My most dear one,
This advice is for the person who is having the court case. I’m sorry this letter has taken so long.

There are two things he needs to do to win the court case. There’s prayer and he also needs to do Kurukulla practice, but he may not have received a great initiation. If he has received a great initiation, then it would make it easier. I don’t know, but you can check. If he has not received a great initiation, then he cannot visualize himself as Kurukulla but he can visualize the deity in front and make strong requests and recite many mantras every day.

I also want to ask him to please do the morning practice, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness, the morning motivation, receiving blessings of body, speech and mind and blessing the mala. You can send a mala to him if it’s allowed. I’m not sure if it’s allowed in prison.

It is very important for him to practice Kurukulla. Normally there’s a long Chenrezig mantra, the longest one, and if prisoners recite that a lot and really take refuge in Thousand-arm Chenrezig then they get out of prison. Normally the longest Chenrezig mantra has that benefit, but for him that didn’t come out. So in the morning he should do this prayer and meditation. That’s the best. It will help very much.

Then being in the prison becomes the happiest thing for sentient beings, to experience that for sentient beings. That becomes the best thing. It’s the greatest happiness if you can understand that.

He can also recite the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha name and mantra:

LA MA TÖN PA CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHA KYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To Guru, Teacher, Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Glorious Conqueror Shakyamuni, I prostrate.

TADYATHĀ OṂ MUNE MUNE MAHĀ MUNAYE SVĀHĀ

He should know that there are the two things. He can recite it in Tibetan, that is the correct one, or in English. It doesn’t matter which language. That’s very important.

Do you know how much negative karma it purifies? It’s unbelievable, more than Vajrasattva. You should know that, as it is so important when helping people. I think 80,000 billion eons of negative karma get purified, but I have to check. It could be more than that. You should know this very well, because it can help many people. Just reciting this name and mantra one time purifies more than Vajrasattva, according to the Kangyur. In the Nyingma Monlam prayer book it is said, but it is missing one thousand. That’s so important, but usually people don’t know that.

What looks like prison to common people is actually like being in retreat. It looks like an unpleasant place but for a Dharma practitioner, it’s like being in retreat. It’s exactly the same as being in retreat. We don’t see other people when we’re in retreat and we are very isolated. It is exactly the same. It just depends on the name. The physical part is the same, but of course, retreat is more than that. We are retreating from attachment to this life, from the eight worldly dharmas, from that which brings all the problems. Attachment brings all the hundreds, thousands, millions of problems of this life and it also brings the future lives’ sufferings. Wow, wow, wow! So understand that in retreat we are retreating away from attachment. We’re renouncing attachment because we don’t like suffering. This is the first thing.

The second thing, we don’t follow attachment to the future lives’ sufferings. From that, so much suffering of samsara arises for us. The very root is ignorance, holding the I as real while it is not. I’m not saying there is no I. There is I and there is action. We create the cause of samsara and nirvana—liberation from samsara, cyclic existence, and its suffering nature. We create the cause of everlasting happiness, enlightenment, and we create the cause of hell. We create the cause of our problems every day and we create the cause of happiness every day. The I exists because there’s the action of I and there’s our experience of enlightenment, hell, samsara and nirvana, happiness and problems, every day.

How is it possible if there is no I, but there’s the action and the experience? How is it possible? There is I, but of course, it is so subtle, existing only in mere name. It’s like it doesn’t exist. By retreating away from that, our meditation becomes the antidote to samsara instead of the cause of samsara. It frees us from the oceans of suffering of samsara.

We are also retreating away from the self-cherishing thought, which brings all the obstacles. If we follow the self-cherishing thought, it harms us and harms all sentient beings, as it has done from beginningless rebirths, now and continuously in the future. We are retreating from that.

That’s incredible, these last two things. This is excellent and the most important retreat. This is without talking about tantra. In tantra we retreat away from impure appearance and impure concept. This is still basic tantra, without talking about the practice of completion stage, the retreat from impure wind and mind.

Compared to the real prison, this ordinary prison is nothing. It is nothing. The real prison is attachment, from where all the problems and sufferings arise. Attachment to the future lives’ samsara and ignorance holding the I as real, which is the root of the oceans of suffering of samsara. This is the biggest prison.

The self-cherishing thought is another prison, as is impure appearance and concept, and impure wind and mind. What ordinary people call prison is nothing.

Compared to the real prison [of samsara], as I have explained, this ordinary prison is not a real prison. Actually, for a Dharma practitioner, a meditator, these are the best circumstances for retreat and for meditation. We can utilize the unfavourable conditions on the path to achieving buddhahood, the total cessation of gross and subtle obscurations, and the completion of realizations, by experiencing those conditions on behalf of every single sentient being—the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asura beings and numberless sura and intermediate state beings. We can use these conditions, which are most beneficial and useful, not only for ourselves but for every sentient being. We can practice the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta, [wishing] to free the sentient beings from suffering. We can receive all their suffering of being in the prison [of samsara] and experience it for them, so they can be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and achieve enlightenment.

Also, he should do what’s called the Black Court Case, which I have translated into English. [See The Exalted Mahayana Sutra Called ''Pacifier of Black Court Cases''.] It’s a short practice which has now been is translated into English.

If he hasn’t received a great initiation, then he can’t visualize himself as Kurukulla. Without doubt, totally take refuge, then request to be out of prison and not only that, to receive total control over those people who put him in prison, so they are happy to set him free. Visualize Kurukulla, filled with compassion and loving kindness, sending red beams to them and totally transforming their minds into positivity and totally freeing him from prison right away. He can make very strong prayers and recite the mantra many times every day.

In relation to himself, beams are emitted from Kurukulla, purifying his negative karma and all the defilements collected from beginningless rebirths, from where this karma to be in prison came. Visualize that everything he wants purified is totally purified.

With that meditation, then recite [the mantra], not only for himself but also for all those people who put him in prison, purifying all their negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths. Of course, at the end think all sentient beings are purified of all the negative karma and defilements collected from beginningless rebirths, from where all the suffering arises. Think their negative karma is totally purified. He can do this every day. This is very, very good.

At the end he receives the blessings and all the qualities of the holy body, holy speech and holy mind of Kurukulla within him. Kurukulla melts into red light and absorbs into him and blesses his body, speech and mind. This is on the basis of not having received a great initiation.

At the end, dedicate the merit:

“Due to the merits collected in the past, present and future by me and by other sentient beings in the three times and numberless buddhas in the three times, due to all these merits, may bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart and the source of enlightenment, buddhahood, be generated within me, in the hearts of all the prisoners and all those who put the people in prison and in the minds of all sentient beings. For those who have generated bodhicitta, may it be increased.”

Then dedicate like this,

“Due to the merits collected in the past, present and future by me, who exists in mere name, that exist but it’s like they don’t exist, and the past, present and future merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, also existing but it’s like they don’t exist, so subtle, existing in mere name, may the I, who exists but it’s like it doesn’t exist, existing only in mere name, achieve buddhahood, the state of omniscience, which exists but it’s like it doesn’t exist, so subtle, existing in mere name, and lead all the sentient beings who exist but in reality, it’s like they don’t exist because they exist only in mere name, to that enlightenment which exists in mere name, by myself, who exists in mere name.”

Give him a picture of Kurukulla so he can visualize the deity and know that this is an enlightened being, free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and free from all the defilements, both gross and subtle. Kurukulla has completed all the realizations and has omniscience, perfect power to help sentient beings and compassion embracing all sentient beings.

That’s it.

With love and prayers ...