Compassion

My most dear one,
How are you now? Billions of thanks that you wrote to me and explained your news to me. Yes, I have been thinking of you. And how is your mum now? I know you live alone now, which is very good for your understanding. Staying alone is a very good way to get to know yourself, and through that you come to know other sentient beings.

I have been wondering how you are doing and what you have been doing, because it has been quiet for a long time, with quite a few years of silence between us.

Your great quality is compassion for others, particularly animals. Your comment that your suffering helped you to generate compassion for others—that is the best thing, the correct way, then all your suffering becomes extremely useful.  By realizing others’ suffering and also by remembering that others are numberless, so then from that we generate compassion for others.

If we are able to generate compassion, then from that compassion comes bodhicitta, the thought to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment—we take that responsibility on ourselves. For that reason we need to achieve the state of enlightenment, so for that we need to purify defilements and karma and we need to actualize the path, from correctly following the virtuous friend up to the state of omniscience.

Therefore, we need to practice Dharma for sentient beings. That is the most important thing, more important than anything else. How? That is through the lamrim, the gradual path to enlightenment.

We have been experiencing the general sufferings of samsara and particularly the sufferings of the lower realms (the hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals) and also the general sufferings of samsara, all the sufferings, like the six types of suffering and the four types of suffering. All these sufferings are included in the three: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change—which is what we call all the temporary pleasures—and pervasive compounding suffering. Those two types of suffering—the suffering of pain and the suffering of change—come from pervasive compounding suffering, which means that our aggregates are under the control of delusion and karma. The aggregates are pervaded by suffering, the contaminated seed of delusion and karma, and from this suffering all the delusions arise.

Even our future life’s suffering arises due to that, then particularly the lower realm sufferings, which is the hell beings’ sufferings, for example, which is almost unbearable suffering. We have experienced this numberless times—we have experienced all the different sufferings in samsara from beginningless rebirths, so that is most scary.

Most sentient beings don’t remember this. They are blocked by the ignorance and pollution, so they don’t remember and not only that, they create the causes to experience all the sufferings of samsara again, the oceans of samsaric sufferings again and again, numberless times in the future.

Therefore, it becomes unbelievably important to practice and to actualize the path to enlightenment. Not only the path to nirvana, but the path to great nirvana, so this is why we need to practice Dharma. It’s almost as if we can’t waste even a second without practicing Dharma; it becomes like that, how important it is.

So this is just thinking about yourself, but now, like that, there are numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings experiencing the general sufferings of samsara, all the different sufferings in samsara, particularly the sufferings of the lower realms. They have been experiencing this from beginningless rebirths and they will experience it again in the future, endlessly.

This is why sentient beings need to meet Dharma and to practice and to actualize the path, therefore establishing Dharma centers and study groups in the world, and especially in the West, becomes so important.

The essence is to develop compassion; this is how Buddhism is differentiated from other religions in the world. Buddhism is differentiated by great compassion for all sentient beings. By going for refuge in the Dharma, then we have to stop giving harm to sentient beings. Then of course, especially the Mahayana teachings are to benefit other sentient beings, on the basis of that.

So here, no question that compassion has to arise, great compassion has to arise, to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara sufferings by oneself and bring them to peerless happiness, enlightenment, by oneself. Therefore we need to achieve the state of omniscience. It is only then that we have infinite compassion embracing every sentient being, and not only that, even before actualizing bodhicitta, we have perfect understanding, seeing all the past phenomena directly at the same time, and seeing all future phenomena directly and at the same time, and all the present phenomena. And being able to read the minds of all sentient beings directly, without mixing up, and seeing all their sufferings, being able to reveal all the paths and all the methods, exactly what each sentient being needs, to benefit every sentient being, to bring them from happiness to happiness and to enlightenment. We will also have perfect power to reveal the methods, to bring them to enlightenment.

This is why, when you practice lamrim, even from the very beginning, everything is dedicated for all sentient beings. Listening, reflection and meditation, everything is dedicated for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment; everything is dedicated for all sentient beings, [including] our practice and our life, even before actualizing the path.

Therefore, we need to live our life, our actions of body, speech and mind, for sentient beings, to free them from suffering and bring them to enlightenment.

Here is a quote from the sutra of Arya Avalokiteshvara, the Well Condensed Dharma Sutra (Tib: Chho Yang Dagpar Düpai Do lä; ཆོས་ཡང་དག་པར་+ད་པ་།):

If you wish to achieve enlightenment quickly,
Don’t follow many dharmas.
Follow just one dharma—great compassion.
Whoever has great compassion,
That person will have the entire Buddhadharma in the palm of their hand, without effort.

So please write to me and I will write to you, so we will help each other.

With much love and prayers ...

My dear one,
How are you? You have been unbelievably excellent for so many years in serving me, doing the offerings, cleaning my rooms and so forth, and the upstairs lights are unbelievable. That you have done this without a break shows your great responsibility and that you are very happy to do it. You are really following the guru with thought and action, with a responsible mind, with a happy mind, and not thinking, “Oh, I have to do this; I have to do that.” You do it without feeling it is a burden and you also have excellent self-discipline. However, the only thing that needs to be developed is compassion for sentient beings. That is the source of happiness for every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura being, asura being and intermediate state being.

It is said in the sutra, Perfectly Contained Holy Dharma of Arya Compassionate One (འཕག་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་གྱི་ཆོས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡུད་པ་ལས):

If you wish to achieve enlightenment quickly, do not follow many dharmas. Follow one Dharma. What is that? That is great compassion. Whoever has great compassion has all the dharmas of the buddhas in the palm of their hands. They are achieved without effort. In short, great compassion is the root of all Dharma.

You can look at it in the Kangyur.

It is said in the Middle Gomrim [Stages of Meditation by Kamalashila]:

Even if you are standing or even if you are going, you should meditate on great compassion toward sentient beings.

This just mentions two activities as an example, but it means that all our actions—sleeping, eating, working, reading, writing, everything—should be done with compassion. This is the advice. Especially during that time, we ourselves will be at peace and have happiness, other sentient beings won’t receive harm from us and they will receive peace and happiness.

It is said in the first verse of the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, as you know well:

Determined to obtain the greatest possible benefit
From all sentient beings,
Who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel,
I shall hold them most dear at all times.

This means by cherishing not only the people who help us but even strangers, who neither help nor harm us, and especially by cherishing those whom harm us—of course, bodhicitta is the best of great compassion—what we get from that person is enlightenment, the total cessation of every mistake, every defilement and every subtle negative karma, and the completion of all realizations, sang gyä. That is what we get from that person who we call enemy, who abuses us, who harms us with their body, who harms us with their speech or who harms us with their mind.

As I have mentioned in many advices that were given to others, from every sentient being we receive all the past, present, and future happiness including enlightenment, even the happiness in a dream. I can repeat it again here. From this obscured, suffering sentient being, even the one who we call enemy, great compassion arises, wishing not only to free sentient beings from suffering but to take that responsibility upon ourselves. Then, from there, bodhicitta arises. From bodhicitta, a bodhisattva arises and from a bodhisattva, a buddha arises. A buddha has two actions, one is their own heart’s action and one is within us sentient beings—that is, when we create good karma. So, all our good karma is the buddhas’ actions. Now we can see that from that buddha’s actions, good karma, all the past, present, and future happiness, including enlightenment, happen.

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, who we take refuge in at the beginning of a practice, cause us to protect our karma, to liberate us from the lower realms, to free us from samsara and to practice the three higher trainings. And not only that, they cause us to achieve enlightenment by freeing us from being caught in the lower nirvana for eons and eons. Then they cause us to generate bodhicitta and practice the six paramitas and so forth. Even these extremely precious ones, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, come from every sentient being, from our friends, strangers and even from our enemies. Therefore, the numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, from whom we get all these benefits, come from this mosquito, from this tiniest insect near us on the table, in the wood or anywhere. Therefore, these sentient beings are most precious, most kind, most dear, wish-fulfilling for us. Even from this, it makes us think, “How dare I cause unhappiness to them?” There is no way to do that. It is totally opposite—we must cherish them the most. We can see that they are the most important, precious ones in our life.

As it says in that quotation from Gomrim, all day and night our motivation should be compassion. Whatever action we are doing, it is for sentient beings. We need to dedicate it for sentient beings.

The fourth verse of the Eight Verses says:

Whenever I see beings who are wicked in nature
And overwhelmed by negative actions and heavy suffering,
I hold such rare ones dear,
As if I had found a precious treasure.

“Evil in nature” means being very selfish, very ignorant, holding the concept of true existence and also being ignorant of Dharma, of karma, due to the wrong things we regard as right and the right things we regard as wrong. It also means being very impatient, angry, and so forth, having a bad nature.

When someone engages in heavy negative karma—like the heaviest negative karma which arises due to anger or heresy toward one’s own guru, giving up or renouncing the guru, or engaging in the heavy negative karmas of killing one’s father or mother, killing an arhat, drawing blood from a buddha, or causing disunity among the Sangha—by engaging in those heavy negative karmas, they harm themselves and harm others. Then they experience life-threatening diseases, such as leprosy, cancer, [COVID19] virus, AIDS and so forth, anything that is regarded as dangerous.

When we see someone like that, it is like finding a wish-granting treasure, something to cherish, so precious and difficult to find again. That means when we see someone with heavy suffering like this, strong compassion arises. Then, depending on that, bodhicitta arises. Then that makes us achieve enlightenment quickly. So, that is why we should regard those pitiful sentient beings as like having found a wish-granting treasure. By developing compassion, it becomes wish-granting. All our wishes, even our ultimate wishes, succeed quickly.

So, we can see now how that sentient being is most precious for us. It is like finding a diamond in the garbage in our house. Or nowadays, it is like finding a dzi [a type of precious stone or agate bead] in the garbage, from which we can get many millions and millions of dollars. It is like that.

This subject is very important. It is not just to read about very easily. It is to think about well and to feel it, not just reading it, blah, blah, blah, then we are finished. It is not like that. We should feel it and we should realize that every sentient being is most precious. We need to do that, including myself. We have to know that [we can become a] buddha by generating great compassion and bodhicitta, as I mentioned before, for this sentient being, for this tiniest insect, for this very, very tiny insect or for the person who makes us angry or who bothers us.

Buddha made charity of his holy body, his limbs, eyes and head to other sentient beings for three countless great eons. He not only gave his body to the five tigers who were dying in Nepal and later became his disciples in Sarnath when he turned the first Dharma wheel, from where the basic teachings of Buddhism started. Buddha also practiced morality with much hardship for three countless great eons for this tiny insect, even a tick, or for this person who we get angry with or who gets angry with us. Buddha practiced patience for three countless great eons, and he practiced perseverance for eons according to the number of drops of the ocean for this one sentient being to generate bodhicitta and to bring them to enlightenment. He was able to bear hardships and to have perseverance for that sentient being.

Then Buddha practiced meditation for three countless great eons for this sentient being. And he practiced wisdom for three countless great eons for this tiniest being or this human being, this person whom we hate or who hates us, who harms us.

Then, by completing the merits of virtue and the merits of wisdom, by completing the six paramitas, Buddha achieved the rupakaya and dharmakaya, the enlightened holy body and holy mind. He was able to enlighten numberless sentient beings [in the past], is enlightening them now and will enlighten them in the future, including us. That also includes us; Buddha is enlightening us.

All that came from Buddha practicing the six paramitas for three countless great eons for this tiniest insect or for that person. So now Buddha is able to bring us to enlightenment. We have to recognize that. Since Buddha did that, how dare we harm that sentient being? By generating compassion, we should only help them and not harm them. It is impossible to even say bad words or hurting words to that person. We only say pleasing words, only most pleasing words.

Now the numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha and all the statues, stupas and scriptures that we read, that we do prostrations to, in order to purify our obscurations and negative karmas and to achieve enlightenment, all this came from where? It came from this tiny insect or this person who we get angry with or who gets angry with us, who harms us. Therefore, their kindness to us is like the limitless sky. So, this is the reality, their kindness.

And this tiniest insect or the person whom we are angry with or who is angry with us, who harms us, who we call enemy, the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas cherish them the most. They cherish them the most. The numberless buddhas became enlightened for this tiny insect or for this person. And the bodhisattvas are attaining the path to enlightenment for this tiniest insect or this person. They all cherish them the most, as most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling. Therefore, how dare we hurt them even with words? We can only speak nice, kind, pleasant, sweet words that give them much happiness.

It is said in the teachings of Buddha, and as Nagarjuna explained in Praise to Satisfying Sentient Beings (v. 6): 

དེས་ན་སེམས་ཅན་ཕན་པ་བྱས་ན་ང་ལ་མཆོད་པའི་མཆོག །
སེམས་ཅན་གནོད་པ་བྱས་པ་ང་ལ་ཤིན་ཏུ་གནོད་པའི་མཆོག །
བདེ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ང་དང་སེམས་ཅན་མཚུངས་པར་མྱོང་བས་ན། །
སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་འཚེ་བར་བྱེད་དེ་ང་ཡི་སློབ་མ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཡིན། །

Therefore, if you benefit sentient beings, it is the supreme offering to me.
If you harm the sentient beings, it is the supreme extreme harm to me.
Since I and sentient beings experience happiness and suffering in a similar way,
How can those who are harming sentient beings be my disciples?

So here, “I and sentient beings experience happiness and suffering in a similar way” doesn’t mean Buddha has suffering. That would mean Buddha is not free from karma. It is not that. It means that just as we sentient beings want to be happy and free from suffering, Buddha has exactly the same wish for us. Buddha’s compassion and loving kindness for us is a hundred thousand times more than how much compassion and loving kindness we have for ourselves.

So, can you imagine how much Buddha wishes sentient beings to have happiness? It is most unbelievable. Can you imagine how much Buddha wishes us to be free from suffering? It is most unbelievable. You have to understand that. So this quotation is very important. You should know it by heart and remember it in everyday life.

The Bodhicaryavatara (v. 6.113) says:

སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་དང་རྒྱལ་བ་ལས། །
སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་འགྲུབ་འདྲ་བ་ལ། །
རྒྱལ་ལ་གུས་བྱ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ། །
སེམས་ཅན་ལ་མིན་ཅི་ཡི་ཚུལ། །

The qualities of a buddha are accomplished similarly
From sentient beings and the buddhas.
So why do you not respect sentient beings
In the same way that you respect the buddhas?

In the teachings of Nagarjuna, based on the Buddha’s teachings, Praise to Satisfying Sentient Beings (v. 4, lines 1 and 2), it says:

སེམས་ཅན་ཕན་པ་ཆུང་ཡང་དེས་ནི་མཆོད་པ་འབྱུང་འགྱུར་ཏེ། །
གང་གི་ཡིད་ནི་མགུ་བར་བྱེད་པ་མཆོད་པ་ཡིན་པས་སོ། །

Even if the benefit to sentient beings is small, it becomes an offering to the buddhas.
Whatever satisfies the minds of sentient beings becomes an offering.

The commentary says that anyone who satisfies sentient beings’ minds is satisfying the minds of the buddhas. That is why it becomes an offering to the buddhas. That means that if we are able to make sentient beings’ minds happy, that makes the buddhas’ holy minds very happy, and that is why it becomes an offering to them.

The verse continues (lines 3 and 4):

གནོད་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཅན་ནམ་གཞན་ལ་རྣམ་པར་འཚེ་བའང་རུང་། །
ལེགས་པར་སྦྱར་ནས་མཆོད་པར་གྱུར་ཀྱང་དེས་ནི་མཆོད་མི་འགྱུར། །

If it is harmful in nature or is harming others,
Even if it is well-prepared and offered, it won’t become an offering.

The commentary says that by harming sentient beings it doesn’t make the buddhas’ minds happy. For example, it is like a mother who feels her son is as precious as her heart, so if we harm that son, it won’t satisfy the loving mother’s mind and will cause the mother’s mind to be unhappy and displeased. Like that, even if we perform hundreds, thousands or millions of unbelievable offerings, very extensive offerings, and offer them to the buddhas, it won’t really become an offering because it doesn’t please the buddhas, just as the loving mother’s mind is displeased when we harm her most beloved child.

The same text (v. 5) also says:

ཆུང་མ་དག་དང་བུ་དང་འབྱོར་དང་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཆེན་པོ་དང་། །
ཤ་རྣམས་དང་ནི་ཁྲག་དང་ཚིལ་དང་མིག་དང་ལུས་རྣམས་ཀྱང་། །
གང་ལ་བརྩེ་བའི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ནས་ང་ཡིས་ཡོངས་བཏང་བ། །
དེས་ན་དེ་ལ་གནོད་པ་བྱས་ན་ང་ལ་གནོད་བྱས་འགྱུར། །

Under the control of compassion, I completely gave away
My wives, sons, wealth and a great king’s reign,
My flesh, blood, fat, eyes and bodies to sentient beings.
Therefore, if you harm them, you are harming me.

Under the control of compassion, Buddha completely gave away his wives, sons, wealth, a great king’s reign, his own flesh, blood, fat, eyes and even his bodies to every sentient being—to every single hell being, every single hungry ghost, every single animal, even the tiniest insect, every single human being, every single sura and asura, and every single intermediate state being. Therefore, if we harm a sentient being, we are harming Buddha.

You need to read more about bodhicitta and meditate on bodhicitta: the seven techniques of Mahayana cause and effect, the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought and the benefits of cherishing others. The most extensive text is the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. You can read through it and do extensive meditations on the self-cherishing thought.

The short way is to meditate on the eight disadvantages of making mistakes in relation to the guru; all those are shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought. We feel competition toward those who have the same qualities as we do—the same wealth or education or whatever. Toward those who are poorer than us, we feel pride. Toward those who have a higher education and wealth, we feel jealous. This self-cherishing thought makes our life unhappy all the time.

Also, you should meditate on karma. By creating negative karma, such as the ten negative karmas, the ripening result is suffering in the lower realms. In one teaching, it says we get reborn in the lower realms for one hundred eons. Then, there are the three sufferings that we experience when another good karma causes us to be born once again as a human being. Even then there is so much suffering. For example, in the place where we live or where we are born, there is lot of fighting, war, a lot of epidemic diseases and dangers to our life. That is to do with the negative karma of killing.

Then, there is experiencing the result similar to the cause. We experience again other people harming us as we harmed them in the past. Then we create negative karma again according to the past karma. For example, even in a human life, due to the habit, again we do the action of killing—which has the base, thought, action and goal—so again we create the four suffering results. It is said in the lamrim that the four types of sufferings that come from the ten nonvirtues are all the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought.

As I said before, if we check in our daily life, we will see that the self-cherishing thought is always there, thus our actions do not become beneficial to others, do not become a cause of enlightenment, do not even become a cause to be free from samsara and do not even become a cause of the happiness of future lives. Like that, it is unbelievable, unbelievable, so unbelievable. So especially if we watch our motivation in daily life, we can see how the self-cherishing thought is so harmful all the time.

Then meditate on the benefits of bodhicitta, cherishing others. Read all the benefits of bodhicitta that are explained in Bodhicaryavatara. Also read the book by Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche [The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta, published as Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea.] Then there are short verses, like the one His Holiness often says after taking the bodhisattva vows.

Whether we are in the city or at home, the minute our motivation becomes the self-cherishing thought, we only think of I, then all the sufferings come. We think, “I have this problem; I have that problem.” We never think of others’ suffering, only ourselves, and that tortures us. We exaggerate it and make it bigger, like a balloon, then we have so much unhappiness. Then we engage in negative karma to get happiness. But all that is totally wrong. It is only creating negative karma, the cause of suffering.

Right away we can see that when our motivation is cherishing others, whether we are in the street or at home, suddenly our mind becomes happy and we can smile at others. When suddenly we think, “The purpose of my life is that I’m here to serve other sentient beings,” then we have so much happiness. Then we can smile at others. Before, with the self-cherishing thought, we squeezed our face. It became wrinkled. Others can see from our face that we have so much concern for our own problems. We can see the function of the self-cherishing thought, like that.

Regarding some of the difficulties with people at the center, I gave you all the reasons why you should respect sentient beings the same as you respect the Buddha, as it says in Bodhicaryavatara. I mentioned many quotations, for example, how by making sentient beings happy that becomes the best offering to the buddhas. We should do that even for the beggars, for anybody.

I think that’s all. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.

Student’s Letter

Rinpoche, the reason for writing to you now is that a couple of weeks ago, just as the silent retreat part of the course had started, I went for a walk down the road and I found a dead possum that had recently been killed by a car. She was very badly squashed, with her inner organs and blood all over the road. I immediately felt so sad for her and I was reminded of all my Dharma training, especially my training with you, and instead of avoiding the horrible sight I went up very close to her so I could say Medicine Buddha mantras for her to have a good rebirth. As I came close to her, I noticed that there were some dead baby possums around her, but I also saw that there were some tiny baby possums near her that were still alive!

At this point, some other people from the course approached me and saw the dead mother possum. They were disgusted by the sight and could not look at it. I told them that there were babies that were alive and that I could not leave them there or they would die. The others were doubtful and did not encourage me to bring them back. One person spoke to me in quite an angry tone, saying "Are you going to look after them and feed them?" I found this lack of support quite perplexing and confusing, and I wondered whether the people who owned the retreat center would be angry if I brought the animals back there. I hesitated for a brief moment, not knowing what to do.

Rinpoche, I can honestly tell you that in that moment of hesitation, you were right there with me. Memories came back to me from the animal liberation ceremonies you led at Root Institute, with sentient beings you had saved from the butcher on your way there. Also, I have taken bodhisattva vows and other initiations with you several times, and I knew that these sentient beings were my responsibility, no matter what happened. I knew that if I brought them with me, they might still die, but also I knew that a nun at the center would be able to say all the prayers and mantras, so that if they died, they would have a good death and a better rebirth. These thoughts propelled me into action and I picked up all of the baby possums and put them in my sweater and walked back to the center, saying Medicine Buddha mantras and giving them reiki the whole way.

As soon as I got back, I took them to the nun and she took charge of the situation. We went to the office and the kind staff members found a syringe to feed them. We had to break our silence, and so did several other people who helped us. We decided that saving the lives of these four sentient beings was far more important that keeping silent! So we settled into a routine of taking turns to look after them. They had to be fed every two to three hours throughout the day and night, so we shared the job with a few other people who wanted to help….

Rinpoche, these four little possums have had such an impact on the people here at the retreat. Two of the people who were out walking with me on the day I found them have since come to me and said it was the most amazing thing they had seen, when I went so close to the dead mother to say mantras, and when I picked up the babies and took them home. They said it was a “real life” teaching of equanimity, compassion and loving kindness, which are some of the practices being taught here at the course. I explained to them that I didn't have a choice, and that if I had left the babies on the side of the road, they would have died. I told them that in my mind, that would have been the same as killing them myself.

We have explained to people many times about the teachings and training we have received from you, and about the practice of taking responsibility for bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment. One morning at breakfast, when one woman asked me about it, I told her how I had seen your face and felt your presence in that moment when I found them, and she was so moved that she burst into tears. Rinpoche, I thought that any Buddhist would have done the same thing, but it seems this is not the case. We have been reflecting on the immense, unfathomable benefit of having you as our teacher, guide and example.

Rinpoche, the nun has completed many prayers, mantras and practices for these four little sentient beings to be saved from the lower realms, especially on the first night that they were separated from their mother and we didn't know whether they would survive. Now, a few weeks later, they are all well and strong and eating on their own, and they have been shown so much love and care by many people here. One of the kind students has agreed to look after them until they are mature enough to survive on their own in the wild.

On behalf of all of the people involved here, we would like to offer saving the lives of these four sentient beings to your long life and perfect health. May you, our perfect, kind, holy guru, remain with us for a very long time and continue to teach us, your fortunate disciples. May all of your wishes be fulfilled.

With immense gratitude and love ...

Rinpoche's Response

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

What you did while you were in retreat, that was really a good retreat. You showed that you are able to see the suffering of others and then you showed your compassion, particular to the possums. By doing that you are able to purify so much negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths and you collect inconceivable merits, which causes you to achieve enlightenment quicker. Those animals are the most precious, most dear, most kind, wish-fulfilling ones, but most people would just throw them away, letting whatever happen to them.

The essence of Buddhism is to not harm sentient beings; that is according to Hinayana and in Mahayana, it is not only to not harm sentient beings but also to benefit sentient beings. On the basis of not harming, to benefit sentient beings. Then in tantra, on the basis of that, to benefit sentient beings quickly. That is why tantra was revealed by the Buddha (not Hindu tantra, but Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra). That is the quickest way to benefit sentient beings and to free the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and then on top of that, to bring them to full enlightenment, the peerless happiness—the total cessation of obscurations and total realizations of all the understanding, without the slightest mistake, so that we can do perfect works for sentient beings, and can guide the sentient beings. To do that, the quickest way is by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra.

To do that quickest, we need to achieve enlightenment in the quickest way, so that we can perfectly guide sentient beings without a single mistake. That is the very essence of Buddhism, all that Buddha revealed—the Hinayana, Paramitayana, Mahayana tantra—all these teachings are condensed into not giving harm to others and benefiting sentient beings. They are all condensed into these two instructions. That is what you are doing, so thank you very, very much. Thank you so much for saving those sentient beings from suffering.

It is also very good to recite mantras for them. This is also good for dying people, but you must recite the mantras loudly so they can hear, so that it plants the seed of enlightenment. If you recite quietly, which is normally what I see people do when they come into the hospital; they recite so quietly, and that’s OK, but if the sick people or the animals don’t hear the mantras clearly then it doesn’t plant the seed of enlightenment in their mind.

Furthermore, what people might think is most important, like sitting on a cushion and not talking, not eating, just sitting on the cushion and meditating, closing the eyes, they may think that this is the most important thing, but actually what you did is the most important thing.

For example, Asanga did retreat for a total of twelve years, trying to achieve Maitreya Buddha. He did some years of retreat but nothing happened. He didn’t see Maitreya Buddha so he gave up and left the retreat, then as he left he saw someone cutting a rock with a thread, rubbing the thread on the rock and in this way slowly cutting it, little by little. Asanga was inspired that even a thread could cut a rock, so he went back into retreat and did another three years’ retreat.

Again he left the retreat because nothing was happening and as he left  he saw a bird flying in and out of a hole in the rock to its nest. As the bird flew into the nest its wing touched the rock and slowly over time it had worn out the rock, so Asanga got inspired and thought, “Why then can’t I achieve Maitreya Buddha?” Then he decided to go back into retreat to achieve Maitreya Buddha.

After some years, again he gave up and left the retreat. As he left, he saw a drop of water coming from the ceiling of a cave and it had made a hole in the ground, just by the drops slowly falling over so many years. Again he got inspired and went back into retreat.

So for twelve years Asanga was in retreat but he didn’t see Maitreya Buddha, and again he gave up and left. When he went outside he saw a wounded dog on the road. The lower part of the dog was covered in maggots and the upper part of the dog was very aggressive, so with unbelievable, most unbelievable compassion, Asanga bent down and went to pick up the maggots with his tongue, so as not to hurt the maggots. First he cut flesh from his shin so that he could then spread the maggots on the flesh. As he bent down with his tongue out, he kept stretching down but he still hadn’t touched the dog, so he opened his eyes and instead of the dog he saw Maitreya Buddha. Then he suddenly grabbed Maitreya Buddha and said, “Why didn’t you come before, when I was doing retreat?” Maitreya Buddha said, “I was always with you in the cave, but you didn’t see me, in fact you kept spitting on me.” Then Maitreya Buddha showed Asanga where the spit was on his robes.

This tells me that normally when we are doing retreat, the deity is always inside the room, always with us, but we don’t see it because our mind is so obscured, foggy, just as we can’t see any cars on the road when it’s very foggy. Our mind becomes like that. Just because we don’t see the deity, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It is totally wrong to think that.

Maitreya Buddha asked Asanga, “What do you want?” Asanga replied that he wanted teachings, so Maitreya Buddha took Asanga to Tushita—not the Tushita god realm, but Tushita pure land, which is above the god realm. This is just like a city and a monastery, so the monastery is some distance from the city, and like that, Tushita pure land is above the Tushita god realm.

Fifty years (in human life) passed, but in Tushita pure land it was just one morning, and Maitreya Buddha gave teachings on the five scriptures (Abhisamayalamkara, Mahayanasutralankara, Madhyantavibhaga, Dharmadharmatavibhaga and Uttaratantra Shastra.) Then Asanga returned to the human realm and wrote the five commentaries and so on. Since that time the teachings have prevailed in the world and so many numberless sentient beings have achieved the path, becoming arhats, bodhisattvas and buddhas, right up to now, and sentient beings are still actualizing the path by integrating [those teachings] into the lamrim.

All those benefits, the incredible, incredible benefits, all the skies of benefits to numberless sentient beings—wow, wow, wow—all that came from Maitreya Buddha’s teachings and that came from Asanga’s compassion. So you can see from one person’s compassion what happened—numberless sentient beings achieved enlightenment and are still achieving enlightenment. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. That should be related to you, so you should understand the benefits that you get. By generating compassion to that sentient being, that is the way to achieve enlightenment. From Maitreya generating compassion for that wounded dog, then numberless sentient beings have achieved enlightenment.

Ngagpa Chöpawa, one of the real yogis of Heruka, was going to Oddiyana to do the practice of tantra, the very last tantric conduct. On the way there was a river and at the edge of the river was a lady full of leprosy, covered in pus and blood and so miserable. The lady said, “Please take me the other side of the river,” but the yogi didn’t pay attention and just went straight across.

Later his disciple, who was a monk living in thirty-six vows, came along. The lady asked, “Please take me to the other side of the river.” The disciple had unbelievable compassion and completely renounced himself, so he took her across without doubt, although normally as a monk he could not touch a lady. Without any fear of her leprosy or the pus and blood, without any hesitation, he immediately put her on his back and carried her across the river. When he reached the middle of the river, his negative karma was purified. Unbelievable, unbelievable mountains of negative karma were purified by carrying the lady, by dedicating his life to her. So in the middle of the river he saw that the lady was Dorje Phagmo, the enlightened being, and she took him, without him needing to die, she took him straight to Dagpa Kacho, Vajrayogini’s pure land, so that means he got enlightened. So the disciple probably became enlightened before the teacher, the great yogi. It’s possible.

In the same way, when his negative karma was not purified Asanga didn’t see Maitreya Buddha, even though Maitreya Buddha was always in the cave with him, but when he saw the wounded dog and generated compassion, his negative karma was purified and then he saw Maitreya Buddha. In the same way, at first Getsul Tsimbulwa just saw an ugly lady with leprosy and so much suffering, but then he generated compassion and his negative karma was purified, and then he saw Dorje Phagmo.

In guru devotion practice one of the last outlines is that there is nothing definite in one’s own view. That means if we perceive in our view an ordinary being who is suffering and ugly, because of that we see that being as ugly and ordinary, but they are not necessarily what we see, what we perceive. What appears to us is the opposite of reality. What we see is not necessarily that; in reality it is something else, opposite. So there is nothing definite in our view.

This is a very helpful meditation on guru devotion. This is very important advice. Seeing the guru in ordinary aspect, having the appearance of ignorance, anger, pride, a jealous mind and so forth, it doesn’t mean actually having that. Buddha said that he will manifest as all kinds, in ordinary aspect, even though he doesn’t have those problems and in reality he is Buddha. So this is a great, great teaching, a most important practice in our life, especially with guru devotion. It is most important to meditate on this, to not arise heresy, anger and wrong view, and in order to achieve enlightenment the quickest way, to be able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.

So you can see that generating compassion for even one sentient being is the quick path to enlightenment. You have to know that this is the way to practice Buddhism; this becomes the real retreat. Whether a retreat is a real retreat or not depends on the motivation, so this one is really the best retreat.

Thank you very much. A billion, zillion thanks to all. Please share this news with everybody who helped. Thank you very much.

Please continue to live your life with the thought of bodhicitta.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, and yes, now this is the twenty-fifth [year]. The time has gone so fast; it’s like a short time ago. I want to offer a billion, zillion, numberless thanks to you for following my wishes and advice in taking this healing meditation class.

As you know, remember how we did the first course, not only taking care of the body but also taking care of the mind, where all the problems come from. Mental and physical, samsara and nirvana, enlightenment and hell, happiness and problems, all come from the mind. That is the creator. In the world many people believe [they were] created by God, and people with little intelligence say suffering is created by God to punish them.

My question is: if God didn’t create sentient beings, then God doesn’t have to punish them, so why do they suffer? Maybe God felt lonely if he didn’t create sentient beings.

As you know, caring for sentient beings, compassion for sentient beings, cherishing sentient beings, opens the door [to limitless qualities.] As it says in Lama Chöpa [LC 92] by the great enlightened being Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen, and as the Buddha also said,

The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these transmigratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.

This is the best Dharma practice to help others and the best meditation, the best way to practice, the best healing. To develop the good heart and let them practice this is the best psychology, the best meditation, the best Dharma, the best everything. It is the quick way to achieve enlightenment, the quick way to free sentient beings from obscurations and bring them to full enlightenment quickly.

Below are two stories, examples of this. There are many other stories, many that I don’t know, these are just examples.

Asanga meditated in a cave for twelve years and tried to achieve Maitreya Buddha, but nothing happened. After twelve years he came down and saw a wounded dog covered in maggots on the road. He felt unbearable compassion, so he cut flesh from his thigh in order to pick up the maggots and put them on his flesh. He thought if he picked them up with his fingers he might hurt them, so he thought he must pick up each maggot with his tongue. He closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue to pick up the maggots. Suddenly in front of him was Maitreya Buddha, not the wounded dog.

Before, his mind was obscured and he only saw a wounded dog, but after generating unbelievable compassion he purified so much negative karma he had collected in the past. It was unbelievable purification, by generating compassion, and then he was able to see Maitreya Buddha. He immediately grabbed Maitreya’s robes and asked Maitreya Buddha why he had not come sooner, as he had tried to meditate for twelve years in the cave. He asked why he hadn’t seen Maitreya, and Maitreya Buddha replied, “I was there the whole time, but you could not see me. You know the place where you spat in the cave? That’s where I was.” Then Maitreya showed him the stains of spit on his robes.

The other story is about the great yogi Ngagpa Chöpawa who was going to Odi for the tantric practice of action. On the way, near the river, he saw a lady who was completely black in color, covered with leprosy and with pus coming out of her sores. She could not walk and asked him to take her across the river, but he ignored her.

After some time, his disciple Getsul Tsimbulwa came. He was not a gelong but a getsul, with thirty-six vows. The woman asked him the same thing, to take her across the river. Even though he was a monk and was not meant to touch women, he felt unbelievable compassion the minute he saw her, and immediately carried her across on his back. Because he generated unbelievable compassion for her, even though she was dirty and covered with leprosy, even without crossing the whole river, his negative karma was purified and in the middle of the river he saw her as Dorje Phagmo, an enlightened deity and she took him to the pure land of Dagpa Khachö.

Since our mind is ordinary, obscured, there are many things we see as ordinary, when they are not.

Please think about this and please also show this to ___, so she can understand how important it is to help from the heart.

Please enjoy. I hope you enjoy the cards.

With much love and prayers ...

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I am so happy you have more feelings now for the animals and insects, seeing their suffering.

Compassion for others is the basis of achieving enlightenment.

Without bodhicitta there is no enlightenment. Without bodhicitta, the highest you can achieve is lower nirvana.

With much love and prayer ...

Tell the person who has cancer that when I was with Lama Yeshe, he cooked and took care of me while I just sat and did prayers and wandered around the world, looking like I was meditating.

We were on the way to Los Angeles to check in to the hospital where Lama was meant to have an operation, but they did not operate because it was too late, they said. They hired a small airplane and on the way, on the plane I had to clean Lama’s holy kaka maybe two times. That made Lama very happy. It looks like Lama did that just for me, so that I could purify many eons of negative karma. Maybe this is why Lama was especially happy. So this is the quick path to enlightenment.

Tell [the sick person’s carer] that the Buddha also practiced charity. He gave his life, his eyes and his limbs numberless times for three countless eons. He practiced pure morality, having all the hardships for three countless eons, and he even cut his own limbs. He practiced perseverance, concentration and wisdom for three countless eons and he completed the two merits—the merits of wisdom and method—and then he achieved the two kayas of the holy body and mind. This was all for us sentient beings to be fully free from samsara and to bring us to full enlightenment.

Therefore, taking care of the person with cancer, cleaning his kaka and pipi, is like this, collecting the most extensive merits and for purification. It’s a quick way to achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings, therefore he is so precious, so kind for us.

Thank you.

Also, you should know that even though he is not cherishing numberless sentient beings, even cherishing one sentient being brings you to enlightenment. For example, Arya Asanga did not see Maitreya Buddha even after twelve years of retreat. Then he left to come down the road and he saw a black dog totally wounded, full of maggots. Arya Asanga felt so much compassion for the dog that he cut flesh from his thigh—not somebody else’s thigh—to put the maggots on. Then he stretched out his tongue and closed his eyes, but his tongue did not touch the maggots on the dog. When he opened his eyes he saw Maitreya Buddha. He grasped Maitreya Buddha and said, “How come for so long I did not see you when I was in retreat?” Maitreya Buddha said, “I was always there in the cave with you.” He showed Arya Asanga where he spat in the cave, but actually he was spitting on Maitreya Buddha’s robe.

Maitreya Buddha asked him, “What do you want?” Arya Asanga asked for teachings, then Maitreya Buddha took him to the pure land of Tushita, where one morning is like fifty years in the human realm. Maitreya Buddha gave teachings and when Arya Asangha came down he wrote five treatises of teachings, like Abhisamayalamkara [Ornament for Clear Realizations] and so forth. After a long time Lama Atisha wrote the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which contains the whole path. As a result, for so many years up to now, many beings have achieved full enlightenment and are free from samsara and are able to free many other beings from samsara and bring them to full enlightenment.

What I am saying is that numberless sentient beings have achieved full enlightenment from those teachings up to now, and have actualized the whole path to full enlightenment. This came from Arya Asanga generating great compassion for that wounded dog.

Another story is in the commentary of Vajrayogini. Getsul Tsembulwa was the disciple of a great yogi called Ngagpa Chöpawa [Krishnacharya.] Getsul Tsembulwa was a monk living in thirty-six vows. First his teacher came, because he was going for his last conduct (tantric conduct) in Oddiyana, which is close to Buxa, where I lived for eight years. There was a big river and at the river’s edge there was a totally poor lady, full of leprosy disease. Pus and blood was coming out of her and she was very dirty. She asked, “Please take me to the other side of the river.” The great yogi Ngagpa Chöpawa did not listen and he went straight across the river without helping her.

Then his disciple, Getsul Tsembulwa, came and she asked him the same thing. As soon as he saw her, unbelievable compassion arose. He did not care at all that by touching her he might also get the leprosy disease, and also that she was a woman and therefore a monk could not touch her. So he immediately carried her across the river on his back. When he was only halfway across the river, because of the compassion he had generated, he purified so much negative karma and obscurations. Then the lady was no longer that dirty ordinary lady, but actually Dorje Phagmo, who is the same as Varayogini. She was Dorje Phagmo from the beginning, but he could not see that before. Now he saw Dorje Phagmo and without the need to leave this body, she took him to the pure land of Dagpa Khachö where you can definitely become enlightened.

So you see, definitely you can become enlightened by generating compassion, such as to that lady who was unbelievably dirty and sick. There are numberless stories that show this.

Now [the carer] should think that the person he is caring for and cleaning up is the most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one. Even if it is only one person.

Destroy cherishing the I, which is the source of all the suffering of yourself and the source of all other sentient beings’ sufferings.

Please take care well and think about these teachings, understand them well. Therefore, generating compassion for these people who are very sick with cancer and so on, cleaning their kaka and pipi, and serving them is extremely important. It’s very important even for this life, for all the wishes to succeed and then for hundreds of thousands and millions of lives, to have unbelievable success and to quickly actualize the path and achieve enlightenment.

The bodhisattva Thogme Zangpo said:

All the suffering comes from desiring happiness for oneself. The fully completed realization, the total cessation of all the obscurations, comes from the thought of benefiting others (cherishing others).

Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa said:

For profit, offer the victory to sentient beings. Why? Because all the collections of goodness come from that sentient being. All the loss, take it on you, by yourself, because all the harms and sufferings come from cherishing the I. Take any defeat and any loss; take it on oneself.