General Practice Advice from Rinpoche

My most dear Rob,

I checked and it came out that your past life was more Nyingma and Sakya, but this can change from life to life, it depends on what practice is more beneficial. The tradition doesn’t matter, so much depends on the practice, which is more beneficial.

With love and prayer...

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind email. There is a very special mantra from the Golden Light Sutra, so recite this with bodhicitta. If you recite this mantra while just thinking about the happiness of this life, it doesn’t become Dharma, so you must recite it with bodhicitta, thinking to free the numberless sentient beings from each realm from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes, karma and delusion, and to bring them into the state of omniscient mind, peerless happiness. To be able to do that, you must achieve the omniscient mind. Recite the mantra to purify all the obscurations and negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth, to collect extensive merits, to actualize the path to enlightenment and to fulfill the wishes of sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha. Recite this mantra eleven times. [Note: The special mantra mentioned in the first paragraph of the advice is not publicly available, in accordance with Rinpoche's advice.]

Also recite OM MANI PADME HUM [the Compassion Buddha mantra] and the Medicine Buddha mantra. Of course, recite those mantras with the same motivation.

There are numberless sentient beings. By watching documentaries on TV we can see an incredible amount of animals, including the animals in the ocean—the very tiny ones that we can only see with a microscope and the very big ones that eat the small ones. There are unbelievable, numberless animals, for example, ants, and there are numberless universes and numberless ants in each universe. I saw on TV recently some areas where there are unbelievable amounts of cockroaches and bats living in caves that are completely dark. It's unbelievable, unbelievable. When they fly outside birds eat them and when they come back again, more birds eat them, so it is unbelievable.

The number of human beings is nothing compared to the number of animals, the number of each type of insect. Even inside the earth, for example in caves, as you go deeper there are different animals and insects—wow, wow, wow. Then there are flies and the animals in the sea—the number, the amount of them is just unbelievable. So the number of human beings is very small when you compare it to the number of animals. Like that, there are numberless hell beings suffering unbelievably, and numberless preta beings. It’s amazing, amazing.

There is continuation of our mind, it is beginningless, and we have beginningless delusions, so that means we have beginningless karma. We have suffered as those animals numberless times and we have been like the animals we see on TV numberless times. We have been eaten by others and numberless times we have eaten them. Numberless times we have been an animal living in the forest, always in a state of fear, always looking for the enemy, always looking for food.

The fact that we have a human birth now is like a dream. We have prayed and practiced morality for so many lifetimes in order to create the cause to have this life. Achieving this human body comes from practicing pure morality; this is what creates the cause to receive a human body, so by practicing the pratimoksha vows we receive a perfect human rebirth with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, with the ability to practice Dharma. We have all the potential and all the opportunity to purify negative karma; we have the potential to not be reborn back in the lower realms and to receive a higher rebirth again, to be able to meet the Dharma again and to practice Dharma again, and also to be able to achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara.

Taking this higher rebirth is especially so we can meet the Dharma, then take refuge and precepts. It’s not necessary to be a nun, but even [take] the lay precepts—five, four, three, two or even one precept—also the eight Hinayana precepts and the eight Mahayana precepts, that you can take just for one day.

From that there are unbelievable, unbelievable skies of merit that we are able to collect, then we can achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, by practicing the three higher trainings. We can achieve enlightenment, the peerless happiness, for sentient beings—to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment. For that, we need to achieve enlightenment, and the root of that is to practice compassion and bodhicitta.

This human life is so precious, more precious than the whole sky filled with silver, gold and diamonds. It is more precious than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels—all of that is nothing compared to the value of this precious human rebirth. If we have a wish-granting jewel we can't achieve a good rebirth, we can't stop being reborn in the lower realms and we can't achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara. If we just have a wish-granting jewel, we can't achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, we can't liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and we can't bring them to enlightenment.

This precious human life doesn’t last long, it can stop any year, any month, any day, any hour, any minute, any second, therefore Dharma practice is most important.

So, recite OM MANI PADME HUM and the Medicine Buddha mantra.

Please read one lamrim prayer, such as The Foundation of all Good Qualities, mindfully every day. If you can do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga each day, that has a lamrim prayer within it; if not, then at least please read a lamrim prayer every day. Visualize the Buddha and then recite the lamrim prayer. It can be The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, Calling the Guru From Afar (the long one), Lama Tsongkhapa's Hymns of Experience, or another lamrim prayer. Recite a different lamrim prayer each day, if you like. 

Even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time, the merit is unfathomable, even if every single drop of the Pacific Ocean is counted. The merits of reciting this mantra even just one time cannot be counted. Even if every single dust particle of the earth is counted, the merits of reciting this mantra cannot be counted; even if every single snow flake is counted, the merits of [reciting] this mantra cannot be counted; even if every single drop of rain is counted, the merits of this mantra cannot be counted. It purifies negative karma and the obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and it collects extensive merits and causes us to actualize the path to enlightenment. In particular it helps us to develop compassion towards all living beings and to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes by ourselves, and bring them to full enlightenment.

The Medicine Buddha mantra brings success. It is unbelievably, unbelievably powerful and by the way, it takes care of us in this life, all our obstacles are purified and all our wishes become successful.

Then the next thing, the most important thing to practice is to live the life as much as possible for others, as much as possible to benefit others, to free others from all the sufferings and their causes and bring them to full enlightenment.

So I was very happy to hear from you.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,
It was a great, great, great surprise to suddenly hear from you after Dalhousie or Buxa Duar. So many years have passed. For the past 40 years I have mostly travelled in Nepal and India, and all over the world. I also went to Tibet several times for pilgrimage with students. I came to England maybe six or seven times, but I haven’t been to England for a long time, about 13 years.

We have a few centers in England; the main one, as you know, was Manjrushri Institute. That was before, many years ago, but now it doesn’t belong to FPMT; it belongs to the geshe, the Tibetan teacher whom FPMT invited to teach at the center. Now we have Jamyang Centre in London—this is now the main center in England, and it has developed a few other branches, in Leeds and other places. I have been based in the USA for the last 15 years, and I go to Nepal and India and other countries often, but I go less often since I had the stroke.

In 2011, on the basis of having diabetes for over 11 years, I had a stroke. It happened in Bendigo, Australia, while I was leading a retreat. The first two weeks of the retreat were teachings on the great bodhisattva Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. Then the second two weeks of the retreat were first going to be the Highest Yoga Tantra initiations of Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka and Chakrasamvara, then I was going to continue to give 100 sets of initiations (Rinjung Gyatsa initiations).

The first two weeks of the retreat had passed, talking about general Dharma practice, and it was during the time I was giving the Yamantaka initiation that the stroke happened. It was a very light stroke, not like others, but it affected my right side. Generally it is said that when a stroke happens to a man on the right side, it is more difficult to recover. For women, it is easier to recover when the stroke happens on the right side, but it is more difficult for women to recover from a stroke on the left side. So even though my right side is affected, there has been some slow recovery—slowly, slowly —especially if I think back to how it was during the time I had the stroke.

I just wanted to mention very briefly, for you to rejoice in, since the time of the stroke, Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore has liberated about 170 million animals that were otherwise going to be killed. They were liberated back into the ocean. The man who organized this used to be a commander in the Singapore army; he is one of the key members of Amitabha Buddhist Centre. In addition to that, so many animals—goats, sheep and yaks—were also liberated in Tibet and in many different countries.

After hearing about the stroke, a Vietnamese man whom I had never met became a vegetarian for the rest of his life. One Singaporean girl, a student—at that time I hadn’t met her, but I met her recently in Nepal—told me that after she heard about the stroke she took eight Mahayana precepts for the rest of her life. Then so many other practices were done, such as reciting long life mantras and Medicine Buddha mantras by groups of students and individuals at different centers. So many practices were done and so many pujas, even by the abbots of the great monasteries, Sera, Gaden and Drepung, where there are thousands and thousands of monks studying Buddhist philosophy, which is so deep like the ocean. Even if the Tibetan government officials were sick or died, I don’t think that many pujas would be done.

This is just information for you to rejoice in. So much good karma, which is the cause of happiness, was created by the FPMT organization—by all the centers and by individuals who did so much practice, purifying negative karma and collecting merits, and in this way getting close to realizations and closer to enlightenment. If you want to see everything that was done, it is listed on this web page. 

In Bendigo, Australia, we are building a big stupa. It is the same size (50 meters wide and 50 meters high) and exactly the same design as the stupa of Gyantse, in Tibet. The retreat in 2011 was held inside the stupa and there were many older students who gathered for it. In Australia, FPMT now has about 17 centers and many students came from each of the centers for the retreat.

In essence, this what has happened since I left Buxa Duar. First I went to Darjeeling because I was sick, so we came to Darjeeling for health reasons. I had been there a few times before, but this was the longest I stayed in Darjeeling.

Then I met a Russian lady, Princess Zena Rachevsky. Maybe you have read those stories that mention about the early days of FPMT. I tried to translate for Zena with my limited and broken English words. My guru, Lama Yeshe, gave her teachings and then she wanted to start a Mahayana Buddhist center in Sri Lanka. We got permission from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to go to Sri Lanka, but we had to wait for something, maybe it was our passports. Then Zena came back from Sri Lanka and we met an Indian raja. At that time it seemed that the Indian government thought Zena may be a spy, so she was being spied on by the Indian government. Even though she was not a spy, she did enjoy making other people think that she might be, so that is why we were not able to go to Sri Lanka.

It turned out that it was good that we did not go there, because it was a Theravada country, so maybe the monks wouldn’t have liked a Mahayana center. Then Lama Yeshe said we should go to Nepal. Even though I was born in Nepal, I had not stayed there long. When I was very young I went to Tibet for three years and when Tibet was taken over by communist China, I escaped through Bhutan to Buxa Duar, India. So from the time that I went to Nepal with Lama Yeshe up to now, my whole life has been spent with Western people. It started from Nepal, beginning with teaching Dharma to the Russian princess, Zena.

After that I led meditation courses in Nepal, just with a few words of Dharma, from the small understanding I had. Students came from different parts of the world for the course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and the courses still continue every year to this day, during the month of November. In the early days we did two-month courses, but then I had to travel to the West, so I wasn’t able to do two-month courses, but we continued with the one-month course each year up to now and many people come from all over the world, more and more. It seems that people got some benefit from attending the course so when they went back to their own countries, they told their friends. So that’s how Tibetan Buddhism spread in the West.

Now FPMT has 161 centers in 36 countries. All the centers (except maybe two or three) were started from the students’ side. Often after attending a Kopan course, they went back to their countries and then wanted to start a center. There were more centers, but some have closed down.

My master, Lama Yeshe, passed away 29 years ago and the incarnation of Lama Yeshe was born in Spain to some older students who took care of one of the centers in Spain—Osel Ling Retreat Center. The incarnation of Lama Yeshe, Lama Osel, is 28 years old now and is living in California, USA, at the moment. Lama Yeshe started the FPMT organization.

We now have very extensive study programs in some centers, offering a Master’s Program etc, so many of the students are now very knowledgeable. In addition we have about 44 geshes—Tibetan lamas—who completed their studies, got their geshe degree in the great monasteries and are now teaching in our centers. Also nowadays even the Western students can teach philosophy when there are no geshes available, or even to support the geshes.

Most of the FPMT centers offer extensive programs such as the Basic Program, where students can study Buddhist philosophy, the essence of Buddhism, all the 84,000 teachings that were taught by Buddha, which are integrated into Hinayana, Mahayana Paramitayana and Mahayana tantra—not Hindu tantra, but tantra taught by Buddha. So all of the teachings are integrated into the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment.

The Basic Program offers many teachings on the Buddhist philosophical texts, including the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment. So this program is what I arranged. First there was the Master’s Program that was arranged by Lama Yeshe and another master who had been teaching at our centers. His name was Geshe Jampa Gyatso and he was in the same class as Lama Yeshe. Lama Yeshe and Geshe Jampa Gyatso discussed this at Kopan Monastery and created the Master’s Program. It is an eight-year program and at the end the students get a degree, however, now it has been changed to only seven years. It is being offered at more and more of our centers.

This program is not only studying the Hinayana teachings, which show the four noble truths, true suffering and the true cause of suffering—how samsara, including samsaric happiness, is in the nature of suffering, and how it comes from the cause, it comes from the mind and from karma and delusion (the wrong concepts). Then how it is ceased—true cessation, nirvana, and how to achieve that by the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. This is the main one, which ceases all the karma and delusions, and the root of the delusions—the ignorance holding the I as truly existent. We believe the I exists from its own side; we believe the I is real, but it is merely labeled by the mind. Relating it to the collection of aggregates, the valid base, it has never been existent from its own side, from beginning up until now. The nature of the I is empty of existing from its own side. All existence—so this means all phenomena—are also empty of existing from their own side. Everything exists in mere name and is merely labeled by the mind: hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, happiness and problems. For example, the I exists in mere name; action exists in mere name; the object exists in mere name and function exists in mere name.

Not only do we offer that, we also offer study on the Mahayana teachings, on the whole path to enlightenment, which brings us to full enlightenment, the omniscient mind, peerless happiness; which can free numberless sentient beings from each realm, from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment.

So by studying Buddhism, we study the two truths—method and wisdom—and the goal, what is to be achieved, dharmakaya and sambhogakaya (Buddha’s holy body and holy mind). Then to cease not only the cause of suffering—delusion and karma —but to totally cease even the imprints left by delusion; to cease even the subtle obscurations. After ceasing that, then we are able to complete all the realizations and understandings to achieve the omniscient mind. So, this is the most important need for sentient beings—among all the kinds of education, this is the most important education and the most important practice.

So what we (FPMT) have been doing is serving and helping sentient beings in this world. This is really what they need, this is the most important thing and it is through this that we will bring ultimate peace and happiness to sentient beings, not only in this world, but also for the six types of sentient beings (hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings).

The center in Bendigo, Australia, is building a giant stupa and in addition to that there is also a big buddha made from a single piece of jade. This Jade Buddha is going around the world and so many people go to see it and take blessings from it. It is generating the income for building the stupa in Bendigo.

In addition to the Jade Buddha going around the world, there are also Buddha’s relics and different relics from great holy beings that also go around the world, and people go to see them and take blessings. The original plan was for this to help the Maitreya Project.

Maitreya Buddha is the future Buddha and we are building a Maitreya statue in Bodhgaya, India. The idea was that the relic tours would help with that. It has taken a long time to be able to build this statue and now it seems we won’t be able to build it as high as we originally intended (500 ft) so instead we will build a smaller Maitreya statue (150 ft), and perhaps we will also build a second Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, which is the place where Buddha showed the holy deed, the aspect of passing away.

So at the moment I am supposed to be the spiritual director of the FPMT organization. I’m very happy to write to you, to help you now. So now we have all become old, not just you. We have all become old, but we didn’t die yet. This is the nature of our lives—even plants grow old and then die. This is part of nature. It’s the same for sentient beings, except for those who have actualized the path and purified karma and delusion—only then they don’t have to experience death. Arhats and arya bodhisattvas don’t have to experience death, especially after they have removed the delusions—that means the 8th, 9th and 10th level bodhisattvas. They don’t have to experience death, because they are free from delusion and karma.

Meanwhile, human beings who have met Dharma can at least have a happy death through practicing Dharma. They still have to die, but they can have a happy death, because they don’t have to be reborn in the lower realms. They will have a higher rebirth, such as deva rebirth and be able to practice Dharma again and achieve ultimate happiness.

I am sending you this small booklet on the five powers at the time of death, and also these photos and cards. Also attached is my advice for morning motivation, so at the end of the motivation you can recite OM MANI PADME HUM. I am sending you a mala as well.

I am sending you a photo of Chenrezig, so think of this as the real Chenrezig, not as a picture. Think of it as the size of a mountain, with compassion for you and all sentient beings. With omniscient mind and perfect power, Chenrezig sends light beams to purify you and all sentient beings. The light beams are particularly for you, kind of illuminating you, purifying all the causes of suffering. Think that all the obscurations and negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths and even the subtle negative imprints collected from beginningless rebirths are purified, then recite OM MANI PADME HUM.

If you recite one mala, for example, for half of the mala concentrate on purifying yourself and for the next half of the mala concentrate on receiving all of Chenrezig’s qualities—omniscient mind, perfect power and compassion for all sentient beings. This perfect power is to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.

Then for half of the next mala, concentrate on purifying all the sentient beings, mainly the six types of sentient beings, so the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asura and intermediate state beings, are purified of all their delusions and negative karma. Then for the next half mala, concentrate that they receive all the qualities of Chenrezig—omniscient mind, perfect power and compassion.

If you want to do more recitations, then you can follow that same pattern (half a mala purifying and half receiving the qualities yourself, then half purifying and half receiving the qualities for all sentient beings). If you can recite as many OM MANI PADME HUM mantras as possible, that would be so good. Even more than 10,000 times would be fantastic. But you can’t visualize yourself in the form of Chenrezig unless you have received the great initiation of Chenrezig.

Another meditation you can do when reciting OM MANI PADME HUM is to think nectar comes out of Chenrezig and you receive all the blessing and qualities. You can also do tonglen meditation. Attached is a small teaching on how to meditate on tonglen while you are reciting OM MANI PADME HUM.

Also while reciting the mantra you can read lamrim books, like The Essential Nectar. When you read, at the beginning of the mala remember Chenrezig’s nectar is coming into you and purifying you, and at the end think you receive all the qualities. So in between that, you can read the lamrim books like The Essential Nectar mindfully. The Essential Nectar is very good to use as a meditation guide book on the whole path to enlightenment. Or you can follow the lamrim outlines. The most elaborate one is from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo, or Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middling Lamrim. The Middling Lamrim is very good because it has left out the discussions about wrong views of emptiness, so it is just the essential explanation. I am sending you The Essential Nectar.

So if you can do this, it would be so good, so then just before changing this life, you are able to make your life so rich, you are able to plant the seed of enlightenment, of the whole path, so then it makes your life very, very rich, the most beneficial. Then also, especially meditate on bodhicitta for the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings, who are numberless. You can even see this in life or on TV—there are numberless ants in numberless universes; numberless fish in the Pacific Ocean; and numberless flies, even when we walk on the grass so many tiny flies jump up, trying to escape.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is for us Chenrezig, manifested as monk, so now, but also at the time of passing, you should think that your life is completely in the hands of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Chenrezig. Completely rely on His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Chenrezig. I am sending you a prayer to Chenrezig as well.

So at the end make the prayer to only be guided by Chenrezig now and in all your lifetimes, to only be like Chenrezig now and in all the future lifetimes, to be most beneficial for sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha, and to generate bodhicitta in your heart for all sentient beings, and in particular for sentient beings in this world to have perfect peace and happiness and for all the war, famine, disease, and economic problems to be pacified immediately, including all the dangers of fire, water, earthquakes, tsunamis—for all the harms of the elements to be pacified immediately.

So completely trust and rely on Chenrezig Buddha, who is one with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for your whole life to be taken care of completely by Chenrezig, for your whole life to be in the hands of Chenrezig. So don’t worry.

Please read well this small book on how to die, how to make preparation for death. Please study it well. It is so worthwhile to read Dharma books.

In Buxa Duar I used to get letters from you, but only sometimes. I remember you used to have a business with many people —400 people or 4,000 people —sorry, I’m not sure, but you had to close your business. This is my memory, one time, a long, long time ago, you sent something round to Buxa Duar. I thought it was a machine to listen to music, so I went to an Indian man who was working in the Lama Camp, but we opened it later and it was cake.

Thank you very much and also thank you to your daughter. If you have anything to say, please write, I will try to help. Thank you very much to your daughter. Thank you very, very much for letting me to know about you, it’s very kind of you.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Please live your life as much as possible with a good heart, bodhicitta to sentient beings, and a good heart to strangers, to enemies, to friends, to all, not just those that we have attachment to. So that is what is Buddhism, especially Mahayana Buddhism.

Good morning, good afternoon, maybe good night! Thank you very much; thank you so much for your prayers for me, for sentient beings, for Buddha, from where all sentient beings receive their happiness.

When we say “happiness,” we should not think only about temporary happiness, samsaric happiness. Don't think that. We must think about ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara forever; the peerless happiness of full enlightenment.

So when I recite the long version of the Six Session Guru Yoga, instead of “happiness” I say “enlightenment,” full enlightenment, the cause of enlightenment. I change that word because it helps my mind to think of the highest happiness, true happiness. Just to say “happiness” normally means temporary happiness; it makes us think of temporary happiness, but we have had temporary happiness numberless times from beginningless rebirths.

Why we have the center is to have happiness for sentient beings—to increase, to develop happiness for sentient beings.

To help sentient beings have a perfect human rebirth in the next life, to be born in a perfect human body, to achieve all that happiness, to have the means of living, the conditions—all that happiness needs pure morality. We need preliminary practice in our past life and pure morality. Even just to be reborn as a human being, without talking about having the perfect human rebirth, we need pure morality. We need that and we also need not just an ordinary human body, but a perfect human rebirth, to meet Buddhadharma, to follow Buddhadharma. Only that gives us the opportunity to be guided by the perfectly qualified guru.

So we need pure morality and charity, and to dedicate the merits to receive a precious human body which has all the opportunities, and to practice the graduated path of the lower capable being, including refuge, so that in the next life we are able to meet the Dharma and be guided by the perfectly qualified guru. It may not be necessary to have refuge just to be reborn as an ordinary human being, but to meet Dharma again and to be guided by the guru and so forth, we should have refuge as a cause, as well as pure morality. So you see there is a need for Buddhism in order for sentient beings to achieve happiness in future lifetimes, and even to receive a perfect human rebirth.

To achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, we need to achieve the fundamental path of great insight—lhag-tong, special insight. Then special concentration, shamatha. That depends on the higher training of morality, so we need the graduated path of the middle capable being, the basic path.

To achieve liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever, we need to achieve direct perception of emptiness which directly ceases the seed of delusions. So for that we need special insight, the wisdom which realizes emptiness, unified with shamatha, the higher training in concentration, and that depends on the higher training in pure morality. So you can see that we need Buddhism to bring sentient beings to ultimate happiness.

Then to bring sentient beings to full enlightenment, the basic path, the root, is bodhicitta. The root of the Mahayana path to enlightenment is bodhicitta, and that depends on great compassion to all sentient beings. So in order to generate great compassion for all sentient beings, first we have to realize our own samsara, our own deep oceans of samsaric suffering. Then it is very easy to generate real compassion for others, otherwise our compassion is very limited, it is just on our lips. Our compassion is very limited, very small compassion.

[Ven. Roger interrupts to say that the plane is leaving. Rinpoche laughs and leaves to catch the plane to Hong Kong.]

My very dear one,
I hope you are well and had a good sleep after I left. I was thinking to call you but I think maybe during the daytime there it might be inconvenient. I will be sending you some altar cloths from Hong Kong to go behind the Lama Tsongkhapa statues, for the background, to brighten up the altar. The altar has been done very nicely with very nice wood, but I thought the background would look very good with some nice cloth; it would be brighter and more uplifting for the mind. Also, I will send some different-colored cloths for the right and left sides of the altar, to place over the wood and the top part. It could be very nicely designed Chinese cloth that is often used to cover tables, which has peacocks, dragons, and beautiful flowers on it. The base could be red, orange, or yellow.

I saw some examples in Hong Kong when I was shopping so I am asking one of the students in Hong Kong to buy them for me. I bought some cloth the last time I was in Hong Kong so she knows what I chose before and liked. I know two people who can sew the cloth. They have already made other things.

I enjoyed very much staying at your house. I liked your new house very much and next time I thought maybe I would practice different ways of swimming. I want to learn to do the style where you lie on your back in the water. In India, when I was in Buxa, which is an extremely hot place, I learned to swim with two other incarnate lamas. We were all studying with Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, who was my first philosophy teacher. In Buxa there was a little river that we swam in. The two other lamas knew how to swim well, the style where your feet move up and down in the water, but my swimming was a little bit like a frog’s movement, my feet weren’t coming out of the water, just moving under the water.

I thought that one of the benefits of knowing how to swim is if an airplane falls into the ocean then you are able to survive by swimming. Also, I heard it was very good for arthritis and maybe the heart and diabetes, I am not sure. Anyway, maybe we can have a competition next time and I can compete with you and the children.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your past support and service that you have given, as well as contributing to the daily expenses of my house, the food, electricity, garden, car, offerings to the Sangha, and the offerings (saffron, flowers, fruit), etc. As I have mentioned to you before, you are always in my prayers, in my heart, and I always dedicate merits to you.

I would like to chat with you about the Mahakala thangka that you have and why it came to you. Usually you look for a protector but in your case the protector looked for you, so from this you can see that you have a special connection with Mahakala. Also, I checked this and it seems that you do have a very strong connection with Mahakala. It seems very auspicious the way the thangka came to you and also about the monk who did the retreat and then painted the thangka. His art is very good and, I think, very auspicious.

A monk has made a new cover for the thangka. I told him to offer tea to Mahakala and do the protector prayers and torma offering for Mahakala when he brings the new cover over,. You can do these practices with him, or be there when he does these pujas.

It is very good if you can offer torma (just some cake or any food) each day to Mahakala. Maybe your helper can change it every day, along with the water bowls. As well as a torma, it is very good if you can offer tea every day to Mahakala. You can offer the tea in a very nice bowl with a saucer; you can offer any kind of tea and recite the offering prayer with a bodhicitta motivation while making the tea offering and bless it with OM AH HUM (recite three times). Think that the tea has become an ocean of nectar, the essence of which is transcendental wisdom, non-dual bliss voidness. This is the highest, ultimate and real meaning of nectar. It is not the kind of nectar that devas and worldly gods enjoy, but nectar according to tantra. What you visualize and what the Buddha sees is transcendental wisdom, non-dual bliss voidness; the nature is infinite bliss, non-dual with emptiness.

Don’t think you are just offering tea to the painting, think that you are offering to Buddha in actuality, whose essence is the guru, the primordial wisdom, the dharmakaya, the most subtle mind which is experiencing infinite bliss and is non-dual with emptiness. The dharmakaya is the absolute guru bound with infinite compassion, which manifests into various forms of Buddha. The sambhogakaya aspect is the highest bodhisattvas. Ordinary bodhisattvas are the nirmanakaya—the more ordinary aspect that guides sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering, particularly the lower realms, and guides them from happiness to happiness to enlightenment, by revealing various methods. This is the same way to think whenever you offer to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, thinking of him as one with the guru, which collects vast amounts of merit. In the same way, when you make offerings or prayers to Mahakala, regard him as the same as the guru.

In my last email to you I wanted to mention these two stories, but forgot. When I was staying in Boston at a house on a lake, I was going to surprise the people there by showing them my swimming, as they had never seen me swim. I had a bathing suit that someone bought for me many years ago. I have only used it a few times, mainly in hotels when I have showers, but I don’t think I have used it at a beach. So, I stepped toward the water on the sand, my idea was to go in the water and show them my swimming. As I stepped on the sand suddenly the water pulled me down and I was drowning. The water went in my mouth and I didn’t know what to do. I raised my hand up to ask for help. One of the people was in the water close to me so I grabbed him and held on to him while I was asking for help. Someone else was making a video on the shore.

This reminds me of when I was very small, maybe five or six, and my alphabet teacher and uncle told me not to go and see the Western tourists who were camping close by on the other side of the river, high up in a very remote area near Mount Everest. However, I was so curious that I didn’t listen to my teacher and I went anyway. I took a plate with potatoes on it for them. To get to them I had to cross a bridge that was made of two logs tied together. As I crossed the bridge they started to sway. I felt dizzy and fell into the freezing cold river. The water covered my head and it was extremely deep. My head started to go under the water and each time it came up I could see my alphabet teacher running from far, far away toward me. He was holding up his trousers as he ran as fast as he could. Now I am very different, much older, and with much more negative karma, but at that time, what I remember is that I didn’t have the slightest fear of death, and even though I had no idea of emptiness, the thought came into my mind as I was drowning that what is labeled (called) Lawudo Lama is now going to die. That was the thought that arose. However, I am still alive, having the opportunity to practice Dharma and teach, so this is through the kindness of my second alphabet teacher, as it was he who grabbed me out of the river. I heard afterwards that the Western tourists had been taking pictures of me while I was drowning and being carried away by the river. The person making a video of me at the lake reminded me of this story.

In Boston they then gave me a rubber inner tube that I sat in and they pulled me along by a boat. Later I told the person who saved me, that his being there and my being able to wrap myself around him to stay afloat in the water was equal to a one-year Vajrasattva retreat; this was a joke. Anyway, sorry, you must be very busy and here I am chatting to you.

Also, I have one other point to mention to you, which I haven’t mentioned before. According to the text, it says that the cupboard containing the wealth vases needs to be a yellow color and to have the eight auspicious signs painted on it on the outside. If you are wondering why yellow, it is because according to the text there are four actions—peaceful, wrathful, increasing and controlling. Yellow is the color of increasing and so is appropriate for a wealth vase cupboard.

Either a monk I know or a Tibetan artist can paint the cupboard, as well as painting the auspicious signs. Also, they can paint symbols of wealth on the outside, such as a vase filled with jewels or a mongoose vomiting jewels—any auspicious signs or wealth symbols are appropriate. I am sure the black-colored wood you have used is very, very good, but these colors and signs are part of the instructions in the texts.

With much love and prayers...

For one person:

• Refuge: 3,000
• Vajrasattva: do some every day
• Samayavajra: 500,000
• Dorje Khadro (burning offering) : 80,000
• Water bowl offerings: 3,000 with extensive offering practice
• Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga: 1,000
• Diamond Cutter Sutra: every day
• Four Immeasurable Thoughts: 700,000
• Main deity: Most Secret Hayagriva. Plan in the future to do a one-year retreat on your deity.

For the other person:

• Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names every day, at least once through
• Vajrasattva: 17,000, plus some every day
• Dorje Khadro (burning offering): 7,000
• Water bowl offerings: 400,000 with extensive offering practice
• Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga: 500,000 to Lama Tsongkhapa
• Main deity: Heruka Five Deities or Heruka Body Mandala. In the future, plan to do the long three-year retreat.

For both of you, please:

• Meditate on guru devotion every day, until you have stable realizations that one guru is all the buddhas and one Buddha is all the gurus.
• One year: meditate mainly on renunciation.
• The following year: meditate mainly on bodhicitta.
• The following year: meditate mainly on emptiness.
• Continue this way through the lamrim until you have stable realizations. Once you end the cycle, then start again from the beginning until you experience the realizations of that path.
• After you have achieved the bodhicitta realization, then spend more time on tantra, first the generation stage and then later the completion stage. After the gross generation stage then spend more time on the completion stage.

Then, of course, achieve enlightenment, so that you can enlighten each and every sentient being.

Millions of thanks to you both for your practice of Dharma. May you both have a stable life in the Dharma.

With much love and prayers...