My very dear Chokyi,
Thank you very much for your very kind letters and I am sorry it took so long to reply. I read your letters a few times. Thank you also for the thangka that you offered, which is in my house in California.

Regarding ordination, I think you should take ordination as quickly as possible, if not from His Holiness the Dalai Lama then from Denma Locho Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, or Jhado Rinpoche, whoever is available, so that you can take ordination as quickly as possible.

It is very good for you to do three-year retreat. Did I suggest Hayagriva before? If so, there is another nun doing this same deity retreat in Solo Khumbu, near Lawudo.

You do need to receive teachings on how to do three-year retreat. Hayagriva is usually done as a one-year retreat, but of course you can do it for three years. The main thing is to do lam-rim meditation to achieve renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness, all based on guru devotion. Then within that you can do the Hayagriva tantric practice.

According to my observations, the best places for you to do three-year retreat are Mahamudra Center in New Zealand and Kangaroo Island in Australia. There is a retreat center there called Detong Ling—both these places would be very good. It would also be good for you to do retreat in the retreat center in France. Did you have another place in mind?

The main deity for your quickest enlightenment is Gyalwa Gyatso. I may have told you your main deity before. If so, then this means that it is also good for you to practice Gyalwa Gyatso now.

Try your best to study and practice lam-rim. Here is some guidance for your practice. Try to study the teachings as much as you can and do lam-rim meditations. Any service you can offer is also good. My main advice to you is to do lam-rim meditations wherever you are, including if you are studying or offering service. So, this is practice for you for life, for your quickest enlightenment:

• 100,000 prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas
• 400,000 Dorje Khadro fire practices
• 10,000 mandala offerings
• 200,000 tsa-tsas—divide them between stupas and the three types of deity: Manjrushri, Chenrezig, and Vajrapani—these are the essence of all Buddha’s compassion, wisdom, and power
• 20,000 recitations of the Diamond Cutter Sutra
• 2,000 guru yoga practices based on Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. You need to do this practice daily, this is a very important practice. Sometimes you can do Lama Chöpa (Guru Puja), but daily you do need to do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga.

Please study my commentary on Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. Also, you need to receive the lung (oral transmission) for Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. When I meet you I can give this to you, if you don’t receive it from another lama first. If I am unable to do it, then you can request it from Denma Locho Rinpoche.

Every day you need to meditate on the lam-rim. You can do this on the basis of six-session guru yoga, Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, or Lama Chöpa. At the part before the guru enters your heart, you stop and do the lam-rim meditations. Because you do six-session guru yoga in the morning and evening in this way, you can meditate on the lam-rim in the morning and evening.

It is very good if you can get instructions particularly on the teaching of shi-nä and try to study this. Take the teachings and then later you can do retreat to achieve shi-nä. By having that realization it makes it very easy to achieve all the other realizations of the lam-rim and tantric path.

You can plan to do three or four-year retreat. According to my observations the best place for you to do retreat is Mahamudra Center in New Zealand. There is a monk who has been doing retreat there for a long time there. New Zealand would be very good for your shi-nä retreat. Also, there is some retreat land in France.

Most important is your guru devotion practice. You have to be most careful with this practice. It is the foundation of all the qualities and realizations on the path to enlightenment, so that you are able to benefit all sentient beings, to liberate and enlighten them. All of this depends on correct devotion to the virtuous friend.

This means that anyone that you have taken vows from, including refuge vows, bodhisattva, tantric vows, and ordination vows, also anyone that you took oral transmission from, even a few words, mantras, verses, now you have to regard them as your guru. That means to obtain advice and follow it, seeing the guru as Buddha. This is the greatest commitment in one’s life, the most important one. You can’t just take initiations and teachings here and there and not think that the teacher is your guru. Also, there is not only one guru in your life, you should not think like that. Of course, there is your root guru, who benefits your mind most, who is the most kind to you, who is the kindest among all your gurus.

You cannot think like you are shopping in a market, taking anything from anybody and not regarding them as your guru. All the lamas that you take initiations, transmissions etc. from become your guru; you have to regard them as your guru. This doesn’t mean anyone that you hear Dharma from then becomes your guru. You can study at a university and learn about Buddhism from a professor without regarding him or her as your guru, but you can’t do that with initiations and taking vows.

During the initiation you visualize the guru as the deity and take blessings from that person, who then becomes your guru. If you are asleep during the initiation and you didn’t do the visualization receiving blessings from the lama visualized as the deity, then the lama doesn’t become your guru. If at the beginning you visualize the person as your guru then even if you fall asleep for the rest, still the connection is made, because at the beginning you had the recognition, and made the Dharma connection—the guru-disciple relationship is created. Even if you spaced out for the rest of initiation, only heard a few words at the beginning and then spent the whole initiation thinking of nothing, with no thoughts, like being asleep, and didn’t hear any of the initiation, but at the beginning you had the recognition of a guru-disciple relationship, then the connection is made.

If someone teaches you the mantra TADYATHA OM MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHAMUNAYÉ SOHA, or even just one word of the mantra, such as AH, which negates all “I,” action, object, phenomena, samsara, nirvana, happiness, suffering, hell, enlightenment, all that appears to one’s hallucinatory mind as existing from its own side, whereas in reality nothing exists and everything is totally empty of existing from its own side, you have a Dharma connection.

So, if you receive the lung of even one syllable such as AH, one makes a Dharma connection of guru-disciple. This is a huge commitment to have, and means having devotion from your side and that you have to obey that person’s advice, have to put that person above your head or crown as a wish-granting jewel, as the most precious one in your life, more precious than countless buddhas and bodhisattvas. Why? Because without the guru there are no buddhas, Buddha, bodhisattvas, Dharma, Sangha, holy objects, statues, stupas, or scriptures. We don’t see Buddha directly, instead we see holy objects such as statues, stupas, and scriptures. We can collect merit from them by doing prostrations, making offerings, and circumambulating them. Even if one’s mind is not pure, is deluded by ignorance, anger, non-virtuous thoughts, clinging to this life, with holy objects your actions become virtuous by the power of the holy objects. Even if you are having non-virtuous thoughts, still you can collect merit. The guru is the source of all one’s past, present, and future happiness from beginningless rebirths, including enlightenment and enlightening all sentient beings—every single suffering hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura, asura, and intermediate state being—bringing them to enlightenment. Not only achieving all realizations, but also every single pleasure there is in samsara comes from the guru’s kindness. Because of this the guru is more kind than all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and due to these reasons one must cherish most and obey the gurus.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that in special guru and disciple relationships, like Marpa, Milarepa, Tilopa, and Naropa, the disciple does everything that the guru says, puts it into action. However, for most people it means to act according to what the scriptures say regarding guru devotion and to obtain advice.

If one is unable to follow the guru’s advice, in order to not create very heavy negative karma, one should humbly, respectfully, without disturbing or upsetting the holy mind, obtain permission, and continue with devotional thoughts, looking at the guru as Buddha.

So, please study the lam-rim, especially guru devotion, very well. You must read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and the Lamrim Chenmo very well and become familiar with the all the subjects. Here is some guidance in regards to lam-rim meditations:

• Meditate for three months on guru devotion.
• Meditate for two months on the graduated path common to the lower capable being.
• Meditate for four months on the graduated path common to the middle capable being.
• Meditate for three months on the graduated path common to the higher capable being: bodhicitta.
• Meditate for three months on emptiness.

Meditate on each subject for the certain amount of time, making it your main focus during that time. Meditating for three months on guru devotion means that is your main meditation during that time. Even when you have finished the whole cycle three times, it is still very good to continue this meditation over and over again, until you have stable realizations.

After completing the cycle three times, if you still do not have guru devotion realizations, then you should take that as your main focus and continue until you have realizations. Then do the same with each subject and continue until you have stable realizations of the whole path. You should also do your preliminary practices. After realizing the lower path then put effort into the middle path, bodhicitta, and then emptiness.

With much love and prayers...