Numberless Thanks for Your Service

Numberless Thanks for Your Service

Date of Advice:
September 2016
Date Posted:
October 2017

Rinpoche wrote this letter to a new director at an FPMT center.

My most dear, most precious, most kind, most dear, wish-fulfilling director,
Numberless thanks from my heart, for every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute, every second of your dedication, your service. You are bringing happiness to sentient beings not only in this life, but in their future lives, which is much more important. Even more important is bringing their ultimate happiness, nirvana, the blissful state of peace, to be free from samsara forever. The most important is buddhahood—the cessation of the obscurations and completion of all the realizations—and then bringing all this happiness to all the sentient beings. All this comes from Buddhadharma, therefore your service is for the Buddhadharma, to preserve and spread it to sentient beings even in every second.

Buddhahood is to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to buddhahood, the peerless happiness. The Buddha practiced during the time he was bodhisattva. He practiced the six paramitas, such as charity, giving his own life numberless times for three countless great eons, giving his limbs and eyes and so forth, making charity to other sentient beings. With so much hardship he practiced morality for three countless great eons; he practiced patience for three countless great eons; he practiced perseverance for numberless eons; and he practiced concentration and wisdom for so many eons. He completed collecting the merits of wisdom and merits of virtue, and achieved the result, dharmakaya and rupakaya, and then buddhahood. He achieved full enlightenment for us sentient beings, for you and for me, for everyone.

Numberless bodhisattvas only cherished other sentient beings and then worked, dedicated their body, speech and mind, every second for us. Numberless buddhas only cherished other sentient beings and worked effortlessly to benefit us sentient beings, the six realm sentient beings, even up to achieving enlightenment.

From this you can see the only thing is to work for sentient beings, therefore you can see the benefit of working for sentient beings by offering service. You can see it is the most important thing. This is what makes your life the happiest, most meaningful, most beneficial for all the sentient beings.

Again, thank you very much from my heart.

With much love and prayers ...