My very dear one,
Thank you very much your kind letter. Sorry it took a long time to reply to you. I read your last letter a few times.

Regarding this recent letter, according to my divinations it comes out best for you to practice Lion-face Dakini. If there is an opportunity for you to take the Lion-face Dakini great initiation then you should try to take it, but if not you can still do the practice.

Recite four malas of Lion-face Dakini every day with concentration. Beams emit from the merit field, from Lion-face Dakini, and all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the 10 directions and absorb into one’s heart, completely illuminating oneself. Beams then emit from the syllables of the mantra at your heart, like the sun rising, and eliminate all sicknesses and spirit harm, as well as the causes, which are negative karma and delusions. At the end of each mala, for the last 21 mantras, think that you receive all the realizations of Lion-face Dakini, as well as the whole merit field. Also, it would be very good for you to take the Most Secret Hayagriva initiation, at least the torma initiation; this is all for your healing.

In Tibetan Buddhism there are so many methods in sutra and tantra for this kind of problem. It seems it is one hundred percent clear from your own experience that this is spirit harm. There is very little education in or understanding of spirit harm in Western society. This learning has not yet been discovered and it has not become a subject of knowledge in Western psychology. Western psychology and psychiatry need to develop this and there is a long way to go, even to understand gross things about it.

In Buddhism, one small puja or a mantra can stop it, but with Western methods probably your whole life you will not be helped by psychology or psychiatry, or they suggest you take a lot of medicines and then there are side effects. Maybe the medicines just calm it down, like drinking alcohol or drugs for a time and not activating the mind. But one suffers all these side effects.

Also, you should wear the protection of the  White Umbrella deity together with So So Dharma protection. You can ask the geshe at your Dharma center for these.

Please request the geshe to come to your house to read from the Sung du a text called Yang pai drong khyer du jug pai zung. It is one or two pages, not many, so he should read it twenty times at your house. Then request the geshe to recite the mantra called Destroying the Mara, which is at the end of the Lamrim Chenmo text, the very last page. He should recite that seven times.

This is what should be done. If possible the geshe can do these two recitations at your house from time to time until your problem is completely better, maybe once or twice a month.

If possible you need a wrathful fire puja, peaceful fire puja, and increasing fire puja done for you. The most important are the increasing fire puja and the wrathful fire puja. These two came out in my divinations as very important. If possible it is best for them to be done at your house, but that may be difficult if your house doesn’t have space or due to local regulations. If they can’t be done at your house then the fire pujas can be done elsewhere. The wrathful fire puja could be done at Kopan Monastery. You can discuss this with the geshe or he can try to do them for you.

The other thing you need to have done is mamo-trü-kang puja. Maybe this puja can be done by the monasteries in South India or you can ask the Nepal Gelugpa monastery at Boudha (Kyidong Samtenling). You can ask the abbott to do the puja. You have to make offerings or they can send you a bill. The geshe can help you organize all of this.

There is also a practice for chasing away spirits, so I will send that practice to the geshe to do for you. Also, the geshe should come to your house and do Yamantaka meditation to bless the house and protect the place.

You and any other people at your house should recite the Heart Sutra.

Basically the problems come from your mind. According to basic Buddhist philosophy, enlightenment and hell come from your mind. How does it come from your mind? One thing is past karma, having harmed sentient beings in the past or performed non-virtuous actions, either something done in relation to the gurus or holy objects.

Delusion and karma are the main causes. Karma motivates delusion, and the root is ignorance, not knowing the ultimate nature of the “I” and aggregates, and is also connected with the self-cherishing thought—wrong things done in the past, negative karma, performed with the self-cherishing thought, and also things performed in this life with the self-cherishing thought, which is a mistaken action.

Now you can generate compassion toward those spirits, they are also your mother sentient being. If you can remember the subject—that they have been your mother countless times and countless times gave you your body, protected your life from many hundreds of dangers each day, gave you education, and bore so many hardships for your well being. They have suffered so much for you so many times. Meditate on these things and then generate the wish to repay their kindness. You have met the Buddhadharma, received a precious human body, and met the virtuous friend. You have such an incredible opportunity to achieve liberation and enlightenment and they don’t have this. They are suffering so much; they are under the power of ignorance and the three poisonous minds, under the power of karma, have no opportunity to practice Dharma, and are experiencing so much suffering.

Generate loving kindness toward them. All they want is happiness, but they are ignorant and create the causes for more and more suffering. Think that you want to cause them happiness and bring them to higher rebirths, liberation, and enlightenment; free them from all sufferings and their causes. Think that they want to be free from suffering but they are ignorant, then think that you will free them from all the sufferings and their causes. Then generate the special attitude that you will do this by yourself alone and generate bodhicitta, thinking, “Therefore I have to achieve enlightenment not only for them but for all sentient beings.”

Sometimes generate bodhicitta with them by exchanging yourself for others and practicing equalizing meditation. Think how all suffering comes from the self-cherishing thought and how you receive all your past, present, and future happiness, liberation, and even enlightenment from them. Use them to develop bodhicitta and compassion. You can read some part of the teachings to the spirits, as well as recite the Heart Sutra, chant mantras for them, and, especially, you can read or give bodhicitta teachings to them and sometimes teachings on emptiness. Sometimes you can visualize the spirits as deities.

There are some hallucinations that are due to when a person has a fever or due to medicines, drugs, etc., like the effect of LSD. The hallucination is not to do with spirits but due to the power of the substances. This is similar to your situation, which is what many people in the West call schizophrenia. However, this is connected with spirit harm, and when your luck or fortune is down, due to some non-virtuous action that one has done, then the spirit finds a way to harm you. So, it comes together like this, all based on past karma, then based in delusion. This is according to reality and this is what the Buddhist teachings say.

So, first try these things. That’s all for now, I will send the text to the geshe. If you can’t get the protections, let me know and I can send them as well.

With much love and prayers...