View and Search Online Advice Book
Below is a listing of advices in the Online Advice Book. They are sorted and grouped by the date posted on our website, with the most recent additions showing first. You can enter a keyword to search for advices containing that term.
Advices posted during the month of November 2021
Negative Emotions > Depression > Feeling Suicidal
A student was feeling suicidal and wrote to Rinpoche for practice advice. The student had been very ill and their internal organs had shut down, resulting in ongoing digestive problems, impaired speech and vision, constant seizures and many...
Holy Objects > Monasteries and Stupas > Monasteries
A student asked Rinpoche about taking ordination and whether to buy land and start a monastery.
Sickness and Health > Healing and Pacifying Illness > Practices for Pacifying Sickness
A student wrote that his ten-year-old daughter had continuous skin problems and sometimes became extremely aggressive, which was completely out of character. The aggression was more extreme when her father recited mantras in her presence. She...
Benefiting Animals > Practices to Benefit Animals > Animal Liberation
Rinpoche gave this advice about the motivation before liberating animals.
Holy Objects > Advice on Holy Objects > Statues
In this letter, Rinpoche advised a student how to pray at a Chenrezig temple.
Sickness and Health > Cancer > Practice Advice for Cancer
A student who very sick with cancer asked what pujas could be done. Rinpoche advised the following.
Sickness and Health > Infectious Diseases > Hepatitis
Rinpoche checked extensively for a student with Hepatitis C and advised these pujas.
Advices posted during the month of October 2021
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Lamrim Study and Practice > Training the Mind in Lamrim
In this letter, Rinpoche recommended several preliminary practices and explained how to benefit others by reciting Chenrezig’s mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM and meditating on the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment.
Working for the Dharma > Service and Support of the Dharma > Generosity and Charitable Projects
A student had taken out life insurance and nominated Kopan Monastery as the beneficiary. Rinpoche heard about this and was very pleased.
Contemporary Issues > Politics and Conflict > Prayers for Peace
Students at a Dharma center asked what they could do for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, when hundreds of thousands of Afghans were displaced by Taliban militants. Rinpoche advised these prayers for...
Working for the Dharma > Conflict and Obstacles at the Center > Conflict With Others
A student had been asked not to attend a Dharma center, even though they had offered service as a volunteer there. The student felt left out. Rinpoche had previously advised them to just keep rejoicing in all that they had done for the center in...
Sickness and Health > Addictions and Mental Illness > Addictions: Drugs and Alcohol
Rinpoche sent this letter to a student who wrote that her daughter had become a heroin addict and her son had recently committed suicide. They had both experienced childhood trauma many years ago.
Sickness and Health > Musculoskeletal Disorders > Back, Leg and Joint Conditions
A student asked what could be done for chronic pain in their entire body. Rinpoche advised these practices to purify life obstacles.
Buddhist Practices > Tantra and Deity Practice > Deity Practices for Health and Healing
Rinpoche gave this advice to a student whose breast cancer had reoccurred.
Holy Objects > Advice on Holy Objects > Prayer Wheels
A student asked Rinpoche to be their guru and requested for life practices. The student had a prayer wheel which they turned while reciting prayers and mantras and reading texts. They also asked if taking refuge and vows by listening to audio...
Death and Transitions > Impermanence and Death > Impermanence and Death
Rinpoche advised the importance of training the mind in lamrim and especially remembering impermanence and death, in this letter to a student who requested life practices. Rinpoche suggested preliminary practices to purify obstacles and collect...
Buddhist Practices > Advice for New Students > Advice for New Students
Rinpoche outlined the entire path to enlightenment for a student who asked for direction on their spiritual path. The student had several tattoos of deities and mantras on their body, and Rinpoche also advised what to do about these.
Advices posted during the month of September 2021
Sickness and Health > Brain and Nervous System > Insomnia / Sleep Disorders
A student asked Rinpoche what he could do about nightmares which he had been experiencing for many years.
Contemporary Issues > Dharma in Daily Life > Dharma and Worldly Activities
Rinpoche observed some people jogging when he was out for an evening walk with Sangha from Taichung’s Shakyamuni Center. Rinpoche paused and gave this advice.
Working for the Dharma > Advice to Dharma Centers > Practice Advice for Centers
Rinpoche advised these practices to overcome obstacles for a new director and for the center.
Meditation and Retreat Advice > Retreats > Obstacles to Retreat
A student was about to start three-year retreat and asked Rinpoche if there were obstacles and what to do.
Buddhist Practices > Practicing in Prison > Practices for Death Row
A student had been helping a prisoner on death row for about fifteen years. They had studied the Lamrim Chenmo, texts by Shantideva and Nagarjuna, and were reciting the sutras and reading commentaries. The student asked Rinpoche for...
Working for the Dharma > Service and Support of the Dharma > Offering Service
A student offered practices they had done and also thanked Rinpoche for being able to work for him for the last ten years in the Dharma center’s office.
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Guru Devotion > When the Guru Manifests Illness
A family offered Rinpoche a special Padmasambhava thangka after he manifested a stroke in April 2011. Rinpoche thanked the family for their gift and advised that his sickness has been a great teaching and an incredible way for people all over the...
Compassion and Bodhicitta > Developing Compassion > The Good Heart
Rinpoche discussed the meaning of loving oneself with a student. Rinpoche typed his own responses; lightly edited for ease of reading.
