My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I checked and it seems you have some life obstacles if you go to nyung näs at this time, but if you do these pujas first, then it comes out best for you to do the nyung näs. All the pujas will have to be done before going to do the nyung näs.

1. Four Namgyalma long-life pujas: these can be done at Serkong Dorje Chang's monastery in Swambhunath or Drubtob Rinpoche’s monastery in Nepal. Either of these monasteries can do these pujas.

2. You need to liberate one hundred animals. This is mainly for your long life, but also for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all your gurus; for all the Sangha who preserve the Dharma and spread Dharma; for the benefactors of the Sangha and the teachings; for all those in FPMT—all the staff, all the students, all the benefactors and all the volunteers; for all evil beings to meet Dharma, to renounce negative karma and create good karma; and also for all beings.

You need to know how to do animal liberation, according to my advice. There is a book that explains how to set up the altar and how to take the animals around it, the mantras to recite and so forth. [See the FPMT ebook Liberating Animals. A short version is also available as a PDF.]

A very quick way to liberate many animals, for instance, is by getting 1,000 crickets in one bag from the shop. These are animals that are otherwise going to be killed or fed to another animal. You take the 1,000 crickets around the holy objects that you have set up (stupas, tsa tsas, relics of the Buddha) and each time it creates the cause of enlightenment for each insect, worm and so forth. [You also can liberate] worms, which are used as fishing bait. People put wire through the body of the worm, which must be unbelievably painful because the worm is not dead and is still moving.

You can also liberate bigger animals that are in danger of being killed. But please do read the book on how to liberate animals and maybe you discuss it with the center. They should know how to do it, how to follow my book, which explains the ways to benefit the animals with mantras, blessed water and going around holy objects.

3. You need the puja mamo trü kang done five times. You can request Kopan to do the puja, and if many monks attend the puja then you can count each monk that does it as one time. So if there are many monks then it is better. If many monks attend, then it gets done many times, so it’s better to do that quickly.

4. The Kopan nuns need to read zung du [Collection of Dharanis] and dedicate for you.

In terms of practice, this human life is just one time. We have this perfect human rebirth just this time, so we can use it to practice Dharma.

One practice to do every day is the daily motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). This also has the blessing of the speech and daily mantras.

It is very important to meditate on the lamrim every day. This is very important. You can also recite one lamrim prayer every day, reading it slowly and going over the meaning. Lamrim is what you need to actualize, no matter how long it takes, so please put your effort there.

You should do the lamrim meditation during your guru yoga practice. Stop before the guru absorbs into you and meditate on whatever section of the lamrim you are up to.

One meditation that you must try to do every day is on guru devotion. If you miss it sometimes that’s OK, but then just continue. There is no question of how much time you should take; it is up to you, what fits.

Then continue with whatever lamrim topic you are up to, doing the meditation every day and going through the subjects slowly. Whatever meditation you did in the morning, you can continue with that mind during the day, so that way your mind is in lamrim all day.

Please try to meditate on the lamrim based on guru yoga and on this basis you will get all the realizations and the most success in your life. It is important to try to achieve all the realizations in order to actualize enlightenment. This is in order to liberate numberless sentient beings and enlighten them. That’s the real project, the real goal of our life.

After you generate bodhicitta, you can practice tantra. There is generation stage—first the gross generation stage and then the subtle generation stage. You can also do some meditation on the completion stage, just to leave positive imprints for realizations.

So please practice as much as you can. Life is not long, and the nature of this life is impermanent. Death can happen at any time. This is the foundation of the Buddha’s teachings, and this was the last advice the Buddha gave before showing the aspect of passing away.

Don’t worry so much about finishing or not finishing; just do it continuously. That is the most important thing, to practice as best you can.

What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim and to live your life with bodhicitta motivation. This is best.

After the pujas are done, it is very good to do the nyung näs. Thank you very, very much for having that wish.

You also need to recite the Golden Light Sutra once a month and continue in your life this way. You can recite a bit each day or do it all at once.

With much love and prayers ...