My very dear Melissa,
Thank you very much for your kind fax. I have checked regarding your health and it comes out very good for you to make 1,000 offerings to Namgyalma. This can be done at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. If you email them they can organize it all. Also, you can ask them to perform twice the puja called Betraying the Death or gyab-shi. I will also make prayers for you.

It also comes out very good for your health for you to liberate 30,000 animals. You can get the book on how to do this from FPMT International Office [see Rinpoche's advice on animals for more information and a link to the book].

The other puja that you should have Kopan Monastery or Lawa Rinpoche at Vajrayana perform for you is la-küg tse-küg—Hooking the Life.

The other practice that came out very good for you to do, according to my observations, is if you can recite five malas of Medicine Buddha mantra every day. This will purify negative karma and will help you never to be reborn in the lower realms. Medicine Buddha said that even if an animal hears the Medicine Buddha mantra it would never be reborn in the lower realms.

If you don’t purify your negative karma, you will be reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry ghost, or animal, and again and again, without end, have to suffer. Therefore, you need to purify the negative karma now. If you cannot bear the cancer now, how will you bear the suffering of the lower realms? Beings have to suffer in the lower realms for an incredible length of time. It is a billion times more suffering than all the human problems put together.

Medicine Buddha mantra prevents you experiencing all these things. So, it is much more precious than vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and wish fulfilling jewels, because all this wealth means nothing, because it can’t purify negative karmas. Even if you own that much wealth, one Medicine Buddha mantra is much more precious, because it leaves the imprint of the whole path to enlightenment in your mind and it helps you to have realizations of the whole path to enlightenment. It eliminates all the gross and subtle defilements and helps you to achieve enlightenment.

Therefore, besides the benefits you receive from reciting it, also there are benefits just from hearing the mantra. Therefore, this mantra is much more precious than infinite quantities of diamonds and jewels.

With the Medicine Buddha mantra, you can liberate millions of sentient beings from oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, just reciting even one mantra or hearing it just once is much more precious than zillions of dollars. So, with full trust in Medicine Buddha, you recite the mantra, knowing that Medicine Buddha will completely take care of your life and heal you. With full trust, know how Medicine Buddha is always with you, in your heart, on your crown, and in front of you. There is not one second that Medicine Buddha does not see you or have compassion toward you.

One student in Hong Kong performs Medicine Buddha practice daily. She had a very serious brain operation. During the operation she actually saw Medicine Buddha. She had a miraculous recovery, as it was a very risky operation, but she surprised everyone, was able to recover, and is still alive. So, Medicine Buddha looked after her.

Also, a person in Taiwan, who is not Buddhist, could not move his body, could not get up, and he didn’t have any helpers. He very badly needed to take his medicine and the medicine was far away in the bathroom. Next to him was a Medicine Buddha statue and when he turned his head, he saw that the Medicine Buddha statue was holding his medicine. So, he was able to take his medicine. Later, he passed away, and when he passed away he was able to put his hands in the mudra of prostration at his heart to show that he remembered Medicine Buddha, and he passed away peacefully.

You can get the long blue Medicine Buddha booklet that Wisdom published some time ago. [Visit the FPMT Foundation Shop and search for "Medicine Buddha" to see a variety of booklets and practice materials.]

Also, a short way to practice it is by reciting the refuge and bodhicitta prayer. The purpose of my life is to free all beings from suffering and lead them to enlightenment therefore I am going to perform the Medicine Buddha practice, especially to purify the negative karma, defilements, disease, and spirit harm, as well as to facilitate healing, so that I can have a healthy and long life to offer service and actualize the path.

Visualize Medicine Buddha on the crown of your head or in front of you. Beams of nectar emit from Medicine Buddha and enter one’s own body and mind like water. They push away all the dirty things, like pouring water into a glass pipe, and all the dirty water flows out the top. All the disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obstacles are completely purified.

Also, think that all sentient beings are in your heart seated on a moon disc, especially people who have cancer. Think that the nectar is purifying the four things (disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obstacles)—all are purified, including the cancer. At the end dedicate merits in this way:

“Due to all the merits I have collected in the past and present and that I will collect in the future, may the wish-fulfilling, most precious, ultimate good heart: bodhicitta, cherishing other sentient beings and letting go of the “I,” be generated in my heart and within the hearts of all living beings without the delay of even a second. May the bodhicitta that is already generated be increased forever more.

“Due to all the merits of the past, present, and future that I have collected and that others have collected, however many sick sentient beings there are, may they be instantly liberated from their sicknesses and may sentient beings never get sick.

“Due to the merits of the three times, that which exists but is empty from its own side, collected by me and all others, may I, who exists but is empty from my own side, achieve enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, and lead sentient beings, who exist but are empty from their own side, to enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but is empty from my own side.

“I dedicate all the merits as the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjughosha realized and in the way that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate and admire the most.

“Due to all these merits, may I actualize completely the stainless teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa that unify sutra and tantra in this life, and may those teachings flourish and spread in all directions.”
With much love and prayers...