My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your letter expressing your feelings and wishes to be beneficial, not only for yourself, but for every sentient being—the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts and the numberless animals.

If I make it a little bit more elaborate, from animals there are those we can see, the numberless animals in the ocean, large like mountains, the whales, and the smallest that we can’t see with the eye, but through a machine; then there are worms and so forth under the ground and above the ground, worms and snakes; and in the bushes, the tiniest flies; and those on the trees, in the sky and in people’s bodies, so like that. So, you can make your life beneficial for everyone, including the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the suras and asura beings. This includes not only sentient beings in this world, but also in the numberless universes.

Please, first thing in the morning, do the morning practice, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). This is what I tell students to do, because it transforms the life from kaka into gold. Everything depends on the mind, which can make the life kaka or make it become gold. You can make the whole life gold.

Not only that, the mind becomes Dharma; we transform or change from the worldly mind, the nonvirtuous thoughts, from there into virtuous thoughts, a healthy mind, Dharma, a holy mind, holy Dharma. Then from there, our mind transforms into bodhicitta, renouncing the self-cherishing thought, which causes suffering and problems from beginningless rebirths, now and in the future. So we transform from that self-cherishing mind into cherishing others, with bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta.

So that becomes the cause of enlightenment, and then with that mind, the actions done with body, speech, and mind become the cause of enlightenment. That means to free the numberless sentient beings from suffering and cause everyone the happiness of enlightenment.

The Method to Transform details how to live our daily life and how to make Dharma become Mahayana practice, with bodhicitta. It’s very, very, very important, so thank you very much. This is the first thing. Then you can see how your life becomes most happy and most beneficial.

According to my observation, the main deity for your practice is Secret Hayagriva. I can’t do the initiation now, because I haven’t done the retreat, but there are some other good lamas. If they have done the retreat, then they can do the initiation.

Other than this, you need an explanation of why you need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra. There are deities of Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Annutara Yoga Tantra and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra. To explain a little, by practicing the Hinayana teachings, we actualize the four noble truths. We actualize the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, and the true path Then from that we achieve the true cessation of suffering, which means the cause of suffering, delusion and karma, is ceased. For that we have to actualize the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness and so forth, ultimate reality.

We have been experiencing the suffering of samsara since beginningless rebirths; if we still don’t practice Dharma in this life and don’t realize emptiness in this life, then we have to suffer in samsara without end. Again, we experience the same suffering of the six realms—the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asuras—numberless times.

By practicing the Mahayana teachings, the going beyond teachings, the Great Vehicle teachings, the Mahayana teachings, not only can we become free from the suffering of samsara, but we can cease the subtle obscurations. We can cease those and then we can achieve enlightenment, the total cessation of gross delusions and subtle defilements. We can achieve the complete realizations, enlightenment, but it takes three countless great eons without the practice of tantra.

By just practicing Mahayana sutra, we can achieve enlightenment, but it takes three countless great eons to collect the merit of wisdom and merit of virtue. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did that for us, for every sentient being, for every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every ant, every mosquito, the tiniest animals in the ocean and the big ones the size of mountains, like whales, all the animals under the earth, living in the bushes and the tiniest flies living in the trees, worms living in the trees and animals outside in the sky, so there are numberless, the tiniest beings in the water, the names of which I have forgotten that can only be seen with a microscope.

Buddha did that for three countless great eons, collecting the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue, practicing the six perfections, charity of the limbs, the eyes, the whole body, and not just one time but numberless times. Buddha also practiced morality, with many hardships; he practiced morality for sentient beings and patience for sentient beings. It is said in the teachings that there is no enemy like anger and there are no hardships like patience. In the teachings it is mentioned that we need to practice perseverance, concentration and wisdom, and also the ten powers.

So Buddha did that for us, for every human being, every sura being and every asura being. He practiced for you and me for three countless great eons, then he achieved the dharmakaya and rupakaya. Dharmakaya is the holy [truth] body of the [enlightened] mind and rupakaya is the holy body of the form. He was able to do perfect works for the sentient beings by achieving this. Buddha did that. He already enlightened numberless sentient beings in the past and will do so now and in the future. Yes, you could also be one that Buddha is enlightening if you recognize it, by Buddha revealing the various methods. There is no other such thing than this; it is definite.

There are all kinds of things we don’t know, like myself, I have no omniscience or even ordinary clairvoyance, so I can’t tell. That process is taking so long, however, we can only do perfect works for sentient beings after we are enlightened. We receive omniscience and perfect power to benefit others according to their karma, their level of mind and many other things, like their capacity, and [we embody] great compassion, embracing every sentient being.

Regarding compassion: the reason for practicing tantra is incredible compassion, because [without tantra it takes] three countless great eons [to become a buddha]. It takes so long to be able to benefit sentient beings. It takes an unbelievable length of time, so that is why we practice tantra. Even if we practice Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Annutara Yoga Tantra, all these lower tantras, we can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime, but first we achieve a long life of about one thousand years and then we can achieve enlightenment. By practicing the lower tantras, it is like that. Even that takes so long, and sentient beings have to continue to suffer in samsara—wow, it’s unbelievable—so we can’t stand this if we have much compassion. So then we need to practice highest tantra, Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra. Through practicing that, as Buddha explained, then we can achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times, within a few number of years.

Also what we need commonly and which are easy to receive, are the Chenrezig great initiation, and also Medicine Buddha great initiation. Those two are common practices to help in everyday life. It’s so important to recite OM MANI PADME HUM and the other one is Medicine Buddha.

Chenrezig practice is mainly not only to purify the defilements and complete the merits and achieve enlightenment, but particularly to develop compassion for all the living beings. From that we can generate bodhicitta, and from there, enlightenment. And Medicine Buddha is so important for success—success for ourselves and success for others.

For the Chenrezig great initiation, if possible, don’t just take the jenang, the short one, the blessing of body, speech and mind. The correct way is first to receive the great initiation of Chenrezig and then you are qualified to receive the jenang. That’s what is explained in the tantric texts.

There are many lamrim texts. The principal ones are Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo and the Middle-Length Lamrim. A very short text is Hymn of Experience by Lama Tsongkhapa, and even shorter is the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. All those are extremely worthwhile.

The main lamrim text for you to study well from beginning to end is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, by the great enlightened being, Pabongka. It’s condensed and clear, and it contains the essence of the Buddha’s 84,000 teachings, which come into the Lesser Vehicle teachings and the Greater Vehicle teachings of sutra and tantra. These are embodied in the lamrim.

Read and study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand eight times. There is a saying that if we read the Lamrim Chenmo nine times, then we get nine understandings; we get something that we didn’t have before. When we read it again, we get new understanding, so like that.

The main thing is to have realizations of the path to enlightenment, so then we’re able to achieve enlightenment, and we’re able to bring numberless sentient beings to enlightenment, not only freeing them from samsara. This is the whole purpose of our life.

You can see now that your life is not just for meditating, and not seeing people, not talking to people, not eating, not just that. It’s not living alone, just as many animals live alone in the forest or in a cave. You’re making your life most meaningful for yourself and especially for every sentient being. So that’s what you need to do for sentient beings.

So study this text eight times from beginning to end.

Shamatha is good to learn and to understand intellectually, then later, when you have found the perfect place to meditate on shamatha, where there are no obstacles or less obstacles, then you can do the practice. But all the other subjects you can practice now.

The explanation of shamatha in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is regarded as the clearest one. I heard this from my guru, Gen Jampa Wangdu. I heard from my guru that it’s the easiest explanation of shamatha to understand and the other clearest one is bodhicitta.

This is what Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the heart disciple of Kyabje Pabongka, said. He said that and recommended it to my teacher, Gen Jampa Wangdu, who in the ordinary view was successful in the realization of calm abiding in Dalhousie, India. [He also realized] emptiness down below the residence of Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, who was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s elder guru. Down below that residence there is a big rock. Gen Jampa Wangdu dug the earth and made a cave, then did retreat there for seven years and generated the realization there. At the back side of Tushita Retreat Centre where there’s a hill, a huge mountain, and many meditators, he was there. My teacher was there for fifteen years; he built a house there and he actualized bodhicitta, in the ordinary view.

Of course, relating to myself, he’s an enlightened being, no doubt. He told me and also Lama Yeshe that for fifteen years he never went to another person’s house for himself. So that means he actualized bodhicitta fifteen years earlier. He’s not saying that he didn’t go to another person’s house, but he didn’t go for himself; that means he actualized bodhicitta.

Read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand mindfully, so that it becomes a meditation. In terms of lamrim practice, first there’s effortful meditation, and then effortless practice. Read my advice for effortful lamrim practice here. Following the outline, meditate for seven months on bodhicitta. Spend one month on the extensive kindness of sentient beings, by exchanging oneself for others, then, spend one month on remembering the kindness of the mother. And one month on the kindness of all mother sentient beings, from where all the happiness comes, for example, numberless sentient beings died, were killed, suffered and created negative karma so we could have the protection of living in a house.

Then our clothes; numberless sentient beings died and suffered for our happiness and protection of life. This is besides the animal skin clothes that we wear. Also, numberless sentient beings died, were killed, suffered and created negative karma for our food. That’s how we get the protection, the pleasure, and we’re able to live our life due to this kindness.

So you can do it again and again, meditating on all three. Afterwards, alternate one day on this and one day on that. You can also do it like that. You can decide; see how you feel. Then do effortless practice.

Now in order to have realizations, for example, to grow plants and fruits, and those things, we need proper conditions—the earth, the minerals, water and so forth, like that. Just the seed alone cannot grow. So for realizations we need to collect all the conditions; we need to purify the obscurations and we need to collect the merits. If we have harmonious conditions then the seed can function, can develop, can grow from that. Realizations can come in our mind up to enlightenment. Therefore, we need to do the practice; it’s so important to do the purification and collection of merits.

Tonglen meditation: do this 20,000 times, with bodhicitta. Read my advice about tonglen practice if you are not sure about the practice of giving your own body, possessions and merits to others, then bringing them to enlightenment. You’re taking others’ suffering and the cause of suffering on yourself, and bringing them to enlightenment. This is an incredible practice; it’s a quick way to achieve enlightenment, a quick way to achieve bodhicitta realization. It’s an incredible practice and most beneficial not only for you, but for numberless sentient beings.

Water bowl offerings: 70,000. If you’re alone, then it takes a long time to do this many, but of course it’s worthwhile to do. Generally, you do a certain number of bowls every day as one of the preliminary practices. You can do it alone and offer many bowls, then you will finish quickly.

So, with many bowls, you can make sessions. The easy way is that if there are many other people who want to do it also, then you can do it as a group. Even if the water bowls are not all offered by you, but by others, when you finish the number, like 100,000 or something, since everyone made the offerings together, even if the offerings are performed by others, this way you can count them together, so you finish more quickly.

One lama did it like that in Tibet. Here at Kopan nunnery they did this in the past for some years. Mainly a student from Singapore came and also some Western people. I don’t know if this can still happen or not due to the disease, the virus [COVID-19].

Guru yoga: 60,000, reciting migtsema on the basis of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. For the first session of the day, you can do it on the basis of Lama Chöpa (Guru Puja).

I always suggest a most incredible way to collect merit is to recite the Arya Sanghata Sutra, and when you have finished that one, you can read the Sutra of Great Liberation. It has been translated now, but I think it’s not yet published. [Note: This sutra was published by FPMT in 2023. Find links here.] You should recite this one until you die. Even hearing the name, you won’t get reborn in the lower realms, it’s incredibly good. You will know by reading that; I don’t have to tell you now. So, continue to practice like this. That’s it.

On the Buddha days, on the solar and lunar eclipse days and on other days, at any time you feel comfortable, take the eight Mahayana precepts as much as possible. That’s incredible; you collect so many times skies of merits and it purifies [your negative karma]. The precepts are only for one day, just for one day. It’s incredible, incredible, so beneficial for sentient beings. You’re really serving sentient beings.

Thank you very much. You are most welcome to enlightenment.

With much love and prayers ...