Offering Service to the Guru

My most dear one, who is most precious and kind and wish-fulfilling,
I am in New York now and after a few days I am going to North Carolina for Dharma teachings at a retreat place. I heard Jacie, who served Lama for seven years with much devotion seeing the guru as Buddha, and also her daughter, have come to visit you. I heard from both of them that you have moved to a new place. I hope it can be very comfortable for you.

Your life has been very rich in merit; there has been so much purification of negative karma and obstacles that interfere with achieving enlightenment. You offered your land to Lama when you had the opportunity, when you were healthy and well. That means you offered to Buddha Vajradhara.

From this you collected far greater merit than if you had made offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha. You collected the highest, the greatest amount of merit and you made very strong purification, so you have become closer to enlightenment. This is amazing, amazing, amazing!

At the center you organized courses from time to time, you helped people do retreats and you organized the Vajrasattva retreat. All these things bring great benefit to people and you yourself did so much and purified so much negative karma due to serving Lama.

I remember at Tushita when you were transporting stones for Lama’s house, you were doing it alone, stone by stone. At that time with each step you took, you purified negative karma collected [from beginningless] rebirths, and each step you took brought you closer to enlightenment. With each stone, this brought you closer to enlightenment.

You have also taken precepts, so by keeping the precepts, every hour, every minute and every second you become closer to enlightenment.

It is said in the Kalachakra Tantra:

Even if you make offerings to the Three Rare Sublime Ones and protect millions of creatures, liberating them from being killed for all the three-time eons, still you can’t achieve enlightenment in this life. But if, with devotion, you please the guru, who has oceans of qualities, then all the common and sublime qualities are granted in this life.

There is another quotation from Ocean of Transcendental Wisdom:

There is no comparison between someone who has the good fortune of serving in the activities of the guru and someone who has prostrated for ten million, six hundred thousand eons. To be expert in the activities of the guru is far, far, far, far more meaningful. If you accomplish what the guru ordered with your own material substances and belongings, this will make you free from samsara. All your wishes will succeed and you will get unfathomable merit. You will be free from the breath of samsara, enter into the field of nirmanakaya and go to the great nirvana.

Also, it is mentioned by the great yogi Drogön Tsangpa Gyare:

You must not lose the auspicious connection with the qualified guru. If you break the relationship with others, let it happen. But if you lose the auspiciousness [break the connection or degenerate the samaya] with the qualified guru, then even if all the transmigratory beings become your relatives [or friends], what is the benefit of that?

It is mentioned in the teachings:

Even if you attempt hundreds of efforts in your practice for numberless oceans of eons, still it is very difficult to achieve the unified state of enlightenment. But by depending on the guru’s power, you are granted enlightenment immediately in a brief lifetime of the degenerate time.

My dear one, in reality this has a connection to you. These teachings are connected to you, because what you did brought you closer to enlightenment.

Sakya Pandita, the founder of the Sakya lineage mentioned:

Even if for one thousand eons you practice the paramita of charity—giving your limbs, legs, hands and so forth—and even if these merits are dedicated to sentient beings; with the path of the guru, you are able to collect all this merit in one second.

The path of the guru means making offerings to the guru, serving the guru and so forth. You cannot compare the merit of that with other activities and practices, such as making charity to sentient beings. By making offerings and serving the guru you collect the merit in one second.

You can imagine the merit you have collected over months and years of following the guru. You have so much to rejoice in, skies of merits to rejoice in. You are unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably fortunate, so much more fortunate than the normal billionaires. They are like beggars compared to the merit you have. This is what I think, so please rejoice.

Please remember what I have said. You can spend your life in unbelievable happiness, then go to the pure land of Vajrayogini or Tara.

This is what you should think when you die:

Think a beam of light comes from your Lama’s heart. Lama is on your head and the light beam goes to your heart, the size of a mustard seed and light like cotton. From Lama’s heart the red beam goes to your heart and hooks your consciousness and pulls your consciousness to Lama’s heart. Visualize Lama as Vajrayogini. You become one with Lama’s mind—transcendental bliss nondual with emptiness. Then shoot up into the pure land of Vajrayogini, Dagpa Khachö, and visualize yourself in front of Vajrayogini, in the pure land.

That’s all. Thank you very much, see you soon.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear Celia,
Billions of thanks for your kind letter, explaining and giving me all your information. After I met you at the airport and you asked about studying the Basic Program and Masters Program, I said it would be very good and then you followed that. So you followed the advice. This is so important. I should give you billions of dollars to thank you, but I do prayers for you and for those who rely upon me, who I promised to pray for and whose names have been given to me.

This shows that you are quite a stable person. Many students, even though they have the wish to learn the Basic Program and Master’s Program, after some time they are unable to continue, due to many conditions—there are obstacles inside the mind and outside obstacles. You studied much more sutra and tantra than me. I have received many teachings and commentaries, but it doesn’t mean I studied all those texts, so you are much more fortunate than me.

You put so much effort into studying. This means unbelievable, most unbelievable imprints are left on your mind. It means even if you don’t actualize the path in this life, because of doing this study and purifying so much, in the next life you will meet the Buddha’s teachings and be able to learn, because you have purified so much past negative karma and obscurations. This helps to achieve a higher rebirth, a perfect human rebirth, to meet the Dharma again and to become so expert and through that to have realizations through practicing, and not only that, to be able to go to nirvana and to enlightenment. That is so great, really, to rejoice in.

So here I want to mention one thing. Our parents are a more powerful object, so if we make them happy and serve them, we create more merit than serving other ordinary people or making other people happy.

Even more powerful than that is one ordained Sangha, who is living in higher vows, so we collect more merit serving Sangha and making them happy, than our parents. There are numberless Sangha, but more powerful than that is one arhat, who is free from samsara. An arhat is more powerful than ordinary Sanghas. There are numberless arhats and more powerful than that is one bodhisattva. By serving them, making them happy and following their wishes, this is more powerful, and we create more merit, more purification, than serving numberless arhats. Then more powerful than numberless bodhisattvas is one buddha.

Then there are numberless buddhas and more powerful than that is the Guru. We collect even more merit and the strongest purification by fulfilling the Guru’s wishes, than from numberless bodhisattvas. So by obtaining advice from one’s Guru, then following it, following the wishes of the Guru, offering service, this is most powerful for purification. It purifies obstacles and negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths and we collect the most extensive merits by serving the Guru, making offerings to the Guru. If we offer to our Guru or to our Guru’s pores—this means our Guru’s dogs, animals, friends and neighbors, and if the Guru is a lay person, then offering to the Guru’s children and wife, and also to the Guru’s students. Even if we offer one glass of water or one candy to our Guru’s students, we collect the most extensive merits and purification—more than having offered to numberless buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sanghas, numberless statues, numberless texts and numberless stupas. Of course, offering to all those is unbelievable. Even offering one grain of rice or a tiny flower to a picture or statue of the Buddha, it is mind-blowing the merits we collect.

To get an idea, in ancient times, one person offered a medicinal drink to an ordinary monk and in the future was born as a powerful and most wealthy king in India. Can you imagine the result of just offering to a fully ordained monk, just one time? From there you can see the merit is unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable!

So now this is said by the Buddha: whoever prostrates, offers flowers, incense, etc, collects even greater, numberless merit than having just seen the holy form of a buddha statue.

All the happiness from beginningless time up to now and the happiness in all future lives comes from that tiny offering. That means ultimate liberation and enlightenment. There are five paths and thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, so we have to achieve these in order to achieve liberation, then we can achieve full enlightenment. That means just by making this tiny offering it is the cause to achieve the five Mahayana paths and the ten  bhumi [grounds]. Within each path there are so many details and different levels of realization, and then there is the tantric path— the generation stage and the completion stage. So we can achieve full enlightenment, which is the completion of all the qualities of total cessation of the gross and subtle mistaken mind, and we can complete all the qualities of realization.

The benefits don’t even finish there. We liberate numberless sentient beings from each realm, from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Only when every sentient being is brought to enlightenment, only that time the benefit we have received from offering that one flower to the statue, only then is it completed. The benefit is unbelievable, like the sky.

But compared to this, offering service or making offerings to our Guru, we get the highest merits and the most extensive purification and merits.

The Masters Program was started by Geshe Jampa Gyatso and Lama Yeshe, and the Basic Program was started by me, so you can see, you also have been offering service and fulfilling our wishes by studying. Every time you study, this is service to Lama Yeshe and to me. So we have a Dharma connection, we have a guru-disciple relationship. Then in addition, all this is according to the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so you are also fulfilling the wishes of His Holiness each time you study.

It is mentioned in the lamrim that each time we make offerings to our Guru, like a cup of tea or anything, we become closer to enlightenment. That also means we become free from samsara more quickly. That means each time we are studying, we are fulfilling our Guru’s wishes, so we are becoming closer to enlightenment each time. We become closer to being free from samsara, and closer to enlightenment. So this is what has been happening all these years that you have been studying, doing homework, attending classes, these are the benefits of that. So you have gained unbelievably, so much, even though maybe you didn’t succeed because of the exam, but the real gain happened. Therefore you should rejoice, it is most unbelievable, your whole life should be filled with incredible joy and happiness.

It is mentioned by Sakya Pandita that even though the beams of the sun are extremely hot, without a magnifying glass it cannot catch fire. Like that, even the blessings of the buddhas who are numberless—without the Guru, we cannot receive the blessings. Therefore by pleasing the guru, it pleases all the numberless buddhas. This is a quick way to achieve enlightenment, the total elimination of all the obscurations and the completion of all the qualities.

Also Sakya Pandita mentioned:

The merits from a thousand eons of practicing the paramita of charity of one’s limbs, even the merits received from that, giving away one’s limbs countless times—all that merit, which took one thousand eons to create, is collected in one second by following the path of the Guru.

That means when we fulfill the Guru’s wishes, all the merit collected from making charity of our limbs is achieved in one second. That means it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

As mentioned in the text, Drop of Mahamudra:

When the wood is burned by the fire, it becomes ashes in one second. Like that, by pleasing the Guru, the negative karma is burned in one second.

Just as matches are used to light a candle and make the candle flame, also a tiny flame can burn a few stories of hay so quickly, or a whole mountain of hay can be burned just from a tiny flame; in the same way, so much heavy negative karma that has been collected from thousands, millions, billions and trillions of past lives can be purified in one second, just by pleasing the Guru.  So by following the Guru’s advice or wishes, we can see how powerful it is to purify negative karma, so we can rejoice.

There are numberless human beings and numberless sentient beings. This is not only mentioned by the Buddha, it is also mentioned by scientists. So many numberless beings haven’t met the Dharma, they don’t understand Dharma, and even if they have the shape of a human body, their mind or way of behaving, their way of thinking, is more like an animal—like ants or worms. Everything they do becomes the cause of negative karma during the daytime and at nighttime, except for those who have a good heart, or do some charity, or help and create virtue that way. Of course, if we don’t practice patience, then in one instant just by getting angry we destroy all the merits. If the merit has not been dedicated for enlightenment, all the merit gets destroyed. Even if the merit is dedicated for enlightenment, if it is not sealed with emptiness, then the merit becomes weaker. Without dedicating it for enlightenment, then all the merits get destroyed each time anger or heresy arises. Depending on whom we get angry at—whether it is a non-bodhisattva or bodhisattva—even one second of anger at a bodhisattva destroys one thousand eons of the merit that we have created by having made charity to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. All that merit is destroyed in one second. 

Among all the sentient beings, the amount of people who are Buddhists is so small. Then from those who are Buddhist, those who have the opportunity to study are very rare. Then to be able to find a qualified teacher who can teach philosophy, it’s so, so rare. So you can rejoice, it’s unbelievable.

Since you have a child, you can be a good example for your child, and help your child to generate compassion and to have kindness towards others. This is the most important thing. This is the best education that you can give a child—to be kind to others, even insects, to help in whatever way you can, and then that karma from that one good action of being kind to others—from that one action the result is happiness in this life, and not just in this life but for 500 lifetimes or 1,000 lifetimes. So from just that one action of helping others, if the child does that in this life, then it takes care of all the future lives, to have a higher rebirth and to receive happiness. Others will help them all the time and there is less harm done. So you can learn and teach your child what I have suggested in Universal Education. That might be good, however, the whole essence of Universal Education is to develop the good heart. However much good heart there is, then there is more happiness and less suffering.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear one,
I am very happy that you are still at Lawudo serving my sister Ngawang Samden, the animals, the gompa and me. Since you have received initiation and teachings from me and regard me as guru, we have a Dharma connection, so you can do all the work there at Lawudo and whatever you do is done for me. Then you collect merit and it becomes the most skillful, powerful Dharma practice; it becomes very powerful purification, purifying unimaginable eons of negative karma and collecting the highest, most extensive merit. Whatever you do will always bring you to enlightenment. This makes your life the most meaningful, most, most fortunate life. So please keep this in your heart every day.

I want to thank you a billion, zillion times. Even though you are very busy every day, you are very happy to help—you are very happy to work and offer service to everyone besides Ngawang Samden. Also, the money you get is used to take care of your mother (I guess) and to look after her, so this collects unbelievable merit. Even small respect and service to your mother and father of this life becomes an unbelievable way to purify and collect good karma, so the result is unbelievable happiness and success, even in this life.

By taking care of your mother, later you will be taken care of by many people. People will serve you in your life when you become 100 years old or 1,000 years old. Not only that, the result in this life will be happiness and success, and you will experience that for hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. Even just one act of service to your mother [brings this result] and in the same way, one small harm that is done to your mother (or father), creates the cause for suffering, to experience very heavy negative karma. There is a very heavy suffering result that you will experience in this life and future lives.

Karma is definite, so what you create—good karma or bad karma—you will definitely experience the result of that. Whether it’s happiness or suffering, you will experience the result. Then also karma is expandable, so for a small good karma the result is happiness in thousands of lifetimes. So it is extremely good that you are helping your mother by working at Lawudo.

We will see how the future goes. Last time I advised you to come to Kopan Nunnery to study Dharma, but then Ngawang Samden and Lawudo wouldn't have support. It is fantastic that you are there. However, keep in mind to learn Dharma—this doesn't only mean to read, but also to learn the path to cease the oceans of samsaric sufferings and their causes, and to learn the Mahayana path to enlightenment. So, learn and put into practice the essence. Of course, if you become a nun, then there is more opportunity to study and practice on the basis of living in Buddha's teachings and the vows. If you keep this plan in mind, it is very good.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear most dear wish-fulfilling one Anna,
I received your most kind letter, which makes me cry at how much unbelievable effort you put, since I got sick. What a great dedication of your life so much to me, but I know that of course the main reason is to benefit all sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha. It is unbelievable.

There are no words to thank you for your immeasurable kindness, and for the:

• 21,226 recitations of the long Amitayus mantra
• 426 short Medicine Buddha sadhanas
• 426 malas of Medicine Buddha mantra
• 1,459 recitations of the Praises to the 21 Taras
• 407 malas of White Tara mantra
• 349 malas of Tara mantras twice
• 259 recitation of the Panacea of Pure Nectar prayer

Your kindness is really, really unfathomable.

When you come to Nepal, please notify me—send me a note or email to this address, to let me know you are there, because I want to meet you and thank you. Please mention these practices you did, so that I remember. I would like to meet you if I am alive at that time. Maybe I should be alive because of all your prayers.

Regarding your question, all your success depends on the root, guru devotion—having stable established guru devotion, by seeing the guru as Buddha from your own side. Of course, by that, I am not saying I am Buddha, I am just a very, very ordinary sentient being, but of course through your stable guru devotion, by seeing the guru as Buddha totally from your side, putting most effort into that, it brings enlightenment quicker. Then the other one is bodhicitta for sentient beings —having compassion, bodhicitta for sentient beings; developing this as strong as possible.

You might have read the lamrim text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. This is available in English, however, even if you have it, it comes out very beneficial for you to read it from beginning to end at least three times. Whatever you don’t understand, you can write the questions down in a book, then when you have the opportunity, ask a geshe or elder student who has done a lot of study in the lamrim, and if they understand, then they can help you.

The most important thing is to develop guru devotion, by seeing the guru as Buddha, by following the lamrim outline and by doing meditation. Please see the attached sheet regarding the rest of your lamrim meditations and how long to spend on each section.

Regarding the lamrim, this means following the outline, then after this, generating the effortless meditation, no matter how many months or years it takes. If you have not achieved stable realizations of guru devotion, then continue meditating until you have stable realizations. Then also, it is important to do some meditation each day on 1) guru devotion, 2) perfect human rebirth, to get renunciation of this life and 3) emptiness.

So go through the lamrim, first training your mind in the graduated path of the lower capable being, then the graduated path of the middle capable being and then the graduated path of the highest capable being. After you have realized renunciation to attachment to this life, then renunciation to even future samsara, realizing that samsara is only in the nature of suffering and that all samsaric pleasure is just like being in the center of a fire. Then after that try to have realizations of bodhicitta and so on. Try to do a little meditation on emptiness every day, just a little bit every day. Try to see how all things are empty or meditate that they are merely labeled or an illusion or like a dream. Meditate like that in the break times while you are active or in the office or playing football. Then after realizing bodhicitta, put effort into tantra.

For your quickest enlightenment, so that you can enlighten all sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering as quickly as possible, your yidam is: Secret Vajrapani or Gyalwa Gyatso. That is your main deity and in the future whichever one you feel closer to or have more faith in, you can follow that. So you can receive the full initiation and later do retreat. First do the short retreat, which enables the action, then later if possible you can do the three year retreat, the great nearing retreat. So, you can aim for that.

For your daily practice, put effort so you can finish reading Chanting the Names of Manjrushri in one day. If you don’t have this text, I can send it to you. Then the next day recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Do like that, on alternate days, for your whole life, as much as you can. So this means reciting one text each day. Of course if you like, you can do more.

Also if you like the Arya Sanghata Sutra you can read it, but the main thing is the Diamond Cutter Sutra and Chanting the Names of Manjrushri.

Then do these preliminaries (see attached sheet for more details). In order to have realizations on the path to enlightenment, you need to purify defilements collected since beginningless time and to collect merits, so you need to do:

• Refuge: 300,000 times
• Tong-len: 100,000 times
• Vajrasattva: 300,000 times
• Lama Tsongkhapa tsa-tsas: 40,000. Make the big one. (See the attached photo of the exact mould I am suggesting.)

A most powerful way to generate quick purification, collect extensive merits, and develop compassion for sentient beings is the nyung nä practice, to be released from samsara quickly. It is good to know how to do nyung näs well, so that you can do the practice by yourself and also so you can guide other people. This practice is extremely beneficial now in the world, and more and more students are trying to do 100 nyung näs. Geshe Lama Konchog did 2,000 nyung näs and one lama from Nepal also 2,000 nyung näs. He was an expert geshe from Drepung who built a monastery. Then some of the nuns from the Tsum area have done over 3,000 nyung näs.

As well as this, live your life with bodhicitta as much as possible, in every action that you do, whether it is eating, walking sleeping, meditating, going to work, etc.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

Dear ones,
Lots of greetings and Tashi Delek.

I appreciate and am thankful to both of you for how you have served Rinpoche. You have served him fully for a long time, with body, speech, and mind, not like someone who pretends to have great faith and then after a while loses one's faith, but with deep faith for him. That really impressed me.

You both are very intelligent, sharp-minded, and very warm-hearted people, which impresses many people and me. According to some local students, many people have admired your behavior, in which I really rejoice, and thank you. Actually, this good behavior is an example of how to serve the Dharma and His Holiness Dalai Lama.

You two are very brave. Even in Iraq, those soldiers who defeat enemies are called Victorious, but according to the Dharma they have accumulated so many negative karmas and lost their victory. You two are totally the opposite and I really appreciate and thank you for your attitude and good behavior.

With much love and prayers ...

It is more important to offer service as best we can to the guru than to build the Maitreya statue. There is no difference between offering service to His Holiness and offering service directly to Maitreya Buddha. Offering service to His Holiness is actually offering service directly to Maitreya Buddha himself.