Tonglen, Water Bowls and Other Daily Practices

My dear one,
Thank you very much for your letter. Regarding advice for your practice, the tonglen practice is specifically for developing bodhicitta. If you don’t know this practice, check Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or any other teaching. I recently gave some teachings on tonglen.

Regarding water bowl offerings, you can do some of these with the Kopan nuns' assistance. The nuns do this for one month each year, and other people can join them for the practice. You can offer thousands of water bowls there. Even if you can’t offer large numbers all the time, at home offer a small number and when you’re busy, offer less. Just count them every day.

Regarding tsa-tsas, print some mantras of OM MANI PADME HUM and the Five Powerful Deities, using a tsa-tsa. Print them on paper, mud or material, while making tsa-tsas.

Concerning lamrim meditation, the scopes and subjects are the main focus, but you can also meditate on other subjects. Circle through the lamrim twice and if there is still no renunciation of this life, then go through the lamrim topic by topic until you achieve the realizations that haven’t been achieved before. Follow the outlines from the perfect human rebirth up to karma, and then the middle and higher scope to gain realizations, while also meditating on guru devotion. However many weeks and months it takes, keep going until you achieve the realization that the guru is all the buddhas and the Buddha is all the gurus. Keep going until there’s no separation, from the bottom of your heart.

Then meditate on generating renunciation of the next life’s samsara, then focus on bodhicitta. Do at least one meditation on emptiness every day by following quotations from the Heart Sutra, the root text of Mahamudra and Advice of Manjushri. This realization can be achieved any time. It is dependent on the accumulation of merit and imprints collected in past lives, and it can be actualized any time.

In order to be able to enlighten all sentient beings quickly, read from the Golden Light Sutra every day. You don’t have to finish it every day—just read some each day, even if it’s just a few lines. Also read the Arya Sanghata Sutra and write out the sutras. This is a very good way to collect unbelievable merit—it means realizations can be generated more easily and it brings you to enlightenment quicker.

It seems more worthwhile for you to do retreat—meditation and study of Dharma—but this is not saying you cannot offer service to others. You can do that, too, but put more emphasis on meditation and study.

Your deity for practice is Gyalwa Gyatso, Secret Chenrezig, so if this initiation is given sometime, go and receive it. Otherwise, just wait for the opportunity to request it.

With love and prayer...