Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche

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.

A student asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche for advice after having a mastectomy and experiencing great physical difficultly while on chemotherapy.

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

Please recite the Vajra Cutter Sutra a few times. Also, I will do some prayers and recitations for you now.

Also, please recite Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name mantra. If you have a thangka or statue, think that Buddha is actually there. Buddha sends nectar with much loving kindness and it purifies you completely. All your disease and spirit harm and where all sickness comes from – delusions and karma – gets purified totally. What has been collected from beginningless rebirths gets completely purified. Recite the name mantra and think this very strongly.

Also, think strongly about the quotations from the Kadampa Geshes, such as the quotation that the bad conditions one is experiencing now are like one’s virtuous friends. Look at it that way, think of it that way.

Then, the next one is “This suffering is a manifestation of emptiness.” Meditate on emptiness. “The ‘I’ is not truly existent” – that is the meditation.

The next meditation is “It is a dependent arising.” (Mainly think about subtle dependent arising, the Prasangika-Madhyamaka view.). So this means: “What is ‘I’ is nothing, except for what is merely labeled – what exists in mere name – by the valid mind on the merely labeled aggregates.”

You can do other meditations on emptiness that are effective for you. Spend a little bit of time on each point. Meditate on how the “I” exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind on the valid base – the aggregates – that is also merely labeled by the mind. Meditate on that.

Then, experience this cancer that exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind.

Nothing exists from its own side. No cancer exists from its own side. The object also – the cancer itself – exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind. “What I believe as real cancer does not exist at all from its own side; it’s totally empty from its own side.” Meditate on that.

The other thing is to do tong-len. You have probably already received teachings and advice on this, so you can use the Lama Chöpa verse [v. 95] or Nagarjuna’s verse or other different ways.

This is the best meditation to purify from where cancer comes, from the obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and to collect more than skies of merits. Each time when you take the suffering of others and the causes with compassion and with loving kindness, and then give away one’s body, possessions, three times’ merit and all the results up to enlightenment, you collect more than skies of merit. Numberless times! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! That’s very, very good. It makes you achieve enlightenment in the quickest way; it makes you able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings quicker. It means that it’ll be much faster for you to bring sentient beings to full enlightenment: sangye, the cessation of all the obscurations and the completion of all the realizations.

If you can come to India, there is geshe who used to live in Dharamsala called Geshe Tobgye. He is very old and he used to heal many people of cancer by giving mantras. In the meantime, do this practice.

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. Sign up to receive news and updates.

A student in prison wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche to ask Rinpoche to be his guru.

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

Thank you very much for your kind letter. I accept. I am not qualified, but I accept to do what I can.

Please find enclosed the practice that is my advice to do every day. Also, I am sending you some past advice I have given to people in prison, maybe you have read this already.

The way to think is that being in prison can be like being in retreat. People live outside of prison, with all the opportunities and having freedom, but they often don’t practice Dharma. You should think that even though you don’t have freedom, it can be like being in retreat. Being in prison gives you time to meditate on the path to enlightenment; to do purification practices, to purify past negative karma collected since beginningless time; to collect extensive merit; and to meditate on the lam-rim – the graduated path to enlightenment – such as renunciation, the sufferings of samsara, the six realm sufferings, bodhichitta, emptiness and so forth. It gives you time to understand that we have to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and to do that we must purify our defilements, which are the causes of suffering, which have caused one to be in prison. Also, we need to collect extensive merit and actualize the path. To do that, we need to meditate on the lam-rim and to have experiences of the lam-rim, such as the six realm sufferings, especially the sufferings of the lower realms and so forth.

The idea is to spend your time in prison practicing Dharma; then there will be great success as it becomes a place of retreat and gives you the opportunity to have mental freedom for yourself. In this way, there is not just the happiness of this life, but the happiness of future lives and liberation and enlightenment.

The main thing is to have peace of mind wherever you practice Dharma and to achieve happiness now and in future lives for oneself and for the numberless sentient beings. This is not just temporary happiness, but ultimate happiness – liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings in the six realms, ultimate freedom. And not only that, but the peerless happiness, the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. You will be able to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and, not only that, bring them to full enlightenment, the peerless happiness.

This is the purpose of being in prison, the ultimate purpose of one’s life in prison. You should know this. It gives yourself, by your mind, total freedom – freedom to achieve enlightenment.

If you can get some Dharma books to study (maybe you can ask Liberation Prison Project if they can send them to you) such as books on the lam-rim, lojong, The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, a commentary on the Heart Sutra, a commentary on the “Eight Verses of Mind Training” and on the “Seven-Point Mind Training” and so forth – read and study these books. [Note: These specific links are offered by the editors.]

The main thing is for you to not see all this – not having freedom – as an obstacle. You should think that you have the best freedom to free yourself and all beings from samsara by practicing the path. This is the BEST OPPORTUNITY!

Please try to think this way.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, United States, November 2015. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

Liberation Prison Project (LPP) is an FPMT international project dedicated to supporting students in prison who wish to study Dharma. Find more Mandala archive stories about LPP online. 

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 wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche because he was having a hard time after breaking up with his partner and was finding it hard to practice.

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

Thank you very much your kind email some time ago. This time I want to share some quotations with you, so that you can understand more clearly now.

It is said in the teachings [from The Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva, v. 9]:

The happiness of the three existences (samsara)*
Is like the water dew on the grass: it is in the nature of phenomena; it perishes momentarily.
That which never changes is the sublime state of liberation.
Seeking this is the bodhisattva’s practice.

What this verse is saying is that in the desire realm, form realm and formless realm (i.e., “samsara”), the happiness there is temporary, not ultimate, not everlasting. Why temporary? Because it is in the nature of suffering: the suffering of pain, suffering of change and pervasive compounded suffering (the suffering of pain and change arise from pervasive compounded suffering). This happiness doesn’t last. The example here is “water dew on the grass.” It can drop down anytime. It can disappear at any moment.

We have to realize that. Otherwise, if we don’t realize the nature of impermanence, then the concepts believing in true happiness and permanence then cheat us, cheat our life. That attachment to the wrong concept doesn’t allow us to achieve liberation from samsara: everlasting happiness. Instead, we’re always hallucinating and then always suffer in samsara.

Please recognize what Buddha has taught in the Dharmapada:

The end of all the collections is finished, the end of rising up is falling down (even a mountain has to fall down, like the highest towers in the world – at the end – disintegrate),
The end of meeting is SEPARATION,
The end of living is death.

Then, from the Dharmapada [v. 182]:

This human body is extremely difficult to achieve.
For those who are definitely dying, so difficult to be alive,
(Even more so,) it is so difficult to hear the holy Dharma (because it’s so difficult for Buddha to descend to the world).

Also it is said, perhaps by Milarepa:

The connection of relationships – one always wants company without separation,
But it is definite one will be separated.

Even desiring to abide always in this comfortable bedding without separation,
But it is definite one will leave from here.

Even desiring to enjoy always the enjoyment of happiness/pleasure without separation,
But it is definite one will lose it.

This is my advice for you to not forget in your daily life and normal-life mindfulness meditation.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

*The words in parentheses were added to the verses by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Aptos, California, United States, October 2015. 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.

A student close to passing away wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche saying she didn’t get to finish her preliminary practices and was not clear what to think and practice.

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

Please read Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death. Not only read, but really try to understand it.

Regarding your question: it’s OK that you haven’t finished the practices. Focus now on practicing rejoicing, doing a mala of rejoicing in yourself, your own merit, and also a mala rejoicing in others, in all sentient beings’ merit. When you rejoice in all your merit, this means all your past, present and future merit. Then, the second one is all sentient beings’ past, present and future merit. The third is numberless buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ merit – all their past, present and future merit. Rejoice!

Do one mala of rejoicing for each or even three malas. Do not only do them in the morning, but, if you can, also do them in the afternoon and evening time. You can do it like that three times a day or at least two times a day or at least once a day.

You mentioned you were reciting Migtsema mantra (Lama Tsongkhapa’s mantra). When you are doing this, do the whole Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga with a lam-rim prayer, such as “Foundation of All Good Qualities.”

Don’t worry about not completing the other practices, but try to keep any commitments you have taken from initiations.

The other most essential practice at this time is reciting the names of the 35 Buddhas and Vajrasattva practice. Pay more attention now to purifying negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths from having broken pratimoksha, bodhisattva and tantric vows (if you have taken them). It is so important to purify and the 35 Buddhas are very powerful. You can have your hands just in the mudra of prostration and then, if you have received the initiation, visualize your body as Thousand-Arm Chenrezig. Your body as the deity then fills the whole earth. Numberless Chenrezigs doing prostrations to the merit field. However many there are in the merit field, this is all one’s root guru. With that awareness, recite the names. It’s very, very important, as well as with Vajrasattva practice, to do the four opponent powers; it becomes very powerful purification. Without doing with the four opponent powers, then the practice is not so powerful.

In regard to rejoicing: without merit, there is no success, no happiness. There’s no enlightenment – the ultimate happiness – liberation from samsara, but also there’s not even temporary happiness in this life and the next life. Therefore, merit is sooooo precious, unbelievably precious. Think: “I have collected merit from beginningless rebirths up to now.” Rejoice how wonderful it is! How wonderful it is! Rejoicing means your mind feels happy.

You have to know that this human rebirth comes about just one time and this opportunity to rejoice comes almost just one time. Rejoice in the collected merit. It is also extremely rare, so rejoice in all the collected merit from beginningless rebirths up to now so that your mind feels happy. How wonderful it is! How wonderful!

The first time, when you rejoice in all the merit collected from beginningless rebirths up to now, it doubles. When you rejoice the second time, the merit is multiplied by four. The third time, it is multiplied by eight. All the merit collected from beginningless rebirths up to now – wow, wow, wow! So amazing! When you do one mala, can you imagine? When you do two malas or three malas? Wow, wow, wow, amazing, amazing, amazing! Many people may not know how rejoicing is so important. Even most Buddhist people may not know. Even those who practice Mahayana teachings may not know how important it is.

Lama Tsongkhapa said that to collect merit, the best practice is rejoicing. This was in Lama Tsongkhapa’s “Hymns of Experience of the Path.”

When you rejoice in your own merit, it is like this. So in daily life, we should rejoice. One is able to collect more merit. During the second time, when you rejoice is other sentient beings’ merit, by rejoicing in the merit of those whose level of mind is lower than you, you collect double the merit. If your level of mind is the same as theirs, then you collect the same amount of merit. If their level of mind is higher than yours, then however much merit is collected by them, you get half.

For example, I used to explain to people that there is the Maitreya Project that would be 50 stories high if it were built. And there would be not just that large statue, but there would be many statues inside and so many statues outside. If somebody comes along and rejoices in the merit and if that person’s level of mind is higher than ours, then that person collects double the merit. So however much merit we collect, that person collects double the merit. If that person has the same level of mind and then she rejoices, she gets the same merit as we get having built the main statue and all the other statues. If her level of mind is lower than ours, then that person collects half the merit that we collect having built the statue.

For example, if one who doesn’t have bodhichitta rejoices in one bodhisattva, one gets half of the merit that bodhisattva collects in one day in that one second of rejoicing. Without rejoicing, if you are going to try and collect that much merit, it takes 13,000 years. This is according to Dechen Pabongka Rinpoche in the Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. So, by rejoicing for one second – even if you don’t have bodhichitta – you collect so much merit. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable!

There are numberless sentient beings whose level of mind is lower than yours, numberless sentient beings whose level of mind is the same as yours, and numberless sentient beings whose level of mind is higher than yours. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! When you rejoice, so much merit is collected so quickly and that means more purification; it means quicker freedom from the oceans of samsaric sufferings – not only from cancer – but from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and delusion and karma, and quicker achievement of peerless happiness, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations: full enlightenment.

It is so important to know how to practice Dharma. I am only talking about rejoicing, explaining how to practice – it is so, so important. For example, there could be one person who lives 100 years – even a Buddhist who relied on Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and practiced the Mahayana teachings – but who doesn’t know about the important practice of rejoicing. However, even if you only live one day but know how to practice rejoicing – wow, wow, wow! The merit collected in that day is so precious. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, most unbelievable – like skies filled with a billion dollars, filled with wish-granting jewels. It’s more than that. Skies filled with gold, filled with wish-granting jewels is nothing compared to the merit created. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable – can you imagine? Merely owning gold, wish-granting jewels, and zillions of dollars cannot help you to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings.

Please think about this and read this over and over so that you are really familiar with it.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Tso Pema, 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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recently said that in order to purify our karma students can do the following practices dedicated for the health and long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:

1. “Prayer to Guru Rinpoche to Clear Away Obstacles on the Path” (“Barche Lamsel”): the long or the short version

2. Kshitigarbha mantra

As many people have already been doing and continue to do the long Kshitigarbha mantra to pacify earthquakes, they can also dedicate this practice to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life.

His Holiness is currently resting after receiving treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. He will resume his teaching schedule in March 2016.

On February 4, His Holiness recorded a video message for Losar, Tibetan New Year. His Holiness speaks to Tibetans in Tibet and in exile as well as friends and supporters worldwide from Rochester, Minnesota, US. His Holiness speaks in Tibetan with English subtitles.

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.

“Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been bringing it up many, many times and feels that this is extremely important: it is inevitable an earthquake will happen in California and according to Rinpoche it seems next year is quite possible. Rinpoche has checked and below are some things that need to happen as soon as possible,” Ven. Roger Kunsang wrote in an email that went out to FPMT centers, projects and services in California in early November. 

“The below needs to be completed by February 2016,” he wrote:

1. 1,800,000 recitations of the long Kshitigarbha mantra done as part of a Kshitigarbha practice.
2. Taking the Eight Mahayana precepts 300 times.
3. Performing the extensive Medicine Buddha puja – ongoing.
4. Reading of the Tengyur four times – to be done at Sera Je Monastery.

“We need to accumulate 163,099 mantras weekly – 23,300 daily – by January 31 in order to meet the goal,” said Ven. Tenzin Tsomo at Land of Medicine Buddha. By Tuesday, November 17, about 8,200 long Kshitigarbha mantras have been accumulated. 

The advice was given to Bay Area students to do these practices, but Rinpoche said that students around the world can also participate with the mantra accumulation, sending in their counts. “Basically, we need a lot of people to help contribute mantras. To give you an idea, if everyone is willing to commit 21 mantras a day, we still need over 1,000 people,” Ven. Tsomo said. 

FPMT Bay Area centers have created a website with more information and ways to make pledges and report mantra recitations; contribute to the Tengyur recitations; and report the taking of the Eight Mahayana precepts. For more and to participate go to:
www.pacifyearthquakes.org

Lama Zopa Rinpoche compiled a new Kshitigarbha practice that is available as a free PDF download for people to do who want to contribute their recitations of the Kshitigarbha long mantra. There is also an MP3 of Rinpoche chanting the long Kshitigarbha mantra.

Rinpoche said that the dedication for all the above practices should be to pacify all earthquakes in California, Nepal and worldwide as well as the normal FPMT dedications.

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

After returning to the United States from South America in early October, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Land of Medicine Buddha where he gave this dynamic, seven-minute talk on the significance of Dharma centers.

You can listen to the audio recording of this advice by clicking on the player or clicking on this link:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/22/why-we-need-dharma-centers-audio/151006-011-LZR_LC-talk-part-3c_Dharma-Centres.mp3

This audio was recorded during Lama Chopa tsog at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, US, on October 6, 2015.

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage. 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:

You asked me to read an article about how to transform depression into the path and also to concentrate on purification practices like confession to the Thirty-five Buddhas. I did not faithfully do them every day. However, I would like to thank you as you told me my depression and sufferings are a result of purification, of me trying to do something about Dharma.

Since I took refuge, everything in my life has gone wrong: my relationships, my health and my ability to work. I woke up each day and was fearful, wondering how I could cope with another day. However, while all these problems were manifesting, I had incredible opportunities to do retreat and to meet with a lot of holy beings who guided me personally. I also had, and still have, the opportunity to study Dharma. The most important thing, I feel, is that I am glad that I did not give up my lama.

Now after all these years of things going wrong, I suddenly realized that I am happy that all these have happened. It became so clear that everything—friends, relatives, this world and even my body—are all sufferings. I don’t think this is renunciation, but at least now I am recovered from depression and have started to reclaim my life: to eat right, to sleep right, and to start to have the energy and mind to take care of my personal household matters and work hard. Anyway, I just want to thank you and tell you that I truly am happy that I had all of these sufferings. They groomed me for who I am now

Rinpoche responded:

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

Thank you very much for your kind letter and I’m so happy that you realized all the difficulties you have been through are positive.

Generally, the whole lam-rim is thought transformation, but there is thought transformation separate from the lam-rim. That thought transformation is when you utilize obstacles to practicing Dharma on the path to enlightenment–then you don’t have obstacles to practice Dharma! You use any difficulties like this for sentient beings to achieve enlightenment, not just temporary happiness and for yourself to achieve enlightenment. It’s unbelievable, most unbelievable and makes your life—even your death—most beneficial for sentient beings. This is what really we should practice.

The Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa said among his advices: “This present small suffering being experienced purifies past negative karma (collected from beginingless past lives). Therefore, there will be happiness in the future. Therefore, rejoice in the suffering.” This means that experiencing suffering is very good, positive—that’s what he is saying. This is Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa’s advice. So, all the usual complaints against you then are very positive.

Any praise, any good things are a cause for delusion to rise, so that’s no good and the opposite to renunciation. The bodhisattva Togme Sangpo has advised that whether you experience good or whether you experience bad, it’s all to use for enlightenment. It all depends on which label you chose to give. If you give a bad label to everything, everything becomes bad, becomes lung. So it’s very, very, very good that you took everything, that you understood everything as a way to achieve enlightenment. The way you think helps the mind to be more satisfied; everything brings peace of mind; everything becomes Dharma. That’s very wise; that’s REAL wise. Even for top political people in the world, I don’t think they know this. Take it as positive.

Thank you very much. Have a good life.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 2015. Edited by Mandala 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.