Various Illnesses

My most dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I don’t eat sugar. As you know, I have diabetes. Sometimes I eat honey or other fruit which is sweet but not sugar, especially nowadays. In the past for a long time I was very strict, but not now. I am now following this diet—not entirely but mostly. [See the DVD Tackling Diabetes With Dr. Neal Barnard.] This one says fruit doesn’t matter, so I can have all the fruits. For quite a long time I was very strict, having no sweet fruits, but nowadays I do eat fruit, even sweet fruits.

If you want to benefit other sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to peerless happiness and omniscient mind, then you have to reveal Dharma to them. So you need to learn Dharma and practice Dharma, and for that you need a long life and to be healthy, so don’t eat sugar. You know it is harming your health, so why do you eat sugar? That’s ridiculous. If possible, abandon sugar for awhile. If not, then at least cut it down to a very small amount. Make the amount of sugar very, very small or don’t eat it for some years.

Then about meat, I would like to say, please reduce eating meat, as it does so much harm to others and even to one’s own body. This is not just belief, it’s now even accepted scientifically. If you can avoid meat, it’s so good. Wow, wow, wow! All the buddhas and bodhisattvas will be so happy with you, just as a mother loves her beloved child, cherishing her child so much. When her child does something good that makes the mother so unbelievable happy.

So if possible, abandon meat or cut down eating meat. The conclusion is that if less people eat meat, that means more animals won’t suffer from being killed. That’s the benefit, so please think about this. Don’t think about the pleasure of eating [meat] without thinking about reincarnation, karma and the lower realms. Instead of just thinking about the pleasure of eating meat, think about the suffering of the animals when they are being killed, and think of yourself being at the butcher’s place, about to be killed. How does that feel? If you’re about to be killed, like the animals, how does that feel? Do you like that?

If you really think Dharma is to not harm sentient beings, then don’t eat meat, or at least eat very little. Not eating meat is OK. So many young people in the West don’t eat meat and are still healthy; they can supplement their diet with other things.  So many people [are vegetarian] now, young and old, and its increasing more and more.

I don’t know if you attend the center’s tsog days. During tsog you have to have bala and madana—bala is meat and madana is wine. That means taking a very small amount, not drinking a whole bottle of wine. Just take a drop and take it as blessing, and think that you are taking it as a blessing, not that you are taking alcohol. That’s why the name is changed. You just take a tiny amount as a blessing, not with the recognition of eating meat or drinking wine. That’s why the name is changed to bala and madana. I am not sure if you have taken a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation or not, but when you take [the meat and alcohol] you are supposed to take it with the meditation of great bliss. So without the conception of meat and wine.

My guru Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche said that when taking eight Mahayana precepts, on that day you can just touch the meat and the wine, without putting it into your mouth, so then you are still taking the blessing but not actually eating. That is to hook the realization of clear light and illusory body, the tantric realization that causes us to achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya—the Buddha’s holy body and mind—for sentient beings.

If possible, in the morning if you can, do 100 prostrations by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas. If you can’t do 100 prostrations then do at least 35 prostrations, reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas.

In the evening if you can, do Vajrasattva practice. You can do some prostrations, like 50 prostrations, while reciting the mantra. Begin by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names and doing confession, and then recite the Vajrasattva mantra. Do this for a total of 50 times.

It would be unbelievably good if you can start doing that, prostrating to Vajrasattva who is oneness with all your gurus, all the buddhas, the Dharma, the Sangha and all the statues, stupas, scriptures; who is one with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a manifestation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Think like that if you have received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Please try to at least free yourself from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, where you are going to suffer endlessly—not only have you suffered from beginningless time, but you are going to suffer endlessly—unless you purify the negative karma and create merit. The suffering is most unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable, and you need to be free from this.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Note: The student wrote later to say she had taken Rinpoche’s advice and become a vegetarian. Read more advice about becoming vegetarian here.

My very dear Dr Williams,
Thank you very much for your treatment to me. I wanted to just mention one thing, as you said last time that you wanted to know the cause, or things that I may have done to change the situation with my gums, as they are better. I think maybe I mentioned exercise—I should be doing regular exercise, but I only very rarely go for walk, so really I have not done exercise and that would not have been a contributor. What I did is control the food that is bad for diabetes—potatoes and white flour —I have been controlling that more.

I have also been seeing an American dentist in Nepal, as I am in Nepal every year. She really encouraged me to use a small brush to clean in between the teeth, so I have been doing that. She told me to do that three times every day, outside and inside. I don’t do it every day, but I try to do it as much as I can. It is harder when I am busy. I try to do it as much as I can, but not every day, so from time to time it doesn’t happen.

This is my detailed explanation to you, as you wanted to know and it might be helpful to others.

Then also as my gums have got better, so that brings happiness. Happiness comes from our own positive thought and virtue—happiness comes from virtuous thought and action.

Having bad gums came from negative thought and negative action, from karma, so that is the root; the main cause is my own mind.

Although this doesn’t happen every day, when I remember I try to do a meditation that the toothbrush is purifying all the obscurations of sentient beings and the toothpaste is the path to enlightenment—method and wisdom.

With much love and prayers... 

Dear James,
I checked regarding the experience with your heart and it would be very good if you can do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga before you go to sleep. Put a little more emphasis on the mig-me mantra, and then go to sleep completely relying on Lama Tsongkhapa. You should also do some animal liberation.  

Please help her in the following way. Some of this you may already be doing. When she can see or wakes up, show her my photo, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s, and Vajrayogini.

Recite in her ear when you can, even if she is not conscious, Buddha’s name mantra and Maitreya mantra. If the person who recites this for her has done nyung näs well or recites more than 10,000 mani mantras a day, then that will have the most effect for her. If there is such a person, then after reciting the mantras, he or she can blow on her body.

Of course, you can recite other mantras for her, but the ones above are the main ones. Please tell her I have her in my heart, and am making prayers for her.

When it is possible place on her body, with the mantra facing down:

• Long Namgyalma mantra
• The 11 or 5 powerful mantras
• Tag Tul text (Nyingma prayer for liberating)

I am also requesting each FPMT center to do 110 recitations of the Diamond Cutter Sutra, or as many recitations as the center can manage, as soon as possible, with strong dedications for her recovery. This is the time when the FPMT organization must help her. She has been working for the organization for so many years.

The specific dedication is:
For Linda, if it is beneficial and there is karma, to her quick recovery, and for her to live in bodhicitta and actualize enlightenment as quickly as possible. If not, for her to have a peaceful death, be reborn in the pure land, and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, or to receive a perfect human rebirth, meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana virtuous friend, be able to practice the Mahayana path, and become enlightened as quickly as possible.

Student: Early morning (3:15 am) on 18 December, I woke up from a sound sleep, looking at my photo of my most beloved Lama Zopa Rinpoche. I was almost frantic; I felt he was asking me to do something.

I tried to meditate and find out what he was requesting of me. I looked all over the house for your email. I put on all the protection amulets I have, and told him over and over that I would answer him as soon as possible. It was most insistent, and when I woke up this morning, I was covered with huge red welts all over my body. I have no idea what it is, they are like blisters, but they blow up, then shrink, then move to a different part of my body. They itch terribly.

I am OK, doing tonglen, but need to know what, if anything, Rinpoche wants or needs me to do. I am supposed to go into hospital on Thursday for my usual infusion. After that I will be bedridden for a while. I will be most happy to try to fulfill anything that Rinpoche asks of me. I just didn't get what it was.

Rinpoche's Response

Dear one,
I checked again many times. You should do and have the following done:

• Recite the sutra Entering the Great City of Vaishali six times.
• A monk at my house will do the naga puja for you.
• Another monk will recite all the protector prayers, degyä, 50 times, for you, as well as make a tea offering.

I send my prayers and very big love!

Lama Yeshe used to say: Take the medicine, but take it, as much as possible, with compassion, a motivation of strong compassion, as strong as you can.

You can, of course, dedicate your practices to the little beings. Also, you can add Medicine Buddha puja, the King of Prayers, and the Heart Sutra, also any of the eight prayers. Make dedications for the little sentient beings.