Advice for Children

My very dear one,
How are you these days? I’m sure you are very happy with your daily Dharma practice, with your Dharma mind.

I have sent a card to your daughter. I have suggested some practice to do every day, with Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, Foundation of All Good Qualities or the short lamrim prayer. This plants the seed of the whole path to enlightenment every day, and means every day making preparation to achieve enlightenment—the complete cessation of defilements, gross and subtle, and the completion of all the realizations. This makes our life so meaningful and so productive every day. I thought that would be very good for her.

Whether we have a good day or a bad day, a good month or a bad month, it doesn’t matter; it is beneficial to keep some practice every day. Even though she is a young girl, in one way, generally speaking, if she has a long life it is important to make it more beneficial and to create more merit, by planting some seeds for enlightenment by reciting prayers. So it is very profitable. Even if she has a short life, then it becomes even more important. At least to do some short practice like this.

Anyway, human life is very precious, especially being Buddhist and having faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Generally I would say, as I mentioned above, even if in general life one is a butcher or a prostitute, whatever it is, whatever is involved, at least do some short practice like this, that contains lamrim, the whole path to enlightenment. Doing that means a lot; it means huge preparation for enlightenment and for the future life, to have a higher rebirth, liberation from samsara, full enlightenment. Maybe she is doing something with the group every day, but this is my suggestion. This is also a chat with you, my chat.

We are so fortunate, but life is very short and it can end at any time, so as I mentioned to your daughter, it’s important to do some essential practice and to do as much as possible with bodhicitta. That is the best life—our life gets filled up, inner happiness, then the future is like sunshine. It makes the future like sunshine.

With much love and prayer...

[The following message was on the back of the postcard, which featured a photo of Boudhanath Stupa]

This is Boudha Stupa.The construction of this stupa was instrumental in the spread of Buddhadharma in Tibet and because of this we have Tibetan Buddhism in the West. The stupa was built by a chicken farmer lady and her four sons. She lived to see the stupa built up to the dome and the pinnacle top was completed by her four sons, who made many prayers upon its completion. All the wonderful prayers then came to fruition. So every time you see this picture of the stupa, take the opportunity to make prayers as much as possible. These will definitely come to pass. Even at the time of death have this picture of the stupa in your view and make prayers for your future life.

My very dear one,

I was very happy to read your words. I hope that you are enjoying the socks!

Are you happy at the center? I am happy you are there, where there are Dharma teachings and you are always doing meaningful things, good things. In this way you are making your life meaningful, happy, so this is very good, not hopeless and always hopeful, meaningful.

That is the cause of real happiness, real peace of mind, and then it grows, the peace of mind grows. Then there is inner peace of mind and ultimate peace of mind, the different levels of happiness that develop and then ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and liberation from delusion and karma, and full enlightenment—the peerless happiness, all the happiness in future lives, unbelievable! This is not what is known commonly in the world, where some people only work for the happiness in this life, so then they have a very sad life.

I hope you do some short meditations and prayers. That would be very, very good.

Sometimes read and meditate on The Foundation of All Good Qualities or other short lamrim prayers. Read them mindfully, this is very, very good. This makes your life so meaningful and plants the seed of the whole path to enlightenment and in this way brings you to full enlightenment. Also sometimes do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. If you can, try to do this every day and to read one short lamrim prayer.

Please tell me if there is something you need to know or if you need help.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling children,
I understand there's so much suffering and problems at home: parents that drink so much alcohol without control and then fight all the time. That makes you all so sad. It can be also very, very scary. And it is not just one time, two times, three times; it is often. It might be like that for you.

Their problem is not only that they don’t have external, outside-world, general-world education, but that they don’t have inner education. The Sanskrit word for this is “Dharma.” And not just understanding Dharma, but practice and attainment, especially the attainments of patience, contentment, compassion and so forth. They do not have these qualities. They didn’t get to achieve these qualities and that’s because they never learned, because nobody explained.

We can see with the eyes their life problems—so much suffering and no happiness. This is a very good example for us. As you are young, you have to grow up in a positive way, not a negative way. It is so much suffering for them, but for you, seeing their life—the unbelievable suffering, fear and chaos—is great education. For you, it is great inspiration not to live your life like them. If you live life like them, soon you will grow up and will have to have a family; you will have children and so your life will be unbelievable suffering—fighting like them and drinking alcohol. Having a family is supposed to be a happiness, but with life so uncontrolled, there’s much fighting, sadness, fear, and so many other negative things. There are even things couples don’t have to fight about, but because of drinking, even if there is not so much reason to fight, they find small reasons to fight about and harm each other. All this happens every day. Not only you the wife or you the husband suffer, but it also brings so much suffering to your family, your children. Your life will become like this or worse.

Therefore, your life is in your hands; it’s up to your mind. If you develop compassion for others and wisdom, especially Dharma wisdom—inner wisdom, inner education—then as much as you develop those, you will have so much happiness. Even though your parents suffered so much, you will grow up with so much happiness. When you have a family and children, you will all have so much happiness. You won’t bring suffering to your family. By developing compassion to others and wisdom, this inner wisdom, you will bring so much happiness to yourself, your husband, your wife, your children. Then, your children will become a great example to their children. They will know what brings suffering, so they will not bring suffering to their children; they will bring happiness. Each generation becomes a great example of how to bring peace and happiness.

I want Maitreya School to help to bring peace and happiness, to bring wisdom light to life, not to bring darkness, but to bring the sun—wisdom light—and as a result, to bring peace and happiness. That is my real aim for the school. It is not just a school. Even in the Western world there are kindergartens, colleges, universities where you can learn so many things, but the mind never changes. The mind, which produces happiness and suffering, never changes; and the mind is used only to produce suffering, not to produce happiness. That happens because developing compassion, the good heart and wisdom is limited.

Even though you are children, it is so important to practice kindness day and night, not to harm others, and on top of that, to benefit others. Even if you can’t benefit, at least pray and dedicate your merits for others to have happiness, harmony and the success of their wishes according to Dharma. This way, nothing becomes negative karma, negative action, but instead it becomes the cause of peerless happiness, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations.

Try, beginning in childhood, to practice the good heart, to be kind to others—and not only to people, but even to insects and animals. This way, you become a good human being by not harming others and only bringing greater and greater peace and happiness not only to yourself, but also to your family, society, country, and world. And you bring the same to the six types of living beings—hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras—and intermediate state beings. Not only do you bring temporary happiness, but you bring ultimate happiness, like the sun shining. Show respect; treat others like yourself or more important than yourself. Of course, you need compassion and wisdom, otherwise, even if others have eyes, you make them blind—in other words, you cause suffering to others.

Thank you very much, with much love and prayer.

My sincere advice is to pray to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is Buddha in an ordinary human form that appears to us. Pray from the heart that your parents have peace, harmony, and no more fighting. Pray that they get Dharma happiness, the peerless happiness, the cessation of obscurations and the completion of all the realizations. Even praying sincerely to His Holiness can help. Don’t just pray only one time, no, pray every day. You need to pray all the time.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I am very sorry, I tried to come to see you different times, but I didn’t make it in time. When I was ready to come, it was your time to go back home. So I am very sorry. Next time I will try to come, then you can teach me.

You are so precious, so kind, so dear and so wish-fulfilling just like a flower bud about to gradually blossom and to shine, giving great happiness and peace to your family and your parents, who are most kind and precious to you. Not only that, but also giving happiness to your neighbors, society, country, and to the whole world and universe.

There is not only this universe; there are numberless universes. This is even mentioned by scientists, as well as by Buddha. So you are bringing great happiness and peace to all the beings in the numberless universes—to the numberless human beings and the numberless animals in the numberless universes. So there are all kinds of beings that we don’t see at this moment. They have their own world according to their mind, but some people can see them—especially omniscient ones and those with clairvoyance, who can see the different worlds and the different beings, according to their view and also through meditation.

Besides the future, even now you are giving so much happiness to your family by not harming others and not giving problems, and by giving happiness to others, who are numberless. This is the best way to fulfill all your wishes and bring happiness. Even if you don’t think that way, it just happens.

This is the real purpose of living. This is the best meaning of life and this is the root of our happiness. In this way you can fill up the world with happiness —not only your own family, but the whole world. So you are in this school to bring happiness to the world; you are in this school to learn to make the whole world happy, besides your family.

Thank you very much. I hope to see you soon.

With big love and prayer...

My very dear Anna,
I’m happy you will be going to school, because that might make it easier for your parents and also that you are learning Tibetan from Geshe-la. It’s very good you memorized the Prayer to Manjushri and Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, and that you are memorizing the Foundation of All Good Qualities and making offerings and doing the practices every day.

You took the Kalachakra initiation from His Holiness and White Manjushri jenang, Medicine Buddha jenang and also Chenrezig initiation from Dagri Rinpoche and did three days’ retreat with Geshe Tashi Tsering and also with Robina Courtin. You go to Geshe-la’s Sunday class and do transcribing work for Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Thank you very much. That’s great news.

Whenever you want to send information and tell me something, it’s OK, you can send. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayer...

My very dear Susan,
I hope you like this dress. This is for you to enjoy, I hope. I hope you are well and that things are going well. We had a good time with your Mum during His Holiness’s teachings.

With Big Love and Prayer,
Zopa

Enjoy your life with a good heart towards all suffering, obscured sentient beings