Transforming Problems

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your letter regarding your mother. According to my observation, there are some pujas to do:

• Gyab shi: twice. You can ask the Kopan monks to do this for you. Send an email to Kopan Monastery and request the puja. You can say it is my advice and ask about the cost beforehand.
• She nyin dü dog: three times. This puja contains hundreds of Heart Sutras, but not only that. It can be done by Kopan Nunnery. You can email the nunnery, explain I have given you this advice, make the request and find out the cost.
• The third puja is chag sum, which I will do. According to my observation, the Mickey Mouse, the sloth, can do it.

So please tell your mother these things can happen. In London, many years ago at Manjushri Institute, there was one man who played guitar and when the meditation session started, he would get a headache and a toothache. There are many other examples.

What is happening is an obstacle to practicing Dharma. Lama Atisha, who revived and made Dharma pure in Tibet, came from Nalanda Monastery in India. The 84,000 teachings which the Buddha gave can be subsumed into Hinayana, Mahayana sutra and Mahayana tantra. All that is contained in the lamrim text called A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which was written by Lama Atisha in Tibet.

At that time there were many misconceptions about sutra and tantra. People thought that if you practice tantra you can’t practice sutra, and if you practice sutra you can’t practice tantra. Lama Atisha, by writing A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, completely pacified all the wrong conceptions.

Lama Atisha had 157 gurus, teachers, who he received different teachings from. His two main teachers, his root gurus, were Lama Serlingpa and Dharmarakshita. Lama Atisha traveled thirteen months by boat to Indonesia and spent twelve years receiving teachings on bodhicitta from Lama Serlingpa, like receiving the contents of one pot poured into another. Just hearing that teacher’s name would cause Lama Atisha’s [hair] to stand up and tears would come.

His other teacher, Dharmarakshita, said that when we experience unbearable pain in our body, it is because we harmed transmigrator beings’ bodies in the past. Now the wheel of sharp weapons of negative karma is turned on us. So now we must take all the sentient beings’ pain on ourselves.

That means letting all the sentient beings be free of all the sicknesses and causing them to achieve enlightenment, by taking all that on ourselves and experiencing it for them. This is the practice of unbelievable compassion, bodhicitta practice, dedicating ourselves completely to sentient beings, taking all their suffering and letting them have peerless happiness, enlightenment.

All the sufferings came from “I” which is not an object to be cherished; it’s most harmful. Our beginningless suffering, our past, present and future suffering, comes from cherishing the I. Our suffering is not only beginningless but endless if we don’t practice Dharma in this life, if we don’t actualize bodhicitta.

That means whatever obstacle we’re experiencing now, pain and so forth, is the result of our past karma of harming others. That is being explained or introduced. So all these obstacles—anxiety, blood pressure, depression, dizziness, nervousness, all that—if we know how to think about what has happened, this [suffering] is very, very, very, very good, excellent.

The self-cherishing thought is our worst enemy. It has given us beginningless suffering in samsara, as well as suffering now, in this life, and also in the future samsara. And not only that, this is nothing; numberless sentient beings are like us, so precious, but we have harmed them because of the self-cherishing thought. It lets us harm numberless sentient beings and lets them suffer, from beginningless rebirths, now and in the future, endlessly. Therefore, this self-cherishing thought is the worst enemy.

So this disease, this problem, this sickness, is helping us, but we are under the control of self-cherishing thought. Instead of renouncing self-cherishing we follow it, we cherish it like a guru, we completely cherish it and totally offer service to it.

From that, only suffering comes to us and other sentient beings, numberless sentient beings, endless suffering. It harms us because we do not become enlightened for sentient beings, we don’t achieve even nirvana for ourselves, liberation from samsara. We don’t achieve the happiness in future lives, it doesn’t allow even the happiness of this life and what we wish for becomes an obstacle.

Therefore, all these problems—spirit harm or whatever harm anyone is causing us—all this is so precious because it can help us destroy the self-cherishing thought, the root of all our suffering and problems. Actually, it is the best thing, a really good thing in reality. But if we think harming the self-cherishing thought is a problem and that it’s bad, then that’s what appears to us.

Harming the self-cherishing thought is very good, because it’s our worst enemy. That’s what is needed to actualize bodhicitta, to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. After we achieve enlightenment we can free the sentient beings from the lower realm sufferings forever; we can free the sentient beings from samsara forever; we can free them from the lower nirvana forever, and we can bring them to enlightenment, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations, so like that.

So it’s really good, this is the best thing, this is the attitude, the mind of thought transformation, transforming suffering into happiness, utilizing problems in the path to enlightenment.

In the world, even human beings, the common people in the world don’t know this, but those who know Mahayana teachings on thought transformation—which means utilizing suffering in the path to enlightenment in order for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment—for them all the obstacles become a support, all the misfortunes become fortune, everything becomes positive, so for that mind there’s no obstacle to practice Dharma.

The great meditator in Tibet, Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa said:

By experiencing this present small suffering,
The past negative karma is ceased,
And there will be happiness in the future.

What he’s saying is that so many heavy negative karmas were collected in the past that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms and to experience suffering there for many eons, whereby we wouldn’t even hear human language for eons. But due to practicing Dharma, reciting powerful mantras, reading Buddha’s teachings, and other different ways, by doing that, the past heavy negative karma are experienced in this life with some disease, some cares, some problems, etc., and that finishes the past negative karma.

Then in the future, we are like the sun shining in the world, causing humans and animals to enjoy so much happiness from life to life, and even to reach enlightenment in that way. So we don’t have to experience going to the lower realms and experiencing so many sufferings, so many heavy negative sufferings for eons. Instead, we are experiencing the suffering in this life.

Geshe Khamlungpa said:

Therefore, rejoice, be happy in this present suffering.

That means to rejoice in the present suffering and be happy, think how good it is! Whatever the problem is, by experiencing it in this life, there’s no need to be born in the lower realms for eons with the heaviest suffering. We don’t have to experience all that, so that’s the benefit of experiencing the suffering now.

So rejoice. It’s good to experience problems, and it’s very, very good to think like this, to know this. Also, you can do the pujas.

Much love, with much love and prayer. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...

This is my very important message and very important practice advice to you; it is bodhicitta, destroying the self-cherishing thought.

The self-cherishing thought has been our own real enemy from beginningless rebirths. It has caused us to suffer from beginningless rebirths, experiencing the oceans of suffering of the hell beings, the oceans of suffering of the hungry ghosts, the oceans of animals’ suffering, the oceans of human beings’ suffering, the oceans of suffering of the sura beings, asura beings and preta beings. From beginningless rebirths the self-cherishing thought has caused us to suffer.

But of course, without even having studied the lamrim, we have no idea about the suffering of the lower realms, and no idea of even the gods, the desire realms, the form realm gods or the formless realms gods. We have no idea of their suffering, the different levels of suffering, then also there is the desire realm suffering—the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering.

The form realm gods do not have the suffering of pain, but Geshe Sopa says they have the suffering of change. The formless realm beings do not have the suffering of change, so what they have is the third type of suffering, pervasive compounding suffering, which is the basis of the other two sufferings.

Without reading the lamrim we won’t get the feeling, even without studying the sutras, so we will not even get a rough idea. We just say “suffering” but we don’t really feel that in our heart if we don’t know first how it is explained in the lamrim.

All the sufferings now, and the causes of samsaric suffering, make us suffer continuously. If we continue to follow self-cherishing thought, the real enemy, it will continuously make us suffer without end. There is no beginning, it’s beginningless, but there will also be no end to our suffering in samsara. If we follow the self-cherishing thought, there will be no end to our suffering in samsara. Unbelievable, unbelievable, most unbelievable!

People in the world don’t know this because they haven’t met Dharma and they don’t know Dharma, so then they have no idea. They are only thinking of this life. Even this life they don’t understand well. They don't think of the suffering of their future lives, therefore they use whoever they can, particularly animals. They use others like a handkerchief or a napkin, something that is just thrown away.

Lama khyen! So much suffering, they cause so much suffering, like for pigs in the world or the fish and chickens. Some animals are eaten while they are still alive, such as octopus. I saw this many times, how many animals are eaten alive.

Lama khyen! Lama khyen! Lama khyen! Some people completely use the animals like tissue paper, just as human beings use tissue paper. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. They even know the animals are suffering, but still they use them like tissue paper.

Anyway, the self-cherishing thought is really, really, the real enemy. Wow, wow. We think it is our best friend and we always serve the self-cherishing thought; we serve it like a guru, or like a king or like a parent. We totally serve the self-cherishing thought. Even for those of us who are sometimes practicing Dharma, it is for the self-cherishing thought.

Not only that, the self-cherishing thought made us harm numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings, numberless intermediate state beings, every sentient being from beginningless rebirth, with no beginning. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

We are just one sentient being, but we see others are numberless. We feel, “Someone is so bad to me; how I suffer is so bad.” But there are numberless sentient beings, wow, wow, wow, wow. There are even numberless hell beings and in each realm there are numberless beings. The self-cherishing thought made us harm the numberless, numberless, numberless beings, everyone. Not just one time, but numberless times from beginningless rebirth. This is the worst thing, the most terrible thing.

So now, this harm that we are receiving, think that this is most precious, most precious, more precious than wish-granting jewels. In the past the bodhisattvas found this jewel in the ocean and cleaned it three ways and put it on a banner on the fifteenth day. Then whatever they needed, like the needs of this life, they prayed for that, then they got it immediately. Just as Sai Baba [appeared] able to produce watches and things, then most people got ashes.

It is like that with a wish-granting jewel, we make a prayer then it is actualized the next minute. So how many helicopters we want, how many swimming pools we want, how many hotels we want, how many comforts we want—we get that immediately. Not just one wish-fulfilling jewel, but numberless, filling the whole sky. So this unpleasant thing we are experiencing, what we have been believing is bothering us, is more precious than that. Now we can see how it is so precious. We can use it as an atomic bomb to destroy the self-cherishing thought. To destroy our enemy, the self-cherishing thought.

It is the self-cherishing thought that has caused all our sufferings from beginningless rebirth, now and in the future, endlessly. Not only that, it has also caused us to harm all the sentient beings from beginningless rebirths. So that means when sentient beings harm us, it is the result of having harmed sentient beings before. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

So we should give this unpleasant thing to the self-cherishing thought, to destroy the self-cherishing thought, bomb it. If we are able to destroy the self-cherishing thought, then comes bodhicitta. Only then is there a place for bodhicitta in our mind. Otherwise, bodhicitta is like the horn on the rabbit, it is like a horn on our head. It is like a billion dollars in our hand. It is like a hair growing on the turtle’s backside, so it is like that.

Bodhicitta comes from destroying the self-cherishing thought, and this is then what comes, bodhicitta, jang chub sem. When jang chub sem comes, that is the root of the path to enlightenment—wishing to free each sentient being, the numberless sentient beings, each sentient being, from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment, peerless happiness.

Therefore, this suffering is so precious, more precious than wish-granting jewels. Even if we own so many wish-granting jewels, that doesn’t cause us to be free from the lower realms, that doesn’t cause us to be free from samsara, that doesn’t cause us to be free from lower nirvana, so that doesn’t cause us to achieve enlightenment.

But this one, destroying the self-cherishing thought, from that we can actualize bodhicitta. Wow, wow, wow, wow. The benefits of bodhicitta are like the sky, limitless. If buddhas talk about bodhicitta, they cannot finish explaining it.

So this is how we should think—that it is so precious, unbelievably precious. For us, it is unbelievably precious, because it can destroy the self-cherishing thought. We should think that instead of thinking that the self-cherishing thought is our best friend, like a god. We don’t say it’s a god, but we follow it like a god. We [don’t] say from the mouth, "God, god, god,” but in reality, the self-cherishing thought is like a god. We follow everything that the self-cherishing wants. If somebody disturbs the self-cherishing thought, then we kill them, we chop them, like chili, we do everything bad that we can to hurt them.

So you can think that this unpleasant thing that you are experiencing—I am using this as an example for you, but for other people, there are other problems. We can use that problem as most precious; we should see it as the most precious, most precious one.

Why is the obstacle so precious? Why? It is because we are experiencing it for all the sentient beings; we are experiencing this problem for all the sentient beings. Numberless sentient beings have this problem, so we are experiencing it for them. This is so precious because we are experiencing it for them. Then think that they become free from suffering in samsara and achieve enlightenment.

That’s why this is so precious, precious, precious for us. So then, we can use this for any problem we have. The real problem is the self-cherishing thought. The self-cherishing thought becomes like a god, it becomes our best friend, forever, in the morning and at night, all the time, constantly; the self-cherishing thought is close and we totally rely on that. Therefore, that is the biggest problem; that is the biggest enemy.

Why is there this problem? Because of the self-cherishing thought.

This practice may be hard for very new people, it might be difficult to understand, but for older students, this is exactly what they have to practice. Whatever disease, cancer, spirit harm, black magic, anything we have, we can think in this way.

Thank you very much. You have pain, so this advice is the same.

Please, please, please, life is very short and we can die anytime. We can die anytime. By this time next year, our consciousness may be somewhere else and our body will be already burned. By this time next month or next week or even tomorrow, now here, even today or tomorrow, we can be on the firewood, with the body burned. Then other people are scared to come, even our friends who liked us very much, who came to see us before, who do not want to be separated from us. Even they will be scared to come close to this body, this corpse.

Dharma practice is for all the time because the mind is continuous, not only beginningless but also endless. Whether we have a happy life or a suffering life in the future depends on karma. However, because we like only happiness and do not like suffering, what we need is only Dharma practice, not nonvirtue. So not only the four noble truths, the Lesser Vehicle path, but also the Mahayana path to achieve enlightenment, then on the basis of that we can be free from samsara. Then on the basis of Mahayana sutra [we practice] Mahayana tantra, then we can achieve enlightenment in one life. [Practicing] Highest Yoga Tantra, we can achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of these degenerate times.

You have received so many teachings, even from His Holiness the Dalai Lama—wow, wow, wow—and also from other qualified other teachers. Wow, wow, wow. Thank you very much. 

Maybe what you are experiencing is spirit harm.

There was somebody who had similar spirit harm. That person could hear a sound all the time, like someone talking. She had this sound, then when she traveled to another country the language she could hear also changed. So that was from spirit harm; they can do like this. She had it for quite a long time.

There is another nun who was going to do shinä; she wanted to achieve shinä, but then this sound came. The sound was an obstacle, like the huge noise of water running, like a river, and it became an obstacle for shinä. Shinä is not easy and if you do not have much merit, then many obstacles arise. So this had been happening for a long time for her. Therefore, I told her to write out sutras in gold instead, using real gold, writing the Prajnaparamita to create the cause for shinä.

I did some prayers for you, but you also need to read the Vajra Cutter Sutra five times.

When we experience bad things, we think it’s very bad, but in reality, it is very good. It means our past lives’ negative karmas get purified by experiencing this now. So then, we don’t have to be born in the hell realms, the lower realms, and suffer for eons, for such a long time. That is the heaviest, the worst, the most painful suffering, for such a long time, for eons.

So that experience is due to our Dharma practice, the power of our Dharma practice, like bodhicitta. When we experience [sickness, spirit harm and so forth] in this life, then the karma gets finished, so we don’t have to be reborn in the lower realms and suffer for eons and eons. Then our future life is like the sun shining in the world, then we have so much happiness, happiness, happiness, wow, wow, wow, from life to life, and then we go to enlightenment.

Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung said:

Even just this small suffering
Finishes our past bad karmas and causes happiness in future lives.
Don’t look at the suffering as negative.
Rejoice; be happy with the suffering.

Thank you very much. Wow, wow, wow.

With much love and prayers ...

My very dear one,
This may be a very difficult time for you, however, it is important to use the complaints in your tonglen practice. Use the problems on the path to enlightenment. It’s so important for you to do this now; it’s so important to use the Dharma understanding you have.

Use this problem on the path to enlightenment and whatever you experience, make it for the benefit of sentient beings.

There was a great lama in Tibet called Choje Gotsangpa, who said, “Whatever difficulties or bad conditions I experience, may I be able to use it for the benefit of all sentient beings.”

Even though the situation appears as bad, you can use it as a positive; you can use it on the path to enlightenment.

With love and prayer ...

Dear gentlemen, my brother,
I heard that the previous person in charge caused all the problems for you. He took the big house that you built and did not finish, and he also took the money. You should think that this is very good.

No matter how much money we have—billions, zillions, trillions—for us ordinary beings, since we are born, we have to die. Like the plants—they are born, but they die. This is their nature and it’s the same for us ordinary beings.

Of course, Shakyamuni Buddha and numberless buddhas were ordinary beings like us, but they changed their minds and instead of cherishing the I, they renounced it. They cherished not just one person but numberless sentient beings—hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, sura beings, asura beings and numberless human beings.

They became free; they realized truth and emptiness. They became free from samsara and achieved the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations, enlightenment. They liberated numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara and are still doing that now, but we didn’t change our mind. Instead of cherishing numberless others, we cherish one I and renounce others.

Buddhas and bodhisattvas renounced the I and cherished numberless sentient beings. They all achieved enlightenment and caused temporal and ultimate happiness to others.

We are unable to give happiness to others and we destroy even our own happiness by cherishing the I, so we are still not free from the suffering of samsara. There is the suffering of pain, which is the cycle of death and rebirth, old age and sickness. Then the second type of suffering is all the samsaric pleasure, which is temporary. The third type of suffering is pervasive compounding suffering.

The five aggregates—form, feeling, discriminative awareness, compositional factors and consciousness—are under the control of delusion and karma. That’s why they are pervaded by suffering. The aggregates are contaminated by the seeds of the disturbing thought and controlled by karma, action. From the seeds of delusion, suffering arises again, thus we are still not free from all of these. This is the cycle of death and rebirth, the cycle of pain.

When death will happen to us, we cannot say. It can happen at any time—any month, any week, any day, any hour, any minute, any second. When death happens, the beggar, for example, who has only one stick, only one possession, has to leave this stick when he dies.

The king or president who has so many possessions, servants, population—however much wealth he has, gold, diamonds, wish-granting jewels—even though he has everything, when he dies, he will need to leave everything. Not only his possessions, but he cannot bring even the body which he cherishes to next life.

Even our own single hair [is left behind]. Consciousness alone will go to the next life. Only karma, our positive and negative actions, will go to the next life in our mental continuum. Otherwise, nothing. But most people don’t think like that. Even billionaires or zillionaires, when death comes, they have so much attachment, clinging. When they suddenly die, then unbelievable suffering comes. They are separated from their family, their possessions and their own body. They don’t know where all the suffering and happiness come from. The cause for happiness is so rare to create and [most people] don’t know it.

Even when you explain it to people, first of all they have no faith when they hear holy Dharma because they don’t have the karma. Even if they have the karma, they cannot accept it. Sometimes they get angry when they hear Dharma and they run away.

There is unbelievable worry, fear in their faces [at the time of death]. They don’t know [Dharma] and when death happens they suffer in the lower realms as hell beings, animals and hungry ghosts, for thousands of years without finding food, or as animals which steal or eat each other.

Therefore, you should know the reality is like this. There is nothing to be upset about and there is no need to think that this person is so bad. Even billionaires, zillionaires, trillionaires, as I mentioned, can die at any time.

This may be difficult for you because you don’t know all these stories. There was one Tibetan layperson called Milarepa. When Milarepa’s father died, his mother was badly treated by his uncle and aunt, and they also took all their wealth, so his mother advised him to learn black magic. He learned it and destroyed the whole house while the relatives were dancing and drinking. Thirty people and more animals downstairs were killed.

As a result of that karma, Milarepa would have suffered for so many eons and eons, but he was very sad after that happened. Then that lama who taught him black magic told him to see Guru Marpa if he wanted to practice holy Dharma. So Milarepa met Guru Marpa, who was an enlightened being, not an ordinary, obscured, suffering being.

Milarepa didn’t have any possessions, so he offered his body, speech and mind to Guru Marpa. He requested Marpa to teach holy Dharma and to provide the means of living together. So Marpa accepted and started to guide him and within a few years Milarepa was able to purify all the negative karma and achieve enlightenment. He achieved that in one brief lifetime of degenerate times.

Guru Marpa let Milarepa build alone a nine-story tower, but when it was finished Marpa asked him to tear it down and take all the stones back to where he found them. Then Marpa said to rebuild the tower again, and again tear it down, and again rebuild it. The tower still exists in Tibet but I didn’t see yet. The place is called Lhodrag in Tibet.

Marpa didn’t give teachings to Milarepa. He only scolded him, gave him a hard time and even beat him when he came with other students to receive teachings. Marpa himself was a buddha. Later he gave Milarepa teachings and initiations, and then Milarepa went to the mountains to meditate.

Milarepa followed Guru Marpa’s advice exactly and in that life he was able to purify all the defilements and negative karma and to achieve enlightenment, the unified state of Vajradhara, buddhahood. It’s not only Milarepa. There are many others who achieved enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerate times, but Milarepa became well-known to people, even in the West.

So I’ll tell you, in his early life, because he met the guru and had stable devotion—he never lost faith, he didn’t become heretical being and he always had faith that Marpa was a buddha—he was able to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime of these degenerate times, within a few years.

Similarly, you can also be like that. You don’t need to be a holy being from birth. If you change your mind, you can become a holy being during your life.

The second thing is about your situation. Because we have attachment to possessions, money, there is so much negative karma. Therefore, we suffer in this life, we suffer during death and after we die there’s unbelievable suffering for eons in the lower realms, as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal, and also in the human realms, on and on.

So now you don’t need to collect that heavy karma because of all the attachment. Now you are free. That person made you free, haha! 

So you can see, he is very, very kind, doing that to you. He is extremely kind, unbelievably kind. He saved you, he liberated you from many eons of unbelievable suffering of the lower realms and even the human realms in the future. Wow, wow, wow! What a kind, precious person!

Not only that, now you can make charity. You don’t have to feel you lost. You didn’t lose. You gained!

Anyway, death can happen at any time, and you can lose that [object of attachment] any time. This makes your life very simple, very easy, because there is no object to be attached to. So, you can make charity to him of all the money and the house.

You should think like this:

The purpose of my life is not just to achieve temporary happiness, such as money or a house. It’s not for that. Even liberation from samsara is not enough. The purpose of my life is to free other sentient beings from suffering and to help them achieve peerless happiness, to bring them to buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations. Therefore, I’m going to make charity of this money and the house to the person who is taking it.

That becomes the cause of enlightenment; you are creating the cause to achieve peerless happiness, buddhahood. So you are not losing, you are gaining. The house and money is nothing.

Actually, by making charity with bodhicitta, it becomes the cause for you to achieve the highest enlightenment, peerless happiness. If it is done with bodhicitta, when you make charity of however much money, however many rooms there are—for example, if you give back one dollar as an act of charity—you create infinite skies of merit, good karma, the cause of happiness.

If you make charity of however many millions of dollars or bricks of the house, wow, wow, wow, you are actually gaining most unbelievable, most unbelievable, most unbelievable skies of merits. So many, many times. Actually you should rejoice, feeling happiness all day and night, all your life.

There is no place in your mind to feel depression, sadness. You should feel unbelievable happiness. So now think that person is most unbelievably kind; his kindness is like the sky to you. So do this practice of charity for him. This is my heartfelt advice to you. If you thank him for taking all these things, it’s saving you, protecting you from the suffering of samsara, and you receive many, many eons of merits.

The great holy being, the bodhisattva Shantideva said:

If I didn’t harm others, nobody will harm me.

If others are harming you at this time, it is the result of your harm to others before. Even the mosquito or ant biting us is the result of past karma, when we harmed others. It’s all caused by us.

Most people, except those who know precious Dharma and karma, when harmed by others they will harm them back even more. But if we harm back, that means we are again creating the karma, the cause, and then next time, in the next life we will suffer again. It goes on forever like that, without end. We will always suffer. Therefore, the best solution is to not harm back and to practice patience, tolerance and compassion. Wow, wow, wow! Practice bodhicitta. Wow, wow, wow!

Also, because of harming us, they get reborn in the hell realms, so that’s caused by us. That’s the way to develop compassion, instead of anger, instead of harming back. Whatever is of help to them, at least you can dedicate your merits and recite OM MANI PADME HUM for other people to not be reborn in hell, to not suffer.

Overall, everything comes from our mind. Hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, happiness, suffering—everything comes from our mind. Our world comes from our mind. That’s the basic idea in Buddhism. By knowing that, you can see that you have unbelievable freedom. By changing your mind, you can stop the suffering and gain happiness, even enlightenment, peerless happiness. Not only to be free from samsara.

You can keep this letter and read it again and again, from time to time. This is so good for you to read it again and again. For years and years, it will bring so much happiness in your life, to you and your family. If you have happiness, you can give happiness to others.

Thank you very much.

The purpose of me meeting you and understanding your problem, or your incredible freedom, is so that I can discuss it with you. I am so happy.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling daughter,

How are you now? Try to think of this advice.

The great enlightened Tibetan lama, Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyältsen said:

[LC 96] Even if the environment and beings are filled with the fruits of negative karma,
And unwished for sufferings pour down like rain,
I seek your blessings to take these miserable conditions as a path
By seeing them as causes to exhaust the results of my negative karma.

So use the sickness for your practice by thinking in this way. This means your illness is very positive. What you need is to finish your past karma so that you don’t have to experience the suffering results [in the future].

Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung advised:

By experiencing this small suffering now
It finishes my past negative karma
And there will be happiness in the future.
Therefore, be happy with these sufferings.

Then in the near future your life will be like the sun shining, with incredible happiness. Great success will happen.

With much love and prayers ...

I’m very, very sorry that you have experienced so much unhappiness and disturbance. Generally in the world it sometimes happens that when someone does even the best thing, for some people that best thing appears to them as negative. It appears negative and they interpret it as negative, and then that is how it appears to them. Because they interpreted it as negative, it appears as negative. Then when someone else does a really bad thing, some people interpret it as positive. They think it is very good. After they interpreted it like that, it appeared that way. It is normal knowledge that whatever appears, it came from one’s own mind. It depends on how one interprets it or how one labels it, whether one puts a positive or negative label on it. Like that, it came from one’s own mind; the appearance is created by one’s own mind.

In the Dhammapada Buddha said, “All phenomena are created by the mind. The mind is principal and goes before.” This means that the mind goes before actions of body, speech, and mind. “For example, if with a good heart one speaks to someone, the result, happiness, arises; for example, like a shadow follows the body.” In the daytime, wherever the body goes, the shadow follows, and, like that, from a virtuous action, the result, happiness, arises.

Then, in the Dhammapada Buddha said, “Phenomena are created by the mind. Mind is principal and goes before. If by carrying a bad heart, one talks to someone, suffering arises; for example, like a cart follows after an ox.” An ox, no matter how cold or hot the weather is, has to pull the heavy cart until it can’t stand up. Like that, all the actions done with a bad motivation become negative, and then the result, suffering, arises.

“That karma should be known. If you ignore the Buddha’s teachings on karma, you are lost. You are not in the truth.” This is not talking about ultimate truth or emptiness, tong pa nyi, but about conventional truth. If you are away from the Buddha’s teachings, the essential teaching on karma, you are not in the truth. Therefore, you really have to pay attention to karma, especially if you think of yourself as a Buddhist. That is very important. It is so important.

In short, in Buddhism when it is explained how everything is created by the mind, one way is that even right now the way things appear to you, as negative or positive, depends on whether you interpret it in a negative or a positive way; it depends on what label you put on it. Like that, all the appearances of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangible objects depend on the positive or negative label one puts on them at the beginning. However, when one tries to find them, what appears to oneself is merely imputed by one’s own mind. Therefore, they come from one’s own mind.

The other way in which everything is created by the mind is that it came from past karma. If one treated others badly in the past, that karma has a result. If that karma is not purified and oneself, an ordinary being, hasn’t actualized the path, the result happens. This result is the same as the result of the first explanation, but here the explanation is about how the result is connected to a past karma—because one treated others badly in the past, this karma appeared at this time. This is the long-term result. Therefore, what happened to one now is a result of one’s own karma. It was created by one’s own mind—the self-cherishing thought or one of the three poisonous minds, such as attachment, that arose in the past.

That is why Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said in his teaching, Seven-Point Thought Transformation, “Put all the blame to one.” That “one” is the self-cherishing thought. And then he said, “Toward others, meditate on kindness. It is not only something Geshe Chekawa said because what he said is based on the Buddha’s teachings, on the Buddha’s advice.

That is why the Buddha said,

Do not commit any unwholesome actions.
Engage in perfect wholesome actions.
Subdue one’s own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

The very essence of the Buddha’s teachings is that practicing Dharma or practicing meditation means subduing one’s own mind. It is not just about learning the words and putting many subjects into the brain, like inputting information into a computer. “Subdue one’s own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha,” is not like that. Practicing Buddhism is about subduing one’s own mind. That is the very essence of the practice of Buddhism.

Also the great bodhisattva Shantideva said, “If one didn’t give harm in this way in the past”—“in the past” is added here to make it more clear—“nobody will harm you at this time.” Shantideva said that in Bodhicaryavatara on the basis of the Buddha’s teachings. Then following those words, it says, “Because in the past I gave such harm, I deserve to receive harm from others.” [Bodhicaryavatara, 6:42]

The Buddha said this. The self-cherishing thought thinks, “I can kill them. I can harm and cheat them. I can do anything to others but nobody can get angry at me and nobody can harm me.” That thought is the selfish mind, which is like a totally negative dictator. There is no logic in the self-cherishing thought, which is what thinks, “I want” or “I don’t want.”

Also Shantideva mentioned, “My karma persuaded them, therefore I receive this harm.” Because you harmed a sentient being, they harm you. Then, “So didn’t I make that sentient being get lost in the hole of the hell?” [Bodhicaryavatara, 6:47] Who caused that person to give harm to you? You caused it—because in the past you harmed that being, now that person is harming you. Then their harming you causes the person, who is now in the human realm, to no longer be a human being and to be born in the hole of the hell.

Thinking like this is a way to develop compassion. Instead of being angry and wanting revenge, you generate compassion and the wish to help the other being as much as you can. You can even pray for them to have a peaceful mind and virtuous thoughts, to stop creating negative karmas and do only virtuous actions, and to generate bodhicitta and achieve enlightenment. You can even recite OM MANI PADME HUM to benefit that person back. At least do like that.

Yes, of course, there need to be strict rules and in a country, but in your case you still need to subdue your own mind; that means you need to pacify the three poisonous minds, attachment to this life, and the self-cherishing thought because all your sufferings come from them. All your sufferings are caused by them. That is why probably only Buddhism says, “Subdue one’s own mind.” If practiced properly, Buddhism subdues one’s own mind.

For example, the Hindu founders complained about Buddha because he drank milk and then the cow babies didn’t get milk. If Buddha has mistakes, that means Buddha is not enlightened. So if he has mistakes, that means you have to come down and say that Buddha is not even an arhat, one who is free from samsara, but has the three poisonous minds, besides self-cherishing thought. Then coming down even more: he is not even an arya being. Then coming down even more, he is an ordinary being, like us. So then it means that no one is enlightened. There is no one who is enlightened; it comes down to that conclusion.

Like Buddha, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is criticized by some Chinese who say that he is the most evil being on Earth. They always complain about His Holiness and advertise His Holiness as being totally crazy. Those people regard themselves as much better than His Holiness, and regard His Holiness as very low. It is not like that at all. Most people in the world highly praise His Holiness, not only as a religious person or an expert in the culture of Buddhism, but as a very practical and modern person. It is unbelievable how he can relate to modern people. For this reason most people highly respect him, even those who are not Buddhists.

Also His Holiness was predicted by Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, who said that Tibet is a special object to be subdued by Chenrezig, the compassion buddha. It says this in the sutra White Lotus. “When the Buddha was in Milk Park,” that means in India. “From the Buddha’s dzö pu, treasure hair.” This is a white curled hair here [in the center of the forehead], the length of an arm. “Five-colored beams were emitted from that and went to the northern side.” Tibet is the northern side. “Then, looking at that side, he smiled.”

“Then, Bodhisattva Eliminating Obscurations requested the Buddha, ‘Please explain the causes and conditions of that.’” Then, the Buddha said to the bodhisattva, “Son of the race, in the place of those to be subdued, who were not subdued by the past, present, and future buddhas, which is an outlying country filled with hungry ghosts and cannibals, in the future the holy Dharma, like the sun rising, will happen and will spread and the sentient beings there will be led to liberation and enlightenment. Who will subdue the outlying country is Arya Compassionate Looking One, Avalokiteshvara. Why is that? It is because in the past Arya Avalokiteshvara, when he was doing the bodhisattva deeds, made a prayer in the presence of one thousand buddhas. In the place where the past, present, and future buddhas didn’t put their feet, an outlying country, may I bring those sentient beings who are also objects to be subdued in the path to great liberation, the path to enlightenment.” This is the first prayer.

The second prayer is: “Also in that outlying country, may I be the one to subdue those sentient beings.” It is the same prayer. The third prayer is: “May all holy Dharma taught by the three-time tathagatas spread and increase in that outlying country.” The fourth one is: “May all those sentient beings who hear the names of the Three Rare Sublime Ones and go for refuge to them achieve the bodies of happy transmigratory beings and enjoy the holy Dharma.”

In the sutra Dzama Do it says, “When the Buddha was passing away, the surrounding bodhisattvas requested him, ‘In the northern side country, the Snow Land, where the Buddha didn’t put his holy feet and didn’t give teachings, please abide for those sentient beings.’ The Buddha said, ‘Now the sentient beings who are objects to be subdued in India, Tibet, and so forth are finished. Since there are no sentient beings who are to be subdued directly by the Buddha, for the lazy ones to pursue the holy Dharma and to eliminate the wrong concept of permanence, I will show passing away into the sorrowless state.’” The Buddha said that. I just mention that sutra by the way.

“At the moment the sentient beings in the Snow Land, the country of Tibet, are all animals.” There are no human beings at the moment. “And of all those who die, there is no sentient being who goes to the upper realms. All, like snowfall on the ocean, go to the lower realms. In the future when my teaching in India sets, at that time, for you, the bodhisattva, those sentient beings who are in the Snow Land of Tibet will be your objects to be subdued. At the beginning, the bodhisattva will manifest and then spread out to human transmigratory beings. Then he will draw them with miscellaneous charity of food and so forth. Then, afterwards he will draw them with the holy Dharma. Then he will do work for sentient beings.”

At that time, that is His Holiness as Chenrezig, either the Four-Arm or Thousand-Arm Chenrezig that we visualize. At the moment we can’t see Chenrezig; we can only visualize him. That which we can see is a human form. For us who have a very obscured mind, he appears in a human form showing birth, sickness, and death. He appears in a very ordinary form because our mind is ordinary. Those who are enlightened, who have completed the path through listening, reflecting, and meditating correctly, can see His Holiness as oneness with Chenrezig. Not only that, they see him as oneness with all the buddhas. Those who are not enlightened but are arya bodhisattvas also see His Holiness as a buddha. Even ordinary bodhisattvas can see His Holiness as a buddha. Then, even very ordinary beings who haven’t generated renunciation, bodhicitta, or right view but have a realization of correctly following the virtuous friend see His Holiness as the numberless past buddhas, present buddhas, future buddhas, and they see every single action he does as all the buddhas’ actions. Many ordinary sentient beings can see or realize that. However, of course, those whose minds are unbelievably obscured, totally foggy, like nighttime without any stars, and have no luck, see His Holiness as an evil being. So also in this case it is the same thing—whatever appears is created by one’s own mind.

In this regard, Madhyamaka philosophy, when explaining in general about karma, lendre, cause and effect, says that a bowl of liquid appears to the buddhas as the most pure nectar, the highest nectar. Because a buddha has totally ceased the disturbing thought obscurations and the subtle obscurations (the negative imprints left by the ignorance holding to true existence), a buddha does not have a dualistic view and a dualistic mind. Even though that liquid also appears as nectar for the suras, it is not the same as the nectar for the buddhas. However, it is still nectar for them. For human beings, the liquid in the bowl appears as water. It appears to pretas, who don’t even have the karma to see water, as pus and blood. In terms of karma, that things come from your mind is an extremely important subject. How you see things comes from your mind. Therefore, as I mentioned already, you created it by your own mind. So please understand this. If you are a Buddhist, this is the most important basic thing to understand.

In the past others cheated us and gave us problems, and then we used this experience to practice. We did not take revenge and we did not get angry at them. We even highly appreciated the people who cheated us or who caused us troubles. Even though we didn’t do that right at the beginning, later we realized how those people who treated us badly are so kind, just as we had thought at the beginning. So later on we saw those people as having the most inexpressible kindness.

Thank you. Thank you very much for understanding.