Bodhicitta is what makes life most beneficial for ourselves and meaningful for every single sentient being that exists, because every single one is suffering and needs help. Bodhicitta makes our life most beneficial for every single other being, who are countless. Not only is it what makes our life beneficial, but when we are practicing bodhicitta, this fulfills the wishes of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, because their only wish is for the happiness of sentient beings. Buddhas actualize the path, collecting extensive merit of wisdom and of virtue, and purify the defilements, and then they achieve enlightenment in order to be able to perform perfect works, without any error, liberating all sentient beings, without any exception, and bringing them to highest happiness.

This is the objective of their life, and their only concern is the happiness of others. Their aim is only that. Their concern is sentient beings obscured in suffering. What they cherish is nobody except sentient beings. The thought of seeking happiness for themselves doesn't arise for even one second after having realizations of bodhicitta. Bodhisattvas, while they have bodhicitta, are like that. Of course, sometimes it is possible for some new bodhisattvas’ realizations to degenerate. Whereas for us, though the thought of cherishing others may arise, it is very rare. Even though it may arise, it does so only very occasionally. It is still not complete. It can still be very weak. The thought of cherishing the “I” is still stronger than the thought of cherishing others. Buddhas also achieve enlightenment only for the benefit of sentient beings. They cherish no one else except sentient beings; they work only for sentient beings.

When we practice compassion in our daily lives, when we perform actions with the thought of cherishing others, whether it is a small service or a big service, at that time we are fulfilling the wishes of countless buddhas and bodhisattvas. Therefore, practicing bodhicitta, serving others, and cherishing others is the best offering to numberless bodhisattvas and to all the buddhas. It is the best offering. This is what pleases them the most. So, now the purpose of our life is to free countless other sentient beings and bring them to happiness. Since that is the purpose of our life, to do that perfectly, to be a perfect guide, we need full enlightenment, in essence, to have omniscient mind and complete, perfect power to reveal the path to bring sentient beings to enlightenment by liberating them from suffering, and for this we need to complete the mind training in compassion. That is it in essence.

Even though the Buddha has infinite qualities, to achieve full enlightenment, which is the cessation of all mistakes of the mind and the completion of the entire Mahayana path, the gateway to enter into the kings' paradise—like the border to the country of India—the only gateway to the Mahayana path is bodhicitta. Therefore, without bodhicitta, we can only attain the state of arhats, who are totally free from samsara, totally free from all suffering, including the suffering of pain, which includes the suffering of death and rebirth, the suffering of change, and temporary samsaric sense pleasures, which are in the nature of suffering, and are even free from pervasive compounded suffering, the aggregates, which are the continuation of suffering. Although they are free from all that, they still do not finish the work of self or others. Because they did not finish the work for self, they didn't complete the work for others. There are still subtle defilements, because the merit of virtue is not realized, not completed. So, they haven't achieved an omniscient mind yet.

Because they don't have the two completed qualities of cessation and realizations, they cannot perform perfect work for others. Why they can't perform perfect work for sentient beings and are unable to perform perfect work for the self and others is because of a lack of bodhicitta. Therefore, bodhicitta is essential. We need the wisdom realizing emptiness to cut the root of samsara and to make it impossible for delusions to arise, destroying the seed, by developing the wisdom realizing emptiness. But with wisdom realizing emptiness alone, no matter how much we develop it, we can only reach up to arhatship, not enlightenment. That is the lack of realization of bodhicitta.

If there is bodhicitta, we can enter the Mahayana path. We can perform perfect work for sentient beings. Therefore, the real meaning of our life is developing bodhicitta. So now, of course, there may be other practices, prayers, or mantras that can be performed to actualize bodhicitta. However, the main, most important one is to keep the mind away from obstacles that interfere with actualizing bodhicitta. So, it is very helpful to avoid these.

This is not a kind of prayer, but a kind of thinking. In order for bodhicitta not to degenerate in this life, we have to practice the causes for it not to degenerate. Maybe now I will just mention things in general, and then dictate and send more details to you later.

This is just a general outline: You need to remember the benefits of bodhicitta. You can think in different ways about bodhicitta, and about how sentient beings are extremely kind and most precious. Think of this first thing in the morning, to begin the day with that thought, how sentient beings are so precious, so kind. Each day you can think of different reasons. Do you remember the bodhisattva who wrote praises to bodhicitta? This text is very inspiring. It is very good to have this and read it.

When you think of this, the benefits are infinite and unbelievable. Bodhicitta is the most powerful purification and lets you collect the most extensive merit and fulfills all your wishes. With bodhicitta, you will see no suffering because it gives so much courage and confidence. It is something very powerful, like someone with cancer who knows that there is very powerful medicine that can cure him or her immediately. So, knowing about it becomes as if they already didn't have cancer anymore.

In order not to lose bodhicitta and to increase bodhicitta, dance three times a day and three times a night! I’m joking. Please recite three times a day and three times a night at least "Sang gye cho dang tsog gyi... / May I achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings." Recite this to remind yourself.

There is a practice called Six-Session Guru Yoga. This begins with remembering bodhicitta. When you perform Six-Session Guru Yoga—there is a long, middle-length, and short version—this practice is included. Normally, you recite this practice one time in the morning, once at noon, once in the afternoon, then three times at night. That is difficult to do, so you can recite three in the morning and three at night. It is done like that.

So, you can recite some prayers to generate bodhicitta, and then along with that, if you have taken bodhisattva vows, you can recite those. As for refuge, recite, "I go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha until I achieve enlightenment, due to the merit that I have collected.” You can visualize all the buddhas and bodhisattvas up there, and you receive the bodhisattva vow. It is just like needing to charge a battery; it is like you are charging your bodhicitta. That is one method to develop and not to lose bodhicitta in this life. The other method to have determination of mind is to not do the opposite: harming bodhisattvas, criticizing bodhisattvas, the opposite to the bodhisattva attitude of benefiting others. Then, in daily life, collect merits to develop bodhicitta.

After making offerings to the guru and Triple Gem, dedicate the merit to achieving bodhicitta: "May myself, my family members, and all sentient beings develop bodhicitta without delaying for even a second. Due to this, may the bodhicitta which is the source of all success and happiness be actualized within my mind and all sentient beings' minds, without delaying for even a second, and may that which has been generated increase."

Afterward, you offer charity to sentient beings. You can think they are the source of all success and happiness for myself and for all sentient beings, and then dedicate: “May bodhicitta be generated in my mind and in all sentient beings.” After you finish some practice, dedicate the merits. The very first thing to dedicate to is to actualize bodhicitta. So, if you see a beautiful garden, you make an offering to all the buddhas and then you dedicate the merit to generating bodhicitta. Then, after the merit is collected, dedicate it to bodhicitta. Also, dedicate the merit collected in daily life to actualizing bodhicitta. Whatever you do, offering charity to sentient beings, to the Triple Gem, and so forth is for your practice, so your bodhicitta doesn’t degenerate. So, whatever you do in normal daily life, such as helping other sentient beings and collecting merit, at the end of the day, dedicate the merit always to developing bodhicitta, so you can become enlightened. There is another way to actualize bodhicitta in the next life. I will dictate this and send it to you.

The other very important advice is, each year, if you can, do retreat: five days each year—five, two, or seven is great—on lamrim, because in order to have a realization of bodhicitta, you need to have a realization of renunciation from samsara. Without this, it is impossible to have bodhicitta. Therefore, during retreat, study lamrim and practice the preliminaries, such as prostrations; that is one part. The other part I will dictate for you.

I am very happy to have met you. Thank you so much. I'm very happy about the question you asked, mainly the part about not thinking so much about prayer, but thinking about bodhicitta.

Rinpoche sent the following advice over subsequent days.

My very dear one,

These last things I mentioned were to increase bodhicitta and so it will not degenerate in the mind. Avoid the four black dharmas and practice the four white dharmas in future lives so the bodhicitta does not degenerate. I will mention this in more detail later.

Last time I told you to repeat the prayer of refuge and bodhicitta three times, day and night. Always attempt to benefit others, offering charity and so forth. Whatever you can help others with in everyday life, that is training for bodhicitta, but with a sincere heart, cherishing the other sentient beings.

Remember first thing in the morning and many times a day, “I am here to serve others, a servant to free sentient beings from suffering and to cause them the happiness of this life, of all future lives, and then liberate them from samsara and bring them to enlightenment.”

This is not a prayer; it is an attitude—the real practice. This is the practice of Dharma in daily life with other sentient beings—people and animals. Also, try to perform other actions—while doing your job, practicing feng shui, business, and even the normal actions of eating and sleeping—try to do them for the happiness of all sentient beings. So, this way, not only chanting mantras, reciting Buddha's name, but even doing business and all your daily activities become not only Dharma, they become the cause of enlightenment. Every action performed with this attitude collects vast amounts of merit, good karma.

Also, besides collecting so much merit, as much as possible, in this way, with this thought of benefiting others, then also collect as much merit as possible by making offerings to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, such as making offerings at your house and altar to the holy objects there.

As much as you have this opportunity, make offerings—light offerings, water offerings, food offerings, like before you eat—because every time you make offerings to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the merit is inconceivable. Even if the motivation is totally non-virtuous, black, due to the power of the holy object, from every offering you make, the benefits are inconceivable.

Everything becomes the cause of enlightenment—circumambulating, prostrating, and making offerings—due to the power of the holy object. That means that one tiny stick of incense or flower offered to Buddha's holy image, to a statue or painting of Buddha or a visualized Buddha, becomes a cause of enlightenment. Due to the power of the holy object, it immediately becomes a cause of enlightenment. That means it becomes a cause to achieve realizations, from guru devotion up to enlightenment. We can't achieve enlightenment without the cause. One stick of incense or tiny flower can cause all that. So, there is benefit even without a Dharma motivation. With offerings to holy objects, each offering has vast benefits. This is one way to make offerings to holy objects and then dedicate the merit to bodhicitta.

First thing in the morning, you should recite this prayer remembering the shortcomings of self-cherishing. This is a quote from the Guru Puja:

This chronic disease of cherishing myself
Is the cause giving rise to my unsought suffering.
Perceiving this, I seek your blessings to blame, begrudge,
And destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness.

The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these migratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.

Thus dedicate the merits. When the practices are finished, virtue is created, so dedicate the merits to achieving enlightenment, then to actualizing bodhicitta.

When merits are collected with sentient beings or collected with holy objects, the first thing to dedicate them to is to actualize bodhicitta as quickly as possible. Then, when you travel in airplanes—you travel a lot through practicing feng shui—you have the opportunity to read Dharma books. That is a good time to do it. In cars, to make the best use of the time, one can listen to teachings by tape, or chant mantras.

In daily life, anger is the enemy of bodhicitta. Anger is very harmful to actualizing bodhicitta, so you can study the teachings about how to practice tolerance. There are many meditations, so you can practice whichever you consider the most practical. It is very important that you write down what you experience about the various techniques for practicing tolerance and destroying anger.

There are four things to practice to create the cause for bodhicitta not to degenerate in this life:

1. Remember the benefits of bodhicitta.
2. Generate bodhicitta three times a day, to increase it and not to lose bodhicitta.
3. When you benefit a sentient being and in return they harm you, you must stop the thought: "I won't help this person. I won't benefit them." It is very common for this to happen to people. Then generate bodhicitta.
4. Purify and collect merit.

Regarding practicing the cause not to be separated from bodhicitta in the future, there are four things you can do. Not to:

1. Deceive the guru.
2. Feel upset when others practice virtue and offer a lot of charity, building big temples and monasteries, creating so much merit, and spending a lot of time practicing and on retreat, getting so many preliminary practices done, learning Dharma, and having realizations.
3. Criticize bodhisattvas with hatred, or
4. Deceive sentient beings (Tibetan: gyo sgyu).

These are the black dharmas to be abandoned.

The four white dharmas are the opposite to these (this appears in the bodhisattva vows.):

1.  Have a sincere heart toward the guru, buddhas, and bodhisattvas, such as Shakyamuni Buddha, and toward sentient beings.
2. Praise the bodhisattvas.
3.  When you have to help sentient beings, who rely on you to ripen their minds, helping them direct their lives toward enlightenment—this is not prayer but a practice—to remember and then to think of the benefits of bodhicitta, such as mentioned in His Holiness the Dalai Lama's books, which explain the benefits of the good heart, which brings so much peace and happiness into your life, the world, and to human beings. Read the first chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara [A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life] and the commentary. Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen's Verses In Praise of Bodhicitta text [Vast as the Heavens Deep as the Sea] is very important for thinking of the benefits. You can read a little bit of those texts when traveling to enjoy bodhicitta and get inspiration to actualize bodhicitta. Then there are also ten benefits—all the extensive benefits integrated into ten—in the lamrim. You can also check in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and can get copies of that section.

Then, every day, since you travel a lot, recite and chant mantras. You can read books and chant mantras, such as OM MANI PADME HUM. One way to develop bodhicitta is to chant the deity of compassion's mantra. To actualize bodhicitta we must pray and dedicate merits, but that alone is not sufficient. Even knowing all the teachings is not sufficient. We need to receive the blessings of the special deity of compassion. Therefore, it is important to practice meditation on Compassion Buddha and recite OM MANI PADME HUM. There is also a long mantra. This is practiced very often in Chinese society. They recite it for many hours. If you can do it extensively, then please recite it seven times in one night. By doing this, 800 million eons of negative karma are purified. The vast amounts of benefit are unbelievable. Of course, you can just chant the six-syllable mantra, but when doing this, it is good to visualize Compassion Buddha as one with your guru. In this way, you receive greater blessings quickly and this becomes guru yoga practice. Without receiving the blessings of the guru in your heart, you cannot have realizations on the path to enlightenment. This is what I suggest.

A king asked Nagarjuna what practice to do in daily life, since it is so busy, and Nagarjuna advised three practices. The first is generating bodhicitta, which directs life to enlightenment. If daily activities are performed out of bodhicitta, not only practicing meditation, but also walking, sitting, practicing feng shui, sleeping, they all become the cause to achieve enlightenment. This transforms life from kaka into gold. We can see the difference. It makes life most meaningful. Every time, we collect vast amounts of merit. To achieve enlightenment, to be perfectly qualified to bring sentient beings to enlightenment by liberating them from defilements and suffering, which is the main aim of life, the main purpose of living, for that we need to become enlightened. And for that, we need to complete the two collections of merit: of wisdom and method.

Each time we generate bodhicitta, we collect so much merit, like the vast sky, so that is how it helps us to achieve enlightenment quickly. Without bodhicitta, even if we realize emptiness directly, we cannot achieve enlightenment. The highest we can achieve is only arhatship, so we can see how important it is in daily life. That means the more we generate bodhicitta, the more we meditate on bodhicitta, the more quickly we collect extensive merit, the more quickly we achieve enlightenment, and so the more quickly we enlighten sentient beings. What else is a greater benefit, greater purpose of life?

Next is the practice of rejoicing. This is the simplest means to collect merit without any effort, just with the mind. We collect extensive merit just like that. Rejoice in our past, present, and future merits, so that our merit doubles, like profit from the stock market, or in the bank, or from the best profitable business. Like that, we double our merit, and so we get more merit than what we actually created. We can see that there is so much merit collected in this life and in the past. Time is without beginning, from beginningless lives. So, it is unimaginable profit (good luck) that we are making. Then, when we rejoice in others' merit, for example, in somebody who has built incredible temples, monasteries, and served and benefited the Sangha, if that person’s level of mind is lower than ours, we collect more merit than they collected from all of that. If we rejoice, we collect double the merit they did, and they put in so much effort, with many hundreds of people raising funds, which took many years. If we rejoice, you get double that. That is just amazing. It also means we will be able to build temples like that in the future.

If the person's level of mind is higher than ours, then we get half the merits. For example, if we rejoice in the merit that one bodhisattva collected in one day, we get half of the merit they collected. It is not that we take the merit from the buddhas and bodhisattvas and that their merit becomes less, but whatever they created, we get half of that amount. Without rejoicing, if we are going to collect the merit that buddhas collect in one day, it is said by Pabongka that it would take 13,000 years.

Now, we have to understand each buddha and bodhisattva created merit in the past, present, and future. That is one bodhisattva, and there are countless bodhisattvas. That is so much merit. Then there are other sentient beings: arhats and ordinary beings. Then there is all the three times' merit of the buddhas. That merit is uncountable. It is so simple. In one second, we create vast amounts of merit.

This is how to do the meditation. Think: "Without merit, there is no happiness for me: no temporary happiness, no ultimate happiness, including enlightenment. Therefore, my merit is so precious. How wonderful it is." Or sometimes you can say, "How happy I am that I've collected this incredible precious merit in the past, that I am collecting it in the present, and will collect it in the future." Repeat this again and again. The main thing is to feel happy in your heart. You can do this five or ten times, while counting the beads on the mala, half a mala or one mala, and generate happiness. It is so good. It is such an easy way to achieve enlightenment.

For example, we are building a 500-foot Maitreya statue, with lots of statues inside and outside. If a tourist comes along and rejoices, simply by rejoicing he or she gets if not more merit, then the same as the person who has spent so much money building it. It is possible they get even more. So, that helps the person to achieve enlightenment quickly. So many thousands of persons have made an effort with this project, but that person didn't put in any effort to make even one statue. That is why I am saying rejoicing is a practice to achieve enlightenment without effort.

In daily life, we should practice rejoicing morning and night, if possible, three times a day and three times a night. If you can do that, it is very good. Also, when other people have great success, for example, you practice feng shui for many rich people, then you can rejoice that they have so much wealth. In that second, because karma is experienced, this creates the cause to have much more in the future. So, feel happy that people have a beautiful body or a beautiful car. You can rejoice in that.

In everyday life there is so much to meditate on. As we are seeing things, any good thing, rejoice. This makes us so happy. There is no pain. We are just happy with others. That opens the mind to others and also we want to help others when we rejoice. For example, think of the qualities of bodhisattvas, such as bodhicitta, not having the slightest thought of seeking happiness for the self; this doesn't arise for even one second, there is only the thought of seeking happiness for others. Not only that, think of ordinary bodhisattvas, high bodhisattvas, any bodhisattva from the first to seventh then eighth through tenth; they have vast amounts of qualities and realizations, and can manifest 100 times, then billions, or billions of billions or trillions of times. They can go to the pure land to practice, make offerings, and teach Dharma to others. Their deep benefit to sentient beings is incredible. What they do purely for countless others, even each of their breaths, for their survival, in each second: rejoice in that.

Think of all sentient beings’, including arhats’, merits of the three times, and rejoice. Say to yourself, "How wonderful it is." Repeat these last words over and over. Think, "They've collected unimaginable merits in the past, present, and future—how wonderful it is." Do this five, ten, twenty-one times, half a mala, or one mala. That is not a prayer. It is just the mind thinking. You can do this in the car, when lying down, anywhere. It is just mental action.

Then the other practice is dedication. Dedicate the merits to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings. If we don't dedicate the merits for enlightenment, the merit doesn't become inexhaustible. We enjoy the result one time, then it is finished. But if we dedicate the merits to enlightenment, they become a cause to achieve the infinite holy qualities of Buddha's holy speech, holy body, and holy mind. It is like putting one drop of water into an ocean, it becomes oneness with the ocean, and until the ocean dries up, the drop is still there. This is written in the Sutra Requested by Lodro Gyatso (Tibetan: blo gros rgya mtshos zhu pa' mdo.) After finishing offering charity to other beings, making offerings to the Triple Gem, or meditating, then dedicate the merits. Dedicate them to enlightenment also, because this helps the merits not to be completely destroyed by heresy, anger, and so forth. This happens so much, if there is hatred and anger. So, for the merits not to be destroyed, we need to dedicate them by sealing them with emptiness. Otherwise, heresy or anger arises, and sometimes this can completely destroy the merits, or, if they are dedicated to enlightenment, the merit becomes smaller.

I'm going to explain how to dedicate:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and all other sentient beings, which exist but are totally non-existent from their own side, may the “I,” which exists but is totally non-existent from its own side, achieve ___ deity’s enlightenment (whatever deity one practices, mention that deity's name; so, for example, if it is Compassion Buddha, then say 'Compassion Buddha's enlightenment'), which exists but is totally non-existent from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, which exist but are totally non-existent from their own side, to that enlightenment, which exists but is totally non-existent from its own side, by myself alone, which exists but is totally non-existent from its own side.

By meditating on emptiness, then dedicate the merits to protect them from heresy and anger.

Before going to bed, you must do Vajrasattva practice. Since you are the best chanter of the Vajrasattva mantra in the world, you can recite the long one. Since you are reciting the long mantra, recite it 21 times, which stops today's negative karma multiplying tomorrow and purifies today's negative karma, this life's negative karma, and past lives' negative karma. It is very important, if possible, to practice purification on the basis of the four opponent powers. Otherwise, one negative karma expands, and after fifteen days it becomes similar to the negative karma from having killed a human being. Then, after years have passed, by the time of death, it becomes like the size of the earth. Like one atom multiplied and become the size of the earth. I am talking about only one negative karma. So like this, each, negative karma multiples all the time if purification, especially Vajrasattva, is not performed. This practice of Vajrasattva meditation and recitation with regret is very important in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon, at night, all the time, every day.

Therefore, practice is so important, every day, every hour, all the time, as well as virtuous thoughts, especially the good heart, bodhicitta, so that we create less negative karma, more virtue, and, after some time, no more negative karma or cause of samsara. Especially practice Vajrasattva at night-time.

In the morning, first you can chant OM MANI PADME HUM with a bodhicitta motivation and attitude to life. Then you can practice Chenrezig meditation, then prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas. Since you don't know that practice by heart, you can record it on tape and recite it with the tape. You can make prostrations to them, to the gurus, to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and to all Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, because by reciting just one of the Thirty-five Buddhas' names, you purify so many eons of negative karma. They exist to purify different negative karma. For example, reciting the name of the first Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, purifies 80,000 eons of negative karma.

Then you can practice Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, which begins with taking refuge and bodhicitta. Taking refuge and generating bodhicitta three times during the day and at night is included with this practice and with Vajrasattva practice in the evening. Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga contains within it the whole path to enlightenment, and plants the seed of enlightenment if it is read mindfully. By reading it once a day, it becomes a direct meditation, thus planting the seed of the whole path to enlightenment. That means each day you become closer to enlightenment and thus closer to freeing numberless sentient beings from suffering and bringing them to enlightenment.

At the moment, that is all my advice for you. I hope you can practice what I have said, especially the three things that Nagarjuna advised: generating bodhicitta, rejoicing and dedicating.

In order to actualize bodhicitta, there are preliminary practices. We need to generate renunciation, detachment from this life, then renunciation of future lives' happiness and samsara, by realizing how our own samsara is like being in a fire, like being in a nest of poisonous snakes, totally in the nature of suffering, with not one second of happiness. We are experiencing oceans of suffering of human beings, animals, hell beings, etc. We suffered this countless times, are still suffering, and will suffer until liberation; we will have to suffer without end.

Here, think that this is not only for ourselves, but for countless other beings, so we can't imagine how unbearable it is. No matter how much we suffer in samsara, others are suffering much more. Also, think that they are important, like us. Usually we think that we are more important, more precious than others. Now, think that all our past, present, and future happiness comes from them, including enlightenment. This has to be achieved by their kindness. So, they are so precious. Who makes it possible for us to achieve all happiness up to enlightenment is sentient beings and therefore we can see how precious sentient beings are in our life. We can't imagine how unbearable it is that they are suffering in samsara. They need to be liberated from suffering, without delaying for even a second. For that, first we need to be enlightened, without delaying for even a second.

So, that is how from renunciation we generate great compassion and that makes us seek to do work for others, to bring them to enlightenment, and free them from suffering. It makes us have the thought to achieve enlightenment, the principal consciousness, mind, which is similar to the wish to achieve enlightenment, which is bodhicitta. When this is arising without any effort, naturally, day and night, for weeks and months, then we have the realization of bodhicitta. That makes us enter the Mahayana path, and then we become a bodhisattva, the most fortunate of sentient beings.

My suggestion is to study or at least read lamrim, such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. This is quite easy to understand. It came from Pabongka, his own experience, presented in a simple way for ordinary people to understand. Since you have so much time on airplanes and in cars, this is a very good opportunity to read lamrim texts. Carry it with you and read it bit by bit from beginning to end. The idea of how to proceed to enlightenment is the three principles of the path: renunciation, bodhicitta, realization of emptiness, then the two stages of highest tantra. That is how to achieve enlightenment. All that success depends on having guru devotion, the realization seeing each guru as all buddhas and each buddha as all gurus, from your side. It doesn't matter whether the guru is Buddha or not, from the guru’s own side. This definite understanding arises from the heart—for weeks and months—this stable realization makes one receive blessings of the guru. Then realization comes. That is how one is able to reach enlightenment.

Thank you very much for your question about how to actualize bodhicitta without needing to do many prayers.

With much love and prayer,

Lama Zopa