How To Do Daily Practice

My most dear, most kind, most precious, most wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I am very sorry for the long delay in replying. Thank you very much for all your practice done with bodhicitta.

Regarding the existing practices you are doing, one big thing that is missing is reciting OM MANI PADME HUM—especially doing this with bodhicitta for numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings; for everyone to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering as quickly as possible and to achieve full enlightenment, peerless happiness, omniscient mind.

Recite every single OM MANI PADME HUM for every single sentient being, doing one mala or more, your choice. Every mantra you recite is for every sentient being and for yourself to achieve enlightenment, which means to actualize the path, lamrim, to purify all the defilements and negative karma collected since beginningless time and to collect extensive merits, the cause of dharmakaya and rupakaya. It is especially to develop compassion for all sentient beings forever, to everyone, so no-one is left out; no ant is left out, not one mosquito is left out, not one sentient being is left out; to develop compassion and through compassion to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. This is so important. You don’t want to recite the mantra for your own happiness; you need to recite it for sentient beings’ temporary and ultimate happiness.

The other practice is Medicine Buddha mantra and names. If you can, recite the seven Medicine Buddhas’ names and repeat the name mantra. You can recite 21 times or do one mala. This is unbelievably powerful for success, so we don’t get reborn in the lower realms. This means every success, including even achieving enlightenment for sentient beings, and achieving the causes of happiness and stopping the suffering for sentient beings.

Also, the lamrim is missing from your prayers, so attached is a new Direct Meditation for your morning motivation. Do this after you wake up in the morning; it has the lamrim in it.

Regarding the mantra you recite to the ten directions, that one is mainly for travelling, to pacify obstacles made by that, so I don’t think you need to do it every day. You may not need to do it every day.

It’s quite common to do at least 100 prostrations a day by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas. Lama Tsongkhapa did 700,000 prostrations by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas and then a rainfall of realizations came. Not only did he see Maitreya Buddha, he saw the Thirty-five Buddhas in his cave, and he also saw the lineage lamas. Even when Lama Tsongkhapa was very old, he still did 100 [prostrations] a day by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names.

When you lie down during the prostration, don’t be silent. Often Western students recite the name just one time and then when lying down [during the prostration] they are quiet, so you don’t have to do that. When you lie down, keep reciting the name over and over, especially if you have memorized the names. If you haven’t memorized these, then you can record the names of each of the Thirty-five Buddhas and play a tape as you prostrate, but you need to be repeating the names at the same time, and not just listening. If you don’t recite, then it is like someone eating lunch and you don’t eat anything. How can you stop your hunger if someone else eats for you? So please recite the name a number of times as you are going down and up. Normally I think the Western students recite each Buddha’s name three times, but you can do more or just recite straight without counting. So what you count is the prostrations, not the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. This practice is very, very good to purify negative karma and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and also it is exercise for your health.

If you can do Vajrasattva practice in the evening time, it is better, because then it purifies the negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths, particularly in this life and particularly today, so then you are able to go to bed with a comfortable mind.

In the evening time it would be so good to do one of the prayers from The Eight Prayers [a collection of prayers for the recently deceased.] It says these prayers are for the death time, but they are for any time. Recite one a day of each of the eight prayers at the end of the day, after doing Vajrasattva practice.

Maybe if you can, also do one set of prostrations by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas. Do this one time or you can visualize doing it, putting your hands in the mudra of prostration.

Then do the Vajrasattva mantra 21 times or one mala, but at least do it 21 times. Then recite the King of Prayers. So this means doing a different prayer each day, one-by-one, from the eight great prayers.

When you do the dedication section from Bodhicaryavatara, do it with tong-len practice. If you can, do it with tong-len, giving away all your merit to all those hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. So give away all the good things.

If you can make time, try to do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. That is the main practice, as it has the lamrim in it (The Foundation of All Good Qualities). Reciting this leaves a positive imprint on your mind each time during the recitation, especially if you read it mindfully, so this is very important. If you have already read the lamrim, then bring it in there, as you read the prayer. Read slowly and think of the meaning; that is very, very good.

If you still have time, read some of the lamrim every day, such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Read a little each day, depending on how much time you have. You can read it slowly and that still becomes meditation. Anything that you don’t understand, write it down in a notebook and at a later time ask an older student who has studied the lamrim well, or ask Geshe-la. So, read the lamrim from beginning to end three times. This is called effortful meditation.

Then do effortless meditation on guru devotion. Try to have the realizations by training the mind and by following the outline, no matter how many weeks or month or years it takes, until you see from your side every guru that you have a Dharma connection with as the Buddha and every buddha is all the gurus. If you see every guru is all the buddhas, without effort, all the time, for weeks, months and years, then that is the realization. So each day do some amount of meditation on guru devotion. In the same day, you can do the meditation renouncing this life, so continue like this, one-by-one, until you have realizations.

Next is meditation on the gradual path of the middle capable being—seeing the suffering of human beings, devas, sura and asura beings; then there is suffering of samsara, the twelve links, the evolution of samsara, all those. Carry on meditating until you see samsara as a prison, like being in the center of a fire, until you have no interest and don’t want to be there even for a minute or a second. You need a stable realization that lasts for weeks, months and years, then after that, you need realization on bodhicitta. Use whichever method is more effective for you—exchanging oneself for others or the seven techniques—so train in both, sometimes using one method and sometimes using the other. Do it like that or you can do more, based on whichever one is more effective for you.

Next is emptiness. You also need to do some meditation on emptiness every day, even for five minutes or for however much time you want—short or long. You can do this by reciting the Heart Sutra or any verses on emptiness and thinking about the meaning. Even use this verse from The King of Logic: “The dependent arising: The I is not truly existing one.” So meditate on that, try to recognize that and then see that is the false I; that is empty.

Meditate on dependent arising and on the Prasangika view—the subtle dependent arising on the valid base, the aggregates. Gathered on that, the mind has a valid mind, merely imputed on the I, existing extremely subtly. It is unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably subtle, existing in mere name, merely labeled by the mind, therefore it does not exist at all from its own side. Meditate like that.

A billion times thank you, and please live your life with bodhicitta in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers...

My dearest one,
Thank you for your letter. For you, meditation comes out better than service or studying Dharma. The main deity for your quickest enlightenment is either Heruka and Hevajra. From these two deities, please choose according to whichever deity you have the stronger feeling for. You can take other initiations and do other retreats, but of the two, the one you have the strongest feeling for is the main deity to practice in everyday life. You can take both initiations, but the main deity for everyday life can be your choice, in order to enlighten sentient beings quickly, so they don't have to suffer for a long time. You will need to receive the commentary on the practice and study it, then do retreat.

Regarding lamrim meditation, the scopes and subjects are the main focus, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t meditate on other subjects. Circle like this four times, and if there is still no renunciation of this life, then practice lamrim meditation topic by topic till you achieve realizations of what you haven’t achieved before, from the perfect human rebirth, up to karma and then the higher scope. Achieve realizations while practicing guru devotion, following the outlines, for however many weeks and months it takes, to gain the realization that the guru is all the buddhas and the Buddha is all the gurus, till there’s no separation from the bottom of your heart.

Meditate on generating renunciation of the next life’s samsara, then focus on bodhicitta. Regarding emptiness, do at least one meditation every day. This realization can be actualized at any time, depending on the accumulation of merit and past lives' collected imprints.

There are numbers of preliminaries to do, but do the guru yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa every day or after some time, Lama Chöpa would be excellent. I am giving Lama Chöpa commentary in Indonesia and Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga in Singapore.

Following the advice sheet, do 135 prostrations every morning or evening. Some lamas do either or both. Daily practice is an unbelievable thing. In the morning, bless your speech, then motivate for life.

On the basis of doing Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga every day, before the guru enters your heart, do the other lamrim meditations during the first session. For other meditation sessions during the day, include refuge, visualization of the merit field, the seven limbs, a short or long mandala offering, then motivate, thinking, “Since beginningless rebirths I have been experiencing the suffering of the lower realms and the general sufferings of samsara. The purpose of my life is to free sentient beings from samsara and lead them to enlightenment. Therefore I'm going to do this meditation.”

At the end, make extensive dedications, also recite the King of Prayers, Lama Tsongkhapa's Prayer for the Beginning, Middle and End of Practice, the Bodhicaryavatara dedication chapter with tong-len, when it talks about the sufferings of hell, and the Maitreya Buddha Prayer or the Blissful Realm Prayer.

Generate bodhicitta motivation, then go to bed and practice sleeping yoga, after having practiced Vajrasattva before the King of Prayers recitation. Recite one mala, half a mala, 21 mantras or 28 mantras, in that order, to stop negative karma increasing and to purify this and past lives' negative karmas. Doing the practice with the remedy of the four opponent powers makes the mind very comfortable, with no fear of death. Then go to bed.

When going to bed, think: “The purpose of my life is to benefit sentient beings, to free them from the ocean of samsara, and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, I am going to practice sleeping yoga.” One way is to use sleep like medicine—to be healthy in order to serve sentient beings. This is the basic idea. For more detail, visualize the guru on the crown of your head, and with guru devotion meditation, think that the guru is Buddha and try to fall asleep with that virtuous thought. The other way is to think, “Sentient beings are suffering; in order to liberate them from suffering and its causes, however many hours’ sleep I have, may it become Dharma.” Generate loving kindness, also emptiness, looking at the I as empty and illusory. All phenomena and the I are empty. Meditate like this in order for sleep to become Dharma. Sleep with bodhicitta in order for it to become a cause for enlightenment. Sleep with renunciation of this and the next life, and wish to free beings from this in order for sleep to become the cause for liberation from samsara.

When practicing tantra, visualize yourself as the deity and also visualize the syllable in emptiness, both in activity and non-activity. Then, Highest Yoga Tantra uses ignorance in the path to enlightenment. Meditate on the nine rounds of mixing.

With much love and prayer...

From time to time, each month, you should take the eight precepts/24-hour Mahayana vows. This should be done especially on the special Buddhist days, such as enlightenment day, Shakyamuni’s birthday, descending day, etc. There are four major days and four small ones.

Whatever merit you collect, you can increase it 100 million times on precept days. On these special days it is very profitable to increase your virtue. When the sun is eclipsed, the practice of virtue is increased 700 million times, with the Mahayana precepts. Also, your precious virtue can increase 100,000 times through taking the Mahayana precepts. It’s very wise to take precepts on the special days to increase your merit 100,000 times. You can create merit all the time, even while sleeping. On the days you take precepts any virtue increases. The reason to take the precepts is that you can’t guarantee that you’ll be reborn as a human being in your next life.

First of all, just being a human depends on having practiced pure morality in the past. It is extremely difficult even to be born where you will know the Buddha again. You should use every opportunity to take the precepts, even if there are many obstacles. Even when you are not practicing well, virtue will increase if you take the precepts.

We need to try to practice correctly. Even if your practice is performed with virtue, it is very weak without the proper motivation and a good amount of practice. Also, if you do not perform a dedication, then your practice is still very weak. The three parts of the practice are very important.

First of all, we have the precious opportunity to practice well with the Four Noble Truths and a chance to be liberated from samsara. Without Mahayana Tantra, the Vajrayana, the path takes a long time. All sentient beings depend on you to be liberated, and they have to wait a long time. However, with tantra, we have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment in a brief time, in just one lifetime. Therefore it’s very important to do whatever makes your life most beneficial.

It’s good to practice lamrim meditation. The purpose of life is to benefit all sentient beings. We need to be qualified to be able to do this. We need to actualize the stages of lamrim meditation. Try to develop your mind in the complete path, so you know what you’re doing and where you’re going. First you should develop your meditation practice and study for some years, then start taking initiations as soon as possible.

Try to practice bodhicitta in your daily life with your family, friends, and at your job as much as possible. Practice bodhicitta with a strong mental focus to collect vast amounts of merit. With a bodhicitta motivation, offering one light to the Buddha increases the merit by 100,000 times. While you’re eating, walking, and sleeping with a bodhicitta motivation, your aim is to benefit all sentient beings and free them from suffering, by offering service to others.

We have to earn money in life, but when it’s done with a bodhicitta motivation to benefit others, your hours at work increase your merit. Your drive to work and every step you take at work, with bodhicitta, is done for countless sentient beings. It increases the merit and brings incredible purification. Each step becomes a cause for enlightenment, and collects so much merit. Every action becomes a cause for enlightenment.

There are two types of meditation: sitting and active meditation, which work in harmony and increase the benefits of each. The everyday work of washing clothes, working in the house, at a job, all these actions become the cause for enlightenment, and the cause of happiness for all sentient beings.

Daily practice is very important. Time is very short. We need to pay attention all the time and practice awareness of watching the mind stream and putting in effort. After some time, the mind is trained and works with bodhicitta. Eventually, quite naturally, everything you do becomes bodhicitta. Not only indifferent actions become virtue, even the harshly spoken, seven negative actions become virtue. The break time from your sitting meditation should not be a break from Dharma. You should make your actions Dharma as much as possible. This will activate your motivation and then activate your bodhicitta.

Try to learn Dharma as much as possible. Begin at the first stage, and take the learning opportunities from the foundation up. Otherwise, without going step by step, slowly, you can’t have many realizations.

It takes many, many years and lifetimes to achieve enlightenment. It is a way of benefiting countless sentient beings. Even if one doesn’t have any idea of the lamrim, read about it slowly, and let the ideas sink in. You can read it two or three times to meditate on the ideas, then when you are learning and following the meditations that come later, they’ll make sense. With a broad view and understanding, you’ll have a map to guide you. From the beginning, you’ll have some methods to work with and they will help to make it all more familiar. You will be confident that you can accomplish what you want. Later, after the preliminary practices, you can meditate and have the confidence to achieve realizations.

Meditate on guru devotion from the bottom of your heart, with full confidence, while seeing your guru as a buddha. When your experience is stable, this should be done every day for 10 to 15 minutes. Start by meditating on the perfect human rebirth and renunciation, just two or three subjects. Work from the beginning, and then you will have a realization of impermanence.

I advise doing purification practice in the morning, especially prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas. This makes it so easy to purify billions of your negative karmas. Many eons of karma are purified countless times from doing this practice. You should recite each of the Buddhas’ names three times.

In the evening I advise reciting the Vajrasattva mantra for purification. You should recite the short mantra 100 times or the long one 28 times, with the four opponent powers, every evening. If you don’t do this, your negative karma is doubled by the next day, the third day it is four times greater, the fourth day it is eight times greater, and so on. If this negative karma is not purified, it will increase to the size of the earth. It will be very heavy at the time of your death, and then it may continue on in the next life. You may not be reborn as a human, without the ability to help yourself and others in the next life. A wise person knows that negative karma can become great, but with the four opponent powers and purification of our negative actions, our life will become most profitable.

The practice of guru yoga is very important. Taking the teachings of Manjushri, Chenrezig and Lama Tsongkhapa, to actualize the path, will help your practice of guru yoga. Also, using reasoning and quotations from Buddha himself will help your practice at home. With guru meditation as a guide for mind training, using guru devotion and realizations from their own side, you will have realizations.

Bodhicitta is the right view for building the path. The human body is qualified to achieve enlightenment by going up through the eight stages of the path. This is why we survive in life and eat food to take care of our bodies. The whole point is to liberate countless sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.

Lama Tsongkhapa and guru yoga help us to develop wisdom. There are six types of wisdom: great, quick, profound, debating, writing, and meditation. Developing wisdom helps us to go to Amitabha Tushita Pure Land when we die. It develops the cause to be reborn in the higher realms. It is also a cause to meet Lama Tsongkhapa in the next life. With right conduct, right view, a pure life, and realizing emptiness, it is much more definite that you will achieve enlightenment.

It is said by Manjushri that we should do more meditation on impermanence and the perfect human rebirth. This will help you to have other realizations quickly. Meditate on emptiness for five minutes daily, reading a few stanzas of the teachings, to leave a positive imprint and to help you become more familiar with it. Later, when you have the time, you can do more. Also try to meditate on single-pointed concentration, with no distraction at all, in a calm, quiet place, in order to achieve the state of calm abiding.

Deity meditation comes after taking a Highest Tantra Yoga initiation. Realizations generate the completion stage. Devotion comes when the realization is stable. Starting with the perfect human rebirth, you develop, step by step, renunciation and bodhicitta. Then you can realize emptiness with the practice of purification of obstacles, and meditation on the lamrim. We need to purify the negative emotional thoughts. They make it difficult to have attainments and accomplish realizations.

You can continue collecting merit in your life. Start with the preliminary practices; generally they are what need to be done. After meditation on bodhicitta, use the Dharma teachings on karma. In the break from your sitting meditation, perform your work with Dharma.