Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Soquel, CA USA 1999 (Archive #1055)

This book is an edited transcript of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings at a three-month Vajrasattva retreat held at Land of Medicine Buddha, from February 1 to April 30, 1999. The teachings cover many lam-rim topics, purification practices, mantras, pujas and more.

Chapter 40: March 16

EVENING: FINAL VAJRASATTVA SESSION

Palden Lhamo Tea Offering

There is a general tea offering prayer, which includes many other protectors and deities, but this one is specifically for Palden Lhamo and her entourage. Since the copy of this translation, which is used by International Office, where the tea offering is done every day, is available, we will just do it.

Mitukpa Practice

We need a method of becoming enlightened without having to meditate!

We need a method so that by meditating one night, we become enlightened that night or by meditating one day, we become enlightened that day! Anyway, I’m joking.

I thought to give the lung, the oral transmission, of the Mitukpa mantra, as recitation of this mantra came out very beneficial for Tenzin Jangchub’s mother, who died recently. According to my Mickey Mouse divination, my monkey divination, a few practices came out as specifically beneficial for her, to save her from the lower realms. They included making a statue or tsa-tsas or a mani prayer wheel. It came out extremely beneficial to make a prayer wheel, and even if a prayer wheel can’t be sponsored completely, some money could be donated on her behalf towards the building of a prayer wheel. Another practice that came out very beneficial is recitation of the mantra of Mitukpa, the Immovable Buddha. Since there are quite a number of us here in the retreat, if each person recites one mala of this mantra once a day, many thousands of mantras can be recited in a short time. It is a very powerful and effective way to help her.

So, I thought to give the oral transmission before we recite the mantras.

Mitukpa is very powerful in degenerate times for purifying negative karma, particularly the negative karma of having broken vows, such as the Eight Mahayana Precepts, lay vows or the vows of nuns and monks.

Even if you believe in karma and reincarnation and do not generate heresy, if you break or degenerate your vows you create the cause to be born in the animal realm as a naga.

There are many stories in the teachings about how many of the nagas during Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s time had been monks and nuns during Buddha Kashyapa’s time, but had been unable to keep their vows.

Because they had broken their vows, they were born as nagas. The Mitukpa practice of making nectar charity to the nagas is very beneficial in purifying the nagas and liberating them from their suffering. While pouring the water, you visualize Mitukpa, the Immovable Buddha.

Mitukpa is the same as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha in appearance except that Mitukpa is blue and holds a vajra in his left hand, which is in the mudra of concentration. Nectar flows from Mitukpa’s holy body, from either the heart or the hand, to purify all the nagas and liberate them from all their sufferings. It is very effective for the nagas.

There is also a very special practice called the hundred torma offerings (Tib: torma gya-tsa). There are brief, medium-length and elaborate ways of doing this practice. To do the practice you make small pills with tsampa, butter, milk and other very clean substances. The pills include the six special substances (Tib: sang drug) that are normally used in Tibetan medicine and incense. This practice is part of the thought transformation commitment of making offering to the Triple Gem and making charity to the beings of the six realms, as is offering water charity to the different types of pretas.

Suffering of Pretas

Generally, among pretas, those with flames coming from the mouth have more suffering than other types of preta. Due to karma, some pretas are born with two or three knots in their neck. Their neck is so tiny that they cannot swallow things. They experience many obstacles. In the first place, they cannot find even a spoonful of food or a drop of water for hundreds or thousands of years. When they finally see some food or drink in the distance, karmic guardians stop them from going there, so they are unable to get it.

The texts also mention that due to karma, the stomachs of the pretas are as big as mountains. I think we find this hard to believe because it’s not something that we can see for ourselves. There is no preta country in Africa, India or somewhere that can be advertised on TV or that we can fly or drive to as tourists to take pictures or videos. However, we can find similar examples if we look at some general human shapes. Among human beings, there are different types of bodies, and some have big bellies.

There are human beings with all kinds of bodies, so you cannot say that such a thing as a preta body could not exist.

Even in terms of human beings, we see that there are all kinds of shapes. There are even human beings with two heads. There is a book called Believe It or Not, which has actual photographs of people who have been born with unbelievable bodies. Some have very long penises, huge stomachs, another being attached to their stomach or three legs. There are all kinds of things shown in this book. It is easier to see such people in the East because they are exposed on the streets. In the West, such people are kept together in one place where no one can see them. In some ways, because you never see such people on the streets in the West, you might think that people with strange bodies are born only in India.

You might think that such things never happen in the West, where everything is neat and perfect—that there is no bad karma in the West; there is only bad karma in Nepal and India, where people believe in it. You might believe that only those who believe in negative karma experience negative karma; that those who don’t believe in negative karma never experience negative karma; that for them, everything is perfect.

When we think of just the way some human beings are born, it is unbelievable. We couldn’t even imagine such bodies. There are people who are born with the face of a dog; they have hairy faces and look just like Lhasa apsos. Basically, these are all karmic results of immoral actions.

They can also be the result of having disrespected holy objects, but basically they are the result of having broken vows, or precepts. That is the real cause. In the West, such bodies are said to be the result of some physical condition, such as imperfections in the father’s sperm or the mother’s egg. This is blamed as the sole source. However, even though it is true that such a body has something to do with defects in the sperm or egg, the actual cause of that imperfect sperm or egg is negative karma from immoral actions.

There is specific proof of reincarnation in Pramanavarttika, but I have forgotten the key points of the logic. The physical body is the cooperative cause of the mind and the mind is the cooperative cause of the body. Of course, you have to consider the two causes of such a body.

One is the physical evolution of the body from the sperm and egg, but the other cause is the mental factor of karma, or intention, which is what causes the physical evolution.

However, based on this explanation, one becomes the cooperative cause, but of course, the main cause of even the mind that entered the fertilized egg is the previous mind in that same continuum. There is a specific explanation related to the consciousness and the body, but unfortunately I have forgotten the key points.

People might be born with the face of a dog because of the past negative karma of having sex with dogs out of the negative motivation of attachment or self-centeredness. I have yet to see anyone with the head of an elephant or a crocodile.

Anyway, all these strange bodies that we see pictured in books such as Believe It or Not are the result of immoral actions. They are all creations of attachment, produced by attachment. And, whether we believe it or not, such things have happened. All those unusual births are the result of strong desire.

But to return to the pretas, where this story started....

The pretas have stomachs like mountains, necks as thin as a hair from a horse’s tail, tiny limbs and skin that is as dry as tinder. When their limbs rub together, sparks are produced. Because their bodies are like that, even if pretas see food in the distance, it is very difficult for them to reach it. Similar to the way that a very old person finds it difficult to walk, a preta has great difficulty in moving its body. Even if there are no karmic guardians preventing them from going there, pretas still find it extremely difficult to reach the place where they see food. And even if they finally manage to reach that place, the food suddenly disappears or is transformed into something undesirable. After undergoing unbelievable hardships to come all the way to where in the distance they have seen food or clear blue water, they arrive to find that the food or water has either disappeared or is full of pus, blood, hair or garbage. There is nothing there that they can eat or drink.

Then, even when they are at last able to find some water or food, they can take only a drop of it because their mouths are like the eye of a needle.

It is very difficult for them to swallow any food at all, and even when they do manage to swallow something, it has no effect because their stomach is as big as a mountain and flames inside it burn up the food.

Besides suffering so much hunger and thirst, pretas also experience so much pain. This is why in regard to the practice of giving, making water charity to the pretas collects much more merit than making charity of other substances to other sentient beings. In fact, by making water charity to one preta, you collect much more merit than by having made charity to all the rest of the sentient beings. And by making water charity to one of those pretas with flames coming from the mouth, you collect more merit than you would by making charity to all the rest of the numberless pretas, because this particular preta experiences much more suffering than the other pretas.

Such pretas are perhaps not seen here, but they can be seen at certain places in India—in Buxa, for example. I lived for eight years in Buxa, the concentration camp where Prime Minister Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi-ji were imprisoned during the time of the British. The buildings weren’t changed at all, but because Tibetan monks lived there, the prison became a monastery. When we were debating outside at night, we would often see flames moving in the forest. I think this also happens at certain places in the West. Once when I was traveling at night through the forest with a group of people, we saw a light through the trees, but it wasn’t the light of a fire. We thought there might be somebody there, but when we took a few steps towards the light, it moved further away. There was nobody there. The light just went further and further into the forest. It is very common to see flames moving at night in forests. It is also possible to see these pretas in deserts and in other barren or desolate places. Pretas with flames coming from the mouth have much more suffering than other pretas.

However, the pretas with two or three knots in their necks have even more suffering. Even if a drop of water enters their mouths it cannot go any further because their throats are occluded by the knots. Making one drop of water charity to a preta with knots collects more merit than does making charity to all the numberless pretas with flames coming from the mouth. There is a mantra that allows these pretas with knots to see and find water. You visualize yourself as Chenrezig with nectar coming from your hand. The nectar liberates the pretas from the suffering of the lower realms, purifies their negative karma and they then get a good rebirth.

You can also do this practice with the other types of preta. The nectar cools their suffering of heat, then purifies them of their negative karma and delusions. Due to their negative karma, pretas find even moonlight, which human beings find cooling, very hot. The nectar cools the pretas, like a cooling rain after a heat wave.

Water Charity to the Pretas

Buddha also explained a special practice for pretas called “Yeshe Karda.”

(I think there is no point in translating this name as it might sound funny in English. It’s better to leave it in Tibetan!)[See Chapter 48, Tuesday, April 27 and Appendix 4.] Having a swimming pool is a great advantage for this practice, but you can do it at a pond, a river or an ocean, which is especially suitable because it is the largest body of water.

To do the practice, you take water from the swimming pool, pond, river or ocean, recite the name mantra of Yeshe Karda seven times [OM JNANA AVALOKITESAMANTA PARANA RAMI BAWA SAMAYA MAHA MANI DURU DURU HRIH DAYA JALANI SOHA], then pour the water back. You do this whole process seven times. After pouring the water back, meditate that the whole ocean appears as uncontaminated nectar to all the numberless pretas that are seen by the omniscient mind. All the pretas fully enjoy the nectar and by drinking it are liberated from all their sufferings and defilements and they all become the Buddha of Compassion.

The practice is very simple, but it has unbelievable benefit for the pretas. Of course, you also collect unbelievable merit, but it is of incredible benefit to the numberless pretas. This mantra enables the pretas to see the whole ocean as nectar; otherwise, they cannot even see the ocean.

We can see the ocean, but pretas cannot see it. This mantra allows them not only to see the ocean but to see the whole ocean as nectar and to drink from it, thus purifying their negative karma and enabling them to receive a good rebirth. This is unbelievable. It is extremely good to benefit the pretas in this way, to liberate them from suffering and enable them to have a good rebirth. This Yeshe Karda practice was given by Buddha.

If you don’t do this practice, especially if you go to the water quite often, it is a great pity. I mean, without talking about the merit you collect for yourself, you bring unbelievable benefit to the pretas, those sentient beings who have been experiencing the suffering of hunger and thirst for hundreds or thousands of years. We talk about the suffering of people in Africa and other parts of the world, but it is nothing compared to the suffering of the hungry ghosts, who are unable to find food or water for thousands of years. The suffering of people in this world is great bliss when compared to the suffering of the pretas. And even though they can’t find food or water, due to their karma, the pretas don’t die but live for hundreds of thousands of years. Therefore, it is a great pity if you don’t do this practice, especially if you live near or go quite often to the water.

The Hundred Torma Offering Practice (Torma Gya-Tsa)

Anyway, I was explaining the purpose of giving the oral transmission of the Mitukpa mantra and had reached the point of talking about the one hundred torma offerings. This practice is contained in the verse in Lama Chöpa, the Guru Puja,where it says, “Whatever conditions I meet, please grant me blessings to be able to make this life of freedom and leisure highly meaningful with the skillful means of living in the practice of the four actions and immediately use it for meditation by applying the samayas and advice of thought transformation.” [Verse 98.]

Whether we are happy or unhappy, whether we meet favorable or unfavorable conditions, whether we meet a friend or an enemy, whether we receive praise or criticism, we should immediately use the situation for meditation, which means that we should apply the practices of thought transformation. Various practices are explained, and by doing these practices we then make our human rebirth useful.

The offering of a hundred tormas is one of the four actions, which are collecting merit; purifying negativities; giving tormas to interfering spirits, such as dön and geg; and making offerings to the Dharma protectors.

If your mind is brave and well-trained in the thought transformation practices, you give tormas to the interfering spirits and request them to cause obstacles to you. In this way you are able to train in thought transformation and to complete the thought transformation practice, just as Olympic champions train and challenge many people before they become champions. The main aim is to complete the practice of thought transformation so that you can achieve enlightenment and then enlighten other sentient beings.

If your mind is not brave or strong enough to practice in this way, you give the torma to the interfering beings and ask them not to cause obstacles to your practice. If your mind is strong, however, you give the torma as a present to the interfering spirits and ask them to harm you.

Giving tormas to the protectors, whether worldly protectors or protectors who are beyond samsara, has the same purpose. This practice of offering tormas to the interferers includes making charity to pretas and nagas. At the end of the practice, you also give them teachings. The whole practice is unique and very beautiful.

The benefits of the Mitukpa mantra

As to the benefits of the Mitukpa mantra, anybody who hears it does not go to the lower realms. If you recite the Mitukpa mantra 100,000 times, then blow on water, sand or mustard seeds and sprinkle that blessed substance on the body of a person or animal that has died, if that being has been born in one of the lower realms, it will immediately be liberated from the lower realms. Even though the consciousness has separated from the body and is somewhere else completely, because of its past connection with that body, the consciousness is still affected. Because of that connection, the consciousness is purified by throwing the blessed substance on the dead body or any part of that body, even the hair. All that is needed is for the blessed substance to touch the body. Just by that, the being’s consciousness is purified, liberated from the lower realms and reborn in one of the higher realms.

It can purify even someone with very heavy karma, even someone who has created the five uninterrupted negative karmas (killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an arhat, intentionally wounding a Buddha or causing disunity among the sangha). It can purify even someone who has created the very heavy negative karma of having abandoned the holy Dharma, through criticizing the holy Dharma, such as the Hinayana, Mahayana sutra or Mahayana tantra teachings, criticizing the four traditions of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, or disrespecting the holy Dharma scriptures. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo also explains in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand that throwing Dharma texts with missing pages in the garbage is also considered to be avoiding the holy Dharma. It is regarded as very heavy negative karma, as is criticizing buddhas and other arya beings.

However, even all these heavy negative karmas can be purified by reciting the Mitukpa mantra at the time of death. If it purifies the heavy negative karmas of the person for whom it is recited, there is no doubt that the Mitukpa mantra purifies the negative karmas of the person who actually recites it. Even blessing water or sand with the Mitukpa mantra and sprinkling it on the body of someone who has created all these heavy negative karmas can purify those negative karmas and save the person from the lower realms.

Simply seeing this mantra can purify all the negative karmas. If you show a dying person the Mitukpa mantra written on a piece of paper, it can purify all their negative karma. If simply seeing this mantra can do that, what need is there to mention the unbelievable benefits that come from reciting the Mitukpa mantra?

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche mentioned that the people in Amdo have a custom of touching the body of a dying or dead person with a piece of paper on which powerful mantras for purification, such as the mantras of the deities Mitukpa, Kunrig, Namgyalma, Stainless Beam and Stainless Pinnacle, have been written. The dying person’s body is touched or rubbed with a piece of paper on which these powerful purification mantras have been written. The main point is that by touching the body, the mantras purify all the negative karmas and help that being to have a good rebirth.

Rinpoche also said that in Amdo, lay people prepare for their death by taking a great initiation of Kunrig. I am not sure whether Kunrig belongs to Charya Tantra or Anuttara Tantra. Kunrig is a white deity with three faces and holds a Dharmachakra. In Amdo, it is customary to prepare for death by taking a Kunrig initiation so that all the negative karma created in that life is completely purified. Thinking that they have purified everything, the people feel relaxed and comfortable; if death comes, they are not worried because they are ready to die. This is why the people in Amdo take the great initiation of Kunrig.

Because Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore offered great service to fulfill Ribur Rinpoche’s holy wishes, Rinpoche advised ABC to request the Mitukpa initiation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His Holiness accepted their request and gave the Mitukpa initiation in Bodhgaya and right after that His Holiness gave it again in Dharamsala. I don’t think it had been given before then. I think from His Holiness’s side he gave it in Bodhgaya especially for the old Tibetans and again in Dharamsala because more Tibetans are there at the time of the Tibetan New Year.

What to do when eating meat

At that time, His Holiness explained that in the past, when he ate meat, he would keep all the bones, then recite the Mitukpa mantra and blow on the bones. This kind of practice is unbelievably good to do, especially if you eat meat. If you eat meat, you must do something for the animal who has died. Otherwise, it is very sad, because that animal cherished its body as much as you cherish your body. The body you are eating was cherished greatly by that animal; that animal cherished its body more than any other being’s body. Just as you protect your body, that animal protected its body. Therefore, if you don’t at least pray for that animal, it is very sad, and you are very selfish.

It is terrible if you eat meat with a distracted mind and total attachment to your own happiness. You must at least recite a few mantras. If you don’t know the Mitukpa mantra or any of the other powerful mantras, you must at least recite OM MANI PADME HUM or the Medicine Buddha mantra. If you cannot recite one mala, recite half a mala, twenty- one or seven manis or Medicine Buddha mantras. Recite the mantras with strong compassion, blow on the meat before you eat it, and make a strong dedication for that animal to immediately be liberated from the lower realms and to receive a good rebirth—a perfect human body or rebirth in a pure land.

You can recite the name of a particular buddha, but I don’t remember it. I think that this Buddha probably motivated specifically to purify the negative karma from eating meat. There is also a mantra, OM AH BIRA KHE TSARA HUNG, that is normally recited when meat is eaten. If you recite this mantra seven times, the negative karma of that sentient being is purified and they are reborn in one of the higher realms—in the deva realm, the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods, I think. This is mentioned in a Manjughosha root tantric text. All these mantras—OM AH BIRA KHE TSARA HUNG, OM MANI PADME HUM or the Medicine Buddha mantra— have the same benefit. His Holiness, however, mentioned particularly the Mitukpa mantra. If you are not a vegetarian, if you do eat meat, reciting these mantras is unbelievably beneficial for the sentient being whose body you are eating. Otherwise, your eating the meat can become heavy negative karma and you are no different from a tiger or any other carnivore that lives on other animals. Even though you are not eating live animals, if you eat meat only with attachment and do not do anything to benefit the animal you are eating, you are not that different from a tiger.

There are other powerful deity mantras, such as Stainless Beam, but maybe I will mention them at another time. These are the main mantras that are used when somebody has died and jang-wa is being done for them [see Chapter 32, Sunday, February 28]. These mantras are recited and used to bless mustard seeds, water or sand, which you then throw over the dead body. Or by writing the name of the dead person on a piece of paper, you hook their consciousness; you visualize that the person is there and then purify them with the substances blessed with these mantras.

Transmission of the Mitukpa matra

Think, “No matter what, I must achieve enlightenment in order to liberate all sentient beings from all their suffering and bring them to enlightenment.

I must liberate the numberless hell beings from all their suffering, the numberless hungry ghosts from all their suffering, the numberless animals from all their suffering, the numberless humans from all their suffering, the numberless asuras and suras from all their suffering and the numberless intermediate state beings from all their suffering and bring them all to enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment.

For this reason, I am going to take the oral transmission of the Mitukpa mantra.”

[The oral transmission is given:] OM KAMKANI KAMKANI ROTSANI ROTSANI TROTANI TROTANI TRASANI TRASANI PRATIHANA PRATIHANA SARVA KARMA PARAM PARANIME SARVASATTVANÄNYTSA SOHA.

If you add NAMO RATNA TRAYAYA NAMO BHAGAVATE AKSHOBHYA TATHAGATAYA ARHATEYA SAMYAK SAMBUDDHAYA to the OM KAMKANI KAMKANI ...it becomes the Guhyasamaja root mantra, or something like that. If you simply recite OMKAMKANIKAMKANI... it’s the Mitukpa mantra.

The benefits of the Naga King's mantra

I would also like to give the oral transmission of another mantra, that of the Naga King, one of the Thirty-five Buddhas. Reciting the name of the Naga King, De zhin sheg pa lu wang gi gyäl po, [Skt: Naga raja] has many benefits. If you recite it twenty-one times, it has the power to purify even the heavy negative karma that definitely bring their results in this life. Also, you don’t receive harm from nagas and landlords [shi dag] through diseases such as leprosy, arthritis or cancer. I haven’t heard Tibetan doctors link AIDS to nagas, but they normally explain that cancer is related to harm from nagas. Cancer is called nyen in Tibetan, which indicates that some other being becomes a condition for that sickness. I think that coma is also definitely connected to harm from spirits. I’m not sure exactly which type of being is involved, but in the past, the divinations of high lamas have usually indicated that Medicine Buddha practice should be done for someone in a coma.

Reciting the name of the Naga King also purifies the negative karma of having broken or degenerated vows of morality. Also, you are protected from receiving harm from lightning, sickness or thieves. It also increases your wealth. If you recite this buddha’s name 100,000 times, you can be healed of leprosy; the negative karma that results in your contracting leprosy will be completely purified.

Cancer is definitely related to nagas, and the proof of this is that practicing deities that protect sentient beings from naga harm, such as Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda, can cure cancer. This particular deity provides protection from more than naga harm, however. Vajrapani acts against the spirits of the upper reaches of space, which cause epilepsy and other diseases. Hayagriva, the deity adorned with a horse’s head, protects sentient beings from naga harm and the spirit called tsen gyal dön in Tibetan. And the Garuda on top protects sentient beings from naga and landlord harm.

Of course, the main function of Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda is to liberate sentient beings by pacifying their delusions of ignorance, anger and attachment, from where they receive all their problems, sicknesses and spirit harm. The basic aim of the practice of this deity is to purify, cease, these defilements. This is why people who have practiced the meditation- recitation of Vajrapani or Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda have been able to heal themselves of cancer. This and the fact that other deities that protect sentient beings from naga harm have helped to cure cancer prove that there is a relationship between nagas and cancer.

I would like to suggest that if their mind is open to the idea, people with AIDS recite the name of this buddha, the Naga King, Lu wang gi gyäl po. It is not that I have had the experience of someone reciting this name mantra and healing themselves of AIDS, but according to my divination it would be beneficial to recite this mantra. If someone with AIDS has an open mind and would like to do some meditation practice, they can be given a picture of this Buddha and recite this Buddha’s name and mantra.

I will give the oral transmission of this mantra, because I have received it from both His Holiness Serkong Rinpoche and Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche when they gave the sets of hundreds of initiations [Rinjung gyatsa etc].

The mantra is TADYATHA / TATHAGATE BHAGAVAN NAGA RAJESVARA ADHISTHANA ADHISTHITE SVAHA

I don’t remember whether I have received the oral transmission of this next mantra, OM CHITTA HUM PHESOHA, OM SHRI MATI ASHU SOHA.

If you recite this mantra and the mantra of the Naga King every day, you won’t receive harm from the spirits of the upper realms, so you won’t get a stroke. Some people have the karma to recover fully from a stroke, but most people don’t recover and hospitals can offer them little more than physiotherapy. This practice gives more possibility of recovery. Anyway, if you recite these two mantras every day, you won’t get a stroke. Once you have a stroke, it is difficult to recover from it. It seems that most people either die soon afterwards or have to live with disability for many years.

There is also another buddha whose particular function is to help to prevent strokes. The mantra of this Buddha is SANGYE OTZY TIN GYI GYALPO DRIME MEPA DAWE TOMA (LA CHAG TSÄL LO). If you recite this mantra twenty-one times, you will not be harmed by lightning—lightning strikes are not simply related to the power of the elements; other beings are also involved—or by strokes. Even though such things are not explained in clinical medicine, other beings, harmful beings, are involved in the causation of strokes. Due to the person’s karma, those beings cause these particular sicknesses. If you recite this buddha’s name twenty-one times, you won’t receive such harms. Even if you don’t recite all these different mantras, it could be that you are protected by reciting just one of them.

There are also many different practices that can be done by lamas or other practitioners for someone who has already had a stroke—purification with blessed water, for example. If the person who has already had a stroke can recite OM TUMBURI TUMBURI SUKSHU MEME SHIKSHI SOHA seven times each day, they will be protected from further strokes. Recovery from subsequent strokes is very difficult, but if you are able to recite this mantra seven times every day after the initial stroke, you will never get another stroke. Not only does this practice protect you from further strokes, but it also makes it easy for you to recover from the first stroke.

When Lama showed the aspect of paralysis, I rang His Holiness Zong Rinpoche, who was in Switzerland at that time. Rinpoche advised that Lama recite this mantra seven times every day. We recited it around Lama and Lama also recited it, and Lama recovered very quickly from the paralysis. Every day he got better and better. Lama showed the aspect of complete recovery from the stroke. I had forgotten that for two or three years I had been carrying a text with the details of various methods for healing strokes and many other sicknesses. At the time that Lama showed the aspect of paralysis I didn’t remember that I had this text. It was only when I got the message from His Holiness Zong Rinpoche about reciting this mantra that I remembered that I had been carrying the text for the past few years. Anyway, that’s my story....

Mitukpa Meditation

We will recite the Mitukpa mantra twenty-one times together, and then stop there for tonight.

Visualize Buddha Mitukpa either in front of you or above your crown, and think that nectar comes from Buddha Mitukpa to purify Maria, the person who has died, as well as all other sentient beings, including you. The nectar mainly purifies Maria, but it also purifies all other beings who have passed away and all the sentient beings in the six realms. Or you can visualize Buddha Mitukpa on your crown and Maria, surrounded by all sentient beings, in your heart on a lotus and moon disc and then purify everyone.

As you recite the mantra, make a strong request for all the negative karmas and defilements of Maria and of you and all other sentient beings to be purified immediately.

After the recitation, think that all the negative karmas and defilements collected by Maria during beginningless rebirths have been completely purified, as have all those of other sentient beings, including yourself. All the negative karmas and defilements come out of the body in the form of dirty black liquid as the body is washed by the strong white nectar-beams emitted by Buddha Mitukpa.

If you have received a Mitukpa initiation or a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, it might be OK to visualize that Mitukpa absorbs within you and you become Mitukpa. You then enlighten all other sentient beings in the aspect of Mitukpa. Everybody becomes Mitukpa—all hell beings become Mitukpa, all hungry ghosts become Mitukpa, all animals become Mitukpa, all humans (including Maria) become Mitukpa and all asuras and suras become Mitukpa. Then rejoice, “How wonderful it is that I have brought all sentient beings to Mitukpa’s enlightenment.”

Dedication

“Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, which are empty, may the I, who is empty, achieve Victorious Buddha Mitukpa’s enlightenment, which is also empty, and lead all sentient beings, who are also empty, to that enlightenment, which is also empty, by myself alone, who is also empty.

“Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, Gang ri ra we....

“Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, may I able to bring benefit as extensive as the sky to all sentient beings as Lama Tsongkhapa did, by having within me the same qualities that Lama Tsongkhapa had, from now on in all my future lifetimes.”

We can abbreviate the King of Prayers as follows: “Whatever dedications the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times have most admired, and as Samantabhadra and Manjughosha have realized, I also dedicate in that way. May I follow the prayers and deeds of the bodhisattvas Manjughosha and Samantabhadra.”

[Recitation of multiplying mantras and subsequent prayer]

We will condense the prayer for the flourishing of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, Losang gyal ten ma, as follows: “Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, may the complete teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa be actualized in this very lifetime, without even a second’s delay, within my mind and within the minds of all the students and benefactors, especially those who sacrifice their lives to serve others and the teachings of the Buddha through this organization.

“May I be able to cause all sentient beings to meet Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings and to completely actualize them in their minds. May the general teachings of Buddha and especially the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa flourish and spread in all directions. Also, by receiving whatever support is needed, may all the centers be able to spread the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa in the minds of all sentient beings. May all the projects of this organization succeed immediately by receiving all the support they need. May the 500-foot Maitreya Buddha statue be completed immediately by receiving all the support that is needed.

“May all these centers, stupas, statues and other projects cause loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta to be generated in the minds of all sentient beings. Due to that, may no sentient being every experience war, famine, sickness, earthquake, danger from fire or water, or any other undesirable thing. In particular, may a third world war, with all the dangers of torture and the use of nuclear weapons, not occur. May everyone be free from the danger of this; may no one ever have to experience such things.

“May all these centers, stupas, statues and other projects cause all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment in the quickest way possible.”

Sorry, again tonight it became blah, blah, blah....

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Chapter 41: April 10 »