Transforming Problems

I’m very, very sorry that you have experienced so much unhappiness and disturbance. Generally in the world it sometimes happens that when someone does even the best thing, for some people that best thing appears to them as negative. It appears negative and they interpret it as negative, and then that is how it appears to them. Because they interpreted it as negative, it appears as negative. Then when someone else does a really bad thing, some people interpret it as positive. They think it is very good. After they interpreted it like that, it appeared that way. It is normal knowledge that whatever appears, it came from one’s own mind. It depends on how one interprets it or how one labels it, whether one puts a positive or negative label on it. Like that, it came from one’s own mind; the appearance is created by one’s own mind.

In the Dhammapada Buddha said, “All phenomena are created by the mind. The mind is principal and goes before.” This means that the mind goes before actions of body, speech, and mind. “For example, if with a good heart one speaks to someone, the result, happiness, arises; for example, like a shadow follows the body.” In the daytime, wherever the body goes, the shadow follows, and, like that, from a virtuous action, the result, happiness, arises.

Then, in the Dhammapada Buddha said, “Phenomena are created by the mind. Mind is principal and goes before. If by carrying a bad heart, one talks to someone, suffering arises; for example, like a cart follows after an ox.” An ox, no matter how cold or hot the weather is, has to pull the heavy cart until it can’t stand up. Like that, all the actions done with a bad motivation become negative, and then the result, suffering, arises.

“That karma should be known. If you ignore the Buddha’s teachings on karma, you are lost. You are not in the truth.” This is not talking about ultimate truth or emptiness, tong pa nyi, but about conventional truth. If you are away from the Buddha’s teachings, the essential teaching on karma, you are not in the truth. Therefore, you really have to pay attention to karma, especially if you think of yourself as a Buddhist. That is very important. It is so important.

In short, in Buddhism when it is explained how everything is created by the mind, one way is that even right now the way things appear to you, as negative or positive, depends on whether you interpret it in a negative or a positive way; it depends on what label you put on it. Like that, all the appearances of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangible objects depend on the positive or negative label one puts on them at the beginning. However, when one tries to find them, what appears to oneself is merely imputed by one’s own mind. Therefore, they come from one’s own mind.

The other way in which everything is created by the mind is that it came from past karma. If one treated others badly in the past, that karma has a result. If that karma is not purified and oneself, an ordinary being, hasn’t actualized the path, the result happens. This result is the same as the result of the first explanation, but here the explanation is about how the result is connected to a past karma—because one treated others badly in the past, this karma appeared at this time. This is the long-term result. Therefore, what happened to one now is a result of one’s own karma. It was created by one’s own mind—the self-cherishing thought or one of the three poisonous minds, such as attachment, that arose in the past.

That is why Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said in his teaching, Seven-Point Thought Transformation, “Put all the blame to one.” That “one” is the self-cherishing thought. And then he said, “Toward others, meditate on kindness. It is not only something Geshe Chekawa said because what he said is based on the Buddha’s teachings, on the Buddha’s advice.

That is why the Buddha said,

Do not commit any unwholesome actions.
Engage in perfect wholesome actions.
Subdue one’s own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

The very essence of the Buddha’s teachings is that practicing Dharma or practicing meditation means subduing one’s own mind. It is not just about learning the words and putting many subjects into the brain, like inputting information into a computer. “Subdue one’s own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha,” is not like that. Practicing Buddhism is about subduing one’s own mind. That is the very essence of the practice of Buddhism.

Also the great bodhisattva Shantideva said, “If one didn’t give harm in this way in the past”—“in the past” is added here to make it more clear—“nobody will harm you at this time.” Shantideva said that in Bodhicaryavatara on the basis of the Buddha’s teachings. Then following those words, it says, “Because in the past I gave such harm, I deserve to receive harm from others.” [Bodhicaryavatara, 6:42]

The Buddha said this. The self-cherishing thought thinks, “I can kill them. I can harm and cheat them. I can do anything to others but nobody can get angry at me and nobody can harm me.” That thought is the selfish mind, which is like a totally negative dictator. There is no logic in the self-cherishing thought, which is what thinks, “I want” or “I don’t want.”

Also Shantideva mentioned, “My karma persuaded them, therefore I receive this harm.” Because you harmed a sentient being, they harm you. Then, “So didn’t I make that sentient being get lost in the hole of the hell?” [Bodhicaryavatara, 6:47] Who caused that person to give harm to you? You caused it—because in the past you harmed that being, now that person is harming you. Then their harming you causes the person, who is now in the human realm, to no longer be a human being and to be born in the hole of the hell.

Thinking like this is a way to develop compassion. Instead of being angry and wanting revenge, you generate compassion and the wish to help the other being as much as you can. You can even pray for them to have a peaceful mind and virtuous thoughts, to stop creating negative karmas and do only virtuous actions, and to generate bodhicitta and achieve enlightenment. You can even recite OM MANI PADME HUM to benefit that person back. At least do like that.

Yes, of course, there need to be strict rules and in a country, but in your case you still need to subdue your own mind; that means you need to pacify the three poisonous minds, attachment to this life, and the self-cherishing thought because all your sufferings come from them. All your sufferings are caused by them. That is why probably only Buddhism says, “Subdue one’s own mind.” If practiced properly, Buddhism subdues one’s own mind.

For example, the Hindu founders complained about Buddha because he drank milk and then the cow babies didn’t get milk. If Buddha has mistakes, that means Buddha is not enlightened. So if he has mistakes, that means you have to come down and say that Buddha is not even an arhat, one who is free from samsara, but has the three poisonous minds, besides self-cherishing thought. Then coming down even more: he is not even an arya being. Then coming down even more, he is an ordinary being, like us. So then it means that no one is enlightened. There is no one who is enlightened; it comes down to that conclusion.

Like Buddha, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is criticized by some Chinese who say that he is the most evil being on Earth. They always complain about His Holiness and advertise His Holiness as being totally crazy. Those people regard themselves as much better than His Holiness, and regard His Holiness as very low. It is not like that at all. Most people in the world highly praise His Holiness, not only as a religious person or an expert in the culture of Buddhism, but as a very practical and modern person. It is unbelievable how he can relate to modern people. For this reason most people highly respect him, even those who are not Buddhists.

Also His Holiness was predicted by Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, who said that Tibet is a special object to be subdued by Chenrezig, the compassion buddha. It says this in the sutra White Lotus. “When the Buddha was in Milk Park,” that means in India. “From the Buddha’s dzö pu, treasure hair.” This is a white curled hair here [in the center of the forehead], the length of an arm. “Five-colored beams were emitted from that and went to the northern side.” Tibet is the northern side. “Then, looking at that side, he smiled.”

“Then, Bodhisattva Eliminating Obscurations requested the Buddha, ‘Please explain the causes and conditions of that.’” Then, the Buddha said to the bodhisattva, “Son of the race, in the place of those to be subdued, who were not subdued by the past, present, and future buddhas, which is an outlying country filled with hungry ghosts and cannibals, in the future the holy Dharma, like the sun rising, will happen and will spread and the sentient beings there will be led to liberation and enlightenment. Who will subdue the outlying country is Arya Compassionate Looking One, Avalokiteshvara. Why is that? It is because in the past Arya Avalokiteshvara, when he was doing the bodhisattva deeds, made a prayer in the presence of one thousand buddhas. In the place where the past, present, and future buddhas didn’t put their feet, an outlying country, may I bring those sentient beings who are also objects to be subdued in the path to great liberation, the path to enlightenment.” This is the first prayer.

The second prayer is: “Also in that outlying country, may I be the one to subdue those sentient beings.” It is the same prayer. The third prayer is: “May all holy Dharma taught by the three-time tathagatas spread and increase in that outlying country.” The fourth one is: “May all those sentient beings who hear the names of the Three Rare Sublime Ones and go for refuge to them achieve the bodies of happy transmigratory beings and enjoy the holy Dharma.”

In the sutra Dzama Do it says, “When the Buddha was passing away, the surrounding bodhisattvas requested him, ‘In the northern side country, the Snow Land, where the Buddha didn’t put his holy feet and didn’t give teachings, please abide for those sentient beings.’ The Buddha said, ‘Now the sentient beings who are objects to be subdued in India, Tibet, and so forth are finished. Since there are no sentient beings who are to be subdued directly by the Buddha, for the lazy ones to pursue the holy Dharma and to eliminate the wrong concept of permanence, I will show passing away into the sorrowless state.’” The Buddha said that. I just mention that sutra by the way.

“At the moment the sentient beings in the Snow Land, the country of Tibet, are all animals.” There are no human beings at the moment. “And of all those who die, there is no sentient being who goes to the upper realms. All, like snowfall on the ocean, go to the lower realms. In the future when my teaching in India sets, at that time, for you, the bodhisattva, those sentient beings who are in the Snow Land of Tibet will be your objects to be subdued. At the beginning, the bodhisattva will manifest and then spread out to human transmigratory beings. Then he will draw them with miscellaneous charity of food and so forth. Then, afterwards he will draw them with the holy Dharma. Then he will do work for sentient beings.”

At that time, that is His Holiness as Chenrezig, either the Four-Arm or Thousand-Arm Chenrezig that we visualize. At the moment we can’t see Chenrezig; we can only visualize him. That which we can see is a human form. For us who have a very obscured mind, he appears in a human form showing birth, sickness, and death. He appears in a very ordinary form because our mind is ordinary. Those who are enlightened, who have completed the path through listening, reflecting, and meditating correctly, can see His Holiness as oneness with Chenrezig. Not only that, they see him as oneness with all the buddhas. Those who are not enlightened but are arya bodhisattvas also see His Holiness as a buddha. Even ordinary bodhisattvas can see His Holiness as a buddha. Then, even very ordinary beings who haven’t generated renunciation, bodhicitta, or right view but have a realization of correctly following the virtuous friend see His Holiness as the numberless past buddhas, present buddhas, future buddhas, and they see every single action he does as all the buddhas’ actions. Many ordinary sentient beings can see or realize that. However, of course, those whose minds are unbelievably obscured, totally foggy, like nighttime without any stars, and have no luck, see His Holiness as an evil being. So also in this case it is the same thing—whatever appears is created by one’s own mind.

In this regard, Madhyamaka philosophy, when explaining in general about karma, lendre, cause and effect, says that a bowl of liquid appears to the buddhas as the most pure nectar, the highest nectar. Because a buddha has totally ceased the disturbing thought obscurations and the subtle obscurations (the negative imprints left by the ignorance holding to true existence), a buddha does not have a dualistic view and a dualistic mind. Even though that liquid also appears as nectar for the suras, it is not the same as the nectar for the buddhas. However, it is still nectar for them. For human beings, the liquid in the bowl appears as water. It appears to pretas, who don’t even have the karma to see water, as pus and blood. In terms of karma, that things come from your mind is an extremely important subject. How you see things comes from your mind. Therefore, as I mentioned already, you created it by your own mind. So please understand this. If you are a Buddhist, this is the most important basic thing to understand.

In the past others cheated us and gave us problems, and then we used this experience to practice. We did not take revenge and we did not get angry at them. We even highly appreciated the people who cheated us or who caused us troubles. Even though we didn’t do that right at the beginning, later we realized how those people who treated us badly are so kind, just as we had thought at the beginning. So later on we saw those people as having the most inexpressible kindness.

Thank you. Thank you very much for understanding.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter.  

Bodhgaya is one of the hottest places, however, I am sure there are places in India and in other parts of the world that are much hotter. Anyway, your experience of being there during the hot time purifies your negative karma so that you can help other sentient beings.

If you have the motivation to benefit others with a good heart, then it becomes Dharma and it purifies all the heavy negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths, especially the karma to be born in the hot hells. This karma gets purified when you experience being very hot or you have any difficulties in your life. All that heavy negative karma to be born in the hell realms for so many numberless eons gets purified.

Every time you are having difficulties, first you must think of this. If the difficulties are experienced with a good heart, that is the best. If they are experienced with bodhicitta—in order to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment—in this way all those experiences, all the difficulties of being hot, become the cause for you to become enlightened for all sentient beings. In this way the difficulties become the cause of freeing all the sentient beings from suffering.

There are numberless sentient beings in each realm. You know you are there to experience the difficulties of being hot, but the goal is to be free from samsara yourself, so then you can free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. That is amazing, for instance if you think of the lower realm sufferings—of the eight hot hell beings, the eight cold hell beings, the six neighboring hell beings, the ordinary hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals—wow, wow, wow, they are numberless, numberless. You can’t imagine.

When you experience this heat, it is to free every single one of them from samsara. It is not only to free yourself from samsara, but to free numberless beings from samsara and bring them to enlightenment. With bodhicitta, whatever you feel—heat or discomfort—is the cause of happiness for numberless sentient beings; for them to achieve enlightenment.

Also you can do tonglen practice. [Read more about tonglen here]

The great yogi Choje Gotsangpa said:

By my experiencing this heat,
May all sentient beings be free immediately
From disease, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements.
And may they achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations.

Here I am using the quote to relate to heat, but it can be in relation to any suffering or problem, for example, cancer or another sickness, relationship problems (for married people), etc.

You can recite a mala or more of this verse in the same way that you recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Pray from the heart like this and dedicate for sentient beings.

By experiencing the heat for sentient beings, it becomes most useful and beneficial for sentient beings, for them to be free from samsara and achieve enlightenment. As I mentioned before, in this way any problem can be made most beneficial—for oneself to achieve enlightenment quickly and for all sentient beings.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
You are the luckiest person. Every day you collect so much merit, every moment, by thinking of me, because we have a Dharma connection, so you collect the highest merit and the most powerful purification, you purify obscurations and negative karma from beginningless rebirths and this is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment. So please enjoy your life.

In regards to what you are experiencing right now, recite malas of this [prayer below], by dedicating your life to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. Dedicate your life to them, give your life to them, to free them from suffering and for them to achieve all the happiness up to enlightenment, by thinking:

By me experiencing this sickness, may all my mother sentient beings be free from all the sickness, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements, and immediately achieve buddhahood, the peerless happiness.

Recite this like a mantra.

Also you are experiencing this, because—as we made prayers so many times, like when we recite Lama Chöpa—we recite [the verse] to receive the suffering of all sentient beings, particularly the obstacles, so now you are receiving it, which is a sign of great success. Now it has manifested as this sickness, and now you are experiencing this for all sentient beings.

The prayer is from the great yogi Choje Gotsangpa, this is the way he practiced Dharma, the essence of his Dharma practice, not to have pleasure, comfort. His preference was the suffering, the hardships, and he almost died four times making charity to lice and to lice eggs. They attacked him, and he made charity and almost died four times. He underwent unbelievable hardships.

Compared to that, myself practicing Dharma is just between the lips. His way of practicing was not to have a monastery or organization, because it creates attachment, so he never had that. That was his own particular view, however, later he gave many teachings. He underwent unbelievable hardships to practice Dharma, and this is what he advised whenever he met problems; he saw them as very positive and he recited:

Whatever experience of problems or suffering I have, may it purify every sentient being—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, sura, asura and intermediate state beings—so everyone.

That means every single different-sized fish, those that are so tiny and those the size of a mountain, all sizes in the water; every single mosquito in the different universes; every single ant in the different universes; every single slug and every single worm, like the fishing bait worms that are used to catch fish.

As you know, there is the story of Kadampa Geshe Gönpawa, Lama Atisha’s disciple, who was always busy only meditating. Lama Atisha’s other disciple Gyalwa Dromtonpa was always very busy translating for Lama Atisha and then Amé, who was the cook for Lama Atisha, was always busy cooking. So Geshe Gönpawa thought, “I am the only one meditating, the only one who has time, the others are very busy, so I must have the highest realizations.”

Lama Atisha knew he was thinking this with his clairvoyance, so he called the three together and had them sit in front of him and he checked who had the highest realizations. Dromtonpa had higher realizations than Gönpawa, even though he was always busy translating, but it was the cook [Amé] who had the highest realizations, even though he was always so busy cooking. That’s what Lama Atisha said.

Not that I have realizations, but because we have a Dharma connection, your helping me as cook; you were also director at the center and so forth, then, as you remember, I told you to come to help with cooking.

So unbelievable negative karma and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths are purified. Unbelievably heavy negative karma to be reborn in the lower realms and suffer, like in hell, for eons and eons, so this gets purified; this is great purification. Therefore when some form of sickness manifests in this life, and even doctors don’t know what it is, this causes the unbelievably heavy negative karma collected in the past, that would have caused you to be reborn in the lower realms for eons and eons, to finish. So there is great, great, unbelievable benefit.

It is a good thing, then [you] will be like the sun shining. There is one sun shining in the world not only for all the people, but even for all the animals and insects to enjoy, so like that. So in the future [you will be] like that; in the future [you will] go to enlightenment, buddhahood.

Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung said:

This present small suffering I am experiencing finishes my past negative karma and then there will be happiness in future lives. Therefore, rejoice in this suffering.

He is advising to think of the advantages of the suffering that we feel, such as sickness. So this is an unbelievable, unbelievable profit, an unbelievable quality. So rejoice!

Thank you very much. A billion, zillion, trillion thanks.

With much love and prayers ...

My most kind, most precious, most dear, wish-fulfilling one,
How are you? How is Bodhgaya? You have to experience the heat of Bodhgaya, so that purifies your past negative karma. You are practicing Dharma, working for other sentient beings, in order to bring them temporary happiness and, while there is samsara, so they will have a higher rebirth and eventually become free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and attain enlightenment.

You are practicing Dharma and working very hard for sentient beings, therefore experiencing the hot [weather] helps to purify your past negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths; the negative karma that would otherwise be the cause of rebirth in the hot hells.

The Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung advised:

Experiencing even this small suffering now
Finishes past negative karma and there will be happiness in the future.
Therefore, rejoice in the suffering.

Please give my regards to your parents.

With much love and prayers...  

Practice Advice

Burning Offering to Dorje Khadro: Try to do what you can. There is no particular number; do this practice when you have time.

Water Bowl Offerings: Ten x 100,000 [one million]: This came out as your main preliminary practice. You can use the water bowls upstairs; there are quite a few. There is a Tibetan boy doing water bowls around the Nagarjuna [statue], and if he is not doing that then you can do, as part of your preliminary practice. You can also do this with other students, by offering all the water bowls, including what the others do. You don’t have to worry; you can do them slowly, slowly. Don’t worry about how long it takes to finish them.

Sutra of Golden Light: Read part of this sutra every day. You don’t have to finish the text in one day, but if you do, that is good. Whatever is not finished you can do the next day. This is the plan for your whole life.

Tsa tsas: 11,000. Divide between the three deities, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Vajrayogini and Vajrapani. Contact a place where we have a tsa tsa factory to get the mold and learn how to make them. It would be very good to have a tsa tsa factory, to have a copy of all the molds. That would be so good, so beneficial for many people,

Lamrim Study and Practice

Your main lamrim text is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Read this five times from beginning to end. Reading the text through becomes study if you read slowly and think about it.

• Guru devotion : two months
• The graduated path of the lower capable being: one month
• The graduated path of the intermediate capable being: two months
• The graduated path of the highest capable being:
  
  • Bodhicitta: one month
  • Emptiness: one month

Complete this cycle three times, meditating on each topic for the number of months indicated above.

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,

I checked and you need to wear some protection amulets: Liberating from Bondage protection, White Umbrella Deity protection and a ru. You need to wear these protections, but don’t get them wet, so take them off when you have a shower. At night, if there is a chance you will roll over and sleep on them, then take them off and keep them close by, for example, on your bedside table, and then put them on again in the morning.

The ru you should wear all the time. It is against black magic and by wearing it when other people are doing black magic on you it becomes powerless. Of course, black magic comes from our selfish mind and ignorance.

It is said by Kadampa Geshe Choje:

Put all the blame to one.

This means the self-cherishing thought, because from that all the actions become negative karma. That is where all the sufferings come from; also it comes from ignorance, so it totally comes from your mind. This is where the black magic came from.

Then toward sentient beings meditate on their kindness.

Instead worldly people think that black magic and so forth came from outside, came from others. In reality, all the past happiness, present and future happiness and enlightenment comes from others, whereas black magic and all the suffering comes from our own mind, the selfish mind and ignorance, the root of samsara. This means holding the I as real while it is not, while it exists in mere name. It’s totally empty from its own side.

Thank you very much.

We should rejoice in the sufferings, the problems, because when we have problems it causes us to lose arrogance and pride, and it helps us to generate compassion for others, who are suffering in samsara like us or even more than ourselves. Then that helps us to actualize bodhicitta and it helps us to achieve enlightenment, it helps us to free the sentient beings from the oceans of samsara and sufferings and to bring them to peerless happiness.

Having problems helps us to be mindful, to not take [anything] for granted, to be mindful of negative karma, from where suffering comes, and of good karma, from where happiness comes. So we can renounce the negative karma and create good karma. We become more mindful. It helps us to achieve more happiness and to renounce suffering and the mind is happy to practice Dharma, to collect merit, to do positive actions. We are very happy. It helps to actualize all the realizations of lamrim up to enlightenment, the three principal aspects of the path, the general and in particular the two stages of tantra.

Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung said:

The present suffering causes past negative karmas to finish and there will be happiness in the future. Therefore, rejoice that we are experiencing these sufferings.

The great yogi Choje Götsangpa said:

By my experiencing these problems, may all sentient beings be free from sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements, and may they achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

Think this, just as the Tibetan people recite OM MANI PADME HUM all the time—walking, shopping, being in the shop to buy things—so all the time they are reciting OM MANI PADME HUM. Like this, you can recite this verse [by Choje Götsangpa] on and on, while you are walking, while you are inside your room or outside, or going to work.

Each time you do that, you collect the highest merit, by taking first the sickness of all sentient beings and then the spirit harm, thirdly the negative karma and finally the obscurations. Therefore four times you collect the highest merit and the greatest purification of negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirth, which causes you to achieve realizations on the path the quickest and causes you to achieve enlightenment the quickest. That is the best life, the most happy life, a meaningful life.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My dear one, 
Now I hope you got better. I did some prayers. I will read the prayer for eliminating pain one time, then if your pain continues the Kopan umdze [chant master] should read the prayer a few times for you. You have to be there when he reads it.

As it is said in the teachings, first think that every happiness—day-to-day happiness; future life happiness (deva and human rebirth); nirvana, the blissful state of peace for oneself which is experienced forever; and even the total cessation of the obscurations and completion of realizations, the peerless happiness—comes from the mind.

All the happiness that we experience came from our mind, and all the suffering—hell, hungry ghost, animal, human being—came from our mind. That’s because in the past we created nonvirtue as well as harming others. All our suffering came from that and all our happiness came from virtue. So our mind is the basic creator, not God, not Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.

That’s why the Buddha said:

Do not commit any unwholesome action,
Engage in perfect wholesome action,
Subdue one’s own mind:
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

The basic thing is “Subdue one’s own mind: This is the teaching of the Buddha.” From that comes every happiness—the happiness of today and of the next life, freedom from samsara and the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Everything comes from our mind. Therefore, it’s totally up to us. We always have to use our mind in a way that is positive because it’s the cause of all our happiness. Not in a negative way, which is the cause of all our suffering. We don’t like suffering, so we have to abandon that mind. Subduing the mind, that is what is called Dharma practice. What I’ve explained is not only what the Buddha said; if we check, it is according to our own experience.

It is said in the teachings:

Even if the environment and beings are filled with the fruits of negativity,
And unwished for sufferings pour down like rain,
I seek your blessings to take these miserable conditions as a path
By seeing them as causes to exhaust the results of my negative karma.
- [Lama Chöpa, v. 96]

As mentioned in the Lama Chöpa or Guru Puja, composed by the enlightened lama Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen, we have to think like this about whatever problem we are experiencing. We have to think it’s good because we are finishing the heavy negative karma collected in the past from beginningless rebirths by experiencing it now in this life as some problem. This is instead of experiencing the result of the heavy negative karma collected in the past as suffering in the hell realms and so forth, even for eons. Experiencing the problem in this life means that due to Dharma practice we don’t have to experience all that long-term unimaginable heavy suffering of the lower realms. Just by experiencing some problem in this life, all that heavy negative karma is experienced in the form of this problem.

Not only that, in the future there will be great happiness like the sun shining. There will be greater and greater happiness, like the sun shining, then buddhahood, the total cessation of the obscurations and completion of the realizations. When the sun shines, all the people and animals in the world enjoy it. There will be incredible happiness for us up to enlightenment, like the sun shining.

Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa said:

Even experiencing the present little suffering
Finishes our past negative karmas.
And in the future there will be happiness.
Therefore, rejoice in the suffering.

It very much depends on what we think. If we look at the quality of the situation then we rejoice. If we look at it as bad, it turns out to be a problem. So that result is not physically healthy and not healthy for the mind. It makes us sick physically and mentally.

Utilize the problem on the path to enlightenment. The best way to do this is with tonglen. Use the problem, whatever it is, to practice bodhicitta, then it gets used on the path to enlightenment, especially by doing tonglen. You should learn tonglen and do tonglen. If you don’t know how to do it, I must explain it to you.

Thank you very much. This is my advice to you, my advice for your life. This is better than going to hundreds of doctors in Singapore, including Western psychologists.

Please enjoy this.

With love and prayer ...

Sorry to add a little more. The thought transformation practice is not just to solve our problems. When we experience a problem and utilize it on the path to enlightenment, it is most beneficial to experience it, because it leads to all happiness and even enlightenment. That’s the real meaning of thought transformation.