How to Restart Practices After Stopping
Rinpoche gave this advice to a nun who had disrobed and started taking drugs, but had later stopped. She sent a letter of confession, also saying she had stopped doing all her practices.
My very dear one,
Thank you for your letter. I am sorry for the many eons of delay in replying.
It is important to think that this is a past habit, negative imprints ripening, not only from this life but since beginningless rebirths. It is so important to purify these, as there is so much to purify. It is unbelievable, one can’t imagine how hard it is. It is not easy, therefore, we need to remember to do some essential things every day. It is very important to meditate every day, continuously. You need to plan to do this for eons, not just for this lifetime, not just for 100,000 lifetimes, but for eons. Make the determination and plan to do lamrim meditation. This is the antidote. This is the medicine. This is the safest way to protect your mind from negative karma, from the lower realms, from suffering in the hell realms; this is the most important thing to do for liberation from samsara and to achieve enlightenment. If you think that you only have to do it for a few years or months, then you will collapse, get discouraged, etc. As it is mentioned in the teachings, a chilli plant is hot, and by adding just a few drops of honey, just a few times, it doesn’t make it sweet.
Meditate on guru devotion every day. This is one meditation to do every day. On top of that, do one other lamrim mediation, going through the topics. Start with meditation on the lower scope, from perfect human rebirth up to karma. This includes the cause of suffering of humans and devas, the twelve links, the shortcomings and sufferings of the lower realms, impermanence and death, the perfect human rebirth, and karma. In this way, slowly go through the lower scope. Whatever meditation you are up to, continue the next day, slowly. The point is to develop the meditation until you have stable realizations. So, you keep circling back, starting from the beginning again of the lower scope, and you do this for one year. You need to try to actualize the realizations.
Then, the following year, as well as doing daily meditation on guru devotion, when you do the lamrim meditations, you focus on the middle scope. You keep circling back, starting from the beginning again of the middle scope, and you do this for one year. The point, again, is to try to actualize the realizations.
The following year you focus on bodhicitta. Keep circling back, starting from the beginning again of bodhicitta, and do this for one year. The point is to try to actualize the realizations.
The following year you focus on emptiness. Keep circling back, starting from the beginning again of emptiness, and do this for one year. The point is to try to actualize the realizations.
Use different lamrim texts, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and the Lamrim Chenmo, as a basis, going through all the topics.
Generally, for your day-to-day practice, first thing in the morning chant OM MANI PADME HUM to generate your motivation for the day. Attached is a motivation I have put together, a very basic but essential one. This is the essence and you can elaborate on this.
After this, wash. Then, if you are making offerings, set out the offerings, water bowls, etc., then do prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas. If you can, do 100 prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas; that is the best. If you can’t do them all, then whatever you can. Then sit and practice guru yoga. As you have to do Six-session Guru Yoga, then you can do that. As motivation you can recite Calling the Guru from Afar, then Six-Session Guru Yoga. If you can do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga as well, that would be great, as it has the special quality to develop wisdom.
In the evening do Vajrasattva practice – half a mala or one mala – before going to bed.
If you can, take the Eight Mahayana Precepts again and again, whenever you can. This does not mean every day, but when you can. It is especially good to take them on auspicious days.
You can take the five lay vows from Geshe-la. You can take three or four vows for your lifetime. This enables you to collect merit all the time, day and night, even when you are sleeping.
You must do lamrim prayers such as the Foundation of all Good Qualities, etc, also your deity’s graduated path prayer (this is found at the end of your deity’s long sadhana). It is extremely important to read this every day, as it plants the seed of enlightenment.
At the end of the day make dedications. Also, dedicate after any practice, but especially at the end of the day. It is extremely important to dedicate your merits to achieving enlightenment, for all sentient beings, to actualize bodhicitta in your heart and in the heart of all sentient beings. It is so important to dedicate your merits and seal them with emptiness.
Due to the merits of the three times, collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and all other sentient beings, which are totally non-existent from their own side, may the “I,” which is also totally non-existent from its own side, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which is also totally non-existent from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are totally non-existent from their own side, to that enlightenment, which is totally non-existent from its own side, by myself alone, who is also totally non-existent from its own side.
With much love and prayers...