Lama Zopa Rinpoche recording a video teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins by explaining that it’s very important to expand on the topic of refuge because it can take one’s whole life—even as a monk or nun studying—or many lifetimes to understand it. Rinpoche reminds us that he’s giving these teachings on refuge because a young girl and other students in China have requested for Rinpoche to offer the refuge ceremony.

The motivation for listening to the teachings, and for taking refuge, is not just for oneself or for temporary happiness. It isn’t enough to want to not be reborn in the lower realms or to obtain a deva or human rebirth in the next life. It also isn’t enough to want to be free from samsara and achieve nirvana. The real motivation is the desire to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations—Buddhahood—by yourself. In order to do that, you must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, for that purpose, you listen to the teachings and take refuge.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche then begins to read from, and provide commentary on, a discussion of refuge from “Day Twelve” of Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Phabongkha Rinpoche teaches that when going for refuge, we make a promise to:

1. 1. Buddha, the founder of refuge;
   2. Dharma, the actual refuge; and
      
   3. Sangha, the helper for actualizing refuge.

Therefore, Phabongkha Rinpoche explains, we should rely on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha like we rely on a doctor, medicine, and nurses when we are sick. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that similar to how we must make sure that the doctor we chose is expert and that the medicine and nurses are correct, when taking refuge we must rely on Buddha, the founder of refuge; Dharma, the actual refuge; and Sangha, the helper for actualizing refuge ourselves.

Phabongkha Rinpoche then tells the story of two non-Buddhist brothers who became Buddhist when they saw Maheshvara taking refuge in Buddha. One of the brothers composed a text, which Phabongkha Rinpoche refers to, saying:

Like this text says, having taken refuge in our Teacher and being disciples of his teachings, we should hold firmly to them, unable to be converted to other [religions], and not take refuge in Bön, Mutegpa, and so forth, which are outside this Dharma.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that these brothers went for refuge to the Buddha “a hundred percent, totally. Their mind is indestructible.” They will not go back to their old religion, change to following other religions, or follow Bön or Mutegpa. They firmly took refuge in Buddha.

Rinpoche describes “Mutegpa” as meaning “non-level.” He explains how the Buddhist schools—Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Mind-Only,  Madhyamaka Svatantrika, and Madhyamaka Prasangika—are “teg pa,” or “levels,” like steps. Understanding the Vaibhashika view, helps you understand Sautrantika view, and so on. So understanding the Madhyamaka Svatantrika view is unbelievably helpful for understanding the Madhyamaka Prasangika view, Rinpoche explains. The other religions don’t help understand the most correct subtle emptiness and are therefore “Mutegpa.” Rinpoche offers the example of the Hindu tradition, where the I is permanent, exists alone, and exists with its own freedom. In contrast, Buddhism teaches that the I is impermanent, depends on causes and conditions, and does not exist with its own freedom.

Phabongkha Rinpoche continues on the topic of refuge, making two additional points: the more you think about other religions, the more you become devoted to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; and if you have two refuges, you lose your refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Within this context, Phabongkha Rinpoche begins a discussion of the Bön religion, which was prevalent in Tibet before Buddhism. As explained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Phabongkha Rinpoche says that the founder of Bön cannot be said to have ceased all the gross defilements and subtle defilements and completed all the qualities; the Bön religion itself doesn’t have a method for the delusions to decrease; and the “Sangha” in Bön, those intent on virtue, do not have a lineage through vows to the founder. So the founder, the religion, and the followers do not have the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

It is important to understand the references for Bön, “such as those found in the authentic histories in the texts of past learned [highly attained] scholars,” Phabongkha Rinpoche says, continuing from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand:

Therefore, all three—the founder of Bön, the Bön teachings, and the Bön views—are mixed with the views and meditations of non-Buddhists. They have stolen things from the Buddhist scriptures and made them into a false Dharma and so forth. This happened a very long time ago but this widespread bad tradition has spread. Therefore, it is not worthy to be a refuge for those seeking liberation nor is it trustworthy.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues reading through this section of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and adding commentary. Phabongkha Rinpoche’s points here included that the Bönpo’s views are distorted views of the Mutegpa; that even if Bönpos and Mutegpa appear to have quick attainments, they eventually fall into lower realms; that Bön does not free you from samsara; that only a Buddha can liberate others from samsara; that those who are themselves bound to samsara cannot liberate others; and that Milarepa says that Bön is a wrong religion.

Phabongkha Rinpoche also debates the Bönpo’s claims that there are Bonpo buddhas and bodhisattvas, saying that “since those who say that have minds polluted by the bad imprints of wrong views, these are the great words of the highly ignorant.” Phabongka Rinpoche completes his debate making the following point:

Those who desire what is excellent should completely discard nauseating bad customs like discarding stones used to clean kaka. The refuge of Buddhists is only the Three Rare Sublime Ones. You should hold these objects of refuge as pure. It is important to totally trust in them.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche concludes this teaching with Phabongkha Rinpoche’s point that “taking refuge is not only reciting words”:

Like someone who has made mistakes seeks help from an influential leader, being afraid of the evil-gone realms, samsara, and so forth and trusting that the Rare Sublime Ones have the capacity to protect you, you must develop the mental factor intention that totally relies upon these protectors. This is the criterion for having taken refuge.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “It Is Good to Know About the Bön Religion”

Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The text Lama Zopa Rinpoche is teaching on in this video comes from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications, 2006) chapter “Day Twelve,” pp. 371—374, starting from the outline “Taking Refuge Owing to One’s Beliefs.” 
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this video by reminding us why he is offering these teachings on refuge. Due to a young girl and other students in China requesting refuge, Rinpoche will offer the ceremony—which all with interest are welcome to take when that video is released—after explaining the benefits of refuge.

As always, the motivation for listening to the teachings isn’t for oneself to achieve liberation from samsara; this is not sufficient. The real purpose of human life is to not harm and only benefit sentient beings. Since beginningless rebirths, there are numberless sentient beings from whom you have received happiness. They have suffered and died for you, including small sentient beings involved in making water and food. Because of this kindness, you cannot use your precious human life to achieve happiness for yourself alone.

Rinpoche then talks about Lama Serlingpa, from whom Lama Atisha received teachings, especially on bodhicitta. Lama Atisha traveled from India to Indonesia, where he stayed for twelve years, in order to learn from Lama Serlingpa. In Leveling Out All Conceptions, Lama Serlingpa said:

That called “I,” the root of negative karma,
Is a phenomenon to immediately cast far away.

If something is poisonous, dangerous, or deadly to you, you throw it out immediately. All of your suffering from beginningless rebirths and all of your future suffering comes from your self-cherishing thought. Not only that, you have harmed numberless sentient beings since beginningless time due to this. The I is the phenomenon that is to be cast far away and others are the phenomena to immediately cherish. Also in Leveling Out All Conceptions, Lama Serlingpa said:

That called “others,” the originator of enlightenment,
Is a phenomenon to immediately cherish.

You are totally busy your whole life from birth until you die in service to the I, but it isn’t even there. Everyone functions on the basis of this “real” concept of I, but there is no such thing in reality, Rinpoche explains. The exception is those who have realized emptiness and meditate every day on seeing everything—I, action, object—as an illusion. Otherwise, what you think you see is a complete hallucination, like a dream. On the basis of this wrong concept, the six delusions—attachment, anger, pride, doubt, ignorance, wrong view—and the twenty secondary delusions arise. What appears as real, what you hold as real, it’s not there. This doesn’t mean nihilism; it doesn’t mean that nothing exists.

It is important to put effort into thinking about the shortcomings of true suffering and understanding what binds you to samsara. To do this, rely on your mind being upset with samsara.

The suffering of dissatisfaction is the suffering of pain. Even billionaires, kings, and presidents suffer from this, from not being content. Contentment is not something that is taught or emphasized in universities in the West. Even in a world full of viruses, problems, and so much suffering, you can still have contentment and satisfaction.

Coming together with people and separating is the suffering of change. Collecting material objects and losing them is the suffering of change. Rebirth ending in death is the suffering of change. Samsaric pleasures, which are the suffering of change, cheat you. You are caught over and over by samsaric pleasures, which are like honey on a blade. At the beginning there is pleasure, and then it ends with the suffering of pain. You have to meditate on the renunciation of samsara, how samsara is in the nature of suffering.

For pervasive compounded suffering, the aggregates are under the control of karma and delusion, and so they are “pervaded” by suffering, Rinpoche explains. From the seed of karma and delusion, suffering arises again. So it is “compounded.”

Form realm beings have the suffering of change. They have desire for the five external sense objects. Formless realm beings don’t have the suffering of pain or the suffering of change. They only have pervasive compounded suffering. They don’t have a physical body, just a mind, which is under the control of delusion and karma. So from this contaminated seed, suffering arises. And when their karma to be in the formless realm finishes, they get reborn in the desire realm—in a hell or as a hungry ghost, an animal, or a human being. We have been through this numberless times: born in the form realm and formless realm numberless times since beginningless rebirths. We need to be free from this.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Rely on a Mind That Is Upset with Samsara”

Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his explanation of Buddhist refuge.* This teaching begins with Rinpoche explaining that taking refuge is not something simple. It’s not something that you simply hear and chant. One has to understand the four noble truths extensively and also understand the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which can take one’s whole life to do this. This is why monks study their whole lives in monasteries.

Rinpoche reminds us of the proper motivation for listening to the teachings. It is not enough to achieve liberation from samsara and then achieve nirvana and everlasting happiness for oneself alone. Instead think, “I must achieve the state of omniscience, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations. I must achieve this to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone! Therefore, I am going to listen to the teachings.”

Rinpoche shares a verse from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymn of Experience:

If you don’t attempt to think of the shortcomings of true sufferings,
Seeking liberation won’t arise exactly.
If you don’t reflect on the causes, the evolution of samsara,
You won’t know how to cut the root of samsara.
Therefore, rely on an upset mind renouncing samsara
And cherish the understanding of what ties you to samsara.

Rinpoche explains that an “upset mind renouncing samsara” is so worthwhile even though to worldly people who don’t understand Dharma, it looks totally crazy and meaningless. The “upset mind” understands how karma and delusion lead to all suffering, and how one is trapped in the endless cycle of samsara. Due to being upset by this understanding of the suffering of samsara, one is motivated to go into isolation to actualize renunciation, bodhichitta, emptiness, the whole path to enlightenment—this makes that “upsetness” so worthwhile. “Skies of worthwhile upsetness,” Rinpoche says.

It is like poison to think that living in isolation and practicing Dharma is crazy and meaningless. The person who thinks this way does not achieve freedom from samsara along with nirvana and everlasting happiness. But the person who is practicing Dharma, who left worldly life with renunciation to actualize the path in isolation—wow! Worldly people don’t like suffering, but they don’t understand suffering. Westerners can be so shocked when someone lives in a cave. But there is no benefit to being upset with someone who has renounced the worldly life and is practicing Dharma. In fact, it is poison. Even though there are good-hearted people in the West, Rinpoche explains that many of the concepts and actions of body, speech, and mind in the West are totally opposite of Buddhadharma, the teachings of the Buddha.

It is extremely important to understand what ties you to samsara. You are suffering and you don’t like suffering, but you don’t know why you are suffering. Nothing and nobody tied you to samsara from the outside—in fact, you tied yourself to samsara with your hallucinated mind. You must understand this. It is up to you to cut this rope.

Rinpoche shares verses from Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen’s Melodious Song Bringing Joy to Lozang [Dragpa]: Responses to “Queries from a Sincere Heart,” which is a response to a text by Lama Tsongkhapa:

The way of reflecting on the hundreds of shortcomings of samsara:
Although there are many, through being frightened by the suffering of pain
Even animals wish to be free from it.

Even non-Buddhists renounce
Contaminated pleasant feeling.

Even animals renounce the suffering of pain, Rinpoche says. If you wield a stick toward a dog, it runs away. When they are hungry they run to look for food. They have the thought to be free from pain and the suffering of hunger and thirst. Likewise, even non-Buddhists renounce the suffering of change.

Rinpoche continues quoting Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen:

Therefore, these contaminated aggregates taken [by delusion and karma],
Which are the nature of being compounded,
Are the container of suffering that will be actualized and [already] actualized suffering,
Such as diseases, pustules, and sharp pains.
If you meditate through thinking about this, it will help you become free.

Rinpoche explains how in Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo there are eight types of suffering, unlike how there are six types of suffering in Phabongkha Rinpoche‘s lamrim text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Rinpoche then goes over Tsongkhapa’s five points on the eighth type of suffering, which is the suffering of “the five aggregates taken [by karma and delusion]”:

Thinking about the meaning of what Buddha said, “In brief, the five aggregates taken [by karma and delusions] are suffering,” has five points:

1. 1. They are a vessel for suffering that will be actualized.
   2. They are a vessel for suffering that is the base on which [suffering has already] been actualized.
   3. They are a vessel for the suffering of pain.
   4. They are a vessel for the suffering of change.
   5. They are the nature of compounding suffering.

So the aggregates, due to karma and delusion, contain already actualized suffering as well as this life’s future suffering and the suffering of future lives. Lama Tsongkhapa’s way of explaining the eighth human beings’ sufferings is that it is like an ocean,” Rinpoche says. Phabongkha Rinpoche didn’t explain the aggregates as a container of the different types of suffering, but this is how Lama Tsongkhapa explained it.

From the formless realm down to Avichi Hell, the aggregates are pervaded by suffering, under the control of delusion and karma. To be free from suffering, you have to become free from the seeds of delusion and karma. Pervasive compounding suffering is the main suffering renounced by Buddhists, Rinpoche explains.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “You Tie Yourself to Samsara”

*Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues a short series of teachings on refuge. These teachings will culminate with Rinpoche offering the refuge ceremony, which will be available to anyone wishing to take the life-long refuge vows from Rinpoche. This series is due to the request of a few Chinese students, including a young girl, for Rinpoche to offer refuge vows. In response, Rinpoche is explaining refuge in detail prior to offering the vows.

Rinpoche begins by warning us that we must be aware of the heavy negative karma one creates by belittling one’s guru. Rinpoche recommends writing down the following verse from the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, in our prayer books:

In the view of your own perverted mind,
Your own mistakes appear in the guru’s actions.
Your heart is totally rotten from the depths.
Recognizing that it is your own mistake, abandon it like poison.

Even if you killed your mother, your father, or an arhat, or caused blood to flow from a Buddha, or created disunity in the sangha, you can still purify those mistakes and achieve enlightenment. But the heaviest negative karma is belittling a guru with whom you have made a Dharma connection, Rinpoche explains. This verse from the Fifth Dalai Lama if very powerful for protecting you from mistakes, including breaking vows and belittling the guru. You need to recognize that seeing mistakes in your guru’s actions is your own mistake. And your own mistakes appear in the guru’s actions.

In the West, Rinpoche explains, people look for a guru, then they create the heaviest negative karma in relation to the guru. This is like finding gold and using it for a toilet or a garbage can.

Instead of seeing mistakes, we need to see whatever the guru does as positive. The Fifth Dalai Lama advises this:

With the pure appearance that sees whatever is done as positive
And the devotion that accomplishes whatever is said as advice,
Whatever you do becomes the profound vital point of accomplishing Dharma.
Understand this to be the root of the benefit and virtue that accomplish whatever you wish.

In this way, seeing whatever your guru does as positive, allows you to accomplish whatever your guru advises. Rinpoche says that this is another important verse to write down in one’s prayer book so it isn’t forgotten.

Rinpoche shares that at the time of death, Dolgyal practice harms those who do it and when a practitioner dies, terrifying visions, incredible fear, and regret appear. When the body of a Dolgyal practitioner is offered to the birds, vultures won’t even eat the bodies of those who practiced this deity. Rinpoche shares this to warn, “Be careful before taking refuge. Be careful about whom you take refuge from. Don’t cheat yourself.”

Rinpoche then offers a translation of a short sutra on going for refuge, The Mahayana Sutra Called “Going for Refuge to the Arya Three Rare Sublime Ones” (at 46:35 in the video). This sutra describes just how precious it is to take refuge. “Be careful,” Rinpoche advises. “Don’t waste your life.”

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Sutra ‘Going for Refuge to the Arya Three Rare Sublime Ones'”

Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings from Rinpoche. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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 Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this teaching by reminding us that there are many ways in which we can help others. Even if you have limited Dharma understanding, limited experience of the path, there are ways you can benefit others. For example, when you build very big statues of buddhas, people come to see them, and then they purify and collect the most unbelievable merit. You can also bring Dharma books and teachings to people to help them dispel ignorance. There are many ways, according to their individual capacities, that you can help others.

Before taking ultimate refuge, you must check up. As Rinpoche has explained in his last two teachings, there are four qualities which make Buddha the ultimate refuge:

1. Buddha is free from suffering and the cause of suffering
2. Buddha is expert in the methods to free others from suffering
3. Buddha has no discriminating thought and has equal compassion and care for all
4. Buddha works to benefit every sentient being whether they benefit him or not

So why take refuge? This question is from your side only, Rinpoche explains. There are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas who have compassion for you. So why have you been suffering from beginningless rebirths up to now? Even if all the buddhas and bodhisattvas put their power together, they can’t guide you if you don’t decide to receive their help, if you don’t take refuge.

In Buddhism, your mind is the creator. Rinpoche quotes from A Good Vase Filled with Nectar (verse 3.7):

Whatever happiness and suffering there is in samsara,
All of it comes from your karma.
Therefore, through always examining your three doors,
Make effort to abandon nonvirtue and practice virtue.

Everything comes from the mind, including enlightenment and hell, samsara and nirvana, happiness and problems. Rinpoche emphasizes that we have to work and make effort in order to achieve enlightenment. Even though the help of the buddhas and bodhisattvas is available to you, the reason you have to suffer is because you made mistakes from your side. In this context, Rinpoche shares more stories about the spirit Dogyal.

Rinpoche also talks about how the annual one-month Kopan Course began and how he was inspired by reading Kachen Yeshe Gyaltshen’s lamrim. Rinpoche also credits as inspiration Lama Yeshe’s kindness and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche reflects that during the early Kopan Courses the already depressed Western students became even more depressed after hearing about the lower realms and eight worldly Dharmas. The accommodations at the early courses were very simple. It was great for the Western students to learn about lamrim and to see their lives, to realize what should be avoided, and what should be done for happiness in the life up to enlightenment.

Rinpoche shares that he and Lama Yeshe stayed at Kachen Yeshe Gyaltshen’s monastery in Boudhanath when they first came to Nepal. From there, Lama Yeshe could see Kopan Hill, about which, Rinpoche says, Lama Yeshe was very interested.

Kachen Yeshe Gyaltshen also advised people not to practice Dolgyal. Rinpoche then shares details of some of the various lamas who have advised not to practice Dolgyal, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

By taking refuge in Buddha, you won’t be reborn in the lower realms. By taking strong refuge in Buddha, your heavy negative karmas get purified. And if the merit of taking refuge was materialized, Rinpoche explains, it would not fit in three-thousand-fold galaxies.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Merits of Taking Refuge Don’t Fit in the Three-Thousand-Fold Galaxies”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in 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 giving a video teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche continues discussing refuge in this new video. Rinpoche begins by reminding us that we must be careful about the objects in which we take refuge—for example, people take refuge in animals, nature, or spirits.

To make the point of why it is best to go for refuge to Buddha, Rinpoche again discusses the four qualities of a Buddha and shares stories and commentary after each.

1. Buddha is free from suffering and the cause of suffering
2. Buddha is expert in the methods to free others from suffering
3. Buddha has no discriminating thought and has equal compassion and care for all
4. Buddha works to benefit every sentient being whether they benefit him or not

Worldly gods and spirits don’t have the four qualities of the Buddha.

Before you take refuge in things like food, drink, medicine, and clothes, you always check up on the quality. For example, you don’t buy food that has gone bad; you check it first before buying. Like this, you also have to check the quality of the one in whom you are going to take ultimate refuge. When you are dying, in order to not be born in the lower realms, to purify negative karma, to obtain a higher rebirth, Rinpoche says emphatically, “Rely on Buddha!” To free you from samsara, to achieve nirvana, ultimate happiness forever—”Rely on Buddha!” Buddha has all the power and qualities to guide you. If you take refuge in worldly beings, samsaric beings who have discriminating thoughts, no compassion for sentient beings, attachment, anger, ignorance, self-cherishing—how can they help you?

Rinpoche then shares several stories about the dangers of trusting worldly spirits, particularly in relation to the spirit Dolgyal (Shugden).

Things appear to us according to our karma. You see things as pure or impure based on how pure or impure your own mind is. For example, one container filled with liquid appears to a preta as pus, to a human as water, and to worldly gods, suras, and asuras as nectar. To Buddha’s attendant, who served him for twenty-two years, Buddha appeared to be a liar; he didn’t see Buddha as Buddha. Rinpoche explains that was due to his karma. Likewise, some lamas have showed the aspect of practicing Dolgyal, but didn’t actually do the practice. There are many examples of enlightened beings who showed the aspect of being ordinary. What we see in others is due to our own karma.

Rinpoche shares a verse from the Fifth Dalai Lama:

In the view of your own perverted mind,
Your own mistakes appear in the guru’s actions.
Your heart is totally rotten from the depths.
Recognizing that it is your own mistake, abandon it like poison.

Rinpoche advises that this is very, very powerful, and it is so important to do mindfulness practice in relation to guru yoga. Then you never give rise to heresy and anger. If you see any mistake in the guru, it is a reflection of your ordinary mind’s mistake. Don’t think that taking refuge is something easy. Monks and nuns study refuge and the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha their whole lives so they can learn the meaning of the words and actualize them to achieve enlightenment by completing the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is not easy! You take refuge to be free from samsara. In order to do that, you have to know what samsara is.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Don’t Think Taking Refuge Is Something Easy”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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 giving a video teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that it is very wise to take refuge while we have the opportunity as human beings. We may only have our human body this one time; it’s like a stone falling up, rather than down. It’s an impossible thing, but it has happened, and we must take full advantage of it to create merit and purify negativities while we can.

People take refuge in all kinds of things—trees, animals, rocks, the sun. The most wise and important refuge to take is in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is the way to wake up from the deep sleep of ignorance. Not just ignorance from birth in this life, but from ignorance from beginningless samsaric rebirths. Rinpoche implores us to, “Wake up!” If you are reborn in the lower realms, it is difficult to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So we have this incredible opportunity right now to do so before it is too late.

Rinpoche outlines and offers commentary on four reasons why Buddha can definitely guide you:

1. The Buddha Is Free from Suffering and the Cause of Suffering
2. Buddha Is Expert in the Methods to Free Others from Suffering
3. Buddha Has No Discriminating Thought and Has Equal Compassion for All
4. Buddha Works to Benefit All Sentient Beings Whether They Benefit Him or Not

There are many reasons to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It causes you to abandon the self-cherishing thought, which harms you and all sentient beings. The self-cherishing thought causes all the sufferings, obstacles, misfortunes, and problems. If you cherish yourself, the I, then you let go of others, you give up on others. That itself harms them. The nature of that mind is to harm others, to cause suffering, not to benefit them.

You cannot abandon suffering without giving up the I. From Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara (chapter 8, verses 135-6):

If you don’t let go of the fire [in your hand],
The burning cannot be stopped.
Like that, if you don’t give up the I,
Suffering cannot be abandoned.

Therefore, in order to pacify
Harm to yourself and others’ suffering,
Give up yourself for others
And cherish others as yourself.

Cherish others most—this is the nature of bodhichitta. Then, you become a bodhisattva. Before that, you should have a realization of renunciation, of how your samsara is totally in the nature of suffering. A bodhisattva cherishes every single sentient being as most precious. Numberless bodhisattvas cherish the most insignificant among us like this, even a mosquito biting and buzzing. For a bodhisattva, each sentient being is most kind and more precious than wish-granting jewels filling the whole sky.

Shakyamuni Buddha cherishes each and every sentient being as most precious. In his lifetimes, he practiced morality. He practiced charity by giving away his limbs and body countless times. He practiced patience for sentient beings, even the difficult ones. He practiced with so much hardship. Numberless buddhas cherish even one mosquito or ant as most precious, Rinpoche explains. Therefore, Buddha definitely guides you, especially if you go for refuge to Buddha.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “If You Go for Refuge to Buddha, Buddha Definitely Guides You”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• Dedication verses

Resources for your Refuge Practice

Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive shared Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended meditation to do when reciting this prayer. 

Sang gyä chhö dang tshog kyi chhog nam la 
Jang chhub bar du dag ni kyab su chhi 
Dag gi jin sog gyi päi tshog nam kyi 
Dro la phän chhir sang gyä drub par shog

I take refuge until I am enlightened
In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.
By my merits of generosity and so forth,
May I become a buddha to benefit transmigratory beings. 

From FPMT Education Services’ Daily Prayers.

Additional Resources 

• Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice booklet, How to Take Refuge in the Three Rare Sublime Ones as a Preliminary Practice, edited by Ven. Robina Courtin, is available as a PDF.
• A Daily Meditation on Shakyamuni Buddha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers an extensive explanation of the visualizations to be done while taking refuge.
• Lama Yeshe gave the teaching, Refuge is a State of Mind, at a refuge ceremony held at Chenrezig Institute, AUS, in 1979. 

• The FPMT Education program Discovering Buddhism contains a module called, “Refuge in the Three Jewels” and the Living in the Path program contains a module called, “The Refuge and Bodhicitta Verse.”

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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.

Rinpoche making offerings at Boudha Stupa, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

At the beginning of this video, Rinpoche talks about doing a tsog offering practice at Boudha Stupa and the benefits of making offerings to stupas. He explains how offering tsog to stupas makes you achieve all the realizations; offering medicine to stupas stops diseases; and offering grains to stupas stops famine in the world. Rinpoche also discusses how important it is to consecrate stupas, including the benefit of eliminating war.

From his room at Kopan Monastery, Rinpoche then leads an offering practice to Boudha Stupa accompanied by many senior Sangha members. You can follow along with the offering practice by watching the video (beginning at 6:43) and reading the transcript, which includes the text of the practice.

Boudha Stupa, Nepal, February 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche also provides commentary on verses from Liberation Upon Hearing: The History of the Great Jarung Kashar Stupa by Padmasambhava on the benefits of making offerings to Boudha Stupa, which include the following:

Making requests to the stupa

Whoever supplicates it will spontaneously accomplish the benefit of self and others.

The benefits of offering water

Whoever offers drinking water to it will be born free of thirst and disease.

The benefits of offering flowers

Whoever offers flowers will completely attain the freedoms and advantages.

The benefits of offering light

Whoever offers butter lamps will see the manifest faces of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions.

Whoever offers grain oil lamps will be clarified of all obscurations of ignorance.

Whoever offers the fire for butter lamps will radiate the light rays of the Dharma throughout the ten directions.

The benefits of offering perfume

Whoever offers scented water will be freed from depression and all suffering.

The benefits of offering food and drink

Whoever offers food and drink will be sustained by the sustenance of samādhi.

The benefits of offering music

Whoever offers music will proclaim the melodious sound of Dharma throughout the ten directions.

Whoever offers cymbals will attain profound and perfect courage.

Whoever offers bells large and small will attain clear and melodious speech, and the voice of Brahmā.

The benefits of offering the five precious jewels (pearls, turquoise, lapis lazuli, gold, coral)

Whoever offers maṇḍalas of the five precious jewels will be free of poverty and attain an inexhaustible sky treasury.

Before doing the dedications, Rinpoche acknowledges that what is missing from his commentary is the benefits of offering the seven king’s objects, the eight auspicious signs, and the seven royal things.

Rinpoche concludes the teaching with the instruction that these offerings “should be done after the seven-limb practice. Do the Thirty-Five Buddhas, Vajrasattva, the seven limbs, then a short mandala, then a lamrim prayer, then after, dedication to complete the practice.”

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Making Offerings to Boudha Stupa”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• Learn more about stupas and how Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization support the creation and preservation of stupas through the Stupa Fund.
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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 Maratika, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by explaining that people who don’t understand holy Dharma use prayers to pray for success in this life alone—for their relationships, their children, and other situations that will end at the end of this life. No matter how many degrees they have from Oxford or Cambridge University or how much they study science, they pray for this life only without praying for enlightenment or liberation from samsara or even the happiness of future lives. They don’t know about Dharma, karma, reincarnation, or past and future lives. And if human beings are like this, what about animals? They just run around after food all of the time. This is ignorance.

When you experience happiness, it is due to the kindness of mother sentient beings—every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura being, every asura being, every intermediate state being. When you experience happiness, it is important to think, “I have received this by the kindness of others.” The other thing to think about when happiness occurs is that every happiness is thanks to the kindness of the guru.

Just like your consciousness has no beginning, your wrong concepts—which mean your delusions, ignorance, self-cherishing thought, attachment, and anger—are also beginningless. The antidote to impure appearances is tantra, Rinpoche explains. In tantra you visualize everything as pure—yourself as the deity, the place as the mandala, the beings you encounter as deities, sounds as mantras, thoughts as the dharmakaya. In tantra, the root of samsara is the impure subtle consciousness and wind. The continuation of all the wrong concepts has no beginning, so your suffering of samsara’s continuation also has no beginning. If you can remember that samsaric suffering is beginningless, you will immediately abandon nonvirtue and practice virtue. Once you think about beginningless samsaric suffering, hell, and the sufferings of all the realms, there is no time for self-cherishing, no time for all the negative karma.

In the West, people think, “I am alone, nobody loves me!” If you are Buddhist you must know that numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas cherish you the most! You are never alone. Buddha gave away his wives, sons, wealth, and body for sentient beings—including you! He practiced the six paramitas for sentient beings, including you! Buddha has perfect power—perfect holy body, holy speech, and holy mind—unlike us, who are limited. Buddha’s holy mind is everywhere. Once your obscurations are purified, you will see numberless buddhas wherever you are. Buddha’s compassion embraces all sentient beings, including you, all the time.

From the buddhas, you receive a perfect human rebirth, the happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment. They buddhas are working for you by manifesting in the ordinary aspect of the guru. All of your happiness comes from the guru. This is a very important thing for you to remember!

All of your happiness comes from the guru, but all of your suffering comes from harming others. Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara says:

If I hadn’t harmed others,
Nobody could harm me.

That means that if you have problems, suffering, depression, even if somebody kills you, beats you, gets angry at you—this is because you harmed them in the past, in past lives. It could have been numberless eons ago. Sometimes as soon as the person sees you in this life, they shoot you, they are angry with you, even before meeting them in this life.

In the view of your disturbed mind, whatever your delusions believe appears to be good. In the view of anger, you think it is good to destroy and harm others. In the view of ignorance, you think it is good to believe things are real. In the view of pride, you believe that it is good to think about how you are better than everyone else. This is all totally wrong. But in your impure view, you believe what you are doing is good. This is the dance of a crazy person.

Someone who harms you is only an object of compassion. You abused that person in past lives, so now they are creating negative karma by harming you. If you hadn’t ever harmed them in the past, they wouldn’t have to harm you now due to karma! And because of harming you, they will have to get lost in the hole of hell. This is why you must only have patience when someone harms you; don’t harm them back. You must help the person, even just recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Do whatever you can do to create benefit.

If you have depression, cancer, the virus, or any suffering, think, “By experiencing this, may all sentient beings be free from disease, spirit harm, negative karma, defilements, and achieve enlightenment.” This will help you from sinking into despair, thinking, “Why is this happening to me? I’m the only one who this happens to!”

The main purpose of practicing thought transformation is not to stop suffering. While you are suffering with pain or a problem, you use that as the path to enlightenment, to benefit sentient beings and cause them to achieve enlightenment. If the problem stops, you have no condition to use in the path to enlightenment. If you want to stop the problem—you can do this with the power of bodhichitta and the good heart.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “What to Think When You Are Depressed”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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.

Rinpoche giving a video teaching in Maratika, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation, recording this time in Maratika, Nepal. Rinpoche gave this teaching on the topic of depression at the request of a student. It was transmitted via Zoom to a live audience of students, mainly from Singapore, China, and Taiwan.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that to understand depression, we first have to understand our own craziness. Then, when we think of others, we will be able to more easily develop compassion.

Rinpoche then begins an explanation of how the I exists. There are non-Buddhist philosophies that believe that the I is permanent, exists alone, and has its own freedom. The four schools of Buddhist philosophy do not accept that. They believe that the I is impermanent and changes by causes and conditions, year by year, second by second.

As an example, Rinpoche talks about how a flower changes day by day to explain gross impermanence, which is evident in visible changes. When a person is young, they can appear beautiful, but over time that changes. Their entire form can change, and they are no more an object of attraction, of attachment. If you become attached to the beauty of an object, this brings so much pain and suffering to your heart due to impermanence. Because beauty changes, there’s nothing to be attached to.

Rinpoche then discusses how we mistakenly think that the I exists as permanent, alone, and with its own freedom. He also goes over other mistaken views of how the I exists, including those of some of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. But, Rinpoche acknowledges, the Chittamatra view that everything comes from the mind can help depression.

Emotions and problems come from the basic wrong concept that believes that the I is permanent, exists alone, and exists with its own freedom. From that, emotions and all the problems come. You fight while holding your wrong view—you kill and smash. It’s childish. Then in the view of a mind disturbed by spirit possession and delusions, harmful actions appear to be positive! For example, Rinpoche explains, when anger arises, a disturbed mind thinks that it is positive.

Attachment and anger arise based on how ignorance discriminates good and bad. Quoting from Lama Tsongkhapa in Lamrim Chenmo:

Ignorance, which is in the nature of exaggeration, exaggerates the differentiations into good and bad. Then attachment and anger arise. Therefore, the way of holding [objects] by these [wrong concepts] can also be gotten rid of by logic.

Rinpoche explains that an object is merely labeled. On the basis of that, ignorance exaggerates the object and sees it as not merely labeled. Then based on that exaggeration, you discriminate good and bad. After that, anger and attachment come. You can prove that anger and attachment are wrong and come from wrong concepts.

So, where is the depression? Attachment and anger. There is the depression that you understand the reason for and depression that you don’t know the reason for. In some cases, you know why you are feeling depressed. You wanted something that you didn’t get. Your attachment or self-cherishing didn’t get what it wants. In other cases, you don’t know why you are feeling depressed, and that is related to your past life actions of nonvirtue, your negative karma.

Depression does not come from the view of bodhichitta. Even if you have the view of effortful bodhichitta, you will not be depressed, Rinpoche explains. There is also no depression if you have the view of wisdom realizing emptiness.

So depression comes from the basic wrong concept of how the I exists. Your wrong concepts are the real craziness. There is so much to meditate on, to analyze, to learn, and to recognize. You have to discover the truth in your life, Rinpoche says. It is so important.

Rinpoche then discusses the Prasangika view of how the I exists. This ultimate right view is what we need to meditate on, realize, and develop because it ceases the seed of delusion and karma. The I that exists, exists in mere name, labeled by the mind that focuses on the valid base, the aggregates. That’s it, Rinpoche explains. Therefore, it is totally empty. There is not one atom of I exiting from its own side. Because nothing exists from its own side, there is no basis for depression to arise.

What can we do when we experience depression?

1. Practice mindfulness that nothing exists from its own side.

As you live your life, practice mindfulness that every action, every object, every phenomenon is totally empty. Like this, the depression is also empty; nothing exists from its own side.

2. Practice mindfulness that everything is a hallucination.

Whatever you do—the appearances, all the different wrong views that you have—understand that everything comes from the mind. So you recognize the dream as a dream. This helps keep the unhappy mind from arising. It also helps the immune system as anger has a negative effect on the immune system as well. So this also protects you from disease. So, loving kindness, peace, satisfaction, contentment, patience—all these help your physical health as well as your mental health.

Rinpoche offers a more detailed commentary on these points in the video, and anyone wishing to use Rinpoche’s advice to reduce depression is encouraged to watch the video and follow along in the transcript for the full advice. 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “From Where Depression Comes”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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 making prayers in front of sacred images in a museum of Newari art, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In the following short video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche examines the question of why certain things happen:

Why does a tornado pick up a car and drop it out of the sky, killing a certain person? Why are leaves and petals of a flower made a certain way? What decides the colors of a butterfly’s wings or the colors of a peacock’s tail?

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that the answer to all these questions is karma, in particular, subtle karma. Because all these things come from karma, that also means they all come from the mind.

Rinpoche says, “Because of that, we can create suffering, we can create happiness, we can create enlightenment, we can create hell. So we have freedom in our hands.”

In short, Rinpoche explains that we should use our understanding of the external world to understand how our mind has great freedom.

Watch the video “Freedom Is in Our Hands“:

Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

The above video is extracted from a teaching given on May 30, 2019, during the Vajrayogini retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. 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.

Mingyur Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Khadro-la at Swayambunath, Nepal, June 2021. Photo by Ven. Thubten Tendar.

During a retreat in 2017, a student asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche about a bad hurricane that had just caused great damage to parts of the Caribbean and Florida Keys: “If it is the karma of the people on the islands to experience the hurricane, how can we change their karma?” Here is a summary of Rinpoche’s response, which you can watch in the video below:

Rinpoche explains that we pray so that we can purify the negative karma so that the violent weather isn’t experienced and so the landlord beings do not create harm. Praying to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and to the Guru has the power to change things and help people who are in danger.

After all, why do we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? “That is a big question. Forget about the hurricane, [and think about] just yourself and how [Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and the Guru] can guide you,” Rinpoche says.

The lamrim explains there are four reasons why the Buddha can guide you, which Rinpoche discusses. “The Buddha himself is free from all dangers—so skillful in liberating others from all the sufferings, all the dangers—no discriminating thought, compassion to every sentient being.”

Rinpoche emphasizes that it is very important to study the lamrim. “If you never study then [it’s] difficult to understand. You must study [it], over and over, many times,” Rinpoche says, because each time you go over a part of the lamrim you will notice something different.

Rinpoche responded to the question before doing tsog. He tells all the retreat participants, “Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the merit field, [they] know what we are doing now, what we are asking. … So when you pray you have to know that [this is] not blah, blah, blah. … Then also when you pray you must be aware [that] they know what you are doing now, what you are asking.”

Watch the video “Question and Answer: Can We Change Karma?”

The above video is extracted from a teaching given on September 6, 2017, at the Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, US. 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.

Discover the ongoing video teaching series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also 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.