My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Just as you helped the dog by reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra, you should continue this healing for people and animals. With full faith, you can totally leave it in the hands of Medicine Buddha. 

I remember at Root Institute in India, when I was there to give teachings, on the road outside the building there were some people from Singapore, and one person had some danger that they would go to prison or some other threat. When they asked me to help, I left it in the hands of Medicine Buddha, then in the next day or so that person was freed.

Anyway, you should continue with Medicine Buddha practice every day, reciting the names seven times. The short version of this is the Medicine Buddha Sadhana and there’s another practice, the middle-length Medicine Buddha puja, called The Wish-fulfilling Jewel. At the centers they do this. We also have the most extensive one, which is most inspiring. The dedication is done for every sentient being; it’s so good. [You can find links to these practices in the FPMT Catalogue.]

There’s also a new Medicine Buddha practice that I wrote, for daily practice. You could also do that. It has so much power to help others and to purify us, to purify our negative karma and obscurations collected from beginningless time, but most importantly, it brings the success of all our wishes. Don’t think it’s only for healing—no, it’s for success and it’s very powerful.

Medicine Buddha is from sutra. The more time passes and becomes more degenerate, then Medicine Buddha is more powerful for bringing success. And from the tantra side, Heruka is more powerful for bringing success, according to Pabongkha Dechen Nyingpo, who is Heruka.

I’m not a qualified guru, but I can try to do what I can to be your teacher. It’s very good that you met the nun, as she’s helping many people in Sri Lanka with the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, and also maybe with Medicine Buddha practice.

Below are your lifetime practices. A main lamrim text for you to study, according to my observation, is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Buddha taught the 84,000 teachings, which are condensed into three: the Lesser Vehicle path, the Greater Vehicle path of sutra and the Greater Vehicle path of tantra. These are all embodied in the lamrim.

In Tibet, when Buddhism was so degenerated, there were many misconceptions about tantra, and at that time Lama Atisha was invited to revive Buddhism. After Lama Atisha heard about all the problems there he wrote the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. So the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, started from that time. It canceled all the wrong concepts about the practice of holy Dharma, all the misconceptions about tantra, about both the Lesser Vehicle and Greater Vehicle sutra and tantra. All these are for our graduated practice to achieve enlightenment, our enlightenment.

There are many commentaries on Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and on the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. For example, Lama Tsongkhapa wrote The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lamrim Chenmo), the Middle-Length Lamrim, and the very short Hymn of Experience. Then there’s the shortest one, Three Principal Aspects of the Path. I’m just talking here about Lama Tsongkhapa.

The main thing is that the essence of all Dharma is contained inside [these lamrim texts.] For you, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand becomes your main text, and you should study this four times from beginning to end, reading it mindfully so that it becomes a meditation.

The whole aim is to actualize the lamrim path that will lead you to enlightenment in order to free the numberless sentient beings from samsara, for you to actualize the path and bring them to enlightenment.

Your main deity practice according to my observation is Kalachakra, Secret Vajrapani and Most Secret Hayagriva. For you, Most Secret Hayagriva comes out as the main deity, but you can take those other initiations when the time and opportunity comes, and then do retreat and become closer to enlightenment.

Please read my advice on why we should practice Highest Yoga Tantra, remembering that the whole point is to lead sentient beings to enlightenment as quickly as possible. To free them from samsara and lead them to enlightenment as quickly as possible is the main point, the ultimate point, the ultimate aim.

In terms of effortful practice, please follow the lamrim outline. Read my advice on how to meditate on correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, then meditate on the graduated path of the lower capable being and middle capable being. Spend two months on bodhicitta, breaking it up into weeks. In the first week, meditate on the extensive, most precious kindness of sentient beings, equalizing and exchanging oneself and others. In the second week, meditate on the seven points of Mahayana cause and effect.

All our happiness, the protection of our body, our comfort, having a house, all comes from the kindness of sentient beings, who have suffered or died, and created negative karma for us. All the happiness of eating food, having this comfort, and even surviving each hour, minute and second is due to the kindness of those numberless sentient beings who suffered, who created negative karma for us. Humans created negative karma; they harmed or killed others, all that.

For our clothes, our dresses, besides the skins and animal products, numberless sentient beings died, were killed, and people created negative karma. All our happiness is received by the sentient beings’ kindness. So that’s the third week. 

After that, spend three months on emptiness to complete the cycle one time. Then do effortless meditation.

In terms of preliminaries:

• Four immeasurable thoughts: 80,000.
• Most Secret Hayagriva tsa tsas: 30,000. The tsa tsa is what you print, the deity or buddha figure, that’s what a tsa tsa is. At Nalanda Monastery they might have one small, very nice one made by Peter.
• Prostrations by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas: 600,000. This is an extremely powerful purification of Lama Tsongkhapa, who did so many hundreds of thousands of prostrations while reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas. So many rainfalls of realizations came after reciting that.

Prostrations while reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas is Lama Tsongkhapa’s lineage, and the lineage lamas regarded it as great protection, and because of that, they did so many each day, hundreds. Many practitioners do five hundred, a thousand or any number, and not just as a preliminary practice, but for purification. In everyday life when you have time it’s extremely good to do this, so aim to do like this, then your life becomes so beneficial for sentient beings, not only for yourself. Of course, it should be done with bodhicitta to benefit every sentient being, to free them from samsara and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. To free sentient beings from samsara means to free them from samsaric sufferings.

• Mandala offerings: 110,000. This is a way of collecting extensive merits with each mandala. The offering of each mandala helps you to have quick realizations, for quick enlightenment in order to help the sentient beings.
• Recite OM MANI PADME HUM. This should be one of your main practices. You can recite the mantra even when you’re walking or jogging, doing it as the Tibetans do. In Solu Khumbu, where I was born, they recite the mantra while turning a prayer wheel in one hand as they go to different places.

Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM is so good for us. Then all the heavy negative karmas collected from beginningless lifetimes are purified and we collect extensive merit. Even without bodhicitta, even if we recite the mantra one time, it purifies the heavy negative karmas of killing a human being, lying, telling lies about realizations that we don’t have, stealing things from others, and sexual misconduct. So those things are purified. Even by reciting the mantra one time our negative karma is purified.

• Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time purifies the four defeats of a fully ordained monk and the five heavy negative karmas without break.
• Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM seven times purifies 100 eons of negative karma.
• Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM twenty-one times purifies 1,000 eons of negative karma.
• Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM 108 times (one mala) purifies 40,000 eons of negative karma.

Reciting the mantra in an animal’s ears causes them to not be reborn in the lower realms. Also, reciting the mantra helps us to develop compassion, particularly for the sentient beings. Regarding the merit, even without bodhicitta, we collect merit more than the atoms, the sand grains in the Pacific Ocean, more than the grass on the mountains, more than the drops of water in the ocean. It’s unbelievable. The merit is like the sky.

Of course, with bodhicitta we collect unbelievable, unbelievable merit. Specifically, we generate compassion for all the sentient beings, so the stronger the compassion that is generated, the quicker we achieve enlightenment. Relying on compassion is so important in order for the sentient beings to achieve enlightenment.

Each year do nyung nä, whatever you can. By joining a group, you can learn how to do the practice, then you can do it by yourself, and with that knowledge you can also lead others, guide others.

Thank you very much for your great energy. I’m so happy. You are most welcome to enlightenment and goodbye to samsara. If there are some other important things you want to ask me, I will try to answer.

As a reminder, it’s very important to also do the morning motivation, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness.

With much love and prayers ...