Retreat Advice

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
I am very happy to hear that after you had the operation you completely changed. I heard this a few years ago. You totally changed from cherishing the I to cherishing others, bringing happiness to everyone who comes to your house. That is very, very good. You need to do real practice like that.

So thinking to do Vajrayogini retreat is most worthwhile; how many times you do Vajrayogini retreat, again and again, that is very good. We must make preparation to go to the pure land, Dagpa Khachö, so doing retreat makes it more and more easy to go to the pure land. It is much easier to go there, the more we do retreat.

I am the most lazy person, but I did seven Vajrayogini retreats. The last time was in New Zealand and a monk there helped with my fire puja. It went well. That was after Lama Yeshe acted passing away. The people were doing Vajrasattva retreat and I was doing Vajrayogini retreat upstairs. Down in the gompa, when rain came, the goats and sheep went downstairs into the gompa and the people gathered upstairs for the Vajrasattva retreat. It was quite interesting in the afternoon, very interesting scenery. I think they did six months or one year retreat.

I just had a long-life puja. Yangsi Rinpoche and Dagri Rinpoche were at the puja. Dagri Rinpoche was Lama Yeshe’s past life guru. He is one of the lamas giving teachings and initiations in FPMT. Also, Yangsi Rinpoche was Lama Yeshe’s past life guru and has started a Buddhist college in Portland. So, he is helping me and Dagri Rinpoche is helping me. Also Geshe Dakpa was at the puja. He is an expert in astrology and other aspects of Tibetan culture. So they were at the puja.

I am very happy with you. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

P.S. I am very happy you are reading the Golden Light Sutra. It becomes healing, even for the city where you are reading the sutra. It heals all the sick people and brings great benefit to the country and to the leader of the country and it brings so much benefit and peace in the world. Besides this, as you read, it is great, great purification for yourself.

Most dear, most kind, most precious, most wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind email. I am very happy you are going to do Vajrasattva retreat, this is fantastic. This is what is needed for you and for the whole world, for all sentient beings; this is what all the buddhas and bodhisattvas would like. Of course, do it with bodhicitta.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear Tony,
How are you? The letter that you sent to me explains the experience of the meditation through the migtsema retreat. That effect is the real blessing of Guru Lama Tsongkhapa, so your meditation highly worked and was beneficial. That is exactly what is supposed to happen. So this experience is a billion times better than winning the Olympics!

You are so fortunate, this is like finding a wish-granting jewel, so develop this continuously, meditate on Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, and don’t forget this feeling you developed. Stabilize it, then you will be able to generate all the realizations of lamrim meditation, the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages. Your feeling, your experience—that is exactly what is supposed to happen.

As I mentioned before, winning an Olympic medal is nothing, but this is most meaningful, more precious than finding a wish-fulfilling jewel—even if you have that, it cannot stop rebirth in the lower realms; from that you can’t achieve higher rebirth and it can’t make you achieve liberation. You cannot achieve full enlightenment from the wish-granting jewel and you cannot liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, as much as possible, keep [doing] the meditation. When you meditate on the perfect human rebirth, renunciation of this life, renunciation of the next life, bodhicitta, emptiness, all those meditations, without much hardship all those experiences will happen.

Hope to see you soon...

My very dear one,
Thank you for your kind, short letter, I appreciate your concern. It’s very good that you are thinking to do retreat.

In my observation, it is good for you to do Mahamudra retreat with preliminaries. So, in the morning do Lama Chöpa and spend time during that session doing mandala offerings and prostrations. The preliminaries can even be started now, if you have time. After the morning session of Lama Chöpa, you can do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga in the other sessions. In the evening, do the King of Prayers, Vajrasattva practice and the protector prayers.

This is my advice and a very good opportunity for you.

With much love and prayer...

As requested by Pungsang, Buddha states how to make a meditation room:

On that land, dig the earth and purify the place. If the house depends on heat and warmth, put a mud wall around it. The door of the meditation house should face east, north or west, but never south. If there is downstairs and upstairs, at least one door should not face south. Put a window towards the south or the east.

A dedicated meditation room is auspicious for a good retreat and helps the mind remain undisturbed, as outer and inner conditions are dependent arisings. Having a dedicated room qualifies the place as suitable for abiding in the retreat. If it is not possible to find all the conditions, at least arrange what is most comfortable for the yogi to do retreat.

The second chapter of the Guhyasamaja Tantra states that in all the directions of the earth, in places of great isolation that are adorned with flowers and fruits; in the isolation of the mountain, all realizations will be achieved.

1. Liberate 4,000 animals before the beginning of next year. You can do it yourself with my Animal Liberation practice. Do all of them yourself if you prefer, but I suggest making a donation to the center to do some of them.
2. Make one or two hundred long-life deity tsa-tsas. Some of these can be made at other places where they make tsa-tsas, and maybe some Tibetans can make some.
3. Take the Je tse zin ma (Lama Tsongkhapa holding long-life vase) long-life initiation three or four times.

You can stay at the retreat center, sometimes teaching and sometimes doing practice. However, if the above practices are not done, then everything will be difficult.