Practices for Life

My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling one,
The purpose of practicing tantra, and especially Highest Yoga Tantra, is to accomplish the biggest aim in life, which is to free the numberless sentient beings—numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asuras—from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever. It is to cause that. How most unbelievable is that! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

Normal people in the world, except for those who are good-hearted, only look for their own happiness. They will even die for that. They will even commit suicide for that. Everything is done for that. Here, our aim is not only to free the numberless sentient beings from suffering forever, but also to bring them all to the peerless happiness of sang-gye or buddhahood. In Tibetan, the word for buddha is sang-gye. Sang means the elimination of not only the gross obscurations but even the subtle obscurations, and gye is the completion of all the realizations.

Practicing the guru deity is to bless one’s own mind so that it can change in a positive way. Just as the sun rises in the world and brings happiness not only to human beings but also to all the different kinds of animals, making the plants grow and the flowers open, so too the mind can change and bring benefit to numberless sentient beings. Deity practice is for that to happen quickly, in one lifetime. That is the purpose of practicing tantra and particularly lower tantra. Then, by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra we can achieve enlightenment even quicker, in order to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment even quicker, in a brief lifetime of degenerate times.

According to my observation, you have a particular karmic connection with Secret Vajrapani who is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ power. Vajrapani has an outer manifestation, an inner manifestation and a secret manifestation. It comes out for you to practice the secret manifestation.

Preliminaries

Do 300,000 prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas. The object that you are prostrating to can be the Lama Chöpa [Guru Puja] merit field. The Thirty-five Buddhas are included in this merit field.

Every year do some nyung näs. The nyung nä practice is only for two days but it is unbelievably powerful. On the first day you take Mahayana precepts and have only one meal. On the second day you take the eight Mahayana precepts and fast completely; there is no eating, no drinking and no talking. Taking and practicing the eight Mahayana precepts, the Mahayana reviving and purifying ordination, is an incredible source of collecting merit like the sky. It is a cause of gaining a good rebirth in your next life, liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever, and buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

In the nyung nä there are also many prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas and Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha. Reciting each of these Thirty-five Buddhas’ names even one time is very powerful; it purifies many eons of different negative karma and collects unbelievable merit. Doing even one prostration collects unbelievable, unbelievable merit.

Without talking about the benefits of doing one full-length prostration, the Buddha explained in the Lankavatara Sutra that you create the cause to be born one thousand times as a wheel-turning king for each atom covered by even your toes and fingers when you prostrate. However many atoms are covered from the ground down to the bottom of the earth, you create that many causes to be born one thousand times as a wheel-turning king.

It doesn’t mean that by doing prostrations the only result is to be born as a wheel-turning king. The Buddha is giving some idea how much merit you collect, because to be born as a wheel-turning king even one time you have to collect inconceivable, inconceivable merit. So because of that.

Of course, after the prostrations you should dedicate the merit to every sentient being, for example, animals, the numberless fish in the sea, those that are as large as mountains like whales, and those that are so small you can only see them with machines. Dedicate for the numberless, numberless [aquatic animals] and the numberless creatures on the ground, for them to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Also, in the grass there are numberless flies, in the trees there are birds, and there are sentient beings in the sky.

There are numberless universes scientifically mentioned and as Buddha mentioned. There are numberless beings not only in this world; there are numberless insects in all those universes. To free the numberless insects doesn’t mean only in this world; you have to think also to dedicate for all those other universes.

I’m not talking about only the animals. There are numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, asura beings and intermediate state beings. Include all of them, as well as this life’s parents. Dedicate for them all to be free from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to peerless happiness, sang-gye, the total elimination of obscurations and  completion of all the realizations. Dedicate the merits for that reason, for you to achieve enlightenment, to actualize the whole path.

Regarding the recitation of OM MANI PADME HUM, even without bodhicitta, the benefits of reciting one OM MANI PADME HUM mantra one time cannot be counted. The number of drops in the ocean can be counted, but the benefits of this mantra cannot be counted. All the grass on the earth can be counted, but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted. The dust of this earth can be counted but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted. When the rain comes, each drop can be counted but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted. Sand grains, each grain of sand can be counted but the benefits of one OM MANI PADME HUM cannot be counted.

If you recite the mantra with bodhicitta motivation—to free the sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to full enlightenment, and for that reason you want to achieve full enlightenment—if you recite the mantra with this motivation, even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time, you create more than skies of merit. It purifies all your past negative karma and especially causes you to generate compassion toward all the sentient beings. That creates the cause for you to achieve peerless happiness, the state of omniscience, quickly and this is the quickest way to be born in the pure land of the Buddha.

Each year if you can do at least several [nyung näs] that would be very good.

Lamrim

The essence of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha is contained in the Hinayana and Mahayana sutras, and in Mahayana tantra. The essence of those three is the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, therefore by studying the lamrim you will be studying the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. The lamrim has three: the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being and the graduated path of the higher capable being. That includes bodhicitta and shunyata.

The main lamrim text for you to study is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You can also study Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middling and Great Lamrim, but it will be easier for you to study Liberation. That is your main lamrim text, and you should read it three times from beginning to end.

The things you don’t understand, mark with orange color as an offering, like painting a Buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects. In other words mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. A professor who is very good in Buddhism said that in the past he marked many manuscripts with black color right over the letters and created the cause to be born in the lower realms many times. Also you can write down in a book all the questions you have, everything you don’t know, and then discuss these afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters program. If there is someone who has studied well, then they can help.

Do effortful meditation following the lamrim outline twice, then do effortless meditation. For your daily meditation you can use The Essential Nectar or the outline for Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

The other thing you can do is read the Sutra of Golden Light from time to time, or continuously if you like. You don’t have to worry about finishing it, just read some every day. Read according to whatever time you have.

Please take care of your life. This is the best way to take care of your life. This is the best way to make your life beneficial for every sentient being, even the mosquitoes and leeches. 

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling, one,
Please find my advice for your life practice. I am sending this with much luck. This way, meditate on the lamrim to actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment. After receiving bodhicitta, practice tantra—mainly the first stage, generation stage, and then the second stage, completion stage, just for a short time, to place an imprint.

This is the way to make your life most meaningful to every sentient being and it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment for you and for every sentient being. Thank you very, very much.

With much love and prayers...

Practices

Your main lamrim practice is Manjushri’s Own Words [The Sacred Words of Manjushri, by the Fifth Dalai Lama; Tib: Jam päl zhal lung.] Read this four times.

Practice the effortful path, following the lamrim outline one time, then do effortless meditation. 

Read Chanting the Names of Manjushri at least once each week. You can do it more than that, but at least once each week. That’s an extremely profound tantra text, [associated with] the Kalachakra. It is extremely profound and collects unbelievable merit and purification.

Your deity is Cittamani Tara or Vajrapani Mahachakra. From those, whichever you have more karma; whichever you have a closer, strong feeling for, you can decide to do that one.

• Tonglen: 20,000
• Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga: 200,000. The number to count is migtsema with meditation. First do the long sadhana, then do the short one many times.
• Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas: 11,000
• Mandala offerings: 40,000

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your question and email. What you are asking is really the most important, most important thing in your life and not only in this life but up to enlightenment, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. When you achieve this you are able to free the numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to peerless happiness, the state of omniscience.

What you should do now is study Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Length Lamrim so you can understand well the whole path taught by the Buddha. This is the main lamrim you should study. Read it four times from beginning to end.

Mark the things you don’t understand with orange color as an offering, like painting a Buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects, etc. In other words, mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. One professor who is very good in Buddhist philosophy, said that in the past he often marked manuscripts with black color right over the letters. This created the cause to be born in the lower realms many times.

Also you can write down all the questions you have, everything you don’t know, in a book and discuss these afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters Program. If there is someone who has studied well, then they can help. It will be very good if you can do this.

The main practice you should do at the moment is Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. There is a commentary I gave many years ago that you can read. [This is also available from FPMT Foundation Store.] 

There are also the guru devotion teachings, which are in Heart of the Path.

Doing this practice will help for this life and all future lives happiness, for liberation and up to full enlightenment—including bringing all sentient beings to peerless happiness by yourself in the future. If you have received a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, like Hayagriva, Kalachakra, Yamantaka or Heruka, there are secret meditations you can do when you are doing the meditation.

• 20,000: Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas. The explanation and commentary, The Preliminary Practice of Prostrations, is available from FPMT Foundation Store. 
• 100,000: Vajrasattva for purification.
• 100,000: Mandala offerings to collect extensive merit. Again, you will have to study the commentary. Do the long mandala two or three times and then do the short one many times and count that.

This is what you should do now, and in the future you can do the preliminary practices. Normally we do prostrations, Vajrasattva and mandala offerings as daily practices, but what I’m telling you now is how many of these are to be done as your preliminary practices. Not many preliminary practices came out for you in my observation, so you have very few of them to do.

Do effortful meditation on the lamrim outline, starting with guru devotion, correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, then effortless meditation. Do some meditation on emptiness every day.  

Go slowly, slowly. I’m giving you your life practices now but don’t worry, you can do the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga practice now and the preliminary practices later.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, most precious, most kind one,
Please do 90,000 mandala offerings, and make 30,000 tsa tsas: Lama Tsongkhapa, Amitayus, White Tara and Namgyalma.

You must be a good practitioner, strong and not lazy, because it didn’t come out for you to do many preliminary practices. For some people, it comes out to do so many practices that even one lifetime is not enough; they would need two lifetimes to finish all the preliminary practices and to reincarnate as a human being. Thank you very much.

If you can finish reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra each day that’s very good. If not, start the recitation and continue the next day. This is for your whole life. Please dedicate the recitations for all sentient beings to collect merit so they can achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. Dedicate for all the students, for the success of all the FPMT projects and especially to build Maitreya Buddha statues in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar, as well as large Padmasambhava statues in the rest of the world. Dedicate also to actualize the path to enlightenment and to benefit others.

The main lamrim text you should study is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You have probably already read this. That is the main text. Study it two times at least from beginning to end. The things you don’t understand you can mark with orange color as an offering, like painting a buddha statue or thangka, or like offering color or robes to holy objects and so forth. In other words, mark the text in a respectful way. Don’t mark the texts with black ink. Marking texts in a disrespectful way creates negative karma and is a cause to be born in the lower realms. One Buddhist professor who is very good in Buddhism said that many times in the past he marked many manuscripts with black color right over the letters and created the cause to be born in the lower realms many times.

You can write down all the questions you have in a book. Write down everything you don’t know and then discuss these questions afterwards with the geshes or Western students who have done very good study in the Basic and Masters Program. If there is someone who has studied well, then they can help.

Meditate on the lamrim outline for the number of months I have indicated. Follow the outline like that four times.

Deity to practice: Secret Vajrapani.

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind email. It seems you have some obstacles this year, so it’s good if you can do the White Tara long-life retreat and recite the mantra at least 400,000 times; that is the minimum.

Then liberate 3,000 animals who are in danger to be killed. They can be fish or some small animals and some big ones. If you don’t have much money, then you can buy crickets or worms—in one plastic bag there can be up to 1,000 crickets or worms. So you can do like that and if possible, liberate some bigger animals who are going to be killed. If possible, if you can liberate 3,000 animals, that is best. You can buy them from a pet shop that uses them to feed other animals, like snakes and so forth. That is one easy way to save many animals quickly.

Please make sure the motivation when doing the practice is not just for your long life, but for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the long life of all the holy beings; the long life of all Sangha who spread the Dharma teaching so that Dharma can last a long time; to all the students who do good things; to all those who recite OM MANI PADME HUM and to all those who are doing good in this world for other people; to those who are living in morality and so forth. So you can dedicate to everyone’s long life. This is how you collect most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merits.

Please use my Liberating Animals booklet as a basis when doing the animal liberation practice. 

Regarding your questions about your yidam and practice, please find the attached sheet that has all the explanation on how to do the practices.

Your yidam, in order for you to achieve enlightenment quickest: Guhyasamaja and Vajrayogini. Among those two you can choose whichever you feel closer to and have more feeling towards; you can decide and that one is your main deity to achieve enlightenment

The rest of the practices for you to focus on for your whole life are in the attached document.

If you can, plan to do 100 nyung näs—that would be excellent, that would be unbelievable preliminary practice. That would be the best purification from beginningless rebirth, the quick way to achieve enlightenment and to develop compassion and bodhicitta. Now there are many people who have done 100 nyung näs, even many Westerners.

In order to have lamrim realizations, you should read the lamrim (Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or the Middle-Length Lamrim from Lama Tsongkhapa) three times, from beginning to end and then begin your lamrim meditations for the number of months I have indicated. This is effortful meditation.

After that, try to have effortless guru devotion all the time until you have stable realizations, then try to have effortless realization on the perfect human rebirth. If you don’t have realization then start again, and for that number of months focus mainly on that subject of the lamrim and keep circling until you have stable realizations.

Try to do at least one meditation on emptiness every day in your life. The amount of time is up to you—it can be short or long or any time—but plan to do a little meditation on emptiness every day. Of course if you can, meditate all the time on emptiness, looking at everything as a dream, an illusion and so forth. That is very, very good.

In this life, plan to have one, two, three, four, or as many lamrim realizations as you can, so then this can continue in the next life. In that way it’s very, very good.

Generally, to collect extensive merits, do every action with bodhicitta motivation and live your life with bodhicitta motivation. Even if you have not realized bodhicitta, then just do every action with imagination motivation. Start that way. So then in this way your life becomes most beneficial for all the sentient beings.

Thank you very much for all your service to me, to the teachings of Buddha and to all sentient beings, especially those in Russia. I highly appreciate that and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am very happy with your plan—for you to become a monk and study, and then very importantly, to come back and help in your country.

With much love and prayers...

Practices

• Refuge: 800,000 times
• Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-Five Buddhas: 10,000 times
• Mandala offerings: 500,000 times
• Dorje Khadro (burning offering): 200,000 times
• Nyung nä retreat: 100 times
• Four immeasurable thoughts: 40,000 times with strong meditation
• Tsa tsas:
  • Deity: Yamantaka
  • Number: 50,000 times

In order to have lamrim realizations, you should read the lamrim (Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or the Middle-Length Lamrim from Lama Tsongkhapa) three times from beginning to end and then begin your lamrim meditations for the number of months I have indicated. This is effortful meditation.

• Guru devotion: one month
• The graduated path of the lower capable being: one month
• The graduated path of the intermediate capable being: nine months
• The graduated path of the highest capable being:
  • Bodhicitta: seven months
  • Emptiness: eleven months

Thank you very, very much for the 100,000 Hayagriva mantras and the Medicine Buddha retreat and for doing Lama Yeshe’s tantric mahamudra meditations. And thank you very much for transcribing my mumbling chöd teachings.

Practices:

• 90,000: Tong-len.
• 300,000:  Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, counting migtsema with meditation. This is to have quick realization seeing the guru as Buddha, to quickly achieve enlightenment and to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and quickly bring them to enlightenment.
• 300,000:  Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas.

The reason I say “prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas” and not “prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas,” which is what most people say, is because you are not just prostrating to one buddha at a time. No, no, no. When you prostrate, as you touch your hands to your crown, think, “I am prostrating to all the numberless Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, who are manifestations of the root guru.” Then as you touch your forehead, think, “I am prostrating to all the numberless statues, stupas, scriptures and relics, who are manifestations of the root guru.” As you touch your throat, again think, “I am prostrating to all the numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, who are manifestations of the root guru.” And as you touch your heart, again think, “I am prostrating to all the numberless statues, stupas, scriptures and relics who are manifestations of the root guru.” This way, with each prostration you are prostrating to numberless buddhas, etc, not just one, so each time you prostrate, you create numberless causes of enlightenment.

Also, it is mentioned in the Lankavatara Sutra that when you prostrate, you create the cause to be born as a wheel-turning king equaling the number of atoms covered by your body, from the surface down to the golden base.

• 600,000:  Mandala offerings—it seems you need to collect a lot of merit.
• 30,000:  Water bowls.
• Two:  Nyung Näs.

In the future, maybe think about shi-nä, calm abiding. Try to have realization of shi-nä in the future, but before that you need to study shi-nä in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, then maybe others.

You have to study the lamrim from the beginning to the end. So for you, the main lamrim can be Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. To help, there is Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Length Lam-Rim, The Essence of Refined Gold and The Happy Path.

One lamrim that Western people haven’t seen, which is the basis of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, is Lamrim Marthé. One time, a long, long time ago before Kopan gompa was built, I started translating the first page with somebody at Kopan. I don’t know with whom, one Inji lady—maybe Jan Wallis? I tried, but didn’t complete it. It is not in English, but it’s the basis of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. It’s a very, very good lamrim. Then there is Manjushri’s Own Words. You need to learn not only shi-nä, but all of the lamrim. You need to have a very good understanding of the whole lamrim. Shi-nä alone, Hinduism has.

Before that, in order to have effortless realization you need to have the effortful meditation. So on the basis of understanding the lamrim, study well and then when you think, “Now if I meditate well, I can realize this,” then attempt the effortless meditation.

For effortful meditation:

• One month: Guru devotion
• Four months: Lower path
• Nine months: Middle path
• Eight months: Bodhicitta
• Five months: Emptiness

This is for effortful experience, then from that lead into the effortless meditation. For the effortless experience, no matter how many years or months it takes, put effort into realizing guru devotion, the lower path, middle path and higher path. Go like that.

Five months on emptiness is for effortful experience, but emptiness is something you have to meditate on every day using the Heart Sutra, the Four Analyses or even one verse or one stanza on emptiness.

After generating bodhicitta, put more emphasis on tantra—the generation and completion stage.

At least every day, for realization of the path, for enlightenment and to enlighten all sentient beings, the minimum practice is to recite a lamrim prayer and do direct meditation on the lamrim. Also, recite your own deity’s graduated path (the prayer is at the end of the long sadhana of the deity.) You must do at least these two as a minimum practice.

Deity:  Yamantaka—for the quickest enlightenment and to free sentient beings as quickly as possible from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Also, you can take the initiation of Hevajra in the future. This yidam practice is the same for all your future lives.