Rinpoche blessing and reciting mantras for two goats that had just been saved from the butcher and now live at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling (Kopan Nunnery), July 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, recently released by Wisdom Publications, 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 “When We Respect Sentient Beings, We Respect the Buddhas”:

Compassion for all sentient beings with the exception of one—the one we consider our enemy—is not great compassion, and without great compassion bodhichitta and enlightenment are impossible. Great compassion entails not only the wish for all sentient beings to be free from all suffering but also the determination that we ourselves will free them. This great compassion therefore relies on each and every sentient being: every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, demigod, god, and intermediate-state being. It includes our friends and those we consider strangers, but it also includes our enemies.

Shantideva compared the “field” of sentient beings to a buddha field. Because farmers rely on their fields of crops to earn their living, they take very good care of them—watering them, fertilizing them, protecting them from frost, and so forth. They think their crops are extremely precious. In exactly the same way, if we use the field of sentient beings to plant the thoughts of loving-kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta, we reap the crop of full enlightenment.

When we understand that all sentient beings are the field from which we receive all happiness, up to and including enlightenment, we will naturally want to take the best possible care of them, serving them in whatever way is best to repay their kindness. Even if we must give up our life—even if we must give up our life numberless times—there is still no way we can repay that kindness.

At present, we respect the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and make offerings to them, because it is through relying on their guidance that we can attain enlightenment. When we understand that we equally need to rely on all sentient beings to obtain buddhahood, through practicing the six perfections with them, we will see that we should also respect and make offerings to them in the same way we do with the Three Rare Sublime Ones. Of course, the buddhas’ qualities are inexpressible and their intentions for us are unimaginable, and this is certainly not so for sentient beings. But, as Shantideva said, even though they are not equal in their qualities, they are equal in the results we obtain from them, so why do we not equally revere them?

To attain bodhichitta, we need to create an immense amount of merit through practices such as making offerings to holy objects. How could we make such offerings if it weren’t for sentient beings? Even a tiny stick of incense or a few grains of rice have come from the work of others. When we fly above a great city at night and see the millions of lights, these are an excellent offering to the buddhas, but who created all those lights? Sentient beings. If there were no sentient beings, there would be nothing to offer the buddhas. And there would be no buddhas, because they became buddhas by relying on the field of sentient beings.

Sentient beings are the foundation of our practice of generosity and morality, the cause of this perfect human rebirth. They are the foundation of our entire happiness, including enlightenment. They are our merit field, allowing us to create infinite merit by serving them. In that way, they are so kind. We cannot point to one sentient being who is kinder than any other. The whole path depends on all sentient beings. Paying respect to sentient beings is the same as paying respect to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. If we help sentient beings, that is the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. If we take care of sentient beings, we take care of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

When we work for sentient beings, we work for the buddhas and bodhisattvas, because that is all that they are ever doing. There is not one flea, one mosquito, one hell being, one god, one spirit that all buddhas and bodhisattvas, with their infinite wisdom and compassion, are not ceaselessly and tirelessly working for. When we save the life of that flea, we are doing the work of a buddha. When we cherish that angry person, we are doing the work of a buddha, because that is what the buddhas and bodhisattvas do. They cherish every being more than themselves. If we are unable to do that yet, by aspiring to and working toward that, we are pleasing all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

When we understand the incredible kindness of sentient beings, we can develop loving-kindness and compassion for them. We can see that the only thing they want is happiness and to avoid all suffering, but while they are deluded there is no way they can attain even a little temporal happiness. And yet they are the source of all our past, present, and future happiness, including our eventual enlightenment. This is the main point we should feel in our heart.

Regardless of whether a sentient being loves us, we should sincerely wish them happiness from our heart, with a mind like clear water, unhindered by attachment or other emotional minds that cloud it. With such an attitude, no matter what they do to us, that mind of lovingkindness and compassion does not budge. The deep peace we get from them is something we couldn’t get from all the wealth in the world.

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 walking around the stupas and gardens with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Ven. Thubten Tendar at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 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 explaining that Buddhism teaches us that how things appear to our minds is totally opposite to how they exist. Every single thing we do in our lives with our body, speech, and minds is carried forth with this wrong view, which is a total hallucination. What this basic Buddhist teaching offers you is the opportunity to learn about the truth of your life. Buddhism is not just chanting and learning rituals; it is for discovering yourself.

When you believe what your anger thinks, Rinpoche explains, you want to destroy your enemy. You believe that what ignorance says is true. It is the same with attachment. You get stuck on an object and believe, “this is soooo good.” In reality, there is nothing there; it is empty. What anger believes, what attachment believes, is not really there. Both anger and attachment are built on the basis of a wrong view of the object.

Every single word Buddha taught is to subdue the mind, Rinpoche reminds us. The way to do that is by meditating on death and impermanence. This destroys the concept of permanence, which makes anger, attachment, and all problems arise. Remembering death and impermanence is also the basis for lojong (thought transformation). You can die at anytime, so it’s best to practice now!

Rinpoche then shares a motivation for listening to the teaching and receiving the continued oral transmission of The Heart’s Utmost Need. He reminds us that our purpose should be to benefit, and not harm, others. Our purpose should be to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering forever, to bring them to peerless happiness, the total cessation of obscurations, gross and subtle, and then to the completion of all realizations. To achieve that, one must achieve omniscience and actualize the graduated path to enlightenment. Therefore, think, For that purpose, I will listen to the teachings for every single being. You have to really think of the beings, even a tiny insect in front of you. You are listening for them.

Rinpoche then continues offering the oral transmission and commentary of The Heart’s Utmost Need (beginning at 0:18:15 in the video).

Please note that the dedication verses have recently been updated and the latest version (below) should be used.

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 “Practice Now Because You Can Die Anytime!“:
https://youtu.be/7IvgibbO4jk

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The Heart’s Utmost Need: Persuading Oneself and Others to Remember Impermanence and Death by Phabonghka Rinpoche
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings (Update September 22, 2020)

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 translation, 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 looking at the view from Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 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, recently released by Wisdom Publications, 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 “The Kindness of the Enemy:”

The traditional way for Tibetans and Sherpas to make the soles of shoes was to soften the leather using butter. Because of the stiffness of untreated leather, it could only be cut or sewn with great difficulty. Therefore it was soaked in the butter left over from butter lamps and kneaded while drying in the sun, and polished to make it soft and malleable but still extremely strong. The kneading was a bit like kneading dough, working with the feet, pulling and pushing, until it became softer. When I was very small, my first teacher who taught me the alphabet would sometimes do this while he gave me a lesson or I was reciting a text. It takes a lot of physical energy.

With the butter, the sun, and the kneading, the leather becomes workable; without them the leather would be so stiff it would be useless. Similarly, our “untreated” mind—when we are not living in patience— is stiff and useless. We need patience, and we need other sentient beings to allow us to develop that patience. The harm that somebody tries to do us, testing our patience, is like the stiff leather of our pride being kneaded. By helping us destroy our delusions like that, they are saving us from the lower realms.

In the thought-transformation text Eight Verses on Mind Training, Langri Tangpa said,

Even if one whom I have helped,
Or in whom I have placed great hope,
Gravely mistreats me in hurtful ways,
I will train myself to view him as my sublime teacher.

When Atisha was in Tibet, he had a servant, Atara, who was very bad tempered and who always caused other people to get angry. When asked why he kept him, Atisha explained that he did so in order to practice patience, for without patience you could not become a great yogi. It is very useful to think like this.

Even if the sentient being who is giving us trouble is not the Buddha, by treating them as if they are, we can only benefit. It is part of the thought-transformation teachings that we see all sentient beings as equal to the buddhas, not in their realizations, of course, but just as the buddhas are instrumental in our enlightenment by guiding us, so too are sentient beings in helping us develop the qualities we need. Without the angry person, we can never develop patience; without the needy person, we can never develop generosity and compassion, and so on.

We can view any situation from many perspectives. Rather than seeing somebody who is giving us harm as the cause of our suffering, we can see them as the means for our transformation, as the embodiment of our guru, thinking that our guru has manifested in this way in order for us to develop our patience. As enlightenment is impossible without the perfection of patience, it is impossible without this person trying to harm us and thereby testing our patience. Thinking like that, we see there is no reason to become angry in return. Techniques like this make the mind malleable and able to transform more quickly. This is another benefit of patience.

Excerpted from Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Gordon McDougall, published by Wisdom Publications:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/patience/

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, with Vens. Tsenla, Topgye, and Tenzin, and stuffed toys with mantras and Dharma messages written upon them, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this advice to a student in November 2016.

When you have very negative thoughts, thinking that “Nobody loves me, no one cares for me,” and so on, you have so much unhappiness that is made by your own mind. You have had that very unhappy mind for a long time. You think that the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas don’t love you, they don’t care for you; that you are completely left out, that they let you suffer. This shows that you don’t have renunciation. You have no renunciation of attachment, nor bodhichitta or emptiness.

Actually the buddhas and bodhisattvas cherish you one hundred thousand times more than you love yourself. If they did not love you and cherish you, then you would not be a human being this time, not even that. All these virtues could not be done and so much benefit to sentient beings would not happen, you would not have all this Dharma education and so forth. So much, so much, so much.

It is important to understand that those who are living in renunciation—the meditators, monks, nuns, and also lay people—have inner peace and happiness. Renunciation means to renounce attachment to this life, to future lives, to samsara. They don’t feel that “Nobody loves me.” They are satisfied because they have inner peace and happiness. The stronger the renunciation, the more peace and happiness inside. Many people do not know this and they think that bringing presents, flowers, and cakes makes them sooooo happy.

Generating the two bodhichittas, loving kindness and compassion, is not attachment. Just as a mother cherishes her child, in this way the meditator cherishes all sentient beings—numberless hell beings, preta beings, animals, humans, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings—and generates the precious thought to achieve full enlightenment for all mother sentient beings. From this there are skies of happiness and peace.

This is very important news, which can be very helpful for many other people, students, and general people. The sadness, feeling alone, that no one loves you, comes from attachment to this life. That’s why we need renunciation. This is the antidote to bring inner peace and happiness. It means the mind will become pure Dharma.

Drogön Tsangpa Gyare, who is the savior of transmigratory beings, said:

“We must not lose the auspicious connection with the valid perfect one. Even if we lose auspicious connection with everyone else, let it happen. But if we lose the connection with the valid perfect one, then even if all transmigratory beings become our relatives, what is the use of that?”

This advice “The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Cherish You” was originally published in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/buddhas-and-bodhisattvas-cherish-you

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 at Kopan Monastery, September 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 explaining that the reason why we practice lojong (thought transformation) is to utilize all undesirable situations—sickness, misfortunes, etc.—on the path to enlightenment.

Rinpoche explains a quote from Serlingpa, one of Lama Atisha’s two root gurus, to illustrate his point. The quote, from Serlingpa’s Leveling Out All Conceptions, says:

Unfavorable conditions are virtuous friends.
Spirit possessions are manifestations of the Victorious One.
Sicknesses are brooms for cleaning negative karmas and obscurations.
Sufferings are displays of the ultimate nature.

Suffering is a manifestation of emptiness, Rinpoche explains. By meditating on suffering you realize that the ultimate nature of suffering is emptiness, a dependent arising.

Rinpoche then continues the oral transmission of The Heart’s Utmost Need (at 0:07:28 in the video). Rinpoche reminds us that the motivation for listening to a teaching or receiving an oral transmission is to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, and not only that, but to bring numberless beings—meaning everyone—to enlightenment.

Therefore, we should think, I must achieve enlightenment for all beings. This is the motivation for listening to the teachings: to achieve enlightenment in order to liberate others.

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 Do When This Happens to You?“:
https://youtu.be/YqCT292CNp8

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The Heart’s Utmost Need: Persuading Oneself and Others to Remember Impermanence and Death by Phabonghka Rinpoche
• 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 translation, 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, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 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 by explaining that although this teaching series has been labeled Rinpoche’s “thought transformation” teachings, all 84,000 teachings of Buddha are to subdue, benefit, and transform the mind, like a doctor giving a prescription for a rock-hard mind that is habituated to suffering.

Rinpoche discusses the nine-round meditation on impermanence and death, and the importance of doing this practice of visualizing what happens to your body after your own death.

Rinpoche also explains the prayers he does when he goes around Swayambhunath mountain in Nepal and past the cemetery there. Rinpoche says he makes prayers to the Seven Medicine Buddhas that any person who has had there dead body taken there—in the past, present, and future—never be reborn in the lower realms but be born in a pure land where they can become enlightened or at least receive a perfect human rebirth, meet the Mahayana teachings, meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and then, by pleasing most the holy mind of the virtuous friend, be enlightened quickly.

Rinpoche also reminds us of the importance of remembering that today your body is here but tomorrow your body could be the one on the cemetery fire. Therefore, meditating on impermanence subdues the mind and makes it soft.

Rinpoche then gives a motivational teaching for receiving the continuation of the oral transmission of The Heart’s Utmost Need. Rinpoche tells a story to illustrate how our motivation needs to be pure Dharma and not based in the eight worldly dharmas. He also tells a story about his time in the refuge camp in Buxa Duar, listening to the breath of a monk who was dying. 

Every single word of Buddha’s teachings is for every single sentient being, Rinpoche reminds us. We must keep that in mind every time we listen to the teachings. Even sentient beings who we hate, who are our enemies, who look down on us and harm us, we listen to the teachings for them—for every single sentient being in numberless universes.

Rinpoche then continues offering the oral transmission and commentary of The Heart’s Utmost Need, which he received from Kyabje Ribur Rinpoche. (The oral transmission begins at 53:09 in the video.)

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 “This Is Going to Happen to You!”:
https://youtu.be/7mtAZg9_6m0

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The Heart’s Utmost Need: Persuading Oneself and Others to Remember Impermanence and Death by Phabonghka Rinpoche (previously known as Heart Spoon)
• 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 translation, 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.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Thubten Tendar, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 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 explaining that the whole lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, is about thought transformation. Rinpoche goes through a broad outline of lamrim topics and discusses how each are for training in thought transformation, including guru devotion, perfect human rebirth, death and impermanence, refuge and karma, samsara is the nature of suffering, compassion for others, and bodhichitta.

Rinpoche further explains that bodhichitta is only “between the lips” if you don’t meditate on your own suffering, and if you don’t see that your own samsara is in the nature of suffering, your compassion will be limited.

Rinpoche then begins offering the lung (oral transmission) and commentary on The Heart’s Utmost Need (formerly known as Heart Spoon, at 0:13:30 in the video). The full lung is not completed in this teaching.

Rinpoche then explains that meditating on death and impermanence is the best medicine for all mental problems. Additionally, every single word Buddha taught was to help subdue the mind. When the mind is not subdued, all suffering—including that of the hell realms, hungry ghosts, and animals—comes from the mind.

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 “Meditating on Impermanence-Death Is the Best Medicine for All Mental Problems”:
https://youtu.be/06v4Nc_j6vo

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find more resources on lamrim study
• The Heart’s Utmost Need: Persuading Oneself and Others to Remember Impermanence and Death by Phabonghka Rinpoche (previously known as Heart Spoon)
• 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 translation, 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 and monks circumambulating the stupas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August 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 explaining that the ten innermost jewels of the Kadampas show what holy Dharma is. By knowing the ten innermost jewels, then you know what holy Dharma is and what worldly Dharma is.

This is important because many activities that look like holy Dharma are actually worldly Dharma. Even if you are reciting mantras, reading prayers, doing retreat, studying philosophy, debating, etc., these activities only become holy Dharma if your mind becomes holy Dharma. Otherwise, it’s still worldly Dharma. The mind is a worldly mind, full of worldly concern, you have to carefully check your motivation.

The Ten Innermost Jewels of the Kadampas

The Four Entrustments

Rinpoche offers detailed commentary on each of the entrustments, which are:

* I should entrust the depths of my attitude to the Dharma.
* I should entrust the depths of the Dharma to the beggar.
* I should entrust the depths of the beggar to death.
* I should entrust the depths of death to the cave.

Rinpoche concludes that the main thing is to not be attached to the perfections of this life, to free yourself from the prison of attachment.

The Three Vajras

Rinpoche offers detailed commentary on the three vajras, which are:

*I should proceed first with the uncaptured vajra. Rinpoche summarizes that this means to proceed with pure Dharma without allowing yourself to be delayed.

* I should leave behind the shameless vajra. Rinpoche summarizes that this means no matter what people say—if they praise you or criticize you, it makes no difference to you including your family who may try to influence you.

* I should be accompanied by the transcendental wisdom vajra. Rinpoche summarizes that this means that you never break your promise to totally abandon the activities of this life and live your life equal to the Dharma.

The Three Practices of Expelling, Striving, and Achieving

Rinpoche then explains the three practices, which are:

* I should expel myself from the line of human beings. Rinpoche summarizes that this means that you avoid wealth, family, friends, reputation, and the trappings of life’s perfections.

* I should strive for the line of dogs. Rinpoche summarizes that this means you don’t reach for nice clothing or reputation, you bear hardships for holy Dharma.

* I should achieve the line of devas. Rinpoche summarizes that this means you give up all worldly activities, you renounce this life in a solitary place avoiding anger and attachment.

In addition to the commentary on the ten innermost jewels, Rinpoche also advises that when you make offerings on behalf of sentient beings, every sentient being collects merit. Additionally, you can dedicate your own merit to purify sentient beings’ negative karma.

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 Ten Innermost Jewels Show What Holy Dharma Is”:
https://youtu.be/Jq_Gz9j8RgM

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Ten Innermost Jewels of the Kadampas, by Zhabkar Tshogdrug Rangdrol, translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Rinpoche’s other recent teachings on the ten innermost jewels of the Kadampas
• 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 translation, 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 in the garden at Kopan Monastery offering advice to the main staff monks, Nepal, August 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 explaining that bodhisattvas have a totally different attitude than other sentient beings. For bodhisattvas, having the goal of only liberating oneself from samsara is like used toilet paper and should be gotten rid of. Conversely, to suffer in hell for even one single sentient being makes bodhisattvas so happy. When they take on the suffering of sentient beings, bodhisattvas are like swans who feel so happy when getting into a pond.

When bodhisattvas engages in the seven non-virtues of body and speech (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, telling lies, gossiping, slandering, and speaking harshly), this actually becomes virtue and a cause for enlightenment. Bodhisattvas have such strong bodhichitta that action normally regarded as negative can become virtuous. 

Therefore, Rinpoche concludes, the main practice in one’s life should be bodhichitta.

Rinpoche then gives commentary on the seven-limb practice.

1. Prostrations: Prostrations are the antidote to pride and purify negative karmas and obscurations, and bring the result of vajra body, speech, and mind.
2. Offering: Making offerings is the antidote to miserliness, purifies negative karma to be reborn in the lower realms, and causes you to experience in the future all the happiness you have experienced from beginningless rebirths up to now. In addition, making offerings causes you to achieve liberation from samsara and great nirvana. The result of making offerings is that you receive inconceivable offerings when you become a buddha and everything appears as pure. (Rinpoche gives extensive advice on the practice of offering at 01:03:42 in the video.)
3. Confession: Confessing is the antidote to the three poisonous minds and negative karma. The result is you receive the cessation of delusion.
4. Rejoicing: The result of rejoicing is you achieve a perfect buddha’s holy body.
5. Requesting the guru to turn the Dharma wheel: This purifies the negative karma of abandoning holy Dharma and creates the cause for you to teach Dharma. And the result is that you achieve sixty qualities of a buddha’s perfect speech.
6. Requesting the guru to have a long life: The result of this is you achieve immortal life, vajra holy body. Offering a long life-puja to the guru pacifies one’s life danger and untimely death.
7. Dedication: Dedication is the antidote to heresy and anger. The mind is so habituated toward being angry if someone harms us or even looks at us in a disrespectful way. Dedicating your merit to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and sealing with emptiness is an antidote to anger, which destroys merit like rice is burned in a fire. The result of dedication is that you achieve all the qualities of Buddha.

In Rinpoche’s explanation of the dedication limb, he describes the four main practices in Buddhism, which are:

1. When somebody is angry, you don’t get angry back;
2. When somebody scolds you, you don’t scold back;
3. When somebody provokes you, you don’t provoke back; and
4. When somebody beats you, you don’t beat back.

Rinpoche concludes this section saying, the seven-limb practice is the basic practice for achieving realizations and enlightenment.

Then Rinpoche discusses the benefits of making offerings, including a detailed description of how to make light offerings.

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 Seven Limb Practice Is the Basic Practice for Achieving Enlightenment”:
https://youtu.be/ZBakxHU4nBU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• You can learn more about seven-limb practice and making offerings in Rinpoche’s online teaching series Living in the Path. (The modules “The Seven-Limb Prayer” and “Making Offerings” are freely offered, however students will need to created an FPMT Online Learning Center account to access them.)
• Light Offering Practice
• 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 translation, 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 in the garden at Kopan Monastery offering advice to the main staff monks, Nepal, August 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 explaining that from beginningless rebirths, we have eaten and been eaten by every type of sentient being. Eating animals is a habit from past lives and creates the result similar to the cause, and people who eat animals are behaving like snakes, tigers, and insects.

Rinpoche explains the karma of this more in depth. Four things must be present for the action of killing an animal to be complete:

1. It’s a sentient being;
2. You have the thought and motivation to kill;
3. You do the action; and
4. That being is killed while you are still alive.

Then, there are four results of a completed action:

1. The ripened-aspect result;
2. The possessed result;
3. Experiencing the result similar to the cause; and
4. Creating the result similar to the cause.

Rinpoche gives commentary on each of these results.

Fortunately, there are many things we can do that make it easy to purify negative karma and achieve enlightenment including reciting mantras, engaging in nyung na retreats, taking the eight Mahayana precepts, prostrations to the thirty-five buddhas, Chenrezig practice, etc. If you don’t realize how precious these practices are, you will think it is better to go to the beach and swim in the water like a fish. You need to learn the inner science of Dharma to purify your obscurations and develop more wisdom. This is why Dharma centers are so important, because they teach people what is to be practiced and what is to be abandoned.

It is so important to live your life with a good heart, not harming sentient beings and only benefiting them. First you can realize that everyone’s happiness is as important as your own; and next you can realize that their happiness is more important than your own.

Rinpoche then continues offering advice about prostrations. When you enter a place with holy objects, put your hand in prostration mudra and think: “My guru manifested in all these holy objects to free me from the lower realms, to free me from samsara and lower nirvana, and bring me to enlightenment.”

Lama Tsongkhapa did hundreds of thousands of prostrations to the thirty-five buddhas because even doing this practice well one time purifies the five heavy negative karmas. It contains the remedy of the four opponent powers. Rinpoche explains that when you do a full prostration, every atom that your body covers, including what is covered by your hair, creates the cause to be reborn as a wheel-turning king a thousand times according to the number of atoms that your body covers. Of course, the purpose of doing prostrations is not to be born as a wheel-turning king but to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.

Rinpoche then offers the oral transmission of The Flowing Water of the Ganga: A Thorough Praise of the Thirty-Five Sugatas (at 1:11:58 in the video).

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 “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offers Oral Transmission of ‘The Flowing Water of the Ganga'”:
https://youtu.be/lHkUKEfE8DI

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The Flowing Water of the Ganga: A Thorough Praise of the Thirty-Five Sugatas by Ngulchu Dharmabhadra
• 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 translation, 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 pausing to look at a group photo from an early Kopan Course with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Ven. Thubten Tendar, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August 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:

This video begins with the precious opportunity for us to hear from Max Mathews, known affectionately as “Mummy Max,” who met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1968 and was instrumental in establishing and funding Kopan Monastery in the 1970s. We invite you to take a moment to get to know this remarkable person and listen to her talk about this formative time in FPMT history. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching explaining that without the body and mind, there is no “I.” Believing that there is a real “I” without depending on the continuity of consciousness and body is totally mistaken. The real “I” is not there. If you look for it scientifically or through meditation, you can’t find it. This is the most important subject for Western science to check and to realize because all suffering comes from the ignorance that believes in a real “I.”

Rinpoche then turns the teaching toward a discussion of bodhichitta, the wish to attain enlightenment in order to end the suffering of all sentient beings. In your bodhichitta motivation, not one sentient being in numberless universes is left out. That means everyone, not just nice sentient beings!

Rinpoche then discusses the actions of the buddhas and the guru. The buddhas are manifesting as the guru, doing actions for every single sentient being in numberless universes. Because your mind is so obscured, you cannot see any buddha in the aspect of a buddha. We are so fortunate to be able to see the guru in human form, rather than as a donkey or mouse! This is the kindness of the guru, appearing in ordinary aspect for your benefit. 

Keep in mind, whatever the guru does, this is the action of all the buddhas. Without a guru, you cannot be liberated from samsara, and your mind cannot receive the actions of the buddhas, the guidance of the buddhas. It is the most important relationship you have. The guru is more special than even Vajradhara because you learn the qualities you need to achieve enlightenment in this life.  

Rinpoche then offers a small teaching on prostrations (starting at 1:19:48 in the video), including the meaning of the prostration mudra, how to do prostrations and the significance of touching different parts of the body, what to think when you touch the different parts of the body, how to do a proper full length prostration, an explanation of why you should do short five-limb prostrations when taking pratimoksha vows, and what to meditate on as you are lying down during prostration.

Rinpoche then gives the lung of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land. (The section on the lung begins at 1:33:18 in the video).

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 “All the Buddhas Manifest as the Guru in Ordinary Aspect to Guide You”:
https://youtu.be/CDxzLWejlSI

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching 
• The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra
• Many of the stories Max Mathews refers to can be read in Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe.
• 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 translation, 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 showing a stuffed toy upon which he had Dharma messages written, Kopan Monastery, August 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 referring to his earlier teachings on the importance of receiving blessings from the guru, which he discussed in the previous two video teachings.

Rinpoche then initiates a discussion of karma, listing the four results of negative karma, which describe the ways karma will ripen in this life or in future lives:

1. The ripened-aspect result is the karmic result that happens even if you are ignorant of the karma you created.
2. The possessed result is the result that happens in the environment around you based on your past actions. For example as a result of killing, you are born into a land where there are wars, fighting, disease, and so forth.
3. Experiencing the result similar to the cause is when you experience what you have done to others in the past. For example, if you killed someone, in the future you will be killed by someone.
4. Creating the result similar to the cause is when you continue to do something or have a habit to do something because of past actions. For example if you killed in the past, you will continue to kill in the present and future. This happens until the negative karma is confessed and purified. 

It is very easy to create the negative karma of killing, particularly with tiny insects. For example, it is important to check the sink for insects before you turn water on. You also need to have this awareness when you want to slap at your body because of an insect crawling on your skin. In general it is important to have an awareness of small creatures so you don’t harm them. Because it is so easy to create this kind of negative karma, we must apply the remedy with the four opponent powers and purification practices such as Vajrasattva practice, prostrations to the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas, and so forth. Without doing this, negative karma will have to be experienced in many lifetimes.

The guru manifests in whatever way is necessary to subdue sentient beings. In fact, wherever you are, there are numberless buddhas there in various forms. You never think that the animals you see could be buddhas manifesting to benefit you. In fact, buddhas manifest in all kinds of aspects to guide you, but they do mainly manifest as the guru which, is actually, numberless buddhas.

When the guru is praising you, all the buddhas are praising you; when the guru scolds you, all the buddhas are scolding you. When you see actions of your guru as mistakes such as attachment, ignorance, immoral behavior, and so forth, you have to remember that a buddha never makes mistakes. Rather, the guru is showing you the aspect of mistakes because your mind is so obscured and defiled that the only way for the guru to guide you is in an ordinary aspect. If the guru didn’t show themselves in ordinary aspect, you wouldn’t be able to receive vows, teachings, and so forth. In this way, the guru showing an ordinary aspect is kinder than all the buddhas and is like the limitless sky.

Rinpoche then talks about the benefit of prostration, which is the remedy to pride and a very good method to humble yourself and show respect. Further, you should respect sentient beings in the same way that you respect buddhas, if not for their sake, then for the sake of yourself. When you harm others you experience the result of torment in the lower realms, which could last for eons! This is not just from harming human beings, but also when, for own pleasure, you kill and eat animals. When you use others for your own happiness, you will experience the result such as being used by others in the future. However, if you cherish others with a bodhichitta motivation and think of only their happiness, you create the cause for happiness and you become a leader in this life or the next life for your country or the world; you lead others in Dharma, you lead them to happiness, to enlightenment.

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 “With Awareness of the Kindness of the Guru, You Generate Respect”:
https://youtu.be/NX3sc-ImndU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find more teachings on karma on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
• 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 translation, 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.