Practices for Life

My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Do at least one hundred prostrations every day while reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. That’s very good if you can try to do that. If it’s evening time, do Vajrasattva practice at the end. Or if you prefer sitting, that’s OK.

Use either the Middling Lamrim or Lamrim Chenmo as your main lamrim text. Of course you can use other lamrim texts, but these are main ones. Still study the text from beginning to end and then do effortful meditation. Follow the lamrim outline twice, then do effortless meditation.

Your main deity is Heruka, Cittamani Tara or Vajrakilaya. Whichever deity you have a stronger, closer feeling for, choose that as your main practice, and do the longer sadhana in order to actualize the tantric path.

Please have a most meaningful life, a beneficial life, and the happiest life for all sentient beings.

With much love and prayers...

Yes, it may be possible for you to ordain in the future.

Life practice advice

• 100,000: Generating the four immeasurable thoughts
• 20,000: tonglen
• 40,000: Guru yoga counting migtsema mantra on the basis of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga
• 20,000: Mandala offering
• Do at least 15 nyung näs every year.

Lamrim

Choose one lamrim text to study from beginning to end three times. There are the Great, Middle and Short Lamrim texts by Lama Tsongkhapa. The short one is called the Hymns of Experience and there is a commentary to that by the Third Dalai Lama called The Essence of Refined Gold. Then there is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by the great enlightened being Pabongka Rinpoche and Manjushri’s Own Words [The Sacred Words of Manjushri; Jam päl zhal lung] by the Fifth Dalai Lama. There are different lamrim texts available in English and of course in Tibetan there are many more. So choose one lamrim text and read it from beginning to end three times.

The things you don’t understand mark with orange color as an offering, like painting a buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects, and so forth. In other words, mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. Also, you can write down all the questions you have, everything you don’t know in a book and then discuss these afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters Programs. If there is someone who has studied well, then they can help.

Practice effortful meditation on the lamrim outline for the number of months indicated. Follow the outline five times, then do effortless meditation.

Your Deity

Vajrayogini, but Yamantaka also comes out. So first you can take Yamantaka initiation if you haven’t already done so, then do the retreat and study. Then you can take Vajrayogini initiation and practice Vajrayogini. In your daily life practice—the sleeping, eating and all the yogas—if you prefer Vajrayogini you can do that, but if you prefer Yamantaka you can do that. Vajrayogini also comes out very strong. In the future you can also study and do retreat on Vajrayogini.

• 300,000 refuge with meditation
• 70,000 four immeasurables with meditation
• 100,000 water bowl offerings
• 500,000 tsa-tsas: to be divided between different deities with some Lama Tsongkhapa
• Kadampa stupa
• 30,000 prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas

Try as much as possible with the tsa-tsas. It is unbelievable merit and purification, and a good way to achieve enlightenment. If it’s really difficult and you can’t do all the tsa-tsas with plaster, you can print them on paper.

In life read the Sutra of Golden Light once a week, so that’s four times in one month. There are elaborate, middle and short versions. Middle is good but you can read all three versions—one time short, one time middle and one time long, but mostly middle is OK.

Recite OM MANI PADME HUM as much as possible. This purifies obscurations and negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth—more than all the drops of water in the ocean, the blades of grass growing in the fields and atoms on earth. If this mantra is recited with bodhicitta, more than skies of merit are collected.

This is an easy way to go to Amitabha’s pure realm and never be reborn in the lower realms. It is a good way to achieve enlightenment because you receive blessings from Avalokiteshvara. It is good to count however many you finish a day, so you can rejoice each day. This helps and is good.

The best lamrim for you is Manjushri’s Own Words [The Sacred Words of Manjushri by the Fifth Dalai Lama.] Read this in English two times from beginning to end. Mark anything that you don’t understand with orange highlighter. You shouldn’t use black lines on or under the letters, as this will be a cause for you to go to the black line hell. Mark with nice pink or orange color, as if you are offering color to the holy speech, or write down in a different book and find a geshe or older students at the center to discuss. So do that and then do effortful meditation.

Effortful meditation

Follow this outline three times in total:

• Guru devotion: four months
• The graduated path of the lower capable being: ten months
• The graduated path of the middle capable being: fifteen months
• The graduated path of the higher capable being:
  
  • Bodhicitta: two months
  • Emptiness: two months

Deity: Yamantaka to achieve the quickest enlightenment.

If you can make your life this way, it will be extremely fruitful and beneficial for sentient beings. The Buddha practiced the six paramitas for three countless great eons. For three countless great eons he practiced for us sentient beings to be free from oceans of great suffering and to bring us to full enlightenment.

He made charity of his limbs and gave his whole body to a tiger. For three countless great eons the Buddha made great charity of his limbs for us to reach happiness. He did this selflessly and totally for others. He practiced patience, morality and so forth for three countless eons, for us to reach happiness and to be free from oceans of great suffering, and to bring us to ultimate enlightenment.

The hardships we suffer to practice Dharma are hardly anything. We must enjoy life by thinking how the Buddha suffered for us.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear one,
I was very happy to meet you this time and spend time with you at the restaurant. I had hoped to meet with you at home, but it did not happen that way.

About the lamrim: after you study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand completely two or three times to gain a general understanding, you will have the correct background for any specific meditation. Then on the basis of daily meditation on guru devotion, until it is stable—seeing all gurus as buddhas and all buddhas as guru from your side—meditate on the basis of Guru Puja, Six-session Guru Yoga or Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. Meditate for five months on the first scope, for three months on the middle scope, and for one month and one hour on the higher scope of bodhicitta.

Meditate on emptiness every day using the Heart Sutra or if you are doing a sadhana, meditate on emptiness at the time of the dharmakaya. You can read or use many different texts—mahamudra or others—for emptiness meditation, but the Heart Sutra is good, a basic Buddhist practice. With familiarity you will no longer need the words of the texts; the words are to plant imprints on the mind.

Daily recitation of the Heart Sutra is very good to purify the mind and guide you to enlightenment. With few words you can meditate, for example, the few words of the king of logic, dependent arising: the I is not truly existent because of dependent arising. These words show both conventional and ultimate truth; there are few words but they are very profound and sufficient to meditate on. With familiarity this is very rich. You can use any appropriate stanza, such as the emptiness verses from Guru Puja or any glance meditation text on lamrim.

After you complete these months, then start again from the beginning until you achieve renunciation from all of samsara, then bodhicitta. Once you have realized any part of the path, you don’t need to spend as much time on that. So you don’t always do exactly the same thing.

For your quickest enlightenment, you should practice Yamantaka, Tara Cittamani and more Yamantaka. Try to realize Yamantaka’s nose! If you have not received the initiations, take the opportunity to receive them and study the commentaries well. These are the deities to be one with all the time. We call them “deity” but you should have the recognition of “guru.”

Regarding study, I don’t have a particular suggestion. Just learn from whatever opportunity is offered. From the beginning one thing must be clear, but you might have learned this already. Once we have taken any teachings—even one stanza or one mantra— with the recognition of guru/disciple, then that person becomes our guru. Then we should devote throughout our life. Ordinary people should devote according to the scriptures, the teachings of the Buddha, the valid scriptures of the Buddha, the pandits and yogis, etc. This is very important. This is the biggest decision in life, you can say. Depending on how it is done, we can either gain the greatest profit of enlightenment or the heaviest negative karma and the greatest suffering of the lowest hell. So as not to become messy about this point, it is the root of the path to enlightenment. It is essential to have this clear.

Normally you can still learn from someone, like listening to a lecturer, a professor. After sometime, if you think you can devote to that person, then you take them as your guru. In this way, you can be quickly liberated from samsara and reach enlightenment.

Please do the Thirty-five Buddhas practice with prostrations. This means reciting the names of each of the Thirty-five Buddhas three times, so you do approximately 100 prostrations each morning. Also do Vajrasattva practice each evening, with one mala of mantra recitation.

Here are the preliminary practices for you to do:

• Dorje Khadro: 40,000
• Refuge practice: 200,000
• Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga: 100,000
• Heart Sutra: 900
• Samayavajra: 100,000
• Tsa-tsas (Eight or Seven Medicine Buddhas, with or without Guru Shakyamuni) and Lama Tsongkhapa (the big one of Domo Geshe is best): 8,000

Not too many preliminary practices came out in numbers.

With love and prayers...

My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling one,
The purpose of practicing tantra, and especially Highest Yoga Tantra, is to accomplish the biggest aim in life, which is to free the numberless sentient beings—numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asuras—from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever. It is to cause that. How most unbelievable is that! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

Normal people in the world, except for those who are good-hearted, only look for their own happiness. They will even die for that. They will even commit suicide for that. Everything is done for that. Here, our aim is not only to free the numberless sentient beings from suffering forever, but also to bring them all to the peerless happiness of sang-gye or buddhahood. In Tibetan, the word for buddha is sang-gye. Sang means the elimination of not only the gross obscurations but even the subtle obscurations, and gye is the completion of all the realizations.

Practicing the guru deity is to bless one’s own mind so that it can change in a positive way. Just as the sun rises in the world and brings happiness not only to human beings but also to all the different kinds of animals, making the plants grow and the flowers open, so too the mind can change and bring benefit to numberless sentient beings. Deity practice is for that to happen quickly, in one lifetime. That is the purpose of practicing tantra and particularly lower tantra. Then, by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra we can achieve enlightenment even quicker, in order to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment even quicker, in a brief lifetime of degenerate times.

According to my observation, you have a particular karmic connection with Secret Vajrapani who is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ power. Vajrapani has an outer manifestation, an inner manifestation and a secret manifestation. It comes out for you to practice the secret manifestation.

Preliminaries

Do 300,000 prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas. The object that you are prostrating to can be the Lama Chöpa [Guru Puja] merit field. The Thirty-five Buddhas are included in this merit field.

Every year do some nyung näs. The nyung nä practice is only for two days but it is unbelievably powerful. On the first day you take Mahayana precepts and have only one meal. On the second day you take the eight Mahayana precepts and fast completely; there is no eating, no drinking and no talking. Taking and practicing the eight Mahayana precepts, the Mahayana reviving and purifying ordination, is an incredible source of collecting merit like the sky. It is a cause of gaining a good rebirth in your next life, liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever, and buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

In the nyung nä there are also many prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas and Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha. Reciting each of these Thirty-five Buddhas’ names even one time is very powerful; it purifies many eons of different negative karma and collects unbelievable merit. Doing even one prostration collects unbelievable, unbelievable merit.

Without talking about the benefits of doing one full-length prostration, the Buddha explained in the Lankavatara Sutra that you create the cause to be born one thousand times as a wheel-turning king for each atom covered by even your toes and fingers when you prostrate. However many atoms are covered from the ground down to the bottom of the earth, you create that many causes to be born one thousand times as a wheel-turning king.

It doesn’t mean that by doing prostrations the only result is to be born as a wheel-turning king. The Buddha is giving some idea how much merit you collect, because to be born as a wheel-turning king even one time you have to collect inconceivable, inconceivable merit. So because of that.

Of course, after the prostrations you should dedicate the merit to every sentient being, for example, animals, the numberless fish in the sea, those that are as large as mountains like whales, and those that are so small you can only see them with machines. Dedicate for the numberless, numberless [aquatic animals] and the numberless creatures on the ground, for them to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Also, in the grass there are numberless flies, in the trees there are birds, and there are sentient beings in the sky.

There are numberless universes scientifically mentioned and as Buddha mentioned. There are numberless beings not only in this world; there are numberless insects in all those universes. To free the numberless insects doesn’t mean only in this world; you have to think also to dedicate for all those other universes.

I’m not talking about only the animals. There are numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, asura beings and intermediate state beings. Include all of them, as well as this life’s parents. Dedicate for them all to be free from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to peerless happiness, sang-gye, the total elimination of obscurations and  completion of all the realizations. Dedicate the merits for that reason, for you to achieve enlightenment, to actualize the whole path.

Regarding the recitation of OM MANI PADME HUM, even without bodhicitta, the benefits of reciting one OM MANI PADME HUM mantra one time cannot be counted. The number of drops in the ocean can be counted, but the benefits of this mantra cannot be counted. All the grass on the earth can be counted, but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted. The dust of this earth can be counted but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted. When the rain comes, each drop can be counted but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted. Sand grains, each grain of sand can be counted but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted.

If you recite the mantra with bodhicitta motivation—to free the sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to full enlightenment, and for that reason you want to achieve full enlightenment—if you recite the mantra with this motivation, even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time, you create more than skies of merit. It purifies all your past negative karma and especially causes you to generate compassion toward all the sentient beings. That creates the cause for you to achieve peerless happiness, the state of omniscience, quickly and this is the quickest way to be born in the pure land of the Buddha.

Each year if you can do at least several [nyung näs] that would be very good.

Lamrim

The essence of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha is contained in the Hinayana and Mahayana sutras, and in Mahayana tantra. The essence of those three is the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, therefore by studying the lamrim you will be studying the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. The lamrim has three: the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being and the graduated path of the higher capable being. That includes bodhicitta and shunyata.

The main lamrim text for you to study is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You can also study Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middling and Great Lamrim, but it will be easier for you to study Liberation. That is your main lamrim text, and you should read it three times from beginning to end.

The things you don’t understand, mark with orange color as an offering, like painting a Buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects. In other words mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. A professor who is very good in Buddhism said that in the past he marked many manuscripts with black color right over the letters and created the cause to be born in the lower realms many times. Also you can write down in a book all the questions you have, everything you don’t know, and then discuss these afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters program. If there is someone who has studied well, then they can help.

Do effortful meditation following the lamrim outline twice, then do effortless meditation. For your daily meditation you can use The Essential Nectar or the outline for Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

The other thing you can do is read the Sutra of Golden Light from time to time, or continuously if you like. You don’t have to worry about finishing it, just read some every day. Read according to whatever time you have.

Please take care of your life. This is the best way to take care of your life. This is the best way to make your life beneficial for every sentient being, even the mosquitoes and leeches. 

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your question and email. What you are asking is really the most important, most important thing in your life and not only in this life but up to enlightenment, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. When you achieve this you are able to free the numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to peerless happiness, the state of omniscience.

What you should do now is study Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Length Lamrim so you can understand well the whole path taught by the Buddha. This is the main lamrim you should study. Read it four times from beginning to end.

Mark the things you don’t understand with orange color as an offering, like painting a Buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects, etc. In other words, mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. One professor who is very good in Buddhist philosophy, said that in the past he often marked manuscripts with black color right over the letters. This created the cause to be born in the lower realms many times.

Also you can write down all the questions you have, everything you don’t know, in a book and discuss these afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters Program. If there is someone who has studied well, then they can help. It will be very good if you can do this.

The main practice you should do at the moment is Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. There is a commentary I gave many years ago that you can read. [This is also available from FPMT Foundation Store.] 

There are also the guru devotion teachings, which are in Heart of the Path.

Doing this practice will help for this life and all future lives happiness, for liberation and up to full enlightenment—including bringing all sentient beings to peerless happiness by yourself in the future. If you have received a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, like Hayagriva, Kalachakra, Yamantaka or Heruka, there are secret meditations you can do when you are doing the meditation.

• 20,000: Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas. The explanation and commentary, The Preliminary Practice of Prostrations, is available from FPMT Foundation Store.
• 100,000: Vajrasattva for purification.
• 100,000: Mandala offerings to collect extensive merit. Again, you will have to study the commentary. Do the long mandala two or three times and then do the short one many times and count that.

This is what you should do now, and in the future you can do the preliminary practices. Normally we do prostrations, Vajrasattva and mandala offerings as daily practices, but what I’m telling you now is how many of these are to be done as your preliminary practices. Not many preliminary practices came out for you in my observation, so you have very few of them to do.

Do effortful meditation on the lamrim outline, starting with guru devotion, correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, then effortless meditation. Do some meditation on emptiness every day.  

Go slowly, slowly. I’m giving you your life practices now but don’t worry, you can do the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga practice now and the preliminary practices later.

With much love and prayers...