My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

You should read my book Transforming Problems into Happiness.

You also need to practice White Umbrella Deity. If possible, you should do the sadhana. There’s a longer one, but you can recite the short prayer and at least recite the mantra by visualizing White Umbrella Deity. Think that you are under the guidance of White Umbrella Deity. Nectar beams emitted from you totally eliminate all the negative karmas, spirit harms and defilements collected from beginningless rebirths. You can recite some mantras, then think of all sentient beings.

You should think, as said by Buddha and particularly as the great bodhisattva Shantideva said,

If I didn’t harm others, nobody would harm me.

This is the first thing you should think whenever obstacles arise, whatever you encounter. The very first thing you should think is that this is caused by harming others. Basically in Buddhism, the root is that if somebody is harming you, it’s related to yourself. It’s not that you’re perfect but still somebody is harming you. Not at all. That’s not Buddhism. Immediately, whatever problem comes, the first thing to think is that it’s the result of having harmed sentient beings in the past. It’s the result of that. First think that.

Lama Atisha came from Nalanda to Tibet when there was degeneration of Buddhism there, when there was so much misunderstanding about how to practice. People thought that if you practiced sutra you couldn’t practice tantra and if you practiced tantra you couldn’t practice sutra. Lama Atisha was invited to Tibet [by the king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, who sent a gold offering and translator to Lama Atisha in India.] But the first translator, Nagtso Lotsawa, didn’t get to even inform Lama Atisha; he didn’t even get to see Lama Atisha.

So then again the Dharma king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, went to look for gold in different parts of Tibet. Near Nepal there was an irreligious king who captured the Dharma king and put him in prison. So Jangchub Ö, the king’s nephew, went to see the irreligious king to offer him the gold, but the irreligious king said gold the size of the head was missing.

Then the nephew went to see the Dharma king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, who told him, “Don’t give him even a handful of gold, but send everything to India to offer to Lama Atisha and invite Lama Atisha to Tibet.” So he sent a message to Lama Atisha, saying, “I will die in prison to spread Dharma in Tibet, but may I be able to meet you in the future life.” He sent a message to Lama Atisha like that, and later died in prison.

So another group went to India with all the gold, and because Tibetan people are the special objects to be subdued by Chenrezig, the Compassion Buddha, he manifested in the form of a child sometimes and sometimes as an old woman or man, and gave advice to the group. At that time there were no cars, nothing, and they had to go just on foot. Sometimes Chenrezig manifested as a child to warn them there was the danger of a wrong path, a wrong road, then he would guide them on the right road. Sometimes he manifested as an old person who told them, “Keep quiet. Don’t talk so much about inviting Lama Atisha, because there are obstacles.”

Finally they reached India and were able to see Lama Atisha, and they informed Lama Atisha what happened in Tibet, all the misunderstandings and degeneration of Buddhism there. Lama Atisha listened to everything and then he checked with Tara. Whatever Lama Atisha did, he asked Tara. Then Tara said, “Your life will be highly beneficial in Tibet, but it will be seven years shorter.” So Lama Atisha said, “I don’t mind.”

Then Lama Atisha went through Nepal and into Tibet. So then Jangchub Ö, the king’s nephew, explained the situation to Lama Atisha. Lama Atisha then wrote the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. All the Buddha’s 84,000 teachings are divided into three: Theravada, Mahayana sutra and Mahayana tantra. So, all those are integrated into the lamrim, and all those are not contradictory. They were regarded before as contradictory, but they’re all for one person’s graduated practice to achieve enlightenment. Lama Atisha emphasized that, then he wrote the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, and lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, the title happened after that. So all the wrong conceptions were completely eliminated, dispelled, like that, and Buddhism became very pure.

Then Lama Atisha’s guru, Dharmarakshita, wrote The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. Lama Atisha had 157 gurus, and among those were two root gurus. One is Dharmarakshita and the other is Lama Serlingpa, from whom he received the complete teaching on bodhicitta.

Lama Atisha travelled for thirteen months on the ocean by boat and then spent twelve years studying with Lama Serlingpa. Every time Lama Atisha heard Lama Serlingpa’s name, tears would come out, his hair would stand up and he would prostrate, putting his palms together. 

Another root guru is Dharmarakshita, who wrote The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which says it’s very good to remember this when obstacles happen. There it’s related to sickness, but you should relate it to any problem. When you have unbearable pain, that is because you have harmed the bodies of the transmigratory beings. Now take every sickness, every pain of others on yourself.

Lama Atisha’s guru, Dharmarakshita said,

When I get unbearable suffering, unbearable pain,
That’s the karma of having harmed other transmigratory beings. 
The wheel of sharp weapons is turning on me.
(This means it’s the result of having harmed others).
From now on, I will take every single being’s pain on myself.
(This means letting others be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering).

Also, the great bodhisattva Shantideva said in A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara),

[6:47] My own karma persuaded others,
Then I received this harm from them.
Therefore, [when others harm me, they create the cause]
To be lost in the hole of the hell.

This is a very important quotation that you should remember every day, the first quotation and then this one. The first one is if a problem happened, it’s the result of your past karma of having harmed others. So the second quote means that instead of getting angry with those who harm you—the people or the insects that bite you—instead of getting angry, harming them back or killing them, you need to develop compassion. There’s no way to harm back or be angry; instead you give whatever help you can. So, this is to develop compassion.

What it’s saying is that it’s your karma from harming others that persuaded them to harm you this time. So that’s due to the previous karma. Then, that affects the person, who is now here in the human realm, but then they’re lost from here, where there’s incredible advantage. 

The human body is more precious than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels. Not only gold and diamonds but wish-granting jewels. This human body is so precious. By meeting Dharma, we purify negative karma, and by creating good karma, we can achieve a deva or human rebirth. Then by practicing morality, meditation and wisdom we can be free from the oceans of samsara and we can achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara. Not only that, on the basis of that, we renounce the self-cherishing thought and we don’t fall into lower realms and then we achieve the great nirvana, the total cessation of obscurations, gross and subtle, and completion of realizations (sang gyä), buddhahood. We receive that for sentient beings. After that we liberate numberless sentient beings from the lower realms and free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and lead them to enlightenment. That’s really [possible as a] human being. If we receive a human rebirth, we can do that. It’s most unbelievable.

So, because they’re harming you, then they create negative karma, so that causes them to lose their human body and be reborn in the hell realm. The hole is used as an example of those hells, where they’re experiencing that suffering for an unbelievable length of time, even eons. All that means you harmed that sentient being, that’s the evolution, so that’s totally your mistake. Therefore, the only thing to do is generate compassion for them. There’s no choice. You can only help in whatever way you can, even by reciting one mala of OM MANI PADME HUM. You have to help that person not to be reborn in the lower realms. To purify their negative karma, you do whatever you can.

Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said in the Seven-Point Thought Transformation:

Put all the blame on one. 

That means all the sufferings of the past, present and future are caused by the I. Therefore, whatever problems we encounter every day, we must recognize that immediately and put all the blame on one, the I, the self-cherishing thought. This means any problem, any disease, any undesirable thing, immediately we put the blame on the I.

Toward all others, we meditate that they’re incredibly precious and kind.

The Extensive Kindnesses of Sentient Beings

I’d like to explain the extensive kindnesses of sentient beings in these three ways.

1. All Our Happiness, Including Enlightenment, Comes from the Kindness of Sentient Beings

I’ll present the first extensive kindness of sentient beings in this way. A sentient being is any being with a mind. When we hear that term, we shouldn’t think only of those beings who have a human mind, but any being in general who has a mind. The definition of mind is “that which is clear and perceives objects.” Therefore a sentient being includes even the smallest organisms that we can’t see with our bare eyes but only through a microscope.

When someone is angry with us, harms us with their body or speech, dislikes us, is cruel to us, says nice things to our face but insults us behind our back, makes us feel disgusted or belittles us, because we interpret that being as harming us, we think of them as bad and call them “enemy.” Now, instead of getting angry with them, try to see that sentient being as having a suffering, obscured mind. From that, great compassion arises, and from that great compassion, bodhicitta arises. From that, the numberless bodhisattvas arise. From them, the numberless buddhas arise and from them, the numberless holy actions of the buddhas arise.

The actions of a buddha are called trin lä in Tibetan. Since this is an honorific word for “action,” I translate it into English as “holy action.” There are two kinds of holy action. One type exists in the buddhas’ mind and one exists within us sentient beings. The buddhas’ holy actions that exist in us are all our virtuous thoughts. From our virtuous thoughts—the buddhas’ holy actions—come all the happiness we have experienced from beginningless rebirths, all the happiness we are experiencing now and all the happiness we will experience in the future, including our future enlightenment.

Of course, before we achieve buddhahood, there is our virtuous thought—the buddhas’ holy action—the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, the ultimate nature of phenomena. This is the true path that is holy Dharma. When we generate that wisdom, we become an arya Sangha. Then, when we complete the merits of virtue and merits of wisdom, we achieve their results, the holy body and holy mind of a buddha, the rupakaya and dharmakaya, and become a buddha. After we become a buddha, we cause other sentient beings to generate the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, in their minds, at which time they become arya Sangha. Also, after we become a buddha, we cause numberless sentient beings to become buddhas.

So, all that and all our three-times happiness comes from the buddhas. Buddhas come from bodhisattvas, and bodhisattvas come from bodhicitta. Bodhicitta comes from great compassion, and great compassion comes from suffering obscured sentient beings. So, that means great compassion also comes from this specific sentient being who dislikes us, who doesn’t love us, who harms us with their body or speech. So, we can see now, very clearly and logically, that all our past happiness from beginningless rebirths, all our present happiness and all our future happiness totally come from this person, the one we call enemy.

Also, that we can achieve the Dharma (the absolute Dharma of true paths and true cessations), become a Sangha (an arya Sangha who has directly realized emptiness), then become a buddha (a fully enlightened being), and then cause numberless sentient beings to achieve the Dharma, become Sangha, and then become a buddha, all come from this person who we call “enemy.” Therefore, this person is most unbelievably precious for us. They are precious in the same way that money is considered very important and precious by everyone in the world, whether they are a king, a president or a beggar. This is because if people have money they can get whatever pleasant things they want.

Another example of something precious is land. This is regarded as precious because if we have land we can build a house on it or we can sell it. Because we can do so many things with it to achieve happiness for ourselves and others, land is regarded as very precious. Similarly, this person is most unbelievably precious. In fact, they are beyond precious.

These are just a couple of brief examples that show how this person who we think of as an enemy is precious and kind, but actually their kindness is way beyond these examples. This person is most precious, most dear, most kind and wish-fulfilling because from them we achieve all the temporary happinesses of this and future lives, the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara, and the peerless happiness of the state of omniscience, buddhahood. The kindness of that person, if it materialized, would fill limitless space. Just as space has no limit, there is no limit to the kindness of that person.

So, the conclusion is that we receive all our past, present and future happiness, including enlightenment, due to the kindness of every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every asura and every sura, each and every single sentient being, even the ants, mosquitos or tiny flies. Therefore they are most dear, most precious, most kind and wish-fulfilling. That all our happiness, including enlightenment, comes from sentient beings is one of the extensive kindnesses we receive from sentient beings.

2. All Sentient Beings Have Been Our Mother and Kind to Us in Four Ways

As I mentioned in detail above, all sentient beings have been our mother and kind to us in four ways: they gave us a human body (especially a perfect human rebirth with which we are able to meet and practice Dharma), protected us from many dangers, bore hardships for us and educated us in the ways of the world.

3. Shelter, Food, and Clothing Come to Us from the Kindness of Sentient Beings

i) Sentient Beings Suffered in Order for Us to Be Able to Have Shelter

The house we live in, which protects us from the elements, came to us from the suffering of many sentient beings. Many insects, such as ants, and many small animals, such as mice, were harmed and even killed to build the foundation of the house. On top of that, many human beings worked hard and created much negative karma to build it.

ii) Sentient Beings Suffered in Order for Us to Be Able to Have Food

Our food and drink also come to us from the suffering of many sentient beings. For example, the tiny sentient beings that live in water get killed in order to provide us with water that is safe to drink. The small insects that live on vegetables, fruit, grains and so forth, get harmed and killed in the production of food for us human beings. If we think back in time, even one grain of rice came to us from another grain of rice that came from another grain of rice and so on. Thus we can see that numberless sentient beings suffered even for this single grain of rice, let alone how many suffered for a plate of rice.

Also, the people who worked to produce the rice created much negative karma by harming and killing those sentient beings and, due to that, they will suffer and experience much harm in the future. Wow, wow, wow. Numberless sentient beings suffered and worked for our food. Therefore, if we eat it with attachment, just for our own happiness and just for the happiness of this life, that would be terrible. If we eat it only thinking of our own happiness and never think of other sentient beings’ happiness, and, in particular, the happiness of those who suffered and worked for that food, that would be very selfish and cruel.

Therefore, we should eat food for sentient beings, to be able to work for sentient beings with our body, speech, and mind in order to free them from suffering and achieve happiness for them. We should eat it not only to free them from the lower realms and bring them to a higher rebirth, but to free them from samsara and bring them to the everlasting happiness of nirvana. And not only that, we should eat it to free them even from that lower nirvana and bring them to great nirvana, enlightenment, the total cessation of both the gross and subtle obscurations and the completion of all realizations. This one time that we have received a human rebirth and have met the Mahayana teachings, we have this incredible opportunity to be of benefit to others. We are so fortunate, so fortunate, so fortunate to be able to do this.

iii) Sentient Beings Suffered in Order for Us to Be Able to Have Clothing

Our clothing also comes to us from the suffering of sentient beings. Of course, there’s no question that clothing made from animal skin or fur comes to us as a result of the killing of animals. Likewise, in the case of silk clothing, many silkworms were killed to make it. Those animals suffered so much for us to have this clothing. Then, on top of that, other human beings killed the animals and in doing so created much negative karma.

As well as clothing that comes from animals, we also wear clothing that comes from plants. It too comes to us from the suffering of animals and people. During its creation, many insects and small animals were killed in the fields, and many human beings worked hard and created negative karma to make it.

In short, if we examine any piece of clothing we wear, we will see that much suffering was involved in the process of making it. Therefore, the pleasure and protection that comes from wearing clothing is the result of many sentient beings experiencing harm and many people creating negative karma. It did not happen without causes and conditions; many sentient beings suffered and were killed for the clothing that we wear.

So, there’s no choice—we have to work for sentient beings. We have to stop harming sentient beings and instead do what we can to benefit them. This is the very foundation of Dharma practice.

You must really meditate on this again and again until you feel the kindness of sentient beings ever more deeply. The more you feel their kindness, the more the thought to harm them will naturally stop. You will come to a point where you won’t dare to harm others ever again.

In essence:

First, the sentient beings who were angry or harmed us are the source of all our happiness from beginningless rebirth, including enlightenment, everything.

Second the kindness of the mother in four ways.

Then, the kindness of [sentient beings who gave us] the happiness of protection for our body by having a house. When the house was built, so many sentient beings were killed, harmed or created negative karma.
Then for our survival each day [sentient beings give us] the happiness of eating food, drinking. For our vegetables and so forth, so many sentient beings, tiny sentient beings, all get harmed and killed by spraying, and even if we don’t use sprays, still by washing our food, we’re causing harm. For one grain of rice, so many human beings worked at many different times, and so many sentient beings were harmed and killed. This one grain of rice came from another grain of rice, and for that so many sentient beings worked very hard, then were harmed and killed. So, for thousands of years, for numberless grains of rice, numberless sentient beings suffered and were killed or died for this rice.

If we eat just for our happiness, only for that, it is terrible, most terrible, ugly. Therefore, if we are eating this food, there’s no choice, we have to benefit the sentient beings. We can see that numberless sentient beings died, were harmed and created negative karma for this one grain of rice, all that.

Besides that, for the animal skin clothing or shoes, there is unbelievable suffering and so many sentient beings are killed. Even the clothes made of animal skin or fur, so many sentient beings worked for that and killed or harmed other sentient beings so much. So that’s how we have the happiness of eating food and the happiness of wearing clothing and so forth.

Meditating on the kindness of others means like that. So meditate on their kindness, which includes all these basic meditations that I’ve introduced.

Also, Lama Serlingpa said,

The I is the root of all the negative karma, so the I is to be abandoned immediately.
Others are the object of your enlightenment, so they should be cherished immediately.

There are 424 diseases that are harming us, and there are 360 spirit possessors and 1,080 interferers. All those are harming the I, the self-cherishing thought. Including the 424 diseases, including pain, all these are harming the I, which means they are extremely positive, not negative. The main enemy to bodhicitta is the self-cherishing thought, the I, so all these are destroying the enemy, the self-cherishing thought, the I. Then what happens is we’re able to develop, to arise bodhicitta, cherishing others, and from that we can achieve enlightenment. So then we can bring every sentient being to enlightenment after we ourselves achieve enlightenment.

So all these things are benefiting us. All these are normally regarded as negative or bad, but actually they’re the best thing, the most precious thing, because they destroy our enemy, the I, the self-cherishing thought. The benefits that we get by harming the self-cherishing thought, the I, are incredible, more than skies of benefit. All the things that are regarded as harming us are unbelievably precious and benefit us because they destroy the enemy, the self-cherishing thought, which doesn’t allow us to achieve enlightenment and enlighten sentient beings.

Therefore, in reality all these 424 diseases, the 360 spirit possessors and 1,080 types of interferers, all these are incredibly precious support.

It is mentioned also in the Bodhicaryavatara, “If you’re holding fire in your hand, and you don’t let go of the fire, the burning can’t be stopped. Similarly, if you don’t give up the I, the suffering cannot be stopped. Therefore, to pacify the suffering of yourself and to pacify the suffering of others, give yourself up for others, and cherish others like yourself.”

[8:134] If all the injury,
Fear and pain in this world
Arise from grasping at a self,
Then what use is that great ghost to me?

[8:135] If I do not completely forsake it
I shall be unable to put an end to suffering,
Just as I cannot avoid being burnt
If I do not cast aside the fire (I hold).

[8:136] Therefore, in order to allay the harms inflicted upon me
And in order to pacify the sufferings of others,
I shall give myself up to others
And cherish them as I do my very self.

And in the Lama Chöpa, Guru Puja, composed by the great enlightened being Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, it is mentioned:

[LC 91] This chronic disease of cherishing myself
Is the cause giving rise to my unsought suffering.
Perceiving this, I seek your blessings to blame, begrudge,
And destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness

Here it is saying that cherishing the I is the cause of all the undesirable sufferings, all the things we dislike, the conditions, even black magic, all the obstacles, misfortunes. Therefore we’re asking for blessings to be able to destroy this self-cherishing thought, the great demon.

Not only do we think that all the problems are caused by the self-cherishing thought, the great demon, but we give all this back immediately to the great demon, the self-cherishing thought, and destroy it, just as in an outside war a bomb is thrown right on the enemy, destroying it, making it nonexistent. Similarly, we destroy the inner enemy.

If we don’t have the inner enemy, there’s no outside enemy. Every outside enemy is destroyed by destroying our inner enemy.

As Nagarjuna said,

As long as we destroy our enemy by killing them—this means the outside enemy—the outside enemy does not finish but only increases more and more. But by killing the inner enemy, anger, then all the outside enemies are killed. They don’t exist; we don’t have them.

According to Lama Chöpa, we not only stop harbouring the enemy, but all the problems that arise, we give them back, like throwing an atomic bomb on the enemy, then according to the deeper subject, we destroy the self-cherishing thought. It’s an incredible practice if we can do that with our problems, our health problems. That’s an incredible practice.

In the Lama Chöpa it’s mentioned,

[LC 92] The mind that cherishes mothers (the sentient beings) and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
(That means up to enlightenment, all the qualities of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.)
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these transmigratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.

This is an incredible practice, the best psychology, the best meditation, the best Dharma practice, the best medicine. That means leading even one sentient being to happiness is the door to receiving infinite qualities, including enlightenment. It is mentioned like that, so it’s unbelievably precious to cherish even one sentient being. It’s unbelievably, unbelievably precious. It’s the door to receiving all the qualities of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

I think I have spoken quite a bit, so I’m sorry. I’ll stop here. If you can read this advice again and again, it’s so good. It’s an unbelievable practice. Thank you very much. Also, please let me know.

Also, this is very good when health problems come, if you can do tonglen. You can think you’re experiencing all sentient beings’ suffering. When you experience the problem for numberless sentient beings that can help stop it. Even if you don’t do the actual practice, even just thinking that way can help.

Thank you very much, billions and zillions.