Advice to a New Student

My Very Dear Luke,
Thank you very much your kind letter. I was extremely happy to get your letter and hear about your auspicious dream. The dream shows definitely that we have a strong karmic connection. I happily accept to be your guru, even though I am not qualified. I am very happy to guide you in as much as I know. You might be doing some practices already, however, I will give you some daily practices and also practices for many years to come. This way, in the coming years, you will have some practices to complete. Why I give many years of life practice is because we cannot meet very often, and also so you don’t need to worry about asking again and again. This way you can make your life most beneficial by purifying the negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths and to collect extensive merits, as much as possible, not only to achieve liberation from samsara, but to achieve full enlightenment as quickly as possible and be able to enlighten sentient beings as quickly as possible.

First thing in the morning is bodhicitta motivation. Then, you chant OM MANI PADME HUM along with that, or after the Chenrezig practice, meditation, and mantra recitation. If you are able to do 10 malas, that would be good, otherwise, whatever you can do. Meditation on Chenrezig is most important, and the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM. It fulfills all your wishes, temporary and ultimate, including enlightenment, and causes all temporary and ultimate happiness, liberation, and enlightenment for all sentient beings, especially for them to develop loving kindness, compassion, and bodhicitta. So, this is the most important practice in this life. There are different requesting prayers to Chenrezig called Sublimeness of Compassion, which I have translated.

The other practice to do is Medicine Buddha meditation/recitation. This is powerful for the success of all your wishes, especially attainments, and is powerful for purification. This is mainly to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. There is a little booklet I translated many years ago, that is the best one, the easiest to use, and is very powerful. Medicine Buddha mantra is very powerful purification for animals. When they hear it they never get born in the lower realms.

Please do prostrations in the morning, reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, whatever number you want, then finish with the concluding prayer. Before going to bed it would be good if you could recite some Vajrasattva mantras. If possible, recite one mala, if not, then half a mala, or at least 21 times. That stops all today’s negative karma from multiplying tomorrow and the day after, and so forth. One negative karma, for example, killing, or telling a lie, whatever it is, doubles tomorrow, then the second day the same thing happens again, so the increase of negative karma continues if you don’t purify it. This is the specific benefit of Vajrasattva mantra – it purifies today’s and past days’, past years’, and past lives’ negative karma. It is important to do this practice with the four powers, with regret being the most important of these.

According to my observations, your Highest Yoga Tantra deity is Secret Chenrezig Gyalwa Gyatso. The other deities for which you could take the initiation and do some practice are Yamantaka, Most Secret Hayagriva, also Vajrakilaya. If you wish to, you can also take these, but mainly study the whole path of Gyalwa Gyatso, on the basis of the lamrim, the three principle aspects of the path. It is excellent for you to do long retreat, like a three-year deity retreat. Study the Dharma, study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand eight times, from beginning to end. Read and reflect on the meaning. Each time you do this it brings you closer to the realizations. The other thing in the future you can do is also try shiné meditation/calm abiding. So, every day, read from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, whatever you can, with some meditation. Read half a page, one page, two pages, whatever you can, reading and reflecting on the meaning.

You need to practice one Guru Yoga a day, in case you are not. You can do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, including the Foundation of All Good Qualities. Every day, each time you recite the lamrim prayer, you become closer to the lamrim realizations. Each day, you become closer to enlightenment, and each day you become closer to enlightening all sentient beings by the direct meditation on the lamrim.

With much love and prayer...