Daily Practice Advice

My very dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Usually if you get sick after doing tong-len practice then your tong-len practice is regarded as extremely successful. You visualized taking suffering and the cause of suffering from others and giving away your merits and then you got sick, so that is regarded as extremely successful.

This may not happen all the time. If it happens all the time it’s even more successful, incredible, like finding a jewel. It’s more precious than finding a jewel, even a wish-granting jewel, which cannot be compared to diamonds, silver and so forth. If you have a wish-granting jewel it means you can get whatever enjoyment you need in this life by praying to that jewel.

Preliminaries

Now, the preliminary practices to purify negative karma created since beginningless rebirth and to collect extensive merit so that you can get enlightened for sentient beings:

• 400,000:  Refuge
• 100,000:  Tsa-tsas.  Make three types of tsa-tsas; the saviors of three types [Tib: rik sum gönpo] are Vajrapani, Manjushri and Chenrezig. [Lama Tsongkhapa is said to embody all three types.]
• 300,000:  Prostrations by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas.
• 500,000:  Vajrasattva. Don’t worry about numbers. When you have time you can do more and when you don’t have time, do less. This way you will gradually finish. For example, the flea jumps but doesn’t reach far, however, the turtle goes slowly but reaches very far.
• 300,000:  Mandala offerings. When you begin the session, at the beginning you offer one, two or three extensive mandalas then what you count is the seven-heap mandala offering. Lama Tsongkhapa explained in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lamrim Chenmo) with only a few words: “When you offer mandala, the quality and quantity of the offerings you visualize are most important. The objects should be the most rich quality and also numberless.”
• From time to time read the Sutra of Golden Light, even from now, for all your success and to liberate sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.

Don’t worry about the number of preliminary practices, that’s advice generally for your life. That’s how to make your life most meaningful, not just for you but for numberless sentient beings—numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asuras. That’s how to make your life happiest, even if death happens before finishing that number. As long as it’s done, try to do your best.

Deities

Tara and Guhyasamaja, Vajrakilaya. Choose whichever deity you have a stronger feeling for, a closer feeling to be your deity. If you haven’t received the initiation you can try to receive it. I have received the Vajrakilaya initiation but I haven’t done the retreat so you need to receive the initiation from other lamas like His Holiness Sakya Trizin.

Lamrim

Your main lamrim is the Middle Lamrim. Read it twice from beginning to end. The things you don’t understand mark with orange color as an offering like painting a buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects. In other words, mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. Also you can write down all the questions you have, everything you don’t know, in a book and then discuss these afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters program. If there is someone who has studied well then they can help.

Practice effortful meditation on the lamrim outline for the number of months indicated. Repeat this three times and then do effortless meditation.

With much love and prayers...

If you are my student, then you must do the morning motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). Do not just read the words, but relate them to your life. You must recite these words and if after reciting the words your mind doesn’t change, then you are not doing it [correctly.]

In addition, I want you to recite these two verses as a dedication and to memorize them:

Whenever someone has an angry or devotional thought arise
Just by looking at me,
May that attitude alone become a cause that always
Accomplishes all the temporary and ultimate purposes of that being.

Whenever others criticize me with their speech,
Harm me with their bodies,
Or likewise insult me behind my back,
May all of them be fortunate to achieve great enlightenment.

You must recite these two verses and if these don’t change your mind, then you are not thinking about the meaning. Therefore, use these two verses often as your dedication. This is most important to recite; it’s good to recite and to remember by heart.

You need to remember that you yourself have harmed numberless sentient beings from beginningless rebirths numberless times. You have given every kind of harm numberless times to the numberless sentient beings. Now what you experience—the way others harm you, the way they treat you, anything unpleasant—is the result of your negative karma. So you have to recognize the shortcomings of your self-cherishing thought.

As the Kadampa geshe says:

Put all the blame to one. Toward others, meditate on their kindness.

Put all the blame to one—this is the self-cherishing thought. Even if someone sees you and dislikes you, thinks you are bad, or if anyone criticizes you or kicks you out of a center and so on, think it is the result of past karma, because you harmed others, numberless sentient beings, numberless times from beginningless rebirth.

Anything unpleasant you receive back is the result of your bad karma, your self-cherishing thought. This is what is to be abandoned in order to actualize bodhicitta.

In my morning motivation, it mentions, May I be used by sentient beings. This means you dedicate yourself to be the servant of sentient beings, to be totally used by sentient beings. This is what makes you achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. Otherwise if you have too much ego, then you go to hell. If that is what you want, if you want that, then it is a totally different situation; if you would like to go to hell. But if you don’t like to go to hell, then you need to change the mind, to renounce the ego.

As the Kadampa geshe mentions, the self-cherishing thought is something to be thrown away—a long distance—immediately. But others are to be taken into your heart and cherished immediately.

With much love and prayers...

My dear one,
I didn’t get to reply to you earlier. It is very good that you have quite a lot of prayers to do. Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga is recommended; it is very good as a daily practice. Within that, there’s The Foundation of All Good Qualities, which contains the whole path and gives the imprints for the path to enlightenment. If you do this every day, sooner or later you are bound to have realizations and achieve enlightenment; to liberate numberless sentient beings from the ocean of suffering and bring them to enlightenment.

You also mentioned reciting the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. It is also very important to do the Vajrasattva practice with the four remedial powers, so that it becomes a perfect confession.

One very important practice that is missing, is prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas in the morning. Do this in the morning, but it’s good if you can do it more often. If possible, do the prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas before your Vajrasattva practice and mantra recitation.

In the morning, you can start with reciting the names of the buddhas. Repeat each name three times—that’s very good. At least do that with your prostrations. Meanwhile in the evening, just repeat the names once. If you can do it in the evening, just recite the names only one time, but do the last part when you finish, otherwise it doesn’t become a complete confession practice.

Also, you can do the practice of Guru Devotion with the Nine Attitudes and integrate this into your practice of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. How do you do this? When you recite the Foundation of All Good Qualities, recite the first stanza, then do the Nine Attitudes. Integrate the practice like that.

If you are reciting the long version of the Six-session Guru Yoga, then integrate the Nine Attitudes into this practice where it talks about the guru, “… seeing this I forsake my body and even my life; Bless me to practice what will only please you.” You can do the Nine Attitudes here.

Your main deity is Vajrayogini. What you need to understand is: to become enlightened and to lead all sentient beings to full enlightenment, you should learn the complete path of Vajrayogini.

Do the longer Vajrayogini sadhana, but for the other sadhanas do the short ones. This way, you can spend more time meditating on Vajrayogini while chanting mantras. Chant the Vajrayogini mantra, not only while you are doing the sadhana but when you are walking around. Then when you die you will be able to easily remember the mantra of Vajrayogini, and Vajrayogini will bring you to the pure land.

Therefore, the most important practice now is to develop the mind on the path to enlightenment. Why? Because your main purpose in life is to liberate numberless sentient beings from the ocean of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.

For that, you need to achieve enlightenment first. Therefore you need to actualize the graduated path; therefore you need to meditate and train the mind in the path.

One meditation you should do every day is guru devotion, but how long you do it for depends on your daily time. Sometimes you may spend longer doing it, at other times you may do it for a shorter time, depending on your time in the daily life. But you should do the daily guru devotion meditation until you have generated stable realization.

Train the mind in the graduated path of the lower capable being – that means from perfect human rebirth to karma. Do this for five months. Spend one week for each meditation topic up to karma, for example, then come back and repeat again.

Spend two months on the graduated path of the middle capable being, following the outline commentary for your meditation. You can use Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, Geshe Sopa’s lamrim text or Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim teachings.

Spend three months on the graduated path of the higher capable being, three months on bodhicitta, and three months on great insight, emptiness.

These topics are the main focus of your meditation during those times. After that, start again from the perfect human rebirth, and continue one-by-one. You can spend weeks, months and even years meditating on these topics until you achieve realizations.

So this is the main practice, how to develop the mind in the path to enlightenment; in other words: how to make it possible to attain enlightenment.

Each year do retreat with whatever time you can find—days or months. Do a particular preliminary retreat combined with lamrim, or lamrim retreat combined with the preliminary practice. Also, from time to time do deity retreat, tantric retreat.

Practices:

• 200,000: Refuge
• 300,000: Generating the Four Immeasurable Thoughts. These are not just words for reciting; you should think about the meaning.
• 10,000: Vajrasattva mantra
• 50,000: Dorje Khadro Fire Puja
• 50,000: Mandala offerings
• 300,000: Guru yoga (on the basis of doing Lama Chöpa/Guru Puja, but mainly Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, then count the migtsema mantras 300,000 times. If you are in retreat, do Lama Chöpa in the morning, then count the migtsema.) This guru yoga practice is very important.

Write the Diamond Cutter Sutra from time to time, but you don’t have to rush. You don’t have to finish it quickly, unless you have time. Write some of it each day. This also leaves positive imprints to realize emptiness.

By doing these practices , you make it possible to achieve lamrim realizations. This is by:

• Doing preliminary practices to purify obstacles;
• Creating extensive merits;
• Training the mind in guru devotion—seeing the guru as Buddha with full effort, by applying the Buddha’s quotations and reasonings.
• Then the fourth one is the actual body, meditating on the path, as I have already explained to you.

Practices:

• 100,000:  Refuge
• 300,000:  Generating the Four Immeasurables with prayer
• 2,000:  Tsa-tsas. The lamrim merit field comes out for the tsa-tsas, but Peter hasn’t made it yet. My suggestion is to develop large photographs of the merit field or print the merit field by making large photocopies or using a wood block. Some you can do by making photos, some by printing and some by photocopying, like this.
• 50,000:  Guru yoga on the basis of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga counting migtsema. This can also be done based on Lama Chöpa, or do some with Lama Chöpa and the rest with Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. You can do one session of Lama Chöpa once a day with migtsema and the other sessions can be Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. It means you are doing a few sessions each day.
• 500,000:  Water bowl offerings. If you go to Kopan, every year they do water bowl offerings with many people together. They perform water bowls together and everybody offers at the same time; so you are offering many bowls, even though they are offered together. In Tibet, one lama used to do like this in a tent, offering many thousands of bowls. So in this way, you can finish the water bowls very quickly. You can do some yourself at your house or somewhere. Do more when there is free time and at other times do whatever you can.

For five years, read the Golden Light Sutra one day and the next day read the Sanghata Sutra. You can read the sutra all at once or read half and then stop and continue later, but you should finish it in one day. You can take breaks between reading.

If you are working, one way is to get up early and do half in the morning, then do the other half at night. It also depends what work you do—some jobs you can read while you are at work. Also, it goes faster and faster the more you read.

But the most important thing is to read with bodhicitta. Think, “For every six realm sentient being to be free from the oceans of suffering and the causes of suffering, karma and delusion and to bring them to enlightenment by myself alone, I must achieve full enlightenment. Therefore I am going to read the sutra.” That means you are reading this even for the ants you see inside and outside on the road, and the dogs and cats and worms you see inside and outside the house. Everyone. Even the tiniest insect you can see only through the microscope. How incredible that is. Pray for every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal and so forth.

For effortful experience of lamrim

For effortful experience in order to gain effortless meditation:

• Five months: Guru devotion
• Two months: Lower path
• Three months: Middle path
• One month: Bodhicitta
• Five months: Emptiness

Then do the effortless experience of that, no matter how many months or years it takes. First, guru devotion, following the outlines of the lamrim or Essential Nectar until you have stable realization of guru devotion—seeing the guru as buddha 100 percent, from your heart. Not just for a few days, but for months and years. Stable.

Then, of course, while you are doing effortful experience, realization can happen at that time. Then there is renunciation of this life, renunciation of future lives and bodhicitta. Go step-by-step until you have stable realization. After that, shamatha.

The five months of meditation on emptiness is to get effortful realization, but every day do some meditation on emptiness, using the Heart Sutra or the Four Analyses, or one stanza or verse. There are different ways to meditate on emptiness.

After you have the realization of bodhicitta, meditate on tantra—generation stage and a little bit on completion stage, just for imprints.

Overall, the minimum commitment for life is to do one lamrim prayer every day, for example Lama Tsongkhapa’s Foundation of All Good Qualities, Pabongka Rinpoche’s Calling the Guru from Afar, or Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymns of Experience, in order to leave the imprint of the path. Then, whichever is your deity, read the graduated path of the deity. This comes usually at the end of the sadhana. You should recite this every day to leave an imprint.

Deity: Yamantaka or Secret Vajrapani.

Billions and zillions of thanks for doing the Thirty-five Buddhas and Vajrasattva.

My very dear one,
Thank you for your very kind letter and sorry for the long delay in replying. What you have been doing is excellent.

I am very happy to hear about the preliminary practices you have been doing so far, this is so good. I am not sure if you have been doing the short or long version of the prayer Calling the Guru From Afar. If it is the long version then this is very good, because it contains the entire lamrim, as well as the tantric path. This is excellent to recite, as it makes one’s life so worthwhile and fortunate, and it is also the foundation for developing devotion.

It is very important to recite one lamrim prayer each day, such as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, the Foundation of all Good Qualities or Calling the Guru from Afar (the long version). Also, recite the lamrim prayer that is contained at the end of your deity’s long sadhana, which contains all the stages of the path—the common and tantric path. Each time you recite it, this leaves the imprint of the whole path—the common path and the tantric path. So, each time you read it mindfully, it brings you closer to realizing the path, closer to enlightenment and closer to liberating all sentient beings from the eons of samsara’s suffering, which is the purpose of our life.

In this life we need to benefit sentient beings, to work for sentient beings; this is the real meaning of life. For this, we need to practice Dharma, to achieve the path and cease all the numberless sufferings and causes: karma and delusion, and the negative imprints. So, the motivation of our life is to be able to liberate all sentient beings from the oceans of sufferings in samsara and enlighten them.

The other reason why we should benefit other sentient beings is that we need their help in order to achieve happiness. Similarly, numberless sentient beings also need our help to achieve their happiness. We need their help and they need our help.

Now, we have all the opportunities to help—we have met the Buddhadharma and a virtuous friend who has revealed the path to enlightenment, the Dharma. We have received a perfect human body with the eight freedoms and the ten richnesses, and we have the opportunity to practice Dharma. We can practice Dharma whenever we wish, and we can listen to, reflect and meditate on, and attain the path to liberation and enlightenment.

So many sentient beings have not had the opportunity to meet the Dharma and due to that, every day, every hour, every minute and every second, whatever action they do with their body, speech and mind, is all negative karma, because their motivation is either anger, ignorance or mostly attachment—clinging to this life. All their motivations are nonvirtuous and all actions done with this motivation of ignorance and mostly attachment, clinging to this life, become negative karma. Every second, every moment, it is as if they are stepping over the cliffs to the lower realms, constantly possessed by the sickness of the three types of suffering: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and all-pervasive suffering. They are totally possessed by the demon spirit possession of the three poisonous minds, with no freedom at all.

Now we have this opportunity to help sentient beings, by having the opportunity to practice Dharma and to attain enlightenment. We have the responsibility to liberate all sentient beings from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to enlightenment. All our past happiness since beginningless rebirths, our present and future happiness—not only samsara’s happiness but ultimate happiness: liberation and enlightenment—and every good thing we have experienced, has been received due to the kindness of each and every sentient being. Now, what is most important is for us to develop ourselves, to study the lamrim and to understand and achieve the lamrim by meditating on it—this is what is most beneficial for all sentient beings.

It is very important to read one lamrim text from beginning to end every day. Practice one meditation on guru devotion each day, following the outlines from the lamrim. Continue like this until you have stable realizations that come from deep in your heart, that one guru is the same as all the buddhas and all the buddhas are the same as your guru. After that, you need to stabilize this realization, so continue to meditate a little bit each day on guru devotion, no matter how many weeks, months, years or lifetimes it takes.

The other important thing is to spend one session a day meditating on the lamrim, starting from the beginning, from the perfect human rebirth. Maybe spend one month mainly focusing your session on that, then the next month on its usefulness and one month on the difficulties of receiving it, etc. Keep going like this up to the topic of karma. Keep doing this until you achieve all the realizations, step by step. If you can, spend one month focusing on each of the different lamrim topics, until your realizations are stable. Really try to develop the realizations. If you do not have realizations at the end, then start again from the beginning of the lamrim. Even after you have achieved stable realizations, you still need to meditate a little bit each day.

Every day, try to do one meditation on emptiness, using the four-point analysis, the short or elaborate version. You can use different techniques to meditate on emptiness. Also, you can use the Heart Sutra, reciting it slowly, meditating on the meaning. In this way, each day that you are alive, you are leaving so many positive imprints of the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment.

First thing, when we wake up in the morning, rejoice that we are still alive, and that again we have the opportunity to practice Dharma. Remember impermanence and death and think how fortunate we are, by thinking about the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, by having a perfect human body, so we can achieve the three great means in just one lifetime.

Remember that life is impermanent and death can happen at any time. After this life it is not certain where we will be born, it could be in the lower realms. If we are reborn there, apart from the most important thing, that we are unable to help other sentient beings, also we have no opportunity to practice Dharma, and our suffering is so heavy and for an unimaginable length of time. Even being reborn in the higher realms is not sufficient and as I have mentioned before, that is not the real meaning of life. In samsara there is only constant suffering: the suffering of change, which in samsara we call pleasure, and pervasive compounded suffering.

Until we are free from suffering, there is not one second’s break or holiday in samsara; this is how it is experienced, since beginningless rebirths. Think, “I have been suffering in samsara and only experiencing sufferings, so I must be liberated from samsara, I must achieve enlightenment, there is no other solution.”

Then meditate on the outline of the seven-point cause and effect from the bodhicitta section of the lamrim. The next day, focus on equalizing oneself and others, then exchanging oneself and others. In the break-time, do tong-len practice. After that, think that all sentient beings become enlightened. Think, “This is just mere visualization, really sentient beings are still suffering, so I must liberate all sentient beings from all the sufferings and their causes and bring them to enlightenment, by myself alone. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment, and I will do all my activities with the bodhicitta mind—every activity I do during the day and night, such as eating, sleeping, walking, going to work, studying, everything. Every action of my body, speech, and mind will then become a cause of enlightenment.”

Practice Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga every day. Also, chant OM MANI PADME HUM each day, to get the commitment done.

I am very happy that you practice the Thirty-five Buddhas on the train—even doing the visualization and reciting the names is extremely important and very worthwhile to do, if you cannot do the prostrations. Also, you can put your hands in the mudra of prostration as you recite the names and visualize that you are prostrating.

Taking the eight Mahayana precepts twice a month is unbelievable, great, and so fantastic!

If you do the long version of Calling the Guru From Afar, then, as I mentioned at the beginning, this has the whole lamrim within it. If you recite the short version, then it is good to recite one lamrim prayer each day that contains the whole path, such as the Foundation of all Good Qualities, the Three Principles of the Path, etc. Do this within the practice of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, before the guru absorbs into you. Stop and at that time, recite the lamrim prayer slowly and mindfully, reflecting on the meaning.

Also, the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha Daily Meditation booklet has the lamrim prayers within the practice. So, you can recite a different lamrim prayer each day. The lamrim prayer contains the complete path within it; this is so important. Also, you can read lamrim on the train; this is extremely worthwhile. You don’t always have to practice lamrim meditation on the cushion; you can do it in the car, and when you are walking or shopping. In this way, take all the opportunities to practice.

Sentient beings have unimaginable suffering. Even one sentient being has been suffering without beginning. It is so unbearable, we need to liberate them as quickly as possible from the oceans of samsara’s sufferings. If we don’t liberate sentient beings, they continue to experience all the sufferings in samsara. The numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings are suffering and cannot stand even one more second of suffering. Think, “I must liberate them and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, I have to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, so I need to rely on a Highest Yoga Tantra deity practice.” This is the reason we practice tantra; this is the motivation.

According to my observation, you have a strong connection to Vajrayogini. Later, you can take the initiation and do the practice. You will need to receive another Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, such as Yamantaka, Heruka or Guhyasamaja, as a preliminary in order to take Vajrayogini.

Thank you very much. Please continue with what you have been doing, it is great! I am also attaching my other essential daily practice to combine with what you are already doing, mainly putting emphasis on achieving the lamrim.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

My dear one,
Thank you very much for your letter. Regarding advice for your practice, the tong-len practice is specifically for developing bodhicitta. If you don’t know this practice, check Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or any other teaching. I recently gave some teachings on tong-len.

Regarding water bowl offerings, you can do some of these with the Kopan nuns' assistance. The nuns do this for one month each year, and other people can join them for the practice. You can offer thousands of water bowls there. Even if you can’t offer large numbers all the time, at home offer a small number and when you’re busy, offer less. Just count them every day.

Regarding tsa-tsas, print some mantras of OM MANI PADME HUM and the Five Powerful Deities, using a tsa-tsa. Print them on paper, mud or material, while making tsa-tsas.

Concerning lamrim meditation, the scopes and subjects are the main focus, but you can also meditate on other subjects. Circle through the lamrim twice and if there is still no renunciation of this life, then go through the lamrim topic by topic until you achieve the realizations that haven’t been achieved before. Follow the outlines from the perfect human rebirth up to karma, and then the middle and higher scope to gain realizations, while also meditating on guru devotion. However many weeks and months it takes, keep going until you achieve the realization that the guru is all the buddhas and the Buddha is all the gurus. Keep going until there’s no separation, from the bottom of your heart.

Then meditate on generating renunciation of the next life’s samsara, then focus on bodhicitta. Do at least one meditation on emptiness every day by following quotations from the Heart Sutra, the root text of Mahamudra and Advice of Manjushri. This realization can be achieved any time. It is dependent on the accumulation of merit and imprints collected in past lives, and it can be actualized any time.

In order to be able to enlighten all sentient beings quickly, read from the Golden Light Sutra every day. You don’t have to finish it every day—just read some each day, even if it’s just a few lines. Also read the Arya Sanghata Sutra and write out the sutras. This is a very good way to collect unbelievable merit—it means realizations can be generated more easily and it brings you to enlightenment quicker.

It seems more worthwhile for you to do retreat—meditation and study of Dharma—but this is not saying you cannot offer service to others. You can do that, too, but put more emphasis on meditation and study.

Your deity for practice is Gyalwa Gyatso, Secret Chenrezig, so if this initiation is given sometime, go and receive it. Otherwise, just wait for the opportunity to request it.

With love and prayer...