My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your kind request. I am sorry it took so long to send this reply.

Regarding your deity, according to my observation it is: Heruka, Tara Cittamani, Kalachakra, and Vajrakilaya. Cittamani Tara is the main deity for your practice and if there’s the possibility to take initiation, then you can take Heruka and Vajrakilaya also.

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha taught the 84,000 teachings in three levels: the Lesser Vehicle teachings, the Greater Vehicle teachings of sutra, and the Greater Vehicle teachings of tantra. All three are embodied into the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment. So the lamrim has the graduated path of the lower capable being in general, the graduated path of the middle capable being in general, and the graduated path of the greater capable being. Then this is condensed even more than that into the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment: renunciation, bodhicitta and right view.

For you Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Lamrim is the main lamrim text. It’s the essence of the whole Dharma. Read it from beginning to end mindfully so that it becomes a meditation. Do this just once. It’s the main lamrim text for you, but it doesn’t mean you can’t read others.

You can read others, like Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, and integrate the information with what you have, especially the preliminary practices from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and other lamrim texts you should read.

In terms of effortful practice, meditate on the lamrim outline and repeat this three times from beginning to end, then do effortless practice. The meditation guide is the outline of the Middle-Length Lamrim or The Essential Nectar. You can follow the commentaries from the Middle-Length Lamrim and also use things from other lamrim texts. 

Regarding the preliminaries:

Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names: 300,000. In the merit field there are the Thirty-five Buddhas. You can use this practice from Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition for purification. In Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition, prostration is regarded as very, very important.

In Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition, prostration while reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names is regarded as very, very important. So many people do this daily as a practice. They do one hundred or one thousand every morning, like that, and many people do a lot of prostrations, not just as a preliminary but every day. That’s good; it’s the best thing. So that’s all.

For you, the main preliminary practice is prostrations. It’s the main preliminary practice in the life, according to the lineage of Lama Tsongkhapa and the lineage lamas, so do this every day. That is the main thing. And then what’s explained in the meditation instructions, you have to follow that practice.

You can do other preliminaries as mentioned generally in the texts (refuge, Vajrasattva, mandala offering, Guru Yoga, etc.) but there is no specific number for you according to my observation.

In the breaktime, live your life with the motivation of bodhicitta as much as possible, so that the actions of your body, speech, and mind become the cause of enlightenment.

All that, as much as you do it with bodhicitta motivation—even effortful motivation, even if you don’t have the realization—you collect more than skies of merit. So then eating, sleeping, walking, shopping, working, jogging and so forth, do it with bodhicitta as much as possible.

If done with bodhicitta, then whatever you do, for example, each time you eat food, you collect more than skies of merit. If you recite mantras with bodhicitta, then with each OM MANI PADME HUM you collect merit more than the sky. You should know that. If you sleep, then however many hours or minutes you sleep with bodhicitta, that becomes a cause of enlightenment, and you collect more than skies of merit.

You should rejoice in how fortunate you are to be able to do that, to put effort into that. At least sleeping is like medicine for the health. It’s similar to eating food; it’s protection for the body, so you can practice Dharma for sentient beings. That’s the basic thing. When you practice tantra, there’s sleeping yoga with creativity and without creativity, so like that.

Thank you very much. You are most welcome to enlightenment. Goodbye samsara, that which you’ve experienced since beginningless rebirths. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...