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 August 2015
Compassion and Bodhicitta > Mind Training (lo-jong) > Tonglen: Taking and Giving
Rinpoche gave this advice about the practice of bodhicitta with tonglen (taking and giving) for a meaningful, happy and beneficial life. This letter was sent to a student who had written to thank Rinpoche for bringing him so much...
Advices posted during the month of May 2015
Sangha (Monks and Nuns) > Ordination Advice > Ordination Advice
Rinpoche offered this advice to a student who had just became a nun.
Negative Emotions > Depression > Feeling Suicidal
A student wrote to Rinpoche about her 13-year-old niece, who was receiving psychiatric treatment in hospital. She had attempted suicide several times and was diagnosed with depression, PTSD and chronic suicidal thoughts. She had also been cutting...
Sickness and Health > Addictions and Mental Illness > Schizophrenia
A student wrote to confess that he had developed an impure perception of Rinpoche. He felt that Rinpoche was trying to harm him, but he realized it was a wrong view due to his schizophrenia, and he was trying to purify all wrong views toward his...
Sickness and Health > Brain and Nervous System > Neurological Disorders
A student asked Rinpoche for advice regarding his diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.
Meditation and Retreat Advice > Retreats > Retreat Advice
A student working at a Dharma center wished to do retreat for about two weeks. He wrote: “With folded hands I respectfully ask that Rinpoche kindly advises me on the subject for this retreat. Kind Lama, please suggest to me what would be most...
Holy Objects > Advice on Holy Objects > Prayer Wheels
A student wrote to Rinpoche about his work on a project to construct a prayer wheel in the sea off Tahiti. Rinpoche gave this advice.
Sangha (Monks and Nuns) > Ordination Advice > Requesting Ordination
A 63-year-old student wrote to Rinpoche requesting ordination. She said she wished to renounce her samsaric mind and join the Sangha community for good. She could offer service in health care, cooking, translation, transcribing, office work and...
Sickness and Health > Musculoskeletal Disorders > Back, Leg and Joint Conditions
Since childhood, a student had suffered from back problems due to degenerative scoliosis. The doctors had advised her to have surgery 20 years ago, but she had refused and had physiotherapy instead. Her back pain was chronic.
Contemporary Issues > Practices for Success > Practices for Business Success
A student was struggling with his business. For the last eight months every deal had fallen through and he had made zero income.
Advices posted during the month of April 2015
Working for the Dharma > Service and Support of the Dharma > Offering Service
A longtime student wrote to Rinpoche asking if it was beneficial to do a retreat in a particular place.
Family and Relationships > Having a Baby > Abortion
A student wrote that she’d had two abortions and could not stop thinking that she had killed her unborn babies. She was very regretful and worried about what had happened to her babies. She also suffered from depression and had attempted suicide...
Sickness and Health > Infectious Diseases > Various Infections
A student wrote about her health and practices. She had Lyme disease. She also listed her practices and asked if she could reduce them, due to lack of time.
Buddhist Practices > Tantra and Deity Practice > Tantra
A student asked Rinpoche about completion stage practices of Highest Yoga Tantra.
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Guru Devotion > The Guru/Disciple Relationship
A student wrote that he would have done anything Lama Yeshe had asked him to do, even eating ka-ka (feces), but fortunately he didn’t ask that. Rinpoche sent the following reply.
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Guru Devotion > Confession to the Guru
A student wrote to confess that he had become angry when Rinpoche cancelled a visit to the Kopan meditation course.
Buddhist Practices > Protection from Spirit Harm > Protection from Spirit Harm
A student had practiced South American shamanism with a teacher several years ago. After stopping that practice, he felt inexplicably altered. He described feelings of increasing evil, disconnection and a rising sense of cosmic terror or dread at...
Advices posted during the month of February 2015
Sickness and Health > General Illnesses > Skin Disorders
Rinpoche gave this practice advice for a rash and skin problems.
Buddhist Practices > Purification Practices > Practices to Purify Negative Karma
A student sought guidance for her practice. Rinpoche gave the following advice.
Advices posted during the month of January 2015
Death and Transitions > Preparing Oneself for Death > Preparing for Death
On waking up early one morning, a student felt the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other lamas by her bedside. They said they would like to take her away, to some very bright, high places. She had a premonition that her time may be up...
Sickness and Health > Infectious Diseases > Various Infections
A student wrote that since she started reciting the mantra Extremely Conquering the Body, Speech and Mind from Bondage a few days previously, a large lump on one side of her spine had decreased in size and a skin cancer on her face had...
Sickness and Health > Cancer > Tumors
A 31-year-old student wrote that they had a brain tumor. Rinpoche offered this advice.
Sickness and Health > Cancer > Tumors
Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student with brain tumors and lung cancer.
Sickness and Health > Brain and Nervous System > Neurological Disorders
A student doing a one-year retreat had neurological pain and strange sensations in different parts of his body. He felt very weak and had to reduce the number of sessions and their duration for several days. Symptoms included buzzing in his ears...
Path to Enlightenment (lamrim) > Guru Devotion > Confession to the Guru
After reading Rinpoche’s book, The Heart of the Path, a student wrote to confess a moment of anger toward Rinpoche that had arisen during a retreat 10 years ago. She said that one night at about 1.30 am...
