Protection from Spirit Harm

Dear Charlotte,
You don’t have to be scared or think badly about this. You should generate compassion, chant mantras for them and prayers of bodhicitta. You should recite the teachings of bodhicitta for them, such as the short prayer “jangchub sem chog...”: “may bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all sentient beings... in all hearts in which bodhicitta is generated may it increase.”

Also, you can read verses from the Bodhicaryavatara on bodhicitta—the ninth chapter. You can also perform Guru Puja for them—exchanging oneself for others, and the thought transformation verses from the lamrim section.

Recite the praise for bodhicitta for them, which talks about the benefits and which persuades them to change their attitude into the good heart from the self-cherishing thought.

Then, you can give teachings on emptiness to them, reciting verses on emptiness. You can also recite the Heart Sutra. So, one can give teachings to them and benefit them.

It is great that you are able to see spirits because you can benefit and help them. I want to see spirits very much but I can’t see them. You have a great opportunity to help those spirits, it is very positive.

Also, there are many different mantras you can chant - Medicine Buddha mantra; Maitreya Buddha mantra - to liberate them from the lower realms, so that they are never born in the lower realms; and “OM MANI PADME HUM”—to liberate them from the lower realms and bring them to enlightenment.

You can also do Sur practice because you are able to see the spirits. I do Sur practice, but if I could see the spirits it would be much more interesting. Those who see say that there are so many it seems to be like a forest.

There was a woman whom a naga entered during a Chenrezig retreat. When the vase, blessed with the Chenrezig mantra, was passed around, she drank it and said that there were many spirits outside, like a forest, and that they needed the water. When people asked her, she said that outside there were three monks (pretas in the form of monks) and one didn’t have a head. When I asked people to ask her more questions she said she didn’t want to speak because this was the only opportunity for her to practice Dharma so she didn’t want to waste time. The woman had been in retreat before, so maybe the naga had entered her during the retreat. She said there was a protector at the door and he kicked her on her neck, with his feet, to try to stop her coming in, but somehow she was able to slip through. So her neck was bent to one side a little bit, in pain, and when she walked her legs were close together because of the naga.

If you are able to see like this then you will be so inspired to do practices like food and water charity for pretas, and Sur. You see how important it is.

People who see spirits should not be afraid or scared, thinking “I’m strange.” In Western society, people generally don't accept spirits because they don't understand them. But people who see them can understand what an incredible opportunity it is to help the spirits, to develop strong compassion because of seeing their suffering, can help them with these mantras and teachings, can liberate them, and purify their negative karma. By hearing the words it leaves a positive imprint, liberates them from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and brings them to enlightenment.

My very dear one,
Thank you for your kind letter, and I am very sorry for the many eons of delay in replying.

I checked regarding your situation, and these are the things you need to do:

1. Wear White Umbrella protection. It needs to be blessed by a lama before you wear it.
2. Practice White Umbrella. You need to recite at least three malas a day for at least three months or more.
3. Practice Lion-face Dakini. You need to recite at least five malas a day, with the sadhana, for at least three months or more.
4. You need one puja to be done for you called Liberating from Naga and Land Owner Possession (Tibetan: Lu-dang-sadag-gi-don-drol).
5. Regarding White Umbrella and Lion-face Dakini, if possible, you can do these in retreat. If not, then do them at least in the morning and at night time, each day.
6.  Recite some Most Secret Hayagriva mantras each day.
7. If possible, take the Most Secret Hayagriva torma initiation.

I am making prayers for you. Also, the Sangha in my house are making prayers and doing practices dedicated to you (animal liberations and making tsa-tsas).

With much love and prayers....

There is protection from spirit harm with numbers and other protection from spirits. There are two types of protection you can wear. One is square and one is not square, it is like three rectangles connected.

You should wear the protection all the time. You can wear it in the shower if it has a plastic cover on it. Then, the shower is not a problem. The worst thing is if you wear a buddha or a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama around your neck and then when you go to sleep it goes down under your arm or your body. For that reason, I don't like to give people buddhas to wear, because the person creates negative karma. Also, people often wear a buddha image on their chest. If you wear it for a short time, in public, to go shopping or something, for people to see and to plant the seed of enlightenment, then that is OK. But if you are wearing it when you lie down, then that is creating negative karma, and it also becomes dirty. If you are wearing it to go to the market or in public, it is OK.

If you lie down and you don't pay attention to the image, then you create negative karma. Also, if you are doing prostrations, you can try to push the blessed object back behind your neck. When I prostrate I try to push back the blessed pill around my neck behind my neck.

You can wear it with the thought to liberate others from oceans of suffering and its causes, delusion and karma, and to bring them to enlightenment, by planting the seed of enlightenment. With that kind of motivation, you can wear it in public, and then take it off when you lie down at home or whenever doing activities which are disrespectful to Buddha, including lying down or having the buddha under your body. If you don't pay attention this can happen.

Similarly, if you wear a ring with OM MANI PADME HUM on it, you shouldn’t use that hand when you go to the bathroom, as that can become disrespectful.

My very dear one,
Please don’t worry. I received and read your long letter of explanation that you sent to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I do not remember some of the things that you mentioned in your letter. I can’t remember them happening. I am sorry about that. My memory is not perfect, but I should remember these things. I do remember the part (vaguely) of you coming to Nepal and about the Rinpoche.

If you have received that initiation from the Rinpoche you mentioned, you are very fortunate, as he is a great practitioner of this deity.

Regarding curing the sickness you mentioned, from the patient's side, you have to have the karma, either karma created in the past, or you can create karma now and get better (this is good karma, as the result is happiness). You can create the karma to be cured. Some people have recovered from naga harm from having a puja performed. Nagas can have different forms, like that of an animal.

There are other numberless beings in forms we don’t see, like buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other types of beings. They exist, but we can’t see them.

I am happy you have Lama Yeshe in your heart and are still devoted. He is your root guru and the one you received your happiness from, up to enlightenment.

Please don’t worry. I am coming to your country, and then we can definitely meet.

With much love and prayer...

My very dear Kevin,
Four things you can do when you are being harmed by spirits, for example, when you feel a spirit is pressing down on your chest, etc:

1.  Generate yourself as Yamantaka and then the spirit cannot harm you.
2.  Visualize the spirit as the guru / deity Yamantaka.
3.  Use the experience to meditate on emptiness.
4.  Develop compassion toward the spirit.

How to meditate on emptiness

Seal these three things in emptiness: The harm giver – which is the spirit; you, which is the object to be harmed; and the action of being harmed. See that these three things are not inherently existent, because they are dependent arisings, which means they are merely imputed by mind. Meditate that these three (subject, action, and object) are not truly existent.

One simple way is to think that these three things are not true, meaning that they are empty (what appears from its own side is not true, then you see it as non-existent, empty). Meditate on this and then think these three things are empty because they are dependent arisings. Meditate on the meaning of the Prasangika view, the extremely, subtle dependent arising, merely labeled by the mind, which makes you see reality – that is empty.

The first method, meditating on emptiness, eliminates eternalism. The second method, dependent arising, eliminates nihilism. This is the middle way view on emptiness, which is a very powerful method, and is the Prasangika view.

You can meditate on these verses from the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, by Lama Tsongkhapa:

Appearances are infallible dependent origination;
Voidness is free of assertions.
As long as these two understandings are seen as separate,
One has not yet realized the intent of the Buddha.

When these two realizations are simultaneous and concurrent,
From a mere sight of infallible dependent origination
Comes certain knowledge that completely destroys all modes of mental grasping.
At that time the analysis of the profound view is complete.

Appearances clear away the extreme of existence;
Voidness clears away the extreme of non-existence.
When you understand the arising of cause and effect from the viewpoint of voidness,
You are not captivated by either extreme view.

How to develop compassion towards the spirit

Think that the spirit is totally overwhelmed by delusion and ignorance, with a totally hallucinated mind, as well as under the power of karma and disturbing thoughts. Think that the spirit is in samsara, completely overwhelmed by suffering, and generate compassion by reflecting in this way.

Each time the spirit harms you, the spirit creates negative karma, which causes him or her to be reborn in the hell realms, or again as a spirit, hell being, or animal, and to again harm you and others, create negative karma, be continuously born in the lower realms, and experience unimaginable suffering again and again.

Another method to develop compassion is to think if I were already enlightened, liberated from samsara, not suffering, not under the power of karma and delusion, then the spirit could not harm me, therefore the spirit would not create negative karma by harming me, because from my side there would be no cause to receive harm from the spirit. So, the spirit wouldn’t create heavy negative karma by harming me.

You meditate on these verses from the Three Principal Aspects of the Path:

Swept by the current of the four powerful rivers,
Tied by strong bonds of karma, so hard to undo,
Caught in the iron net of self-grasping,
Completely enveloped by the darkness of ignorance,

Born and reborn in boundless samsara,
Ceaselessly tormented by the three miseries –
All beings, your mothers, are in this condition.
Think of them and generate bodhi-mind.

Also, you can think that in the past you have caused the spirit harm, which caused him or her to engage in negative karma and harm you in this life. Therefore, you deserve to receive harm from the spirit now. This is your karma because you have harmed the spirit before. So, this is the result of your past karma. The conclusion is to not harm others, practice samaya vows, and protect your karma – cause and effect.

So, use this to develop compassion. Think: “I must do something to liberate the spirit, so therefore I must practice Dharma.” The conclusion is, in order to really benefit other sentient beings, to not harm other sentient beings, and to benefit sentient beings, you must actualize the path to enlightenment. Therefore, you must first achieve enlightenment and the quickest way to do that is by actualizing the Three Principles of the Path, particularly tantra, so that you can quickly lead all beings in the path to liberation and enlightenment.

It is spirit harm. You need protection from Hayagriva. You need to make an offering to a stupa, by painting it white and saffron. This is quite a common method for success and healing. I do this normally anyway on Buddha’s special days, so I’ll dedicate the action to you on this special day of the anniversary of Buddha’s turning the wheel of Dharma, when the merit of whatever virtuous activities one does is multiplied 100 million times.

Then, recite the Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda mantra. Visualize yourself as the deity and purify the four things: sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements.

I will do some pujas. You can write me in five days to say if there’s any change. However, there is no question that what you are experiencing is a sign of purification, because reciting the Heart Sutra is extremely powerful purification. It brings up negative karma and finishes karma that one would have to experience for many eons in the hell realms and so forth. This is a definite sign that you are finishing heavy negative karma, which is manifesting as this health problem. Once you experience this, you don’t have to be reborn in the lower realms, such as hell, and suffer for eons.

Therefore, what happened is very positive.

With much love and prayer...