Essential Life Practices and Ordination Advice

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one, 
Thank you very, very much, a million, zillion times, for studying Lamrim Chenmo. It’s the most worthwhile Dharma subject that you’re studying, for you and for all sentient beings—for every ant, every mosquito, every snake, every elephant, every snail, every turtle, every sloth animal, every alligator, every crocodile, every scorpion, every pigeon, and all those people you don’t like, and those animals, those pitiful suffering sentient beings who have incredible suffering. So it’s for everyone, not only for you, but for everyone who is important, like you. It will bring happiness for them and free them from suffering, just like yourself. 

So now, according to my observation, the Middle-Length Lamrim is your main meditation text. Of course, you can read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and other lamrim texts, and then something that is beneficial for your mind which is not particularly expressed in the Middle-Length Lamrim, you can bring it there; you can integrate it there. 

The whole idea of meditating, reading, studying Dharma, all the essence is to actualize the lamrim path, the path to enlightenment, so that you can achieve enlightenment quicker, and then you can free the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering quicker, and bring them to enlightenment quicker. That should be your main goal or aim, your purpose in life. Thank you very much. 

You have already read the commentary before, so you know how to expand it and how to meditate. Study the text three times from beginning to end, reading it mindfully, so that it becomes a meditation. 

Read my advice on how to do effortful lamrim meditation. After going through the lamrim outline one time, then do effortless meditation. 

In terms of your deity, there’s Yamantaka, Heruka, Secret Hayagriva, Vajrakilaya and Secret Vajrapani. I think from those, maybe practice Heruka. If you want to, on the basis of that, you can take initiations for those other deities that I’ve mentioned. But mainly just do Heruka or Secret Vajrapani, whichever deity you feel closer to and stronger [connection with]. You can decide that. 

For the preliminaries, according to my observation:

Refuge practice: 101,000.

Tonglen, for developing bodhicitta: 130,000. When you do tonglen one time—one time giving and one time taking, separating the sentient beings from suffering—each time, you collect the highest, most extensive merit, and you do the biggest purification. So, it makes your life the best, best Dharma practice. 

Even if you die with that, it’s so worthwhile, it’s the best way to die. As His Holiness often says, the best way to die is to die with bodhicitta.

Not only that—the best way to die is to die with bodhicitta—not only that, but everything that you do, do it with bodhicitta as much as possible, so then everything becomes a cause of enlightenment, and you cause everyone to achieve enlightenment. That’s the best way to benefit your parents, who have been most kind among those ordinary sentient beings.

Do at least five nyung näs every year, and if you can, do more. Every year do as many as you can. That is the one best thing for you; it came out according to my observation. By doing one nyung nä well, you purify negative karma and you get reborn in the pure land when you die. Then you stop rebirth in the lower realms and so forth. So this is a quick way to be free from samsara. 

Of course, to be a monk is the best life, yes, and a monk with lamrim practice, that’s one of the tops. It’s like the ice cream and then you get a cherry on top, like that. So it’s very, very good. 

So go in that way, direct your life in that way, it’s very good, then you can take ordination. Thank you very, very much. Thank you so much.

It’s mentioned in the meditation instructions to live your life as much as possible with bodhicitta for sentient beings: eat for sentient beings, drink for sentient beings, sleep for sentient beings, meditate for sentient beings, study for sentient beings, go to the toilet for sentient beings, anything. 

Thank you very, very, very much.

With much love and prayers ...