Practices to Purify Negative Karma

My most dear one,
There’s more information that might be helpful for you. Even if you broke the tantric root vows, to purify that you can recite 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras. It is said in the teachings, in the Mahayana tantric text, that if you break the tantric root vows but then recite 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras, the negative karma is completely purified. Regarding the tantric vows, there are fourteen root downfalls and the other branches. Of course, Vajrasattva practice also purifies broken bodhisattva root vows and the pratimoksha or individual liberation vows. So it is extremely powerful.

When there are two or three piles of hay and you light a small fire with matches or a candle, the whole thing can burn up so fast and turn to ash. Like that, the mantra is so powerful; it has so much power. Of course, it should be done with the remedy of the four powers.

It is explained in Lama Tsongkhapa’s Explanation of Root Downfalls, in Tibetan tsa tung gi nam shé, that if you always abide carelessly, it is like being bitten by a snake. Even very small vices expand so quickly and degenerate the body and mind so quickly. If you recite the 100-syllable [Vajrasattva mantra] twenty-one times before going to bed at the end of the day, that purifies any negative karma collected that day with the body, speech and mind. Of course, the purification is more powerful if you do it with the remedy of the four powers, which I will explain later. This purifies the negative karma so it doesn’t increase the next day, so it doesn’t become double the next day.

Without reciting the Vajrasattva mantra, any of the day’s negative karma created with body, speech and mind becomes double the next day. Then the day after that, it’s triple. It increases more and more, like that, an unbelievable number, so after fifteen days the negative karma created has increased by 18,184. By increasing, after fifteen days even the small karma becomes very heavy. Even if you don’t have the story of killing a human being, in reality it becomes the same as having killed one human being. That’s how heavy the karmic debt becomes. After eighteen days it becomes 100,072 times greater. It increases so much; it becomes like a huge mountain. After some time, it becomes like that for every negative karma collected with the body, speech and mind.

Here you can see that people who haven’t met the Mahayana teachings, and in particular the tantric teachings, have no idea of the benefits of Vajrasattva practice. Then when they die, every small negative karma increases so much, it becomes like mountains, so heavy. Then they are born in the lower realms for eons and suffer for eons and eons and eons, numberless eons, like that.

It is said in the teachings that the wise ones’ negative karma, even though it is heavy in the beginning, it becomes very small, whereas the foolish ones’ negative karma is very small, but it becomes very big, very heavy. That means the wise ones know the Vajrasattva practice of purification, [and can purify] even though their karma is very heavy, like having killed a human being or this and that, having created some heavy negative karma, the heavy karma of killing, stealing or sexual misconduct. Also, very heavy karma includes telling lies—without having realizations, that is very heavy karma.

But if we know about Vajrasattva practice and the power and benefits of Vajrasattva, the negative karma becomes very small by purifying it. The foolish ones who don’t know Vajrasattva practice and its power and benefits, even though their negative karma is very small, it increases day by day and it becomes so heavy, like mountains. The difference is like that.

Vajrasattva practice purifies not only today’s negative karma and stops it from increasing day by day, not only that, it also purifies our past times’ negative karma and not only that, our past lives’ negative karma—not just one past life but past lives, which means an unbelievable, unbelievable number of past lives. So, it purifies our negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirths, especially if we do it with the remedy of the four powers.

People who haven’t met Dharma and especially the Mahayana teachings, let alone Mahayana tantra, wouldn’t know about Vajrasattva practice, but we can see how heavy that negative karma becomes, even though it is very small in the beginning. It multiplies day by day and by so many times just in one day. Wow, wow, wow! In this way we can develop compassion for sentient beings. Most sentient beings haven’t met Dharma, they haven’t met Mahayana teachings, they haven’t met Mahayana tantra, so that’s a huge problem. That’s how we can generate compassion toward sentient beings, so much compassion.

It becomes very important for us, as much as we know ourselves, to practice and then to explain to other sentient beings how to purify their very heavy negative karmas. Generally, we can purify our negative karma and even the heavy negativities can be purified so easily. From Milarepa’s story, in the earlier time of his life, so many people and animals were killed by black magic—more animals than people —then later on he became enlightened in a brief lifetime of degenerate times. That’s the nature of the mind. As I explained to you, the mind is not oneness with delusion, with ignorance, anger, attachment and so forth. It is temporarily obscured. That’s why the nature of the mind is not that. Its nature is pure. That’s why we can purify any negative karma we have created. We can purify it. That’s the whole reason why it is said that sentient beings will become enlightened in the future; they will meet Dharma and become enlightened.

It is said in the Guhyasamaja generation stage text, (in Tibetan ten cho nying po gyen), that if you recite the 100-syllable mantra according to the prayer twenty-one times, [the result is] what I said before. If you recite 100,000 mantras, then you become completely pure. If you can’t recite the long mantra, then recite the short one, OM VAJRASATTVA HUM, twenty-eight times per day to have all the power that I explained before. It is extremely important to do this every day at the end of the day. Just that practice helps incredibly for the life. We become free from the lower realms so many times and it makes our heart happy, as we get purified every day.

We can purify the negative karmas we collect with Buddha, Dharma, Sangha by relying on them, by taking refuge in them. And by generating bodhicitta, we purify the negative karma collected with sentient beings. That’s the power of reliance [the power of the object.]

The next one is the power of regret. To briefly explain, it is regret for the negative karmas and obscurations collected with body, speech and mind since beginningless rebirths. The heaviest negative karma is the negative karma collected with the guru. This is not the worldly guru, but the guru from whom we received Dharma teachings, and who we thought and recognized as our guru and that we are the disciple. Then this person becomes the guru. [We need to purify] the negativities created through having harmed the holy body since beginningless rebirths; having broken the advice since beginningless rebirths and disturbed the holy mind; having created heresy and broken the samaya with the holy mind. All that, collected from beginningless rebirths, we want to purify immediately.

Then comes the power of enjoying the remedy by reciting the Vajrasattva mantra and doing the meditation.

We determine to not commit that negative karma again. That is the power to not commit it again [the power of resolve]. We need to be sincere, so from the holy mouth of the guru what is to be understood is that besides the gross actions, we need to abstain from even the subtle ones, the very difficult ones, for one day or even for a few seconds. Thinking like that, it is more sincere.

At the end, we must think that Guru Vajrasattva is saying that all our negative karmas, obscurations and broken samayas since beginningless rebirths are completely purified. Then from our crown, Vajrasattva totally absorbs to our heart, becoming oneness with our body, speech and mind. [Note: The practice can be done without initiation by visualizing light coming from Vajrasattva on the crown, but the absorption is for initiates only.]

Then think, in emptiness there is no real “I,” the creator of negative karma. In emptiness there is no real action creating negative karma. In emptiness there is no real negative karma created. Meditate on that for a little while, then dedicate. “The merely labeled I collect merely labeled merits in the past, present and future. Also, merely labeled sentient beings collect merely labeled merit in the past, present and future, and merely labeled buddhas collect merely labeled merits in the past, present and future. Due to all this, the merely labeled I becomes the merely labeled Guru Vajrasattva and leads all the merely labeled sentient beings to the merely labeled buddhahood by merely labeled me.”

Dedicate, “Due to all to the past, present and future merits collected by me, collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may bodhicitta be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all sentient beings, and whoever generates bodhicitta, may it increase.” So do that dedication.

There’s a translation of the Vajrasattva mantra. I will explain the total meaning of Vajrasattva so that it’s easy to understand. In conclusion, the whole meaning of the Vajrasattva mantra is, “You, Vajrasattva, have generated bodhicitta, the holy mind, according to your samaya. This means you never transgress from that. You are enriched with the simultaneous holy actions of releasing transmigratory beings from samsara. Whatever happens in my life—whether I am happy or suffering or in a bad mood—with a pleased, holy mind, never give up on me and please guide me. Please make the realizations of the paths and bhumis abide in my heart and for at least the higher realms’ happiness to be stabilized and to actualize all the actions and the common and sublime realizations, the magnificence of the ultimate, the five wisdoms.”

That’s it!

With love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter.

I checked and what you need to do is read the Guhyasamaja root text, but you can’t read Tibetan [script] and it is only in Tibetan [phonetics so far]. It is being translated, but that will still take some time. It seems that reading this text is what is needed to purify.

You also need to have the Kangyur recited by the monks at Chabri Khangtsen, Sera Je Monastery, south India.

So this is my advice, to purify the karma.

What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim, then to live your life with bodhicitta motivation. This is the best.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious one,
Maybe you know this, but I want to explain about Vajrasattva, how important it is. If you understand that, then you can help other people to understand how Vajrasattva is important. If you practice, then you help bring wisdom light to others, wisdom like the sun or like the sky, dispelling the darkness of ignorance within them.

Sentient beings have so much suffering, for example in this world there are so many problems and sufferings of all the six-realm sentient beings, like the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals, even the ants. Scientists say there are 12,000 or more different kinds of ants, for example, plus many other different types within that.

There is so much suffering, all due to ignorance—it came from that—and karma. Ignorance of Dharma and ignorance of karma, and cause and effect. The cause of happiness is virtue, and from that, the result, happiness arises. Not knowing that the cause of suffering is nonvirtue, and from that, suffering arises, is a totally wrong belief.

The common people, not just the animals, are running, so busy creating nonvirtue, the cause of suffering, day and night. They believe that they are working for happiness but they are totally ignorant, having skies of ignorance, and [creating the cause of] so much suffering. They have been suffering since beginningless rebirths and this will continue if they don’t practice Dharma, if they don’t meet Dharma and don’t practice Dharma, and in particular if they don’t realize emptiness, the ultimate nature.

The 84,000 teachings of the Buddha come in the three vehicles: the Lesser Vehicle teachings, the Great Vehicle teachings and the Great Vehicle of Tantra, the quick path to achieve enlightenment.

All that is embodied in the lamrim, the graduated path of the three capable beings: the lower capable beings, middle capable beings and higher capable beings. And all that is embodied in the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment explained by Lama Tsongkhapa. He clearly explained why each one is important: renunciation, bodhicitta and right view.

If we don’t realize the essence of Dharma, emptiness, then we will suffer, not only beginninglessly, but endlessly. This perfect human rebirth is only for one time, to have the opportunity to practice if we meet Dharma.

Even if we’re born human, which is extremely, extremely, extremely rare, most human beings in this world don’t meet Buddhadharma, even when there is Buddhadharma existing. That’s most important, or they follow other religions which are opposite, where there are no four noble truths, so they can’t become free from samsara and they only create the causes of samsara, particularly the lower realms.

If you check, if you analyze, you will understand, you will know. If you don’t check or analyze, then you won’t understand, even though I’m telling you this.

There are many people who have no religion—sometimes, it depends, but some people are very sincere and very good—and some people who follow religion are good but their religion is opposite to the four noble truths, so there’s no way for them to escape samsara. If someone only has a good heart, then they will take a higher rebirth and won’t go to the lower realms.

Some people have a very bad heart or mind and some have a good heart. Sometimes the person is Buddhist, following Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, sort of generally having faith, but toward the other sentient beings, probably they are not following religion, because sometimes they are bitter toward other sentient beings.

If we are Buddhist, we are supposed to be kind to sentient beings. If we’re Buddhist, if we practice Dharma, if we go for refuge, we’re supposed to be kind, more kind, because of refuge in the Dharma. Dharma means to not harm sentient beings, and on top of that, Mahayana practice is to benefit sentient beings.

Hinayana practice is mainly to not harm, but maybe some Buddhists are not thinking well about their practice; they don’t recognize that and think of their practice. They show faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, but toward sentient beings they’re very cruel, so cruel, like that. It is possible due to ignorance.

However, it is said in the teachings, the philosophy, that all sentient beings will become enlightened. Of course, it doesn’t mean all together at the same time, that everyone will become free from samsara, free from all suffering.

We can be free from that. How can we be free from the sufferings, the obscurations, the cause of suffering? This is because our mind, the nature of the mind, the mind itself is not obscurations, it’s not anger, not attachment, and not ignorance.

The root of samsara is the ignorance holding the I as truly existent while it is not, while it exists in mere name, totally. Not even the size of an atom exists from its own side, there’s no such thing. The I exists, but it’s like it doesn’t exist.

If we check, if we analyze, we find it exists in mere name, because it exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind, by a valid mind, labeled on a valid base, because there is a valid base. It’s not that it’s labeled everywhere—on our kaka, on our hair, on our fingers, on our toes, on our shoes, on our chair, on our newspapers, on other people’s car or money. It seems other people don’t like [that label] on their property so much. If we like somebody’s beautiful ornaments and then we call that “I.” [Joking] No, it’s not like that. A valid base receives a valid label. So on the five aggregates or any of these, then it receives a valid label, “I.”

So the mind is temporarily obscured.  A very simple example is the cup which is dirty or smelly, but because the cup itself is not oneness with the kaka or the dirt or the smell—it’s not one with that, it’s only temporarily obscured—so the dirt can be cleaned away. Similarly, we can wash a dirty cloth so it can be clean, like that.

It’s the same thing with the mind, by actualizing the path, the lamrim path from guru devotion up to enlightenment, which comes into method and wisdom, then renunciation, bodhicitta and the right view. There’s the foundation and then there’s the tantric path, the quick path to enlightenment.

However, if we remove, purify or clean the gross obscurations and subtle obscurations, so we are completely cleaned and free from obscurations, then the complete path is attained, the realizations are attained and we become enlightened. Whether the mind can be purified or not [depends on the] religion, and it can be a problem in [other] religions.

We need to have the four noble truths, what the Buddha taught, then only if we follow that can we become free from samsara by actualizing the true path. When we cease the seeds of delusion and karma, then we can become free from delusion and karma. Then we can be free from not only the suffering of pain and the suffering of change—all the samsaric pleasures— and we also become free from the third suffering, where all the true suffering comes from—pervasive compounding suffering—that’s our aggregates, controlled by karma and delusion.

So if we don’t want to suffer, if we want to be free from suffering, free of delusion and karma, we have to totally eliminate the root of samsara, ignorance, holding the I, which is totally false, as truly existent; thinking the I exists from its own side.

There are different schools with different views. Ultimately we have to recognize the subtle object to be refuted according to the Prasangikas, the second division of the Madhyamaka school. Once we recognize that, then it’s very quick to realize emptiness, the unmistaken emptiness according to the Prasangika’s view. Otherwise, the previous schools’ view of emptiness, that is not ultimate emptiness, the emptiness that can eliminate the root of samsara.

Yes, ignorance according to the other philosophical schools, yes, ultimate, but not eliminating the root of samsara completely, so we can’t be free from samsara. Therefore we need to actualize emptiness according to the Prasangika’s view. We need to eliminate the root of samsara, from where all the suffering came, according to how the Prasangikas explain it, then we can be totally free from the oceans of samsaric suffering.

Not only that, we have to actualize the whole path to liberation, method and wisdom, then enlightenment, so even the subtle obscurations are completely removed directly by the wisdom realizing emptiness, with the great support of bodhicitta.

We need to actualize the whole path contained in method and wisdom up to enlightenment, from guru devotion, correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. To actualize that we have to purify the obscurations. Therefore, Vajrasattva is one common practice for purification.

So you can recite the one hundred syllable mantra twenty-one times or the short one twenty-eight times, OM VAJRASATTVA HUM. Then it has power, so that today’s negative karma collected with body, speech, and mind will not become double tomorrow, then triple the next day, and on and on like that.

After fifteen days without doing Vajrasattva, by multiplying, the negative karma becomes 18,184 times greater. And after eighteen days without purifying with Vajrasattva, one negative karma—the actions done with body, speech and mind—becomes 100,072 times greater. This is said in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by the great Pabongka Rinpoche.

So like this, it is said in the teachings that the wise ones’ negative karma becomes very small even though it’s heavy, and the foolish ones’ negative karma becomes heavy even though it was small. Like this, at the time of death one negative karma created with body, speech or mind, by increasing day-by-day, it becomes like a mountain when we die. Negative karma like one atom, by increasing day-by-day it becomes like a huge mountain.

That’s how heavy the negative karma is when we die if we don’t do Vajrasattva practice, and that’s just one negative karma. Now the negative karma of body, speech and mind is like rainfall, day and night. It doesn’t have to be killing people or stealing or telling lies or having sex with human beings all the time. Just the motivation is the main thing.

The motivation of the action is attachment or sometimes anger or ignorance. Attachment clinging to the pleasures of this life, just that; clinging to the happiness of this life, so that’s a nonvirtuous thought. Actions done with that mind—actions done with body, speech, mind with that motivation—become nonvirtue, and as a result of that, only suffering arises. If the karma is heavy, we can receive the result in this life.

Any negative karma collected with holy objects and even a small negative karma collected with the parents [is powerful.] This life’s parents are very powerful objects, so if we do a little service, good actions, then we create so much good karma and as a result happiness and success are experienced in this life. After that come ordained Sangha and then the arhats who are free from samsara; there are numberless Sangha and there are numberless arhats.

Then one bodhisattva, who generated bodhicitta today, if we don’t have bodhicitta and if we look at a bodhisattva with a calm mind, a devoted mind, with that eye, we collect merits and we make charity with the eyeballs to the three-realm sentient beings. That means numberless desire realm beings, numberless form realm beings and numberless formless realm beings, like that.

But if we who are not bodhisattvas look at a bodhisattva with a kind of angry mind or a disliking mind, one that is the opposite of faith, like peering or glaring, then that negative karma is much worse than taking the eyeballs out of the numberless desire realm beings, the numberless form realm beings and the numberless formless realm beings.

Now, numberless bodhisattvas, and then one buddha—if we get angry with a buddha, then tens of thousands of eons of merit are destroyed. If we get angry with a buddha, the harm is so much greater. But if we offer service, if we do a little, then the benefit is unbelievable and is greater than offering service to numberless bodhisattvas.

For example, if we get angry with a bodhisattva—we don’t have bodhicitta and we get angry to a bodhisattva—it is said by the great bodhisattva Shantideva in the Bodhicaryavatara that if we get angry for one second, then one thousand eons of merit of practice in charity, morality, patience and so forth, except wisdom, get destroyed completely. That merit collected for one thousand eons is destroyed if we get angry with a bodhisattva for one second.

So then if we get angry with a buddha for one second it will be more. Tens of thousands of eons of good karma is destroyed, maybe much more than that.

Then the next one is the guru, who is the most powerful holy object. So if we get angry with the guru for one second, then there can be millions of good karma or merit destroyed, so it’s unbelievable. But if we do a little offering, service, then the merits are the greatest, the purification is the greatest. If we do what pleases the guru, then this is the greatest merit we can collect and the greatest purification, that’s the best one.

So in our daily life, we have to always think of that, knowing that result will happen, so that helps us to quickly achieve the path and achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. Then we’re able to bring the sentient beings to enlightenment quickly, to free them from samsara quickly and bring them to enlightenment quickly. Therefore, Vajrasattva is so needed.

I will recite a quotation:

The wise one’s negative karma, even though it is great, becomes small. The foolish one’s negative karma is small, but it becomes great.

This means the wise one who knows Vajrasattva, even though the negative karma when it’s created is a big one, but by doing Vajrasattva they can purify and it becomes small. The foolish one’s negative karma when it’s created is very small, but because of not purifying, not doing Vajrasattva, it increases day-by-day, even though it’s one small negative karma.

Then by the time we die it becomes like a mountain, and that’s relating to just one negative karma increasing. [Negative karma the size of an] atom increases and becomes like a mountain if we don’t know and practice Vajrasattva, so that should be understood. Not only that, Vajrasattva purifies that negative karma and our past negative karmas, even if we recite the long mantra twenty-one times or the short mantra twenty-eight times.

It depends on how strongly we feel regret for the negative karmas we have collected in the past. Depending on how strongly we feel regret, it becomes a strong purification. Also, it depends on how much we want to abstain from creating the negative karma again. So when we completely decide not to do it again, depending on how strong that decision is, then it becomes that much purification, like that.

Also, as Lama Atisha explained, there were two geshes from Drepung Monastery who never took tantric initiations because they were afraid of breaking the vows. The shortcomings of breaking the vows are very heavy, so they never took them.

So Lama Atisha said, for example, in the mandala practice, if we have the mandala without using it then dust comes and it becomes full of dust. So, practicing Vajrasattva is like cleaning the mandala one time, then the dirt gets completely washed away.

Similarly, like a car, if we don’t cover the car then it becomes full of dust the longer we leave it. But by cleaning it, by wiping the dirt, it becomes clean so fast. All the dirt goes away just in a minute or a second.

Lama Yeshe used that example for Vajrasattva practice. The benefits are that all the broken vows, all the vices received are cleaned, are purified. That means our mind gradually gets developed more and more, and then after some time there’s no negative karma of breaking the vows, then we have realizations, tantric realizations, and then we achieve enlightenment.

So in the advice, even if we don’t know anything, only Vajrasattva, and we do Vajrasattva practice every day, it purifies all the negative karma, so by the time we die, the negative karma becomes very thin instead of growing like a mountain. Through Vajrasattva, all the negative karma becomes very thin, it becomes very small, and that is recognized as a perfect way to practice. That is so good, even if we don’t know much.

Thank you very much. The mind is like cloth, like a dirty cloth. The dirty mind is heavily obscured, and like cloth it can be cleaned well with soap and with different things. So then with Vajrasattva and practicing the path, we can cease the obscurations. So that’s how we can achieve enlightenment and every sentient being can achieve enlightenment.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Regarding the one million Vajrasattva mantras, I want to tell you, maybe the number sounds like a lot, but actually it is nothing. You should know it’s not for you; it is for the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts and numberless animals who are suffering right now, who are experiencing unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable suffering. It’s also for the numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings and numberless intermediate state beings.

There are numberless beings in each realm with unbelievable suffering, under karma and delusion, so please recite the mantras for them, to free them from the oceans of samsara sufferings by actualizing the path, and not only that, but also for them to achieve buddhahood, the peerless happiness, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. Please recite every single mantra for that, which includes for this world—to pacify all the problems, all the sufferings of this world.

You need to think of the suffering of even one being, such as a hell being or a hungry ghost, who has amazing, amazing suffering. Forget about that, there are actually numberless of each one. So, like that, you really need to do this for them.

I am begging this from you, to do this for them. Then this is the happiest life. What else is there to do than to help the sentient beings, to free them from suffering and bring them to enlightenment? OK. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
It is very kind that Lama Lhundrup gave you preliminaries and that you already did 500,000 prostrations. Wow, that is great, great, great. As you know, Lama Tsongkhapa did 700,000 prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas' names, and then realizations came like rainfall.

So we can definitely purify negative karma, especially those people who have met the Buddhadharma. There are so many other purification practices, especially within the Mahayana teachings. There are so many unbelievable methods to purify, especially with bodhicitta, by meditating on bodhicitta. With a bodhicitta motivation we can create more than skies of merit. Also, we should do purification practices with the remedy of the four opponent powers.

Reading the Golden Light Sutra is unbelievable purification, and just hearing four words of the Golden Light Sutra can purify the incredible, unbelievably heavy negative karma of killing one’s father or mother of this life, drawing blood from a buddha, killing an arhat or causing disunity amongst the Sangha. Any of these five actions [five immediate negativities] is the cause, without break of another life, of being reborn in the hell realm. That means not even going to the intermediate state, but immediately being reborn in the inexhaustible hell realm for one intermediate eon, which is the length of our life there. If the karma is not finished then being reborn again in another hell realm in another universe and having to suffer there for a long time. So we can purify even the heaviest negative karma such as this.

Of course, reciting the Vajra Cutter Sutra is also extremely powerful.

Doing nyung näs is another unbelievably powerful way to purify negative karma and a quick way to be reborn in the pure land and achieve enlightenment, so it is very, very good if you can do nyung näs.

I’m just talking here about different examples of ways to purify.

Also, just reciting OM MANI PADME HUM is unbelievable for your purification. Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM came out very good for you to purify the karma of killing all those fish.

If you have a prayer wheel, then with your right hand you can turn the prayer wheel and with your left hand you can count the mantras on a mala. Have a picture of Chenrezig and visualize nectar beams are emitted, constantly purifying you and all sentient beings. After purifying sentient beings, then you, yourself, become Chenrezig.

Recite five malas to purify yourself and then five malas to purify sentient beings. Visualize beams emitted from the prayer wheel and Chenrezig that purify you and all six-realm sentient beings, including the intermediate state beings, then they all become enlightened at the end.

If you have a prayer wheel you can do that visualization while turning the prayer wheel. At FPMT we make prayer wheels with microfiche inside and even if the prayer wheel is small, because it is filled with microfiche the amount of mantras inside is equal to several large prayer wheels, so it’s as if several million prayer wheels are inside that small prayer wheel. That means as you turn the prayer wheel one time, you get the benefit of reciting 100 million mantras; just in that second or minute, you create the merit of having recited 100 million mantras. It’s unbelievable.

So however many mantras are inside the prayer wheel, and however much you turn it, you receive that much merit and purification and then you achieve enlightenment more quickly. Probably Sera, Ganden and Drepung monasteries would not have prayer wheels like this, only the Western students have them.

We met one Chinese family who built several monasteries in Taiwan. They became wealthy by fishing, by killing millions and millions of fish. One of the monasteries they built is on the ocean that connects Taiwan and China. I was thinking of building a prayer wheel that is half in the ocean and half out of the ocean, then from the road on top a trail goes around.

The prayer wheel in the ocean is to help the fish by purifying their negative karma, and it also purifies all the sentient beings in the water, to bring them to enlightenment. I was telling this family about the benefits and they were so surprised. Later they said that because they became wealthy by fishing—they didn’t say how many fish they had killed, but it was probably millions—they were thinking to repay the kindness of the fish, to do something for the fish, so they had in mind to do this project. But I don’t think it has happened yet.

The other thing is, of course, to put the Namgyalma long mantra in the ocean or on top of the Pacific Ocean so that all the numberless sentient beings in the water and even human beings on the water are purified. Anybody who touches the water is purified, so they won’t be reborn in the lower realms and they will receive a higher rebirth. Then maybe hopefully they will meet the Dharma and achieve enlightenment.

I now have three big Namgyalma boards, which we put in the water. Sometimes we go to the beach and throw the boards into the water with ropes, then we hold onto the ropes and recite OM MANI PADME HUM, then each person takes a turn holding the rope and reciting the mantra. Recently I got a very big Namgyalma board, it is so well-decorated, but unfortunately the border and decorations were damaged when we brought it into the water, because it seems it was not made for the water.

Recently we went to the ocean with many people, local students, and Dagri Rinpoche was there. We had a loudspeaker and we put a notice board up at the beginning of the wharf, but maybe we shouldn’t have put the notice up. There were also people fishing on the same wharf, so maybe it was not good for them, but as you know, America is a free country, democratic, so in that sense it should have been OK. Anyway, it seems that some people complained and one police lady who looks after the state parks came and told us that we had to leave. What we were doing with the microphone was chanting mantras and I was also explaining a little about the benefits of the mantra, but it seems using a microphone is illegal. Also if more than twenty-five people gather at the wharf, then a permit is needed, so we found this out later.

This is an unbelievable way to benefit and bless the whole Pacific Ocean. When the mantra goes into the water it purifies all the sentient beings—those the size of mountains, the whales, and those that are so small that you can’t see them with your eyes, only with a microscope, and even the people who touch the water. It’s amazing, amazing, amazing; it saves them from the lower realms so then they receive a higher rebirth. We also make prayers for all the sentient beings to meet Dharma, to receive a perfect human rebirth and to gradually achieve enlightenment, not only liberation from samsara.

On the notice that we put up, I wrote down that we were blessing the water and purifying all the sentient beings in the water—all their negative karmas and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths—and for them to get a higher rebirth and to be free from the suffering of old age, sickness and death, and to achieve the sorrowless state, nirvana and full enlightenment, the peerless happiness. So it was something like this that I wrote down. This was on the sign so that people would understand what we were doing.

The other day I went to the beach with the Sangha from my house, the monks and nuns. We had Ven. Roger, Tsering, Sangpo and Sherab from Kopan and Anet, Kunsang, the Tahitian monk, Namgyal, Holly and Nyima. We also had one more person, a lay person named Mark who cleans the stupa behind the house every month, and takes our dog to the beach every week. So they put the mantra boards on the ocean—not from the wharf like the last time, but they went into the ocean and then the waves came. I asked the Sangha from Land of Medicine Buddha, Ven. Steve and other Sangha, to bring these mantra boards to the ocean every month, so Steve said it has been very good for them to do this. [You can read more and see photos here]

In south India, I don’t know if there is such a large mantra board to put into the ocean, like the one we have in America.

Also in the past, I think three times, we hired a boat and dragged the mantra boards behind the boat as we went around the ocean for one hour, then we had tea and snacks. I invited the local Sangha and center members and geshes. There was Geshe Ngawang Drakpa, Choden Rinpoche came twice and the last time we did it, Jhado Rinpoche came and recited a lot of Namgyalma mantras. He came to the area to give Namgyalma initiation and lead a Namgyalma retreat at Land of Medicine Buddha. So we did that to bless the water and to purify all the sentient beings. Also we recited mantras and blessed bottles of water and poured that in the ocean. We do that every time, except the very last time we carried the water, but then forgot to pour it in the ocean. I think the reason was that it was not sunny, so Sangpo thought it would take more time to put water in the ocean and maybe it was too cold.

I use the water offering practice of Yeshe Karda. That is the best, the most powerful, the best practice to do at the beach or at swimming pools or ponds, but at the beach it is the best practice. You should get this practice. Any monk who goes to the beach can practice this. [Read more and see photos here.]

This is the information for you, some information. After bodhicitta is actualized, then you can spend more time on generation and completion stages, to leave imprints.

As you remember in the lamrim, Lama Atisha mentioned a yogi who practiced generation stage tantra, but fell into the Hinayana, continuum entrance,¹ because of his motivation. Due to not having actualized bodhicitta, problems happened, and also if it not done with renunciation, bodhicitta and right view, then we can be reborn in the hell realms. Tantric practice can lead to rebirth in hell. If it is not done with emptiness, then it becomes the cause of samsara.

Thank you very much. You are most welcome to enlightenment, not only nirvana, but for sentient beings—to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment—so thank you very much. Your practice advice is below.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Practice advice

• Refuge: 100,000
• Mandala offerings: 30,000, so that is on top of the 100,000 that you still have to do
• Vajrasattva: one million
• Arya Sanghata Sutra: you can read it sometimes
• Golden Light Sutra: read the Golden Light Sutra sometimes, the elaborate version, the middle version and the short version from the Kangyur
• OM MANI PADME HUM: recite ten malas every day in your life if you can, with bodhicitta motivation
• Four immeasurable thoughts: 100,000, with the prayer, mindfully.

A lamrim text for you to study is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or the Middling Lamrim, but many discussions and debates are left out, so study well from beginning to end and try to understand it first. Then do effortful meditation. In addition you should do a little meditation every day on emptiness. Keep circling through the lamrim outline in this way until you have gained stable realizations.

Then do effortless meditation, no matter how many weeks, months or years it takes. Continue until you have stable realization of guru devotion, until you see the one guru as all the buddhas from your side, and one buddha is all the gurus from whom you have received a Dharma connection. You must be able to see this one hundred percent, for a long time, without effort.

If possible, also do a little bit of meditation each day on the graduated path of the lower capable being, the different levels. Meditate on the perfect human rebirth until you can see from your side how precious this human body is; how it is more precious than a wish-granting jewel, than skies of wish-granting jewels; how this human body is most precious. Meditate for months and years until you feel, without effort, that it is most precious. Continue like that with each meditation and after that meditate on its usefulness, the difficulty in finding it again, etc. Then meditate on impermanence and death, the nine-round meditation, then the suffering of the lower realms, refuge and karma.

After you have these realizations you can train the mind in the path of the middle capable being, particular the sufferings of the deva and human realms, the general sufferings, the six and twelve types of suffering, and the twelve links, until you see samsara like being in the center of a fire or like being in prison, so unbelievable. Then without effort you will have renunciation, wishing to be free from samsara every second, without effort.

Then meditate on bodhicitta until the thought to achieve enlightenment arises day and night, without effort, and you want to achieve enlightenment for every person you see.

You should also meditate emptiness every day, I’m not sure of the time, by reading the Heart Sutra or different quotations, by reciting and meditating, even if it is just a short verse on emptiness.

You need to realize that the real I that appears, that you trust in, is false. Recognize that it is false and then see it as empty. After that, see it as totally empty; it does not exist from the beginning. By training the mind in that you see as a result, what you realize first is ultimate truth and then through that you realize the truth for the all-obscuring mind, that the I exists in mere name. You realize that as a result it is merely labeled by the mind, so you see that the I exists in mere name, and because it exists in mere name that’s why it is empty, so unified emptiness and dependent arising. When you realize that, then you have completed the understanding of emptiness. Then continue in that, by training the mind in that, then you achieve great insight meditation, emptiness with the realization of shinä, calm abiding, deriving rapturous ecstasy of body and mind.

By training the mind in that, it leads to direct perception of emptiness, which ceases the seed of delusion, then there is no delusion and karma, no suffering, then we achieve nirvana, we achieve the ultimate nature of the mind, free from delusion and karma and with the support of bodhicitta we develop ultimate wisdom, the direct perception of emptiness. With the supporting method of bodhicitta and so forth, we can achieve full enlightenment. We are able to see the subtle obscurations and complete the mind in all the realizations, then we become a perfect guide in order to do perfect works for sentient beings.

Notes

¹ Usually translated as stream-enterer (Tib: gyün zhug; Wyl: rgyun zhugs.) One of four divisions of Hinayana hearers (Skt: shravaka); the other three are once-returners, non-returners and arhats. [Return to text]

My dear one,
Your deity is the five-deity Heruka, so it is good to do that practice. Since there is a commitment after taking the initiation, at least you are reading the words, and that makes a big difference, it puts a positive imprint for quick enlightenment.

Do Vajrasattva practice every day. At least recite the short mantra 28 times or the long one 21 times, to stop the negative karma created that day from multiplying. Otherwise if you don’t purify the negative karma, it doubles each day, and after fifteen days the karma of killing a small insect becomes the same as having killed a human being.

Even if you don’t have any story of having killed, if you don’t purify the negative karmas that have been created that day, then each one multiplies and after 15 days it becomes the same as having killed one human being. Then after 18 days each negative karma collected with the body, speech and mind—and there are so many, so many, so many—increases 131,072 times. This was explained by the great enlightened being Pabongka Rinpoche in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

When you die, each and every one of the negative karmas collected today becomes like the number of dust particles of the mountains. It’s unbelievably, unbelievably heavy, so there is no other way but to go to the lower realms and suffer for eons and eons. The worst lower realm rebirth is in the hells, but there are others. Who knows—you may be born as a chicken that is trapped in a cage and killed for many lifetimes, or as one of those lobsters that is boiled to death in the hotels and so forth. Usually all those fish, chickens and so forth who are killed have been butchers themselves many times in past lives, and so it goes round and round in circles.

If you do Vajrasattva practice, even just reciting the long mantra 21 times or the short mantra 28 times, and especially with the remedy of the four powers, it not only purifies today’s negative karma but also your past negative karma from this life and past lives, so there is no multiplication. Instead there is unbelievable, unbelievable profit. It makes the negative karma so much lighter. Depending on how you purify, and especially if you do the practice with bodhicitta and emptiness, that much incredible negative karma gets purified and you don’t have to experience the suffering result.

Therefore, even if you just do Vajrasattva practice for example, it is said in the teachings by Sakya Pandita that, “A wise person’s negative karma may be big, but it can easily be made small. A foolish person’s negative karma may be small, but it becomes big.” This means that somebody who knows how to do the Vajrasattva purification can make their negative karma weak, but for those who don’t know how to do this, their negative karma will become strong.

With much love and prayer...