Practices Before Surgery

My most dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling one,
I am sorry for the long delay. I checked and the operation doesn’t come out in my observation, even in six or ten months.

One treatment that does come out well is Tibetan medicine. You could go to Dharamsala and see a Tibetan doctor there.

Another possibility is seeing a Kopan nun who has finished studying Tibetan medicine in Dharamsala and has been working in south India near Bylakuppe and Nagarjuna’s cave for a few years. She has been very successful and is even able to cure some people with cancer. She is now travelling around Indian hospitals giving treatments. Indians now highly respect Tibetan medicine; they don’t call it Tibetan medicine but His Holiness’ medicine. So it comes out very good if you can come and see this Kopan nun, who is quite good in her treatment.

Practices and pujas to be done

• Print Amitayus Long Life Sutra: fifty times.
• Take the long-life initiation.
• Chanting the Names of Manjushri (Skt: Arya manjushri nama samgi): fifty times. The Kopan Lama Gyupas can recite it, but you have to really make sure when they do it.
• Lu zong puja: five times. Make the form with dough and then give it to the spirits on his behalf.
• Long-life tsa tsas (the three long-life deities): have eighty of these made for you.

You should recite this mantra: OM VAJRAPANI HAYAGRIVA GARUDA HUM PHAT. [This is the Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda mantra for clearing inner, outer and secret obstacles, especially spirit harm.] On Vajrapani’s head is the horse head of Hayagriva and on top of that is Garuda. Think all of these are deities, not just animals. Recite the mantra and visualize nectar beams emitted from the deity on your crown or in front of you. Nectar comes from the deity, out of compassion for you. It enters your body and totally purifies the negative karma created since beginningless rebirth. The sickness and spirit harms are totally purified. You can do that strongly. The motivation should not just be to purify the disease because that doesn’t become Dharma. If it’s done with bodhicitta it becomes not only Dharma but the cause of enlightenment.

With much love and prayers ...

Generate bodhicitta and do some tong-len. Then visualize that you are one with the deity, so your mind is in the state of dharmayaka. Everything is empty. I is empty; everything is empty. First what is appearing in space; that space is devoid of form. Space.

Then see the emptiness of the self. That is most important. The wisdom seeing emptiness experiences infinite bliss nondual with emptiness. Think, “This is my future result-time guru-deity’s holy mind dharmakaya.” Try to hold divine pride, thinking, “This is me.”

Try to continue with that, with your mind in dharmakaya experiencing infinite bliss nondual with emptiness. Just meditate on that, thinking, “This is my future result-time guru-deity’s holy mind, the actual dharmakaya.”

Just keep meditating on that until you become unconscious. So be unconscious in that state.

I checked and the following needs to be done:

• Namgyalma long-life puja: three times.
• Read a long-life sutra the amount of times equal to your age. It is best if you do the reading, but your family can help.
• Chag sum puja: please ask Geshe-la to do this.
• Gyab shi puja: please ask Geshe-la to do this.
• Drugchuma: please request the Lama Gyupas at Kopan Monastery to do this, with the teachers.
• Sri dok tsaktra chug sum: the thirteen wheel ritual to prevent malevolent Sri sprits from harming. Ask Geshe-la to read this for you 30 times.
• Betraying the Dead puja: request the Lama Gyupas at Kopan Monastery to do this for you.

There are some other pujas that I need to do for you. There is quite a bit to be done and all of this needs to be done before having the operation.

I checked regarding your father, and you need to have a peaceful and controlling fire puja done for him. Also, request Pemba-la to do the Liberating from Harm of the Nagas puja for him.

I am very sorry to hear about your mother’s health and the need for an operation. I have checked about your mother’s situation and this is my advice:

• Two gyab-shi pujas at Osel Labrang
• Eight Medicine Buddha pujas, by the Mongolian nuns in our nunnery in Mongolia
• 110 long-life tsa-tsas of the three long-life deities
• 4,000 animals need to be saved. These can include insects or worms that are going to be used for bait, or crickets or small insects that are given for pets for food. 

Dear Karen, 
I checked regarding the cataract operation and this is what you need to do before having the operation.

• Do White Tara retreat for four months. It doesn’t have to be a strict retreat, but you need to do it.
• Chag-sum puja has to be done, just before the operation.
• Do Medicine Buddha puja four times.

All of this should be done before having the operation.