Atisha said that Tibet had no adepts because Tibetans only regarded gurus as ordinary people.

—Pabongka Rinpoche

I have not written much here of late because I have very little I want to say. My time and thoughts are more and more spent on practice.

I have never wished for Telegram clout, and I only really started this channel to dialogue with my friends. I certainly have no desire to present my own ideas or project anymore.

Realising how little I know has created in me the firm determination to look inwards. As such, things like politics have become much less interesting to me.

However, for those who are politically minded, I think it is important to realise that we deserve everything we go through. There is not a single thing happening to our countries, or ourselves, that we did not create the causes for in the past.

It's your fault. You made this for yourself.

That is the inviolable Law of Karma manifesting through dependent origination.

When Shariputra asked Ashvajit what it was the Buddha taught, Ashvajit said:

ye dharmā hetu-prabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ

"All phenomena arise from causes, the Tathagata has taught these causes, and the means of their cessation, thus teaches the great ascetic."

This is so profound that it became a mantra used by all Buddhist schools to understand the essence of the Buddha's teaching.

Therefore, if you wish to put an end to the suffering of yourself, your family, nation and the world, you have no choice but to work on your own mind.

If you try to get retribution without cultivating universal love within yourself, you simply perpetuate the cycle of samsara. When you understand that all beings are seeking happiness, you can successfully forgive them for the horrific mistakes they make, and therefore overcome the delusion of inherent self that causes suffering for yourself and everyone around you.

To rise above the cycle is the only way to end it.

This is true for you, as well as everyone you wish to protect.

Two novice monks in Khotan meditated on Venerable Manjushri for twelve years but failed to receive a vision of him. They lamented, ‘Arya Manjushri’s compassion is too feeble,’ whereupon Venerable Manjushri appeared in space and informed them that they had no karmic connection with him. He told them that Avalokiteshvara was residing in the Land of Snows where he had taken birth as Songtsen Gampo and advised them to go there.

When they arrived in Tibet, they saw heads, arms and legs that had been chopped off lying in the lower valley of Tolung as a result of punishments dealt out by the king and also walls of heads, heaps of eyeballs and torture chambers of arms and legs within the tents in Denbak. They thought, ‘That Manjushri must be a mara. What is he an emanation of? This king is a murderer.’

Thinking that, they prepared to leave. The king summoned them before him, removed his headdress to reveal Amitabha and spoke, ‘I am the Avalokiteshvara of Tibet. You do not have to be afraid.’

They asked, ‘Well, is the killer of all of these living beings Avalokiteshvara, the Great Compassionate One?’

He replied, ‘Since coming to power, I have not caused even the slightest harm to living beings. Since these trainees of mine cannot be guided by peaceful means, I display emanated instruments that punish emanated victims. What do the two of you want?’

They replied, ‘We just want to go home.’

He said, ‘Well then, fill your bags with sand and lie on them.’ They did as they were told and found themselves at the opening of a rock cave in Khotan. At sunrise, the sand turned into gold.

If the two novice monks had not developed misconceptions toward the king in the beginning, they would have attained the supreme attainment of mahamudra, yet they achieved nothing in their lifetime apart from that attainment. However, it is said that they attained the state of unadorned arhats in the next birth.

—Second Panchen Lama

When your respect for the spiritual guide leading you on the path seems to wane, since relying on the spiritual guide has been explained as the root of all excellences, you should strive in it.

Similarly, when your enthusiasm for practice dwindles, principally meditate on the topics of the precious human rebirth endowed with the freedoms and privileges.

If you find yourself obsessively caught up with this life, principally meditate on impermanence and the drawbacks of the lower realms.

If you seem to neglect the obligations you have pledged to honour, meditate mainly on karma and its results.

If your disillusionment with samsara is feeble, since your striving for liberation has come to nothing but empty talk, reflect on the drawbacks of samsara.

If your desire to enact the welfare of sentient beings is not fervent no matter what you do, since wishing bodhicitta is said to be the root of the Mahayana, train in it along with its causes.

If you have taken the bodhisattva vows and yet seem to be tightly fettered by grasping at signs when you train in the bodhisattvas’ deeds, destroy such apprehension with the rational consciousness that targets grasping at signs and train in space-like emptiness and illusion-like emptiness.

If your mind cannot rest on the object of observation and seems to fall under the sway of distraction, train mainly in single-pointed stability.

These nuggets of advice have been provided by earlier masters. Based on the above illustrations, you should deduce how to avoid the pitfalls that I have not explicitly addressed.

—Second Panchen Lama

Your meditation on the lower paths should fuel your desire to attain the higher paths. When you listen to explanations that elucidate the higher paths, your desire to practice the lower paths must be intensified. When meditating on the paths, you must, by eliminating conceptualisations, keep your mind balanced.

—Second Panchen Lama

With much devotion to lamrim and inspiration to practice it, your mind changes. If you don't have this devotion and inspiration, you become thick-skulled and careless. When you hear different lamrim subjects, if you think: ‘Oh, yes, yes, I know that! I have heard that a hundred times!’, no matter how much you listen, the teachings won't move your mind. Your mind will be like a rock under the ocean, which can stay there one billion years but still be the same rock. The outside gets wet, but nothing else happens. Even if you hear lamrim and thought-training teachings a hundred times, your mind will be like this. If you have much devotion to lamrim, you have much wish to practice. Because of this practice, your mind changes, realisations come and you are able to make your life highly meaningful. It is very important to have devotion to the lamrim teachings.

—Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Generating lamrim realisations in the mind quickly depends on creating extensive merit. However much merit can be created in one day, in one hour makes it that much quicker to attain realizations of the lamrim.

Creating merit depends on how clearly and extensively you can visualize. That is the key; that is the essential thing about mandala offerings. In the Lamrim Chenmo, Lama Tsongkhapa did not explain mandalas in detail, but he explained the importance of offering the mandala with a clear visualisation.

This is incredibly important advice. If the visualisation is not clear, less merit is created. That's the secret of mandalas; the amount of merit created depends on clearly visualising the worlds, etc, as explained in the prayer.

The number of mandalas that are done isn't so important. The goal is lamrim realisations, and quick realisation depends on clear visualisation. You would create more merit by doing ten mandalas with clear visualisation than a hundred vaguely visualised. The prayer can be said quickly, but it wouldn't have so much meaning if done in that way.

It's not enough to have mere intellectual knowledge of the path—that doesn't change the mind. If there are seeds, but no soil, water, fertiliser and warmth they won't grow. Similarly, in order for realisations to grow, for the mind to be transformed by the teachings, you need to purify obstacles and accumulate merit. Offering the mandala is one of the most important methods to accumulate this much-needed merit.

—Lama Zopa Rinpoche

We are oppressed by a thick layer of karmic obscurations; our position is desperate because we do not retain the words we study, we have no proper understanding of the meaning, despite our contemplations, and in spite of our meditations, we have not developed any realisation in our mindstreams. But if we petition this special merit field, build up our accumulations [of merit], and purify ourselves of obscurations, we will soon make progress.

Great Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri what method he should strive in to develop quick realisation in his mindstream. Manjushri said he must concentrate on a combination of three things: regarding his guru as inseparable from his meditation deity and petitioning his guru; working hard at building up his accumulation [of merit] and purifying his obscurations; and pursuing the visualisations that are cause [for liberation].

So, building up your accumulation [of merit] and purifying yourself of obscurations will ripen your mental stream. You will not develop realisations if you attempt to continue internalising the lamrim meditation topics without invoking the blessings of the merit field by petitioning them; despite your perseverance, your progress will be painfully slow. But if you ripen your mindstream, you will develop realisations quickly in spite of any difficulties or obstacles, your faults will ripen quickly and easily—like expelling pus. Your good qualities will also ripen, like fruit fallen on the ground by itself, ready for you to enjoy.

Great Tsongkhapa set us an example by energetically accumulating [merit] and carrying out self-purification at Ölga Chölung through doing prostrations, offering world mandalas, and so on. He then had a vision of Nagarjuna and his four disciples. One of these disciples in the vision—Buddhapalita—blessed Tsongkhapa [by placing on Tsongkhapa’s head] a Sanskrit copy of Buddhapalita’s own commentary, the Pursuit of Buddhahood. That day Tsongkhapa had a desire to read this commentary, and to common appearances, while going over the eighteenth chapter, he developed realisation into the stainless view of the Prasangikas. He had read this commentary many times before, but to common appearances, this time his mental stream was ripe for this kind of realisation.

—Pabongka Rinpoche