Where to Practice

Where to Practice

Date Posted:
October 2005

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a newly ordained nun, who had asked where she should go to practice.

My very dear Jemma,
Thank you very much for your letter. Sorry it took a long time to answer.

According to my observations, it comes out best for you to go to one of the following places to practice:

  • Vajrapani Institute, USA
  • Land Of Medicine Buddha, USA
  • Tse Chen Ling, USA – it has a resident geshe and a strong teaching program
  • France – attending teachings at Nalanda and Institut Vajrayogini – a geshe teaches at both places, so you can study at both.

It comes out best for you to study and meditate and also to help at the center. You can help by offering service and also you can offer reiki. Where you can go depends on your finances. It is best if you contact the directors of the centers and find out from them what is possible.

Regarding financial support, you can apply for the Sangha Fund. I can tell you how to apply for this.

Out of the four places I mentioned, France would be the best place for you to spend some time. After a while, then you can do more retreat, and then after that more study. Each year you can try to do two to three months of retreat.

You always need the lam-rim, every day: for meditation, study, and practice; you can combine this with your study and service. Do everything with your mind abiding in the lam-rim. When you offer service or study, do it with guru devotion, renunciation, or bodhicitta, and from time to time, remember emptiness. In this way, during the day, when you are cooking, working, etc, see the subject, action, and object as empty, as a dependent arising. According to the Prasangika point of view, they are an extremely subtle dependent arising, that exists in mere name, merely imputed on the mind. Or look at them as a hallucination, existing in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, appearing to one’s hallucinating mind. They do not exist from their own side. Whichever way it is done, it leads to emptiness. The other way is to practice awareness of this hallucination – the meaning of this is that things are empty.

Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta.

With much love and prayers...