Tonglen and Recovery from Cancer

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Excuse me for communicating with you, but I heard about you from one nun. She said that you had cancer and she told you to do tonglen, then after you did that, you completely recovered from the cancer. I am very happy. 

The nun said you cried when doing the meditation. This shows that your mind was ripened by the practice and you did it sincerely, with a good heart. I was so happy to hear that. 

The nun told me that you were friends during childhood, and also that you forgave your sister. That is very, very good. It also helps for a healthy life, a healthy mind, and not just in this life, but in future lives, on and on. That’s really good. It is also a very good quality to have, and good psychology, a good meditation practice. 

That is what the Buddha thought to practice. When someone harms us and makes us angry, we need to practice the good heart and apologize. When we practice bodhicitta, tonglen, taking all the suffering and problems of others and giving away all our happiness and merits, it is like this.

For example, when we take one sentient being’s suffering, such as a headache. That one person has many other problems, not only that, they have physical and mental dissatisfaction. Through tonglen practice, when we take a headache even from one sentient being, we take it on our heart, on our enemy, the self-cherishing thought, which made us experience suffering in samsara since beginningless rebirths. If we continuously follow that, it causes us to harm all sentient beings. This is what has happened since beginningless rebirths. 

So we destroy that self-cherishing thought and not only that, we destroy the root of the I, which is not there. It does not exist. What exists is what is merely labeled by mind; that which brings suffering and experiences happiness exists in mere name. That time, when we see [that it exists in mere name] it becomes nonexistent, then we touch the truth of the I. So it is the best practice, the best holy Dharma practice, the most beneficial practice. We collect the highest merit and it becomes the greatest purification.

Now, taking this example, we do that with all sentient beings’ headaches. Then in this way we collect limitless skies of merit, if we were to visualize the benefits. If the merits materialized, then they would be like the limitless sky; also when we give our body, enjoyments and merits to sentient beings. 

So by taking the suffering of sentient beings’ headaches, just as an example, if the merit we collect had form, we collect limitless skies of merit and we get the greatest purification—we purify negative karma and defilements collected since beginningless lifetimes. Each time we do these things—taking and giving—we get closer to enlightenment, buddhahood, the total cessation of suffering and completion of realizations.

Buddha said in the Arya Sanghata Sutra:

Any sentient being, who during the time of my teachings
Makes charity well (even if it’s just the size of a hair)
For 84,000 eons will actually receive the result of great enjoyments:
Having the human body without disease, enjoyment of happiness,
Enriched with wealth, power and desirable things (like Indra, Brahma and so forth).
At the end you can achieve the peerless result—total cessation and actualization of enlightenment.

Buddha said even ants can achieve the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations. This is what we will achieve. If this is the result, then who would not want to collect merit?

Here, when we do tonglen, we take all the sentient beings’ suffering and its causes and give our body and all our enjoyments, however much we have, everything, to all sentient beings. So, thinking about giving one hair, from one single practice, for so many lifetimes we get a healthy life, a nice form, power, etc., and at the end we achieve enlightenment. 

Our past, present and future merits, many merits, we give away everything. So many merits, we cannot imagine. Wow, wow! This practice is incredible! It will bring quick success for ourselves and all sentient beings, including temporal happiness and ultimate liberation from samsara and at the end, enlightenment.

I am so happy that you are able to do that. These cards are for you; I hope you like them. You can also send them to other people. Thank you very much. If there is anything you don’t understand, then the nun can help. If the nun knows about the Boudhanath Stupa, she can explain it to you, or if you want to know, I can explain it next time.

If you are dying while looking at the stupa, then you will never be reborn in the lower realms— in the hells, as a hungry ghost or animal—and you will get a higher rebirth, as human or deva, or even in the pure lands.

That’s all.

With love and prayers ...