The Merit of Serving the Guru

My very dear one,
I hope you are well and enjoying [your life] there. Enjoyment doesn't come from outside; it comes from the mind, from karma, and so much depends on how we think. We may be experiencing the results of our negative karma, such as sickness and catastrophes, but if our mind is well trained in lojong, we will be able to use these situations in the most beneficial way to achieve enlightenment, happiness.

For the quickest enlightenment, for the best purification of all our past negative karma and to collect extensive merit like the sky, by having bodhicitta motivation we experience the sufferings on behalf of all sentient beings.

I hope I didn't send you to the center and it is like a suffering world, a suffering life. I asked you to become a nun, I took you away from your boyfriend, then you came here and had a difficult life. But here you are serving me every day, as we have a Dharma connection.

As Sakya Pandita said:

Even if you practice the paramita of charity for a thousand eons by giving your arms, legs and so forth to sentient beings, and you dedicate the merit of that to them, you collect all that merit in one second by offering service to the guru.

This is according to Sakya Pandita. When you serve the guru, you collect unbelievable merit in one second. It’s most unbelievable, most amazing.

You can enjoy [your life] there, and every day you can think about what Sakya Pandita said. Think you are eating food for me, going to the toilet for me and cleaning the house for me. Each water bowl is for me and even your breathing is for me. You must realize that. You are doing things that I need to have done. When you can't do something physically, then at that time you can change to another activity.

With much love and prayers. I hope to see you soon.