Practice Advice for Cancer

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
You chose the best practice; you are very good, so I don’t need to explain to you, but you can also read the Arya Sanghata Sutra.

You can learn from all my talks on the kindness of sentient beings; especially learn the three different ways to meditate in order to realize the kindness of sentient beings.

The sentient beings are most kind, most precious, most wish-fulfilling for you. Also, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha [come from sentient beings]. One way I explain Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, is that Buddha comes from the sentient beings. From those talks, you can understand how all our own past, present and future happiness, including enlightenment comes from sentient beings. I explain [in those talks] how Buddha came from sentient beings.

Buddha came from sentient beings, therefore that means Dharma came from sentient beings, and the Sangha also came from sentient beings. So we rely on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha day and night, all the time. From there we can become free from the lower realms, purify our negative karma and get a higher rebirth. Not only that, we can actualize [the path] by taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, abandoning the karma that is the cause of suffering and practicing the good karma that is the cause of happiness. Then we get a higher rebirth.

By practicing the three higher trainings—the higher training of morality, the higher training of meditation, and the higher training of special insight—we can become free from samsara, and of course, on the basis of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, refuge, we can achieve liberation. On the basis of refuge, we generate bodhicitta by renouncing the self-cherishing thought and generating compassion for all sentient beings, and in this way we become a buddha. It all comes from sentient beings.

We think money is precious, because if we have money, we can buy whatever we want. The general idea is that, so everyone works for more money, therefore money is regarded as very precious, like that.

Sentient beings are unbelievably precious, kind, because all the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha came from the sentient beings. Numberless Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and also yourself, your Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, came from every sentient being—every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human, every sura, every asura being and every intermediate state being. Therefore they’re most kind and most precious.

Not only that, for example, the mosquitoes that bite you, the ants that bite you, these are what a bodhisattva regards as most precious; they regard those sentient beings as most precious, most dear and wish-fulfilling.

The bodhisattvas followed the path of giving up the self-cherishing thought, and cherishing numberless sentient beings. They removed the delusions, the obscurations, and the subtle obscurations by generating bodhicitta, and by collecting more than skies of merit each time with body, speech and mind, then they developed the wisdom understanding emptiness. Having both directly removes the obscurations and allows us to achieve enlightenment.

Therefore, a bodhisattva cherishes sentient beings the most; they are the most important. Numberless bodhisattvas cherish this ant, this mosquito that bites you. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha cherishes them the most, like a wish-granting jewel, most precious.

Buddha became enlightened because of this sentient being, because of numberless sentient beings; this sentient being that bites you or the person who is angry to you. They think this sentient being is a wish-granting jewel. The person who disrespects you, who is angry with you or puts you down is so precious. Numberless buddhas think this: “This insect is so precious to me, the insects are most precious.” Wow, wow, wow. The numberless sentient beings are most precious, like wish-granting jewels.

Then there’s no way for us to harm them, and instead we offer service in whatever way we can, as much as possible. With whatever capacity we have, we help them. In this way we take their suffering and the cause of suffering, delusion and karma. All the bad environments that we see, we take everything into our heart and give it to the self-cherishing thought and we destroy that completely. Generally, that is done with compassion.

By generating loving kindness, we give our body in the form of a wish-granting jewel, which brings all the success, numberless success to each sentient being—each hell being, each preta, each animal, each human, each sura, each asura realm being. Then we give our enjoyments, even those including wish-granting jewels, and our merits collected from beginningless time, and also the merits in the future, we totally give them all to every sentient being.

Then they get whatever they want, all the happiness, whatever they need, a perfect human rebirth, and Dharma, a perfect guide showing the unimaginable path to enlightenment, and then they’re freed from all the delusions of samsara, and they all achieve enlightenment. That’s what the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asura realm beings need. Then we rejoice, having enlightened them. You can do like this as many times as possible.

Your having cancer is extremely beneficial, so beneficial, because it brings you to enlightenment quickly, by purifying all the negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths, and causing you to collect extensive merit. This brings you to enlightenment quickly, especially by doing this tonglen practice.

So it becomes very important. You needed the cancer; it is really needed. It’s not that you didn’t need it; it’s not something to remove, but something that you need in order to bring the sentient beings to enlightenment, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. It’s really needed; it’s unbelievable. Therefore, the cancer is like a wish-granting jewel.

For tonglen think: “The self-cherishing thought caused all the suffering of samsara from beginningless rebirths; it made me to suffer. Then again in the future, if I don’t practice bodhicitta now, I’ll be unable to achieve enlightenment. Again, the self-cherishing thought will let me create negative karma and create the wrong concept. I’ll follow the wrong concepts continuously and that lets me suffer again without end—experiencing the original suffering of samsara, with all the obstacles to achieving enlightenment, to benefiting sentient beings, to achieving happiness, not only enlightenment, but the happiness of liberation from samsara and even the happiness of this life, so all that.

“And not only me, the self-cherishing thought has caused me to harm sentient beings from beginningless rebirths, and let the numberless sentient beings suffer from beginningless rebirths. If I don’t practice bodhicitta now and achieve enlightenment, it will harm the numberless sentient beings continuously. Having the motivation of the self-cherishing thought itself is harming the sentient beings, so then sentient beings have to experience suffering without end. This is the worst enemy, so now I recognize this.”

Therefore, as it’s mentioned in Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara:

As long as I don’t give up the fire, [which means the fire is in your hands]
The burning won’t be stopped.

So if we don’t give up the I, the self, the self-cherishing thought, it’s the same. Thinking that the I is real, that self, and then cherishing it the most, as the most precious thing. As long as we don’t give up the I, the suffering cannot be given up; this means we cannot be free from suffering.

Therefore, in order to pacify the harm to us, and pacify the suffering of others, we need to give ourselves up to others and cherish others as we cherish ourselves. This is the most incredible, most incredible advice, and practice, then teaching. You must write this down in your prayer book, and you should remember it every time you generate the motivation. Generate bodhicitta, develop bodhicitta at that time, using that great example.

If you don’t do this, then it doesn’t happen, and you can’t renounce the suffering, both your own and others. “Others” means numberless sentient beings, not just one. Even just to renounce yourself, to become free from your own suffering, even this is unbelievable, most unbelievable. To be free forever from the suffering of samsara, the oceans of sufferings—wow, wow, wow—just that is amazing.

Now, to free every sentient being, numberless sentient beings, from the oceans of samsaric suffering—wow, wow, wow. Renouncing the I, and the method, cherishing other sentient beings the most, you need to practice that. So the cancer is helping for that.

It is said in the teachings that the 424 diseases, the 84,000 interferers and the 360 kinds of spirit possession are all usually regarded as harm-givers. But now here, when we practice thought transformation, all of these are helping us to harm the I, to harm the self-cherishing thought which has been harming us from beginningless rebirths, now and in the future.

Again, numberless sentient beings of the hell, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura and asura realms, and so forth, and in the three times, so all those are destroying [the self-cherishing thought], so you can see very clearly the cancer, one of the diseases, is really helping you. So, it is like a jewel, most needed for quick enlightenment, not only for you, but for all sentient beings. It’s like the most precious, most precious, wish-fulfilling jewel, not only for you, but for all sentient beings. It’s most precious, like a wish-fulfilling jewel.

Also, and this is very important for you, in the Heap of Teachings, in Tibetan tsom [Wyl: Ched du brjod pa’i tshoms; Pali: Dhammapada], Buddha said,

The fool worries, thinking,
“I have sons, I have wealth.”
Indeed, when he himself is not his own,
Whence are sons, whence is wealth?

It is referring to those who don’t know Dharma, and in particular, who don’t know emptiness, the ultimate nature, the right view, how things exist—that things exist because they are empty and do not exist from their own side. “Empty” means things do not exist from their own side; it does not mean nihilism, that things totally do not exist. It is not saying this. Here, empty means they do not exist from their own side, so that’s how things exist—they exist in mere name, merely labeled by the mind. There’s not even one atom existing from its own side.

Now think about your I. You must have read my teachings on emptiness, which explain how the I exists, so then you can understand and I don’t have to repeat it here. You can read more on this by going to my teachings on how the I exists as merely labeled by the mind.

So I, action, object, samsara, nirvana, enlightenment, hell, happiness, problems, all the objects of mind, all the subjects of mind, and the person, the whole, entire phenomena, how they exist is most unbelievably subtle, existing in mere name, merely imputed by mind, so subtle.

For example, the I exists, but it’s like it doesn’t exist. It definitely exists, but it is unbelievably subtle. You can only understand that if you discover the Prasangika view, from the four schools of Buddhist philosophy. The definition [of emptiness] according to the Madhyamaka—the second division, Prasangika Madhyamaka, not Svatantrika—it’s most unbelievably, unbelievably subtle; it’s like it doesn’t exist—subject, action, object—the whole thing, that’s the reality.

There’s no you, there’s no your house, there’s no your area, there’s no your country, there’s no the whole world. It’s like that. This is the way things appear to your ignorance, your hallucinated mind, and the way you’ve held on to them as real from beginningless rebirths—not only from this birth but from beginningless rebirths. According to that, things exist but they do not exist, like that, it’s unbelievably subtle.

In Tibet, only those who have a lot of merit understand Madhyamaka philosophy, their view of emptiness, the special Prasangika view, the second one. People need so much merit to understand this Prasangika view; only some will understand. Otherwise, they think according to the different philosophical schools. These are Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Cittamatra (Mind Only) and Madhyamaka, which has two divisions, Svatantrika and Prasangika.

The four schools each have their own view, and of course, their own understanding of the object to be refuted, the hallucination. They have their own truth, which helps them discover the most unmistaken Prasangika view, the hallucinated gag cha, the object to be refuted, as well as the right view.

Everybody, including the scientists, those who are learned, as well as those who are highly educated in the West, even Buddhists, the extremely learned ones who can explain sutra and tantra by heart, the five treatises: Pramanavarttika, the Vinaya, the Abhidharmakosha, the Madhyamaka and Prajnpaparamita. They can explain by heart the root texts, the commentaries, the tantric teachings, unbelievable, but then if they don’t practice—if they think everything that appears to the wrong concept, ignorance, [is truly existing] —if they don’t have the realization, if they believe things are real, they hold onto what appears as real.

So then, including even those small insects, or if we touch worms, the worms think they are receiving some harm; even the smallest worms jump up and down. Even the smallest insects, when we touch them they run away so quickly, feeling they’ve received harm. This is because of believing there’s a real I. The real I appears to the hallucinated mind, ignorance, then they hold it as true. Even the small insects have this.

Then this one is called “child”. A child does things and says things, for example, a child makes a house in the sand on top of our feet, but when somebody destroys the house of sand, then the child gets angry, they fight.

Therefore, all this is done with the wrong view. We believe in that as true, recognizing that as true, seeing all the hallucinations as true, instead of recognizing the hallucination as a hallucination, looking at it as false. We look at it all as true, not seeing it as a hallucination. All of this is like a child, so that’s why all these are called “children”.

There are people, human beings in the West [and we think] how wise they are, how much education they have; they did this and that; they are from famous universities, even Buddhist universities. They have great, great understanding, but their concept is like this: thinking that all the other things that appear are real, and holding on to this as true, instead of seeing all this as a hallucination, as it is a hallucination.

In the Dharma texts they are called children. Children think this way, so that is how we should understand it. So then all those people think, “I have a son; I have a wife; I have a million dollars or a billion dollars; I have a house; I have this and that.”

The next one, “the I doesn’t have I.” [Refer to lines 3–4 of the verse above.] So I already explained this before. The way it appears as real and the way we believe it’s true, for this there’s not even one atom. If there’s no I, how can you have a son and wealth that you believe? You believe you have son and wealth? No! 

So now, please think, please think, please think: the cancer appears real and then you hold on to that as true. That’s how you create the ignorance, in that way, holding it as true instead of false.

This is exactly the same. There’s much to meditate on here. You have no [truly existent] cancer. So ignorance thinks, “I have cancer,” but in reality, no. Meditate on that. This is the meditation.

As it says in the Heap of Teachings [Dhammapada], if the I doesn’t exist, if the self doesn’t exist, then how can “my” exist? If there’s no I, no self, then how is it possible for “my” to exist? “My body, my mind, my this, my that, my parents, my son, my daughter, my sickness, this and that, my cancer.” So how does “my” exist? It means there’s no way. It is saying I and my ceases, it doesn’t exist.

The ignorance believing there’s I, there’s mine—when the ignorance ceases, then the seed of that, and taking rebirth in samsara due to that ignorance, finishes, ceases, stops. It ceases, and when that ceases, rebirth in samsara ceases, then there’s nirvana.

Thank you very much. You have so much to meditate on. You should study my teachings, then it becomes more and more clear. Study the teachings on emptiness.

Thank you very much. You are most welcome to enlightenment, the quickest way to come to enlightenment. Goodbye to samsara. Thank you very much. Please let me know how your practice is going. As your practice goes on a little bit, please let me know.

Since you’re a good practitioner, I want to tell you more. It is said in the Heap of Teachings that even if there’s birth and death, there’s no birth and death.

Even though birth and death happen,
There is no birth and death.
For one who realizes this,
This concentration is not difficult to find.

What it’s saying is that conventionally, according to ignorance, there’s birth and death, but in reality, according to the ultimate nature, there’s no birth and death. By knowing this, for a person who knows this, this concentration is not difficult to find. It’s not difficult; it’s easy.

Another quotation in the Guhyasamaja Root Tantra says there’s no rebirth. From no rebirth, all are born. From merely birth, there’s only merely labeled birth, therefore there’s no birth. So you can relate that to the cancer. From no cancer, all are born. From the merely labeled cancer, because it’s merely labeled cancer, there’s no cancer, same thing. You can relate this to old age and death, so you can meditate like that every day. And here, the second verse is the commentary to the first verse.

Also, something you can remember many times in a daytime, from the Heap of Teachings [Dhammapada], think that all phenomena are like a dream, like an illusion. There’s not even one thing that has essence, that is true, whose essence is the truth, there’s not even one.

All existents are like a dream and an illusion.
There is nothing that is truly existent.
Nothing exists yet it appears. Therefore,
Don’t cling so much to phenomena!

What it is saying is that the way things appear to our mind’s ignorance, holding them as true, that is saying there’s no essence, there’s not even one thing whose essence is truth. Phenomena don’t exist, but they appear.

So don’t cling, don’t cling highly. “Highly” means “so much” or “directly”; it’s kind of like that, or “don’t cling actually”. So that’s what Buddha said in these verses.

When you go to the shop, when you go to the supermarket, you can meditate on this. When you are shopping, when you are cooking, when you are sightseeing, remember this. When you go to a party, especially anything you find exciting, you can think that. When you’re eating delicious food or singing delicious songs, so anything that’s delicious, delicious contact, right.

Thank you very much. I will stop here.

With much love and prayers ...

My very dear one,
You need to have the Kopan nuns recite the Amitayus Long Life Sutra (Tse Dö) 2,000 times.

You need to recite Amitayus Long Life Sutra once a day, or best is two or three times every single day. When you recite the Long Life Sutra it has the same benefits as reading all the Buddha’s teachings. Read the sutra once, twice or three times a day.

When you recite it, dedicate also for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life and for all holy beings in the world, for the success of all their wishes to benefit others. Dedicate for all the Sangha, for their long life, and for all the benefactors of the Sangha and the teachings of Buddha. Dedicate for the Sangha’s long life and for all their wishes to succeed. Also dedicate for people who do good things in this world, for their long life and the success of their wishes, and dedicate for the evil beings—the butchers and so forth—that they meet Dharma and change their mind; that they stop creating negative karma and change their mind to bodhicitta, cherishing others. Of course, also dedicate for yourself and your family.

[In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life] Shantideva said if we haven’t harmed others or treated others badly, then nobody will harm us or treat us badly.

[6: 42] Previously I must have caused similar harm
To other sentient beings.
Therefore is it right for this harm to be returned
To me who is the cause of injury to others.

This is very logical. If we didn’t harm others in the past, nobody will harm us now. What caused that person to harm us is our self-cherishing thought, and the result is that we receive harm now. Even if we never met that person who suddenly hurts us or who says something bad, every experience, bad or good, comes from karma.

It’s important to think about karma. To know more about karma, you can read this section in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

Abandon negative karma and
Practice good karma;
This brings happiness to you and others.

This is why Dharma practice is so important in your life. Why your mother treated you like that is because you are experiencing the result of your karma of having treated another person in a similar way.

If we haven’t harmed others, then no-one can harm us. Karma is so powerful and also the object—the person we help—has incredible power. Due to the power of the object, the result in this life of any small or bad [action] is very strong. Regarding our parents, the kindness of our parents, we have to be very careful due to the power of object.

You can apologize to your mother from the heart, to make her happy. Then any mantra you do, any practice you do, you can dedicate for her.

Buddha explained in the teachings that there are three types of karma:

1. Create the cause in this life and experience result in this life.
2. Create the cause in this life and experience the result in the next life.
3. Create the cause in this life and experience the result after many lifetimes.

Starting with our parents, then even more powerful than this is the Sangha—numberless Sangha, including arhats who are free from samsara. One bodhisattva is a more powerful object than the Sangha. It is said in the teachings that if we look at a bodhisattva with a calm, devotional mind we create more merit than having offered our eyes to the sentient beings of the three realms—the desire realm, form realm and formless realm. One buddha is a more powerful object than a bodhisattva, and more powerful than a buddha is our guru. Our guru is a more powerful object than numberless buddhas. Our guru is someone with whom we have a guru-diciple relationship.

So any karma, any small service or respect done to our parents up to our guru is so powerful and we will experience the result in this life. In the same way, any small harm or disrespect we do to our parents up to our guru, we will experience the result in this life. That is just the start, then after the death time we will spend uncountable eons in the hell realms, then the preta realms, then the animal realms, particularly the animal realms. Not only will we experience the most unbearable suffering in samsara, but we will experience it for an unimaginable amount of time. Not only that, we will be reborn there again and again.

Whatever unpleasant thing we are experiencing came from our own mind; it is merely labeled by our own mind. Even that is related to attachment or the self-cherishing thought, so for some small comfort of this life we create this cause for unbelievable suffering, besides no ultimate happiness, liberation, enlightenment. So from a Dharma point of view this is totally the worst thing.

Among the human dharmas, the activities of general human beings, beating our own parents is the worst thing we can do. It is possible that this is not us, that something has entered our body and mind and made us beat them. To think like this is very good psychology, “This is not me; something made me do it.”

There is a story from one sutra about a clay maker boy. He wanted to do the same business as his father, who got jewels from the ocean but then drowned. The boy’s mother was concerned that her son would also drown if he did the same business, so she made a business with grass. The son sold the grass and offered the money to his mother.

He got four golden coins and gave these to his mother. This happened four times, that he gave four golden coins to his mother. Then he found out that in the past his father had actually worked on the ocean getting jewels, so the son wanted to go and do this as well. The mother grabbed the son’s feet and begged him not to leave, but the son actually beat his mother and left.

As the son went on the ocean, he saw an island with palaces and so many enjoyments, many deva girls, who all asked him to stay there with them, but he didn’t listen and left. Later he saw another island with the same enjoyments and many deva girls asking him to stay, but he went on. Then he saw two more islands that were similar, but he left each one.

Then he saw an island with a black iron fence around it and one man on the island whose head was being cut by a giant wheel. The wheel was turning and cutting the man’s head. The son heard a karmic voice from the sky saying that the wheel was going to transfer onto his head. The son generated bodhicitta thinking, “May I experience this pain for all others who also experience this pain.” Immediately the wheel left from above his head, because of the power of bodhicitta.

So the many enjoyments that he saw on the previous four islands were the result of having offered the gold coins to his mother four times. The last island that he saw was the result of him hitting his mother. This story is to prove the benefits of cherishing others and the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought.

A very important key is that any service you can do for your parents you must do. You can bring the cause of happiness to other sentient beings from that.

If you are able to live one year longer, now that you understand karma, it’s an incredible opportunity to help your parents but it can be helping anyone, even insects. So you must do this and if you can live longer to help others, to benefit others, then it’s worthwhile for you to live.

When you do Amitayus meditation, visualize nectar entering your body, so your body is completely clear, like switching on a light in a dark room. Think your body is in the nature of light, totally clean, like crystal, and your life is prolonged. Think you receive all the qualities of Amitayus —omniscience, compassion for all beings and perfect power to benefit them. Do this meditation. You need to take Amitayus long-life initiation.

You also need to have 7,000 long-life tsa tsas made. Tsa tsas might be hard for you to make, so you could develop 7,000 long-life photos, but tsa tsas are better due to the number of atoms of the holy body. [If you develop photos] you can give the pictures to people or to centers or they can be put inside holy objects. Or you can put them on a table and go around the holy objects, purifying and creating the cause of enlightenment. [Read more here.]

Liberate animals in danger of being killed one hundred times. You can even liberate insects or fishing worms. First take them around holy objects; carry them around the holy objects before liberating them. [Find links to Rinpoche's book, Liberating Animals, in the FPMT Catalogue.]

Recite the mantra of Vajrapani Garuda Hayagriva [the Threefold Wrathful Ones.]

Chemotherapy didn’t come out good at all. It’s better to do the treatment there and have the immunotherapy together with puja. That came out best. The puja part is the extensive Medicine Buddha puja once each month at Kopan nunnery. Then Amitabha pure land or [another] pure land!

Regarding staying or returning to the other country you mentioned, you have to break the concept of permanence. Even though there are geshes who are expert in Dharma knowledge and who can explain it so well, they didn’t do any practice—contemplating that life is impermanent, death and also karma. Then they are so afraid at the time of death and they look like a person who has never met Dharma.

All other works have no essence compared to Dharma and thinking many times each day about impermanence and death. Even if there’s no extensive Dharma study done, by understanding the essence of Dharma and the path and by remembering impermanence each day, then there’s no fear at the time of death. By breaking the concept of permanence, so much purification and accumulation of merit gets done. Then we are ready to go to the pure lands.

By reciting three times the Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra prayer, you can prepare [for death]. Recite this for each other, whoever is available, at the death time. Even before the actual death, but nearing that time and before, read it loudly and let the other person pray to be born there, without clinging to family, wealth and even to this body, because everything is there. It’s most unbelievable, one hundred times better than the deva realm, the worldly god realms. There’s no suffering of pain, no suffering of change and no pervasive compounding suffering at all!

One-pointedly, undistractedly, think of that. If you are able to help each other at the time of death, it’s good if [you are] there, and if not, do it together [beforehand]. Even doing it together, you can help each other.

So, the essence is that attachment to samsaric perfections has no meaning. There’s no meaning to being attached. Since beginningless rebirths we have been attached and it has made no sense, because we have only been suffering since then. We have to understand this.

This Amitabha prayer came from the mouth of Amitabha himself. We need to put strong faith in that, then the benefit comes from that.

That’s my advice, even before I die. And what’s more, you can think of His Holiness the Dalai Lama or if it is helpful you can think of me, the Mickey Mouse sloth.

Prepare more for future lives and don’t get stuck on this life. Otherwise, there’s no difference from those who didn’t meet Dharma, feeling upset and so on.

For your wife, regarding the hormone therapy, now is the time is to practice tonglen. Please read my past advice on how to do tonglen.

Bodhicitta is the nectar when death happens; for poverty, bodhicitta is the precious treasure; bodhicitta is the best medicine when we are sick; bodhicitta is the tree for resting under, to stay cool, with a place to rest the heavy luggage we have been carrying; bodhicitta is the moon (light) destroying suffering; bodhicitta is the sunlight destroying delusion; bodhicitta is the butter from churning milk; bodhicitta is the happiness that sentient beings are looking for, and it takes us to enlightenment.

In the Bodhicaryavatara, the great Shantideva says, “Everyone, be happy (with bodhicitta).” This includes anyone, even those who harm us. It brings them to enlightenment.

Also, your wife can recite the mantra, The Great Increasing Jewel, Fathomless Celestial Mansion, Extremely Well Abiding, Secret Holy Mantra. [Find links to this practice in the FPMT Catalogue. Go to "Mantras & Holy Names" category and scroll down to find Celestial Mansion Extremely Secret Sublime Success Mantra eBook & PDF.]

That is the best thing, the best practice. Even if we die, with bodhicitta we go to the pure land, we are not born in the lower realms or [we are reborn] with a human form, we meet Mahayana teachers and teachings and go to enlightenment, better and better.

With love and prayers ...

One geshe at Kopan can recite Ser Wo Nada five times. The dedication is for him to be immediately healed from prostate cancer, to have meaningful life, to generate bodhicitta in this life, to never be reborn in the lower realms and to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I checked and according to my observations your operation is not best, but good.

Read the Diamond Cutter Sutra nine times before going to the hospital. You should start to read it more or less straight away. It is so powerful for purifying the obscurations and negative karma accumulated from beginningless rebirths. The purpose is not just for yourself but for every single sentient being—every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura, asura and intermediate state being—for them to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and to lead them to total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

Preliminaries:

• Water bowl offerings: 4,000.
• Tsa tsas: 10,000. Most should be the three long-life deities. Some can be the three types of savior: Vajrapani, Manjushri, Chenrezig.
• Mandala offerings: 101,000.

Deity: Yamantaka and Tara Cittamani.

To achieve enlightenment the quickest, the purpose is that we can’t bear that the numberless sentient beings, numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras, intermediate state beings are suffering in samsara. Their suffering is most unbearable. First of all, that; and second, they have been our mother and kind to us. Third, all our past, present and future happiness including enlightenment is received by the kindness of every sentient being.

Even Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that we always take refuge in to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering, to be free from lower realms, to receive a higher rebirth, liberation, and to whom we pray, came from sentient beings. So they are most unbelievably kind. Therefore, we are responsible for liberating the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bringing them to sang gye, the elimination of the obscurations and completion of the realizations. We need to do that as quickly as possible, and for that we need to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. For that we need to practice Highest Yoga Tantra, which contains the quickest path to enlightenment, the clear light, mahamudra.

The main lamrim for you to study is Manjushri’s Own Words [The Sacred Words of Manjushri; Tib: Jam päl zhal lung]. Read this text four times from beginning to end, and do effortful meditation on the lamrim. Cycle through the lamrim outline three times and then do effortless meditation.

Also do nyung näs. It is very, very common that there are people who do one hundred nyung näs. Sometimes they do fifty, then they have a break and do another fifty. Sometimes they do them straight, one after another. If you can do nyung näs as much as possible each year, that would be the greatest thing, the best thing. That contains everything: purification and collecting extensive merits. One nyung nä purifies negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths, so it’s a most powerful practice.

If possible, recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Even if we recite this mantra without bodhicitta, reciting it one time we collect more merit than the number of drops of water in the ocean or blades of grass growing in the fields or on the mountains, or the number of snowdrops or raindrops. Then if we recite this mantra with bodhicitta we collect merit greater than space. It’s most amazing, most amazing purification and collection of merits.

Also do prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas and Thousand-arm Chenrezig. Wow, wow, wow, from that we collect the most amazing merits. When we do one prostration to the Buddha, however many atoms of earth our body covers, from the ground to the bottom of the earth, we create that many causes to be born as a wheel-turning king equaling one thousand times that many atoms. Why the example of the wheel-turning king is used is because to be born one time as a wheel-turning king we have to collect numberless merits, but of course it doesn’t mean that we have to be born only as a wheel-turning king. In the Lankavatara Sutra the Buddha used the example of the wheel-turning king, because to be born like that we have to create inconceivable, inconceivable merit.

Dedicate the merit for you to achieve enlightenment in order to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. Reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas prayer is unbelievable. So many eons of negative karma are purified by reciting each of the names once. Lama Tsongkhapa did 700,000 prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas prayer and received rainfalls of realizations.

During a nyung nä there are two days of eight Mahayana precepts. On the first day there is one meal and on the second day there is no eating or drinking. It is unbelievably powerful purification, particularly because it causes us to generate compassion for all sentient beings and then that brings us to enlightenment quickly. Not only that, it brings us to the pure land when we die. That’s the most powerful way to be born in the pure land, in Amitabha Buddha’s pure land. Once we are born there it is impossible to be reborn in the lower realms.

So, if you can, do many hundreds of nyung näs, like one thousand nyung näs. Geshe Lama Konchog did two thousand nyung näs. A great lama called Drupa Rinpoche, who built a monastery in the Himalayan mountains and helped so many people on the mountains, was always organizing 100 million mani retreats and stopping the killing of animals. He himself did to two thousand nyung näs and he had disciples who did three thousand nyung näs.

If you can do many nyung näs that would be unbelievable. We have a Brazilian nun who has probably finished more than five hundred nyung näs now. And we have students in France doing nyung näs. I sponsor all those students who do one hundred nyung näs.

With much love and prayers ...