General Practice Advice from Rinpoche

 My very dear one,
I am very happy to receive your kind letter about the advice you received from the monk you met with. It’s good that you have been attending teachings at the Dharma center.

If you haven’t regarded the two geshes you mention as your guru, then there is a choice, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t study with them. You can still study with a teacher without regarding him or her as a guru, for example, lamrim teachings and other sutra teachings—like a schoolteacher or a professor in a university. When we devote ourselves totally with our body, speech, and mind, we look at the teacher as a Buddha with total devotion. Then we devote ourselves to that object from now on. Even after enlightenment, still you respect the guru, because enlightenment happens through the kindness of the guru, so still you respect him or her.

If you haven’t regarded either of the teachers you mention as a guru so far, then I would suggest maybe that you follow the first geshe you mentioned as a guru. But it doesn’t mean that you can only have one guru. You can have many gurus. Lama Atisha had 157 gurus. The root guru is the one from whom he received complete teachings on bodhicitta. He studied bodhicitta for twelve years with Lama Serlingpa.

As far as me, then it is up to you. If you check, and you get strong feelings of a past connection, like not something new, but some strong connection, then that shows some past connection—even though, of course, I’m not qualified. So, if that is the case, from your side, and from my side, we do what we can to achieve enlightenment. But if you don’t have any feelings like that, then you don’t need to follow me as your guru.

Your letter was sent to me. I’m not sure whether you came to Kopan Monastery or not. Perhaps I may have met you outside when I came to Kopan. I have a very vague memory—I thought there was somebody from your country that I was introduced to. It could also be my hallucination.

When doing practices I want to highly emphasize doing the practice of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga every day—to recite the migtsema prayer, with meditation. There is a common visualization with that which is regarding purifying and attaining the six wisdoms. From those wisdoms, you can do mainly the four wisdoms, unless later you teach Dharma, or write a book, or debate, then you do those particular meditations to achieve those wisdoms. Normally these four meditations are the most important: great wisdom, clear wisdom, quick wisdom, and profound wisdom. Every day you can do some meditation like this. Also, sometimes you can do a guru yoga retreat. That would be very very good. There is a commentary that I gave a long time ago in Dharamsala, where His Holiness lives, and in Taiwan. There is also a teaching I gave in Taiwan on different techniques of meditation on guru devotion.

Here I want to give a brief introduction to certain topics. The purpose of our life, why we were born a human being, why we have a precious human body—not having been born this time as a cockroach, crocodile, slug, leech, or mosquito—is to benefit other sentient beings. The purpose of this life is to help other sentient beings, causing happiness in this life, happiness in the long run, a good rebirth, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment for others. It is also to achieve all happiness in future lives, total liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusions and karma, and then the great liberation of full enlightenment, that which is the cessation of all mistakes of the mind and completion of all the qualities. So, our purpose is the highest benefit for sentient beings, what they need. The most important thing for sentient beings is to bring them to enlightenment.

These are the objectives of our life, what our life is for, why we survive each day, hour, minute, second—why it is so important, why we spend so much money on shelter, food, clothing, so many needs and treatments. So all this, why we have education, starting from kindergarten up to university, so many expenses, is to benefit others, to help others. In the world, so many people use all of these things to harm others, to create negative karma constantly, which causes us to be born in the lower realms again and again for endless suffering, rebirths, and suffering in the lower realms. So, the highest benefit for sentient beings is to bring them to full enlightenment. For that, first one needs to achieve enlightenment. Without achieving enlightenment, omniscient mind, you can’t serve others perfectly without any mistakes.

Therefore, you need to actualize the path, the steps on the path to enlightenment, lamrim. lamrim is the heart of all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha. Every single teaching, the Hinayana—the lower path teachings; the Mahayana sutra—the paramita teachings; and Mahayana tantra—the teachings of the vajrayana, any words from these teachings were taught by Buddha for one person’s gradual path to achieve enlightenment. Of course, there are certain practices that you can’t do now. You take different advice as your mind develops to higher levels of the path. It is like medicine, you can’t take some medicines at the beginning of an illness, then when the person is more recovered, you can take different medicines. When you study lamrim from the beginning, Lama Tsongkhapa lamrim, or any, like in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, you will understand all these points.

To have realizations on the gradual path to enlightenment depends on receiving the blessings of the guru. That is the cause of realizations. The cause in order to receive the blessings of the guru is guru devotion. With guru devotion, a pure mind, you see the guru as buddha, not an ordinary being, free from all the gross and subtle mistakes, all the defilements, karma, having the dharmakaya omniscient mind, a perfect pure mind. You look at it in this way, no matter how many weeks, months, years it takes, even lifetimes, by always putting all your effort into seeing the guru as a buddha. In all the quotations and reasonings from Buddha Vajradhara—this is the most important

So, you are right about your concern over looking for a guru, because that is the first thing. On this basis you need realization of the gradual path of the lower capability, then the middle capable being, then the higher capable being—the bodhicitta realizations. You need to have these realizations step by step, you can’t jump ahead. The basis is the three principal paths: renunciation of samsara; right view—the right realization of the Prasangika-Madhyamaka view of emptiness. Even though all the four schools of Buddhist philosophy taught on emptiness and the root of samsara, the most unmistaken one is the Madhyamaka Prasangika school.

Before you have a realization of bodhicitta, you do tantric practice, but without putting all your effort there—that wouldn’t make much sense. Without the ground you cannot complete the path. On the basis of bodhicitta you have the realization of emptiness, then you can complete the tantric path—the generation and completion stages. Then you are able to achieve enlightenment quickly, and to explain the path to countless sentient beings who rely on you to meet the Dharma, for them to follow the path and to achieve enlightenment. Those countless sentient beings don’t have to suffer for a long time, they can immediately begin the practice and follow the path.

Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga is extremely important. If you get the book where I gave different meditations on guru devotion, that should help you. Also, you should use different techniques, which ever ones are most effective for you to see the guru as a buddha. Then I think you will enjoy this meditation. You may have strong karma with it, it is possible.

In the morning you should make prostrations to the merit field: to the gurus, deities, buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, dakas, dakinis, and Dharma protectors, by reciting the 35 Buddhas’ names. In the evening, at night, before you go to bed, you must practice Vajrasattva. There is a whole purpose for Vajrasattva practice.

Within Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, there is lamrim. That is extremely important. It contains the gradual path to enlightenment. You must do that every day at least once. If you go straight through without stopping but remaining mindful of the meaning, that’s called direct lamrim meditation. If you have more time, you can stop after each verses and do more expansive analytical meditation on each topic. That is very, very important. You are planting the seed of the whole path, which means each time it is bringing you closer to enlightenment.

On the basis of the guru yoga and lamrim prayer, you perform the preliminary practices there one-pointedly: refuge, bodhicitta, the seven limbs, mandala offering, and requesting prayers to the guru. You need to practice that. Then recite the dedication prayer.

Every day you must do meditation. There is no particular time, it is up to you: 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, or one hour, even longer; it is up to you.

Here I am going to give you a list of the preliminary practices to do from now until the end of your life, according to my divinations:

1. 60,000 Dorje Khadro

2. 70,000 mandala offerings, to collect extensive merits. There is a teaching I gave on mandala offerings and also in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

3. Every week you must recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra. This is to quickly realize emptiness. You will enjoy it. This is really wonderful. If you want to be free quickly from the oceans of samsaric suffering, this is what you should read. It is so powerful for purification, the completion of extensive merits, and the quick realization of emptiness, then from that bodhicitta, to complete the path and quickly achieve enlightenment.

First, study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, the lamrim. Study it completely from beginning to end, and whatever you don’t understand write in a notebook. Then you can study those points with geshes who are available and who can give clear explanations.

There is also Lama Tsongkhapa’s beginning, middle, and great lamrim—you can read those. Maybe you should start with Lama Tsongkhapa’s middle lamrim. Of course, you can read other lamrims, such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. It is very clear, with more explanations.

Here is some guidance for your realizations:

1. After you finish the whole text, then train your mind in the gradual path of the lower capable being for two months. That is from the perfect human rebirth up to karma.

2. Practice for one month on the middle path

3. Three months on bodhicitta

4. Two months on emptiness

5. Then you practice it all over again until you have realizations of each one

Those practices are mainly for trying to achieve realizations of guru devotion and renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness. At the moment this is the main objective.

After you receive a great initiation then you can do some tantric practice, but that should not be the main focus of your time. You can do some practice, but most of your time should be on lamrim. If there is a good foundation then you can build a house. If there is not a good foundation, then there is nothing you can do. It is like that.

The main deity for your quickest enlightenment is Guhyasamaja, the king of tantra. This is extremely precious! After you receive a great initiation, you have a commitment to do the long, middle, or short version of the sadhana. It is up to the lama whether there is a commitment to practice the sadhana. You practice this every day of your life, and after some time you actually become one with it. That is enlightenment. Countless sentient beings are waiting for you to guide them to enlightenment, so they don’t have to suffer for a long time.

Regarding where to live, Vietnam comes out much more beneficial than continuing to live in Australia. Vietnam is more beneficial. There you can help other people more.

One very important practice to do is Chenrezig. Recite as many OM MANI PADME HUM mantras as you can, and practice the meditation. That is to develop compassion for all sentient beings—bodhicitta. From there you complete the whole path, and are able to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment.

I hope to see you soon.

With much love and prayer...

My very dear one,
How are you? I have seen you many times at the teachings this time. I am sure you are very busy, you have many things to do. It is good if you can do some practice at home, even if you don’t have time, try to create some time. If you are able to give more time for Dharma, that means you are really trying to do something worthwhile for yourself. The rest of the use of our time is not really the most meaningful use. If there is benefit it is only a small benefit, and we don’t achieve the bigger benefit for ourselves and especially for others, who are countless, who are deluded and suffering so much, and need our help to free them.

Much of our day and much of this life is spent or used in harming oneself by harming others, like the ten nonvirtuous actions. Some actions accidentally harm others, like heresy. It looks as if it is your own or that person’s business, with no effect on others, but it indirectly harms others because it destroys your merits and good karma, which means it destroys the cause of your happiness, which includes ultimate happiness (liberation from samsara, full enlightenment) because it prevents you from having realizations. That is the worst, biggest enemy of realizations of the spiritual path. It makes you unable to liberate and enlighten other sentient beings, who are countless. Actually, it is the greatest harm, even though there is no injury to the body or mind of others.

Heresy means heresy against Buddha’s qualities, saying or believing that Buddha doesn’t have that quality while Buddha does have it or saying there is no Buddha or nirvana, no cessation of suffering and path to achieve that, no sangha having these realizations, no karma, renunciation, and saying what Buddha said in the teachings, such as stories of karma or realizations and experience of the path, is not true.

I was very very happy to see you at the teachings this time. Maybe one or two times you were not there, at least one time. Of course, I am still very happy at the memory of seeing you at the teachings. I have faith that you are very good human being, and are trustworthy. For example, even though there has not been much change in the prosperity of your life, you still recite the Tara prayer after so many years. This shows that you are a reliable person, not like a yo-yo, changing this way and that way.

Especially, Dharma practice is the most important thing, and the root practice is guru devotion, relying on the guru, following the guru, obeying the guru. It should be like that, not a changing mind. It should be indestructible, like a mountain, a vajra, only then can you achieve enlightenment, liberate others from suffering, and enlighten countless other beings. I definitely want to come and see you, your husband, and family at home next time, okay?

You are a wonderful person; it is also very nice to see your husband.

With big love and prayers...

P.S. These letters and cards cover the past years of communication to you.

The main thing is to read. So much of your understanding is dependent on your own study. Of course, when you receive teachings you also receive the lineage and the blessing, but unless you develop an understanding during the teaching, you can forget what you have heard. So, it is very important to read continuously. If you don’t read for a while, then there is so much to catch up on, and you may not be able to get it all done. Studying a text before the teaching and the class is the best.

My very dear one,
Thank you for your kind letter.

Regarding the lamrim meditations (see below) – this means for these numbers of months you study texts related to those specific subjects. Then, no matter how many months or years it takes for you to have stable realizations, continue until then. This means when you have a stable realization on the perfect human rebirth and karma, then move on to the next section, then after you have a stable realization on that, then move on to bodhicitta. However, each day also practice some meditation on emptiness. Maybe you can study different books on emptiness that have different techniques on how to do this meditation. Some suggestions are:

• Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, by Pabongka Rinpoche
• Virtue and Reality, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Echoes of Voidness, by Geshe Rabten
• Essence of the Heart Sutra, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

There are also some teachings I have given on emptiness. You can get these from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. From these, find different techniques on how to meditate on emptiness. You can write the different techniques down in a little notebook and use that each day, using different techniques.

You sound like you have a very determined mind to take ordination; that is excellent. These practices are what you need to do as preparation for ordination. These practices purify your mind, negative karma, and defilements, and also help you to collect extensive merit, to have realizations on the path to enlightenment, and to be able to enlighten numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demi gods, gods, and intermediate state beings, so they can achieve enlightenment. That is the goal: to do all your practice, every mantra, every prayer you recite, every text you read, everything, with that in your mind. It also creates the causes for your ordination.

I am making prayers for your father and also I have asked the nuns in my house to make tsa-tsas dedicated to him (three stupas, thirteen Mitukpas, seven Medicine Buddhas, and three longlife tsa-tsas).

With much love and prayers...

Practices given:

• Refuge: 10,000 
• Mandala offerings: 100,000
• Vajrasattva: 10,000
• Water bowl offerings: 300,000
• Tsa-tsas: Thousand-arm Chenrezig (some can be large, but mostly small): 400,000
• Tonglen: 10,000, using the prayer from the Guru Puja. If this is difficult then just do the meditation that is bodhicitta.
• Diamond Cutter Sutra: 400
• Sanghata Sutra: twice a month and carry on like this. You can read a little each day and in this way finish reading it twice a month.
• Golden Light Sutra: 100
• The graduated path of lower scope: five months
• The graduated path of intermediate scope: four months
• The graduated path of highest scope:
  - bodhicitta: three months
  - emptiness: four months
• Main deity: Tara Chittamani, Kalachakra, and Hevajra. From these choose which one you feel closest to.
• Other deities: Most Secret Hayagriva and Secret Hayagriva

This means you can take all these initiations, as you have a karmic connection to all these deities. You can practice these deities if you want to, and also do retreat, etc.

My very dear Lorna,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. It has been a little while since I got it. Thank you for thinking about bodhicitta. To have the actual realization of bodhicitta you need to understand the suffering of samsara, for that you need renunciation of future lives’ suffering, and for that you need the preliminary renunciation of this life.

Then, you need to transform the mind into the mind of the lower capable person. This comes from contemplating the eight freedoms and the ten richnesses; how a perfect human rebirth has great meaning and is extremely difficult to find again; and the benefits of reflecting on impermanence and death and the disadvantages of not thinking about these things. This is the essence.

My emphasis for you is the need to contemplate the lamrim. I will send you further advice on how to meditate on the lamrim and daily practice.

With much love and prayers...

The main thing is the lamrim—to practice the preliminaries to have lamrim realizations. First, gain the realizations of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, then tantra.

With tantra, first train in seeing yourself as the deity in your mandala. Start with the image of yourself as the deity in the simple aspect. Start with your face, then arms, then go on to each of the details. When you visualize the face, hold that with one-pointed concentration. Later on, add the consort and then the mandala. When you add on each detail, you should not forget the earlier ones.

First, try to develop concentration. When that becomes more stable, try to see the image more clearly, and hold that. If whenever you visualize, it comes like that, then that’s the sign of being trained. In the completion stage, you can hold that visualization for many hours.

On the 10th and 25th of the Tibetan month you should perform tsog—that is very important for going to the pure land.

In the morning, make prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. As you prostrate, recite the Buddhas’ names many times. In the evenings, recite each name once with each prostration.

Regarding what you said about not being able to keep awake during your prayers, remind yourself that you cannot know which will come first: tomorrow or your next rebirth. Or recall the other meditations on impermanence. In the Lama Chöpa it says: “Even if I must remain in the hells of Avici for the sake of one sentient being, please bless me to complete the perfection of joyous effort, not to be discouraged.” So, if you are going to work in the Avici hells, think how much more you can do now? Think: “I have this precious human rebirth just this once, I must not waste it for even a second.” You can copy the verse from the Lama Chöpa and put it on your table. Or maybe you can put a cold towel on your head to stay awake. It may too warm.

Regarding what you said about not being able to do the prostrations to Vajrasattva because of continuing problems with your arm, you can visualize the prostrations, you don’t have to do the actual prostrations.

Also, regarding your problem of not knowing whether to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts because of your history of health problems, take seven precepts and don’t take the one about food.

Regarding your question about trying to visualize the guru at your heart, is he in the aspect of Lama Tsongkhapa, and how to visualize the guru when you do different sadhanas with different visualizations, the guru does not have to be in the aspect of Lama Tsongkhapa. It is very beneficial to visualize Lama Tsongkhapa, because he did so many great things to benefit sentient beings, but the guru does not have to be visualized in that aspect. Whatever sadhana you are doing, you are the yidam and the guru is the seed syllable at your heart, so there is no contradiction. The guru can be any deity, he does not have to be Lama Tsongkhapa.

In the sadhana, if you have to visualize the guru and you have received the same initiation from many gurus, think of the guru from whom you have received the most benefit. Lama Tsongkhapa and all the gurus are one.

Regarding how to recite longlife mantras, I wanted to talk about this at the Namgyalma initiation, but I forgot. When you do the practice, dedicate especially for the long life of the gurus, the Sangha, and those who bring benefit to others. At the end of the mantra recitation, visualize all the buddhas and bodhisattvas dissolving into you, and your guru’s blessings entering your heart. Feel strongly that you have been purified of all disease, sickness, spirit harm, and obstacles—those four things are stopped.

It would also be good if you could print the Amitayus Longlife Sutra. Printing some every week is very beneficial. Give the copies away or place them in statues.