Practice Advice

My dear Lesley,
My advice is to do 20,000 Samayavajra. Do the same visualization as for Vajrasattva, on the crown of your head with nectar flowing down, and the three purifications: downward, upward, and instantaneous. According to my observations, this is what you should do. Especially, you need to purify negative karma with the guru. If you have received a highest tantra initiation, you should do Lama Chöpa every day. Study His Holiness's commentary. The rest of the day you should live with a bodhicitta motivation. Live life to serve others, thinking I’m here to free all sentient beings from samsara and lead them to enlightenment, happiness in this life and in all future lives, and liberation from samsara.

The other practice is to integrate your life with the five powers. That is the fundamental practice. It makes life most meaningful and beneficial for all sentient beings and does not create obstacles on the path.

One can do other practices, sadhanas, and mantras, but this is the foundation. You should also know the five powers for the time of death. If you are able to practice the five powers in daily life, you will be able to practice them at the time of death. First, one must know the outline of the two sets of five powers. But the key thing is always, early in the morning, to make the resolution not to be controlled by the self cherishing thought. From now on until death, especially today, vow never to be separated from bodhicitta. The rest of the day, by applying all the effort you can, try to perform all your activities with that thought. When you collect merits every day, dedicate them to actualizing bodhicitta for you and all sentient beings, to be able to generate bodhicitta in this life and all future lives. Study teachings on bodhicitta to see that it has great meaning in one's life. By knowing the extensive benefits, one can enjoy life practicing bodhicitta.

You should check in the teachings of the Seven Point Mind Training for the five powers in daily life and the five powers at the time of death. It is very good to think every morning, “I will die today.” Then, the day you die you will not be shocked. This helps you to accept death. When you find out you are going to die, put all your effort into practicing bodhicitta, giving sentient beings all your happiness, merit, and possessions. Their receiving all of this causes them to actualize the path and achieve enlightenment. Do this by generating great loving kindness, wishing them to have happiness and for you to cause them to have it. Then, generate compassion and take their suffering, sickness, and especially death onto yourself. Take all these into your heart as you breathe in and give them to your ego to destroy it, so that it becomes non-existent. Also, the emotional “I,” which appears to exist from its own side, is non-existent. Try to die with this motivation. Live life with this precious thought, which is all-fulfilling, and which is all-fulfilling for all sentient beings. If you die with this thought, your death becomes a cause of your enlightenment and the cause for the enlightenment of all sentient beings.

Before going to bed, if you can, perform the Thirty-five Buddhas practice by reciting their names and doing the prostrations, if possible. If you can, do this three times or more. Recite Vajrasattva mantra a minimum of 21 times. Make the elaborate dedication by reciting the King of Prayers. It is easy to recite the King of Prayers. If you can't, then dedicate to actualize bodhicitta "by the merit of myself and others" and make the Samantabhadra dedication, to actualize Lama Tsongkhapa’s stainless and complete path which unifies sutra and tantra in one's mind, for the students and benefactors of the organization (FPMT) and all sentient beings to flourish forever. If possible, please make this dedication after each merit you collect. If that is not possible, then dedicate in the morning after your practice and when going to bed.

You should do the commitments you have received from Lama, they are there to purify your mind and help you gain realizations.

When you do Lama Chöpa in the morning, there is a lamrim prayer with it, so you must concentrate well while doing it. It is a very skillful means for planting the seeds of the whole path in just a few minutes and it becomes a meditation on the lamrim.
With much love and prayers...