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Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making prayers to a Tara statue in a hotel in Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
We can engage in many beneficial activities with our perfect human rebirth, including finding and correctly following a virtuous friend who can guide us to enlightenment. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches, following the guru’s advice is the quickest way to become free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and achieve enlightenment. Here is an excerpt on this topic from “The Time to Practice is Now,” a detailed summary of the 2020 Thought Transformation Teachings given by Rinpoche. A short Essential Extract video of Rinpoche teaching on following the guru comes after the excerpt.
With this perfect human rebirth we can find a guru, a virtuous friend, who can guide us to enlightenment. Once we have identified someone who possesses the necessary qualities, it is important to correctly follow that guru. To do this, we need to transform our ordinary thought that sees the guru as a normal being into a pure devotional thought that sees the guru as a buddha. This involves a total transformation of our mind that allows us to receive the blessings of the buddhas and gain the realizations of the path to enlightenment. As Rinpoche says, all the holy actions of the buddhas manifest in the guru and every atom of the guru is the numberless buddhas. Thus, correctly following the guru is the quickest way to become free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and achieve enlightenment.
Unless we have omniscience or very high clairvoyance, we aren’t able to see others’ minds and we can’t tell who is enlightened. The buddhas take different forms to benefit sentient beings depending on the mind of the being. Because at the moment our mind is so obscured, we cannot see a buddha in the aspect of a buddha. The only way we can see the guru is in human form with an ordinary aspect—as having delusions and showing mistaken actions. This is currently the only way for the guru to guide us.
Therefore, when we see mistakes in our guru’s actions, we should think that the guru is purposely showing us the aspect of mistakes because our mind is so obscured and defiled that if the guru didn’t show themselves in this way, we wouldn’t be able to see or communicate with them, and therefore we wouldn’t be able to receive vows, teachings, and so forth from them. In this way, the guru is kinder than all the buddhas for manifesting in an ordinary aspect. Actually, we are fortunate even to have enough good karma to be able to see the guru in human form, rather than as a donkey or mouse! The guru’s kindness is like the limitless sky.
Rinpoche goes over the eight benefits of correctly following the virtuous friend and the eight shortcomings of not doing so. (See chapter 8 in Liberation of the Palm of Your Hand.) We need to understand these well because when our guru is sweet and speaks nice words to us, or gives us presents, we are happy and pleased with them. But if our guru scolds us or shows they are displeased with us, our tendency is to give them up, to throw them away like garbage. Rinpoche asks, How can we achieve enlightenment if we give up the guru when the guru does something that our self-cherishing thought doesn’t like? Instead, we should remember the eight benefits and shortcomings and keep our devotion strong and stable. We should also remember that when the guru scolds us, all the buddhas are scolding us.
A Buddha cannot have anger, it is not possible, so they do this to help purify our negative karma. Likewise, when the guru is praising us, we should rejoice thinking that all the buddhas are so pleased with us.
Rinpoche gives the example of Milarepa, who became enlightened, not only in one life, but in a brief lifetime of degenerate times through the extreme hardships he endured under the guidance of his teacher Marpa. To the outside it looked like he was the most unfortunate person: kicked out of teachings, scolded, and even beaten; but, internally, his bearing these difficulties caused the strongest purification and became the quickest way for him to achieve enlightenment. In fact, when we bear hardships by following our guru’s advice or to fulfill their wishes, it is equivalent to doing the preliminary practices many hundreds of thousands of times. Even if the work is very hard and fraught with problems and difficulties, it becomes something to enjoy the most because it creates the same purification as having done many hundreds of thousands of prostrations, Vajrasattva mantras, mandala offerings, and so forth. It is most amazing.
If we are following the guru’s advice and get sick or experience problems, this is a very good sign because it means many, many eons of suffering in the lower realms are now being purified. Every second that we fulfill the guru’s wishes and follow their advice, our negative karma is being burned up and we are collecting skies of good karma. How much purification happens and how much merit we collect depends entirely on how well we practice correctly following the virtuous friend.
Conversely, if we don’t know the practice of correctly following the guru, we will create the heaviest negative karma every minute. If we disrespect our guru, it becomes disrespect to all the buddhas. After we decide to become a disciple of the guru, if we then belittle the guru, we cannot achieve enlightenment in this life, Rinpoche explains. As such, it is a very heavy negative karma that results in the worst suffering. Therefore, a serious practitioner makes their mind strong and does not allow anything to distract them. No matter what happens they remain determined to fulfill the guru’s wishes and to follow the guru’s advice in order to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. Correctly following the virtuous friend becomes the most important thing in one’s life! This is why we must choose our guru very wisely.
To inspire us to correctly follow our guru, Rinpoche explains that by offering service to the guru, we receive more merit than if we were to make offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha! Even a small gesture like offering a cup of water or a pair of shoes to the guru creates more merit than making offerings to numberless Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and statues, stupas, and scriptures.
Also, by correctly following the guru, we create the cause to meet a qualified guru in this and all future lifetimes, and to receive the complete and unmistaken Dharma teachings from them. Every second we correctly follow the guru, we create the causes to receive a higher rebirth, and, ultimately, to put an end to the sufferings of samsara and achieve enlightenment. By depending on the guru, we can even achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times. It is said that even the most foolish person can do this through strong and stable devotion. It is only our lazy mind that makes it difficult to follow the guru’s advice, Rinpoche explains. But by seeing the guru as all the buddhas, and by remembering the guru’s kindness, which is like the limitless sky, we become so happy to follow the advice because we see the incredible importance and the great benefits. So we must make good use of this opportunity!
In this short video Essential Extract, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that when we experience difficulties in doing as our guru advised, such as keeping our vows, doing retreat, or working for a center or the FPMT organization, we should know that it is like doing hundreds of thousands of prostrations or mandala offerings. By bearing these hardships, we are purifying our negative karma and collecting extensive merits, which we need to do in order to achieve enlightenment. On the other hand, if we don’t continuously keep our mind in devotion and allow heresy to arise, our mind becomes suffering, like popcorn popping, tak, tak, tak, tak, and we are creating the cause of hell.
Read the transcript of this video extract from Rinpoche’s teaching:
https://fpmt.box.com/s/thhps12d38cky0be88feafj6mzd208fn
You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a hotel room blessing water that will be used to blessing all the beings in a lake in Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In this short intimate clip of advice, Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us that the bodhisattva attitude is working for others, which makes life most happy and satisfying. Whether we are benefiting one or numberless sentient beings without self cherishing, living one’s life for others results in happiness for ourselves and eliminates disappointment and depression.
Watch the video clip Working for Others Is the Happiest Life
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered many teachings on the bodhisattva attitude, including:
- the booklet Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities, in which Rinpoche offers students prayers, visualizations, and advice to help transform daily activities—such as standing up, using the toilet, brushing one’s teeth, dressing, ascending a staircase, or cooking—into causes for enlightenment.
- the module “Bodhichitta Mindfulness,” from the Living in the Path program, which discusses transforming daily activities into Dharma practice and includes video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as an introduction to the topic by Ven. Sarah Thresher, additional readings, access to a discussion forum, and other helpful resources.
- Bodhisattva Attitude: How to Dedicate Your Life to Others, a 266-page book containing verses by Shantideva chosen by Rinpoche to guide us throughout the day; teachings by Rinpoche on four motivations; and an extensive appendix containing materials and practices to support this vital spiritual practice.
You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la offering prayers at one of the Ashoka Stupas in Patan, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
When people or situations disturb our minds, it’s an opportunity to notice how well—or not well—we are practicing Dharma. For example, does our mind become angry or do we have compassion when someone makes a mistake or hurts us? As Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises, if we have anger, then we should direct our attention to seeing that anger as the enemy and not the person who we think caused it. In fact, we should be grateful to that person for giving us the opportunity to further develop our Dharma practice.
Here is an excerpt of Rinpoche’s teachings on this topic from “The Time to Practice is Now,” a detailed summary of the 2020 Thought Transformation Teachings given by Rinpoche. Then following the excerpt is a short video of Rinpoche teaching on this topic.
Happiness or problems are in our control, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says. It depends on whether we think in a positive or negative way. If we think in a negative way, mountains of problems arise, resulting in losing our appetite, not sleeping, and even committing suicide. To the contrary, if we avoid anger, there is no enemy in the world. So in that way, it is up to us whether or not we have enemies. To help us develop patience, Rinpoche offers several methods we can use to change our way of thinking to help us overcome our anger and remain patient when others treat us badly.
Instead of getting angry at a person for making mistakes, we can think that it is ignorance that is causing their actions. Instead of thinking, “That person is bad,” we can think, “I need to help that person, especially to reduce their ignorance.” We can also remember their kindness instead of focusing on their mistakes. Then we can have compassion for the person instead of anger.
When a mosquito is buzzing around us, or someone harms us, we can use this as an opportunity to examine whether or not we were really practicing Dharma when we recited many mantras and prayers and have done many retreats. For example, when someone is angry, scolding, or disrespecting us, we can see whether or not we are practicing Dharma by how much we can dedicate our merits for that person. We can also check whether our mind is kind and compassionate and we generate patience or forgiveness, or we get angry and want to harm them.
Rinpoche suggests that instead of getting angry at our present situation, which causes us to be reborn in hell and is the heaviest suffering in samsara, why don’t we get angry at the anger? Our real enemy is the anger. The anger is not outside, not coming from those who harm us; it is in our mind. Do we want to be reborn in hell and suffer? The answer is no. What causes that is anger. So, logically, we must give up anger.
Obstacles, disturbing situations, undesirable conditions—all persuade us to practice virtue. Therefore we need to complete the paramita of patience to achieve enlightenment. Someone who treats us badly is our practical teacher of patience, our practical guru of patience. Only the sentient beings who harm us and get angry at us, the ones we call “enemy,” actually help us to practice the paramita of patience and put into practice the teachings we have received. By practicing patience we can overcome anger and not only achieve liberation from samsara, but achieve enlightenment, the infinite qualities of the holy body, speech, and mind of a Buddha, with which we can do perfect work for sentient beings. By thinking in this way, we can see that this person who is our “enemy” is actually unbelievably kind and incredibly precious in that they help us to achieve enlightenment. How kind they are!
From our own side, we can practice rejoicing when someone harms us; but from the side of the other person, they should practice self-discipline. Because we are practicing rejoicing at the situation, it might look as though that other person can do whatever they wish, including harming us. Rinpoche clarifies, it is not like that. If their behavior is harming others, that person should stop doing it. However, while we can’t control what someone else does, we can control what we do. By rejoicing and keeping a happy mind, our body and mind remain relaxed and comfortable. By practicing self-discipline and contentment, we can bring peace to the world rather than being like a firecracker— full of anger and jealousy.
In this video clip, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how the person who harms us, who criticizes us, who is angry with us, our enemy, allows us to complete the practice of patience and achieve enlightenment. No one else, not our friends or strangers, gives us this precious opportunity. By practicing patience and overcoming anger, we can achieve the infinite qualities of an enlightened being and do perfect work for sentient beings. Therefore, our so-called enemy gives us skies of kindness. We can’t repay this kindness by offering them the sky filled with dollars or wish-granting jewels. We can’t even repay their kindness by offering them the whole world. Their kindness is unbelievable.
Read the transcript of this video extract from Rinpoche’s teaching:
https://fpmt.box.com/s/tqjstohvj6dcyh0c1xph6k9z3r513hkk
You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a Tara statue in a hotel in Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Our time to practice Dharma is fleeting. We don’t know when we will die. Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly encourages us to think about impermanence and death so we don’t procrastinate doing our Dharma practice. Below is an excerpt on this topic from “The Time to Practice is Now,” a detailed summary of the 2020 Thought Transformation Teachings offered by Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Following the excerpt is a short video on this topic from these teachings.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that meditating on death and impermanence is what controls and subdues our mind. He reminds us of the important points about death to remember and meditate on.
Death is definite. Everyone who is alive now will one day be dead. We are all in the process of dying. From the moment we are born, we are constantly running toward death. In the morning we could be involved in conversations and other activities, and by the evening we could be dead. This includes famous people and holy beings—all beings who are living now, at some point in the future will no longer be here, just their names will remain. But while we continuously see people around us dying of cancer, or currently from this virus, we never relate it to ourselves—we never think, “Just like them, I’m going to die.” To make sure that we don’t take our life for granted and waste it, therefore we need to remember how death is definite, thinking, “Sooner or later, I too will not be here.”
Although death is definite, the time of our death is uncertain. We are unbelievably fortunate to still be alive today. So many people died last night, but we are still alive. Although we can die at anytime, the best thing to think is that we could die today or, at most, we could die tomorrow. In this way, we will use every moment we have left to practice Dharma.
At the time of death nothing can benefit us other than Dharma. The family and friends that we love can’t come with us, nor can our wealth or possessions—not even our precious body that we cherish so much. We can’t carry even one atom with us. It is only our practice of the holy Dharma that can benefit us at the time of death, nothing else.
Remembering death and impermanence encourages us to practice right now. There is no time to waste. We don’t think about death to develop a fear of dying; we do it to encourage ourselves to practice Dharma without delay, to not put it off until we get old. By continually being aware of death and practicing Dharma, the best Dharma practitioners are able to die happy, the middling ones are able to die without sadness, and even the poorest ones are able to die without regret, Rinpoche explains.
“Among all the things to remember, the best is remembering impermanence-death. It reminds you to practice Dharma. Not just to practice Dharma in this life, but to practice Dharma—since when death will occur is not definite,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises.
Watch the Essential Extract “Remembering Impermanence-death, Everything You Do Becomes Holy Dharma”:
In this video Essential Extract, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains a quote by Milarepa that says that by remembering impermanence and death, we will conquer the mara of laziness. If, on the other hand, we don’t remember that we could die at any time, our main aim in life will be to achieve happiness in this life, today, and right now! Due to this procrastinating, we risk wasting our whole life. Milarepa also says that by remembering impermanence and death, whatever we do becomes Dharma, not only receiving teachings and meditating, but even activities such as eating, walking, working, and sleeping.
Read the transcript of this video extract from Rinpoche’s teaching:
https://fpmt.box.com/s/8doo87er18je0tg1vav6dgfpgusu55hx
You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a visit to the Chandragiri Hill Resort, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas by Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recently been released in a paperback edition. In the book, Rinpoche walks us through the six perfections, which are a key Mahayana Buddhist teaching. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s teaching on the perfection of patience:
There is nothing pleasant at all about anger. Irritation, agitation, impatience, sullenness, spite—all these sorts of negative emotions overwhelm us and refuse to give us one moment’s peace, whereas when we have patience, we have genuine peace. There is no question of which is preferable. The frustrated, unhappy mind is the fuel that can easily grow into anger. Until we have learned to overcome that anger with patience, it will destroy any happiness we have.
It’s not that anger and hatred are weak minds. With hatred our mind is incredibly focused on the object of our hatred and how to destroy it. We should turn that strength around to destroy the real enemy, focusing all our attention on what is really causing us such unhappiness—our own anger. We need to destroy it completely with patience.
We don’t have to become angry when an enemy tries to harm us or when adverse situations occur. It’s impossible to avoid problems, but when we analyze such situations, we will see that there is no reason for becoming unhappy. Unless we can generate a happy mind, how can we renounce the unhappy one? We therefore need to think well on the benefits of voluntarily accepting suffering and make a strong determination to not allow anger and frustration to arise, no matter what happens around us.
It is very easy to let a day go by without practicing patience, then a week, a month, a year. Before we know it, our whole life has gone and then, suddenly, unexpectedly, death happens and we have never developed patience in our mind, despite all the teachings we have studied and retreats we have done. At the time of death it’s too late to regret not developing patience.
What we can do now in a very practical way is to watch our mind, and the moment it is disturbed by somebody or something, by understanding the terrible effects of anger, we determine to not allow even a moment of anger to arise. We can make a plan to do this for a certain time each day and gradually increase it. If we train our mind in patience in that way, doing whatever we can to overcome any angry thought that arises, by keeping at it, change will definitely happen, year by year. Seeing how there is so much more peace now that the angry mind does not arise gives us the determination to practice patience even more. Then, thinking back on how we once would have become angry from one sharp word from a colleague at work or from the noise of branches tapping on our window disturbing our sleep, we will wonder why we ever got so angry. It is just a matter of practice.
Cover of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s book The Six Perfections
Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, including ordering information for the paperback and hardcover editions, on Wisdom Publication’s website:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-six-perfections/
You can also find The Six Perfections as an ebook in the Foundation Store (shop.fpmt.org).
Watch the ongoing video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, nunnery abbot, with nuns who have completed their studies at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following short video from a teaching given in Madrid, Spain, in 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses what it means to truly practice Dharma.
At beginning of this video, Rinpoche recalls how, many years ago while staying at Lawudo in Nepal, he read the text “At the Very Beginning, Thought Transformation Opening the Door of Dharma.” Due to reading this text, Rinpoche reviewed his life to check whether he had practiced actual Dharma and realized that nothing he had done up to that point was Dharma.
In the video, Rinpoche then recommends to students that if they are planning to do retreat they should familiarize themselves with this text. (Rinpoche mentions his books The Door to Satisfaction and How to Practice Dharma for more on this topic.)
Rinpoche then tells the story of a practitioner who met Gyalwa Dromtonpa, the translator of Atisha in Tibet. Each time this student met Dromtonpa, regardless of whether the student had read a text, meditated, or circumambulated a stupa, Dromtonpa told the student that what he had done was good, but it would be even better to practice Dharma. Eventually the student asked what Dromtonpa meant by that. Dromtonpa said, “Renounce this life.”
Rinpoche explains how all our problems come from our attachment to this life, and that our attachment creates unbelievable suffering for us. It leads to rebirth in lower realms. So we must renounce our attachment, Rinpoche says, we must give up the root of our problems.
“That is the start of Dharma practice,” Rinpoche says. “Then on the basis of that you develop [your practice]. On the basis of that, you achieve enlightenment. You come to omniscient mind. Then you benefit numberless sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.”
What it means to practice Dharma is the first and most important thing to know, Rinpoche explains. Otherwise, there is the danger that the time that you do retreat or stay in a monastery and study is wasted when you don’t know how to practice holy Dharma.
Watch this teaching in the video “The Real Meaning of Practicing the Dharma”:
The above video is extracted from a teaching given on October 21, 2018, in Madrid, Spain. You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
Watch videos from the ongoing series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read an in-depth summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la offering Tara Puja at Tara Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
With the new year approaching, many of us are reflecting on the past year— rejoicing in the blessings we received, and also assessing mistakes we have made. Fortunately, we have methods at our disposal to help us purify negative karma we have created. We can utilize these practices daily, and also as a way to enter the new year with a renewed sense of resolve to be the best versions of ourselves, so we can be of most benefit to others.
During the ongoing video Thought Transformation Teachings that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been offering from Kopan Monastery in Nepal, Rinpoche has, on several occasions, talked about purification practice. In “The Time to Practice is Now,” a detailed, overarching summary of the 2020 teachings published in Mandala, Rinpoche discusses the many benefits of having a perfect human rebirth, including how it grants us the opportunity to purify negative karma. Here’s an excerpt from this summary:
Rinpoche explains that having this one-time opportunity makes us unbelievably fortunate—a perfect human rebirth is more precious than the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels. This is because even skies of wish-granting jewels don’t have the power to purify our negative karma and save us from the lower realms, nor can they give us liberation from samsara and enlightenment, but having a perfect human rebirth can do this.
We have been creating negative karma from beginningless rebirths, which is why it is so important to do purification practices in this life—before our negative karma ripens. Once it ripens, there’s nothing we can do; we must experience the result. Therefore, we need to do a purification practice every day. There are many practices we can do for purification, including Vajrasattva practice, prostrations to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas, and others. Although these formal purification practices are extremely effective in purifying our negative karma, Rinpoche explains that the most powerful thing we can do to purify our negative karma is to follow our guru’s advice and please our guru. But if we don’t realize how valuable and important these practices are and that having a perfect human rebirth gives us the perfect opportunity to do them, we might think it is better to spend our time at the beach swimming in the water like a fish!
Watch Rinpoche discuss the importance of purification practices in “Purify Now Because You Can Die Anytime”:
Watch the ongoing video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation on FPMT.org and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read our summary article on Rinpoche’s 2020 teachings “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
You can find resources to support your purification practice on the Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following short video from a teaching given in Singapore in 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the vast benefits of practicing bodhicitta. Here’s a summary of this teaching:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses how having the mind of bodhicitta is the basis for all the happiness and peace of all sentient beings. Our bodhicitta eliminates the suffering of sentient beings.
It is important to understand, Rinpoche explains, how generating bodhicitta in everyday life leads to the happiness of all sentient beings. With the motivation of bodhicitta every action becomes worthwhile and rich. Any action done with bodhicitta collects skies of merit. Rinpoche emphasizes that when you practice bodhicitta, everyone is included, not even the tiniest fly is left out.
Reciting just one OM MANI PADME HUM with bodhicitta can benefit everyone. Rinpoche points out that we should become aware of how amazing this incredible benefit of practicing bodhicitta is.
When you practice bodhicitta, your life is unbelievably meaningful and useful. It is the most healthy and best life. “Living life with bodhicitta is the happiest life, you understand?” Rinpoche says. When you die with bodhicitta there is no problem. You die happy and your death also becomes meaningful. Whatever one does, even going to a party, should be done with the motivation of bodhicitta and be dedicated for the enlightenment of every sentient being.
Watch the video “About the Importance of Bodhichitta”:
The above video is extracted from a teaching given on September 19, 2018 at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
Watch videos from the series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read an in-depth summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following short video from a teaching Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave in Munich, Germany, in 2018, Rinpoche explains the shortcomings of self cherishing and the benefits of cherishing others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins by talking about the great bodhisattva Togme Sangpo, who said that all suffering comes from cherishing the I. Cherishing the I is the door to the suffering of oneself and of others. Only thinking of “me” and “When can I be happy?” causes suffering, not only harming yourself but harming other sentient beings. We have been creating this suffering since beginningless lifetimes.
We can change this by developing the attitude to serve others. Thinking about making others happy opens the door to all happiness for ourselves up to enlightenment. When you understand that the purpose of your life is to benefit others, everything changes. “The minute you change from the self-cherishing thought to cherishing others, right there, you don’t have to go anywhere, right there you found your happiness, you achieved happiness,” Rinpoche says.
Then referring to Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara, Rinpoche says that if you wish to quickly guide yourself and others, then you should do the practice of exchanging yourself for others. You change the self-cherishing thought into cherishing others. You should do this practice with your mind, and it should be done secretly. “You don’t advertise ‘I’m practicing bodhicitta,’” Rinpoche says. “You don’t announce it to the world. You just do it mentally.”
In closing Rinpoche says that whether it is one insect or one person, happiness and enlightenment come from cherishing others.
Watch the video “Open the Door to Your Happiness Now”:
The above video is extracted from a teaching given on November 10, 2018, in Munich, Germany. (You can watch more from Rinpoche’s 2018 European tour online.) You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.
The morning meditation Rinpoche refers to in this teaching is The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment).
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote this letter to a student who was in the middle of a relationship break-up.
Hi, I think you are having a great realization of life. May I tell you little bit about this, how it is a great realization, a discovery—actually you are on the Discovery Channel. This helps you to realize how samsara is in the nature of suffering, the three types of suffering and the six types of suffering. There is nothing definite in samsara, and you can never get satisfaction from samsaric pleasures, perfections, enjoyments, materials, or friends.
This realization becomes the cause for generating renunciation; it becomes the basis for generating great compassion; it becomes the basis for bodhichitta and for achieving the entire Mahayana path. Because this higher path has skies of qualities, you can achieve enlightenment, then you can enlighten all suffering beings, and before that you can liberate them from samsaric suffering.
Now you can see how all sentient beings’ happiness, including great enlightenment, comes from this root that you are discovering. WOW! I was saying how it is so positive, it is incredible. It is an extremely important discovery in your life. It is a very important education, something very precious that you need, that we need. Now there is only great joy. You can see how she is most incredibly kind, giving you enlightenment.
This advice “Relationship Break-Up” was originally published in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LamaYeshe.com).
Watch the ongoing video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation on FPMT.org and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Rigsel Rinpoche (on right) and other young monks, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following short video recorded during the 2018 retreat at Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche responds to a question about how to practice patience:
In order to practice patience, we first must have a strong understanding of how harmful anger is, Rinpoche explains. If we don’t understand the danger of anger, then we won’t be persuaded to practice patience.
We need to think about the negative karma that is created by anger. However when we are angry, we don’t care about karma and are capable of doing terrible actions. That is why we need to understand that this nonvirtue results in future suffering and causes so many problems. “What you have to remember is this, how the anger is so harmful. First you have to recognize that,” Rinpoche says.
Then, quoting the great bodhisattva Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara, Rinpoche says, “‘For a thousand eons you made offerings to the Gone to Bliss Ones and made charity to other sentient beings, for a thousand eons, so merits collected by making offerings to Buddha and charity to other sentient beings, by rising anger one second it destroys all the merits.’ … You understand? It completely gets destroyed. You have to understand how anger is so dangerous.”
Not only does anger create future suffering, it destroys our merit. So we need to develop our understanding of the results of anger to motivate us to practice patience, which will change how we see the object of our anger.
Watch the video “How Anger and Patience Relate to Each Other”:
The above video is extracted from a teaching given on May 10, 2018, during the retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. You can find more short video clips of Rinpoche’s teachings in the “Essential Extracts” video collection on FPMT.org.
Watch videos from the series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read an in-depth summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Domestic turkeys, Vardane-Verino, Adlersky District, Sochi, Russian, October 2016. Photo by SKas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The American holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated each year in late November. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extensive advice in 2018 on how to help the tens of millions of turkeys being killed for the holiday, and also how to think about this tradition of killing and eating turkeys. Here is an excerpt and short summary from this advice, called “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”:
“On Thanksgiving eve, 2018, the Sangha in Switzerland and I did extensive prayers for those who rely on me, those for whom I promised to pray, those whose names were given to me, and, in particular, all the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving. We also did Vajrasattva purification, the King of Prayers, and the Amitabha Buddha Prayer to be Reborn in the Land of Bliss. All these practices were dedicated for all beings, but especially for all the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving,” Rinpoche says.
“If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again. … If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.”
To purify past negative karma, Rinpoche gives detailed advice on doing Vajrasattva practice with the four opponent powers. Rinpoche recommends for those who can to take the eight Mahayana precepts. He also recommends reciting prayers from the Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead, doing a nyung na retreat, reciting the four immeasurable and tonglen, reciting the Golden Light Sutra and Vajra Cutter Sutra, doing Chenrezig practice and Medicine Buddha puja, and the recitation of several specific mantras. Rinpoche also explains how to dedicate your practice in order to purify the already created negative karma to be reborn as a turkey and to not create such karma in the future.
“These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten,” Rinpoche explains.
For links to practice materials and detailed instructions, see “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/turkeys-at-thanksgiving/
Further Commentary and Advice for Thanksgiving
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
I don’t think the general population of America accepts clairvoyance, but if it did, people would understand where all the sufferings, such as depression, come from. The way people normally think—for example, what causes depression—is very limited. They only think about things that are to do with this life. If they had clairvoyance they could see much deeper; they could see things such as past and future lives. People normally think of only this life, not past and future lives.
In the past, many of the turkeys that Americans are eating were Americans who in the past had killed turkeys. Often it could even be a past family member that they are now eating.
There’s a sutra story about Buddha’s disciple Shariputra, who excelled in wisdom. Once when he was on his alms round he looked into a family’s house and saw that the father, who used to catch fish in his backyard pond, had died and been reborn as a fish in that pond. The mother, his wife, who had been very attached to the home, had also died and been reborn as the family dog. And the son’s enemy, who had been very attached to the son’s wife, had died and been reborn as their child. The son was holding the child, his former enemy, eating the fish, his late father, and beating the dog, his late mother, while it chewed on fish bones. Shariputra then observed, “The son is eating his father’s flesh, beating his mother with a stick, and cuddling his enemy on his lap—samsaric existence makes me laugh.”
If we have animals we have to remember this story and take care of them well. It is very important to understand the benefits of taking care of our pets and other animals by giving them food and drink. Think that you are making charity and don’t just do it out of attachment, thinking that you love the shape of the animals or something, doing everything simply for your own happiness. It’s the same with looking after your children. You create a child with attachment, for your own happiness, thinking how your life would be unbelievably happy if you had a child. Then you take care of the child, but it is for your own happiness.
It is also important to recognize and remember your animals’ most unbelievable kindness, how they have been kind to you in three ways, and then with that awareness give them food and drink. First recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and then blow over the food and drink to bless it. If you have mani pills, it’s good to crush them and put them into the food and drink, or even add blessed water. You don’t have to get blessed water from a lama; you can make it yourself. Whether or not you have daily commitments, recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and other mantras, such as OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ, the Mitrugpa mantra and so forth, and then blow on the water. You can recite however many repetitions of each mantra you want, like seven, ten, fifteen, or more, blow on the animal’s food or water and make prayers as well. Similarly, you can keep a bottle of water nearby and when you’ve done your commitments you can blow on the water and then use that to put on the food and water that you give to the animals.
Then make this dedication prayer:
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.
Finally, please remember the unbelievable benefits of making charity of food to the animals. As the Buddha said, “Anybody who makes charity well during the period my teachings exist will receive great enjoyments for 80,000 eons, even if the material that person offers is merely the size of a hair. That person will be free from pain and disease, will enjoy great happiness, will be enriched with all manner of desirable things, and will eventually achieve the result: peerless cessation and complete enlightenment.”
This advice has been extracted from the page “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving,” which shares a teaching and advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Switzerland in 2018. Scribed by Holly Ansett. Edited by Nicholas Ribush, November 2020.
For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras. You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.