Dharma Practice Is the Most Important Thing

My dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, and for the news about yourself and your son and how you are keeping your life in Dharma. That is the most important thing, because as Lama Tsongkhapa said in the Foundation of all Good Qualities, we have this perfect human rebirth just about one time, and not only that, we can be free from rebirth in the lower realms and achieve a higher rebirth. We can become free from samsara and achieve nirvana. We can become free from lower nirvana and achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, in order to free the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment, therefore this perfect human body is most unbelievable, most precious. This perfect human body is more precious than wish-granting jewels; this is not talking about diamonds and gold but wish-granting jewels.

This perfect human body can be stopped at any time. Every day in the world people die. It could be after the conception, after the birth, when they are still young or when they are middle-aged or old. Even young people die all the time. We don’t know if we will be in our next life in the next minute. Death can happen even in the next minute; we can’t say. It is very easy to perish, therefore the best, most important thing is to practice Dharma. Nothing else is more important than this, in every minute, every second. Then especially we need to generate bodhicitta, whether we practice tantra or do not practice tantra. This is the foundation.

I’m very happy you expressed your understanding of the importance of Dharma. I am sending advice for your life practice; what to focus on for your whole life.

Refuge recitations: 90,000. If you can do more, do 100,000, but the minimum that you must do is 90,000. 

Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-Five Buddhas: 180,000.

Mandala offerings: 100,000.

Vajrasattva mantras: 70,000.

Nyung nä retreats: Do three every year. This doesn’t mean you can’t do more. This is something extremely worthwhile; even one nyung nä purifies the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths. You collect unbelievable merits by taking precepts, reciting mantras and doing prostrations. It is unbelievable, a quick way to be reborn in the pure land and to achieve enlightenment.

If you can do more than three nyung näs per year, that is even better, but at least do three each year. If you can, then do it with a group, but after you learn it well you can also do it by yourself, and you can help to lead others.

Tonglen meditation: 50,000. This is not just counting the words, but doing the meditation. You receive all the sentient beings’ suffering and the causes, and give all your happiness, merits and body to others, to all sentient beings, letting them become enlightened. After taking all the suffering and the causes in your heart, it destroys your self-cherishing thought, which gives you all the sufferings from beginningless rebirths, and again causes you to not practice Dharma. This self-cherishing is what gives you the endless suffering in samsara and causes you to be reborn in the lower realms. You can use different tonglen prayers and you can either change or use the same one.

To gain effortful lamrim experience, meditate on the lamrim outline, following my advice on how to do this. Then do effortless meditation.

For you, the main text to use is the Lamrim Chenmo. Study this, reading it twice through from beginning to end. When reading the text, that itself is a form of meditation. When you relate it to yourself, such as the sections on suffering, it helps you generate renunciation. When you relate it to others, it helps you generate compassion. So, in this way it becomes a meditation to develop renunciation, compassion and bodhicitta, and so forth.

With love and prayers …