Difficulty with Prostrations
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is now 14 years old
Our Encyclopedia recently received a wonderful opportunity for a major renewal on its 14th birthday . After many years of growing our Encyclopedia had become bit slow and sometimes even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for his great work in upgrading the server, website and all of the infrastructure and helping make TBE fast and reliable again for everyone!
We kindly ask our readers to help us cover the cost of this important upgrade and also help with the ongoing costs of keeping the Encyclopedia alive and freely available.
or card
Every little donation helps and every one is deeply appreciated. 🙏🙏🙏
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM 🙏🙏🙏
May blessings shower down on all of yous 🙏🙏🙏
A student was having problems doing physical prostrations due to inflammation of the elbow. The student's letter and Rinpoche's response are below.
STUDENT'S LETTER
Dearest Lama Zopa Rinpoche,
When you were at our Dharma center, out of your incredible kindness, you gave me the Thirty-five Buddhas practice to do daily. I love doing this practice and want to continue doing this for as long as I possibly can. Before doing this practice I had some problems with tennis elbow, an inflammation of the elbow, and after seeing many different types of doctors, one of them gave me a cortisone shot which took away the inflammation.
But now the inflammation has reappeared and even though it doesn't hurt to do the Thirty-five Buddhas practice, after I have finished the pain begins.
I don't want to stop doing the practice and feel that I can continue doing the practice and just live with the pain and work with it in meditation, but some other people are telling me that I could do more damage and I should stop and just visualize doing the practice until the inflammation goes away.
I can get another cortisone shot, but this could just be temporary, and then the pain could flare up again when I start doing the Thirty-five Buddhas practice again. So, please could you tell me what is the best way. Thank you so very, very much.
From the depth of my heart and with the greatest of heartfelt love, Nicola
RINPOCHE'S RESPONSE
Dear Nicola,
You can do the practice with your hands in the mudra of prostrations, reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas, and visualizing them. If you can do a few prostrations that is very good.
Experiencing hardships and sufferings for Dharma practice is very powerful purification practice.
Best wishes ...
Source
[[1]]