Practice Advice for Cancer

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

Just keep on dedicating like this:

By my experiencing this life obstacle, this sickness, cancer, may all sentient beings be totally free right away from disease, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements, from beginningless rebirths.

Please continue reciting this,  just as you recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Do this as much as possible. Try to dedicate for that, as much as possible.

You are one person, therefore your pain is one person’s pain, but others who are in pain are numberless. Can you imagine?

I will dedicate the Medicine Buddha practice for you.

With much love and prayers ...

I am extremely happy that you are taking care of ___. That’s perfect, all the buddhas and bodhisattvas are so happy.

My very dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Please recite the Vajra Cutter Sutra a few times. Also, I will do some prayers and recitations for you now.

Please recite Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name mantra, thinking that the Buddha is actually there. If you have a thangka or statue, think that the Buddha is actually there. The Buddha sends nectar with much loving kindness and it purifies you completely. All your disease and spirit harm and where all the sickness comes from—delusions and karma—gets purified totally. What has been collected from beginningless rebirths gets completely purified. Recite the name mantra and think this very strongly.

Also, think strongly about the quotations from the Kadampa geshes, such as the quotation that the bad conditions we are experiencing now are like our virtuous friends. Look at it that way, think of it that way.

Then, the next one is “This suffering is a manifestation of emptiness.” Meditate on emptiness. “The I is not truly existent” —that is the meditation.

The next meditation is “It is a dependent arising.” Mainly think about subtle dependent arising, the Prasangika-Madhyamaka view. This means what is “I” is nothing, except for what is merely labeled—what exists in mere name—by the valid mind on the merely labeled aggregates.

You can do other meditations on emptiness that are effective for you, spending a little bit of time on each point. Meditate on how the I exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind on the valid base—the aggregates—that is also merely labeled by the mind. Meditate on that.

You are experiencing this cancer that exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind. Nothing exists from its own side. No cancer exists from its own side. The object also—the cancer itself—exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind. Think, “What I believe as real cancer does not exist at all from its own side; it’s totally empty from its own side.” Meditate on that.

The other thing is to do tong-len. You have probably already received teachings and advice on this, so you can use the Lama Chöpa verse [v. 95] or Nagarjuna’s verse or other different ways.

This is the best meditation to purify from where cancer comes; to purify the obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths and to collect more than skies of merits. Each time when you take the suffering of others and the causes with compassion and with loving kindness, and then give away your body, possessions, three times’ merit and all the results up to enlightenment, you collect more than skies of merit. Numberless times! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! That’s very, very good. It makes you achieve enlightenment in the quickest way; it makes you able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings quicker. It means that it’ll be much faster for you to bring sentient beings to full enlightenment: sang-gye, the cessation of all the obscurations and the completion of all the realizations.

If you can come to India, there is geshe who used to live in Dharamsala called Geshe Tobgye. He is very old and he used to heal many people of cancer by giving mantras. In the meantime, do this practice.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, most precious one,
Sorry for the long delay. I checked your question and chemotherapy is very good.

When you have treatment, every time when you take medicine, think that the purpose is to be able to benefit numberless sentient beings. This is what you should think even at normal times, whenever you have treatment or take medicine. That makes it worthwhile, despite all the expense.

With much love and prayers...

Dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. You should do retreat on the Naga King [Skt: Naga Raja; Tib: lu wang gi gyäl po]. The sadhana was translated during the first Dharma Celebration by Ven. Jampa Chokyi, the Spanish nun. Do retreat on this sadhana and recite the mantra at least 60,000 times by doing sessions. Also, during the retreat take the eight Mahayana precepts every day or every other day if you can.

Then, do Vajrayogini self-initiation if you can. You can abbreviate the practice by doing the blessing of the mandala and leaving out the part with the extensive offerings and the long praises. You can just do the mantra part, which will make it short. Do Vajrayogini self-initiation daily if you can. This is the best thing, the ultimate solution. If you are living, this is the best thing to do, and if you are going to die, it is the best way to prepare for death, in order to stop rebirth in the lower realms and go to a pure realm.

Even though you are doing practices for healing, it is good in every hour of every day to think, “I am going to die.” These practices purify even very heavy karmas, including those that definitely cause us to experience the result of suffering in this life. These practices also purify degenerated vows.

It is said that even reciting the name and mantra of this buddha, the Naga King, only twenty-one times, purifies the heavy negative karmas and experiences in this life. Also, you will not receive harm from nagas and landlord spirits, you won’t receive dangerous sicknesses, or hindrances from burglaries or thefts, and you will receive great wealth. Even paralysis can be cured by reciting this mantra 100,000 times.

In the past, this Naga King created so much benefit for the nagas. He freed them from many sicknesses, then he dedicated these truths. He said, “May anybody who recites my name be free from sicknesses caused by nagas.” This includes cancer. That’s one of the external conditions that has not yet been discovered by Western medical science, without even mentioning the main causes, delusion and karma, which are the real causes of cancer.

So if you do this practice, you can use the recitation of this name and mantra to heal other people with cancer or leprosy, especially sicknesses caused by nagas. You can recite the name and mantra as you pray to this buddha to immediately cure other people from sickness. All this benefit is due to the truth of this buddha and the way he benefited other nagas.

If you can, arrange to sponsor a 100,000 offering Namgyalma puja. Discuss this with Geshe-la, and he can do a mo to see which khang tsen [monastic house] is best. If you are not able to sponsor the puja at a big monastery, it can be done by a smaller group of monks. Also you should do meditation and recitation of the long-life deities, White Tara or Namgyalma, both of which are very important practices for people with life obstacles who are experiencing the danger of imminent death. Also, ask Geshe-la to do the puja of hooking the life, called la küg tse küg in Tibetan. You should do the practice and retreat of the Naga King immediately.

You should know that this sickness means a challenge for your mind to do strong practice, especially with bodhicitta. So, as you are experiencing this sickness with compassion and bodhicitta toward all sentient beings, it becomes the quickest path for you to reach enlightenment. I will pray for you.

With much love and prayer...

[See also The benefits of the Naga King mantra for more advice and for the mantra.]

My dear one,
You’re reciting the Diamond Cutter Sutra every day. That is excellent. If the recitation is done with bodhicitta motivation, that is the best thing for you to do, now and in the future. Also, study what I have written on Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death. [Find links to this booklet in the "Teachings, Advice and Commentaries" subsection of the FPMT Catalogue.]

Try to do more than 200,000 mantras of Vajrasattva, as much as you can.

Then do or arrange for Amitabha tsa tsas (16x) to be done. You can do these or someone can do them for you. Dedicate to achieving all the path and enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. If there is a bigger Amitabha tsa tsa somewhere, then in addition you can have a few of these made, if you can find them. I’m not sure where, so just do this if you can find them.

These practices you can do as you feel, depending on your condition. It’s not necessary to be in retreat style; the main thing is that they are done.

With much love and prayer...

PS: As I mentioned, try to do more than 200,000 Vajrasattva mantras, so then it is better to be in retreat.