My very dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,
I hope you have a good time taking care of your father. This is a precious opportunity. It is Dharma practice, taking care of the sentient beings from whom you receive happiness from beginningless rebirths, as well as in the present and future—all the future lives’ happiness and ultimate happiness, liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and peerless happiness, the total elimination of obscurations and completion of all the realizations. 

Your father is the most precious, most dear, most kind, wish-fulfilling one, just as all sentient beings are most kind—every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, fish, insect, ant, those in the ocean, those under the earth and above the earth, those on the grass, those in the sky or in the trees, and the numberless human beings, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings. The other thing is that he has been your mother numberless times and of course he is now your father.

There are four kindnesses. He gave you a precious human rebirth numberless times, including this time, so you can practice Dharma. So he gave you the opportunity to practice Dharma, to achieve all the happiness up to enlightenment, to be able to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Amazing, amazing, amazing! He protected you from life’s dangers, the hundreds of life dangers every day, from beginningless rebirths. The second kindness is that he bore hardships from beginningless rebirths for you, and he gave you an education, so you were able to meet the Dharma, understand the teachings, and read Dharma books. Amazing, amazing!

Not only can you achieve a good rebirth in your next life, but most important, you are able to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, to learn the four noble truths, to achieve peerless happiness, the total elimination of obscurations and the completion of all the realizations, for all sentient beings. He gave you education numberless times from beginningless rebirths. Amazing, amazing!

So now you are repaying the kindness to him, to this sentient being, to achieve not just happiness in this life, but also the future life’s happiness; to achieve liberation from samsara and enlightenment. That is the most important thing, to repay the kindness by achieving enlightenment for sentient beings.

I know you are good-hearted human being, so that’s very good to repay the kindness. I wish you could visit and see the retreat place at some time in the future. I will be here more than two weeks, then I will be in Mongolia to do the 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM retreat. We also did this retreat last year, so this is the second retreat. Then I will go to Australia for a few months, then to Singapore, then to Nepal for the November meditation course and then to India to attend His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s lamrim teachings.

I think you would enjoy it here. We have bought extra land to build a few houses. One side is for monks and lay men, and the other side is for nuns and lay women, for those who dedicate their lives to experiencing lam-rim and shi-nä.

I hope to see you soon. If there is anything I can help with, please let me know. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...