Advice for New Students

My very dear one,
I was so happy to meet you. At that time I missed the opportunity to give you this photo of the Twenty-one Taras.

Tara is the embodiment of the numberless buddhas’ holy actions, in order to fulfill the wishes of all the sentient beings, to grant all the happiness, temporary and ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and peerless happiness, enlightenment—the cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations—in order to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsara’s suffering.

You can use this to pray for success and to benefit others. You can pray according to the advice I gave to one student’s mother, for herself and for others:

Due to all the merits of the past, present and future collected by me, collected by numberless sentient beings and collected by numberless buddhas, may (name of the person) never ever be reborn in the lower realms. If they are already born in the lower realms, may they be free immediately from that. May they be born in the pure land where they can achieve the total cessation of obscurations, gross and subtle, and the completion of all the realizations—buddhahood, full enlightenment. At least may they receive a perfect human rebirth and meet the Mahayana teachings; may they meet a perfectly qualified guru who reveals the unmistaken path to enlightenment and by pleasing most the holy mind of the virtuous friend, may they achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

When you say “past, present and future” in this prayer, “past” means from beginningless rebirths, and “future” means not just in this life, but in all the future lives. You can also recite the same prayer for yourself every day, by changing the name to “I” instead of using the other person’s name.

Later, if you want to do meditation, I can send you the morning motivation, what to meditate on, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness. This would be your morning practice, transforming your mind into Dharma, so that whatever action you do becomes only the cause of happiness and all your actions become only the cause of enlightenment, buddhahood, peerless happiness, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all realizations, by your mind becoming bodhicitta.

It includes the meditation on blessing the speech, which multiplies the merit millions of times, so your speech becomes very powerful, to bring success. Then even gossip can become the same as reciting mantra. Any mantra you recite after reciting the mantra blessing the speech increases the merit millions of times. Then you can bless your mala and so forth. If you feel like doing this, I can send it to you later.

Thank you very, very much. I was very happy to meet you. You are usually in my prayers. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers

By following any of the four schools, we can achieve enlightenment by following the correct path, but that depends on finding a fully qualified teacher who teaches a correct, complete path.

It also depends on past karma, so depending on that, many will follow in that way. It’s directly dependent on past karma which one we follow and learn from. If we live in a village or area where they follow mainly one school, then we follow that which is mainly followed by the people of that place. Basically, it’s dependent on past karma.

We should study one school well and then we can receive teachings that we find beneficial from the other school’s lamas. In this way, our mind and our practice won’t get confused.

We can study the four schools and then check our feeling, where it is stronger or which one we feel closer to. This could take time. We can study just roughly, then we can check.

After so many years of following different lamas and teachings and schools, even for thirty or more years, there are some who still don’t know how to follow the path to enlightenment. It’s important not to become like that!

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much your kind letter. I am sorry for the delay in replying.

I want to tell you, yes, it’s the best time to practice, to meet and practice Dharma, and not just the four noble truths. As you know, that is the basis to be free from samsara, from which the oceans of samsaric suffering has no beginning; it is from beginningless rebirths. We have been suffering in samsara up to now, so if we don’t become free from samsara then we will have to experience the oceans of samsaric suffering without end.

This is just about one time that we have received this human rebirth, we have met the Lesser Vehicle path, the four noble truths, and not only that, we have met the Mahayana sutra path, the Paramitayana teachings, and we have the ability to learn and actualize them. Not only that, we have met the Mahayana tantra path—as you said in the letter, you have met this path.

In Buddhist countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, etc., they have Theravada, the Lesser Vehicle teachings, then in China and other Chinese countries, they have the Mahayana sutra teachings and also Mahayana tantra teachings, but the lower tantras not the highest tantra. There are some masters who practice the highest tantra, who have met these teachings, like Changkya Rölpä Dorje, who received initiations and teachings, and then maybe practiced Mahayana tantra teachings.

Tibet is the only place that has the complete teachings of Buddha, the Lesser Vehicle teachings, Theravada, as well as Mahayana sutra and Mahayana tantra. Tibet is the only place that has the complete studies of Buddha’s teachings.

Maybe it might help if I explain this to you. Without the Lesser Vehicle teachings, Theravada teachings, the main subject is the four noble truths and the five paths in order to achieve liberation from samsara. Then on that basis, keeping pratimoksha vows, etc., so on that basis, we practice Mahayana sutra, the paramita path. The first path is about generating renunciation for our own samsara, seeing it is in the nature of suffering and generating renunciation. Then from that we generate renunciation, the wish to be free from that, and on that basis we enter the Mahayana sutra path and then generate bodhicitta. This is generated by first generating great compassion for all sentient beings suffering in samsara, and practicing the six paramitas and bodhicitta.

There are also the higher paths, the five Mahayana paths and ten bhumis. Then on the basis of Mahayana sutra, bodhicitta, the six paramitas, there is Mahayana tantra, the practice of Vajrayana.

Therefore, there is no way to practice [Mahayana tantra] if we don’t practice Theravada, the Lesser Vehicle path, the pratimoksha vows and the three higher trainings of morality, concentration and wisdom. Without practicing renunciation of our own samsara, there is no way to practice Mahayana sutra, and without practicing Mahayana sutra there is no way to practice Mahayana tantra. For us to achieve enlightenment, it is by practicing the Mahayana sutra teachings. Only then can we achieve enlightenment, by practicing the six paramitas with bodhicitta for three countless great eons, but by practicing tantra, even the lower tantras, we can achieve enlightenment in one life.

In tantra there are four types: Kriya (Action), Charya (Performance), Yoga and Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra (Highest Yoga Tantra). By practicing Mahayana tantra we can achieve enlightenment in a much shorter time, in a brief lifetime of degenerate time. We can achieve enlightenment in one life, by achieving a long life, so we are able to live for one thousand years and then we can achieve enlightenment by practicing the path.

The main reason for us to practice Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra is that it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment. The longer we take to achieve enlightenment, the longer the sentient beings have to suffer. That is so unbearable, and even if we can achieve enlightenment by postponing death, so we can live for one thousand years in this life, still sentient beings have to suffer for an unbearably long time. We can’t stand it, therefore we need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra, Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra, in order to quickly free the sentient beings from the oceans of suffering and bring them to peerless happiness, buddhahood—this is the quickest way. That is the main reason to practice Highest Yoga Tantra.

I checked for you and the deity you have a connection with is Kurukulla, however, first you need to receive the initiation and then you can do the meditation.

Until you receive the initiation, maybe you can recite the mantra, but you can’t visualize yourself as the deity. You can visualize the deity in front of you, sending light beams to you which purify all disease, spirt harm, negative karma and defilements from beginningless rebirths. First recite one mala, thinking that you are mainly purifying sentient beings, and if you want to recite more, after one mala purifying sentient beings and yourself, then mainly focus on the six-realm sentient beings, thinking that all their negative karma and defilements are purified.

At the end, when you stop, think that you receive all of Kurukulla’s qualities and all sentient beings receive all the qualities of Kurukulla’s holy body, speech and mind.

The introduction above on why we need to practice tantra is very important, so please read it very carefully and not just one time.

For you, the Middle-Length Lamrim is the main lamrim to read and study. This is best. If you can, do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga daily. This practice contains meditation on the lamrim. You can recite The Foundation of All Good Qualities and sometimes you can change the lamrim prayer, for example, change to The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, or Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymn of Experience. There are other different lamrim prayers you can use or change to, but mostly do The Foundation of All Good Qualities.

Other practices for you:

Four immeasurable thoughts: 100,000.

Tonglen: 200,000. Both of these practices collect merit more than skies, because you are praying for the numberless sentient beings to be free from anger and attachment and to attain enlightenment, so to be free from all the sufferings and to not be separated from happiness up to enlightenment. This is the most powerful purification and it is a quick way to be free from samsara and a quick way to achieve enlightenment.

Tsa tsas of Padmasambhava: 40,000. If you have no space after you make them, you can put them on shelves near the roof, inside the rooms, so they will be lined up. Another thing you can do is offer Christmas lights in front of each one. So you can do like that, putting three or four shelves in different rooms. Some students use them that way and what is left over then if there is somebody building a stupa, you can offer some of the tsa tsas, to fill up the stupa. Stupas need to have mantras inside, but they also can have tsa tsas. You can also give them away.

In your own house you can also set up a table and have many tsa tsas around. You can read here what I have done with tsa tsas in my house in Aptos, California. So you can put one stupa on the top and many tsa tsas around, then you go around that. The two small stupas in Aptos were made when I was in Madison, Wisconsin. They were made for me to go around to stop increasing the diabetes, but the main thing is to purify negative karma and defilements and to develop bodhicitta and attain enlightenment. I also have a larger stupa now, in the back garden.

I want to send you some books. The books I want to send you are How to Practice Dharma, Bodhisattva Attitude and The Heart of the Path. When you get these books please read them and practice.

In one week, if you can, read the Golden Light Sutra. This means reading some every day until you finish the sutra. If possible, try to complete it in one week, then the next week read the Arya Sanghata Sutra.

If you can practice like this for your whole life, you will collect unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merits and from there you are able to achieve realizations quickly, to be free from samsara and achieve enlightenment.

Study the Middle-Length Lamrim twice from beginning to the end, and anything that you don’t know or don’t understand, you can write that down in a notebook and later check with geshes or students who have studied the lamrim extremely well. This is important otherwise you get mistaken understanding.

Please see my advice regarding how many months to meditate on each section of the lamrim. This doesn’t mean you only meditate on that; it just means that is the main focus of your lamrim meditation, for that many months. Then after that do effortless meditation.

I am sorry to say this about your tattoos. Where are the Chenrezig and Medicine Buddha tattoos? If they are on your back, then really you should not lie down on your back. I am not sure if this is possible, but if you can erase them, then please do so. The reason is so that you don’t create any more negative karma. You can’t lie down on the buddhas, this creates so much disrespect. There are many people who do this without knowing. They put buddhas and deities on their body, but that can be a great disrespect and obscuration for the mind. It interferes with your enlightenment—your own mind and all sentient beings. Anyway, I am sorry to say this.

Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta, day and night and in every action you do.

With much love and prayers ...

Every day when you wake up, rejoice. Be happy, because you are alive as a human and you have a precious human rebirth.

It is beneficial for you to recite Chenrezig mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM, and to do Vajrasattva practice to eliminate negative karma and spirit harm.

Also practice the five powers:

• the power of motivation
• the power of the white seed
• the power of familiarity
• the power of destruction (of self-cherishing), and
• the power of prayer.

Teachings on the five powers are in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

For purification, practice Prostrations to the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas.

Practice Namgyalma to eliminate sickness, physical spirit harm and negative karma.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear one,
How are you? I hope you are well. I heard you are coming to do a course at Kopan Monastery. That made me very happy; it’s like someone giving me a billion dollars. It is so important, most important in your life to hear Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings, and to learn and experience the teachings through meditation and study.

This perfect human rebirth is just one time, and having met Buddhadharma we can achieve all the happiness. Not only can we achieve happiness in this life, we can also purify the negative karma which is the cause of being reborn in the lower realms in the next life. By creating virtue, for example, by practicing morality, we can receive a higher rebirth as a deva or human, etc., and not only that, we can again meet Dharma and become free from samsara and achieve enlightenment. That’s in regards to the future, but also in this life and the next life we can become free from samsara by practicing the three higher trainings.

Regarding the higher training of morality, even as a lay person you can take not only the refuge vows but also the five lay precepts, or even four, three, two or one precept. As well as taking the lay vows there are also the eight Mahayana precepts, which lay and ordained people can take.

By taking [the precepts] with bodhicitta there are skies of benefits, skies of merit, even by taking them for one day. So you need to take the precepts with bodhicitta—the thought to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and not only that, for all sentient beings to become free from lower nirvana, the blissful state of peace and achieve the peerless state of happiness—the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations. This is in order to free the numberless beings—each of the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings—from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and not only that, to bring them to full enlightenment. Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!

This is what your most precious human rebirth is for. Having met the Buddhadharma, this is what you can do. Therefore it is so worthwhile for you to learn Buddhism in this life before you die. It is so good you will go to Kopan. I am very happy that you will come to Kopan, to be aware of Buddhadharma.

I hope to see you soon.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling ones,
Thank you very much for your kind email. Because you asked me to be guru, I am not qualified, but you try and I will try.

Yes, I understand what you expressed and really it is like this, if you think carefully, and don’t be distracted by the works of this life.

I don’t know how long you have been studying Dharma, such as texts; not just receiving teachings here and there, but studying texts from beginning to end. In my observation it came out very good for you to study in London or Italy at the FPMT study programs happening there.

If you haven’t done much study then you need to do something like that—study, more study, and not just meditating on some techniques. There are people who spend their whole life on breathing meditation, but that doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t go anywhere.

So you can study there for some time and do practice at the same time. Study and practice, like that. It’s not like studying at a university. It’s not like that, but study and practice.

First you need to learn [lamrim], particularly Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim. This is the best, to get a broader idea on how to practice. Then [study] the whole teaching of the Buddha—the lesser vehicle, the four noble truths, then Mahayana sutra and Mahayana tantra. This is the essence. When you practice lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, especially Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim, this is the essence of it all.

Yes, you are right. You need to practice and study more before doing retreat. Practice means to purify and collect merit.

Start every day with the morning motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment), then do Guru Shakyamuni Guru Yoga.

In the future we have a plan for meditators to go to Tibet, if there is good translator. It will be a small group of people, when they are ready to go and also when this lama in Tibet accepts. Then the people need to be ready to go there, to live there for a few months and to study. It comes out very good for you both to do this; to go to Tibet with the group when that happens. This lama is very skillful in guiding meditation. So that is a future plan.

My advice is this. The main thing is learn the lamrim from beginning to end, then practice purification and collect merits. That is the main purpose of your life.

In general, both of you should study Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Length Lamrim from beginning to end nine times. That means to read it mindfully. That way reading itself becomes meditation; reading is like analytical meditation. If you relate it to your own life, then at the end of each subject your mind is transformed into that. Even if there is no realization, by using reasoning the mind becomes close to that. Keep the mind in that; that is fixed meditation.

So, try like this to begin with. You can send me anything that you think.

With much love and prayers...