Breast Cancer

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...

My very dear one,
I am very sorry for the long delay in replying to your letter.

I checked what are the best practices you can do for your health and this is what came out very good for you to do:

1. Print the Amitayus Long-life Sutra forty times. If you go to the FPMT Catalogue you will find links to the Tibetan and English versions of the sutra. You can print either of these and photocopy it forty times on nice paper (maybe yellow-colored).

2. Make fifty long-life tsa tsas (the three long-life deities). If you are able to get the mold for this and try to do it yourself, it is best. Otherwise, you can email the nuns at my house in California and they can make them for you, and you can make an offering to contribute to that. Also, as your sister is involved with the center, she could make them for you at the tsa-tsa studio.

3. Do White Tara long-life meditation every day. You can find the practice in the FPMT Catalogue.

4. Do Red Logyönma practice. You can get this from the FPMT Education Department.

5. You need a puja done for you, called “Betraying the Death.” I will do this puja for you. You could also ask the geshe at the center if he can do it for you.

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...

Student's Letter to FPMT Office

Dearest Lisa,
I regret to say that I have been in hospital for the last two weeks, thus unable to be actively involved in the work of the center. With the Ven. Geshe’s visit approaching it has been quite distressing, since I considered this to be a very important first task as a director. Luckily there has been a good support from the SPC and others.

Unfortunately, the situation with my health seems to be quite serious. Last year I was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor (while breastfeeding my 10-month-old baby), and had a treatment for it all summer. Everything seemed to go perfectly. But now the back pain I thought was due to an injury seems to be from the cancer cell metastasis in my back. I am back home now trying to stabilize my health after one chemotherapy treatment, lots of injections, and everything that the hospital comes up with. I am trying to keep my spirits up. I meditate as much as I can, even though it’s hard to sit still. I also recite Medicine Buddha short mantra, and I have been reading and writing the Long-life Sutra for some time. My friend recommended that, if possible, I should try to seek advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as to what would be the best to do in this situation. I would appreciate it very very much.

PS. The time in hospital was such an interesting lesson for me in compassion, samsara, and pain. It really was.

Rinpoche’s response

Dear Joan,
I was able to check regarding your health, and I advise the following:

1. Recite Black Manjrushri mantra.
2. Have the puja performed called she-nyin du-dög. I will arrange for this to be done for you as soon as possible.
3. Recite the mantra pacifying all the sicknesses 18 times a day.
4. Drink Palden Lhamo lake water (water from Lhamo Lhatso lake in Tibet). This may be very hard to find; maybe your friend might know how to get it.
5. Take these precious pills (Tibetan medicine):
              a) Moon Crystal: Two pills
              b) Rinchen mang-jor: Five pills
   Take one pill every three days. I can send you these precious pills if you are unable to get them. If that is the case, please send me your postal address.
    
6. Liberate animals equaling the number of your age. Use the practice that I have put together on how to liberate animals. 
7. Print 100 copies of the Long-life Sutra (print it on yellow paper). After you have printed them keep them on your altar and later they can go inside a stupa.

I am also making prayers for you and also the Sangha in my house are making prayers for you. Please continue with the practices you are already doing.

My very dear Joan,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. According to my observations, it is best for you to continue treatment with your Chinese doctor and taking Eastern medicine.

It would be very good for you to practice Most Secret Hayagriva. Make strong requests to Hayagriva (visualize him in front of you) to immediately purify all your sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and obscurations and to receive all the qualities, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, especially all the qualities of Hayagriva's enlightened body, speech, and mind, so that you can enlighten all sentient beings. Then, chant the mantra.

It is also best for you to liberate 250 animals. You can do that at my house in Aptos. On the days that the nuns do animal liberation there, you can buy worms, take them there, and liberate them. If you can't buy all 250 worms at one time then you can do it a few times.

As well as dedicating the practice to your long life, also dedicate it to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's long life, as well as all the gurus, all the Sangha who preserve the holy Dharma, and all the benefactors.

In the future, after you have read the complete lamrim (such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and other lamrim books), you can take the Hayagriva initiation.

Please study the lamrim and practice meditations on the graduated path to enlightenment, step by step, as explained in the books.

Please continue to make your life most beneficial for all sentient beings.
With much love and prayers...

My very dear Neela,
I heard that you have cancer and they have to operate on your breast, unfortunately. Many women in the world have had to experience this. There are numberless others who have cancer and who have to have their breasts removed.

You are quite a spiritual person, so you don’t need to be afraid of death—it is normal, after one is born one has to die. Like plants grow and die, it is a part of nature.

Of course, sentient beings can reach arhatship by actualizing total aversion to samsara, realizing that the whole of samsara is in the nature of suffering, including the desire realm—where we are—the deva realm, form realm, and formless realm. Then, by achieving the five Hinayana paths: the path of accumulation, path of merit, path of seeing, path of meditation, and path of no more learning, one is able to overcome death.

Then there are the five Mahayana paths: the path of accumulation, path of merit, path of seeing, path of meditation, and path of no more learning. When the Mahayana paramita path is achieved, one completely abandons the sufferings of old age, sickness, and death. Then one actualizes the highest tantra generation and completion stages in order to achieve enlightenment quickly. The completion stage has five paths: isolation of body, isolation of speech and isolation of mind, illusory body, clear light, and the state of union—the path of no-more-learning. Clear light has two kinds—example clear light and meaning clear light. When one achieves the meaning clear light, then one overcomes death and one is totally, completely free.

If you are able to achieve even one path then you are free of death, with no more rebirths, no more suffering between birth and death. If not, then we have to go through the cycle of death and rebirth and all the suffering, such as the three types of suffering: the suffering of change, the suffering of pain, and the suffering of conditionality. Then there are the six types of suffering: the suffering of uncertainty, the suffering of insatiability, the suffering of casting off bodies repeatedly, the suffering of repeated rebirth, the suffering of repeatedly descending from high to low, and the suffering of having no companions. Also, there is the general suffering and four types of suffering: of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

There are also the specific sufferings, such as being reborn in the eight hot hells, eight cold hells, and 16 surrounding hells, with the inconceivable suffering of heat and cold, being killed, beaten, tortured, etc.

There is the suffering of the pretas: the heavy suffering of hunger and thirst for thousands of years, unable to find a spoonful of food or to find a drop of water, and suffering extreme heat and cold.

There is the suffering of the animal realm: being eaten by others, always having incredible fear, the suffering of being hot and cold, being used for work, and being beaten.

There is the suffering of humans: of pain, hunger and thirst, unpleasant sensations of heat and cold, the suffering of searching for sustenance, becoming fatigued, as well as the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

There are the sufferings of the demigods: being tortured by envy and fighting, enduring the suffering of having their bodies cut; and the suffering of being intelligent but unable to see the truth because of mental obscurations.

There is the suffering of the god realm: the suffering of dying and falling to a lower rebirth.

Therefore, we need to actually practice. Just worshipping is not sufficient; we need to actualize the path. If we don’t like suffering then we need to eliminate the causes of suffering: the delusions and karma. Only then can we achieve ultimate happiness, liberation, and freedom from samsara.

Then, if one can actualize the Mahayana path, one eliminates even the subtle defilements and achieves full enlightenment, and one is able to liberate numberless sentient beings, freeing them from the vast suffering of samsara and bringing them to full enlightenment; one is able to enlighten all sentient beings. That is the main object of our life, the purpose of our life and purpose of living. The purpose of our survival is to accomplish this.

So, we really need to learn what Buddha taught. Buddha is the only one who taught the whole path to liberation. Other religions are good but do not include the complete path to enlightenment.

I send you my love and prayers and also I am making prayers for you.