Help for Drug Addicted Son

Help for Drug Addicted Son

Date of Advice:
June 2018
Date Posted:
February 2021

A student wrote about her twenty-year-old son, who had become depressed and addicted to drugs. After overdosing he tried to stop using drugs, but later relapsed and eventually went to a rehab clinic, where he was feeling physically and mentally unwell. He was a Buddhist and had taken refuge and lay vows, which he was unable to keep.

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

I checked and you need to take the inner offering pill twice a day for eight weeks.

You should do Vajrasattva practice and recite the long mantra 200,000 times. If you can do this in retreat, or some parts that would be very good.

To begin with, in the sessions read lamrim and at the beginning generate bodhicitta motivation. First read Calling the Guru from Afar by Pabongka Rinpoche. In the next session recite the Foundation of All Good Qualities, then in the next session the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, then Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymn of Experience. In the next session recite the short Calling the Guru from Afar.

In the evening time dedicate the merits by reciting the King of Prayers. You can add other prayers and do different ones, for example, one time you could recite the Prayer for the Beginning, Middle and End of Practice, by Lama Tsongkhapa, or the prayer from the Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, or on another night do the Prayer to Be Reborn in the Land of Bliss. You can find these prayers in the Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead. So do different prayers like that and if you want to you can do protector prayers, otherwise just recite whatever you feel to do of the protector prayers. At the end, do the prayer For Lama Tsongkhapa’s Teachings to Spread in the Hearts of All Sentient Beings, or the Final Lamrim Dedication at the very end.

Of course, every session must dedicate the merits by sealing with emptiness:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may bodhicitta, the source of all happiness and success for all sentient beings, be generated in the hearts of all the sentient beings of the six realms, and especially in the hearts of everybody in this world, especially those in your country and particularly your family and then yourself, as well as all the students, center benefactors, and volunteers in the FPMT organization. May it be generated in the hearts of all those who rely upon me, all those for whom I have promised to pray, and all those whose names have been given to me. May it be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all my family members, those who are living and those who have died. May the bodhicitta that has already been generated increase.

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by the numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, which are completely empty of existing from their own side, may I, who am completely empty of existing from my own side, achieve the state of full enlightenment, which is completely empty of existing from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are completely empty of existing from their own side, to that state, which is completely empty of existing from its own side, by myself alone, who is completely empty of existing from my own side.

So please follow this advice.

With much love and prayers ...