Breast Cancer

Dear Grace,
I advise you to drink blessed water. Your friend can bless the water with Vajra Armor mantra, by blowing on water in a large container every half mala. Visualize nectar coming from the deity’s heart purifying the four things: negative karma, disease (the tumor), spirit harm, and obstacles. Visualize very strongly that all of these are purified and keep repeating the process every half mala.

At the end of each session think strongly that all your negative karma since beginningless time is completely purified. Then visualize you have received all the realizations. Think that the deity Vajra Armor is one with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all the gurus and buddhas. Do this with mindfulness.

Drink the water in the early morning, after breakfast, in the afternoon and evening. This is the minimum. Also, bless it each time before drinking it. Drink a few tablespoons each time.  

Dear one,
I was able to check regarding your health late last night. Please find below my advice. This is what came out beneficial to do now:

1) She nyin du dög puja: five times. This is to be done by Tsawa Khangtsen. This is Lama Yeshe’s Khangtsen in Sera Je. I can arrange for these pujas to be done. First, I will get an idea of the cost and let you know. Then, after it’s done, I can email you the bill. Here is a small message from me to pass on to the Khangsten, instructing them to do the pujas very well, with qualified, good monks and tulkus. I will also do the same puja for you.

2) Recite the White Umbrella mantra—a few each day.

3) It is very important for you to do Vajrapani/Hayagriva/Garuda retreat (this is one deity with aspects). If you can, do 300,000 mantras in retreat.

4) If you have pain, then it is very good to listen to the MP3 file called Recitations for Alleviating Pain. You can find a link to this audio file in the FPMT Catalogue. Scroll down to Audio Materials, then click on Sadhanas, Prayers and Practices to find Recitations for Alleviating Pain. The actual sutra is called Entering the Great City of Vaishali.

5) It is very good if you can print the Long-life Sutra twenty times or more each week (print it on yellow paper), with a strong motivation and dedication.

6) It is important to take White Tara long-life initiation.

7) On the Tibetan eighth day, try to have a painting of Tara made. Ask an artist to paint the whole painting on that day and for it to be blessed. This is extremely powerful for purification and a long life. Also, on the Tibetan eighth day, if you can, develop a number of large photos of White Tara and have them blessed by a lama on the same day. You just need to have the painting done once, but you could develop the photos on every Tibetan eighth day for some time until you get better, or do it for some months.

I have been doing prayers for you, also the Sangha in my house. It is very important to start the Vajrapani/Hayagriva/Garuda retreat soon. Of course, it is also very important to use this situation to develop bodhicitta with tonglen.

Thank you very much for the information you have sent. I am very sorry it took so long to reply. I am extremely happy that you completed the mantras and pujas I suggested last time. This is great! I hope very much to see you soon. Please do the above things to the best of your ability and, from time to time, let me know how you are doing. Please give my regards to your friend, and keep in touch to let me know how you are.

With much love and prayers...

Don´t worry; chemotherapy is not necessary. Sometimes it may work, but it draws on your energy and affects your whole body. What you should do is take on all the sufferings of numberless hell beings, who are experiencing unimaginable sufferings continuously without interruption. They have been very kind to you in many different ways, for example, when they were your mother giving you a body, education, protecting your life, and facing many hardships for you.

Take the sufferings of numberless hungry ghosts.

Take the sufferings of numberless animals.

Take the sufferings of numberless humans, asuras, suras, and intermediate state beings.

Take all their suffering and give it back to your self-cherishing thought, from where all your suffering comes. Due to your self-cherishing thought, you created the causes to experience the result of your cancer now, so take on all the sufferings of all sentient beings and think that now you will experience the sufferings of all sentient beings and they will become free of their sufferings. That way you purify your negative karma, from where the sickness arises.

Self-cherishing is the real enemy and all your problems, sicknesses, and sufferings come from self-cherishing.

Also, offer all your happiness, body, merits and possessions to all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings.

By practicing in this way, cancer is bringing you to enlightenment, so you are the luckiest person in the world. Cancer is giving you the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment because you are purifying all your negative karma and accumulating merits. So, you are the luckiest person in the world. Not only is the cancer giving you all the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment, but also all the happiness of sentient beings, because when you reach enlightenment you bring all sentient beings to the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment. The cancer is giving you all that happiness.

As His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche advised, and according to the teachings of thought transformation, when we encounter problems, we should think: “This prayer that I made has been accomplished and it's my greatest success in life.” When the doctor says you have cancer, think you have completed your prayer and have the greatest success in your life, that what you have been praying for has been accomplished. Otherwise, you might become lazy and not remember the Dharma. Cancer reminds you of the impermanent nature of life, and it reminds you of what happens after death—a lower rebirth. It reminds you of Dharma and what makes you be reborn in a higher realm is only Dharma. You cannot achieve this through a machine or taking tablets—there are no tablets to get a higher rebirth, no special food in the supermarket. This makes you practice Dharma very seriously, especially bodhicitta and tonglen practice.

Take all sentient beings’ suffering and cause of suffering upon yourself, in your heart, and destroy the self-cherishing thought and ego, which does not allow you to achieve enlightenment and brings all the sufferings, problems and obstacles to achieving enlightenment. Then, generate compassion and take the cause of karma and delusions upon yourself, and give away your merits and your past, present, and future happiness, all your wealth, possessions, surrounding family and children. Give not only your body and possessions, but also think about some of the people who are helping you make charity to sentient beings—imagine all your family and your wife or husband. You make charity to sentient beings by taking on their suffering and you collect limitless skies of merit. Each time you do that, think you are experiencing the suffering of all sentient beings. Each time, dedicate your body to each realm, not just to each sentient being, but to numberless hell beings and you will collect limitless skies of merit.

When you offer to the hungry ghosts, you can offer material possessions. I explained this before in an interview with our friend from Tushita, Dharamsala. For example, if you have many hats or shoes, you can offer them to numberless sentient beings in each realm. With each hat and shoe you collect limitless skies of merit, seven times numberless merits, because there are also intermediate state beings with these material possessions. Can you imagine the merits and result, up to enlightenment? You collect limitless skies of merit so many times.

Each time you do this, because of the cancer, you purify negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths so many times, and you collect limitless skies of merit so many times—within two or three minutes or even one minute of tonglen meditation. The cancer brings you to enlightenment that much quicker; it liberates you from samsara quicker. Therefore, the cancer becomes the most precious thing, all wish-fulfilling. Not only that, you liberate numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric sufferings, from each realm, and bring them to enlightenment. That is amazing. You become capable of doing this. All of this comes from the cancer or relationship problems or whatever problem you have—whatever your mind labels as a problem. By using that for Dharma, there is unbelievable benefit and it becomes the most wish-fulfilling gem or jewel. The most precious thing in your life is having cancer. Before it was something to abandon, but now it becomes the most important thing, most precious and wish-fulfilling. Transform problems into happiness like this.

Dear Jackie,
I spent some time checking for you and this is my advice. Do these things first, then see how the situation is. To start, this is mainly for the eye, but also should help with the cancer as well.

1. You, or someone else, should do the pacifying and increasing fire puja of Cittamani Tara. It is better to do it in the area where you live.

2. Chab-trü: Have this performed for you five times. The Rinpoche you know could do this for you. This is for purification, especially of pollution, and healing. When it is being performed, you should visualize purifying the four things (disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements), and visualize your eyes becoming purified and healed.

3. Blessing with Dorje Namdrol while washing in the morning. When you do this, visualize purifying the four things (as above). I am attaching the practice.

4. Have Ven. Chodron recite 10 malas of Vajrayogini mantra without talking, and then blow with some spit into your eyes several times. Visualize the four things are purified (same as above).

After all this is done, we can check again and see how things are for you.  

Student's Letter

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in early February.... Further medical diagnostic tests did not detect cancer in any other parts of my body.... I responded to the news that I had cancer with reasonable calm. I accepted (and still accept it) it as my fate/karma. Since being told that my cancer has a good chance of responding to medical treatment, I view this as a "wave" in the ocean of my life, a rough journey I will have to ride out before I am back in the calm ocean of life.

Rinpoche's Response

My very dear Beatrice,
Sorry for the long delay in replying. According to my observation it is very good if you do the following:

1. Medicine Buddha puja. You could do this at your friend’s house and gather your family and friends and do this together regularly. Your friend can help you with the abbreviated way to do Medicine Buddha practice.
2. If you can, do either the full puja or abbreviated one every day. Do the practice with a strong visualization that all your sickness, negative karma, defilements, and spirit harm are completely purified. This is what you think while you are reciting the mantra. If you do the full puja, then recite each of the seven Medicine Buddhas’ names 7 or 21 times.
3. You should totally rely on and have complete faith in Medicine Buddha now.
4. I will bless some water for you to drink a little of every day.
5. Liberate animals every week; if this is hard, then every month. There is a student in your country who is an Olympic champion animal liberator. He has probably liberated the largest amount of animals in the world. It is very easy to participate when he does liberations. Either you can make some offerings towards buying the animals or participate in the practices. Also, sometimes you could do it yourself, in which case your friend can help you.
6. Practice Mixed Colored Garuda practice – attached.
7. There is one text that needs to be recited, called Lui Pang Kyong – I will try to do this for you. If you are at home, then maybe I will do it at your friend’s house with you.
8. One auspicious prayer called In Verses needs to be recited five times.
9. If you are able, practice Lion-face Dakini.
10. If you can, recite the Prayer after Heart Sutra.
11. There is some Tibetan medicine that comes out very good for you to take:
            - Four a day: Kurchung, for three weeks
            - One Chung na for three weeks

If you are at home, then I will bring these, otherwise we can post them to you. I am making prayers for you and also the Sangha in my house are dedicating animal liberations for you and making long-life tsa tsas for you. If there is anything that is unclear, let me know.

With much love and prayers... 

My very dear Tina,
It would be good to check with the Rinpoche you know.

1. What comes out very beneficial is for you to recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra 11 times. This is very important, not only for your own purification, but also for all sentient beings. Also, you can dedicate it to purifying obstacles for the FPMT and for all the FPMT’s projects.

2. Also, it comes out very good for you to recite five malas a day of the Parnashawari mantra (attached).

3. Take one long-life initiation.

4. Liberate 2,000 animals. You can do this at the center. The animals can be frogs, fish, etc—animals that would otherwise be killed. Of course, you can liberate more if possible. Please make sure to do it according to my instructions, taking the animals first around holy objects, reciting mantras, blessing water, etc.

When you do it, you can invite students from the center and their families and children, so they can all join in.

5. Recite the Long-life Sutra 115 times.

I am also making prayers for you. Also, the Sangha at my house are dedicating animal liberations to you, and when they make long-life tsa-tsas each day.

With much love and prayers...