A man in his early twenties wrote to Rinpoche from prison. He had been in and out of jails since he was thirteen years old, and was now imprisoned for attempted murder. He had since become a sincere Buddhist and studied hard in jail, where he was sentenced to remain for life.

Rinpoche sent this letter to a prisoner who was serving a ten-year sentence for the death of his son. 

Please let Don know that Rinpoche is doing prayers and will continue doing prayers. Rinpoche said that Don should recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra 10 times, as soon as possible. This will definitely help.

You should recite the Twenty-one Tara prayers 60,000 times. Your motivation should not only be to be released from prison but to reach enlightenment quickly. That should be your motivation.

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a prisoner, who was newly Buddhist, who had just been given his date of execution for three months’ time. Rinpoche gave this advice over the course of five days.

Rinpoche recommended the following practices for a prisoner who was on death row, in order to remove obstacles to his life and prevent his upcoming execution.

A retreat place is not for gaining power, like black magic, it’s not for a honeymoon or holiday. Also, it is not a place to be spaced out. The whole purpose is to subdue the mind and to actualize the lamrim, up to enlightenment.

You should always remember retreat means making war on delusions. You have to always remember this – this is inner war, but this is a one-time war.

1. Do some nyung näs while you are there. You can finish the twenty that are left, out of the 100 you are doing.2. Recite each of the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names 100 times daily.

My very dear one,Thank you very much for your kind letter. This is my advice for you as to what practices to do:100,000 mandala offerings100,000 prostrations to the Thirty-five BuddhasCombine this with lamrim meditation.