The Purpose of Becoming a Monk

My very dear one,
It comes out very good to become a monk right away. The purpose of becoming a monk is because we have delusions and an unsubdued mind, so we need to subdue the mind and cease the delusions that harm ourselves and other sentient beings who are numberless. We need to cease the delusions and also, in the future, the subtle obscurations, so we can complete the realizations and achieve full enlightenment.

This is not for you, but for sentient beings: for every single one of the human beings who are numberless, for numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings, numberless hell beings, numberless animals—even the dogs and cats in Nalanda; even the fish and animals that live in the river at Nalanda; any insects that live in the water that we can’t see with the eye but only with a machine; every insect on the ground, every fly and so on—for every one of the hungry ghosts who are like a forest outside and for numberless intermediate state beings.

You are becoming a monk for every single one of these sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. So the reason you are becoming a monk is not a small one. It is not because you are upset with your wife or your boyfriend, or because that person dislikes you, therefore you want to become a monk. It’s not like that. [Rinpoche laughs] In that case, you would become a monk for a few days or months, or at the longest a year. After that, your mind would degenerate and you would think, “What is the use in being a monk?” and give up. You would be happy to give up being a monk, because you would feel like you were in prison. You wouldn’t want to be in the monastery. Becoming a monk is not like that at all.

The purpose of becoming a monk is because now you are in prison—you are in the prison of samsara and you want to be free from that prison. That is a big reason, a huge reason, it is bigger than Mt. Everest. You can’t measure it; it’s huge. Also, you want to free the numberless sentient beings of each realm from the prison of samsara and bring them to enlightenment.

Generally the purpose of becoming a monk is that you have less work and less activities, so that gives more time to practice. You are in the right situation to be a monk right now, so it will be easy to practice Dharma and have realizations. That’s why you should become a monk. For lay people, generally speaking there are a lot of distractions and a lot of work, so it is difficult to practice Dharma. In order to subdue the mind, we have to subdue the actions of the body and speech. That’s why monasteries are needed and why we need to live according to the monastic discipline. These are Dharma rules, not country rules. The purpose is to help the mind practice Dharma and to be able to keep the vows and precepts. Being a monk is also the basis for the bodhisattva practice and the basis for tantric vows and tantric realizations. So it helps on the quick path to enlightenment.

Practice Advice

1. Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga: 300,000. Every session is guru yoga, but this number is for the recitations of migtsema with visualization. When you recite the mantra, mainly do purification but also visualize receiving wisdom—great wisdom, clear wisdom, quick wisdom and profound wisdom, etc. There are seven wisdoms and these four are the main ones. You can also recite some mantras with the secret visualization.

2. Dorje Khadro Burning Offering: 40,000. 

3. Tsa-tsas: 50,000. The three saviours—Chenrezig, Manjushri and Vajrapani [Tib: rik sum gön po; རིགས་གསུམ་མགོན་པོ ]. Also make some tsa-tsas of Lama Tsongkhapa and Four-arm Mahakala.

4. Nyung Näs: five, but it’s good to also try to do nyung-näs every year.

5. Vajra Cutter Sutra: try to recite this every day, as much as possible. That would be good, if you can. Do at least one recitation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra a day, but reading it means not just going blah blah blah; the mind has to be with the subject as you are reciting it. If the mind is out, it doesn’t leave a positive imprint; the mind has to be in. Reciting the Vajra Cutter Sutra helps to quickly realize emptiness, to quickly be free from samsara, and also to help other sentient beings to quickly be freed from samsara. When you recite this sutra with bodhicitta it helps you to quickly achieve enlightenment.

First study one lamrim text from beginning to the end. In your case, you should study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You can also study Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middling Lamrim, but the main thing is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Read this from beginning to end and write down anything you don’t understand. Then you can ask the geshe or any of the older students who have studied well to clarify these points.

After that do effortful lamrim meditation, followed by effortless meditation.

Practicing this way is the very, very, very essence of life and of Dharma practice. This is how to make your life meaningful for all sentient beings, not only for yourself. Every single hell being is experiencing unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable suffering right now, then also numberless hungry ghosts, animals, human being, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. Your practice is for all of them; your breathing is for all of them; your everyday life is for all of them; even if you are eating one piece of toast, one spoonful of rice, one glass of milkshake or one quarter of pizza, it is for all of them.

Your deity is Heruka, Kalachakra or Hayagriva (not Most Secret Hayagriva but Hayagriva). You can take the initiations for all of these, but the main one is Hayagriva.

Not now, but after some years, after some time, you can try to attain shi-nä on the basis of lamrim practice.

Thank you very much. Your hard work at Nalanda is very, very, very good. It is purification and also you are working for the Sangha. If you have received initiation or teachings from me and you are already a disciple, this work is fulfilling the guru’s wishes, so it is the most powerful way of collecting merits and doing purification.

Thank you very, very, very, very, very much. Welcome to nirvana and enlightenment.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa