All sentient beings in the six realms wish for happiness and want to be free from suffering. However, only sentient beings endowed with a precious human life have the greatest capacity to achieve this. All of us present at the retreat have obtained a precious human life, are disciples of the Buddha and practice the Dharma. We can be said to have planted the seed for Enlightenment. Buddha Shakyamuni gave many teachings but it is difficult for us to fully understand all these teachings. The easiest and best practice for us to do is the practice of the six-syllable mantra. There is no other practice better than this practice in helping us gain liberation from samsara and gain happiness. The six-syllable mantra is the essence of the wisdom of all past, present and future Buddhas. It is also the essence of all the teachings of the sutric and tantric path, the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha, and the heart mantra of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We should therefore concentrate on this practice so as to attain the fruit of Enlightenment, the three kayas of the Buddha: the Dharmakaya form Buddha Amitabha, the Sambogakaya form Buddha Avalokiteshvara, and the Nirmanakaya form Guru Rinpoche. When we recite the six-syllable mantra, we need to aspire and believe in Chenrezig. As samsara is suffering, we should also aspire to liberate all sentient beings from suffering through our practice.

-- Drubwang Konchok Norbu Rinpoche