When the Guru Manifests Illness

My dear one, 
That is so good you made that prayer at the stupa. There is old student, a French lady who I often meet in Bodhgaya. She told me a few times that if there are obstacles to my life she would take them and die, instead of me dying. She said that very sincerely. That is a rare prayer, as a practice. It is the most important prayer and it pleases the brave warrior bodhisattvas.

All sentient beings’ suffering and the cause of suffering, the conditions, any undesirable things, you take on your own self-cherishing thought, which has been causing all the suffering of samsara, the six realms. It is very good to remember the outlines of suffering in the lamrim and from your experience. What you discover is that from beginningless rebirths, again, it is endless.

This is what makes us suffer, because it not only totally block us from achieving full enlightenment for numberless sentient beings, it also harms them. [We need] to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and lead them to full enlightenment, so they receive the dharmakaya. So I highly rejoice.

Thank you, billions and zillions from my heart, especially for taking the sufferings, the undesirable things, what your enemy suffers. That is so good. You say you made prayers so that my obstacles of life may be ripened on you and you got very sick after that.

I have advised this, and I highly rejoice. Thank you billions and zillions.

With love and prayers ...

My wish-fulfilling family,

It was unbelievably kind of you to send me the Padmasambhava thangka, with the special painting and special color and Bhutanese art. I wanted very much to translate these benefits that explain what we receive every second when we look at thangkas. The unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merits, equal to ten million eons of having made offerings, praises etc., to the arhats, bodhisattvas and buddhas equaling the number of sand grains of the river Ganga. Here we get more merit than that just by looking at the thangka. I thought to translate this and send it to you, maybe when I was in Australia, a long, long time ago, but it didn’t happen until now.

I hope everyone is well there—father, mother and everybody. I saw the pictures of the Buddha that was recently built in Bhutan, that is 169 feet tall. It was made in China and brought to Bhutan through India. That Buddha makes the country very, very fortunate, unbelievably fortunate, most fortunate, by creating the cause for people to collect unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable good karma and also as the statue is so large then more people will come to see it.

I am still in Nepal. I did ten days of acupuncture and now I am receiving massage from one nun from Singapore. She was one of the top ten masseurs in Singapore. I was told massage is very important, the first thing, and then exercise, so I have one Nepalese physiotherapist who comes to see me and I also do other exercise.

I am much better than when I was in the hospital, but I still [have difficulties with] my speech, my right hand and right leg. The stroke hasn’t gone away completely, so I still have difficulties but I am much, much, much better than in the hospital.

Thank you very, very much for every single thing, for generating the positive wishes and prayers and for spending money and making offerings and all that you did. Thank you very, very much for all the things you did.

In the Buddha’s teachings it is mentioned in the outline of karma, that karma is definite. Once virtue or nonvirtue is created, it is definite it will bring the result of suffering or happiness if it is not purified before. We will have to experience the result if it is not purified.

Then it is mentioned that karma is increasing. This means that once karma is created, the result will increase, much more than the result of a seed that increases into a plant. That amount of increasing is nothing compared to one seed of karma that is created—whether virtuous or nonvirtuous—and what the result will be, happiness or suffering.

Also, you will never experience the result of karma if it is not created. Karma that is not purified, however many billions or trillions or numberless trillions of eons it takes, we will have to experience the result. We will definitely experience the result if the karma is not purified. If it is good karma then we experience the result of that as long as it has not already been destroyed by anger, heresy and so forth. The result of karma never gets lost and we are definitely going to experience it, however long it takes, even if it takes numberless trillions of eons.

What I am experiencing now is according to my karma, so this is a great teaching. My experiencing this now is a great teaching.

I don’t think I mentioned to you before that His Holiness the Dalai Lama and my gurus made prayers for me, and in many monasteries and nunneries many thousands or hundreds of monks and nuns made prayers and pujas. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Then all the centers, all the students individually and together all over the world and even in Tibet.

Also ten million animals were liberated just during this period. This is not mentioning all the previous animal liberations. Already in the past the center in Singapore has liberated over 140 million lives, and in Tibet people have liberated over 975 yaks, goats and sheep, and have recited the Guru Rinpoche mantra one billon times. Many other prayers and mantras have also been done.

In Tsum, which is a very remote area near Tibet, the Rachen nuns and Mu monks have committed to do the following:

• Extensive Four Mandala Offerings to Cittamani Tara puja, to be done daily for one year by over two hundred Tsum Sangha
• Eight full sets of nyung nä retreat, on Saka Dawa
• One million Guru Rinpoche mantras
• Recitation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra, the Long-life Sutra and the Long-life Deity mantra, to be done daily for one whole year by the Tsum Sangha
• Vajrayogini self-initiation and Vajrayogini long-life retreat practices, to be done on the tenth and twenty-fifth of every month for one year.

[You can read more details here of the collective prayers.]

My sickness has become an incredible way for so many sentient beings to collect merit to make their life meaningful.

This is news for my dear family. Please rejoice in all these people all over the world, in all the merit.

With much love and prayers ...

My dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. My thoughts are not very positive, but are like water, however, here I try to think that I am experiencing the shortcomings of my self-cherishing thought, the karma of that.

If my mind is good and practicing strongly, then this experience is an incredible opportunity to achieve enlightenment quickly for sentient beings, by taking their suffering—particularly those who have diabetes, high blood pressure and paralysis—to quickly to remove their suffering, every second, to remove their suffering from beginningless rebirth.

Each time, thinking like this, many eons, limitless skies of merit are collected. This creates the cause of enlightenment and brings more and more benefit for numberless sentient beings. If my mind is good, then I can practice and there is benefit. So it can be very, very positive, incredibly positive, the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

I am offering my sickness to the cause of the one object of refuge, for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to have a long life, even one day of longer life. Then for the long life of all the holy beings in the world, those who benefit others, and for the long life of the Sangha who preserve the Buddhadharma and for the benefactors. Then for the long life of any person who recites OM MANI PADME HUM and for the long life for those who do good things for others, and the long life for those who practice morality.

But my mind is like water, so weak. Not solid like iron rock. But I try to think like this.

Thank you very much your kind letter and wishes for me to get better.

With much love and prayers...

So I guess you know I didn’t take care of my daily exercise well—I didn’t get to do daily walking and so forth. I was very weak, so then I think my self-cherishing thought went up, then paralysis happened. The doctors all think that I'm getting better and I am past danger. They all think I will get better soon.

I try to think a little bit that I am receiving the suffering, experiencing the suffering, of all sentient beings, especially those who suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes and paralysis. I pray to try to do that, so it is an incredible opportunity. Of course when I do that it purifies many, many, many, many eons of negative karma.

Wow, can you imagine? Wow, wow, it’s so incredible. It is the quickest path to enlightenment.

In hospital I try to practice taking the past, present and future merits and dedicating to any people who come into my room or to this hospital, or who came into the hospital before—any sick people who come into this room from now on, may they immediately recover from their sickness. Then any person who sits on my bed [in the hospital] from now on, may they immediately recover from their sickness, or if they die, may they never, ever be born in the lower realms; may they be reborn in Buddha’s pure land. I try to pray like this a few times a day. It is so wonderful, so positive, to bring benefit here, so I want to pray that anybody who dies in this hospital is not reborn in the lower realms, gets a higher rebirth, meets the Dharma, is reborn in the Buddha’s pure land or recovers from their sickness. I try to pray like this. I try to do what I can.

Usually I try to do 10,000 OM MANI PADME HUM mantras each day, but I increased this year to 20,000 a day. I also turn the prayer wheel. There is very, very, very long mantra that I try to do three times, then the middle one, then OM MANI PADME HUM. I recite one mala of the middle or long mantra. The benefits of reciting this mantra one time are that if you have broken the four defeats of a gelong, a bhikshu, that is purified. Then also the five heavy negative karmas—killing one’s father or mother, killing an arhat, drawing blood from a buddha, or causing disunity in the Sangha—causing you to be born in the lowest hot hell, and to experience the heaviest suffering in samsara for the longest time, so this gets purified, if you recite it one time. You can recite it 21 times. Normally I recite it when I turn the prayer wheel. It purifies 100 eons of negative karma. One mala purifies 40,000 eons of negative karma. If you recite it seven times or five times, I don’t remember the unbelievable benefits. If you recite one mala of OM NAMO RATNA... not the very, very long one, which the Chinese recite. It’s very common for Chinese, but not for Tibetans; not many lamas know the longest mantra. It is in the text Mani Kumbum, The 100,000 Teachings on Mani and the unbelievable benefits of the longest mantra are inside that also. This long mantra comes from the nyung nä text.

Then I recite 20,000 OM MANI PADME HUM mantras. When I recite the mantras I turn the prayer wheel, so this [right] hand turns the prayer wheel and the [left] hand moves the mala. Today and over the last few days I didn’t get this done. Today I tried, but I can’t use this [right] hand, so I can’t turn the prayer wheel. I recited 20,000 mantras, then from time to time I turned the prayer wheel, but now I can’t do both, it’s not possible.

It’s so incredible, with your hands free you can recite and turn a prayer wheel and count mantras. Wow, wow, wow, what merits, the cause of enlightenment, with bodhicitta, incredible, unbelievable, unbelievable, with both hands free. So I realized how precious it is if you can use both hands; so precious.

Normally I do prostrations to my altar, and before [the stroke] I always prostrated with two hands to my gurus and the Buddha, to the pictures on the altar. Now I can’t use both hands, so I realized how fortunate if you can prostrate with both hands to however many photos of the guru there are. With two hands it’s so easy to get the highest success in life; it’s so easy to create the cause of enlightenment. I told the course people that they are so fortunate they can do that. I can’t do that, so I realize how precious the body is, how we can use it, how it is so precious, so precious, and so easy to create the cause of enlightenment.

Like the example of the tissue; normally I use the tissue completely—I regard this as economical—I don’t just use a little bit [a corner of it] and throw it away, wasting it. So, I realized in hospital that this is an example of how to be economical. Of course, normally sentient beings put effort, however, all the evolution, the suffering, is unbelievable.

I am the Most Fortunate Person 

Thank you very much for the Medicine Buddha pujas, and for everybody’s prayers and practice.

I am just experiencing the shortcomings of my self-cherishing mind. According to one view, I lost and it won; that is according to one view. Then according to another view this [stroke] is the best thing to achieve enlightenment, the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

Thank you very much. Here I am the most fortunate person.

The Cause of Enlightenment

It’s so unbelievable to create the cause of enlightenment, the highest success, in this life. It’s so unbelievable, unbelievable, so unbelievable, so unbelievable. Worms have a body that is long with no hands, so they can’t do prostrations. They don’t have two hands, so they can’t do prostrations. You are so fortunate to be able to create the cause of enlightenment, so fortunate.

I usually turn the prayer wheel with my right hand, while I count malas of OM MANI PADME HUM with my left hand, but I can’t do that now. Normally I do this, but now I can’t, so I asked Roger to turn the prayer wheel while I count. So now Roger has to turn the prayer wheel while I chant what I can. He turns the prayer wheel while I chant mantras. That’s what I try to do. I chant mantras and count with my left hand, but the visualization is the same.

Dedications

In this small place, which is bigger than the other place, [Rinpoche was in two hospitals] may anyone who comes into my bed [in the hospital] or into the room—may that sentient being immediately recover. May anybody who dies here never ever get reborn in the lower realms. May they immediately be reborn in Amitabha Buddha’s pure land.

Also in this hospital, may anybody who comes into this room or this bed never be reborn in the lower realms forever. Pray that they may become enlightened; may they be reborn in the pure land.

Here at the hospital everyone thinks positive. All the prayers and pujas done around the world—for example, all the Sangha at Sera Je who did pujas—hopefully they dedicated [the merit] to all the suffering sentient beings who have paralysis.

Good morning, good evening, Katie and the whole family,
Thank you very, very much. Thank you very much. This puppy represents my mind. [Rinpoche is holding a toy puppy that he kept on his bed for two months after the stroke.] Thank you very much for the flowers that arrived today. Thank you very, very much.

This is a rare opportunity to be in the hospital. I am very lazy,  but now [in hospital] I can pray to take on the suffering of all sentient beings, especially the people who have diabetes, blood pressure or paralysis, so it is an incredible opportunity.

It makes us closer to achieve enlightenment every time we think this, and it purifies so many, many eons of negative karma and defilements, and creates so many skies of merit. It is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment, but of course, my motivation is very weak and I have a lazy mind, so I can’t practice.

I realize that being in hospital I can’t lift [my arm] at the moment. [Rinpoche is unable to lift his right arm to make prostrations.] For the altar in hospital I use candles and water bowls. [Rinpoche shows altar.]

Worms don’t have any legs or hands, and their bodies are long, and I realized that they have so much unbelievable suffering. People who have two arms have the opportunity to make prostrations—it is unbelievable, most unbelievable—so it is easy to create the cause of enlightenment, the highest success of life. Wow, wow, wow. So many, many, many lifetimes of happiness; a better life. So many, many, many lifetimes of happiness and freedom from suffering—all the happiness, free from the suffering of samsara—ultimate happiness, free forever.

My very dear Stefan,
Thank you very, very, very much your news; that is really, really, really wonderful. I am sure that the dog is a manifestation of a bodhisattva in the form of a dog. To show that love to any animal is really great. This story is really, really, like nectar. Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy life with bodhicitta.

I hope you, as well as __ and the whole family, are well. Please give much love and prayers to them.

Here, Kopan is very good. Lama Lhundrup is very sick, but ordinary people in the same situation would already be dead. It is now difficult for him to walk and stand up, and he is getting weaker and weaker, but the Tibetan doctor said his eyes, urine and veins are good now, not bad, so we can see it’s not like ordinary people who are dying. It is quite an inspiration for the nurse who is caring for him. She is a student from New Zealand and she is very familiar with ordinary people in hospital who have cancer. She said normally people in the same situation would have so much suffering, but not Lama Lhundrup.

I am better than I was in the hospital; now I can move my right big toes little by little. My stroke [affected] my speech and my right side. So as time goes by, it's very interesting. This is the result of karma, and the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought.

At the moment, I have come to Nepal to receive chab-trü (blessed water) from my guru, Dhakpa Rinpoche. It is very common to do this purification. Tibetans call a stroke pollution. In the West they call it a stroke, but they only know what they can see about it. Tibetans call it pollution and they often recommend chab-trü, as well as golden needles, precious pills, etc.

I had 10 days acupuncture in Nepal from a Tibetan woman from Lhasa who is Muslim, and now I am having massage as much as possible. One nun, who used to be one of the top 10 masseurs in Singapore, is doing it. Then maybe I will go to Lhasa and China, but getting the visa and permit is difficult, so maybe I will go to Europe for Khadro-la to treat with massage and exercise. She knows exactly what is needed.

Please pass this news to __ as well. Thank you very much and I hope to see you soon. It is nice to hear something from old students sometimes. People in the world should take flights to see Jasmine (the dog), rather than spending millions of dollars to take a flight for swimming in the water to see the whales. What do you think? Isn’t that more meaningful, more beneficial for the mind? The other things are just for attachment, but this is not to do with attachment, this is to do with a good heart.

With much love and prayers...