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Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
This video begins with Losang Namgyal Rinpoche sharing some thoughts about this difficult time due to the coronavirus. He suggests we not only need to stay safe and healthy, but should remember that we have this precious human rebirth. We must also remember impermanence and karma, and this will help us to overcome. He reminds us of the incredible service being offered by health care professionals around the world who deserve our great respect and good heart. And for those who are sick from this virus, we must have great compassion.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching discussing how many people have died from the coronavirus in the United States. He then explains that people all over the world will die—from sickness, famine, in war, due to killing, etc. In fact, the entire world will end sooner or later and anything that grows or was built, will one day end. This is the nature of impermanence.
Rinpoche says that this virus should make us think more about karma. The virus, and the entire world coming into existence, this all came from the mind. Because everything comes from the mind, how to stop suffering also comes from the mind. Rinpoche explains that there is individual suffering, but there are also world problems, called collective karma. In Buddhism, you can stop the suffering and create happiness. One can do this by understanding, learning, and hearing from a perfect teacher. Then by reflecting and meditating, one can actualize the path. Your mind becomes the path to overcome the oceans of suffering in samsara, including the virus, which is only one thing, one suffering.
In the West we are always distracting ourselves from the suffering of death. But when it comes, we have to experience it. If you haven’t met Dharma, you don’t want to think about it, and when you do, your thoughts are only of fear. There’s no method or preparation, just fear. So we ignore it.
Even though we wish to never be separated from that which brings us comfort—including our family, clothing, money, and possessions—at the time of death we will definitely be separated from everything we enjoy. These things cheat us, and we have to give them up at the time of death.
What this virus is telling us is that we must practice Dharma. The virus came from the mind. But the mind also creates happiness, Rinpoche reminds us, not just suffering. A positive mind creates happiness. To practice Dharma means to cultivate a happy mind. Buddha’s teachings persuade us to overcome suffering. Not only this virus, but all suffering—including the suffering of death, suffering of rebirth, suffering of old age, suffering of sickness, and the suffering of pain. Buddha’s teachings also liberate us from the suffering of change of samsaric pleasures, which become the suffering of pain in the end. Since beginningless rebirths up until now we haven’t had even a one-second break from suffering. From birth the suffering of pain, and then the suffering of change, arises.
All the problems of the world are giving us instruction to practice Dharma, to meditate. By meditation, Rinpoche means making the mind more familiar with virtue, the cause of happiness—making the mind become the path to enlightenment.
In conclusion, Rinpoche gives some advice on what to do if we lose our brave heart, feel weak, lose enthusiasm about working for others, become lazy, or get depressed: Remember bodhichitta. This will transform one’s life.
Rinpoche then leads a powerful dedication to actualize bodhichitta, with prayers for the sick and those who have died, for Lama Tsongkhapa to be our direct guru in all future lives, and to cultivate the bodhisattva attitude of using our very life to benefit others, to regard all sentient beings as most precious.
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 video teaching “All the Problems in the World, Including the Coronavirus, Are Telling Us to Practice Dharma”:
https://youtu.be/OwX9ew7wLb4
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “All the Problems in the World, Including the Coronavirus, Are Telling Us to Practice Dharma.”
- Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/
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 teaching from his room at Kopan Monastery with his furry friends, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
This video begins with another practical example from a young Kopan monk about how we can transform everyday activities into bodhichitta mindfulness. While cutting up vegetables or food for a meal, one can think: I am cutting all the sentient beings’ ignorance and delusions with this knife.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by explaining that bodhichitta is a remedy for unfavorable conditions, undesirable sufferings, and problems. Rinpoche then quotes the great Buddhist master Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara: “If you want to guide yourself and others, exchange yourself with others.” Right now, most of us live our lives cherishing ourselves, “I,” more than others. We let others suffer while we get happiness.
But where is this “I” that we cherish so dearly?
Rinpoche explains that if you look for the “I”—from the head all the way down to the toes, you won’t find it in the body or in the mind, or in the five aggregates together. If you analyze it, you will find that this is a big inaccuracy and shows how “false” we have lived our lives. You cannot find the real “I.” Rinpoche says that the biggest false, the biggest shock, the biggest ignorance is that this “I” which we cherish more than everyone else, doesn’t even exist.
The root of the suffering and problems that exist in the world come from the mind, created by wrong concepts. We typically don’t think that our ignorance is the cause of our suffering; we think it comes from outside. We ask why this virus has come. The most important discovery is that all sufferings come from the mind. Because of ignorance, we have been suffering in beginningless rebirths up until now, Rinpoche explains. And if we don’t do anything, if we believe in the hallucinations of this life, we reincarnate again and again without end.
One needs good karma, merit, to meet the Dharma and receive correct teachings from a legitimate guru. The West doesn’t talk much about merit, Rinpoche says. There is a lack of concern about merit—creating the cause for happiness.
The method for letting go of the “I,”—where all the problems come from—is to exchange oneself with others, to cherish others. When your activities of the body, speech, and mind are done with bodhichitta, you collect not only skies of merit but more than skies of merit. This merit helps to realize emptiness. Then, one is able to cease the disturbing thought obscurations. In this way, bodhichitta helps achieve enlightenment. Rinpoche asks us to remember this deep in our hearts: When you do everything with bodhichitta—the ultimate good heart wishing to benefit all sentient beings and free them from the oceans of suffering—then you collect more than skies of merit every time.
Of course, Rinpoche explains, the object from whom you collect the most merit from is the guru. Even the tiniest offering to Buddha, even one tiny Christmas light, one nut or raisin, or one drop of water, this becomes the cause for enlightenment. This benefit is for yourself, but then, if you dedicate the merit to numberless sentient beings, this causes so much happiness for them. Rinpoche asks: If that is not the happiest life, what else can be the happiest life?
Rinpoche says again, “The most important thing is bodhichitta. If you want to help yourself and you want to help others, the ultimate thing is exchanging oneself and others.” Rinpoche concludes this teaching quoting from the Bodhicharyavatara that one’s practice of exchanging self with others should be done secretly. Rinpoche explains that this is to help with arrogance, because once we start asserting, “I am this,” there is no Dharma practice.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s video teaching “If You Want to Guide and Help Others, Exchange Yourself with Others”:
https://youtu.be/VYYB1QQG9gE
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “If You Want to Guide and Help Others, Exchange Yourself with Others.”
- Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/
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, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
This video begins with a young Kopan monk washing his hands and letting us know that he is washing the stains of delusion from himself and all sentient beings. In this way, even the seemingly mundane task of washing the body can be utilized in the path to enlightenment for the benefit of all. Yes, even washing up can become a practice in bodhichitta mindfulness!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching remind us that if we wish to benefit all, if we wish for others to rely on us and trust us, we need bodhichitta.
What is bodhichitta?
Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word meaning, as Rinpoche explains, “the precious thought of enlightenment”—the mind that wishes to achieve enlightenment in order to lead all other beings into that same state. It is the attitude of the bodhisattva, of the person who makes the compassionate vow to save others from suffering.
Rinpoche explains that to gain the trust of others, to be a virtuous friend to sentient beings, the best way to achieve this is through bodhichitta realization. To do this, one must learn and reflect on the bodhichittta teachings. At first, when one has a bodhichitta motivation, it might not be real, meaning, it might not be fully felt in the heart. However, through training the mind, this practice eventually leads to effortless bodhichitta. To begin on the path to bodhichitta, the key factor is a good heart. Then, slowly, slowly, one progresses toward bodhichitta.
The real purpose of life is to benefit others: to free them from oceans of samsaric suffering and to liberate them from the causes of that suffering—delusion and karma.
Due to this virus, the whole world is scared, Rinpoche observes. However, we do have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to transform this suffering into happiness. Rinpoche explains that he is not talking about short-term happiness, but rather, utilizing this crisis in the path to enlightenment for numberless sentient beings. One can use their own suffering—sickness or whatever problem one is having, as well as all pleasure one experiences—to achieve enlightenment for others. If you get the virus, for example, no matter how much pain you experience, you can make it worthwhile. You can experience it for sentient beings. When you are able to do that, this is the best life, according to Rinpoche. This is the greatest purification and the way to collect most extensive merit.
Rinpoche reminds us that Buddha was like us. He had problems and suffering the same as we do. But, he cherished others. He changed his mind and cherished others more than himself, despite hardships, and achieved enlightenment for you! This gives us courage to know we can achieve this ourselves, and it also gives us strength to know that Buddha is here for us, through his teachings.
Everything exists in mere name, but if one doesn’t have the merit to understand, one thinks this is nihilism, that nothing exists. Rinpoche says, This thinking is where suffering comes from. The root of all suffering that beings experience, including the coronavirus, is ignorance. By realizing emptiness, this stops ignorance. Therefore, Buddha taught about dependent arising.
Rinpoche warns that what the “I” is, is so unbelievably subtle that one needs to meditate to see it. What we think is real now, this is a hallucination. A worldly person can have so much education and science, but seeing the truth of “I” is so rare. So, what appears and what you believe, in reality, is not true.
Rinpoche asks that we pray for all people who are sick and particularly those who have the coronavirus.
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 Rinopche’s teaching “Use Pleasure and Suffering to Achieve Enlightenment and Experience the Virus for Numberless Sentient Beings”:
https://youtu.be/jSZCrZMrqdk
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Use Pleasure and Suffering to Achieve Enlightenment and Experience the Virus for Numberless Sentient Beings.”
- Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/
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, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
This new video begins with a short powerful message from Geshe Ngawang Sangye, sharing Shantideva’s wisdom, from A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: “If a problem can be solved, what reason is there to be upset? If there is no possible solution, what use is there to being sad?” Geshe Sangye suggests that the way to combat mental and physical challenges produced from the lockdown is to remember that “every cloud has a silver lining” and many good things can be learned from staying indoors, such as preparing the mind to look for solutions to beat the coronavirus internally—including distancing ourselves from negative thoughts, not just from social situations.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching by explaining that through actualizing the path—especially wisdom directly realizing emptiness—one eliminates the subtle hallucination, the negative imprint left by delusion—this becomes totally purified. There is no more learning and one becomes enlightened.
What is the path? And how can we actualize it?
Rinpoche acknowledges that due to the coronavirus pandemic, so many people in the most affected countries are scared due to many people getting sick and dying. However, we can utilize anything, big or small—unfavorable things, undesirable things, and even pleasures and happiness in the life—all can be transformed into the path to enlightenment, not just short-term happiness—total cessation of gross and subtle mistakes of the mind, and the completion of realizations.
How can we use this crisis to get enlightened?
Rinpoche says we can. Right now, due to our obscured mind, we see the pandemic as a “crisis,” as difficult. We believe in it, we buy into the story of it. Like we are dreaming but don’t realize we are dreaming. We can transform this experience into the path to enlightenment, great liberation, peerless happiness—not just short-term happiness.
Rinpoche explains that this is how to make one’s life meaningful and not wasted, not “garbage.” Not just to benefit oneself, but also to benefit every single being in every realm. We make our life meaningful and cause ultimate happiness for them. This is being wise, using our lives to benefit others, and not wasting it on benefiting only ourselves.
We hold the wrong view that sentient beings—people and animals—are there to be used by us for our pleasure. However, Rinpoche explains, that by cherishing them, as we cherish ourselves, then we realize that all suffering comes from “I,” and all happiness comes from others.
If we want happiness, we have to create the cause for happiness and abandon the cause for suffering. We say we want happiness, and believe we want happiness, but we typically use our life in a way that creates suffering. However, we are so fortunate to have met the Dharma, to learn new methods for creating the cause for real happiness.
Every sentient being who is not free from samsara (suffering in rebirth, old age, sickness, death, and all the worldly pleasures that are also in the nature of suffering) needs to be liberated from the root of suffering: delusion and karma, and the ignorance that holds the “I” as truly existent.
With Dharma, one can continue and develop.
Rinpoche assures us that Buddha’s teachings contain no betrayal, no deception. Of course, when one is a beginner, it is important to examine and assess the teachings, and if one has the merit, one is able understand and discover the teachings and develop stable devotion. With no devotion, one analyzes, but without merit, no discovery comes, and one remains very skeptical. Rinpoche explains that in the West, we often are very clever, but don’t always have the merit to discover the teachings and instead focus our energies on short-term happiness in this life alone. To become enlightened, to cease all of the obscurations of the mind, and to come to all the realizations—what one needs to do is purify the mind and collect merit.
Rinpoche reminds us that Buddha’s holy name, the profound mantras, and prayers contain so much benefit. By reciting for yourself or for other sentient beings like animals, even on dead bones or hair of animals or people (including when one is eating meat), you can help purify the negative karma of that being.
In conclusion, Rinpoche made the strong point that there is nothing more beneficial to do with one’s life—job, family, extensive education, your own body—nothing else brings a more meaningful life than practicing Dharma.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here in summary, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinopche’s teaching “Don’t Make Your Life Garbage and the Buddha’s Teachings Are Unbetraying”:
https://youtu.be/ueYg7Zrhlcg
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Don’t Make Your Life Garbage and the Buddha’s Teachings Are Unbetraying.”
- In this video, Rinpoche mentions several mantras, including Shayamuni Buddha’s name and mantra, that can be found on our “Mantras” page.
- Read Recognizing the False I (PDF, .epub, .mobi), a commentary written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on and set of simple meditation techniques for identifying the object to be refuted— what Rinpoche calls “the false I”—during reflections on emptiness.
- In the dedication, Rinpoche recites the dedication verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485.
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/
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 main gompa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this video teaching quoting His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice that because individuals have different minds and different karma, there need to be different religions in the world. Rinpoche then explains how sentient beings are the source of all happiness and how they must be foremost in our thoughts and actions. This is necessary, Rinpoche says, for there to be peace in the world—if we value sentient beings above all else, we won’t harm them.
“Sentient beings are the most precious, most kind, most dear, wishfulfilling. That is the main one—sentient beings. Then, then, the second is God. If you believe in God, the second is God. [Thinking] in this way, the world has greeeeeeeat peace, no harm to each other, no war, no fighting others, no putting down others,” Rinpoche explains. “When you think sentient beings are more precious and God is second, oh, then there is incredible peace and happiness in the world.”
Rinpoche continues by explaining how the self-cherishing mind, which puts the self before others, creates so much suffering. So cherishing sentient beings—having great compassion and bodhichitta, and putting them first—takes away the suffering, Rinpoche says, and is pleasing to God. “If you cherish sentient beings, then that is the best offering to God. That is the best offering to the Buddha. It is the best offering for Dharma. What please most buddhas and bodhisattvas is that.”
Rinpoche also talks about how powerful bodhichitta is for calming the mind. “When you remember bodhichitta, your upsetness is utilized in the path to enlightenment,” Rinpoche says, referring to a quote from Khunu Lama Rinpoche.
In the second part of the video, Rinpoche continues to offer instruction on how to help people who are dying, or who have died, with mantra recitation.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Sentient Beings Come before God and Mantras to Benefit Others”:
https://youtu.be/RzpNYj_DdS4
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Sentient Beings Come before God and Mantras to Benefit Others.”
- In this video, Rinpoche mentions several mantras, most can be found in mantras to recite for the dying. You can find Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name and mantra, Holy name of Buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chen, and other mantras on FPMT Education’s Mantra page.
- In the dedication, Rinpoche refers to and recites the dedication verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485.
- More links on death and dying.
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/
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, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching explaining how a nonvirtuous mind leads to negative actions that create the negative karma for suffering, and how a virtuous, healthy minds results in positive actions that create the positive karma for happiness. Because of this, Rinpoche says, we should come to the conclusion that we must work on improving our minds through studying the teachings of the Buddha:
“That is what the Buddha said—’Subdue one’s own mind.’ Oh-hoh, everything comes on the mind. Once you know karma— So many outside subjects are unknown, undiscovered, no idea at all. You only think they are coming from outside, the virus is coming from outside, it is not coming from the mind. There is no understanding of them coming from the mind. So as I said before, to give some idea, therefore, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings, the conclusion is ‘Subdue one’s own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha.’ Oh, that is the most important. So you see, if you are studying just lamrim [the graduated path to enlightenment], lojong [mind training], it is not just for knowledge, not just to get knowledge so you can show your pride to others. Oh, you know Buddhism, not like that. You have to use the lamrim to subdue your mind.”
This video begins with an introduction from Charok Lama, a young reincarnate lama who usually studies at Sera Je Monastery in South India, but is staying at Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Conclusion Is Subdue One’s Own Mind”:
https://youtu.be/6sddp2C-da8
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Conclusion Is Subdue One’s Own Mind.”
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/
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 next to a coffee tree at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the four causes of unknowing, which need to be removed in order to become fully enlightened and do perfect work for sentient beings.
Rinpoche tells a story from the time of the Buddha about an old man whose karma to become a monk was the result of going around a stupa in a past life as a fly following the scent of dung. The abbot Sharipu couldn’t see the old man’s karma and refused to accept him as a monk. However, the Buddha, because he had removed the four causes of unknowing, could see the karma of the old man. And because of that, the old man became a monk and eventually had realizations and entered the arya path.
Rinpoche shares the story as an illustration of why we need to become enlightened. “As practitioners of Mahayana Buddhism, the whole aim of the life is to achieve enlightenment, not just for yourself to space out, but so that you are perfectly qualified—the numberless sentient beings, able to liberate them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment,” Rinpoche explains. “[You should think] ‘therefore, I must achieve full enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to listen to the teaching.’ Generally the outlines of lojong [mind training], the whole teaching is about that.”
Rinpoche then gives the oral transmission of the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras with commentary on the benefits of the mantras.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach on “The Four Causes of Unknowing and the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras”:
https://youtu.be/guiwtTPPs_0
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Four Causes of Unknowing and the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras.”
- Find links to the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras.
- Read the dedication verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485.
- For more on how the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart mantras are used with holy objects, see the booklet Filling and Blessing Statues.
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
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.
Rinpoche teaching from his room at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
This video opens with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan Monastery, giving an update on the activities at the Kopan during the lockdown.
Then Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching, again emphasizing the importance of bodhichitta.
“There are many eminent teachings, qualities of the mind, realizations, but, ‘Among those eminences, bodhichitta, the supreme thought of enlightenment, is the most eminent,'” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, referring to a quote from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Praise to Bodhichitta.
Rinpoche also emphasizes how fortunate we are to have received Mahayana teachings.
“The virus, in the present world most people are so worried about the virus and sickness,” Rinpoche says. “So actually, as a practitioner of Mahayana Buddhism, you can see it is the most unbelievable, as I mentioned yesterday, quick way to achieve enlightenment. … If you see the sentient beings suffering, then stronger compassion you can develop. Wow, wow, wow. So that makes it quicker to achieve enlightenment for you and quicker to liberate, to free, them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment.”
Rinpoche explains, “So the fear of suffering, the virus, even death, all those are transformed into the path to enlightenment, even the cause, delusion. … Then, with bodhichitta, you utilize them in the path to enlightenment.”
Rinpoche then gives the oral transmission (lung) for the Five Powerful Mantras.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Bodhichitta Is the Most Eminent and the Five Powerful Mantras”:
https://youtu.be/ZqKU4hKKBCg
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Bodhichitta Is the Most Eminent and the Five Powerful Mantras.”
- Find links to the Five Powerful Mantras and other mantras mentioned in this video.
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
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 friends, Kopan Monastery, April 2020.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
This video begins with Ven. Tsering discussing his work writing out the Prajnaparamita Sutra for world peace.
In this teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how generating bodhichitta helps every sentient being and how we should do everything with bodhichitta.
“If you recite one time OM MANI PADME HUM or Medicine Buddha mantra, then any action you do with that, any action of body, speech, and mind with that, … you should rejoice,” Rinpoche says.
“Therefore, we should realize how we are extremely fortunate that we met Buddhadharma this time and especially the Mahayana teachings. We are incredibly fortunate that we can benefit all the sentient beings like this. It is amazing. You collect skies of merit, … each time when you generate bodhichitta. When you do prayers or recite even one mantra with bodhichitta, any action you do with the body, any way you are going to help sentient beings, work for sentient beings, each walk, each footstep, each walk benefits the numberless sentient beings. Each word of teaching [said] with bodhichitta, each word is benefiting all the sentient beings. Also [any] action of mind … is like that.
“I’m just mentioning that to see it, to have some idea how we are unbelievably lucky, fortunate, this time. We received a perfect human rebirth, met Buddhadharma, Mahayana teachings. … That which is impossible to receive but we received it. That which is impossible to meet, Buddhadharma, and especially the Mahayana teachings, but we met it. Then, it is impossible to meet a qualified guru—such as His Holiness, … we are unbelievably lucky—revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment. … We can’t imagine how fortunate we are. So there is no space in the mind for depression.”
Rinpoche also gives the oral transmission (lung) of “A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha,” written and arranged by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. (This section begins at 0:26:45 in the video.)
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Your Generating Bodhichitta Helps Every Sentient Being and the Lung of a Short Medicine Buddha Practice”:
https://youtu.be/snd-YND02kY
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Your Generating Bodhichitta Helps Every Sentient Being and the Lung of a Short Medicine Buddha Practice.”
- Follow along with the lung of A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha.
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
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 friends, Kopan Monastery, April 2020.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to use the suffering we observe that is resulting from the coronovirus and to apply it to our practice of Dharma, in particular, to help us develop compassion, great compassion, and bodhichitta.
“The world turned into such a suffering world, the virus in particular, this gives you the opportunity to develop so much compassion for sentient beings,” Rinpoche says.
“Therefore, I’m saying now the world became like this, it totally turned [upside] down. Those powerful countries can’t do anything, they can’t make medicine. So if you develop—[Rinpoche snaps his fingers]—you use everything, everything is for you to develop compassion. Everything is for you to develop compassion so it is very quick for you to achieve enlightenment.”
In this video, Rinpoche also continues to give advice on how to help a person who is dying.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “All of One’s Suffering Comes from Wishing Happiness for Oneself”:
https://youtu.be/XjKcphQkFHI
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “All of One’s Suffering Comes from Wishing Happiness for Oneself.”
- Practices Rinpoche refers to in his advice on how to help a person who is dying include:
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
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, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this video discussing a verse from Lama Chopa by Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen (LC 89):
NYAM THAG DRO WA DI KÜN DAG GI MA
Thinking how all these pitiful transmigratory beings have been my mothers
YANG YANG DRIN GYI KYANG PÄI TSHÜL SAM NÄ
And have protected me with kindness again and again,
DUG PÄI BU LA TSE WÄI MA ZHIN DU
Please bless me to feel compassion for them,
CHÖ MIN NYING JE KYE WAR JIN GYI LOB
Like a loving mother for her cherished child.
Rinpoche explains the meaning of “pitiful” (or nyam thag in Tibetan) transmigratory beings:
“When we say nyam thag, [it means that they are] pitiful due to ignorance, the root [of samsara], holding the I [as existing from its own side] while it is totally empty of existing from its own side, [of existing] by itself, or [of being] truly existent, [of being] the real one, which has been appearing to us from beginningless rebirths. Not only from this morning or from birth, [but] from past lives, from beginningless rebirths, we have been believing a hundred percent in that. It did not appear the I which exists, which exists in mere name, and believing in that; not that, not that—totally opposite. Then, wow, wow, wow, that’s a big shock, totally hallucinated. The normal worldly people what they believe is not there. It is totally opposite to that. The way that it appeared is totally opposite to that, it is like that—the greatest shock. By that they are also ‘pitiful.’”
Rinpoche also discusses the sufferings of the different realms and the importance of precious human rebirth, and how thinking about the above Lama Chopa verse helps us develop a strong bodhichitta motivation.
Then Rinpoche offers extensive advice on how to help people who are dying. (During this section of the teaching, which begins at 59:45, there is a section that has only audio of Rinpoche’s teaching. The video of the teaching returns after about five minutes.)
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s video “Introducing the Merely Labeled I and Self Cherishing / Advice to Help the Dying”:
https://youtu.be/v5bvModCnvU
- Read the transcript of “Introducing the Merely Labeled I and Self Cherishing / Advice to Help the Dying.”
- Practices Rinpoche refers to in his advice on helping those who are dying include The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra and the Chenrezig mantra and request.
- Find links to more mantras and resources to support death and dying.
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
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, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.
In this video Rinpoche emphasizes transforming hardships and obstacles into the conditions that can be used to develop your Dharma practice.
“Then all these bad conditions, all these, the virus, so many people dying, sick, famine,” Rinpoche says, “then these things utilizing, instead of obstacles, by the practice of thought transformation, bodhichitta, emptiness, you use as a condition, instead of an obstacle, you use them with this Dharma, holy Dharma, thought transformation. You use these obstacles as a useful condition, thun kyen. As an obstacle, then you utilize that as a useful condition to achieve, for what? For what? Just the pleasure of this life? No, for enlightenment, not only to become free from samsara you, but to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings, and then to bring them, not only to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, [but] to bring them to enlightenment by yourself, for that.”
Rinpoche also explains how to take on the obstacles of others and to use them to eliminate the self-cherishing thought, which is the true enemy.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s video “Tonglen Practice”:
https://youtu.be/BuBJvP0EYAk
Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.
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.