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 January 2019
Buddhist Practices > Practice Problems > Problems During One's Practice
A student was experiencing many obstacles when trying to practice Dharma and asked how to purify the obstacles. Rinpoche advised that death can happen any time, so we need to find time for daily purification practices. Rinpoche also recommended...
Sickness and Health > Addictions and Mental Illness > Acute Mental Illness
A student with a mental health condition had just experienced a brief psychotic episode, the first in more than four years. The student was taking medicine prescribed by Western doctors and asked Rinpoche for practice advice.
Advices posted during the month of December 2018
Sickness and Health > Healing and Pacifying Illness > Healers and Healing
Rinpoche gave this advice to a student who does healing work.
Death and Transitions > Caring for Others at the Time of Death > Caring for the Dying
Rinpoche advised a student how to best help people in hospital who were ill and approaching death, by reciting prayers and dedicating other daily practices for them.
Benefiting Animals > Practices to Benefit Animals > How to Benefit Animals
Rinpoche wrote this letter to a student with advice on how to care for a cat that was twenty-one years old and very sick. Rinpoche suggested various mantras and also advised circumambulation of holy objects with the cat.
Family and Relationships > Parenting > Parenting Problems
A student asked Rinpoche for advice about regaining care of a child after a divorce.
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Lamrim Study and Practice > Training the Mind in Lamrim
Rinpoche sent this letter to a student advising how to make life most meaningful.
Sickness and Health > Cardiovascular and Respiratory > Cardiovascular Disease
This practice advice was sent to a student with a pulmonary embolism (a blockage in one of the arteries in the lungs).
Working for the Dharma > Service and Support of the Dharma > Generosity and Charitable Projects
Rinpoche sent this letter to thank a benefactor who had donated money to a center. Rinpoche advised that helping the center is helping all sentient beings.
Sickness and Health > Cancer > Various Cancers
A student with lung cancer wrote to Rinpoche for advice. The prognosis was poor, with a small chance of survival.
Contemporary Issues > Dharma in Daily Life > Travel and Immigration
On a recent journey, a flight attendant had asked Rinpoche for a prayer. Rinpoche recommended Tara practice and explained a visualization and prayers for the safety and happiness of others.
Advices posted during the month of November 2018
Buddhist Practices > Protection from Spirit Harm > Protection from Spirit Harm
A student wrote that their child had recently passed away before birth (in the womb). The student was able to communicate with a being and thought it was the child. The communication was like a teaching—always helpful, compassionate and wise, and...
Holy Objects > Making Offerings > Offering Practices
A group of sixteen retreatants had completed 100,000 water bowl offerings together and offered their practice to Rinpoche. They asked if they could do other preliminary practices in the same way, doing the practices as group and counting what...
Sickness and Health > Cancer > Breast Cancer
A student wrote that she had advanced breast cancer. Rinpoche offered this advice.
Compassion and Bodhicitta > Developing Compassion > Compassion
In this card sent to a student, Rinpoche writes about compassion and bodhicitta.
Compassion and Bodhicitta > Bodhicitta > Advice on Developing Bodhicitta
Rinpoche handwrote this card and sent it to a student. [Lightly edited by Sandra Smith.]
Holy Objects > Making Offerings > Offering Practices
Rinpoche sent this letter to a benefactor who had made offerings to a center and to the Sera Je Food Fund. [This fund offered three nutritious meals daily to all the monks at Sera Je Monastery, India, for over twenty-six years. See also the...
Buddhist Practices > Purification Practices > Nyung Näs
In this letter, Rinpoche advised a student to do two thousand nyung näs. Rinpoche also wrote about the power of nyung näs and the importance of generating the correct motivation for the practice.
Advices posted during the month of September 2018
Sutras, Mantras and Root Texts > Mantras > Various Mantras
Rinpoche gave this advice about the benefits of the Amoghapasha mantra to a new student whose husband had recently passed away.
Sickness and Health > Healing and Pacifying Illness > Eliminating Life Obstacles
A student wrote that some other lamas had said there were life obstacles. The student asked Rinpoche for practice advice.
Sickness and Health > Transforming Pain and Illness > Handling Illness
Rinpoche gave this advice to a student who had a bad fall.
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Guru Devotion > Offering Service to the Guru
A Dharma center had a lot of expenses when Rinpoche visited. After leaving the center, Rinpoche sent this card to the directors with advice about guru devotion.
Family and Relationships > Children > Advice for Children
This advice was handwritten by Rinpoche and sent to a young child.
Family and Relationships > Children > Educating Children
This advice about parenting was given to a student who asked Rinpoche about having a child. The student had been very ill but was attending a retreat, which had been difficult in the past.
Sickness and Health > Healing and Pacifying Illness > Practices for Pacifying Sickness
A student asked Rinpoche for advice on how to help his grandmother who was very sick. Rinpoche recommended Medicine Buddha practice in order to benefit his grandmother and all sentient beings.
