Tonglen: Taking and Giving

Tonglen: Taking and Giving

Transforming Obstacles into the Path to Enlightenment
Date of Advice:
March 2020
Date Posted:
June 2022

This advice was given to a nun who had become very sick and thought she had COVID-19. Rinpoche explains how to utilize unfavorable conditions on the path to enlightenment by doing tonglen practice. The advice is transcribed and edited from an audio file.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Geneva, Switzerland, 1983. Photo: Ueli Minder.

My very dear Ani,
So sorry to hear that you just went to the hospital. I don’t know how long ago you got sick and then you had breathing difficulties. It seems the important thing is to not become panicked.

I just want to tell you—I don’t know whether you can recite this—there is a long-life mantra of Buddha Amitayus. This particular long-life mantra has most unbelievable, most unbelievable benefits. So, this mantra I am going to read for you now. It has most unbelievable benefits, but I don’t know whether you can recite mantras or not. If you can, then please recite this mantra.

There is Buddha Amitayus mantra, the normal one that everybody recites, then there is this long one. Some of it is the same but some of it is different, so I will recite this for you. You can think that from Buddha Amitayus—in the same aspect as Buddha Amitabha, holding a long-life vase in the hand—from the long-life vase, long-life nectar is coming, healing the disease. It comes into your body, like pouring milk from one container to another container. So visualize that and think that it heals all the sicknesses, viruses and other diseases, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements collected since beginningless lives.

Rinpoche recites the mantra:

NAMO RATNA TRA YAYA / OM NAMO BHAGAVATE …

Recite this as much as you can. It has unbelievable benefits.

Just recently in China, one person read my books, Dharma books and did tonglen meditation—taking others’ sufferings and the cause of suffering into our own heart for other sentient beings, for numberless sentient beings, for them to achieve enlightenment. That part is compassion, then there is loving kindness—giving our own virtues and happiness of the past, present and future, making charity to sentient beings of our body and possessions, giving the merits and enjoyments to numberless sentient beings, to every sentient being, tonglen. So this Chinese student read my books and did this by thinking of me. He did tonglen practice and he totally recovered from the COVID-19.

In recent times, in Singapore, Fred, who was a commander for so many years in the army, now of course some years ago he became a monk, because his wife had died suddenly. So I told him to become a monk and then he became a monk. Now he is in Solu Khumbu, at Rolwaling, very far away, where I lived for seven years. He is staying in Padmasambhava’s cave. Last time he was there, he asked whether he should stay there to do retreat in Padmasambhava’s cave. It is a wonderful cave in the shape of Padmasambhava’s hat and if you do incense puja, clean the place, then nectar comes from the middle of the inside of the cave, from the rock, from the ceiling, where there is a mark that looks like wax. From there comes holy water, nectar, even while around it is completely dry. When I was very small I went there, but I did not see the nectar. The man who took me there did not do incense puja, and normally nectar comes after somebody cleans the place and does incense puja. Some time ago, last year or the year before, Fred told me that somebody in the army had cancer and he told him to do tonglen practice. He saw that person recently and he had completely recovered from cancer.

Then there is a Swiss man, an old student who took a lot of pictures in the old times, who lives in Mongolia. He was here a few years ago and his blood pressure was very high. So he asked me and I told him to do tonglen practice. He told me that every time he did tonglen his blood pressure went down, like that.

Another girl here in Nepal had high blood pressure and went to many hospitals but did not recover. This happened while I was in America or somewhere. I was told about her by a Kopan monk and then I told her to take some Tibetan medicine and also to do tonglen practice. She did that and only then her blood pressure went down.

In Tibet they have boats made from animal skin, and one time there were so many people that there was danger that they would drown. Then two men with good hearts wanted to jump in the river so that the boat made of animal skin would not sink. When they jumped from the boat into the river, clouds the color of rainbows appeared, which is an incredible sign about the power of good heart.

Normally I don’t have bodhicitta, that realization, I am not a good practitioner and I am not practicing, but whenever I have pain in my eye, even though I don’t actually do the practice, the thought came to my mind to maybe do tonglen—not really doing it, but just the thought, not strong, just the thought comes, and even that eliminates the pain. The pain goes away.

Or sometimes the stomach, I think cancer, even thinking [about tonglen], not actually doing the practice, even that helps. That is just small example.

In the past, in Tibet, the great meditator Kadampa Geshe Chekawa had been praying to die and get reborn in hell and suffer for the sake of numberless sentient beings, to free them from the hell suffering and instead to experience the hell suffering himself. So he had been praying like that all his life, but the day he was dying, that did not happen. He did not have a vision of hell and instead, around him a vision of the pure land happened. So then he told his attendant monk, “I did not succeed in my prayers.” At the time of death he was reborn in a pure land even though his prayers every day were to be reborn in hell to take the suffering for the sake of numberless sentient beings and to free numberless sentient beings from the hell realms and for them to achieve enlightenment. So that is the power of the good heart, bodhicitta.

Anyway, all sentient beings, people in the world, are born under the power of delusion and karma. We are samsaric beings and we have to go through the suffering of death, the suffering of rebirth, old age and death. Then, besides that, all the samsaric pleasures are the suffering of change and that is why they cannot continue. Only Dharma happiness can be completed and we can become free from samsara and achieve enlightenment. Not only that [suffering of change], there is also the third type of suffering, pervasive compounding suffering. While true suffering arises, we are also under the control of pervasive compounding suffering, which is where delusion and karma come from; these contaminated aggregates, which are from the seeds of delusion and karma. From the seeds [of delusion and karma] suffering arises again; delusion arises again in this life and future lives.

Sentient beings like Shakyamuni Buddha and numberless other beings actualized the four noble truths—true suffering, the true cause of suffering, the true cessation of suffering and the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. Once we actualize that, we become free. We don’t have to suffer in samsara; we are able to cease the seeds of delusion and we become totally free from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever. Not just for a few months or a few years or a lifetime, not like that.

Yes, Buddhism has the complete path to become free from death, rebirth and all these sufferings. Otherwise, we have to go through death and all these sufferings. Until we actualize the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, we have to go through death. Nobody who is a samsaric being, under the control of delusion and karma, does not experience death. There is nobody who lives in this world, in samsara, who does not experience death. Nobody experiences birth without death, nobody. We have to die anyway, not only because of this [COVID-19] virus.

Even living conditions, like food or shelter, can become the cause of death. Many people die when their house collapses or burns by fire, and they die like that. Even living conditions, like the side effects of medicine, can become the cause of death, beside other causes of death. We have to accept that. Death is just a question of time, and we have to go through that for a while, until we actualize the path.

It is said in the seven points of thought transformation by Kadampa Geshe Chekawa that all sentient beings’ sufferings come from creating negative karma; all the many sufferings. Sorry, I have to look at the text to get a proper translation, but this is the essence. All the suffering we have is the result of nonvirtue in the past, the complete action of nonvirtue, then the four suffering results ripen to us as rebirth in the lower realms.

Then we are reborn in the human realm due to another virtue, such as morality, and we experience the three types of suffering there. A result of our negative karma is the possessed result of the place, so the devas or nagas in the place where we are living all disturb us and become harmful, deceitful, doing so much harm to the people. Then the black side develops, like wanting to harm others and not liking Dharma; these powers develop due to negative karma. There is so much disease, also new diseases which did not happen before, and famine, fighting in wars and quarrels.

There are many obstacles when the place is filled with the worst negative karma. In such times we have to transform all the obstacles into the path to enlightenment. Then all this becomes Dharma practice. We can utilize all the obstacles as supporting conditions. All the obstacles, all the hindrances we realize as supporting conditions and all the harm-givers we utilize as the virtuous friend, as the guru. So we utilize miserable, unfavorable conditions as the path to enlightenment.

One great pandit said that when we are happy, we dedicate the happiness to sentient beings. To collect merit we dedicate the happiness to sentient beings. When we have happiness, we dedicate it to all sentient beings, then we collect skies of merits. In each realm—the hell realm, hungry ghost realm, animal realm, human realm, asura and sura realm—there are numberless sentient beings, so we collect skies of merit when we give our happiness to sentient beings. We collect most unbelievable, unbelievable merits.

Think, “May the happiness here fill up whole sky. May every sentient being in the six realms receive skies of happiness, temporary and ultimate, including peerless happiness and enlightenment. May they receive all that happiness.” You can do this in an elaborate way, with your body, your possessions and all the three-time merits, so you make charity of that, giving it to every sentient being.

And if you are suffering, then you take the suffering of all sentient beings onto yourself. Take it into your heart, where there is the self-cherishing thought, believing the real I is most precious, more precious than all the buddhas, the Dharma and all the numberless sentient beings. This most precious real I does not exist. That does not mean the I does not exist; it means the real I does not exist, but you cherish that most.

So you take all the sentient beings’ sufferings and give it to the [self-cherishing thought] and it is destroyed. It is totally destroyed, so it becomes nonexistent. Even the real I, the object of ignorance, the root of samsara, the root of every sentient being’s suffering in samsara, becomes totally nonexistent. Then stay in that emptiness a little bit, as much as you can.

Then, by generating loving kindness, again do the practice of giving to others.

Take into your heart the suffering and cause of suffering of all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras and asuras, intermediate state beings, all that, in the form of darkness, black smoke. Like the Americans, when they fight in Iraq, they send bullets or missiles from so far away and they totally focus on the army place, then that place is blown up in one second. Like that, the self-cherishing thought is totally destroyed.

What did not lead us to enlightenment from beginningless time, from beginningless rebirths in samsara; what denied us even temporary happiness then, now and even in the future; what has been our worst enemy, is totally destroyed. What gives us the virus is the self-cherishing thought, and it is completely destroyed. Think like that. This means we experience the virus, but the attitude should be that we experience the virus for the sake of numberless sentient beings.

It is so important, as we ourselves want happiness and don’t want suffering. So we cherish that I, from which comes all the suffering that we experience—from the past, since beginningless time up to now, and into the future. And from cherishing others comes all the happiness. All the numberless happiness from past rebirths up to now and into the future including enlightenment, everything comes from others, from the most kind, most precious, most dear, wish-fulfilling others.

So if we suffer, then we can take on all the suffering of all the others into our heart. One lama said, “May the oceans of suffering of each sentient being be removed.” That means their suffering becomes nonexistent. Think, “May the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings be free from suffering.”

You can recite this like OM MANI PADME HUM. Repeat this over and over.

It is also sometimes good to do according to a very high Kagyu Lama, an unbelievably precious, great, great lama. His advice is that for any unfavorable condition we have, for example, this virus, think:

By my experiencing this [sickness], may all sentient beings be free from all sicknesses, not only the virus.

His Holiness also mentions the spirit harm condition, which comes from negative karma and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths. Then we can achieve enlightenment.

You can recite this prayer like reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and then sometimes you can change to this and recite it on and on. This way it transforms your experience of the virus, utilizing it on the path to enlightenment, for you to achieve enlightenment, so you can free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings. And not only that, you can then bring everyone to the peerless happiness, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations, enlightenment. When you do that, you are using your illness for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment in that way. That is the most amazing, real Dharma practice. Wow, wow.

We have to die anyway. It can happen anytime and there are so many conditions, not only this virus. We have to die, whether there is a virus or whether there is no virus. As I said, even living conditions can become the cause of death. So here, we are utilizing even death on the path to enlightenment, in order to achieve peerless happiness, to achieve the infinite qualities of the holy body, holy speech and holy mind of the Buddha. By achieving that we can do perfect work benefiting all sentient beings. Do you understand? It’s incredible!

We can use the illness for numberless sentient beings to be free from sufferings, to be free from the suffering of death, from all sufferings. It’s incredible, incredible, incredible. This is a good way, so do this practice.

It is said by Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa, the great, great meditator,

If we experience a small suffering in the present, it purifies our past heavy negative karma, therefore in the future there will be happiness.

That means due to practicing Dharma, reciting mantras, OM MANI PADME HUM etc., benefiting others with a good heart, when we experience catastrophes, sicknesses, problems in this life, even small ones, that finishes our past negative karma. It ceases the negative karma created since beginningless rebirths. So what happens in the future is that there will be happiness like the sun shining—wow wow wow—life after life, then we go to enlightenment.

Therefore, we should rejoice in experiencing problems and sufferings now. Even experiencing this virus is the cause for happiness. Instead of disliking it and being unhappy, it makes us happy. The virus is just an example, but it applies to any problem, because of what happens in the future. That is how he gave advice on how to meditate to transform our suffering into happiness.

My root guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, said that suffering is the path to happiness, and without suffering there is no happiness. By realizing or discovering what suffering is, it joins us to realizations, it makes us achieve realizations.

Also a great, great Kagyu lama said that experiencing negative karma, suffering, various conditions, our own mind is the doer, so experiencing this causes us to finish the karma. Without purification, we end up in the suffering realms for eons and eons. By experiencing some problems in this life we do not have to be reborn in hell and experience suffering there for eons and eons. We don’t have to do that. As I mentioned before, there will be happiness. Then in this way our mind does not become the creator of suffering, but the creator of enlightenment.

If we suffer, whatever we experience is OK. If we experience happiness, we can utilize it on the path to enlightenment for all sentient beings. If we suffer, for example, through death or COVID-19 virus, we can utilize it on the path of enlightenment, for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment, as I mentioned before, by doing tonglen practice.

That much is enough, as you also have difficulties. Thank you very much and I will pray for you.

With much love and prayers ...

Tonglen Practice for Health Issues
Date of Advice:
June 2018
Date Posted:
May 2019

A student was having many health issues, including heart arrythmia, anxiety and panic attacks, fatigue, stomach problems and dizziness. This prevented the student from doing nyung näs. Doctors could not find any problem. Rinpoche checked extensively and gave this advice.

  1. White Umbrella prayer: to be recited four times. (Rinpoche will do this for you.)
  2. You need to request Geshe-la to do Drugchuma puja three times.

You also need to do tonglen practice and recite:

By my experiencing this sickness, may all mother sentient beings be immediately free from all the disease, negative karmas and defilements.

Keep on reciting that, in the same way that you recite OM MANI PADME HUM, doing like a mala of this verse.

Think the root of samsara, the great enemy—the ignorance holding the I as real, and the self-cherishing thought—is totally eliminated.

I am also making prayers for you.

With much love and prayers ...

Tonglen Prayer
Date of Advice:
July 2016
Date Posted:
July 2018

Rinpoche sent this advice about tonglen (taking and giving) to a nun who was close to passing away due to cancer.

Rinpoche in the elevator at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, March 2016. Photo: Roger Kunsang.

My dear one,
How are you? And how is your cancer?

I do not know what you are thinking, but Dharma practitioners, especially Mahayana practitioners, look at life-threatening diseases as very fortunate to have.

This is because by having that disease, you are able to practice Dharma, especially tonglen, taking others’ suffering and giving your happiness to others who are numberless. You are taking the suffering of numberless others to only one, yourself, into your heart, and giving it to the self-cherishing thought, your greatest demon, which caused you oceans of samsaric suffering from beginningless rebirth, now and in the endless future.

Destroy the great demon, the self-cherishing thought! Not only is it stopping you from achieving enlightenment, it is also harming numberless sentient beings, who do not achieve enlightenment. So, destroy this greatest demon, this mara. By destroying it you are able to generate bodhicitta, which brings all happiness and enlightenment for you and for numberless sentient beings—hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras and asuras—all the six realm beings.

Just as Tibetans recite OM MANI PADME HUM all day long, please think:

By my experiencing this cancer, may all the kind mother sentient beings—all the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless ants, numberless fish in the ocean, numberless worms in the ground, numberless insects in the grass and bushes, numberless insects in the trees and the sky—be free from all the sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements, and may they achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of mistakes and completion of realizations, the peerless happiness.

Here I have a little bit elaborated on the animals, but you should know the essence:

By my experiencing cancer, may all the kind mother sentient beings be free from all sickness, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements, and may they achieve buddhahood.

Recite this prayer day and night, just as Tibetan people recite OM MANI PADME HUM.

You should know that all the buddhas and bodhisattvas are helping you with loving kindness and compassion.

With much love and prayer ...

Tong-len Brings You Closer to Enlightenment
Date of Advice:
January 2011
Date Posted:
January 2018

A student wrote that she was sick and asked Rinpoche what to do. Rinpoche gave this advice about the practice of tong-len, taking and giving.

My dear one,
Tong-len practice comes out best for you.

Each time you practice giving, there are numberless sentient beings in each of the seven realms—hell, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura, asura and intermediate state—and there are so many things to give, including all your past, present and future merits, full enlightenment and all the results, as well as your own body in the form of a wish-granting jewel, your belongings, family members, friends, servants and so forth. It’s the same when you take all their suffering and its causes together.

You must do this practice. I would feel sorry if you didn’t.

When you practice giving to numberless sentient beings in each realm, you collect seven times numberless merits, like this, with every belonging and all your merits. You can’t imagine how much merit, like a wish-fulfilling jewel.

Each time you give, you purify many eons of negative karma. When you do this practice, you become closer to enlightenment each time.

Much love and prayers ...

The Bodhicitta Path
Date of Advice:
November 2015
Date Posted:
April 2017

After a serious accident, a student found it difficult to practice and wrote to Rinpoche for advice. The student had a brain injury and was learning how to walk again, how to dress and so forth. Rinpoche recommended tonglen, along with other essential practices.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Portland, Oregon, 2006. Photo: John Berthold.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I received your long letter with your details and information. I am very happy to receive it, thank you very much. I am very happy that you have started to practice again what you can. I am also very happy you explained what you have done already.

There are so many good things that you have done in your life, besides practice. There are so many good things besides the traditional practice that purify the mind and help to collect extensive merits. Also because you have done these things with bodhicitta, it creates the cause of enlightenment.

Generally you have a good heart and you did many good things to help sentient beings, so it is always good to rejoice in this. Always try to feel happy in your mind; always keep the mind in a state of happiness. I am not just making this up. As I briefly said, you have lived your life in this way.

Bodhicitta Path and tonglen

It’s very good to do meditation on the bodhicitta path, as I have advised, by dividing the different paths of the lamrim in effortful meditation. For you, mainly focus on the bodhicitta path.

The way to make your life most meaningful and most beneficial for all sentient beings, and by the way to have a most happy life for yourself, is to do the practice of bodhicitta, particularly tonglen. This means the practice of taking sentient beings’ suffering into your heart. This destroys the root of samsara, the ignorance holding the I—that which is merely labelled by the mind, but projected by past ignorance—as truly existent. The negative imprint in the mind is projected or decorated as the real I, and then believed on top of that.

This ignorance is the root of samsara, which is created and all the diseases come from that. All the true suffering and the true cause of suffering come from this; karma and all the delusions come from ignorance. So think that ignorance is totally destroyed or eliminated, and at the same time the I—what ignorance believes and entrusts; what it holds on to—totally disappears. It is gone, as it doesn’t exist at all, not only from this morning, but from birth and beginningless rebirths it never even for one second existed. Also the self-cherishing thought, from where all the problems and sufferings come, is totally destroyed.

Then take all the suffering and the causes of suffering of every sentient being from each realm. Take this into your heart and then give compassion to others, to the numberless sentient beings. You can give your body by visualizing it as a wish-fulfilling jewel, as numberless wish-fulfilling jewels filling the whole sky. This is what my root guru Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche explained.

In the lamrim, practitioners don’t rely on chöd so much. They don’t do chöd, which is the offering of your bones, skin and blood, and making charity of that to the spirits. In the lamrim you view your body as ugly, dirty, so then you can’t make charity of it to others—that’s my own thinking and reasoning.

Therefore, instead visualize your body as wish-granting jewels and then make charity to numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings. From that they get everything, thus whatever they want or whatever they need is actualized, such as being able to meet a perfectly qualified virtuous friend and meet the Dharma path.

Give all your possessions to every sentient being; give away every single thing that belongs to you. Make charity to numberless sentient beings in each realm so they get everything, whatever they want, whatever they need, and they all achieve enlightenment.

The third thing is to give away all your past, present and future merits. Dedicate your three-time merits to every single sentient being.

The result is all the happiness of this life and all the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, the total elimination of obscurations and completion of all the realizations up to enlightenment. Think the sentient beings achieve this, so they all become enlightened, then you can rejoice after each of them is enlightened. It’s very good to rejoice.

Medicine Buddha Mantra

If you can, recite the Medicine Buddha name mantra. Recite the seven Medicine Buddhas’ name mantra seven times and make the request, whatever you want, whatever you pray—for me and for all sentient beings—for it to happen right now. Whatever you pray, then for all those wishes to happen and at the time of death to be born in the pure land of Tharpo Kachö and for all other wishes, whatever you have.

The Completely Pure Stainless Light mantra

I don’t remember the aspect, just visualize that the Buddha sends nectar to you.

tonglen

Regarding tonglen, generate compassion so in that part of tonglen practice think that this is not only for yourself, but also for numberless sentient beings whose suffering is even worse than yours, one hundred times worse, for example, the numberless sentient beings in the lower realms. Generate compassion for them, in order for them to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara’s sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment by yourself alone.

Therefore think, “May I experience my sickness, and in particular those who are suffering the same sickness as I have, may it ripen upon me and may I experience it so that they all become enlightened.” Take it all into the heart, into this self-cherishing thought where all obscurations and negative karma, all the sufferings and the oceans of samsaric sufferings come from. The self-cherishing thought and ignorance is the root of samsara, so think that it is destroyed. This is where all the obstacles to achieving enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings comes from. The self-cherishing thought and ignorance, the root of samsara, is destroyed completely.

Think that you are experiencing all your sickness, all this suffering, for all sentient beings, and in particular those who have the same sickness, think that it ripens on you so that others may be enlightened.

Vajrayogini mantra

If it is difficult to do your commitments, recite the Vajrayogini mantra, as that has the connection for you to be born in a pure land and to be guided by Vajrayogini in all the lifetimes.

At the time of death it is very important to think that your mind is oneness with Vajrayogini. Start to think about the oneness now and especially at the time of dying, think that your mind is oneness with Vajrayogini and then you will go to the pure land. This is why reciting Vajrayogini mantra is very important. By thinking your mind is one with Vajrayogini, if you do that all the time, when you die you will go to Vajrayogini’s pure land. Make a request to Guru Vajrayogini who is on your head and then think Vajrayogini is there all the time.

At the death time think that Vajrayogini sends beams, like a water pipe, from your heart, but do not hold down there. Think your mind is oneness with Vajrayogini, the size of a mustard seed, and then make a request to Guru Vajrayogini to guide you to the pure land. She grants all the realizations and takes you to the pure land. In the pure land there are dakinis welcoming you to come there and you can hear all the music from the pure land.

The shape is like a mustard seed [made of] light then the consciousness goes straight into the heart of Vajrayogini, who is above your crown. You become oneness with Vajrayogini, with your mind in bliss and voidness. Then you, Vajrayogini, go straight to the pure land and you see Vajrayogini there and receive teachings directly from Vajrayogini. So like that. That is the meditation at death time.

You can practice like that beforehand but not your consciousness coming up; that is inauspicious to do beforehand.

om ah hum

If you are not able to do many other prayers, then think of the three syllables OM AH HUM. All your prayers are contained within those three syllables, so think it is all the guru-deities, your extremely subtle wind, the five-colored wind. Think it is all the numberless guru-deities’ holy bodies, all the holy speech and all the guru-deities’ extremely subtle mind. Hold that in your mind.

Meditate on that, holding divine pride, then recite OM AH HUM, thinking that all the prayers are contained in that, if you find it difficult to do the other prayers.

However the main thing is what I mentioned above. Think that you are experiencing all these problems and sicknesses for all sentient beings. Take all their suffering and experience it for them and then lead them to enlightenment. That is the main thing. It destroys your self-cherishing thought and ignorance, the root of samsara. The object—ignorance, the root of samsara, the real I, the truly existent I—is empty. You see it as empty, because it is empty.

With much love and prayers...

If you feel to write, please write. I am sending one Namgyalma protection for you to wear, but please take it off when you have a shower and do not wear it when you go to sleep as you may lie on it.

Tong-len Practice
Date of Advice:
March 2015
Date Posted:
August 2015

Rinpoche gave this advice about the practice of bodhicitta with tong-len (taking and giving) for a meaningful, happy and beneficial life. This letter was sent to a student who had written to thank Rinpoche for bringing him so much happiness through his publications. The student had also requested Rinpoche to be his root guru and spiritual guide. 

My most dear one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing your feelings about reading my books. That could be also from past life prayer or connection. It could be. I accept what you request. However, you try your best and I will try from my side.

The meditation on bodhicitta that you said you are doing is the best practice, that makes you achieve all the realizations and attain enlightenment in the quickest way. It is also the quickest way to free the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. Especially if you are doing the practice of bodhicitta with tong-len—taking numberless sentient beings’ suffering and the causes of suffering into your heart, onto yourself, and destroying the self-cherishing thought as well as the ignorance, the root of your samsara, the oceans of suffering of samsara. The real I, which is the false I, which is like a dream, like a hallucination, an illusion—like thinking the reflection of your face in the mirror or on the ocean is a real face—that is destroyed, that is realized to be empty, as it is empty. So you can do a short meditation on emptiness like this. Meditate on shunyata, emptiness only.

When you take the sufferings of others, do so with compassion. When you dedicate to others, your body is in the form of numberless wish-granting jewels and all sentient beings receive whatever they want from that, and they achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya. Dedicate all your enjoyments and all your belongings to the numberless six realm sentient beings, so they receive everything they want and achieve the dharmakaya and rupakaya. Then you dedicate all your past, present and future merits and their results, as well as all the good things in this life and in your next rebirth. Dedicate all the enjoyments in good rebirths from life to life, then the everlasting happiness of nirvana, and next, the ultimate happiness, the peerless happiness, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. So you dedicate all of this to numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras and numberless intermediate state beings. And from that they achieve everything, the dharmakaya and rupakaya.

When you take the suffering and its causes—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow—this is the most powerful purification. Negative karmas and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths are purified. It is most amazing, most amazing, most amazing, most amazing, most amazing!

When you give, for example, when you give your enjoyments—let’s say you have many hats and shoes to wear at different times, by making charity of each of these hats to the numberless sentient beings of each realm you collect more than skies of merits, and by sending shoes to the numberless sentient beings in each realm to wear at different times, in different seasons, inside and outside—you collect skies of merit so many times. If you have one dollar or a billion, trillion, or zillion dollars in the bank, when you dedicate that to the numberless sentient beings in each realm you collect merits more than the sky, numberless times.

This is what makes life most meaningful, happy and beneficial for sentient beings. On the other hand if you leave out renunciation, which is the preliminary for bodhicitta; if you don’t have that realization [of renunciation], then your bodhicitta will be very limited, just dry. Even if you have some feeling for bodhicitta, it will be very limited and also you won’t have compassion for every sentient being. To actualize compassion for all sentient beings you need as a preliminary the feeling that it is unbearable that sentient beings are experiencing the suffering of samsara. For that, you need to realize how your own suffering of samsara is so unbearable. Without that, you won’t feel much when you think about others experiencing the suffering of samsara. Your compassion to others will be like tsampa sprinkled on the river—it doesn’t mix with the water but just stays on the surface. You will have no real feeling from the heart. Sometimes your compassion for sentient beings is just between the lips and not strongly from the heart.

To have strong renunciation of your future lives’ samsara, realizing how it is in the nature of suffering, you need to have strong renunciation of this life. You need to see that there is no meaning in working for this life, that it only becomes the cause of suffering and particularly of the lower realms. Being able to see that the works of this life are only suffering and generating total renunciation to this life’s happiness depends on the root of the path to enlightenment: realizing that each one of your gurus is numberless buddhas. Here, guru means anyone with whom you have received a Dharma connection, even just the three words OM AH HUM, or a few verses received with the recognition that you are the disciple and the person giving the transmission is the guru.

To realize that each one of your gurus is numberless buddhas, you need to train your mind in meditation, looking at them all as Buddha using logic, quotations and sometimes your own experience. That is extremely important, most important. If that happens, everything can happen—all the common realizations of sutra and the particular tantric realizations up to enlightenment can happen. If that is not done, then completing the realizations up to enlightenment doesn’t happen.

The Condensed Meaning of Tantra, the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion says:

It is said by the Vajraholder (Vajradhara—the Buddha in the tantric aspect as father and mother in union):

Realization depends upon following the Dharma master. Realizing this, completely please the Buddha with all the phenomena. What need is there to say a lot? Attempt that and that. Do whatever pleases the Guru. Avoid all that displeases. Then common and sublime realizations will be achieved in this life.

The main lamrim for you to study and contemplate is the Red Lamrim but I don’t think that is translated into English yet, so use Essence of Refined Gold, which is in English. Study it four times from beginning to end.

Do effortful meditation on the lamrim outline three times, starting with correctly devoting to the spiritual friend, then do effortless meditation.

In order to have success in actualizing the whole path to enlightenment from guru devotion onwards, you need to purify the negative karma and defilements collected from beginningless rebirths and collect the necessary conditions, so much merit. Then you can actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment. Therefore, you need to do preliminary practices. These are specific preliminary practices that need to be done according to my observation:

Recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra at least once each week for your whole life. You can do more, but recite the sutra at least once. It’s like an atomic bomb. It pacifies the obstacles to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings and collects inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable merits. It eliminates the root of oceans of samsaric suffering—the ignorance holding the I as existing from its side while it’s not, which is a totally wrong concept.

Your deity: Vajrayogini, Kalachakra. Whichever one you feel stronger, closer to, choose that.

With much love and prayer, thank you very much...

 

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