Cancer and Children
Child With Brain Tumor
Rinpoche received a request for advice regarding a child who was very ill with a brain tumor and had recently completed chemo and radiation therapy. The tumor had reduced in size, but the boy's condition had subsequently deteriorated. The student asked Rinpoche to check if any more pujas could be done for the boy.
I checked regarding the little boy and the following have to be done as soon as possible:
1. Liberate a minimum of 300 animals. It would be better if it were 1,000 animals. When you liberate the animals take them around holy objects first.
2. On the next Tibetan 8th day of the month, ask an artist to start painting or drawing White Tara in the early morning. The point is to complete as much as possible of the painting of White Tara on the same day. If it can also be blessed on that day by one of the lamas, that would be best.
3. Do the long Medicine Buddha puja, with extensive offerings.
4. I will send you one very precious pill.
Child With Leukemia
The four-year-old nephew of an old student had leukemia. It was a very serious situation. Rinpoche’s advice was as follows.
My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your message, I am very sorry to hear about your nephew. I did some observations, and according to those, there are some methods and things that can be applied and done. The following instructions are for your nephew.
1. Take jüng na (Tibetan medicine) every day, four times a day, for three months. We will send you this.
2. Eat a little Dorje Phurba powder, blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, every day. We will send you this.
3. Get blessed water from Geshe-la at the center and have him sip it seven times a day for one month, at different times (ie before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, and so on). Geshe-la should recite Most Secret Hayagriva mantra and bless the water by blowing on it after each mala.
4. Burn Naga incense. You can get it from the Kopan Monastery Shop or FPMT Foundation Store.
5. Have che trul puja performed (Liberating from Harm). Ask Geshe-la if he can do it.
6. If it is possible, ask your nephew to recite the three-fold deity mantra (Hayagriva, Vajrapani, Garuda mantra). If this is possible, show him a picture of the deity and tell him to look at it and pray and recite the mantra. If that is not possible, then it would be good if this mantra can be recorded and played for him to listen to, or his parents can recite it to him. They can sing it to him when he falls asleep. We will send the picture and mantra.
7. He needs to wear three protections: White Umbrella, Black Manjushri and Vajra Armor. We will send you these; I will bless them.
The Western medicine he is taking now—chemotherapy, etc—does come out as beneficial.
Thank you very much for all the help you have given the center. If you can, please continue, as you are able. I hope to see you soon.
With much love and prayers...
Practices for Child With Cancer
A student wrote to Rinpoche about his 18-month-old daughter, who had a lump in her chest.
Dear Christina,
I am sorry it has taken so long to reply. I did receive your letter a long time ago, but I was traveling and I did not take your letter with me, so now I am back and have been able to check about your daughter. I hope she is still OK. I checked what to do for her and this is what came out best:
- I will send you three bottles of blessed water, which she can sip each day.
- Ask your daughter to recite Black Garuda mantra. Maybe you could make it into a song and she can sing it.
- You and your husband should recite the mantra called "Mother of all Dharmas."
- You and your husband should recite Vajrapani, Hayagriva, Garuda mantra.
Visualize the deity above your daughter and recite the mantra. Visualize that beams of nectar enter her and purify the four things (sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements). Think that she is completely purified, all her sickness and the four things come out in the form of scorpions, dirty liquid, and smoke. Think that she is completely purified and meditate strongly on this. Recite the mantra every day until she gets better.
With much love and prayers...