Preliminary Practice Advice

My most dear, most kind, precious wish-fulfilling one,
I am very sorry for the many eons of delay to reply to your request.

• Your main deity is Secret Vajrapani, but if there is the possibility to take a Secret Hayagriva initiation (this is not Most Secret Hayagriva) you can do that.
• Four immeasurable thoughts: 10,000
• Tsa tsas: 200,000. Divide between Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the three long-life deities. This will help for the long life of you and your family. You should dedicate for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, holy beings who work for sentient beings, for the Sangha who preserve and spread the teachings, for the benefactors of the Sangha and the teachings of Buddha, and for anyone who does good things for others, also for evil beings, as Lungtok said many years ago, for them not to create negative karma and to create good karma and have meaningful, long lives. Dedicate for sentient beings to purify their negative karma.
• Water bowl offerings: 20,000
• Dorje Khadro fire puja: 100,000
• Mandala offering: 200,000

The majority of your practice should be the Vajra Cutter Sutra. Even if you don’t finish reading it in one day, read it the next day. Slowly, slowly, see if you can do 100,000. Sometimes do the recitations in retreat for five days or seven days. You can do sessions. Otherwise, read it sometimes more like retreat but read whatever you can each day. It is an excellent, quick way to realize emptiness so you can be liberated from the oceans of samsaric suffering very soon and then liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and with bodhicitta bring them to enlightenment.

Your main study text is Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo or the Middle-Length Lamrim. You can read other lamrim texts, such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, but your main text is Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Lamrim.

Don’t worry, just do what you can. You don’t have to rush, just do whatever you can of the preliminary practices. Whatever fits, you can do gradually. Do the preliminaries one by one, or do two preliminary practices. Whatever suits you, you can do this.

You kindly praised me, kindness and all that, but I’m just an ordinary being who is trying to help the family however I can.

Do lamrim meditation, following the lamrim outline, for effortful experience. Repeat the lamrim outline four times. You can do that after finishing some preliminaries. Then do effortless meditation by going over the meditation outlines of the Middle-Length Lamrim or The Essential Nectar.

After bodhicitta is generated, then do more meditation on tantra, the graduated generation stage, and just do direct meditation on the completion stage to leave the imprint.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your letters and also for the email and photos, I enjoyed them. This is my advice for your practice:

Prostrations to the Thirty-Five Buddhas: Put more effort into reciting the buddhas’ names. It is good to recite this practice once in the morning and once in the evening, and if possible also at noon, so that means three times a day. Once around noon and at least in the morning and evening, so if possible three times.

Mandala offerings: 100,000.

Vajrasattva practice: In the evening do Vajrasattva practice, reciting the mantra at least 21 times or 28 times or one mala. Do whatever you can without your mind being distracted and do it with the remedy of the four opponent powers.

Tsa tsas: 600 tsa tsas of the deities Heruka and Guhyasamaja. Nalanda Monastery has the molds.

According to my observation, Heruka is the main deity you have connection with, so it is very good to do more meditation on Heruka.

Not only when you are doing meditation and prayers, but in every action—even when you are walking, eating, sleeping, talking or going to the toilet—do everything with the thought of benefiting sentient beings, with bodhicitta, so then it becomes the cause of enlightenment as much as possible.

For you, the Middle-Length Lamrim is your main lamrim to read from beginning to end. You can use the Essential Nectar as your meditation guidebook. Follow the outline of the Middle-Length Lamrim—read the commentary then follow the outline. By reading slowly it becomes the meditation.

Please see my advice for how long to spend on each subject of the lamrim. First do effortful lamrim meditation, and after that do effortless meditation.

The lamrim and these practices are your path to enlightenment. The main purpose of your life is to benefit sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

My very dear one,
I received your message. You can start with tonglen and lamrim meditations, and after some time maybe you can do the other practices, slowly. There is no rush, this advice is for your whole life.

Regarding your situation now, you can experience this on behalf of all sentient beings who are suffering. You can suffer for them, on their behalf, thinking, “This is all sentient beings’ suffering,” and you experience for them. Then think that all sentient beings are free from that and achieve dharmakaya.

If you just do that each time, if you dedicate for them, suffer for them, that is most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, most unbelievable purification. It’s an unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable way to purify negative karma and defilements; an unbelievable way to purify obstacles and collect skies of merits; an unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable way to practice bodhicitta. That makes it quick to be able to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, and that also becomes the cause of enlightenment for sentient beings. It’s a very pure, very quick cause to achieve enlightenment, and the best preliminary practice.

It’s like an attainment, if you think of the benefits. You can think how lucky, how fortunate you are to be able to experience this for all sentient beings so they don’t have to suffer, they don’t have to experience all the unbelievable sufferings. Also they are numberless and you are just one person. Everyone is just like you in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering, so you can understand it like that.

Please try this way.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
I would like to say a billon, zillion times thanks from the heart for doing the twenty-five nyung näs and on top of that, planning to do 108 nyung näs. I am so, so, so, so happy. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! It looks like I should send you a trillion, billion, zillion dollars every day, packages of rainfalls of offerings in your room, for all the practices.

Thank you so much. I am very sorry there was such a long delay in replying to you. I’m very, very sorry.

Please find below my advice for your life practice, as well as additional supporting advice for some of the practices that you have. Please live your life with bodhicitta night and day, and with every action that you do.

I am suggesting these preliminary practices because Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri, “What is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment?” Manjushri said, “First purify obstacles and [collect] extensive merits, then one-pointedly pray to the guru. Next, the actual body of practice is training the mind in the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment.” This is how Manjushri answered, so without practicing purification and collecting merits, lamrim realizations cannot happen, the mind cannot change, so for that we need to do preliminary practices.

Start the day off with daily meditation, this includes the mantras for blessing the speech and the direct meditation on the path to enlightenment. [See The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment.)]

Refuge: 300,000

Prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas: 200,000, by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas practice. This is most powerful and unbelievable for purification, purifying negative karma collected since beginningless time. Lama Tsongkhapa did 700,000 prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names and then rainfalls of realizations happened and he achieved enlightenment. He could have achieved enlightenment in this life but he purposely chose to teach with Vinaya, so he became enlightened in the intermediate stage.

Vajrasattva: 200,000 mantras.

Arya Sanghata Sutra: This came out especially good for you to read. It is most powerful for purification and to collect unbelievable merits, the quick way to achieve enlightenment, realizations on the path and even success of this life quickly, by the way.

Sacred Words of Manjushri: (Tib: jam päl zhal lung): You can sometimes read this.

Golden Light Sutra: Try to read this sometimes if you can.

OM MANI PADME HUM recitations: This is a major practice for you. Recite as many as you can and try for one million recitations.

There are incredible benefits of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, please study the commentaries. In essence the benefits are: 1) purifying negative karma and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and 2) collecting extensive merits—the merit of transcendental wisdom and its causes, the dharmakaya and rupakaya. By being able to collect merit quickly, it makes it quicker to achieve enlightenment and to actualize the realizations of the graduated path and especially great compassion. Also, to receive the blessings of Chenrezig, to be able to generate compassion for all sentient beings and to be able to achieve enlightenment the quickest. So that means being able to free all the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and the causes—obscurations and negative karma—and to bring them to full enlightenment quickly.

This is a very easy practice. You can recite the mantra in retreat, in session and even when travelling, walking, etc. Your mouth can recite the mantra, you can visualize Chenrezig in front of you and nectar flowing continuously to you, purifying yourself and all sentient beings. Sometimes you can think that you are receiving the qualities of Chenrezig, including the realizations of the three principal aspects of the path, guru devotion, the two stages, and also Chenrezig’s qualities—omniscient mind, perfect power and compassion. Think that you and all sentient beings receive all this.

It’s very, very good if you have a prayer wheel, so when you are sitting, your right hand turns the prayer wheel and your left hand counts the mantras on your mala. If you don’t have a prayer wheel, I will try to get one for you. Please let me know. If the prayer wheel is filled with microfiche, so if it has 100 million mantras inside, then if you turn it just one time, just one rotation, it is the same as having done many years of retreat—you have received the same benefits, unbelievable benefits of having done 100 million recitations in that second. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merit. I have one prayer wheel which has three billion mantras inside on microfiche. I try to turn it as much as I can, but sometimes I miss out.

For effortful realizations, first read completely a lamrim text, such as the Lamrim Chenmo, Middle Lamrim or Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Lamrim is the same as studying the Lamrim Chenmo. The Middle Lamrim is very good, and then shorter than that is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, which is simpler. Then smaller than that is Essence of Refined Gold and The Happy Path.

You have to study one lamrim from beginning to end, maybe Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or the Middle Lamrim, then get a notebook and inside write down anything that you don’t know or understand and then at a later time ask an older student who has studied the lamrim very well, or ask a geshe and check up like that. Then you can discuss any questions you have, and sometimes you can ask me. If I know then I will answer.

Do effortful lamrim meditation on the basis of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga. It is very good to do this every day, as within it there is also a lamrim prayer, The Foundation of All Good Qualities, so that way you go through the lamrim every day and that leaves imprints on your mind. This practice is very good, not only for purification but also to develop wisdom. This is highly praised as a daily practice in the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition, also by my guru, a top learned lama in Lama Tsongkhapa teachings. Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, and especially any Gelugpa lama.

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

If possible, each day also do a little bit of meditation on the graduated path of the lower capable being, the different levels. Meditate on the perfect human rebirth until you see from your side how precious this human body is, more precious than a wish-granting jewel, than skies of wish-granting jewels. This human body is most precious. Continue until you feel this—how it is most precious—for months and years without effort, and go on like that relating to each meditation. After that, meditate on its usefulness, how it is difficult to find again, etc. Then impermanence and death, which has the nine-round meditation, then the sufferings of the lower realms, refuge and karma.

After you have these realizations you can train the mind in the graduated path of the middle capable being, particularly the sufferings of the deva and human realms, the general sufferings, the six and twelve types and the twelve links, until you see that samsara is like being in the center of a fire or like being in prison, it’s so unbelievable. Then without effort you will have renunciation, wanting 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 every person that you see, you want to achieve enlightenment for them.

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

So you realize the real I—what appears, what you trust in—is false. Recognize it as false and then see it as empty, after that see it is totally empty, it does not exist. From the beginning by training the mind in that, you see this as a result. What you realize first is ultimate truth and through that you realize the truth for the all-obscuring mind—that the I exists in mere name. You realize that as result, the I is merely labeled by the mind, so you see, 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, you have completed the understanding of emptiness.

Continue in that, by training the mind in that 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 the direct perception of emptiness, which ceases the seed of delusion, then there is no delusion and karma, no suffering, and we achieve nirvana, we achieve the ultimate nature of the mind, free from delusion and karma.

With the support of bodhicitta we develop the ultimate wisdom. By developing ultimate wisdom, the direct perception of emptiness, with the supporting method, bodhicitta and so forth, then we can achieve full enlightenment. We are able to cease the subtle obscurations and complete the mind in all the realizations, and then become a perfect guide, to do perfect works for sentient beings.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter and for clarifying what happened in your life.

As you asked for practices, the most important thing when you first wake up, what you should meditate on, is the morning motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). This changes your motivation for the whole day.

Now regarding your daily practices, a very important one is reciting OM MANI PADME HUM mantra and also reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra and names. These are very important: Chenrezig and Medicine Buddha.

Medicine Buddha is for success. The biggest success is to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment by yourself. For that you need success. Of course, you can do the Medicine Buddha practice for success in becoming free from samsara, success in attaining a higher rebirth, success in meeting the Dharma and any other success that you need in this life.

Because you asked generally for practices, here I am sending you many years of practice. This could be a whole life of practice. I am advising that you don’t have to feel, “How dare he send so many practices!” You don’t have to freak out or think about jumping off the roof or jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. You don’t need to feel like this.

Please do these preliminary practices, as much as you can, gradually. Do what you can, one by one, or two together, like that. Try that and take it easy. You don’t have to think that everything has to be done in one day. Don’t think like that.

Preliminary Practices

• Prostrations to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas: 50,000
• Mandala offerings: 500
• Dorje Khadro (burning offering) mantras: 300,000
• Water bowl offerings: 7,000
• Four immeasurable thoughts: 300,000 recitations. You are so lucky, because when you think about each one of the four immeasurables you collect more than skies of merit of good karma. You are able to achieve realizations quickly and achieve enlightenment quickly and you are able to free the sentient beings from samsara and bring them to enlightenment quickly.

Lamrim Study and Practice

The main lamrim text for you is The Essential Nectar, a commentary by Geshe Rabten. There is also the root text, but the commentary explains in more detail.

The Essential Nectar is your meditation guide book and the other commentaries you can read are texts like Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Lamrim or Great Lamrim.

When you read the text mindfully from beginning to end, that is the meditation. Anything you don’t understand you can write down in a book and ask a geshe or a student who has studied the lamrim well.

Read The Essential Nectar from beginning to end four or six times. Read it through slowly, relating it to your own life.

To gain effortful lamrim experience, meditate according to the lamrim outline. Go through the cycle of meditations three times, spending the specified number of months on each subject, and then do effortless meditation.

Highest Yoga Tantra

When you take your main deity initiation, then you can do retreat on that; the enabling retreat.

The reason for taking Highest Yoga Tantra initiations and doing the practices is because this is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment in this life, then to be able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment the quickest.