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Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
View from the top of Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins with Geshe Losang Sherab explaining how he came to be the Kopan Monastery chant leader (umze), and he also discusses a brief history of the annual Great Prayer Festival (Monlam) held at Kopan Monastery at the beginning of every lunar new year. This was part one of Geshe Sherab’s explanation, the rest of the story will be continued.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche starts this teaching introducing us to some variations in understanding Buddha’s enlightenment from the perspectives of the different scopes and then discusses how the Buddha showed the twelve deeds in different worlds according to the karma of sentient beings.
Rinpoche explains that merit is multiplied 300,000,000 times on Saka Dawa, the 15th day of the month of Saka Dawa, which is the day of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing into the “sorrowless state” (parinirvana). Because Saka Dawa combines these three special days, the possibility to create merit is unbelievable. Due to this, it is very important for one to use this opportunity to do “everything the best!”
The concept of permanence has been cheating us since beginningless rebirths. We have this concept that we are going to live long, but this concept of permanence cannot be trusted and is the reason why we are still suffering. Rinpoche suggests that instead of spending a lot of money on a funeral, which brings us “not one single benefit,” we could give that money to others through charity and create the cause to experience happiness from life to life.
Rinpoche’s Advice for Practice on Saka Dawa
- Meditate on the lamrim.
- Rejoice in the merits created by yourself, other sentient beings, and all the buddhas.
- Generate bodhichitta and especially do tonglen practice (exchanging self with others).
Rinpoche explains that doing tonglen practice is “the best.” Each time you take on all of the suffering, problems, and delusions from other the sentient beings (which are numberless), you collect skies of merit.
Rinpoche then discusses how to properly do tonglen practice:
With compassion, take all the suffering and the causes of suffering, and give that to the self-cherishing thought, thereby destroying it. Absorb this into your heart in the form of dark smoke. You give this to your real enemy: the self-cherishing thought, which has made you suffer since beginningless rebirths in samsara, Rinpoche explains. Take all the suffering and the causes of suffering and use them like a bomb or a missile to destroy the self-cherishing thought.
With compassion, take suffering and the causes of suffering, and give that to your I-grasping ignorance, thereby destroying it. The self-cherishing thought that cherishes the “I” that you believe exists as real from its own side—that is destroyed.
Meditate on emptiness for a little while. Meditate on loving kindness and then do the giving practice by giving your body, enjoyments, and merits to numberless sentient beings. Through this, sentient beings get what they want, and they also get what they need.
- Read Heart Sutra, Diamond Cutter Sutra, Sanghata Sutra, and Sutra of Golden Light.
- Do Chenrezig Practice and recite OM MANI PADME HUM mantra.
- Do Vajrasattva practice.
- Do self-initiation or tsog.
Great Holy Days of the Buddhist Calendar
- The Fifteen Days of Miracles (Days 1-15 of Month 1; Day 15 is called Chotrul Duchen): Guru Shakyamuni Buddha shows miraculous powers in order to subdue six Tirthika, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers.
- Saka Dawa (Day 15 of Month 4): Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana.
- Chokhor Duchen (Day 4 of Month 6): Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s first teaching.
- Lhabab Duchen (Day 22 of Month 9): Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s return to Earth from the god realm Thirty-Three after teaching Dharma for several months to the gods there, including his mother, Mayadevi, who had died a week after Buddha’s birth and been reborn there.
We invite you to go deeper into the advice Rinpoche has offered here by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching to receive the full instruction.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Advice for Saka Dawa Duchen“:
https://youtu.be/xYWCFIwZgTk
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s “Advice for Saka Dawa Duchen”
- “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Describes the Multiplying Effects of Saka Dawa”
- Learn more about lamrim practice
- Find links to the sutras mentioned in this video and additional resources related to sutra recitation
- Find links to the mantras mentioned in this video and additional resources related to mantra recitation
- Chenrezig practice
- Vajrasattva practice on the FPMT Foundation Store
- Tsog practice on the FPMT Foundation Store
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 watching the live webcast of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Avolokiteshvara empowerment, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining how his current video teaching series from Kopan Monastery started, due to the virus and having to stay in one place rather than traveling the world to give teachings. He thanks everyone who has been listening to the teachings on video and reminds us that the general idea of these teachings is lojong (thought transformation).
Due to old habits, we can spend our whole life distracted by attachment, anger, ignorance, pride, jealousy, and all the delusions, thus wasting our precious and perfect human life. But now, Rinpoche explains, we have the opportunity to learn Dharma through the internet without needing to travel.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is giving live teachings online (including for Saka Dawa). Many other great teachers are also teaching online. This is a chance to receive the Dharma thanks to technology without having to spend money on travel. Technology can bring great benefit but, of course, also great harm and can be a waste of time, depending on how you use it.
The antidote to wasting our lives is to practice pure Dharma, meaning without attachment to the eight worldly concerns, without grasping to the pleasures of this life. To renounce that is to practice pure Dharma. We can do this by meditating on the lamrim, especially the graduated path of a lower capable being, which is renunciation of this life and the pleasures and happiness of this life—to see these as suffering and the causes of suffering.
Attachment to the pleasures of this life not only makes your life meaningless, it also creates negative karma. Since beginningless rebirths we have been following attachment; that’s how strong the habit is. To break this habit, we must meditate on perfect human rebirth and its usefulness, and how it is difficult to find again. We have to remember death and impermanence, which defeats the enemy of attachment to the pleasures of this life. Meditating on impermanence and death is not just for beginners.
Those who haven’t met Dharma, don’t realize they are wasting their lives under the control of attachment, clinging to the pleasures of this life. If you use technology in the wrong way, you can totally waste your life and the lives of others. Even if you think it is enjoyment to spend so much time on technology (such as the iPad), if done with a poisonous mind, with attachment, anger, your “enjoyment” is not enjoyment at all because actions arising from ignorance, anger, and attachment are non-virtue, and necessarily create negative karma.
Every day, every minute, every second you have the freedom to achieve happiness by thinking in a positive way. You can change, no matter how “bad” you are. We can use Milarepa’s life as inspiration for this. By following the guru’s advice, one can say goodbye to samsara.
To generate compassion, you need to know the suffering of the six-realms sentient beings. For example, pretas, a type of being, have bodies that are dry, and they can’t find food or drink for tens of thousands of years. Due to their karma, even if they see water, or green plants, their gaze dries the water up and makes it disappear. They have mouths the size of the eye of a needle, but stomachs as big as a mountain. Even if they do receive food or drink, it cannot fill up their stomachs. There is also a second type of preta, which has flames coming from its mouth. A third type of preta has knots in its neck. The pretas all have unmanageable, unbearable suffering. Rinpoche makes charity to the three different types of pretas.
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 “How to Avoid Wasting Your Life and the Sufferings of Pretas“:
https://youtu.be/YKNAayMudMA
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “How to Avoid Wasting Your Life and the Sufferings of Pretas.”
- Rinpoche mentions Medicine Buddha practice, which can be found in A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha
- Rinpoche also refers to the practice Offering Water Charity to the Pretas
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Watch His Holiness the Dalai Lama LIVE!
Watch a live webcast of His Holiness the Dalai Lama leading a ceremony for cultivating the awakening mind from his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India on June 5, 2020, beginning at 9:00 a.m. IST. (This is 4:30 a.m. BST on June 5 in London, UK; and 8:30 p.m. PDT on June 4 in Los Angeles, California, US. Other times can be found using Time Zone Converter.) People are requested to please follow social distancing rules while viewing the live webcast.
For links to the live webcast, live translations in thirteen languages, the schedule of upcoming webcasts, and more:
https://www.dalailama.com/live
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the coronavirus pandemic and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 taking precepts from the altar before giving precepts, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 25, 2020.
Screenshot of YouTube video.
Students wishing to take the eight Mahayana precepts on the merit multiplying day of the fifteenth day of Saka Dawa, which is June 5 this year, may watch a specially created video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering the precepts.
During his recent videos from Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a three-hour teaching in which he offered the eight Mahayana precepts with commentary, giving special permission to receive the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from Rinpoche to anyone who wishes to do so.
The opportunity to receive precepts from Lama Zopa Rinpoche is precious. In order to fully receive the lineage, it is necessary to actually take the precepts. To help facilitate this, we’ve created an hour-long version of the video of Rinpoche offering the precepts specifically for students to watch, take the precepts, and receive the lineage.
When giving his teaching on the precepts, Rinpoche emphasizes how fortunate we are to have met the Mahayana teachings, and to learn and practice Dharma. However, we don’t take advantage of the opportunities we have. Rinpoche explains that we get taken away by wave upon wave of attachment, ignorance, and anger, and that we are completely under their control, so much so that our human life is wasted. Therefore, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second, it is so important for us to use our perfect human rebirth to practice Dharma.
“Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is a way to make life meaningful, to take its essence all day and night, by taking vows,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught. “It is so simple. It is just for one day. Just for one day. It makes it so easy.”
The eight Mahayana precepts can be taken on any day of the year, but their karmic effects are particularly powerful on merit multiplying days. The full moon day, or fifteenth day of the month, of Saka Dawa is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana. Any actions done on this day, both auspicious and harmful, are magnified in their power. Karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. This year’s fifteenth day of Saka Dawa, June 5, also falls on a lunar eclipse, multiplying karmic results by a further seven hundred thousand times. With so much merit being generated, please remember to also rejoice!
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s and take the eight Mahayana precepts:
https://youtu.be/RUM_lVmU09M
The eight Mahayana precepts are taken from early morning until sunrise the next day. Therefore, this video is meant to be watched early in the morning, before dawn. Together with Rinpoche, you will go through the Ritual for Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts.
To receive the lineage, it is necessary to repeat the words of the following prayers after Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
- Prayer for Taking the Precepts
- Commitment Prayer to Keep the Precepts
- Mantra of Pure Morality
- Prayer to Keep Pure Morality
Please be aware that by taking the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Rinpoche will become one of your gurus.
Links to resources for this video:
- Video transcript, which includes the practice Ritual for Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts and Rinpoche’s instructions
- Ritual for Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts PDF Audio
- Rinpoche’s three-hour teaching on the eight Mahayana precepts recorded on May 25, 2020, which in addition to offering the precepts includes extra commentary, meditations, and chanting
- Living in the Path, an FPMT Education program, offers a free module on the eight Mahayana precepts, which includes additional text, video, and audio materials
Learn about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended practices for the fifteenth day of Saka Dawa:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/recommended-practices-for-the-fifteenth-day-of-saka-dawa-june-5/
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 blessing all the beings in Palmer Lake, Washington, US. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
Even in difficult times, we can engage in activities to bless and care for animals.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers us inspiration to do this as he has blessed animals and beings living in the water around the world, including in many of the world’s great oceans, seas, and lakes from New Zealand to California, South East Asia to Eastern Europe.
But you can bless animals in your local region as well. In 2019 while visiting Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, in rural Washington state in the United States, Rinpoche visited a nearby lake to offer blessings there.
Rinpoche and Sangha recorded video of the activities that they engaged in to bless the beings in the lake. Sangha had prepared food and water to offer as well as mantras and flags for the small boat that they take out on the water.
In the video, Rinpoche explains the various ways to bless all the beings in the lake with mantras and blessed substances. Then Rinpoche and Sangha take small boats on to the lake and do the blessings.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche explain How to Bless the Beings in a Lake:
https://youtu.be/LdRLS828eHE
FPMT Education Services has collected Rinpoche’s advice and practices to benefit animals. Students can learn more online:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/benefiting-animals-practices-and-advice/
Read more stories about Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing animals on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/
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 on Vesak from his room at Kopan Monastery, with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins with a continuation of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi’s life story and brief history of Kopan Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us that we are unbelievably fortunate to be alive today. So many people died today, but we are still alive.
Buddha taught a method to become free from sickness, old age, and death, which is the whole path to enlightenment. Without Dharma, we have no method to become free from dissatisfaction; but by knowing that everything comes from the mind, we have great freedom because everything is in your hands.
Within FPMT we teach individuals where suffering and happiness comes from, we teach them about karma. This is the most important thing and those working for the organization need to recognize this—whether you are a director, volunteer, whatever. It is all part of your practice to help sentient beings meet the Dharma by making it available, and it is “sooooooo important!”
All negative experiences, including the coronavirus, came from the mind. Without understanding karma, we continue to create the causes for more problems, including more viruses. Because we haven’t died yet, there is still a lot we can do, such as meditating on bodhichitta, emptiness, and renunciation—even reciting a mantra one time.
The motivation for listening to the teachings should be the wish to achieve enlightenment in order to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to peerless happiness, full enlightenment, by oneself alone. And all of the lamrim—the teachings on the graduated path to enlightenment—is lojong. When your mind becomes lamrim, your mind becomes lojong.
When you see others buying nice things, living in nice environments, or enjoying nice partners, you must rejoice rather than have jealousy. You can think, “How wonderful it is that this person has happiness.” Jealousy causes us to experience hell, even while in the human body. Particularly with those we have a physical connection to, the suffering of jealousy with partners can cause the mind to completely freak out. This jealousy comes from cherishing the “I.”
Rinpoche shares this quote from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo: “The ignorance grasping the ‘I’ as real exaggerates. Then on that basis, by exaggerating good and bad, attachment and anger arise.” You can prove that there are mistakes with this type of thinking by using logic. The object—in this case a husband, girlfriend, or so forth—does not exist as you think it does. You are viewing it according to your view of “I”-grasping ignorance, which is a selfish mind, a mind of attachment, of anger. We are like children when we think like this—thinking our husband, girlfriend, or so forth belongs to us. This is similar to how a child would make a house in the sand and say, “This is my house!” And once the house is destroyed, the child cries. They cry because they believe it is real. We are like this too.
By realizing lamrim we achieve enlightenment; and by rejoicing we say goodbye to jealousy and anger.
When people make mistakes, remember that this is due to ignorance. Otherwise, we become angry at the person and wish to harm or destroy them. When we think that they made their mistake due to ignorance, it helps compassion arise and brings peace to the situation. Delusions make mistakes, not sentient beings. Therefore, getting angry at the person—criticizing, or harming them—is not logical. We have to respect others the same way we respect Buddha because Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha came from sentient beings. As well, achieving enlightenment comes from the kindness of sentient beings.
We are all in the process of dying, running toward our death. So while some people are dying of cancer or from this virus, we think, “But I am alive! They are dying, but I am alive.” In reality, we are in the same process of death. Since the second we are born, we are constantly moving toward our death. In the morning you could be involved in conversations, but by the evening your body could be dead. By remembering impermanence and death, you conquer laziness, and everything you do becomes holy Dharma.
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 “Jealousy Comes from I-Grasping Ignorance, and We Are All in the Process of Dying”:
https://youtu.be/vhyaOxYBlNI
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Jealousy Comes from I-Grasping Ignorance, and We Are All in the Process of Dying.”
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
For students who watched His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s webcast of the Avalokiteshvara empowerment on May 29-30, 2020, here is a link to the Arya Avalokiteshvara Singhanada (Exalted Lion’s Roar Chenrezig) mantras:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/mantras/avalokiteshvara_singhanada_rinjung_gyatsa_a5.pdf
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche taking precepts from the altar before giving precepts, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 25, 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In this teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers the eight Mahayana precepts. Rinpoche has given special permission for anyone who wishes to do so to receive the lineage of these 24-hour vows and practice from the video. Rinpoche is offering these vows, in particular, so we have an opportunity to take them for those who have died from COVID-19.
To receive the lineage, it is necessary to actually take the precepts. If you do watch this video to receive the lineage, you also must live in the vows for 24 hours. Students are also welcome to watch the video for the teaching, and then opt to take the precepts and receive the lineage another time.
The eight Mahayana precepts are taken from early morning until sunrise the next day. Therefore, when you are ready to take them, wake up early and before dawn, watch Rinpoche take the precepts from the altar (at 19 seconds into video), and do the section of Preliminary Prayers in the Ritual for Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts. Then, listen to the video or audio recording of the section Actual Ritual (at 1:28:48 in this video), and as Lama Zopa Rinpoche recites the following prayers, repeat the words after him:
- Prayer for Taking the Precepts
- Commitment Prayer to Keep the Precepts
- Mantra of Pure Morality
- Prayer to Keep Pure Morality
The eight Mahayana precepts are:
- To not kill any sentient being, even an insect.
- To not steal, that is, to not take what has not been given.
- To not engage in sexual activity.
- To not tell lies.
- To not take intoxicants, including alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.
- To not eat food at the wrong time, that is, after noon.
- To not sit on large and high seats and beds.
- To not wear perfume, garlands, and ornaments, and to not sing, dance, and so forth.
Taking these precepts from Lama Zopa Rinpoche establishes a guru-disciple relationship, so one should feel confident they are prepared and confident to make this commitment.
Taking the eight Mahayana precepts on the upcoming Buddha multiplying day, Saka Dawa, is a very auspicious, and you are also welcome to take it anytime.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts in Particular for Those Who Died from the Coronavirus”:
https://youtu.be/3p-_N1zJIjw
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts in Particular for Those Who Died from the Coronavirus.”
- Ritual for Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi (left) and other Sangha, reciting prayers while circumambulating the stupas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins with part two of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi’s life story as well as a continuation of a brief history of Kopan Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by asking us: Since anger is the cause of hell, why don’t we put a stop to it? We get so angry over small problems, which cause us eons of the heaviest suffering in samsara. So why don’t we avert it? Even the greatest suffering in the human realm is nothing compared to the suffering of hell. As an example, Rinpoche explains that if you step on a tiny thorn and it penetrates the flesh on your foot in the human realm, the equivalent in hell would be more severe than having 360 sharp spears going through your body.
By understanding the suffering of others we can develop compassion and bodhichitta, qualifying us to liberate numberless beings from samsara and bring them to enlightenment. However, without knowing our own suffering, we cannot understand the suffering of others. Worldly concern, clinging to this life’s happiness, prevents us from renouncing samsara and causes us to continue following attachment, living life in an hallucination.
Without bodhichitta, even if you develop a highly advanced practice, you cannot achieve enlightenment.
As human beings, we cannot stand small problems and difficulties. These hardships are nothing compared to those experienced by animals. They cannot express themselves, so there is no one to help them. We have to develop compassion for animals and benefit them. There are many ways to do this. You can build holy objects that animals can circumambulate to collect merit. If they are small, for example ants or worms, you can take many at a time around holy objects. You can recite mantras for them, offer them blessed water, play sutras they can hear—there are many ways to benefit animals who will suffer not just this one lifetime, but for eons.
Happiness and suffering depend on how you interpret things. If happiness and suffering came from the outside, then everyone would experience things in the same way. However, the same situation can happen to two different people, and their interpretation of it can be completely different—one person angry, the other person happy. This is because it comes from the mind.
We want everyone to be happy toward us and like us. We don’t want anyone to harm us or be displeased with us. This is due to self-cherishing, attachment. Because of that, if someone does harm, insult, or criticize us, we get so upset because the self-cherishing mind doesn’t get what it wants. Instead of getting angry, when someone is unhappy with you, think: This person is the most kind to me because they are helping me destroy the “I” that I hold as real, the thought that my happiness is more important than anyone else’s. This self-cherishing and grasping at “I” has prevented you from achieving even one realization or liberating even one single sentient being and is your real enemy because all of the suffering of samsara from beginningless rebirths up until now is due to thinking in this way. The person who doesn’t like you is so kind and dear because they are helping you destroy the real enemy.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “You Need to Know Your Own Suffering, and Happiness and Suffering Depend on Your Interpretation”:
https://youtu.be/uGWZpFlZbes
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “You Need to Know Your Own Suffering, and Happiness and Suffering Depend on Your Interpretation.”
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi, the current abbot of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery, giving a short history of how he became a monk—accepted by Lama Yeshe and ordained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. This biography also details some of the history of Kopan Monastery and how the educational program, accommodations, and daily life have developed there, as well as Khen Rinpoche’s transition from Kopan Monastery to Sera Je Monastery during his studies.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing his time in Tibet, where he became a monk, and his subsequent time in Nepal, where he began teaching Western students, starting with Zina Rachevsky.
Rinpoche then reminds us that the purpose of life is to benefit others, to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering—and not only that, to bring them to enlightenment, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations. This includes everyone, every animal, even the tiniest insect. To do this, one has to achieve enlightenment for oneself.
Right now we think that happiness and suffering are caused by others. We point outside, and blame outside, but actually it’s our own mind that brings problems. The purpose of lojong (thought transformation) is that we can utilize any obstacle or enemy that appears in the path to enlightenment.
In this way, the poison (problems) become medicine. By generating happiness toward your suffering, all desirable and undesirable things become support for you. When you contemplate the benefits of experiencing suffering and the shortcomings of disliking problems, it is obvious that if there is nothing you can do about a problem, there is no sense in letting your mind become disturbed and full of worry.
We have to train our minds. If we can’t yet do it with big discomforts and suffering, we can start with small problems. If you start transforming small suffering into happiness, then we can develop a greater and greater capacity for happiness. Then, eventually, we can transform even big problems into happiness.
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 Way to Practice Lojong Is to Stop Disliking Suffering and Generate Happiness“:
https://youtu.be/gvCUqwtkqco
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Way to Practice Lojong Is to Stop Disliking Suffering and Generate Happiness.”
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 front of the Chenrezig Gompa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins Ven. Thubten Sangmo from Kopan Nunnery sharing her personal story, covering her life in Solu Khumbu, including Lawudo, and her eighteen years of study at Kopan for the geshema degree, for which she has entered her last year. Ven. Sangmo also provides some history of the nunnery, which started with thirty-five nuns and now accommodates more than 350.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that the purpose of having a human life is to benefit others. To do this, we must generate a bodhichitta motivation. With this, everything we do is not simply motivated by our wish for our own happiness, which is the cause of suffering, but by our wish for the happiness of others, so our actions become the cause for enlightenment. With bodhichitta, no one is left out. It includes numberless hell beings, preta beings, hungry ghosts, animals, and insects in numberless universes.
Rinpoche then discusses the benefits of three particular mantras:
Rinpoche explains how seeing the first two mantras purifies negativities and plants the seed of enlightenment and how reciting the third creates the cause for protection.
Following one’s guru’s advice and serving the guru purifies heavy negative karma. Rinpoche gives the example of Milarepa, who became enlightened, not only in one life, but in a brief lifetime of degenerate times through the extreme hardships he endured from his teacher Marpa. To the outside it would look like he was the most unfortunate person: kicked out of teachings, scolded, beaten; but internally this became the strongest purification and quickest way to achieve enlightenment. In fact, when you bear hardships following your guru’s advice or to fulfill your guru’s wishes, it is like doing the preliminary practices. The most powerful preliminary practice is to please the guru. Conversely, if you don’t know the practice of correctly following the guru, you will create the heaviest negative karma every minute.
When you put the blame for difficulties on the external world, everything becomes negative and disturbing. The flame of anger rises and you become so miserable and unhappy throughout the day. Even small conditions cause great harm to the mind. However your mind is trained—to see happiness or to see suffering—that is how things appear to the senses.
Rinpoche offers one more “message from God” to Root Institute in Bodhgaya, in response to the Indian government’s request that Root accommodate returning Indian migrant workers and quarantine them for three weeks in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Rinpoche advises Root to serve the guests very well so they have the imprint of Buddhists being very kind, good people. Because of that positive imprint, in their next life they will meet the Dharma and their minds will be open to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Even if we die by serving others, including from the virus, we must remember that mother sentient beings have suffered and died for us numberless times.
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 Benefits of Bearing Hardships to Follow the Guru and Another Message from God”:
https://youtu.be/oNl0qkocTPw
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Benefits of Bearing Hardships to Follow the Guru and Another Message from God.”
- Find links to the mantras mentioned in this teaching (Six Syllables of Clairvoyance mantra, Chenrezig mantra, and Padmasambhava mantra) and many others on the Mantras page.
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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 with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi (left), Ven. Thubten Tender, and other Sangha, reciting prayers while circumambulating the stupas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This teaching begins with Ani Janne (Ven. Tenzin Namdrol) reading a message from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Root Institute and MAITRI Charitable Trust, FPMT centers located in Bodhgaya, India. In addition to being a retreat center, Root offers social service through Maitreya School, a primary school providing free education for local children; and Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic, a free hospital serving impoverished, local people via a variety of medical systems. MAITRI is a registered charitable trust in India working to support the poor and disadvantaged (including animals) in the state of Bihar, India.
The context of Rinpoche’s “message from God” to the centers in Bodhgaya is that India is currently expecting the arrival of thousands of Indian migrant workers coming back from countries all over the world. In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in India, the government has been asking hotels and monasteries to house these workers in order to isolate them for a period of three weeks. Root and MAITRI are among the entities in Bodhgaya that have been asked by the local government to house people in quarantine. This message is Rinpoche’s request to the staff of Root Institute and of MAITRI to accept the government’s request to allow people to be quarantined on their premises.
Rinpoche offers support and encouragement to the centers. In the letter Rinpoche writes, “ We can’t live in this world without going through death. There is no one in this world who hasn’t [died], is [not dying], or will [not] die. Buddha showed [himself] in our world passing away. … therefore, the best thing is dying for sentient beings,” and compares their work to that of a warrior who, instead of using bullets to destroy others, uses bodhichitta to destroy the real enemy: the self-cherishing thought.
Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing how Buddha dedicated his life to others and shared examples of Buddha’s patience and perseverance over lifetimes for us. Rinpoche shares these examples to give us courage to practice like this—to live our lives for sentient beings and take care of them like “they take care of themselves,” with that much care.
Anger makes us become crazy. When we are very attached to someone like a partner, when that person even smiles at someone else or gives someone else more attention, we can become crazy with anger and want to destroy the person. It becomes a huge suffering in life. But happiness or problems are in your control, Rinpoche explains. It depends on if you think in a positive or negative way. If you think in a negative way, mountains of problems arise, resulting in not eating, not sleeping, and even dying by suicide.
Rinpoche explains that emotional problems are connected to spirits, they influence the emotional mind and make a person do crazy things, including harming oneself or others. This is from following the self-cherishing thought as if it were a guru, from doing everything for worldly concern. But, taking strong refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and doing your daily prayers, mantras, and sadhanas becomes unbelievable protection.
When you rejoice whenever you see something good happen to other people, your life becomes very healthy, not neurotic. When you have the view of the self-cherishing thought, however, you think you are more important than numberless other sentient beings. There is no logical reason to think your happiness is more important than the happiness of others. To the holy beings, it makes no sense to live your whole life with selfishness.
We have to examine and analyze our life and our mistakes. We have followed the wrong concept for our whole life, thinking that we were doing the right thing, Rinpoche says. To learn about life is to learn about our mind and perceptions. This is science.
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 “God’s Message and the View of the Self-Cherishing Thought”:
https://youtu.be/X98a00CI_9E
WARNING: Between 4:12 and 15:35, there is a flickering in the video that may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “God’s Message and the View of the Self-Cherishing Thought.”
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
You can read a recent update from MAITRI Charitable Trust about how their work continues during the COVID-19 restrictions.
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 with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins with more scenes from Kopan Nunnery and a short talk by the nunnery’s Geshema Jangchub Gyalmo, who along with Kopan nun Geshema Namdol Phuntsok was part of the first group of female geshes. Geshema Jangchub Gyalmo shares a little about her history and offers advice on how to think during the pandemic.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by reminding us that when we don’t think of death, the mind becomes totally distracted by the outside five sense objects—occupied by friends, enemies, and the pleasures of this life. Even if you know some Dharma, when you hold the “I” as real, your life is still under the control of the self-cherishing thought and ignorance, and you are a slave to attachment and anger.
If you think of your death—if you remember that your death can happen this year, this month, this week, today—then the mind goes inside, and you examine your life. At the time of death, there is no more time to think about and transform your life and mind. When your life has been under the control of the self-cherishing thought and attachment to this life, at the time of death, you have not only wasted this precious life, but your actions have become negative karma.
At this time when everyone is in isolation, we have the opportunity to practice Dharma and meditate more seriously. You collect so much merit by doing Dharma practice, reciting Buddha’s teachings, and meditating on bodhichitta and emptiness. In this way, the virus helps you do continual purification and collect the merit needed to achieve enlightenment more quickly.
Those who haven’t met Dharma are full of fear and worry about the virus. But if you do know Dharma, you can use the fear to practice and get a higher rebirth, purify negative karma, and be free from samsara, free from nirvana, lower nirvana, and achieve great nirvana for sentient beings. Thinking about death for a Dharma practitioner is so useful. Being afraid of death and the fear of suffering in samsara is so useful.
Those who haven’t met Dharma exaggerate every problem. They have all of the fear and worry, but nothing to do about it. Due to that, even more fear and worry come. Even if there is no problems, they make it into a huge problem like a mountain. You must have compassion for people like this, for so many people who have died like this.
Even if you haven’t met Dharma, you still need to subdue the mind. All of these sufferings look like they come from the outside, but it is not like that at all. They come from your own mind. Nothing, including this virus, comes from the outside; it comes from the mind. Therefore, the main work in life is to subdue the mind—to work on it and change it from bad to good. This is why we need to meditate, not just for peace of mind, or to be quiet, or achieve serenity. You have to have a brave mind and think: By my experiencing whatever problems, may all sentient beings be free from diseases, spirit harm, negative karmas, obscurations, and achieve enlightenment.
Even if a person doesn’t have bodhichitta, if they have a good heart for everyone—including animals, insects, and people without discriminating based on color, nationality, and so forth—that person makes everyone happy everywhere they go, and everyone loves them, including animals. For bodhisattvas, being born in hell and experiencing suffering for numberless sentient beings is the greatest pleasure.
If we have a good heart, everything is pleasant. If a person dedicates their life and offers service to everyone with a good heart, not in a forced way but happily, then everything appears to that person as happy, everything appears as good.
Happiness comes from the way you think. Even if you get the virus, you can have a happy mind by having a good heart toward every sentient being. This is the best thing.
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 “Everyone Needs to Take Care of and Subdue Their Mind”:
https://youtu.be/B8njxXDSeHU
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Everyone Needs to Take Care of and Subdue Their Mind.”
- Dedication Verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485 (Updated May 13, 2020)
- Dedication Verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings (Updated May 13, 2020)
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
This video begins with scenes from Kopan Nunnery and a testimonial from Geshema Namdol Phuntsok, one of the first female geshes, about her history and time there, as well as some advice on how to stay positive and strong amidst the current COVID-19 crisis.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us that the best attitude to have, and the best way to live life, is to take responsibility for sentient beings, including those that harm you. When we promise to benefit all sentient beings, that means if someone harms us or is angry with us, we have no time to get angry back or have self-cherishing thoughts.
Rinpoche suggests that instead of getting angry at our present situation, which causes us to be reborn in hell and is the heaviest suffering in samsara, why don’t we get angry at the anger? Our real enemy is the anger. The anger is not outside, it is in the mind. Do we like to be reborn in hell and suffer? The answer is no. What causes that is anger. So, logically, we must give up anger.
The antidote to jealousy is to rejoice at others’ happiness. When we are very attached to someone, we become jealous if someone is kind to them; we make ourselves crazy. Instead, we should rejoice and think: Everyone needs happiness, as I need it. How wonderful it is that they got happiness from that other person. When you don’t feel jealousy, your mind is free.
Even if you are not Buddhist, you can still be a good human being with a good heart. If you are concerned with others’ suffering, you can try to help others with a good heart. You can think of kindness toward others day and night, and rejoice in their happiness. If you want happiness, it has to come from your mind.
Instead of getting angry at a person for making mistakes, think that it is ignorance that is causing their actions. Then you can have compassion for the person instead of anger. We think: That person made a mistake, they are bad. We could think: I need to help that person, especially to reduce their ignorance.
Happiness and suffering come from your mind. This is why we have to take care of the mind by practicing Dharma. Your mind becomes the creator of problems in life, depending on how you think.
Until you die, you have a certain amount of time, so it is very important not to waste your life. How you live your life depends on how you think—if you think in a positive way or negative way.
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 “Happiness and Suffering Depend on How You Think “:
https://youtu.be/RGjkJUefULg
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Happiness and Suffering Depend on How You Think.”
- Engaging in the Deeds of a Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara) by Shantideva
- Dedication Verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485 (Updated May 13, 2020)
- Dedication Verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings (Updated May 13, 2020)
Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis and also links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, 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.