Fatigue and Lyme Disease
A student had been very sick with fatigue, depression, and had recently caught Lyme Disease. She wrote a letter explaining all the practices she had done and asking for advice.
My very dear Loretta,
Thank you very much for your kind letter and offering.
The first thing you should do is think that all your sicknesses are the result of past negative karma. Accept this as purification and then it is also healing. Think that the sickness is also bringing inner peace and on top of that incredible joy. When you take all the suffering on or when you experience the sickness you have for others, with strong compassion, then it can bring incredible happiness.
Sometimes, also perform Medicine Buddha puja. If you can, practice the middle-length version.
It comes out best for you to practice Vajrapani/Hayagriva/Garuda and also to practice Secret Vajrapani for the Lyme Disease.
If a lama is giving either of these two initiations, you can take them. Usually they don’t have a sadhana commitment, unless the particular lama is giving that.
Secret Vajrapani came out best for you to do for healing the Lyme Disease. It is good if you don’t just recite the mantra but also do the visualization purifying all your sickness, disease, spirit harm, and negative karma, with a strong meditation.
After you receive the initiation, then you can visualize yourself as the deity. The ten direction buddhas, who are the deity, emit beams of nectar, which absorb into your heart. Nectar emits from that, illuminating you and purifying the four things (sickness, disease, spirit harm, and negative karma). Then, you receive all the realizations up to enlightenment.
Recite the long mantra 21 times or more, then the short mantra as much as you can. After each mala generate strong faith that everything is purified. Before you finish the 21 recitations, think that you are purifying other sentient beings. Beams emit from you, the deity’s heart, and they all achieve enlightenment through you.
As far as your practice, you are a very sincere and wonderful person that you are able to do all this practice. However, if you have difficulties continuing to do all the practices, then do most of what you can in the morning and the rest in the evening before you go to bed, or anytime in the night.
My suggestion, first, is that everyone should recite OM MANI PADME HUM to develop bodhicitta in order to enlighten all sentient beings. Also, everyone should recite Medicine Buddha mantra for success and to purify.
These two mantras are fundamental to practice every day. After that, perform any other commitments you have been given by other lamas. If you don’t have commitments for the other practices that you do, then just do them when you have time and are able, but the main thing is to do the practices that you have a commitment to do, try as much as possible, and if you miss them then continue the next day.
I recommend you put all your effort into what the lama has given you or advised you to do. The practices usually have long, middle, and short sadhanas, so for the deities you can do the short sadhana, except for the deity with which you have strongest connection with. For that one, it is good if you are able to do the long sadhana. In each sadhana the main thing is to focus on the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya meditations. These are the three practices you should focus on. According to His Holiness Serkong Rinpoche, you should do more practice and perform the longer sadhana of whichever deity is your main deity. If you don’t have much time, you can practice the other deities quickly, but in each sadhana focus on the three kayas.
It is important to remember death each day, that life is short, even though you are doing practices and pujas and taking medication for your sicknesses to prolong your life. In your mind you should use the sickness in the path to enlightenment, not just in the path to happiness. This is caused by experiencing all sicknesses for the benefit of all sentient beings, or on behalf of all sentient beings.
With much love and prayers...