Offering Service

Offering Service

Retreat Advice and Thanks for Many Years of Service
Date of Advice:
May 2014
Date Posted:
April 2015

A longtime student wrote to Rinpoche asking if it was beneficial to do a retreat in a particular place.

My very dear one,
It didn’t come out to do a long retreat in the place you mentioned, but if somebody is able to read the Prajnaparamita text in the house, it will pacify the obstacles and bless the retreat. There are the 100,000 stanzas which has twelve volumes; the 20,000 stanzas which has three volumes; and the 8,000 stanzas which is one volume. If this happens, then it comes out best for you to do retreat there.

It may be difficult to do that. You would have to invite someone who can read quite fast, a Tibetan monk or nun who can read well. If this happens, then it came out best to do the retreat there. If these things can be read there, then it came out best.

Yes, I agree we are getting very old. It’s still so fortunate that we have survived. An unbelievable surprise. First of all, it’s so difficult to be just an ordinary human being, then it’s unbelievably difficult, most difficult to have a perfect human rebirth. You have met the Buddhadharma and you have met the gurus revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, especially His Holiness, and also for so many years there has been your dedication, your service to Lama Yeshe. For so many years, you have been serving the sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha, by serving Lama Yeshe and of course little me, who is the size of dhal. Numberless thanks for that. Then of course you have been able to serve His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

So, since the [early] Kopan course you have been busy. The FPMT organization has developed and now it has become so big and there is so much Dharma education. Most centers have studied the Basic Program and some centers have the Masters Program. It’s unbelievable, really unbelievable, then also there are so many different social services besides the hospices. The FPMT is regarded as a good religious organization, or Dharma organization, in the world. So it came from __ and also your efforts with body, speech and mind in the very early times with much hardships.

It is mentioned by Sakya Pandita that even if the beams of the sun are extremely hot, without a magnifying glass nothing will catch fire. Like that, even with the blessings of the buddhas who are numberless, without the guru we cannot receive the blessings.

Therefore by pleasing the guru it pleases all the numberless buddhas. This is a quick way to achieve enlightenment—the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the qualities.

Also Sakya Pandita mentioned,

The merits from a thousand eons of practicing the paramita of charity of one’s limbs—even the merits received from giving away one’s limbs countless times—all that merit which took one thousand eons to collect, is collected in one second by the path of the guru.

That means when you fulfill the guru’s wishes, all the merit collected from making charity of one’s limbs is achieved in one second when you fulfill the guru’s wishes. That means it is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

From the text Drop of Mahamudra:

When the wood is burned by the fire, it becomes ashes in one second. Like that, by pleasing the guru the negative karma is burnt in one second.

Just as matches are used to light a candle and make the candle flame, also a tiny flame can burn a few stories of hay so quickly, or a whole mountain of hay can be burned just from a tiny flame. In the same way so much heavy negative karma that has been collected from a thousand, millions, billions and trillions of past lives can be purified in one second, just by pleasing the guru. So, by following your guru’s advice or wishes, you can see how powerful it is. It’s the biggest purification of obscurations and negative karma from beginningless rebirths and the way to collect most extensive merit.

With much love and prayers...

 

Thanks for Making Dharma Books Available
Date Posted:
September 2014

Rinpoche sent this card to a student, offering thanks for the beneficial work being done to make Dharma books available.

My most dear, most precious, most kind, most dear, wish-fulfilling one,
How are you? Again I want to say billion, zillion times thanks from my heart for what you are doing and for all the great benefit that you have done already, especially through Dharma books, making them available in every corner of the world.

This is making FPMT more and more beneficial for sentient beings, and the teaching of Buddha is more and more alive, not dying. It is bringing skies of temporary happiness to all the sentient beings and ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, and full enlightenment to all the sentient beings. It is bringing sentient beings in the right path to enlightenment, to Lama Tsongkhapa. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Rejoice, you can die happily, when you have to die.

Just one example, after the book on guru devotion, The Heart of the Path, was published, many older students wrote to me to express how it was so good, so beneficial for their mind. This is so good. Guru devotion is the root that brings us to enlightenment. That mind. Can you imagine?

With much love and prayers...

PS. This dog [the image on the front of the card is a sleeping dog] is relaxing for you, because he can't use a computer and can't help you with your work, so he thought to relax on behalf of you. 

Thanks for Offering Service
Date of Advice:
January 2012
Date Posted:
January 2014

Advice for a longtime student, who was a nun and teacher.

My very, very dear one,
Every day I give you billions and zillions of thanks, since you started in FPMT and especially at the center where you are now. What you have been doing up to now is the greatest of service and a great sacrifice, a great sacrifice—especially while you are not well—offering service and benefiting the oceans of sentient beings. Wow, wow, wow, wow!

With much love and prayer...

 

Study and Service for Sentient Beings
Date Posted:
November 2012

A translator wrote to Rinpoche asking for advice.

My dear Noah,
Thank you for your kind letter. I am very grateful for all the effort you have made in your study and working for sentient beings. I think this is very worthwhile, even if it was difficult. It is very worthwhile.

Please continue your study and service to sentient beings. Always try to keep the mind of bodhicitta as your best friend.

With much love and prayer...

 

Helping a Nun
Date Posted:
November 2011

Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who was offering service to an older nun.

My very dear Sally,
How are you? I heard you have been serving my precious nun. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you billions of times, my dear. Generally, serving a sentient being in need with the good heart, is the purpose of our human life. This is the meaning of life.

Every time we offer service for others or even for one other being, we create far greater merit than from making offerings to all the buddhas. It says in the Bodhicaryavatara, by the great bodhisattva Shantideva, “Even thinking to really benefit others is much more meaningful than having made offerings to Buddha, so there is no question when one actually attempts to benefit others.”

This is always good to remember, especially in the morning when we wake up and the day begins, also during the day if we are depressed, if our mind is experiencing difficulties or anger.

This nun is precious, so you collect greater merit. This is important, because without merit there is no happiness, no realizations of the path, and we can’t achieve total liberation—the cessation of the whole entire suffering of samsara and its cause: karma and delusion.

Also, we can’t achieve full enlightenment for numberless sentient beings. Without merit we can’t liberate even one sentient being from the sufferings of samsara and its cause: delusion and karma. We can’t enlighten others, even if we cease the subtle defilements.

Now you can see how creating merits is so important, it’s most urgent. We need to actualize these attainments, even right now in this second.

Please take care of her. Serve her and the center, to benefit all suffering living beings.

With much love and prayer...

 

Years of Service
Date Posted:
July 2009

Rinpoche wrote this letter to a longtime student based in Mongolia, a senior monk who had given many years of service to Rinpoche.

My very dear Lawrence,
I read your message. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, as well as on behalf of the whole FPMT, for all you have done in Mongolia.

Thank you for making the center bloom like a lotus in Mongolia, and for spreading the Dharma to the Mongolians, young and old. Not only that, but thank you for all your past great service and the sacrifices you have made for the organization, for many years, as well as building a monastery by yourself, and for what you have done in many other places.

Now, many of the old FPMT Sangha members are gone, like clouds disappearing in the sky. You are one of the extremely rare ones among all the Sangha. Most didn’t have enough endurance, but you are one of the FPMT wish-granting jewels.

In all the different activities that you have done, like building monasteries, spreading Dharma, and so on, you had to bear a lot of hardship. You had to practice all the three types of patience—patience toward the enemy, toward sufferings, tiredness, and so forth, and patience reflecting on the Dharma (bearing hardships to study Dharma and so forth), while offering service to spread Buddha's teachings, the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa.

So, thank you very much.

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