Chanting the Names of Manjushri
Rinpoche offered this advice to a student who had requested life practices and personal deity for tantric practice [Tib: yidam].
My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling, one,
Please find my advice for your life practice. I am sending this with much luck. This way, meditate on the lamrim to actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment. After receiving bodhicitta, practice tantra—mainly the first stage, generation stage, and then the second stage, completion stage, just for a short time, to place an imprint.
This is the way to make your life most meaningful to every sentient being and it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment for you and for every sentient being. Thank you very, very much.
With much love and prayers...
Practices
Your main lamrim practice is Manjushri’s Own Words [The Sacred Words of Manjushri, by the Fifth Dalai Lama; Tib: Jam päl zhal lung.] Read this four times.
Practice the effortful path, following the lamrim outline one time, then do effortless meditation.
Read Chanting the Names of Manjushri at least once each week. You can do it more than that, but at least once each week. That’s an extremely profound tantra text, [associated with] the Kalachakra. It is extremely profound and collects unbelievable merit and purification.
Your deity is Cittamani Tara or Vajrapani Mahachakra. From those, whichever you have more karma; whichever you have a closer, strong feeling for, you can decide to do that one.
- Tonglen: 20,000
- Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga: 200,000. The number to count is migtsema with meditation. First do the long sadhana, then do the short one many times.
- Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas: 11,000
- Mandala offerings: 40,000