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Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la during the consecration of large appliqué thangkas of the Twenty-One Taras and the Eight Taras That Save From Fear in the courtyard outside of the main gompa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, January 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas is a recent book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in which Rinpoche walks us through this key Mahayana Buddhist teaching. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s teaching on the perfection of charity:
Keeping our mind pure—free from pride, miserliness, and so forth—is very difficult for ordinary people like us. If we could give simply, without all these disturbing thoughts clouding our giving, our generosity would be perfect and attaining another perfect human rebirth would be easy. But this is a struggle for most of us. That is why we must always check our motivation and be diligent in observing our karma.
The villagers of Solu Khumbu, where I was born, have a very good custom to protect themselves and others. Because they are incredibly poor, theft is always a problem. Things are often stolen: cooking pots, money—even potatoes. In many villages the people bury pots of their precious potatoes outside to keep them safe, but thieves can generally guess where the pots are buried, and they dig them up. Also, sometimes people borrow things and don’t return them, no matter how much the owner complains and shouts.
In such cases of theft, the villagers often go to a monastery and ask the lama there to say prayers and dedicate the merit of the prayer to the thief, totally offering them that thing. Whether or not this becomes a virtuous act does not depend on the lama but on the mind of the victim. If the person can renounce the stolen object completely and offer it to the thief with compassion, then it is virtuous. The owner needs the object, but the thief also needs it, and so by renouncing it and offering it to the thief with compassion, the dedication becomes a virtuous action.
If somebody stole a hundred dollars from us and we cannot do the practice of dedication—if we cannot take the loss upon ourselves and offer the victory to that sentient being; if we still cling to that hundred dollars—how can we perfect the practice of charity? Even without considering how kind that sentient being has been, how precious they are, we should rejoice that they needed something and now they have it. Like us, they want happiness and do not want suffering—in that way they are completely equal to us—so why can’t they have that hundred dollars? If we were to find a hundred dollars, how happy we would be. If we were to find a thousand dollars or a million dollars, we would be so surprised and excited. We would clap our hands with joy. So why can’t we do the same thing for this sentient being who has come across a hundred dollars?
Learn more about The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, including order information, on Wisdom Publication’s website or order from the FPMT Foundation Store.
During February 2021, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is taking a break from offering his video series Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. Find links to the ninety published videos in this series as well as 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.
Khadro-la and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi offering a dharmachakra to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, during a long life puja for Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In the following half-hour Essential Extract video, from a teaching Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave in December 2019 at Kopan Monastery, Rinpoche explains the difference between the appearance of our body as a base to be labeled “I,” the label itself, and the mistaken view that this I exists from its own side and that we are the aggregates. He compares this with mistaking a rope at dusk for a snake. Rinpoche emphasizes that everything is empty, but that this does not mean nothing exists. We have to bring the two truths together. For example, when we get angry, we can apply this meditation to realize that the “real I” that gets angry does not truly exist. Then the anger is gone immediately. The same goes for attachment and all delusions. And even birth and death do not exist from their own side. We think we have a “real” son or “real” daughter or “real” wealth. That is impossible, Rinpoche teaches, as there is not even a “real I.”
Watch the video “The ‘Real I’ That Gets Angry Does Not Exist”:
https://youtu.be/Bn7eHOeVU_s
Transcript: Then using the example, the body and mind in your view, the way you think, the way you believe your body and mind is like a piece of rope on the road curled like a snake, different colors and curled. Nang sel … means the way it appears to you, the body and mind are like a piece of rope, a piece of different colored rope curled. That is the appearance, then believing, then you label, because of the way it is curled and the different colors, you see, somebody who doesn’t have clear eyes, shimmering, evening time after sunset, thinks, “Oh, there is a snake.” By labeling “snake” and believing your label, snake, you get frightened. But there is no snake from the tip of the hairs, down to … The piece of the rope, every hair you look at, there is no snake there, but you label [“snake”] because in the evening time, at dusk time, the different colors and the way it is curled, it appears as a snake and then you get fear, terror.
So like that this body and mind are not I. They are not I at all. I told you yesterday or the day before yesterday. You remember I told you? But you label “I” on that and believe that is I, like you label “snake” and the fear comes, like that. It is not I, it is the base to be labeled but not the I.
You remember I mentioned M? There is the base to be labeled “M” and “M” is what is to be labeled. Tag zhi is the base to labeled, and “M” is what is labeled. They are not separate but [they are] two different things. Remember I told you the I and aggregates are two different things but not separate? You must know that, otherwise, you get caught in a hallucination, a wrong concept. You believe the body and mind are I, then all the worry-fear, everything. From that hallucination, wrong concept, hallucination, the ignorance, then all the fear, all the wrong, means all the fear comes.
Then, (Tibetan) then, “you call, you believe that is I, then suffering of pain, suffering of change, pervasive compounding suffering of samsara,” all the sufferings of samsara come in these three, you experience all that suffering. From beginningless rebirths up to now we have been suffering. [That] who made you suffer is the wrong concept, ignorance, believing your body and mind are I. You understand? You should know that. Due to that wrong concept you have suffered from beginningless rebirths. Then again if you don’t realize emptiness in this life, you will suffer again without end. Your wrong concept, ignorance, makes you suffer like by labeling “snake” on a piece of curled rope, then you get all the fear. But the snake you can’t find, it is not there. Like that, the hallucination. That is a very good meditation.
So the different examples how to meditate, there are many. There are many but some I don’t know. I received so many teachings, but due to laziness I didn’t study. I just give you some to meditate on. You understand? The easy ones. Then, that is your wrong concept, ignorance, that makes the suffering of three types—suffering of pain, suffering of change, pervasive compounding suffering—from beginningless rebirth, then again if you don’t realize emptiness, study emptiness, realize emptiness, two truths, [there is that] danger. Therefore, you need to study. You need to meditate. …
Read the complete transcript for this video extract.
Watch more videos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching from the 2019 Kopan Course, the annual month-long lamrim course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/kopan-2019/
Find more Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts videos:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/essential-extracts/
During February 2021, Rinpoche is taking a break from offering his video series Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. Find links to the ninety published videos in this series as well as 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 Yeshe during a family gathering at Vajrapani Institute, California, US, 1983. Photo by Carol Royce, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
The Tibetan New Year, Losar, falls on February 12 this year. For FPMT students, this day has additional significance as it commemorates the anniversary of the parinirvana of Lama Thubten Yeshe, who co-founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Yeshe’s heart stopped beating just before dawn on Losar, March 3, 1984. He was forty-nine years old. In 1959, Lama Yeshe fled the Chinese Communists in Tibet, going into exile in India. He survived tremendous hardship living as a refugee monk in Buxa Duar, where Lama Zopa Rinpoche became his heart disciple. In 1967, the two lamas began teaching Western students, leading to the establishment and flourishing of Kopan Monastery in Nepal and the FPMT organization throughout the world.
As part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on how to celebrate Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Rinpoche recommends sharing stories and remembrances about Lama Yeshe. Here Rinpoche discusses the qualities of Lama Yeshe during a teaching given at Kopan Monastery in 2009:
Lama Yeshe was kinder than all the three times’ buddhas. For the tantric meditators, when you bring the wind into the central channel, the in-breath and out-breath are equalized, without one being stronger than the other. When the wind abides in the central channel the belly does not move; it stays calm. There’s no breathing through the nostrils during the absorption when the gross mind stops and only the most subtle mind is actualized.
That meditation on emptiness is like an atomic bomb, the quickest way to cease the defilements and achieve enlightenment. That becomes the direct cause of the dharmakaya. My guess is that when the mind becomes extremely subtle, when the gross mind stops, at that time the heart stops beating, there is no rising or falling of the belly and no breathing through the nose. I’m not sure; that’s just my guess.
Externally, what Lama Yeshe manifested was a heart problem. That’s what people saw; that’s what the doctors diagnosed it as. Lama actually used this heart problem that outside people saw for his meditation session. Lama’s meditation sessions were often Lama lying down and people took that to be him resting or sleeping; that was the view of other people. Actually, for Lama Yeshe that was a meditation session. It was a very high tantric meditation, part of the completion stage practice, the practice of clear light and the illusory body, the direct cause of the dharmakaya and the rupakaya. He did this at night and always after lunch. To other people he was resting or sleeping, but it was actually a meditation session.
Lama didn’t show much sitting in a formal meditation posture with eyes closed and so forth. He did sometimes, later, but it wasn’t normal for him. He was a very high yogi, a very accomplished master, so his way of doing this was kind of secret. That is what was happening internally.
Outside, whoever he was with, he fitted in with them. If he was with children, he fitted in with them; when he was with old people he fitted in with them. Whoever came he fitted in with them, acting in a way that was best for them, in order to make everybody happy. Therefore, everybody saw Lama differently. Some people even saw him as a big businessman. But in reality he was a great meditator who had realizations of emptiness and bodhichitta. He realized emptiness while still in Tibet. He said he realized emptiness while they were debating Madhyamaka philosophy many years ago in Tibet. And I remember something happened while we were in Delhi and Lama said he could never get angry at even one sentient being, he could never renounce even one sentient being. That shows he had the realization of bodhichitta a long time ago.
I pushed Lama to come to Kopan to help with the course. Usually I talked about the eight worldly dharmas and the negative attitude and the lower realms, and I’d spend about two weeks or so on that, then everybody got very depressed, by hearing all the negatives. Then Lama Yeshe came and made them laugh, releasing them from that sadness and depression. This is how we did it.
Excerpted from The Path to Ultimate Happiness, teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the forty-second Kopan lamrim course in 2009 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, lightly edited by Gordon McDougall and Sandra Smith, and published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://shop.fpmt.org/-The-Path-to-Ultimate-Happiness-eBook-PDF-_p_3134.html
You can find teachings from Lama Yeshe on FPMT.org and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
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 Khadro-la, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Kopan Lama Gyupas, and Kopan nuns, during consecration of the large appliqué 21 Taras and 8 Taras That Save from Fear thangkas outside Kopan Monastery’s main gompa, Nepal, January 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following Essential Extract video, from a teaching Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave in December 2019 at Kopan Monastery, Rinpoche explains the wheel of life drawing and reminds us that death can happen at any time. In the drawing you can see that the whole wheel is in between fangs. During our whole life we are between the fangs of Yama. And they can close any time. Rinpoche recalls a couple of events where people have died suddenly and unexpectedly. He strongly encourages us to meditate on death and impermanence. Otherwise you live your live with the concept of permanence, thinking “I will live long,” while wasting time. When you lie in bed, think, “Now I am lying here in my bed, but tomorrow I can already be on the pile of firewood in the cremation ground.” When you think this, attachment and anger have no reason to exist, and the mind is at peace.
Watch the sixteen-minute video “Our Whole Life We Are in between the Fangs of Yama”:
https://youtu.be/8HvK38Cm0HE
Transcript: So, I mentioned that the dongka, this is fangs, like you are in the mouth of Yama, impermanence, nature of impermanence, under impermanence. So holding like this, but anytime can be like this, mouth can close. So anytime death can happen. You never know, never you know. By next time this year, you are somewhere else—you never know—hell or deva realm, you never know where, by this time next year, by this time tomorrow. We can’t say—can close the mouth, you are inside now, between the fangs, but it can close anytime. So that is a very good meditation—it can close anytime. (Rinpoche closes his fingers.) It can close anytime, so death can happen anytime. You never know.
Even recently, I think in America or somewhere, it might be in the house, [someone] just suddenly died, who, I forgot. (Pause) Pende’s mother. Father and mother [were] talking in the house. They were talking to each other, and father did like this (Rinpoche turns his head), during that time mother, dead. They were just talking, the father and mother. Father went this way, then mother dead. So it always happens that.
One student here, she wanted to become a nun so much, unbelievable, so much. Khadro-la would see, of course. She is young, I think didn’t inspire her to become nun. Of course, Khadro-la can see past, present, and future. She [the student] died here in the toilet. She died here in the bathroom. I forgot her name. I have a big buddha in my room, I told them to make for her purification, good rebirth. I was thinking that her father to keep the buddha in the house, but the father didn’t want, so I have it in my room. … (Rinpoche offers more examples, see complete transcript.)
Like that anytime it can happen. I think that is the most important meditation, that is my, well, I haven’t started Vajrasattva, but my last advice is that. To remember, to always remember mindfulness, to always remember impermanence-death, that is my last very important advice, very important advice. I think that was also said by the Buddha, I forget now, to his disciples. Oh, that.
Kadampa geshe Sharawa said, “Even you have one hundred qualities, but you are under one mistake.” (Tibetan) So many, so many degrees from university, all this, all that, so many, like that, wow—but then even Dharma, even Dharma, “Oh, I know this, I know Madhyamaka, I know Pramanavartika, I did this retreat, that retreat, bah, bah, bah, bah.” But if you haven’t thought of impermanence-death, then there is the concept of permanence, so your life is under the control of hallucination. So “even if you have a hundred qualities but you are under one mistake,” so learned in Dharma texts, so many things, but you never thought of impermanence-death, yourself, or yourself, so then always you live with a concept of permanence, “I will live very long, I will live long,” always the concept of permanence. Then your actions of body, speech, and mind don’t become Dharma. You are very learned in Dharma, yes, unbelievable, but you never think of impermanence, your life is impermanence-death, you never think, so “I’m going to live long,” then your actions of body, speech, and mind don’t become Dharma. So here, even you are expert in Dharma but you waste your life. You understand? So like that. Did that retreat, this retreat, bah, bah, bah, but never, your own life impermanence-death, you didn’t think, so always wrong concept of permanence.
That is what Kadampa geshe Sharawa said. Even living in the monastery, doing extensive study, understanding and can explain, but never thought of impermanence-death, so your actions, with the concept of permanence then your actions didn’t become Dharma. Then death happens, then you know you cheated yourself. That is what you come to know, totally. There are more words, but… As I said, as I told before, same thing, even you are not learned in Dharma, nothing, but a lot of degrees, a lot of education in science, this and that, so many things, but never thought your life is impermanent, then suddenly—but you always live in concept of permanence—then suddenly when death happens so regret, so upset, so regret, bah, bah, bah, because you didn’t expect it, bah, bah, bah.
If you normally meditate, or you normally think, mindful in your life of impermanence-death, if you practice mindfulness every day remember, the awareness in that, even when death comes suddenly, you are not surprised. You are not worried because you did preparation. You did preparation because of mindfulness of that, so you did already preparation. So future life, to achieve happiness, body of happy transmigratory being, liberation from samsara, then enlightenment, thinking of impermanence-death, so then you have no worry when time of death comes, the actual time of death comes. Even for business people it is easier, normally you think so therefore it is easier. But normally you don’t think, so then it is incredible fear, bah, bah, bah, can be anger, like the Japanese boy, sssssh, can be incredible fear. Then of course, then, next life reincarnation, bah, bah, bah, good rebirth, higher rebirth, negative karma, lower rebirth, sssssh, there is another one.
So here it says, it is a good body, the body is here now, body is in your bed, body is here, but by this time tomorrow the body can be on the firewood, burned, skull coming out. You see the skull. (Rinpoche snaps his fingers.) Just anytime this can happen. (Rinpoche snaps his fingers.) It is so good, so good even meditating that you are dying, now you are dying. The whole thing, what is going to happen, going to the cemetery, the body by this time tomorrow, cemetery and fire, next year or next month, next week, tomorrow, the body could be there. That is so good, good meditation, so good meditation, that, to meditate, to think that. It is the reality. (Rinpoche snaps his fingers multiple times.) Then attachment to this and that, anger to this, bah, bah, bah, then you have no, there is no purpose to get angry and to be attached. This and that, all the problems, there is no reason to arise anger and attachment. The mind has great peace, free from attachment, free from anger.
Watch more videos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching from the 2019 Kopan Course, the annual month-long lamrim course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/kopan-2019/
Find more Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts videos:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/essential-extracts/
During February 2021, Rinpoche is taking a break from offering his video series Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. You find links to the ninety published videos in this series as well as 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 circumambulating Boudha Stupa late at night, Nepal, January 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter is a recent book of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on the perfection of patience, a topic Rinpoche has taught on extensively. In this book, Rinpoche gives commentary on the verses on patience in Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Here’s an excerpt from the chapter “How to Accept Suffering”:
Shantideva next explained that whatever we do will become easier the more we practice it. This is very important advice. Whether something is easy or difficult depends on how acquainted we are with it. It all depends on training. Say we have been living with bugs for a long time: fleas, bedbugs, and so forth. This becomes normal for us. Fleas in our clothes, lice in our hair—they don’t bother us at all after a while. On the other hand, if we have never come across bugs before, if we are used to sleeping in a clean, soft bed and living a very luxurious lifestyle, to encounter bugs for the first time is a great shock. While there are fleas in our house we can’t do anything. We want them killed or we want to buy a new house!
Training the mind in patience can be done for worldly reasons or for the Dharma. I mentioned the people in India who cut and burn their bodies and fast for many days—something we cannot do. They can do this because they have trained their minds to accept that suffering, mistakenly thinking it is worthwhile. It all depends on how the mind—the colorless, shapeless, immaterial mind—interprets things. Something we find impossible to do can be done by somebody else easily. For a person who seeks worldly pleasure, practicing the Dharma is extremely difficult because their mind sees it as difficult. On the other hand, they will persevere for what they dearly want—possessions, reputation, and so forth—no matter how difficult, willingly undergoing hardships and danger.
For a Dharma practitioner it is completely the opposite. All the hard work needed to gain possessions, reputation, and so forth seems utterly pointless, but they willingly accept suffering to obtain the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment. Whereas the smallest samsaric thing is unbearable, they are happy to do the most difficult Dharma work.
Shantideva said we should not be impatient with things such as heat, cold, insect bites, and so forth, because if we are, then we will become increasingly intolerant of them. Conversely, we need to slowly build up our acceptance of small sufferings so we can start to accept greater ones.
Things that irritate us now, such as bad weather, can be the beginning of our training, learning to accept them for the sake of other sentient beings because we see the importance of developing patience on our road to enlightenment. Gradually, once we train our mind in these small sufferings, we can learn to become like the Buddha when he was a bodhisattva and give our body to a starving tiger.
Therefore it is greatly worthwhile to train the mind in patience in this way. If we live in a place that is full of snakes, mosquitoes, fleas, and bedbugs, it is like living in a palace full of jewels.
Excerpted from Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Gordon McDougall, published by Wisdom Publications:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Patience–A-Guide-to-Shantidevas-Sixth-Chapter-eBook_p_3366.html
Watch the video series “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19” and find links to videos in translation, 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.
Khadro-la, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Ven. Thubten Tendar, Kopan Monastery, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter is a new book of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on the perfection of patience, a topic Rinpoche has taught on extensively. (Perhaps this is not surprising since Rinpoche’s name “Zopa” means “patience.”) In this book, Rinpoche gives commentary on the verses on patience from Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Here’s an excerpt from the chapter “Overcoming the Wish to Retaliate” where Rinpoche discusses the conventional reason anger is inappropriate:
Ultimately, the enemy who gives harm and the harm itself are both empty. Neither exists inherently in any way. Because we are unable to see it like this, we should train to see things as like illusions, like dreams—maybe like hallucinations that happen when we take LSD! Because everything is dependent on other factors and nothing governs itself, these illusion-like phenomena are nothing to get angry about. It is like in our dreams there might be an enemy, but when we awaken we realize there is no enemy there, existing by its own nature.
The enemy is like a dream enemy, but that does not mean they are actually a dream, that is, nonexistent. When we are meditating on emptiness, we must be so skillful not to fall into nihilism. In his Four Hundred Stanzas, Aryadeva said that believing that nothing exists—including the I and karma—and hence falling into nihilism creates karma heavier than having killed a hundred million people.
If the emptiness of the I meant there were no I at all, either truly existing or merely labeled, then nothing would exist. No suffering would exist; no pleasure would exist. There would be no need to move the body, no need to breathe. Everything would be completely pointless. Everything we do is to attain happiness and stop suffering, but if there were no I at all, none of our actions would have any effect. With no I, why have expensive treatments in hospital to cure the I that doesn’t exist?
Many mistakes arise when we mistakenly think that the I doesn’t exist at all. We meditate to try to attain a peaceful, happy mind, but this I cannot receive any peace because it doesn’t exist. There is no karma, no cause, and no effect. There is no point to anything and no reason to refrain from creating negative actions.
To think that because there is no I, no enemy, no phenomenon, and therefore nothing matters, we deny karma. That is a completely dark mind; it is very dangerous. Emptiness is not nothingness; meditating on emptiness is not watching nothing, like sitting in a helicopter looking at blank sky.
Nothing exists ultimately, but because everything is a dependent arising, everything exists conventionally, existing in dependence on causes and conditions. The enemy, the anger they have, the harm they give us, all arise due to causes and conditions. The suffering we feel from that person’s anger has arisen due to karma, the negative actions we have done in the past, therefore we should not become angry in return.
For instance, it might seem that being criticized is a cause of anger, but if it that were so, then anybody who ever received criticism would have to get angry. That is not so. Somebody could criticize a buddha or a bodhisattva and no anger would arise at all. Even many ordinary goodhearted people will not react to criticism and other harmful actions.
A higher bodhisattva, who has totally renounced the self and only cherishes others, has still to remove the subtle imprints to knowledge, but all the grosser disturbing-thought imprints have been destroyed, so it is impossible to become angry even if somebody tried to harm them. Anger is only a condition; it is not an inherent cause. And because the cause is our own delusion, there is no reason to be angry at the person who has harmed us.
Excerpted from Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Gordon McDougall, published by Wisdom Publications (WisdomExperience.org).
Watch the video series “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19” and find links to videos in translation, 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 prostrating to the giant Guru Rinpoche thangka during the Guru bumtsok at Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, January 2020
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that the solution to our problems is to do purification practice every day. These practices include reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas while prostrating to them, reciting powerful mantras such as Buddha Shakyamuni’s name mantra, doing self-initiation, and reciting OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ, which purifies not only ourselves but even the microscopic creatures living in our bodies.
In the following short excerpt from Rinpoche’s video teachings on thought transformation, Rinpoche emphasizes that if we know these practices, we should do them now because we can die anytime!
Watch the eight-minute video “Purify Now Because You Can Die Anytime!”:
https://youtu.be/KNcFuxuCcpo
Here is the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching in this video:
The Solution to Suffering Is to Do Purification Every Day
So therefore, you can see now that purification is so important. The solution is purification every day. Practice as much as possible purification. We are soooooooo most unbelievably, most unbelievably fortunate.
1. Purify by Reciting the Thirty-Five Buddhas’ Names
There are many different buddhas’ names to purify different negative karmas. There are many different mantras that are so powerful, not only Vajrasattva. But the Thirty-Five Buddhas are so powerful. Bah, bah, bah. By reciting [their names] one time, by practicing well the Thirty-Five Buddhas, it purifies the tsham me nga, the very heavy five heavy negative karmas without break: killed father or mother or an arhat, harmed a buddha, [caused] disunity among the sangha. So, that means there is no question about the ten nonvirtuous actions collected in this life and past lives. Then no question. Even the very heavy negative karmas without break, the five, the five heavy negative karmas, even them, they get completely purified, bah, bah, bah, those collected in this life and past lives. Ssssh. Wow, wow, wow.
That’s why Lama Tsongkhapa did so many hundreds of thousands of prostrations by reciting the Thirty-Five Buddhas. He did so many, so much, not just seven hundred thousand, but so many. That’s why in Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, the Gelugpa lamas, the lineage lamas, every day they did much prostrations, so many prostrations. I think one lama, I don’t remember the name, Buton Jampa Rinpoche or some lamas do a thousand prostrations a day. Then, many do a hundred prostrations by reciting the Thirty-Five Buddhas. Ssssh.
2. Purify by Reciting the Powerful Mantras
Then there are many mantras, ssssh, very powerful. Even by reciting Buddha’s name mantra:
Buddha Shakyamuni’s Name:
[LA MA] TÖN PA CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHA KYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To [Guru,] Founder, Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Completed Buddha, Glorious Conqueror, Shakyamuni, I prostrate.
Buddha Shakyamuni’s Mantra:
TADYATHA OṂ MUNE MUNE MAHĀ MUNAYE SVĀHĀ
It is said in Kangyur, the Buddha’s teachings, it purifies, by reciting it one time it purifies a billion, 80,000 billion eons of negative karma. Eighty, 80,000 billion eons of negative karma by reciting one time Buddha’s name mantra. You should know that. Everybody should know that. So, take the opportunity, rather than leaving it in the sky! That doesn’t help. You have to practice! Do what you come to know! Practice Dharma! Aaaah. These are incredible methods of sutra and tantra. Bah, bah, bah. Yeah.
3. Purify by Doing Self-Initiation
And those who received a highest tantra initiation, yes, then there is dag jug, self-initiation. You take the initiation yourself. There is a long one, elaborate, middle one, and short one according to your time. It is so good if you break the bodhisattva vow or tantric vow. If you break the pratimoksha, bodhisattva, or tantric vow and general negative karma, it all gets purified. His Holiness does every day Yamantaka self-initiation. His Holiness does it every day. No matter how much busy he is, he does it every morning before he comes out. So, like that, if even His Holiness does it, of course, there is no question that we have to do it.
So, this is the answer of what to do! You have to know this—what to do! Aaaah. Then, yeah, do purification. Aaaah. Purify all the negative karmas you have collected from beginningless rebirths! Beginningless rebirths! Yeah, not just today, not just this life. No. Many people just do this life, maybe. Even that is good but …
4. Purify by Reciting OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ
Then by reciting OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ, wow, wow, wow, that purifies unbelievable, most unbelievable. Purifying yourself, being Chenrezig purifies yourself. Then together are all the simbu nyetri, the twenty-one thousand creatures inside your body living, it is said in a text. So, they all get purified at the same time. So, for example, when you go around a holy object, also they get purified. They get the cause of enlightenment. We carry animals and then we go around for them to achieve enlightenment. The same thing, all the creatures, the twenty-one thousand living inside your body, all those sentient beings get purified and they also create the cause of enlightenment, not only yourself, not only yourself alone. No. You have to know that. Bah, bah, bah.
Do These Purification Practices Now Because You Can Die Anytime!
So, mantras and those things, [reciting] the buddhas’ names, if you heard them, if you know them, don’t leave them just there. No. Practice! Do it now because you can die anytime! Aaaah. You can die anytime. Aaaah. You can die in the middle of the night and the next morning you become a corpse. So, like that, it is never sure, never. Whatever happens to others, it happens to you. So, you can die anytime, so therefore, you must practice now! Just leave it for later, keep it for later, you keep it but don’t practice, that is laziness. Tsk, tsk. Myself too does like that. Many mantras have so much power, so much benefits, but you leave them there. So, you don’t make your life beneficial. Ha-ha. It is like information you found in Skype or something. It is like that, then you leave it there. You didn’t use it. Ha-ha. Okay. All right!
You can find more resources and links on the FPMT Education pages Purification and Mantras.
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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 Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
For many years, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has called on students around the world to recite the Sutra of Golden Light for world peace. “For anyone who desires peace for themselves and for others this is a powerful way to bring peace that doesn’t require you to harm others, doesn’t require you to criticize others, or even to demonstrate against others. Anyone can read this text, Buddhists and even non-Buddhists who desire world peace,” Rinpoche says in “Recite the Golden Light Sutra for World Peace.”
In a letter to a European MP, Rinpoche wrote about the importance of spiritual power to help difficult situations in countries. Rinpoche says that praying, for example, is such a simple thing that can make things better. Rinpoche also recommended reciting the Sutra of Golden Light.
“For instance, the precious teaching of the Buddha called the Golden Light Sutra could be read in Iraq month after month (not just once). That text has the power to bring world peace and also becomes a healing practice for all the sick people in the city where it is read,” Rinpoche wrote.
“By reading this sutra your life only gets better and better, only goes up, never down, right up to enlightenment. Reading it becomes an incredible protection for the country where it is read and gives incredible power to its king or president. It also enables you to defeat a country’s enemy by making them lose power and unable to attack the country and its leader. If you read this text with mindfulness, you will see there is so much there. It can also help against terrorist attacks—this is all through the spiritual power of the Buddha’s holy words. It fulfills the wishes for happiness of everybody who reads it, now and forever. Their problems are taken care of naturally, with the help of so many devas and protectors who are around to help. This is just what I think and I am expressing it to you, that is all.”
You can find links to the sutra text as well as video of Rinpoche offering the sutra as an oral transmission on FPMT.org’s “Sutra of Golden Light” page. This resource page also has more on the benefits of reciting the sutra and links for reporting sutra recitations and stories from students who have seen the benefits of reciting the sutra:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/sutras/golden-light-sutra/
To see more advice offered by Rinpoche to politicians, visit “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/advice-politicians
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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 offering a teaching to monks during puja on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche hand wrote a card with extensive advice for a young student in January 2011. The following advice was extracted from Rinpoche’s card.
Here I want to say something. It’s very, very important to learn to benefit and not harm your parents, but to help them and make them happy. There are three types of karma. With one type you create the karma in this life and see the result in this life. Even helping in a small way is virtuous; it is powerful and therefore you see the result, happiness, in this life. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean only that. In future lives you will experience the results of one good act to your parents, such as praising them, saying nice things. If you harm them or get angry with them, even a small negative action such as criticizing them results in suffering in this life when you are older, not happiness. You can experience suffering in hundreds, thousands, of lifetimes, from that one act of disrespect.
The other type of karma is created in this life and experienced in the next life. Then there is the karma created in this life and experienced after billions, trillions, of eons. Even a small karma doesn’t get lost if it doesn’t meet opposite conditions. The happiness or suffering will be experienced even after eons.
All living beings experience different kinds of lives: success or failure, being educated, becoming a fool or a beggar, being forgetful or wise. Life can change with all kinds of experiences. It doesn’t stay one way all the time. Then it can also change from this life to the next life—being reborn as a hell being, a hungry ghost, a human being, an animal, a sura or asura, having all kinds of lives. These are real facts and the omniscient one, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, has explained this. Everything can be checked; it’s not blind faith, it’s not just telling people what to believe.
Every single comfort and service you give to your parents is an unbelievably precious cause of success for yourself in this life and future lives. Buddha has shown the correct life that leads from happiness to happiness to enlightenment. Otherwise, life is totally lost and ignorant, like the moths that fly into candle flames and are burnt. Once the suffering or happiness resulting from an action is being experienced, it’s difficult to stop it at that time.
If suffering comes and you don’t know how it happened, the mind freaks out and suffers so much. By knowing about karma, the cause of that suffering, the mind has unbelievable peace. You should understand that negative karma can be purified, that actions done in the past can be purified. If you learn from Buddhism and have wisdom knowing what is right and wrong—the inner science—it will become more and more clear by checking. It’s different from other religions. The more wisdom you have, then no one can cheat you and there is a direction in life for you to follow. Buddha showed how to check and put this into practice for happiness and success. Buddha showed how to develop happiness in life, so that all your wishes get fulfilled and you fulfill others’ needs through Dharma.
Getting angry is one thing that destroys good karma, the cause of happiness, collected from beginningless rebirth. Hundreds or thousands of eons of merit get destroyed by even one second of anger arising toward someone whose mind is at a higher level than yours. If you are not a bodhisattva, getting angry with a bodhisattva for one second destroys hundred of eons of merits. Getting angry with a buddha destroys unbelievably much more. Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable eons of good karma get destroyed. The most powerful one is the guru, thus anger toward the guru is the worst kind. Practicing patience brings so much peace and happiness from life to life.
By practicing patience and not getting angry, all your merits are protected and you don’t create the cause to be born in the lower realms. One second of anger destroys realizations for hundreds or thousands of eons. So you should live without anger and have a peaceful mind. If there’s only anger, it’s better to not communicate. That helps. Instead of saying something with anger, don’t talk. All actions done with delusion are suffering.
I love you, therefore I am giving you this advice.
This advice “The Wisdom of Dharma” was originally published in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/wisdom-dharma
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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.
A young Kopan monk making light offerings on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Of course by purifying negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth and by collecting extensive merits, this allows you to have realizations on the path to enlightenment and for your mind to change,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche. “There is always hope the mind can change, even to achieve enlightenment, so you can achieve a higher rebirth, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment.”
“Vajrasattva practice is so important generally, and especially nowadays in the world, when there is not only global warming, but many other problems. There are so many other dangers—of war and sicknesses, cancer, and so many people whom you know are dying. There are so many sicknesses and other conditions for dying.”
“This Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices are the ultimate answer, so everything in the world—what you see, every situation—tells you to practice Vajrasattva. To purify and do Vajrasattva practice is the ultimate answer, to stop the cause to be reborn in the lower realms and the immediate [result] is to have a higher rebirth, to make preparation for death and then to meet the Dharma, to meet the virtuous friend who reveals the path to enlightenment. Then to achieve ultimate happiness, to be free from samsara and to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings and to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.”
From “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/benefits-vajrasattva-practice
You can find resources to support your Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices on the new Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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 at Kopan, Nepal, November 2020. 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 going over the first vital point of the four vital points of analysis as presented in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Phabongkha Rinpoche. The first point of this analytical meditation on emptiness is recognizing the object to be refuted, the gag ja in Tibetan.
Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary offers a quote from Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara:
Without recognizing the thing that is imputed,
You cannot realize it’s non-existence.
Rinpoche then explains that it is like trying to hit a target with an arrow. Without seeing the target, you cannot aim the arrow at the target. In other words, you need to recognize exactly what is to be negated—what you are imputing as existing, but which doesn’t truly exist—in order to see that it doesn’t exist by its own nature, that it doesn’t exist from its own side.
The commentary continues saying that just hearing an explaination of the self to be negated isn’t enough. You have to ascertain that self, the object to be refuted, through your own raw experience; you have to recognize it for yourself.
If you don’t recognize the object to be refuted, you could fall into nihilism, thinking nothing exists at all. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a long discussion of this danger, raising the questions: If we believe nothing exists, how do we get and cook food? How do we go to the toilet? How do we even discriminate between what is a toilet and what is not? What is food and what is not? We might start eating the kaka from the toilet if nothing exists! Some people without the merit to understand the teachings spend their whole life meditating on nihilism.
Rinpoche then discusses the three ways of holding the I and offers commentary on each:
- The way the I is held by those who have realized the right view;
- The way the I is held by ordinary beings whose mental continuum is not affected by tenets; and
- The way the I is held by those whose mind is hallucinated.
Rinpoche also explains that you need to differentiate between the two ways in which the I appears:
- The way in which the I appears to exist from its own side by its own nature, and
- The way in which the I appears.
The way the I appears to innate I-grasping becomes clear when you are praised or criticized, Rinpoche explains. For example, when you are falsely accused of stealing, the thought “I” that arises solidly and can’t tolerate the accusation is the way in which the object to be refuted appears. This is the appearance of the gag ja, the nonexistent, or false, I.
Rinpoche then introduces two new Dharma stuffed animals who have the following messages:
Rabbit: “I get angry but I try to practice patience. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Cat: “I am the most beautiful cat in the world but people don’t love me so I practice compassion for them. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
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.
Please note, Lama Zopa Rinpoche will be taking a break of several weeks from offering these video teachings.
All of Rinpoche’s video teachings from this series, along with videos in translation, can be found on the page Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. (You also can find links to the video teachings, transcripts, and the materials mentioned in them on the page Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and Practice Advice.)
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The First Vital Point Is Recognizing the Object to Be Refuted”:
https://youtu.be/aJd8lxrOekg
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
- Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. 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 reminding us that the “self-cherishing thought” is what creates all of our suffering, including, since beginningless time, the oceans of animal suffering, the oceans of preta being suffering, the oceans of sura being suffering, the oceans of asura being suffering, and all the different problems and suffering of this life, including obstacles, physical and mental sufferings, and sicknesses. All of this is created by the self-cherishing thought. It not only causes your suffering but has also caused so much suffering for others.
Because of the self-cherishing thought, you have not had any realizations at all; the mind remains like an empty pot. The most frightening mind is the mind that holds the self-cherishing I as real. This is the real enemy. The I that you cherish most is not there at all, not even the slightest atom. Giving up the I and cherishing others is the solution to your suffering.
With bodhichitta—the ultimate good heart cherishing others—you can say goodbye to all the things that destroy your life. You can also say goodbye to doctors and psychologists because you have total peace and happiness of body and mind.
Everything that appears to you is created by your ignorance. Rinpoche shares and discusses this quote from the Fifth Dalai Lama:
Due to the hallucinated appearance of the thick darkness of ignorance,
The way your body and mind appear to you is like a variegated, coiled rope.
With the fear of a poisonous snake due to thinking “I,”
You experience the fear of the three [types of] suffering.
Rinpoche then has a humorous discussion about the difference between snakes, snacks, and snake snacks!
Following on the theme of discussing snakes, Rinpoche then explains the karmic results of killing snakes:
- The complete negative karma of killing a snake has the ripened-aspect result of rebirth in hell, in the lower realms.
- The possessed result is that even when good karma ripens and you are reborn as a human being, you still suffer and have many problems in life, including dangers of death, because of killing a snake. You live in places where there are a lot of contagious diseases, obstacles to your health, and so forth.
- There is experiencing the result similar to the cause. This is when others kill you as the result of the past karma of killing the snake.
- There is creating the result similar to the cause. As a result of the past negative karma of killing a snake, even if it was just once, you want to kill again. You created a habit for killing. Then when you kill again, the negative karma created has the four suffering results again. So it goes on and on, on and on. It makes endless suffering of samsara.
If you don’t meet the Dharma, you won’t change your karma, and it goes on forever. By killing that one snake, your samsaric suffering becomes endless. This is why practicing morality, even keeping just the precept not to kill, is so important. If you are smart, you must practice Dharma.
Going back to the quote by the Fifth Dalai Lama, Rinpoche explains the scenario where it is dusk and there is a piece of rope: the way it is curled and due to the lack of light, it appears as a snake. First you label it “snake” with your mind. Then the appearance of a snake comes and you believe this and think, “Oh, there’s a snake!” Then you are afraid and think it will bite you. So much fear. But your mind totally created it. There is nothing there. There is not even one atom of a snake. Not an atom of snake is there. It was produced by your mind.
We need to practice seeing what appears to us as real as actually being created by our ignorance. When something appears—be it a snake or a self-cherishing I—it appears to you as not merely labeled by the mind, even though just a second ago it was merely labeled by your mind. You don’t realize that, you forget that, so it appears real. Due to the negative imprints collected on the mind, on the continuity of consciousness, the merely labeled I is decorated on that, so it appears real. However, real is made by your mind, made by ignorance. The whole world that appears real is created by ignorance. It is good to remember this as a mindfulness practice on ignorance.
The three types of suffering arise from the concept of holding the I to be true. Meditating on emptiness in your daily life leaves imprints that allow you to realize emptiness more quickly. If you realize emptiness, then you can enlighten others and free them from samsara. Then, with the support of bodhichitta, developing the wisdom of emptiness with bodhichitta, and developing bodhichitta with the support of wisdom, you achieve enlightenment for sentient beings!
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 “Everything That Appears to You Is Created by Your Ignorance”:
https://youtu.be/edwCsEeeDTU
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
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.