An inmate in a Californian
prison recited one million Medicine Buddha mantras and dedicated
them to Rinpoches long life. He then wrote requesting Rinpoche to
be his guru. Rinpoche responded as follows.
My very dear Kenny,
Thank you very much for your kind letter.
Regarding your request for me to be your guruI accept. You try,
and I will try. You have a responsibility, and I have a
responsibility. You have the responsibility to follow, and I have
the responsibility to guide.
Thank you very much for reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra one
million times. It would also be very good if you could recite the
Heart Sutra 5,000 times, so that you can quickly realize emptiness.
Through that, you will develop wisdom. Only then can you end the
most terrifying prison of karma and delusion. And only then can you
be free from the prison of samsara, which is being caught in the
cycle of death and rebirth and all the sufferings, and having to
experience them again and again.
Without freedom you will take rebirth again and again, without a
seconds break, continuously, because your own aggregates are
contaminated, full of delusion and karma. Because of that, they are
in the nature of suffering, and so you will have to experience
suffering again and again. Continuously, you are caught in this
always, from life to life. Actually, this is the most terrifying
prison.
What ordinary, mundane people call prison, where you are, is
actually similar to the places where hermits live in retreat. It is
like where those ancient yogis, the great holy beings of the past,
present, and also the future, spend their whole life or many years,
in isolated places, caves, and hermitages, sometimes in extremely
poor conditions. By disciplining their body, speech, and mind and
living in virtue, they create the cause for happiness, not only
temporal happiness but ultimate happiness. This causes them to be
liberated from all suffering and its causes, and to achieve
enlightenment and liberate so many sentient beings.
For these yogi practitioners, your conditionsbeing locked up in a
room alonewould be seen as those of the luckiest person, as you
have the time and opportunity to practice. Without the condition of
being in prison, your life would be full of distractions, sense
pleasures, delusions, etc. and you would just follow these
distractions and never seek the Dharma or have interest in Dharma.
You would never be inspired or try to practice, because there is so
much distraction from the mind (inner delusions and superstitions)
and so many distractions outside. Even if you are not alone but are
locked in a room with many people, then also this situation should
persuade you and remind you that you should never waste your life,
that you have a most precious human body, and you should use it to
practice and to develop your mind toward enlightenment.
Meditation and reciting mantras are very important practices. But a
very basic practice, which is more important than those, is
practicing having a good heart and being kind to others, developing
loving kindness, compassion, and universal responsibility. When you
sincerely practice being kind to others and you want to give every
single cause of happiness to others, then, even if you dont expect
it, the result is that naturally everybody becomes kind to you and
is happy with you. They listen to you, and in this way, you can
help others. You can talk to them about the path, how to get out of
the most terrifying prisonsamsaraand achieve everlasting
happiness and total liberation.
