General Practice Advice from Rinpoche

My very dear Wenyu,
Thank you so much for your kind letter. As your letter is not dated I am not sure how old it is—I apologize if there has been a delay.

The ultimate goal in life is to liberate countless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. For that you need to attain enlightenment, and for that you need to actualize the graduated path to enlightenment. So, this is a serious project, from life to life.

To have successful realizations of guru devotion, which is the root of the path, and the graduated path of the lower, middle, and higher capable being, you need to receive blessings from the guru in your heart. What causes this is guru devotion: seeing the guru as Buddha from your side, with all your effort, no matter how difficult it is, and no matter how long it takes. So, every day you need to perform one guru yoga practice—my suggestion is Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. Within that is a lamrim meditation and prayer. You should do that and meditate on the lamrim. After you finish that prayer which is called Foundation of Good Qualities, you can recite another prayer called Calling the Guru from Afar by Pabongka, or Hymns of Experience of the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa. After finishing this, or within this prayer at the right point, then recite the ending of Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga. If you have a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation then the guru enters your heart. If you don’t have a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation then you can’t do that visualization. In that case, the guru melts into light and dissolves into the center of the forehead between the two eyebrows, then blesses the body, speech, and mind.

In order to have realizations of the lamrim you need to purify defilements and collect merits, so here follow your preliminary practices:

• 7000 mandala offerings

• 300,000 Vajrasattva mantras

• 300,000 Samaya Vajra mantras

• 400,000 Guru Yoga mantras: This is the number of “Migtsema” mantras based on Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga. You can also do these during Guru Puja. Sometimes you can do these on the basis of the Guru Puja, or begin each session with Lama Tsongkhapa guru yoga, then count the “Migtsema” mantras. You should study the instructions for the preliminary practices. You don’t have to do all of them in retreat. You can do a big number in retreat then the rest in daily life, then do retreat again to accumulate more numbers. You can do retreat, then your job, then retreat again. That way it doesn’t interfere with your job.

• 20,000 Refuge prayers

• 40,000 Bodhicitta practices—Taking and Giving. If you are not familiar with this practice, then study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. There is a section on “Exchanging Self for Others—Techniques of Bodhicitta,” which discusses the bodhisattva practice of taking and giving.

For you, service to the Dharma center is very beneficial.

Every day, practice Chenrezig meditation and recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Medicine Buddha meditation and mantra recitation is also very important.

In the morning perform prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. Prostrate toward all ten directions’ buddhas, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas, and scriptures, who are manifestations of the guru. For example, think of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is what you think of when you start to lie down in the prostration. When you put your palms together on your head, then prostrate to all the buddhas, Dharma and Sangha who are manifestations of the guru. When you put your palms together on your forehead—in the center of the two eyebrows—then prostrate to the ten directions’ statues, stupas, and scriptures who are manifestations of the guru. When your palms are together at your throat, then prostrate to the ten directions’ buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha who are manifestations of the guru. When your palms are together at your heart, think of the ten directions’ statues, stupas, and scriptures, which are manifestations of the guru.

The following is how much time to spend on lamrim meditation:

• 8 months for the lower path, from perfect human rebirth up to karma. Practice that over and over until you achieve realizations of those meditations—especially impermanence and death.
• 11 months on the middle path
• 9 months on the higher path—bodhicitta
• Meditate on emptiness a little bit every day. You can recite the Heart Sutra or another short prayer. You will find different techniques in texts on how to meditate on emptiness. One day try one technique, the next day try another technique, or you can try the same technique for some days.

Your main deity for your quickest enlightenment is Vajrayogini. Also, Hevajra seems beneficial. But the main one is Vajrayogini. You can receive the commentary on this and practice the meditation on this only after you receive the initiation of the deity.

With much love and prayer,

Lama Zopa

The most important emphasis in life is mind training in the lamrim and to benefit sentient beings—offering service as well.

My most dear Julia,
Thank you very much for your beautiful, sincere, down-to-earth letter. You are practicing the most important things. I am very happy to hear from you, explaining what you have been doing, making your life meaningful, your awareness of life, that it is of an impermanent nature, and that you can’t delay practicing Dharma. It is also good to hear how the vows help you, give you a clear direction, make your life meaningful, and have helped you progress in your spiritual practice, how they help stop the distractions of the mind and enable you to put effort into what is most important.

I am extremely happy and surprised that you went to the website for my advice on daily practice and that your main emphasis is on guru devotion practice, meditation, and 35 Buddhas practice in the morning, Vajrasattva in the evening, also the 21 Taras practice, as well as Chenrezig and Medicine Buddha daily practice, and tonglen. On top of that, you are reciting the Sanghatasutra and Vajra Cutter Sutra. I think you will become a wish-fulfilling jewel for all sentient beings: for the numberless hell beings, whose suffering is so heavy that one second is like suffering for eons; the hungry ghosts, who do not find even a drop of water or morsel of food for hundreds of thousands of years; the animals, who have incredible suffering; and the human beings, who experience so much suffering in the world. By doing all this practice, you are becoming a wish-fulfilling jewel for all sentient beings. I am VERY, very impressed.

According to my observations, for your quickest enlightenment, your main deity practice is Most Secret Hayagriva. Other practices would also be good, like Guhyasamaja and Tara Cittamani. This means you can also take these initiations and can do some practice, but the main one is Hayagriva.

So, when the opportunity comes, you can take the Most Secret Hayagriva initiation. If you hear that I am giving this initiation, if you can manage, then you can come. Otherwise, you can take it nearby.

It would be quite good to practice shiné, and your focus should be on the Six Yogas of Naropa, on tum-mo, but there is no rush with that. At the moment, train your mind in guru devotion, the three principal paths, and then, afterward, do tantric practice—the tantric path of the two stages of generation and completion. You need an initiation for that.

Your preliminary practices are as follows:

• Dorje Khadro fire puja—7000
• Refuge—50,000
• Guru yoga—80,000
• Tsa-tsas—200,000 (Guru Shakyamuni Buddha)

You should also recite, at least once each week, the Diamond (Vajra) Cutter Sutra. This will bring incredible purification and you will collect vast amounts of merit. Your success will be based on this.

Lamrim Meditations:

• Five months—lower path
• Eight months—middle path
• Five months—bodhicitta
• Eleven months—emptiness

These topics will be your main focus for those months. Please study these. It doesn’t mean you can’t do other practices.

I think you are a very stable, good, and inspiring sentient being. Billions of thanks not only for your practice, but for your service to the Dharma center.

My very dear Robert,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Sorry it took a long time to reply.

I checked which practices you should do for your quickest enlightenment. These are practices for you to do for your whole life.

If you haven’t already received instructions in the past about your personal deity, I have checked about this. For your quickest enlightenment it comes out best to practice Guhyasamaja. Later you can receive the initiation. First you need to go over the lamrim teachings. This is a guideline for your whole life: the main practice is lamrim.

You can even meditate on the lamrim during your working life, for instance working with the thought of bodhicitta. So, for a few months (see below), try to focus on that subject of the lamrim even during the day, when you are driving, working, eating, etc., so that the lamrim is integrated into your life.

Reciting the Sutra of Golden Light has incredible benefits, bringing success in achieving the whole path, so that you can enlighten sentient beings. If you become enlightened quickly it means you can liberate so many sentient beings from samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment more quickly. Also, reciting this sutra contributes to world peace and happiness in the country where you live, so this is an incredible contribution for world peace.

With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa

Practices Given:

•  Prostrations: 6,000 to the Thirty-five Buddhas
•  Samaya Vajra: 400,000
•  Guru Yoga : 9,000 to Lama Tsongkhapa
•  Tsa-tsas Deity: 200,000 divided between the following deities:
  •  Chenrezig, Manjrushri, and Vajrapani (the essence of all Buddha’s compassion, wisdom and power)
  •  Lama Tsongkhapa
  •  Heruka (most of the tsa-tsas should be of this deity)
  •  Vajrayogini
  •  Mitukpa (most of the tsa-tsas should be of this deity)

You can give tsa-tsas to people as a gift for their altar. They can be placed in lines high up on walls, i.e. just below the ceiling, then small lights can be offered under each tsa-tsa. They can also be put in large statues or in stupas as relics. They can be put on mountains, in respected places, with protection from the weather, i.e. in a cave or similar. If a local Dharma center has a tsa-tsa house, which is a simple stupa, they can be put inside this.

•  Sanghata Sutra recitations: 110 recitations
•  Sutra of Golden Light: Recite three times each month for the rest of your life
•  Lamrim Meditations:
  • Guru Devotion: Two months
  • Graduated path common to the lower capable being: Four months
  • Graduated path common to the middle capable being: Six months
  • Graduated path common to the higher capable being: Bodhicitta: Seven months
  • Emptiness: Four months

Work through these meditations repeatedly until you achieve stable realizations. Also, it doesn’t mean you only meditate on each subject for this amount of time. It means that this is your main focus for those months. Even when you are doing a deity retreat you still can do the lamrim meditation as a motivation, or you can do it during mantra recitation.

My very dear Constance,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I did my Mickey Mouse divination and in order for you to achieve enlightenment in the quickest way and to be able to enlighten sentient beings most quickly the main deities for you to practice in this life are:

• Heruka
• Vajrayogini
• Most Secret Hayagriva

From these three, Heruka and Vajrayogini are the best. If it is difficult to do both practices then I suggest Vajrayogini. Vajrayogini practice is extremely profound and contains important secret points of highest Tantra to enable you to achieve enlightenment quickly in one brief lifetime of this degenerate time. At the same time, it doesn’t have a very extensive mandala, with a lot of deities and details; the deity has a very simple appearance, with one face and two arms. The Vajrayogini practice has 4-5 special qualities and advantages. Please study the complete path of Vajrayogini. Before taking the initiation you need to take a great initiation as a foundation and preparation. Heruka is the best one for that.

After that, if you get an opportunity, you can take the initiation of Most Secret Hayagriva, which is the special deity of Sera Je College. If you receive the initiation then you can also do this practice. Maybe in your past life you were a Sera Je monk who didn’t have strong renunciation and didn’t keep pure vows. Maybe you became attached to a kangaroo and then were born in Australia (this is a little joke to put a smile on your face).

The conclusion is that what makes your life most beneficial is tantra, which is the quickest path to enlightenment. What makes it the quickest path is through practicing lamrim – the three principals of the path – which comes from guru devotion. Guru devotion is the root of the path to enlightenment – looking at all the buddhas as your guru and all your gurus as all the buddhas. The more that one can practice this the less hardships and difficulties one will have. One is able to have more success, to fulfill one’s wishes, complete the path, eliminate the defilements, complete the path of merit, wisdom and method, and achieve enlightenment, liberating so many sentient beings from all the sufferings and defilements. You do this by enabling sentient beings to achieve the path and bring them to enlightenment. This all comes from obtaining the guru’s advice and putting the teachings into practice. However much success one has depends on how much guru devotion one has.

Whatever service to your teacher needs to be done is the best purification and best way to fulfill one’s wishes. It is the best way to achieve all happiness up to enlightenment and the happiness of all living beings, temporary and ultimate happiness: liberation from samsara and ultimate enlightenment.

With much love and prayers...

How can you make your life beneficial for your most kind, precious mother sentient beings, especially the pretas, and receive all happiness of the three times, including liberation from samsara and the great liberation—peerless, full enlightenment?

Pretas suffer heavily from hunger and thirst, not finding even a drop of water or a spoonful of food for hundreds of thousands of eons. They suffer from incredible exhaustion, disappointment, heat, and cold. In particular, pretas experience three types of obscuration: outer, inner, and food obscuration. The Yeshe Karda (Transcendental Wisdom Star-Arrow) practice enables every single preta to receive drink.

If we go to the beach, how can we make our life most beneficial? If we do this practice when we go into the water, all the stones, lakes, and swimming pools are blessed. This is one way to make our life most beneficial for all sentient beings, here, in particular, for the pretas.

Take some water from the ocean or swimming pool, put it in a container, visualize the deity Yeshe Karda above the water or container, and visualize nectar flowing from the deity into the water in the container. Then, recite the heart mantra of Yeshe Karda seven times:

OM JÑANA AVALOKITE SAMANTA SPHARANA RASMI BHAVA SAMAYA MAHAAMANI DURU DURU HRIDAYA JALANI SVAHA

Then, pour the water back into the ocean or swimming pool. Again, take water from the ocean or swimming pool, visualize the deity and the nectar flowing into the water, then again recite the mantra seven times. Hold the bottom of the container with your left hand, and the top of the container with your right hand. This should be done seven times, each time reciting the mantra seven times.

Each time you pour out the water, visualize and say the following prayers:

“This ocean of water appears as nectar to all the pretas that the omniscient mind sees. All the pretas see it as an ocean of milk, they drink it and are fully satisfied. It liberates them from all sufferings, including the specific sufferings of the pretas, causes of delusion, karma, and defilements. These are all purified and they actualize the whole path to enlightenment.”

Visualize every preta becoming Chenrezig.

When you say this prayer, all the oceans appear as actual nectar to the pretas. The more detailed benefits of this practice are that all pretas will find devas’ food and drink. This is divine food in the form of nectar.

Also, all the other beings, including animals and insects living in the water or who drink the water, are purified and achieve a higher rebirth. They will go onto the path of a happy transmigrating being. Therefore, the benefits of this practice are not limited to only the pretas. The benefits are vast.

By receiving the blessing of this mantra, each preta receives as much food or drink as it needs, is fully satisfied, purified, and will be reborn in a higher realm. Whoever drinks this water has all their negative karma purified and will obtain a good rebirth in the higher realms.

*For more information on making offerings to pretas, see Appendix 4 of the book Teachings From the Vajrasattva Retreat.

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I am sorry it took so long to reply. I checked what practices you can do:

•  Recite Lion-face Dakini mantra and short prayer.
• Recite the Heart Sutra.
• Do Guru Shakyamuni Buddha daily meditation.
• Wear the protection Liberating from Bondage of Body, Speech and Mind. Make sure that you don’t get it wet, so take it off when you shower.
• Read any books by me, Lama Yeshe, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Lion-face Dakini mantra and short prayer is not your main practice, but this is for healing and to solve mental problems, also to protect you from harm from other beings that influence your mind and harm you. This comes from your negative karma and this is actually what is giving harm to you—your own delusions, the root of samsara: ignorance, not knowing what is the ultimate nature of the “I” and aggregates, and the self-cherishing thought. This is the main enemy that gives you all your problems, including AIDS; whatever problem one experiences comes from this.

Regarding the Heart Sutra—this comes from Buddha and is a conversation between Chenrezig and Shariputra. Shariputra asks questions and Chenrezig explains the answer through Buddha’s blessing. Reciting this leaves a good, positive imprint on your mind. The Heart Sutra is the heart of all of the Buddha’s teachings on the perfection of wisdom. This is Buddha’s most cherished teaching because it causes sentient beings to actualize the wisdom realizing emptiness, and this is the only thing that directly cuts the root of samsara: ignorance, which is the root of all sufferings and their causes: delusion and karma. The wisdom directly perceiving emptiness eliminates all the defilements, gross and subtle, so that one can achieve everlasting happiness and then full enlightenment. There is no other method that can directly eliminate all the gross and subtle defilements, only the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness.

Countless buddhas and bodhisattvas all came from this realization, that is why the perfection of wisdom is called the great method. There are different types of wisdom but this is not like the wisdom of how to fix a car or motorbike, this is the wisdom of the ultimate nature of phenomena—emptiness, the only truth. The omniscient mind, dharmakaya, the wisdom directly seeing the emptiness of all phenomena, non-dual wisdom—this is the ultimate wisdom.

The Perfection of Wisdom explains the whole path to enlightenment. Each time you read this it leaves positive imprints on your mind to realize the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. In this way, you come to understand the meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom teachings.

By developing the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, one eliminates all the defilements, one is able to achieve liberation, full enlightenment, great liberation, and then be able to liberate so many sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering, liberating countless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, and asuras, as well as bringing them to great liberation and full enlightenment.

Reading the Heart Sutra has all these advantages. This is what you receive on your mental continuum. We can’t imagine it. If you really understood it it would blow your mind, it would blow all sentient beings’ minds. It is a most inspiring, really fantastic practice. No matter how deep one’s sufferings are, that one is going through, by reading the Heart Sutra it brings the ultimate end to all your sufferings, it gives you the ultimate freedom and liberation because it eliminates the karma and delusions, so you don’t have to reincarnate any more—the circle of dying and rebirth and all the sufferings we experience in-between. So, you can see this practice is extremely powerful.

The other practice for you to do is the daily meditation of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. This is what you can do each day—the Heart Sutra and Guru Shakyamuni daily meditation. Lion-face Dakini is mainly for purifying your obstacles.

What makes your life most meaningful every day is if you continue to try and live your life with the thought of benefiting others. Think that the purpose of your life is to free others from suffering and to bring them the cause of happiness, not only temporary happiness but ultimate happiness. This is the purpose of your life. Keep your mind in accord with this, and keep your attention on this. Always try to help others with your body, speech, and mind. This will give you the most satisfaction and fulfillment; this is what makes your life most happy. If this is your ultimate goal, it will cause enlightenment, the peerless happiness.

If you do the practice of Guru Shakyamuni daily meditation, recite the Heart Sutra, and live your life with a good heart, benefiting others every day, then when death comes you will be so happy, there will be nothing to be afraid of. You will feel so happy, and in this way you can be born in the pure land of Buddha and achieve enlightenment, or you can take a perfect human rebirth, meet the Dharma and Mahayana teachings, and achieve enlightenment.

With much love and prayers...