and ordinary view is the fifth prison. By reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and practicing Dharma, we become free from the ordinary concepts and ordinary view that have caused us to suffer from beginningless rebirths. The subtle impure wind and mind that create samsara according to Highest Yoga Tantra—that make us suffer from beginningless rebirths—by reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and practicing Dharma we are freed from that and we can achieve enlightenment.

Ordinary people think being in a room where they are not allowed to do certain things and can’t get out is prison, but it is not really prison. In Tibet, there are many hermitages like that, where meditators were in a small cave with no door and just a tiny hole in the wall to pass the food through. Many times the meditators were locked in for years and they did not meet people or speak to anyone for years. In the view of ordinary people, especially in the West, they may think that is a worse prison, but it is being in retreat, disciplining the mind, for the mind to be free. As Milarepa said: “I was afraid of death so I escaped to the mountains. Now I have realized the ultimate nature of the primordial mind, even if death comes I have no fear.”

That shows that he has freedom from delusion and karma, and by disciplining the mind, we can become free. Right now, the mind is under the control of delusion and karma. By disciplining the mind, then the mind conquers delusion and karma and we can become free, like arhats and especially the Buddha.

If you can, read Liberation in the Palm of your Hand and the morning motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). It is very, very important to do that motivation every morning. I hope you can get this book in prison.

If you have some things to ask you can write to me and if I have time I will answer, but for you the main answer is for you to read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. All the main answers are in that book. This is the most important thing.

Please read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand seven times from beginning to end and anything you don’t understand you can write down and discuss with a teacher later. That is very good for you.

At the moment you can’t receive initiations, but you can after you come out of prison, so this is for that time. According to my observation your main deity is Yamantaka, but that’s just for your own knowledge and who you can pray to now. Later you can receive the great initiation and do the practice and the retreat.

Yamantaka is all the Buddha’s wisdom in the form of Manjushri. Manjushri is to develop for sentient beings—to help develop wisdom in understanding Dharma. Chenrezig is all the Buddha’s compassion to help sentient beings—to develop compassion. All the Buddha’s power is Vajrapani—to help sentient beings become free from delusion and karma and to be free from obscurations to enlightenment. Manjushri has a wrathful aspect and an extremely wrathful aspect. Yamantaka is the most wrathful aspect. Yamantaka manifested in a wrathful aspect to overcome our delusion, the creator of our samsaric sufferings, the self-cherishing thought—to pacify, to overcome that.

Thank you very much. You are most welcome to enlightenment and to buddhahood in order to free sentient beings in the quickest way.

With much love and prayers ...

Using Time in Prison to Practice Dharma
Date of Advice:
January 2016
Date Posted:
June 2016

A prisoner wrote asking Rinpoche to be his guru. Rinpoche sent this letter.

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I am not qualified, but I will try what I can and you try whatever you can.

It is most excellent what you are thinking, the way you are thinking about being in prison, using the time to practice Dharma, to actualize the path to enlightenment for yourself and to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Also to purify the negative karma that has been collected from beginningless time that causes rebirth in the lower realms. So to use the time in prison to be free from this forever and to achieve enlightenment. That means you are in prison for all sentient beings. That is the best.

In reality if you were out of prison, you probably would not practice Dharma. We are usually totally distracted in samsara, in pleasure, having no interest in practicing Dharma, being lazy. So in this way being in prison you can understand really how to practice, to actualize the path and to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and especially to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.

Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta day and night, and in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers...

Meditation in Prisons
Date Posted:
November 2010

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a nun who works in a prison, where she meets with the prisoners to talk. She told Rinpoche that many prisoners have weapons and try to commit suicide in prison. She also mentioned that there was another Buddhist counselor from the Zen tradition and Rinpoche asked if this counselor advised the prisoners to stop thinking.

To stop thinking, for prisoners, when the mind is too overwhelming, can bring calm, but you can’t stop thinking completely. It is better to have an object than not to have an object, otherwise the person may get spaced out. Being spaced out in meditation can cause dullness and also destroys the wisdom and intelligence. It can cause rebirth as an animal. The highest you can achieve is the formless realm, with empty sky consciousness and nothingness, according to His Holiness Zong Rinpoche, abbot of Ganden Shartse. He was like a great, ancient Indian pandit, a great yogi, Heruka, with high tantric realizations of the path.

Another way to stop thinking of the past is mentioned in the preliminary teachings in the Mahamudra teachings. To stop thinking of the past and the future, just look at the nature of the mind, look at the mind, look at the face of the mind, that’s it. The whole mind is watching the mind. At that time, when strong desire, anger, attachment, all those delusions arise, you distract the mind from those. The mind becomes neutral. Of course, before that meditation, if you make a bodhicitta motivation for the benefit of others, then it becomes complete virtue. Without a bodhicitta motivation, even if you just do this meditation, it’s useful; it distracts the mind away from arising delusions. That can be useful because it brings calmness. This is a preliminary for the Mahamudra meditation.

First, you have the nine-round breathing meditation. The other practice is you breathe out, breathe in, and just sit. All the negative emotional thoughts, anger, attachment, the selfish mind, and negative imprints are banned from this world, like black smoke, then disappear. As you breathe in, you can visualize Chenrezig, or generate Buddha, and all the qualities: omniscience, power, and compassion, then you receive all the qualities with white light. As you breathe in, they go inside through your whole body to the heart, and you try to feel compassion for all living beings. That is very important for actualizing the path. Then, think, I have the power to help others to the state of omniscience. After compassion then I will reach omniscience, and will have all the knowledge to help others, then the power to help others, to do perfect work for sentient beings.

Depending on the person, if the person cannot accept Buddha, then just say enlightened beings. You don’t have to say Jesus; some people may not be Christian. Only say Jesus if the person is Christian. Some people have an open mind, but it is always better to phrase things according to their mind, so you can always ask if they have a religion or not. But if it’s because of another reason that they can’t visualize Buddha, you can say Jesus, but you have to describe the qualities of Buddha, having omniscience, free from all defilements, having omniscience and compassion for all beings, and perfect power. That way you might use the name Jesus but actually the recognition is of Buddha. In reality, the person is relying on Buddha. So, you might not use the word Buddha, but you are describing the meaning of Buddha. Then, do the meditation. Otherwise, you can say the highest path, and the universal, highest, most powerful enlightened being. If you say Buddha it’s particular to Buddhists, but if you say most enlightened and fully awakened, then it’s universal. The meaning is important.

You can do that three, five, or ten times, then the mind becomes very calm and relaxed. Then the mind is watching the mind, with no past or future, just watching the mind, just concentrating on the mind. Then from Mahamudra meditation you go to emptiness and look for the object to be refuted, how you feel the I, and from that you go straight to meditation on emptiness. That’s the Mahamudra technique. Of course, you can start with the guru entering the heart, but to do this you need an initiation, Instead of thinking of the heart, they can practice the mind watching the mind, and then examine what is the nature of the mind. While they are looking at the mind, they can think how they are seeing the I, who is meditating, and can they find it or not. Sometimes, practice looking for the I with them, in the meditation; this interests them, it’s like research.

Some of the prisoners have mental problems, so if they are paranoid, maybe they can do this breathing. If they are paranoid, you have to tell them that what they believe is not true.

Whatever problems they have, they can look at them like a dream, because when you die this life becomes like a dream. It happens just like that (snaps his finger) and is gone. So if they can think that now, in daily life, problems and fear disappear and peace and happiness arise. They should do that as much as they can.

Some prisoners maybe were using drugs and then, when they go to jail, they cannot get them any more, so then their minds become very agitated. All those problems and sufferings are the same. Whatever problem you see in prison, what caused them to be caught and put there is their desire. It is not actually the police who put them there, but desire. Also, whatever suffering you have comes from desire. So, this is very useful for you too. All the problems there come from desire. A very good meditation is the shortcomings of desire. And a very good meditation on the lamrim is the shortcomings of delusion and attachment. This is very good for renunciation of samsara. I am sure helping in the prison also helps you, that it helps your renunciation.

Good books you can give the prisoners are:

Becoming Your Own Therapist
Transforming Problems into Happiness

Maybe some prisoners might want to chant mantras? If so, then they can chant OM MANI PADME HUM, Medicine Buddha, the Heart Sutra, also prayers such as the Foundation of Good Qualities and the Three Principals of the Path, depending on the situation. You can make them into songs, then they enjoy them.

 

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