Overcoming Obstacles

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your letter. I must apologize if any of my comments made you upset….

The advice I sent to you relating to ___ is not because I have big expectations of that person; it is just simply my concern and my love for you. My advice is for you to cut down on the criticism. This is basically from the point of view of Dharma practice. I just felt uncomfortable, not when you were talking to me, but when you were talking in public [about that person]. From a Dharma point of view, relating to karma, we aim to have less negative karma, which means less harm to oneself and especially less harm to others.

The main thing for you to do when giving [feng shui] lectures is to say that the compass direction usually works. You can mention the other feng shui master, as he has had more previous experience and has used this method for a long time, so you can use these reasons. If some people say that his directional method hasn't worked for them, if that has been their experience, then that is their reality. You should let them express their views.

Anyway, one of our American students just became interested in feng shui and he has been practicing feng shui. He is uncontrollably excited as his own business has improved amazingly, miraculously. He has helped his brothers and friends, and their material life has also improved.

He is a very, very old student and one of the most successful students in doing commitment prayers and many sadhanas. He is one of the champions in the daily life commitments. In the world there are world Olympic champions and he is like a world champion in doing commitments for so many years. No matter how busy he is, he always does them and still he wishes to take on more commitments. He doesn't see the commitments as a burden and instead sees them as enjoyment.

He is so excited to meet you and attend your lectures when you come to America. I think he is going to be a fully completed, devoted feng shui student.

You should rejoice that you are benefiting so many people in the US and the world and solving so many problems and difficulties in people’s lives. You should always think that you become the implement, tool or bridge for all the buddhas and bodhisattvas; that your body is like a house, an airplane, a hotel or a temple, and that all the buddhas and bodhisattvas are inside your body and using your body to benefit others and the Dharma.

When you give lectures to people on feng shui, take the opportunity to talk about compassion as much as possible, especially for all sentient beings’ happiness, not only day to day, but for their long-term happiness in future lives, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment. Even for your own happiness. Since you yourself need happiness, you must practice compassion and loving kindness toward others. This is the best way to achieve happiness for yourself—complete happiness, not only peace of mind and success, but all the way up to enlightenment.

I hope you can emphasize this in your public talks and in your feng shui books. What I am telling you is just the seed, the foundation, and you can elaborate on this base.

You can also talk about karma, encouraging people to practice sincerely, to be good to others in everyday life and to not harm them. In this way, they are able to collect good karma and virtue every day, and through this they can develop a good heart and protect their karma. They can also achieve a long and healthy life, free from sickness, having harmonious relationships and the help of everyone, including the family and everyone around them thinking in the same way and not going against them. They can have prosperity, wealth and education, and also meet a perfect feng shui person who can help them.

Good karma is very powerful because without any knowledge of feng shui, naturally the conditions change due to the force of good karma. Therefore, in the world, both educated and uneducated people can have success and long lives.

My other discovery is that people who practice feng shui are able to help others by doing feng shui. They are able to make a lot of merit and if they have more spiritual power and more merit, which also includes [inner] purity, that helps to bless other people’s places and can also help to prevent obstacles. So that’s what I think.

I have not been able to write about the four results of the ten virtues and the four results of the ten nonvirtues for your book yet.

I am sorry, I hope that I didn't make you upset by bringing up your problem with that person. I guess what I am trying to say is how to handle that situation.

Now I want to apologize deeply for what happened at the center on the first night you arrived. I am very sorry about that. I was hoping that all the people would serve you best. Whatever happened is already past, so there is nothing that can be done about it. The only thing to do is to serve you better in the future because we cannot change the past. I hope you will forgive me.

I have one important thing that I need your guidance on. We are buying a house for a center which has existed since 1979. It has moved around so many times and this makes it difficult for the people who are working there, so finally we decided to buy a new house. It is still under construction, but it came out best according to my observation. It is very important that at least the basic feng shui is correct, especially as it is still under construction. Hopefully there are more possibilities to make changes. Perhaps you need the architecture plans to be able to judge, or maybe you can visit there?

The advice I have sent you is Tibetan feng shui, and not just that, it is also the advice of the great enlightened being, Nagarjuna. It is not a prayer to recite. In many places and countries, people think that texts are something to be recited and that’s all. They think the only function or use of the texts is for them to be recited, but actually this is not so. The main reason is to actualize the path to liberation and enlightenment, by learning the words and the meanings. That is why Dharma texts exist.

What I sent you are two methods for when you are travelling—how to actually set up and do the actions, as it says, so that you can travel comfortably without any problems. Perhaps there is mention of some texts to read in order to stop obstacles if you are travelling at the wrong time or beginning a project at the wrong time. There are some texts to be read and the tea offering to the eight divisions of the worldly gods, but it begins by making offerings to the Triple Gem.

In the feng shui book you mention that the Pa Kua [the Eight Trigrams] are used in other traditions and discuss whether it is spiritual or not. I think you might have mentioned in your feng shui book that it depends on how it is used. That is correct.

For example, killing is generally a nonvirtue for ordinary people. However, the great holy beings, the saints and bodhisattvas who have very strong compassion and bodhicitta, who cherish other sentient beings and have completely renounced this life for others’ happiness, are even willing to be born in the hell realms so that another being does not have to suffer there.

When a bodhisattva, with strong compassion and wisdom, sees a sentient being who is harming others and accumulating very heavy karma—karma that would result in inconceivable sufferings over countless future lives—and acts to protect that being from the karmic consequences, the bodhisattva’s action of killing becomes only Dharma, only virtue.

Not only is it virtue, it also becomes the quick path to enlightenment for the bodhisattva, because the action is done with complete compassion, complete sacrifice of oneself for the benefit of sentient beings. They are even willing to be born in hell on that sentient being’s behalf. So the bodhisattva’s action of killing becomes extremely powerful purification and collects extensive merit.

The Pa Kua is also used by Tibetans in an astrological context. It is usually drawn on the body of turtle, and I think has numbers that are similar to Lo Shu. I think there are nine squares, but this needs to be checked. Lo Shu has a similar center and letters that are in Pa Kua, and there are also maybe twelve animals around [the perimeter]. If I find a picture I will send you a copy.

This is also called sipaho [a Tibetan astrological protection chart]. Tibetans use this to stop negativities and obstacles, and when they move house they carry the sipaho, for example, when they get married and the wife or husband moves into the other person’s home, this is what they carry. They first carry a sipaho thangka into the new house as a protection.

I am starting to read slowly the feng shui book, since you recommend many times that it has answers to all the basic feng shui questions. I want to tell you this book is very good because it makes it much easier for me to comprehend. I realized which type of luck is affected if the Pa Kua is missing and which member of the family will be affected. The other thing which is now very clear to understand and which you emphasize is that the most dangerous missing corner is the north-west corner. There is a chapter on the missing north-west corner and how it severely affects the fortune of the father, the patriarch or breadwinner. Here you have explained very clearly that there should not be a toilet, storeroom or cluttered garage in that corner. That is very important for the development of the activities, as I am trying to guide the FPMT organization. I hope I can finish reading the feng shui book and the other very sophisticated book. I think I will have more questions, and I hope you don't mind if I ask you.

When you come to Kopan, can you please check my room and also the monastery office, the kitchen and the general rooms, especially checking for the biggest obstacle in the rooms? I know one of the rooms has very bad feng shui, because the person who stays there often gets sick. Can you see how we can change it? Can you also check the buildings, especially the bad ones, and see if you can change the feng shui? Please discuss with Lama Lhundrup, the abbot of Kopan, and with the office manager and the other staff members. I will be very happy if you can do this, as it helps to cut down the problems of other people and for them to have an easier life.

I want you to meet my brother and his wife; they are extremely good people, very compassionate, helping many poor people and always giving to others. I think you will like them very much. I will introduce you to Kopan and my brother.

If there is anything you need, please let me know. Thank you very much for everything.

With much love and prayer ...