Rinpoche's Thank-you Cards, Letters and Gifts
Thanks for Stupas
Rinpoche sent a fax to thank a center that makes stupas every Saka Dawa on his behalf. This is arranged through FPMT Puja Fund.
Thank you very much for everything you do for yourselves and for sentient beings; for the teachings of the Buddha and for me.
My very dear bodhisattva director, and all the bodhisattva members of the center, the spiritual director, secretary, bookkeeper, cooks, cleaners, and of course, the wonderful, very inspiring Sangha, and especially, more especially, Geshe-la, who is inspiring and bringing you to enlightenment,
This is also to take the opportunity to express billions of thanks for making all the stupas on that special day of the Buddha. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HO!
Repaying you can never be finished—even for reciting each mantra OM MANI PADME HUM, leaving aside all the big numbers.
Inseparable from You
A letter from Rinpoche to a student.
My very dear Brian,
Please don’t forget this letter or design. Thank you very much for your good heart and true devotion, and for any service you did or are doing now and in the future. You should know I am inseparable from you.
With big love and prayer...
Thanks for Practices
A center advised they had a sutra-thon for the New Year, where students recited the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Cutter Sutra and various other sutras. They dedicated for a multitude of things, especially the health and long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
My very dear one,
Thank you ten times for so kindly offering this. It is a pity I am so useless, but I do try to benefit some ants and did this in the Washington retreat place during the snow time. Also, I try to help the cockroaches. Maybe next life those creatures will come back with rucksacks to a Kopan course. Also maybe they will go to Lawudo, and then eventually get enlightened. He he he, ha ha ha, ho ho ho!
Anyway, I really appreciate all your efforts!
With love and prayers...
New Stupa
Rinpoche sent this message after seeing the progress of a stupa being built at Kadampa Center, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Dear great Kadampa stupa builders,
I am very happy to see how you are building the stupa, the effort and care is great. You really are doing a very good job and so beneficial, so so so beneficial! Unbelievable, unbelievable! WOW, SO AMAZING!
BIG THANKS AND BIG LOVE!
A Burst Appendix
Rinpoche sent this card to a student who nearly had a burst appendix. The student worked for the Maitreya Project.
My very, very dear one,
What happened to you is like overcoming just one tiny little atom of the shortcomings of samsara, for the time being.
However, what a miracle, what incredible joy—although the lower realms could have come, you still have a human body. Because of this human body you can create the cause to achieve happiness in all future lives and, even more important than that, you can attain liberation from all suffering. Finally, most importantly, you can create the cause for future happiness for numberless sentient beings and liberate them from the ocean of suffering. You can bring them to full enlightenment.
Why can you do this? Because you have achieved a precious human rebirth, which is so rare, and you have met the Mahayana teachings, which is most rare, and because you have met the perfectly qualified Mahayana virtuous friends, which is most extremely rare. That is why you can do all this.
You can be so excited about that and enjoy it day and night. You can enjoy it a billion, trillion, zillion times and rejoice in all the service you have offered since you appeared at the second Kopan course as a nice teenager, sitting in the middle of the room, from what I remember, on a cheap, rolled-up sleeping bag.
With much love and prayers, and a billion, zillion thanks to you.
PS: Hopefully we will see the Maitreya statue before we take off from this life. HA HA.
A Card for Rinpoche’s Sister
Rinpoche sent this card with a box of gifts to his sister, who lives at Lawudo Gompa, Nepal. The gifts included socks, a warm zen and photos of Buddha, Chenrezig and the Thirty-five Buddhas. Rinpoche commented that this was the first letter/card he had sent to his sister. Previously he had sent her a small post-it note, the size of his finger, with ‘take care’ written on it.
My dear sister,
I hope you are well. It’s so nice to have family members and Lawudo family members living a long time. It’s so nice; nice for me and nice for the world. I know you work very hard as usual, so please take care of your health. Do a lot of recitations of the Thirty-five Buddhas. Recite their names as much as possible and also the last part of the prayer at the end; the confession. Sometimes if you can also prostrate, that would be unbelievably powerful to purify negative karma, also so your death is not suffering, and you can have a good rebirth and liberation from samsara, then most importantly, achieve full enlightenment.
But remember that we all have to die soon – our life is in the nature of impermanence and death.
I hope to see you soon.
If you can read the Diamond Cutter Sutra, that would be very good, but if you are not able to finish it in one day, continue the next day and just continue reciting like this. At the end, whenever you finish the practices, dedicate all the merit collected by numberless sentient beings and buddhas.
Think, “May bodhicitta be developed in my heart and all my family members’ hearts, as well as in the hearts of all the students, benefactors and leaders of the world, all the people who follow different religions and all the rest of sentient beings. Whatever bodhicitta has already been developed, may it not decrease but increase forever more.
“Due to all the three times merits collected by myself, numberless sentient beings, buddhas and bodhisattvas who exist, but who are empty from their own side, may the I, which exists but is empty from its own side, achieve complete Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists, but is empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who do not exist from their own side—who are empty. May I actualize this by myself alone, who exists, but is empty from my own side.
“Due to all the three time merits collected by myself, all sentient beings, buddhas and bodhisattvas, by having generated bodhicitta in my heart every day, may everyone in the world live their life only to benefit everyone and may no-one harm others. Whatever they do with their body speech and mind, may it only cause enlightenment and happiness to all sentient beings, and may no-one experience war, famine, disease, torture, sickness, dangers of earth, water, tsunami, wind, and the dangers of weather.”
With much love and prayers...