Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered some advice in the wake of the recent election in the United States:

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling ones,

In regard to the recent election in the United States, I wanted to suggest that you make prayers that loving kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta be generated in the heart of Mr. Trump, all the government people and everybody else in the country, and even in the heart of people in other countries. In that way everybody in the United States and in the world can enjoy perfect peace and happiness.

Pray also to pacify war, famine, disease, economic problems, and the dangers of fire, wind, water, earthquakes, and tsunamis in the United States and the whole world—may these things never happen and may there be perfect peace and happiness in the United States and the rest of the world.

Pray that America will help and bring harmony to other countries and cause perfect peace and happiness to them and to help everyone to develop the correct wisdom that pacifies suffering and brings ultimate, everlasting happiness.

Prayer has power since everything is created by the mind; everything comes from the mind. So prayer does have power. As the Buddha said, “The results of whatever prayers are done will happen.”

We all need to develop the correct ultimate wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta. If we ourselves do not wish to suffer, we need to be free from samsara. That is why wisdom is so important.

The Buddha also said, “Do not engage in unwholesome actions [because you don’t like suffering], engage in perfect wholesome actions [since you wish for happiness] and subdue your own mind.”

Don’t harm yourself and don’t harm others—practice the good heart towards others. This will bring peace and happiness to all living beings in this world, to the United States, to your own family and lastly, to you yourself. You are the last one.

Thank you very much,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Transcribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, November 14, 2016. Edited by Nicolas Ribush and by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

A student served as secretary to an FPMT center for many years. Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent his thanks:

My very dear student,

Billions, zillion, trillion times numberless thanks to you for working with your body, speech, and mind in the center for fifteen years.

The purpose of the center’s existence is for the teachings of Buddha. And the teachings of Buddha are for the happiness of sentient beings—to free them from oceans of samsaric suffering, from the six realms, to bring them to peerless happiness, the complete cessation of obscurations and complete realization. You should recognize your service is like limitless skies of benefit. What you are working for are the teachings of Buddha—the Lesser Vehicle teachings, the Greater Vehicle teachings, sutra and tantra, the path of the Buddhadharma—that benefit sentient beings: numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals; numberless sentient beings in the ocean and in the mountains; some we can’t see with our eyes; some we have to see through a machine; some that live in the ground; tiny insects walking in the grass, running everywhere in the grass; beings in the bushes and in the sky. You are benefiting every mosquito, every ant, every tick, every maggot, and so forth; numberless human beings; numberless suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings. And there are numberless universes, not only this one. You are benefiting all those different sentient beings.

In the morning when you come to work, think this: “I am going to work for all sentient beings, to free them from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to peerless happiness.” That’s the motivation for all day long for body, speech, and mind—it doesn’t matter what you do. Of course, because you have received teaching from little me, Mickey Mouse, we have the connection of Dharma and the relationship of guru and disciple.

It is said in the root Kalachakra tantra that even if in all past, present, and future eons, at all times, you make offerings to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, even saving ten million creatures’ lives from being killed, you won’t achieve enlightenment in this life. But, by pleasing with devotion a guru who has an ocean of knowledge, then you can achieve common and sublime realizations, including enlightenment, in this life. That’s what you are doing!

Another quotation from the tantra of Yeshe Gyatso (“Ocean of Tantra Wisdom”) says that the person who is wise in activities and service to the guru, that fortunate being has a more meaningful life than having done prostration to the ten directions’ buddhas (that means numberless buddhas), for 10 million eons and 600 thousand eons. If one fulfills all the advice given by the guru, then all one’s wishes get fulfilled, and one achieves unfathomable limitless merit and good luck.

Sakya Pandita, one of the five great Sakya lamas, from where the Sakya lineage comes, said that even the merit collected from thousands of eons of making charity to others with your head, legs, and hands, even the merit collected from that, is not as much as the merit collected in one second on the path of the guru, which means fulfilling the guru’s wishes, following the guru’s instructions, and giving service to the guru. Each second you do that you are able to collect extensive merit. What you would have collected over thousands of eons, here, you collect in one second. That means every year, every month, week, day, hour, minute, and second that you are doing things for me, following my wishes and advice, you are not only collecting that much merit and good luck, you free yourself quickly from oceans of samsaric suffering. Every second you become closer to enlightenment, to buddhahood. This is such a quick way to achieve enlightenment. You should remember this every day with the work of your body, speech, and mind. Therefore, every day and every night, you should enjoy your life and how you’re making your life most great. Remember this especially when you are going to die.

The extremely learned actualized holy being Mig Pemba said that if one thinks the Buddha is in front of oneself, the Buddha abides in front of oneself, and the Buddha always blesses the mind of oneself and liberates it from all the mistakes—not only suffering and negative karma, but all the delusions and obscurations. That means for the disciple who thinks the guru is Buddha, then Buddha is always in front of that person, and the benefit that person receives is total cessation of all obscurations and total and complete realization.

Nagarjuna, like a second Buddha, spread the Buddha’s teachings. He abandoned all the offerings to Buddha, but attended perfectly and made offering perfectly to the guru. Service with one’s body, speech, and mind, fulfilling the wishes and advice of the guru, this is how to make the most of one’s life. I don’t know how many years, months, weeks, hours, minutes, seconds you have, but life is very short. And you are making the best use of it, not only for yourself, but for all sentient beings. So I’m truly expressing my heart to you.

Thank you very much again a billion, zillion times. I heard from Geshe-la how you worked so perfectly and successfully. You can enjoy this up to enlightenment and even after enlightenment. When you see an insect, you should think what benefit you are giving it.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Transcribed by Ven. Thubten Osel, May 2016. Edited by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Translated with commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche; paintings of the eight auspicious signs by Gelek Sherpa.

Probably many of us do not know how important these eight auspicious signs are and how they affect our lives. They can be used externally to help with one’s own success as well as with the FPMT organization to be successful in benefiting others and working for the teachings of the Buddha. Putting these eight auspicious signs around everywhere, outside and also inside the rooms, makes things very auspicious. It is not necessary to put all eight together, and they don’t all need to be in the same place. They can be placed separately at different locations, but you should have all of them.

The eight auspicious signs are the

• umbrella
• yellow fish
• vase
• lotus
• white conch shell
• glorious peu¹ 
• banner 
• Dharma chakra

Here is the meaning of these eight auspicious signs according to my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Dorje Chang’s explanation.²

1. The precious umbrella saves us from all this life’s obstacles – such as sicknesses, contagious diseases, spirit possessions, interferers and so forth – and also from the next life’s obstacles – the sufferings of the three evil-gone-ones,³ of the devas, human beings and so forth. It saves us completely from being tormented by the heat of both temporary and long-term sufferings. It has the dependent arising of giving the extended joy of a cooling shadow of peace and happiness.

2. The yellow fish. Fish swim as they like without fear in the ocean. Like that [the yellow fish] is a dependent arising for oneself and others to run and enjoy freely with no resistance from happiness to happiness without fear of drowning in the oceans of suffering.

3. The vase of great treasure is a dependent arising that brings unceasingly all desired things, the fortune of a glorious life, enjoyments and so forth in the three realms of existence (the desire, form and formless realms) and peace (liberation from samsara).

4. The lotus is a dependent arising that frees us from all the stains of mistakes – the non-virtues of body, speech and mind. The abundant blossoming of a hundred petals of white virtue brings an abundance of the good essence of honey – everlasting happiness, definite goodness (liberation and the state of omniscient mind).

5. The white conch shell swirling clockwise is a dependent arising announcing the sweet melody of the profound and extensive Dharma that fits the elements, level of mind and wishes of sentient beings who are the objects to be subdued. It awakens transmigratory beings from the ignorant sleep of unknowing and persuades them to accomplish works for the benefit and happiness of themselves and others.

6. The glorious peu is a dependent arising for Dharma and politics to utilize and support each other in one continuous connection. Like that, at the time of the path, method and wisdom connect by being unified with each other; emptiness and dependent arising are connected in one without contradiction. At the time of the resultant state of buddha, omniscience and compassion are unified.

7. The banner is a dependent arising for the activities of one’s own three doors and those of others not be stepped upon by obstacles or disharmonious conditions but to be victorious and for the precious teachings of the Buddha to be victorious in the war over the black side, the types of maras.

8. The golden Dharmachakra is a dependent arising for the precious wheel of the holy Dharma, the scriptures and realizations of the Victorious One, to turn unceasingly in the whole universe. In dependence upon that, all those who are reborn and degenerating (samsaric beings who are continually being reborn and dying under the control of karma and delusion) apply themselves to the most glorious virtue, total liberation.

Wherever these eight auspicious signs exist, there will be the dependent arising of increasing the virtue of auspiciousness.

Colophon: Dictated by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Ven. Sarah Thresher at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 4, 2014. Edited with the help of Losang Hursthouse.

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Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this advice while in New York City in July 2016.

I have heard that you have to take indoor dogs out three times a day, so I thought that this gives you an unbelievable, incredible opportunity to help them.

By not harming and practicing morality toward even one sentient being, including these dogs, you can attain the state of the happy transmigratory beings. By not harming and practicing concentration and wisdom, even with dogs, you can achieve the happiness that is free from samsaric suffering. And by generating compassion, bodhichitta, you can attain buddhahood, ultimate happiness—the completion of all realizations and total freedom from all obscurations—through depending on these sentient beings, these dogs.

Another way to understand this is that by cherishing these dogs you can receive hundreds of thousands of happy rebirths and so forth in future lives. By cherishing these sentient beings, these dogs, you can achieve ultimate happiness forever. By cherishing these sentient being dogs you can achieve the peerless happiness of buddhahood. Not only that, but you also achieve the numberless past happinesses that you already have received since beginningless rebirths as well as your present happiness and all future happiness, including full enlightenment.

You may find this difficult to believe but it is logical. Your three time happinesses come from your good karma and your virtuous mind is the action of the Buddha. There are two actions of Buddha: one is within us sentient beings; the other is possessed only by the Buddha’s holy mind. Buddha comes from the bodhisattva, the bodhisattva comes from bodhichitta and bodhichitta comes from great compassion, which embraces numberless sentient beings, not leaving out even one: the numberless hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, asuras and suras.

So this is how you receive all your past, present and future happiness from each and every sentient being, which includes the dogs that you take out for a walk three times a day. So these dogs are most precious—think like this—most precious, most kind, most dear and wish-fulfilling for you.

The next thing to understand is that these sentient beings are objects to not be harmed. They are to be cherished by you, to be taken care of with your body, speech and mind; you are to serve them.

One more thing to understand is that you have been experiencing the sufferings of the six realms numberless times from beginningless rebirths and you will have to experience them again without end, over and over again, if you don’t practice Dharma.

At this time you have received the impossible, a precious human life. And not only have you received a perfect human rebirth but you have also met the Mahayana sutra and tantra teachings, so not only can you achieve liberation from samsara; through having met the Mahayana sutra teachings you can achieve full enlightenment for sentient beings. Furthermore, through having met the Mahayana tantric teachings you can achieve enlightenment in just one lifetime—you don’t need the three countless great eons to collect merit and purify obscurations that you do when practicing sutra. Finally, you have met maha-anuttara yoga tantra, through which you can achieve the unified state of enlightenment in one brief lifetime of this degenerate age. So this time you are most fortunate.

Now, sentient beings who have received a perfect human rebirth like yours are extremely rare. Most other sentient beings haven’t even met the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, which means they will have to experience samsaric suffering endlessly. If you really think about it you won’t be able to stand it, not even for a second, without wanting to free them from samsara. And not only that—they have been experiencing such suffering from beginningless, numberless lives.

Now the dogs are exactly the same. You have to think about this. These dogs have been experiencing suffering since beginningless lifetimes and will continue to do so without end. You can’t stand leaving them in that state of suffering for even one second.

So when you take your dogs out you should recite mostly OM MANI PADME HUM and the Maitreya Buddha mantras so that the dogs can hear them. That purifies their negative karma collected since beginningless time and allows them to collect merit. It purifies their mental continuum and brings them to enlightenment in the future: by meeting the Dharma they receive a higher rebirth, develop understanding through practicing Dharma and eventually achieve enlightenment. It is as if you are giving a wish-granting jewel to the dogs. Just by chanting you help them so much.

You can also recite the Medicine Buddha mantra, which helps them to not be reborn in the lower realms ever again, and the short Namgyälma mantra, which makes it impossible for them to be reborn in lower realms; this will be their last rebirth as an animal. Another mantra you can recite is OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT. When you take the dogs out, chant so that they can hear it.

At the beginning, generate bodhichitta by thinking, “The purpose of my life is not simply to achieve the happiness of this life; nor is it to achieve either temporary or ultimate happiness for myself alone. The purpose of my life is to achieve enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore I must achieve the state of omniscience. Therefore I am going to recite these mantras for the dogs and even others who are passing by.”

You can recite the mantras by chanting them like a song. Others might then just see you as happy person walking along with your dogs. If people ask what you’re singing you can say that you’re chanting mantras. It depends on who asks.

Scribed by Ven. Roger Kunsang, July 2016, New York, United States. Edited by Nicholas Ribush.

Find the mantras Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends above on FPMT Education Services’ mantra resource page on FPMT.org.

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.

During the recent Light of the Path retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche dictated this advice and had it distributed to all participants. Rinpoche also wanted it shared with people offering service at FPMT centers, projects and service as well as with all beings everywhere.

Freeing them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to the peerless happiness of buddhahood—the total cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all realizations

It all depends on your motivation. If you are motivated by the self-cherishing thought, concern for only your own happiness, your own power, and have no concern for others’ happiness, your motivation is coming from your delusions, such as attachment, anger, ignorance and so forth. Then your actions of body, speech and mind will manifest as ugly, unpeaceful and hurtful to others and, as a result, others will react in an ugly, unpeaceful and hurtful way with their body, speech and mind; for example, by getting angry at you. It is like a circle. How you treat others and how they treat you in return is similar, with such negative thoughts and actions. You have to be fully aware of that in your everyday life.

Generally you have to know that you are responsible to not cause others suffering but to bring them happiness. Even if you don’t think of practicing Dharma, to at least be a good human being you need to know this. You are totally responsible as to whether you bring happiness or suffering to others. It is totally dependent on your motivation and how you treat others; it’s up to you whether your motivation is pure or not. Even just to be a good person, a generous human being, you have to know that. If you have a bad motivation and your actions of body, speech and mind are harmful for others, you make others create negative karma when they retaliate by harming you in return. By harming others you therefore cause them to be reborn in the lower realms; to lose their human rebirth and take a lower rebirth and suffer for eons. Can you imagine yourself being in the lower realms? That’s where you’re causing other sentient beings to go and have unhappiness instead of enjoyment.

In the Bodhicaryavatara, Shantideva said,

Smiling at others (showing them a pleasant face)
Causes you to have a beautiful body in future lives.

So you don’t need to have plastic surgery or other expensive procedures. Your positive mind can give you a pleasant, happy, smiling face and a peaceful, not a political, smile. Others will feel this and also become like that, having a good heart and being smiling and happy. Thus you always have to be aware of how others act toward you, positive or negative. It is totally dependent upon your own mind.

The morning motivation, the Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness, contains the details for keeping your mind positive. If you do this motivation every morning you will always act positively toward others for the rest of the day.

However, first think that all your past, present and future happiness, including enlightenment, is received from every sentient being. You receive everything through the kindness of every sentient being, which includes even those people you don’t like—those who make you angry merely upon sight or when you hear their voice. It is so important to understand this evolution. Therefore you should hold all sentient beings in your heart and feel that they are most precious, most kind, most dear and wish fulfilling for you. Then there will be no way for your mind to get angry or to generate ignorance, attachment, selfishness or self-cherishing and, therefore, no way for you to harm others. You absolutely dare not harm others, even in the slightest way.

Even Buddha, Dharma and Sangha—in whom you always take refuge to be free from the lower realms and get higher rebirths; to be free from samsara and achieve liberation, lower nirvana; and to be free from the self-cherishing thought and achieve the peerless happiness of total cessation of all mistakes and completion of all realizations—even this Buddha, Dharma, Sangha in whom you take refuge and who give you all this happiness come from sentient beings, including the ones that are angry at or who harm you, who speak to you hurtfully and so forth, sentient beings that you don’t like. Therefore they are all so precious, unbelievably precious to you. On top of that, they have been your kind mother from beginningless rebirths and even now; it’s unbelievable. So you have to think about this and the dependent arising I mentioned before as well. Think about these two things—it makes not harming and only benefiting others very deep. In that way your life will be only of benefit.

The conclusion is that to be free from the suffering of samsara as quickly as possible and to achieve peerless happiness, the total cessation of all mistakes and the completion of all realizations, then with this thought, smile at others, respect them with your body, speech and mind and speak to them in a nice, respectful way.

Treat people the way you’d like them to treat you: with respect, nice speech and smiles that come from a good heart. If you do that, then, as a result of karma, many others will treat you in the same way. Otherwise others will be angry with you, speak to you rudely and hurtfully, and harm you with the actions of their body, speech and mind.

So here I am mentioning how sentient beings are most kind, most precious, most dear and wish fulfilling. Then you can really enjoy life with them, bring them much inner happiness, and in your own mind you will also enjoy much inner happiness, and that will make them happy too.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama respects even ordinary people. He bends down in respect; Lama Yeshe also did this. Even when he heard about someone’s mistakes, some problems with monks and so forth, when he later met them he showed respect. Like that, this is an incredible practice, rather than feeling pride, showing arrogance and putting others down. Most people might do that, but in my experience, Lama Yeshe never did.

Behaving like this is a great, great, great responsibility of the center director, secretary, board members, office manager, treasurer, spiritual program coordinator, bookshop manager and so forth. Especially these people, but in general, this is for everybody. It’s a question of karma, to not create negative karma and to create good karma. This not only makes you happy but also makes other sentient beings happy. So even with your speech you can make so many sentient beings happy.

You have to be aware that there are very powerful mantras given to us by the Buddha to make our speech very powerful and beneficial for sentient beings. If in the morning you recite the Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light mantra after blessing your speech, then anybody who simply hears your voice that day, animals or people—whether they hear you singing or in any other way (not necessarily reciting mantras)—is purified of the five heavy negative karmas without break.

The Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light mantra:

NAMA NAWA NAWA TII NÄN / TATHAAGATA GANG GAA NAM
DIIWAA LUKAA NÄN / KOTINI YUTA SHATA SAHA SRAA NÄN /
OM BOBORI / TSARI NI* TSARI / MORI GOLI TSALA WAARI
SWAAHAA (recite this a few times) [*indicates a high tone]

Then if you also recite one thousand OM MANI PADME HUM mantras every morning, seven generations of your family will not be reborn in the lower realms. Moreover, when other sentient beings see you, even in places where there are many other people, just by seeing you their negative karma will be purified. Also, when you die and your body is cremated, if the smoke from the fire touches any sentient being, human, insect or whatever, it purifies their negative karma and helps them not be reborn in the lower realms.

From Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta,

That which benefits lower sentient beings is bodhichitta.
That which benefits middling sentient beings is bodhichitta.
That which benefits sublime sentient beings is bodhichitta.
Isn’t bodhichitta of benefit to all?

If you want to look, look with bodhichitta.
If you want to eat, eat with bodhichitta.
If you want to speak, speak with bodhichitta.
If you want to examine, examine with bodhichitta.

If you desire happiness for transmigratory beings equaling the sky,
Then cherish bodhichitta.
If you desire to benefit transmigratory beings equaling the sky,
Then cherish bodhichitta.

Bodhichitta eliminates pain.
Bodhichitta destroys harm.
Bodhichitta eliminates unhappiness.
Bodhichitta dispels fear.

Scribe: Holly Ansett, 17 August 2016, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US. Edited by Nicholas Ribush.

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 sent recorded advice to the French monk Ven. Thubten Kunsang and his caregivers during the final days of Ven. Kunsang’s life. Ven. Kunsang passed away on July 24 in India. He had traveled in Rinpoche’s entourage for many years, recording Rinpoche’s talks, taking photographs of Rinpoche, and cooking for Rinpoche. Ven. Kunsang received a diagnosis of cancer in very early January 2016 while in India and remained there for treatment and to prepare for his death, receiving advice from Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) and prayers from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In his first recording for Ven. Kunsang, Rinpoche advised Ven. Kunsang to listen with full attention to Rinpoche reading lines from the Arya Sanghata Sutra. Rinpoche said that even listening to a few lines purifies and creates much merit.  

“It purifies completely the heaviest negative karma – killing one’s father and mother, killing an arhat, drawing blood from a buddha and causing disunity amongst the Sangha,” Rinpoche said. “So that means, when that’s purified, there is no question about the normal 10 non-virtuous actions. They all get purified, okay?

“And then it is said, there is no returning from enlightenment, your life is always going towards enlightenment, no returning to [the] lower realm, at all. And it is said that by hearing Arya Sanghata Sutra, you don’t get reborn in lower realms for 3,000 eons, 30,000 eons, 30,000 and 1,000 eons, you don’t get reborn [in the] lower realm.

“So then you collect unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merit, like making offerings of all the pleasures to as many buddhas as 12 times the sand grains in the River Ganga in India. Just by listening to the Arya Sanghata Sutra, you collect that much merit – unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! So you need to rejoice!”

Rinpoche also told Ven. Kunsang that as Kyabje Choden Rinpoche has said, as a Buddhist, one doesn’t have to be afraid of being reborn in the lower realms, because you can take refuge with the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Rinpoche ended his messages to Ven. Kunsang with “See you soon!”

LISTEN TO “LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE’S ADVICE TO VEN. KUNSANG” ON YOUTUBE:
https://youtu.be/2gYRAaNjkd0

Unedited transcript of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice to Ven. Kunsang”

LISTEN TO “LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE’S ADVICE TO VEN. KUNSANG, PART 2” ON YOUTUBE:
https://youtu.be/POGaKEPpSAs

Unedited transcript of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice to Ven. Kunsang, Part 2”

Rinpoche also recorded a message for Ven. Kunsang’s caregivers. Rinpoche instructed them to say the name mantra of the buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chän in the dying person’s ear loudly: CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO. As advised by the great bodhisattva Khunu Lama Rinpoche, this prevents rebirth in the lower realms. Rinpoche also advised reciting the names of the seven Medicine Buddhas, the Heart Sutra, lam-rim prayers, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s name mantra and other mantras and prayers.

LISTEN TO “LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE’S ADVICE FOR HELPING PEOPLE WHO ARE DYING” ON YOUTUBE:
https://youtu.be/LrLrrJwbwF4

Unedited transcript of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Helping People Who Are Dying”

More advice from Rinpoche on death is freely available on the page fpmt.org/death. Rinpoche’s recent book How to Enjoy Death, published by Wisdom Publications, also shares in detail the prayers and practices to be done in preparation for death and at time of death.

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

A student wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche asking for practice advice, saying he has no job and legal issues. Rinpoche wrote back the following:

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,

I am very sorry how long it took to reply to your request and kind letter.

I checked. Would you recite these two mantras, one mala a day? (It is on page 19 of The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment).

Name and Mantra that Fulfill Wishes

Recite the name and the mantra together for each recitation:

DE ZHIN SHEG PA SA DZIN GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

TADYATHA / OM DHARE DHARE / DHARANI BÄNDHE SWAAHAA (108x, 54x, or 21x)

Anyone who recites the name of this tathagata and memorizes the words of this mantra will have all their wishes fulfilled. Reciting both the name and the mantra brings success.

If you do one mala a day of this practice, if you can do it first thing in the morning, it is excellent. The most important thing is to put effort in tong–len practice. You need to purify all the defilements, which cause obstacles, and to collect extensive merits for success, and not just only for your legal and economic issues and joblessness. It is not just to solve that. That is nothing. That is just for this life. Here, ”success” means for success in all the future lives, to not be reborn in lower realms when you die; to receive a deva or human rebirth; to be born in a pure land and to meet the Dharma, the Mahayana tantra teachings; in all the future lives, to meet perfectly qualified virtuous friend; to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering; to achieve ultimate liberation – not only that, as that is just for yourself – but to achieve enlightenment, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations for the numberless sentient beings, to free the numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them in peerless happiness, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. For all these reasons you have success. These are the most important reasons to have success.

If you do tong-len practice, then as I explained, it is a way to collect the most extensive merits and greatest purification. This is so much more important than you making a billion dollars every minute of your life. Every minute of your life making a billion dollars is nothing.

We are the same suffering sentient being as was Shakyamuni Buddha, so why did Shakyamuni Buddha become enlightened before us? Because Buddha was able to cherish others and let go of himself. We didn’t change our mind that is always cherishing ourselves and giving up others, who are numberless. So, we are still suffering in samsara, even though we were same as Shakyamuni Buddha before. Buddha let go of himself and cherished others, and achieved full enlightenment. We are still suffering, but still we haven’t changed the mind, still only cherishing the “I” and letting go of others, who are numberless.

First thing in the morning, it would be good if you can do The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) with the mala of mantras and also tong-len. If you want to change your life, then this will make a huge difference. It will change your life from kaka into gold, from iron into diamond.

I checked and also I am going to do some practices for you: two times I will recite the Arya Sangatasutra and also eight times I will recite the Mantra Promised by Tara.

Please continue to make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhichitta day and night and in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Lake Tsopema, India, January 2016. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

When Lama Zopa Rinpoche heard about the June 12 attack on a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, USA, which resulted in the tragic deaths of 50 people and injuries to at least 50 more, he began offering prayers immediately. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche always advises to make strong prayers to Medicine Buddha for anyone who is dying, sick, injured or has already passed away. These prayers can also be dedicated to anyone who needs protection, support, strength and love.

A student wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche: “I have suffered from a torturing mental illness for eight years. I have seen doctors and even counselors, but nothing helps. I’m completely unable to control my mind to think any positive thing.”

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling student,

I am very sorry you have this. I am also very sorry for the delay in replying to your email.

If you really want to listen to me, then do this attached practice every day. It shows the meaning of life and how to transform life – like iron into gold, like kaka into gold, like poison into medicine. This is the best medicine for the mind and through that, cures all the physical problems.

I am also doing some practices specifically for you.

Have you met Tibetan Buddhism? Are you familiar with it? I checked and you should recite the Compassion Buddha (Chenrezig) mantra – OM MANI PADME HUM. Here are some links that have some of the benefits of OM MANI PADME HUM. You can read the benefits.

Teachings from the Mani Retreat

Chenrezig Mantra (Audio and Unedited Transcripts) [particularly, the chapters “Benefits of OM MANI PADME HUM” and “Benefits of OM MANI PADME HUM (con’t)”]

I will be producing one book in English and Tibetan that has different prayers to recite every day to Chenrezig when you recite the mantra. So you can get that when it is finished, but in the meantime, do this.

Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM purifies negative karma – all the obscurations – collected from beginningless rebirths. It is unbelievable. Even by reciting the mantra one time, a fully ordained monk who has broken the four root vows (to not have sexual intercourse, steal what belongs to others, kill a human being, or tell lies that he has realizations while he doesn’t have them) is purified. Just reciting OM MANI PADME HUM purifies the five heavy negative karmas (it saves from being born in the lower realms) of even having killed this life’s parents; caused blood to flow from a buddha; killed an arhat, who is free from samsara, who has removed the causes of samsara – delusion and karma; and caused disunity among the Sangha. If somebody commits all of these five heavy negative karmas without break (or even just one of these), the ripening of all other negative karmas get delayed and then immediately as soon as death happens, that person is reborn in the eighth hot hell of unbearable suffering, where one’s body is in the shape of a rock, but on fire, and the only way you can tell it is a sentient being is by hearing the screaming. This heaviest suffering lasts one intermediate eon, but even if this world becomes empty, there are numberless other universes and so there are other universes’ hell realms where you get reborn into until the karma is finished. This gets purified not only by reciting this mantra, but even just by seeing the syllables OM MANI PADME HUM – it is so powerful – wow, wow, wow!

The 10 non-virtuous actions also easily get purified by reciting this mantra. That means we are unbelievably, most unbelievably fortunate to be able to recite OM MANI PADME HUM – wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

Even to recite it without bodhichitta, which is the purest motivation, the ultimate good heart, even without that, if you recite this mantra, you collect unbelievable good luck, more than the drops of water in the Pacific Ocean. (Good luck is something that comes from the mind. There is no good luck from the outside, existing without the mind, even though this is what normal people believe – that good luck is something that really exists by itself, does not comes from the mind, is not created by the mind.) You collect merit, the cause of happiness and success, and not just the happiness of this life, but the happiness of future lives: good rebirth as a deva or human, or rebirth in a pure land. It unbelievable, unbelievable! Also, ultimate happiness – total liberation from oceans of samsaric suffering and their causes – wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

This means forever, not just for a few days, a few years and then come back to suffering realms, samsara – it’s not like that. Here you can achieve full enlightenment; it plants the seed of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is a word commonly used by Buddhist people and non-Buddhists as well. It means “buddhahood,” or in Tibetan, the word is sangye – the total cessation of all the gross and subtle obscurations and the completion of all the realizations. That means there is no suffering at all; so that’s the first thing you achieve.

You collect good luck and merit, more than the number of sand grains in the Pacific Ocean, more than the numbers of drops of water when there is rain.

If you recite OM MANI PADME HUM even one time with the purest motivation, the ultimate good heart, bodhichitta, the precious thought of enlightenment, the thought to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to full enlightenment – wishing to achieve buddhahood, the cessation of all the obscurations and the completion of all the realizations – oneself, you collect merit more than the sky. To recite one mala of OM MANI PADME HUM – wow, wow, wow! With each mantra you collect more merit than the sky! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! You should feel so unbelievably lucky with the opportunity you have.

I want to send you a picture of Chenrezig so you can look at it when you recite. When you get the photo, if it has no brocade, you can put two-colored yellow cloth around the borders and then frame it. The two-colored cloth is like offering dress to the holy object. Also, it looks very beautiful.

Thank you very much, thank you so much. I think you should know that what you are experiencing is due to your past karma, having harmed others, and things like that. That is the main cause. There is an outside spirit influencing your mind, making you think this and that harms you. You don’t have to listen. Only listen to worthwhile things that don’t harm you and aren’t harmful to others. Only listen if what you are hearing is for the peace and happiness of others. So you have to check whether it’s worthwhile or not. If it is harmful, then don’t do it, don’t trust it. You have to check. Otherwise, if you do whatever your mind thinks, then it can be very dangerous and you could commit suicide. That is dangerous. Many people’s minds are influenced by spirits, due to past negative karma done with delusion – ignorance, anger, attachment and so forth.

The very wrong concept, ignorance – holding the “I” as truly existent, existing from its own side, or existing by nature, or, in ordinary language, as “real,” as it appears – is a total hallucination. It is not that there is no “I” there. There is “I,” but it is on the merely labeled valid aggregates, which are the basis to be labeled “I.” “I” is what is merely labeled relating to the aggregates by the valid mind. That’s all; that’s reality. But for us ordinary people who haven’t developed the mind in shunyata, emptiness, it looks like this “I” is what really exists. It exists in mere name; it’s so subtle, like it doesn’t exist for our mind. The “I,” which is a total hallucination, like a dream, it never exists anywhere, even for one second since beginningless time as it has never been real. When this hallucination appears, we believe it really exists and that’s why hell beings, hungry ghost, animals, human beings, asuras, suras suffer in the six realms of samsara.

Thank you very much. I’m happy you sent what you think, the difficulties you have, as it gives me a chance to be able to talk to you.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, India, January 2016. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Visit FPMT.org and sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this teaching to about 50 ordained Sangha during a visit to a giant shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April 2016. Rinpoche was in Kuala Lumpur giving teachings organized by Losang Dragpa Centre.

Think of the five aggregates: [form, feeling, discriminative awareness, compositional factors and consciousness]. Be mindful of how you label the aggregates, how in the beginning they are just merely labeled. Watch that.

In the next second the “I” is supposed to appear back to you merely labeled by the mind. That is what happens in reality, but that doesn’t happen.

The “I” is merely labeled by mind but it only appears like that to a buddha because buddhas don’t have even the subtle negative imprints – the obscurations to knowledge (Tib: she-drip) – left by the ignorance holding the “I” as truly existent. Having totally purified these, these have ceased [in a buddha’s mindstream]. There is no dualistic view, no hallucination, no projection when the “I” and all phenomena appear as truly existing from their own side, as real. A buddha does not have this hallucination at all. You have to understand that. What appears to a buddha is what is merely labeled by the mind. 

But for us ordinary sentient beings, in the next second [Rinpoche snaps his fingers], it appears back not merely labeled by the mind. It appears back as the total opposite of that. That, in the Prasangika view, is the gag-cha, the object to be refuted. According to the Prasangika Madhyamaka, the second [subschool] of the Madhyamaka, gag-cha, the object to be refuted, is the total opposite to that; it appears back to you as not merely labeled by the mind. The real “I” that appears to you is the subtle gag-cha.

The Svatantrika subschool’s view is grosser. For them it appears as not labeled by mind and existing from its own side. Before I said “not merely labeled” but here it is not even labeled by the mind. They see the “I” that appears to you as truly existing from its own side, as real. It is much grosser.

Also, there’s the Mind Only school. They say the real “I” exists without depending on the imprints left on the seventh consciousness, [the mind basis of all, Skt: alaya vijnana], from which both subject and object arise.

According to the lower schools, what is one hundred percent to be abandoned is believing that the “I” truly exists and is self-sufficient and independent, that is to say, independent of other things such as the aggregates. That’s the very gross wrong view to be refuted.

The “I” appears to us as permanent, existing alone [unitary] and independent. When the “I” appears to you, all this is there. This way that the “I” appears to you is extremely gross. It’s the grossest hallucination. This is what is believed in Hinduism and for them this is the right view. For us, however, the way the “I” appears is the wrong view.

So, you see how all the other schools’ views of what gag-cha is – how the “I” appears to us – are to be totally abandoned as they are all the wrong view.

Not only the subject, the “I”, but also the action, the object, all the sounds, smells, tastes and tangible objects – all the six sense objects – are all merely labeled by the mind, by your mind. However, in the next second they don’t appear as merely labeled by the mind. They appear as not merely labeled by the mind. Everything that appears back to you – all these wrong views, right up to Svatantrika – appear as permanent and existing alone [as unitary], and with their own freedom [as independent.]

When you walk, there’s one meditation you can do. Everything, even subtle things, should appear merely labeled by mind – the “I,” action, object, everything. But, that doesn’t happen for us sentient beings. They do not appear not merely labeled by mind, even when you go to the supermarket. Whatever you look at – all these forms, all these many thousands and millions of things: the sky, the road, the people – all appear to you according to the wrong views described by all those schools. Meditate on that.

If you can recognize even what’s asserted by the lower schools, gradually you can recognize the wrong views to be refuted by Madhyamaka schools, first the Svatantrika’s and then the Prasangika’s.

The main thing is to think that all these things are like an illusion. As I’ve said before, ignorance is like the magician. It leaves a negative imprint on the mind, like a magician who uses mantras to cause hallucinations. The audience’s senses are “hallucinated,” seeing lapis lazuli palaces and all kinds of things. The magician has hallucinated the audience. Their senses are “illusioned.”

You’re illusioned by your ignorance. The magician is ignorance; you are the audience. All this is an illusion. I’m sitting here, you’re sitting there. We’re here having tea, but all of this is illusioned as real – real “I,” real restaurant, real tea, real snacks. All the rest is the same, appearing real.

Recognize all the wrong views, that in the end, all these are like hallucinations. You’re walking and you hallucinate the “I,” you hallucinate the action of walking, you hallucinate the road, you hallucinate the car, you hallucinate the building.

The other way to see it is as like a dream. Everything you look at is like a dream. You walk and you talk but [at the same time] the mind is practicing mindfulness, seeing it all as like a dream. You walk, talk, eat and so forth, but the most important thing is to recognize that this is all like a dream, like a hallucination, like an illusion, like a mirage.

When you do that, attachment doesn’t arise, anger doesn’t arise. There is no reason for anger or attachment to arise. That’s how it becomes the antidote to samsara, the antidote to ignorance.

Then, if it’s done with bodhichitta, thinking, “I must achieve enlightenment to benefit sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsara and bring them to enlightenment,” it becomes the cause of enlightenment.

From a talk given in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April2016. Transcribed by Ven. Thubten Munsel. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org by Gordon McDougall.

CORRECTION: This teaching was giving in Kuala Lumpur in April 2016, not in Penang in March 2016 as first published. It has been corrected in the text.

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.

Dr. Goh Pik Pin, director of Losang Dragpa Centre and president of Kasih Hospice Service, asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche during his recent visit to Malaysia, “The Malaysian economy is going down and our money is losing value. Is there any practice we can do to make our Malaysian economy better?”

You know the story of the four harmonious brothers. The country completely changed. Rain came at the right time – not too much and not to little – and the crops grew. 

The king thought he had caused it, and the ministers thought they had. They thought to ask a sage in the forest why there was that development in their country. The sage said, “It is not due to any of you. It is because in the forest there are four harmonious brothers.” An elephant practiced the five precepts and spread it to other elephants; a monkey practiced the five precepts and spread it to other monkeys; a rabbit practiced the five precepts and spread it to other rabbits; a bird practiced the five precepts and spread it to other birds.

The elephant was a manifestation of Chungawa, Shakyamuni Buddha’s younger brother. One was a manifestation of the Buddha’s attendant, Ananda … the rabbit was a manifestation of Shakyamuni Buddha. By their keeping morality, rains came at the right time and crops grew.

[It would be good] if you are able to take the eight Mahayana precepts for one day. First, you take the lineage from Geshe-la or somebody. You take the lineage and then you can take it at your home. Especially, if you take them on the Buddha’s special days [Buddha Multiplying Days], it multiplies merit one hundred million times. If you make charity of one dollar to a beggar, it is one hundred million dollars of charity; if you do one prostration, then it is one hundred million prostrations. If there is a moon eclipse, it increases seven hundred thousand times; a sun eclipse, one hundred million times. That is one way to help the world, to help the country.

Reading the Golden Light Sutra brings so much peace to the world and Malaysia. Also, the Arya Sanghata Sutra.

Scribed by Ven. Joan Nicell, Malaysia, April 2016. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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 wrote a letter to to one old student who had broken her arm:

My very dear precious one, most kind one, most dear one, wish-fulfilling one,

How are you? I hope you are well. I am sorry your arm is broken; I will pray for you.

Your breaking your arm is to remind you of the shortcomings of being in samsara – it is exactly like a teaching that you must be free from samsara, liberated from samsara. It is another form of teaching. It is like the guru explaining suffering; it is like the guru reminding you of the suffering of samsara.

It is said in the Kadampa teachings [by Geshe Kharag Gomchung] that:

Bad conditions – these are the guru explaining the nature of samsara and how you need to be free.
The obstacles are persuading you to create virtue.
Sicknesses and spirit possession are the broom cleaning away negative karma.
Suffering is the manifestation of emptiness.

Thank you very much! Take care of your life with bodhichitta, to make it the most beneficial for sentient beings. Even if you have only an hour to live or one day to live, make it the most beneficial for sentient beings.

Thank you very much, I hope to see you soon!

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Sera Je, India, January 2016. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.