A Card for Rinpoche’s Sister
Rinpoche sent this card with a box of gifts to his sister, who lives at Lawudo Gompa, Nepal. The gifts included socks, a warm zen and photos of Buddha, Chenrezig and the Thirty-five Buddhas. Rinpoche commented that this was the first letter/card he had sent to his sister. Previously he had sent her a small post-it note, the size of his finger, with ‘take care’ written on it.
My dear sister,
I hope you are well. It’s so nice to have family members and Lawudo family members living a long time. It’s so nice; nice for me and nice for the world. I know you work very hard as usual, so please take care of your health. Do a lot of recitations of the Thirty-five Buddhas. Recite their names as much as possible and also the last part of the prayer at the end; the confession. Sometimes if you can also prostrate, that would be unbelievably powerful to purify negative karma, also so your death is not suffering, and you can have a good rebirth and liberation from samsara, then most importantly, achieve full enlightenment.
But remember that we all have to die soon – our life is in the nature of impermanence and death.
I hope to see you soon.
If you can read the Diamond Cutter Sutra, that would be very good, but if you are not able to finish it in one day, continue the next day and just continue reciting like this. At the end, whenever you finish the practices, dedicate all the merit collected by numberless sentient beings and buddhas.
Think, “May bodhicitta be developed in my heart and all my family members’ hearts, as well as in the hearts of all the students, benefactors and leaders of the world, all the people who follow different religions and all the rest of sentient beings. Whatever bodhicitta has already been developed, may it not decrease but increase forever more.
“Due to all the three times merits collected by myself, numberless sentient beings, buddhas and bodhisattvas who exist, but who are empty from their own side, may the I, which exists but is empty from its own side, achieve complete Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists, but is empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who do not exist from their own side—who are empty. May I actualize this by myself alone, who exists, but is empty from my own side.
“Due to all the three time merits collected by myself, all sentient beings, buddhas and bodhisattvas, by having generated bodhicitta in my heart every day, may everyone in the world live their life only to benefit everyone and may no-one harm others. Whatever they do with their body speech and mind, may it only cause enlightenment and happiness to all sentient beings, and may no-one experience war, famine, disease, torture, sickness, dangers of earth, water, tsunami, wind, and the dangers of weather.”
With much love and prayers...