My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your kind letter explaining everything. Just doing your commitments is unbelievable, even just [saying] the words makes it so worthwhile. By counting this as precious, following the advice that I’m your guru, following that advice, counting that as important, it’s so good, it helps very much, it’s the most important thing in your life.

I checked now and it comes out best to be around [the Dharma center], for the children to learn Dharma, to be influenced by Dharma, to develop all the qualities of a good human being—having a good character, being generous and kind, compassionate and patient, having satisfaction and contentment, having moral discipline, immediately apologizing when we’ve done some harm to others, or made some harm, and if somebody harms us to immediately forgive them, all those things.

Even if somebody doesn’t believe in reincarnation and karma, those things are unbelievably important, an unbelievable education. Otherwise we can have a very high degree from a very famous university and make a billion dollars every day, but it’s nothing, all we do is build the suffering like Mount Meru. We build a Mount Meru of suffering with the outside education we have, so it’s like that. We build up more pride, more self-cherishing thought, and attachment, anger, all these things, so the qualities of a good human being are not there, and especially Dharma.

It’s so important for your children to get Dharma as much as possible; it’s so important for their coming life. They have to start their life and your life is almost finishing. They have to start a good life and that’s in your hands. Of course, it depends on their karma, but also it depends on you. Unless they have very difficult karma, then you can’t help at that time.

Please continue your commitments. When you’re completely sick or something, at those times you don’t have the power to do them, otherwise do them as much as possible. And mainly follow the guru’s advice, then in this way it will help in all your future lives to practice guru devotion, to follow the guru’s advice correctly, and to do more and more in future lives. It’s the cause of that. You have to plan to attain enlightenment for sentient beings, so for that it is needed.

So Amitabha pure land, that’s OK. A very ordinary being can go to Amitabha pure land easily, that’s why. There are many other pure lands, like Tushita, but you need to have very pure morality to be born in Tushita pure land, Lama Tsongkhapa’s pure land with Maitreya Buddha.

Here I am sending you a picture of Amitabha. This is a thangka in my room in Kopan. If you can, frame it and always pray to that.

If you want to be born in Amitabha pure land, then you can pray every day to be born there and recite the prayer, The Array of Sukavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra. I’m also sending a picture of Amitabha. You can frame it nicely after printing it and pray to it every day. Also, I’m sending the morning motivation, the first thing to practice.

Also recite OM MANI PADME HUM as much as possible, not only during sitting meditation, but when jogging, walking or working, just as the Tibetans recite OM MANI PADME HUM all the time. Do Chenrezig meditation, praying to Chenrezig, visualizing Chenrezig above your crown purifying you. Do this as much as possible. I’m also sending you a picture of Thousand-arm Chenrezig. This is my thangka; you can also develop and frame this picture nicely and put it in your house for meditation.

When you have time, you can sit, but not with the eyes closed, and look at Chenrezig, then recite the mantra. Then [visualize] beams are emitted with skies of compassion for you and also with loving kindness, to purify the negativities and obscurations collected since beginningless rebirths.

At the beginning do it mostly for you, yourself, and then do similar meditation for numberless sentient beings in the six realms, for each of them who are numberless. If you’re going to recite one mala, then half is mainly for yourself and the other half mala is for the sentient beings, in order to purify them. If you recite two malas, one is for yourself and one is for the sentient beings, so it depends how many [mantras you recite]. Then expanding on that, if it’s 1,000 malas, 500 is for yourself and 500 is for sentient beings.

If you have received the great initiation before, visualize that you become Chenrezig, then all sentient beings become Chenrezig. Visualizing that one above Chenrezig, then absorbs to yourself and also absorbs to all sentient beings. If you have not received great initiation, then you just receive the qualities, that’s all, the qualities that Chenrezig has.

You can also read Dharma books on renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. You can read these books and while you’re reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, you can do the meditation. People do lamrim retreat like that, with OM MANI PADME HUM and different mantras. In some sessions they do that; in lamrim retreat they do like that.

Regarding the Amitabha initiation, to go to the pure land, there is a prayer to do every day, so every day you should do that. I received the initiation of Amitabha and maybe you have also received it. I received it from Sakya Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche, the guru of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, who received it from Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, the head of the Nyingmas.

So you’re praying to Amitabha; this is a request to Amitabha and Amitayus. Whenever you mention the name Amitayus or see Amitayus, each time that causes you to be born in Amitabha’s pure land. Amitabha and Amitayus both have their hands in the mudra of concentration and both are red, but Amitayus has a long-life vase. Generally, there’s the lower tantra aspect of Amitabha, a common one, but there is also a higher tantric aspect Amitabha.

There is a prayer which you have to recite every day. You can recite one mala , and at the end make the prayer: “May I be reborn in the pure land.” [See also Amitabha Pure Land Prayers.]

If you can make the request to Amitabha, to the thangka, by looking at it, that’s very good. If you are away, you can just visualize that it’s in front of you. You can visualize the largest size, like Mount Meru, or visualize a small size, it doesn’t matter, as you like. And think it’s in actuality a being, not a statue, in the nature of light, magnificent and radiating.

Then think Amitabha and Amitayus accepted your request. If you do that every day, then whenever death happens, definitely you will be guided by Amitabha, you will be born in Amitabha pure land, like the bird, the eagle flying with two wings, but do that with bodhicitta, not with the self-cherishing thought for your own happiness. The purpose of being reborn there is to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.

If you’re born there, you’ll be like a sixteen-year-old, young, unbelievable, and beautiful, everything, even though in the human world you were a hundred years old, with wrinkles, white hair and all that.

OK, I’ll stop here, this much. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers