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Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Nepal, December 2022.
On the occasion of Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 18, 2022, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a teaching to the participants of the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course about the very special qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings.
After an extensive explanation on how to set one’s motivation for listening to lamrim teachings, Rinpoche shares that one of the special qualities is how Lama Tsongkhapa clearly explained the lamrim. This makes it possible for us to not make mistakes on the path to enlightenment. There are many lamrim teachings by so many lamas, but after many years of studying, if we haven’t read Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, when we finally do, we will think, “Oh! I should have read this many years ago, I should have read this first.”
Rinpoche explains that Lama Tsongkhapa received teachings directly from Manjushri, the buddha of wisdom, seeing Manjushri directly, like a guru and disciple in the same room. The essence of what Manjushri taught Lama Tsongkhapa are the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment.
Another special quality of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings is his clarification of the Prasangika-Madhyamaka view of emptiness. These teachings were so clear and extensive, “the finest,” Rinpoche explains.
Rinpoche stressed that most people in the world either believe in nihilism or eternalism, and therefore cannot be liberated from samsara. Rinpoche explained that to believe that things truly exist from their own side, or to believe that nothing exists at all—both of these wrong beliefs prevent us from abandoning the root of samsara, the ignorance holding the I as truly existent.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Special Qualities of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Teachings”:
https://youtu.be/fPQO02nTlrQ
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Nepal, December 17, 2022.
We bear unbelievable hardships for this body that we cherish more than anything. We keep it clean, spend lots of money on clothes and food for it, spend time exercising, doing hard work for money, and so much worry and fears taking care of the body. This is the same for billionaires and poor people, there is so much discontentment and dissatisfaction, we try to get everything we can from the world, we try to find happiness but we experience continual physical and mental problems, relationship, and business problems. In spite of all these hardships we bear for the body, one day we will die, Rinpoche explains in this teaching given on December 17 from Kopan Monastery during the fifty-third lamrim meditation course. All of these efforts and hardships we undertake for our body, if done with attachment to this life, becomes negative karma. It is so difficult to think of future lives, we can’t bear it. We don’t think of impermanence-death in everyday life. Every day we think we are going to live many years. Even on the same morning that we die, we may think this. We cheat ourselves bearing hardships for this body, which we only have for this one life.
Rather than using this body to obtain things that have no meaning, we can use it and bear all hardships to practice Dharma, for the happiness of future lives. If we postpone our Dharma practice, we have no way of knowing how long we are going to live. Some people think they will practice Dharma only when they are old. But there’s no guarantee we will ever become old.
This body which we bear so many hardships for, and which we cherish more than anything, is the cause of all of our sufferings from beginningless rebirths. Rinpoche shares that the Seventh Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Kelzang Gyatso said, “This body is like a sack filled with khaka.” Rinpoche explains that this means the body is in the nature of suffering. To generate bodhicitta, to generate compassion for numberless sentient beings—this comes from renunciation, realizing that this body is in nature of suffering. By recognizing this we don’t get attached, we are liberated from the suffering body.
Rinpoche explains the benefits of receiving lungs (oral transmissions) and the motivation for receiving them. Rinpoche then offers those in attendance the oral transmissions of “Calling the Guru from Afar,” and the Dorje Khadro fire puja (at 1:30:52 in the video).
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording with the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Use Your Body and Bear Hardships to Practice Dharma”:
https://youtu.be/9hnSIOQNW1E
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
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 giving teachings at the fifty-third November Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Any action stained by the eight worldly dharmas becomes nonvirtue, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in his teaching given on December 16 at Kopan Monastery during the fifty-third lamrim meditation course. Even spending one’s whole life in retreat in a cave in the Himalayan mountains or in Africa somewhere; even if you teach Dharma your whole life, if you do these things with attachment to the happiness and comfort of this life, it becomes negative. To practice Dharma means to renounce the eight worldly dharmas.
We can look at problems as positive, as hallucinations like in a dream. When problems are appearing, instead of believing that appearance is real, which causes so much suffering and torture from believing that it is real, analyze how whatever appears is a hallucination. This is the answer to anger, attachment, pride, it helps with everything. It is like an atomic bomb over delusion, it is the bodhisattva practice.
If we think about how the I exits, as a dependent arising, you destroy the delusions. We can be the best psychologist, teacher, doctor, and police — this provides a solution to every problem, when we don’t cling to hallucinated appearances but see them as empty. Ignorance fabricates a truly existent I and cheats us. This is an important mindfulness practice, to look at the hallucination as a hallucination. The I is merely imputed by the mind, action is merely imputed by the mind, the object is merely imputed by the mind, so everything is merely imputed by the mind — that’s what we must think to eliminate problems.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Look at Your Problems as Hallucinations“:
https://youtu.be/cfjhtLkVtd0
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third November Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Harming those who harm us is very ignorant, Rinpoche warns us in his December 15 teaching from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Fighting back when someone harms us is the behavior of an animal. We create mountains of negative karma when we fight back due to harming others. The result of this is endless samsaric suffering, it goes on and on and on.
Conversely, if we practice patience and compassion and don’t harm others, the result is benefit—we receive so much support and happiness from others, and this goes on and on. What animals and insects do, and humans who harm those who harm them, this is great ignorance and results in unbelievable suffering.
Rinpoche discusses the various ways we can benefit animals and insects including bringing them around holy objects and blessing their food and water. Rinpoche also shared stories of insects who created extensive merit in relation to holy objects.
In Buddhism, the right view is dependent arising, and the right conduct is not to harm. Everything comes from the mind, we have to meditate on this. Every problem we experience was created by our mind, there’s no one to blame, we have to change our mind to make it happy and in the nature of virtue and health. If the mind is dirty, everything appears as a problem. The negative can appear positive by transforming the mind. We can experience anything negative that happens to us for sentient beings, taking it on for all sentient beings. We can experience it and offer it for all beings to be free from samsara and achieve enlightenment. The more we understand the kindness of sentient beings and how they are so precious, the more we can experience suffering for them.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Experiencing Others’ Suffering Comes from Understanding Their Kindness“:
https://youtu.be/92_y9b0Gvf0
FPMT Education Services has published a number of prayer and practice resources that are available to engage in benefiting animals and insects at home, including ebooks and PDFs, a printable liberation bug catcher tool designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and audio recordings:
- Liberating Animals ebook
- Recitations for Animals audio album
- Charity to Ants PDF
- Animal Liberation Tools
- Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death PDF
- Advice page for benefiting animals
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan November Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Responding to a student’s question on December 14 at the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, Rinpoche explains the difference between anger and wrath—as seen with the wrathful deities—in great detail. As one example, Rinpoche explains that anger is the wish to harm. Even an arhat doesn’t have the wish to harm, so a buddha has no thought to harm. A buddha would never be angry. Before we become a bodhisattva, we’d have to develop compassion for every sentient being, including an enemy who harms us. Great compassion is generated, which is the method to develop bodhicitta—achieving enlightenment to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara and bringing them to enlightenment. So great compassion comes before bodhicitta, before we become a bodhisattva. So in no way could a buddha have the thought to harm others, and therefore the nature of anger is not there. When it comes to the action of benefiting sentient beings with great compassion—if pacifying, increasing, or controlling doesn’t work, what is left is wrath. But there is no anger there. No harm.
Later in the teaching Rinpoche explains that when problems arise in our lives—someone has harmed us or perhaps we have harmed someone, we can relate our own experiences to the meditation on how everything comes from the mind. All happiness and suffering comes from the mind—we are the creator, everything we experience comes from our karma.
When we don’t accept that what we experience comes from our own mind, it is very difficult to practice patience and compassion for those who harm us, and we want to harm back. It is important to see our own examples from our own life that everything comes from the mind. Then we are able to subdue our minds, practice compassion, and help many people through our experience. It is so important, rather than believing that everything we experience is true, to think of it as a hallucination. Anger can’t arise when we recognize any problem as a hallucination—it is empty, it is merely labeled, so like this we need to meditate on dependent arising. This is so important to destroy ignorance, which is the root of all delusion. This is an important daily life meditation, not only studying emptiness philosophically, we need to digest and experience it. Otherwise, if we don’t meditate, we are just collecting information.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Relate Your Own Experiences to How Everything Comes from Your Mind“:
https://youtu.be/tkj1vMRrW5Q
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during the fifty-third Kopan November course, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We should have bodhicitta motivation in our daily life, our work, and in everything we do, Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us in this teaching given on December 13, 2022 from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery. This is the best motivation to have—to remember that you are just one and others are numberless.
Then there are so many things we do to achieve temporary happiness resulting in so many hardships. We risk danger and death to achieve temporary happiness through attaining wealth, becoming famous, or pursuing hobbies such as climbing Mount Everest. Bearing hardships to achieve ultimate happiness—the ceasing of all the delusions and karma—this so much more important.
Rinpoche reminds us that the FPMT organization has everything one needs to prepare for and help at the time of death, including the Liberation Cloth, which contains powerful mantras to benefit those who have passed away, including our pets and animal friends.
Rinpoche discussed the “best preparation for death” which is to practice patience and stop anger. When we get angry we lose our freedom, we lose our own peace and happiness because anger destroys our good karma. Because our mind is obscured, we never know who is a bodhisattva, enlightened being, or even your own guru, so by directing anger at others we risk destroying eons of merit. Anger also postpones our realizations and causes us to be reborn in the lower realms.
Rinpoche also discusses the virtues of practicing contentment and controlling desire. So much of life’s problems come from desire and attachment. When we practice contentment it is a preparation for death and all future lives up to enlightenment.
Practicing patience, not harming others—every time you are able to do this, you are preparing for your death in the best way possible.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Giving Rise to Virtuous Thoughts is the Best Preparation for Death“:
https://youtu.be/9_4RjOi5E24
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
The Liberation Cloth is available to order through FPMT centers:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Cloth–Available-through-FPMT-Centers-_p_3750.html
Death & Dying: Practices and Resources homepage is a robust resource page with numerous essential practices related to the topic of death and dying, additional teachings and advice form Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and community service resources:
https://fpmt.org/death/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan November Course, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Things can suddenly change in life with no warning, Rinpoche explains in a teaching given at the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery on December 12, 2022. We never expect that someone close to our heart could die without warning, but this happens all the time in the world. If there’s a strongly grasping mind, we can easily become crazy when this happens, and it can take a long time to recover. In addition, in the West we don’t know how to help the person who died. We live our lives with the expectation that ourselves and everyone in our lives will live forever. We never take to heart this verse from the Vajra Cutter Sutra:
A star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame,
An illusion, a dewdrop, a water bubble,
A dream, lightning, a cloud:
See all causative phenomena like this.
In the West, we believe that everything is going to last for a long time, when in reality, the nature of phenomena is emptiness, everything that is born also dies. We don’t understand death or rebirth, but this is the most important thing to learn. If we don’t think about and prepare for death, we will totally freak out when the time comes. Hospitals and elderly homes are good places to meditate on impermanence, death, and suffering.
We must know all the different methods to apply at the time of death. Your death and rebirth could happen at any time, so learning to apply the different methods according to sutra and tantra will help prepare for this time so there is no fear. Being afraid makes the situation so sad for friends and family who visit you at the time of death. Having people cry around us at the time of death also makes it difficult to leave, so much attachment arises.
There is so many practices that one can do at the time of death. Bodhicitta is the best practice at death, unbelievable, dying with the bodhicitta attitude of letting go of the I and cherishing others, it is the best way to die, then also emptiness, if you are able to meditate at that time. Then, one of the best ones for us to do, Rinpoche explains, is reliance on the guru. This is the best way of transferring the consciousness into a pure land. From Guru Puja (v. LC112):
If my time of death comes before I have completed the points of the path,
I seek your blessings that I may be led to a pure land
Through the instructions for correctly applying the five powers
Or the Guru’s transference of consciousness, the forceful means to enlightenment.
We should practice the Five Powers near the time of death, Rinpoche stresses.
Rinpoche also offers two mindfulness-of-emptiness practices. The first is to practice mindfulness of how everything is created by the mind. The second is to practice mindfulness that everything is empty.
The purpose of being born human is to be more kind, to have a good heart, and to give happiness to everyone we meet. Not only human beings, but also insects—no matter how tiny they are, we must try not to harm and only benefit others as much as possible.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Purpose of Being Born Human is to Practice the Good Heart“:
https://youtu.be/VQMwyjOl5aY
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
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.
Guru Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends the following for mitigating severe weather conditions, which is something many of us around the world will face at one time or another:
1. Protector prayers, especially “Tea Offering to the Eight Classes” (Degye Serkyem) (page 28)
2. The Prayer to Guru Rinpoche that Spontaneously Fulfills All Wishes (Sampa Lhundrupma)
Additional advice for various types of natural disasters from Lama Zopa Rinpoche advice is also available on Rinpoche’s advice page on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/#disasters
More advice from Rinpoche on this topic is also available on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/natural-disasters
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a collection of plants he purchased during an outing in Singapore, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, September 19, 2022.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this very short teaching, recorded on September 19, 2022 at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
All the pleasant things we experience, including beautiful plants, come from our good karma, Rinpoche explains. In this short video, Rinpoche discusses the emptiness of the plants, and how our own thoughts—how we label “good”, “bad”, “beautiful”, “ugly”—all come from the mind.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “How Everything Comes from Your Mind”:
https://youtu.be/zRsbtsXNqlo
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill, with editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Peace Park at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In this video extract from a 2018 teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes a useful method for developing our practice of patience. It consists of reflecting on how everything that we experience is the result of our past actions.
So, when something happens to us that we don’t like, we should think about how it is the result of our negative karma, our nonvirtuous actions in the past. That is the best way to think and then you don’t get angry, Rinpoche says. Think that it is your mistake, not the other person’s mistake.
Then we also need to understand that the person who hurts us has created their own negative karma and will suffer because of it. Rinpoche wants us to reflect on how we caused that suffering as well and how we need to think about that to develop compassion. When we understand how our anger creates more suffering, we won’t want to be angry anymore. Instead, we will only want to help and be beneficial. So we aren’t just practicing patience, we are also developing our compassion.
We need the people who bother us and disturb so we can develop our practice of patience. We wouldn’t be able to become enlightened without them because we wouldn’t have the opportunity to develop our practice of patience.
Watch the video “Practice Patience by Remembering Karma”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4P_O5gl6KI
The above video is extracted from a teaching given on May 8, 2018 at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos 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 teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Nepal, December, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The first way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment is to purify our obscurations, and the best way to purify is to fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice; Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in his teaching from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, on December 11, 2022. There are many practices for purification and to collect merit, but the most important thing we can do is to make our guru’s mind happy.
The second way to quickly actualize the realizations on the path is to collect merit. Many practices, including mandala offerings, can be done, but again Rinpoche emphasizes that the most important thing you can do to collect merit is to make the guru most happy.
The third way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path is to one-pointedly—without a distracted mind—make requests to the guru with devotion: to receive blessings in our hearts, blessings to achieve enlightenment, blessings to understand Dharma and realize the meaning.
The fourth way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path is to meditate on the path. But meditation alone is not enough. First we need to purify obscurations and delusions, and collect the merit needed to achieve realizations and understand Dharma. Then, one-pointedly requesting the guru with devotion to receive blessings in the heart—then through this, the more and more we can “clean the mirror,” the more the reflection comes, because it has power. Then, meditation can lead to realizations.
Other’s happiness depends on how we act with our body, speech, and mind. Not only within our families, but everywhere we go in the world, anyone we meet, even animals, their happiness is in our hands, so we must be kind and peaceful. We have responsibility for the happiness and suffering of others, not just for our own. And everyone is the source of our own happiness—past, present, and future, up to enlightenment. They are the source of numberless Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha. Starting with our parents, partners, children, and extending outward to everyone—poor, rich, educated, uneducated, we must respect everyone. We should respect everyone just like we respect His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Yeshe.
We must be kind with our body, speech, and mind by doing pleasant actions to others. We can use sweet words, praise, and honorific language to others, this makes them very happy. No one, including animals, likes rude sounds directed at them, this causes others to feel threatened or run away. We can offer a smile from our heart to others, it not only creates the cause to be a very beautiful person in future lives, it also becomes the cause of enlightenment when done with bodhicitta. We can also be kind to others with our mind—how we think about those we meet, cultivating loving-kindness and compassion toward them, this is incredible. By having a good heart benefiting others, everything becomes the cause of enlightenment.
We can’t bring peace and harmony into our lives or our work with a selfish mind. A selfish mind causes others to be unhappy with us and creates so many problems. We have to work for others, at the beginning of anything we do, we can think, “I want to help others, I want to help others.”
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Others’ Happiness Depends on How Your Act with Your Body, Speech, and Mind”:
https://youtu.be/XQn0aqExQ5k
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell which was corrected by Tania Duratovic, Laura Haughey, and Ven. Tenzin Tsomo. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
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.
Vajrasattva.
With the new year approaching, many of us are reflecting on the past year— rejoicing in the blessings we received, and also assessing mistakes we have made in relation to ourselves and others. Fortunately, we have methods at our disposal to help us purify negative karma we have created. We can utilize these practices daily, and also as a way to enter the new year with a renewed sense of resolve to be the best versions of ourselves, so we can be of most benefit to others.
“Of course by purifying negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth and by collecting extensive merits, this allows you to have realizations on the path to enlightenment and for your mind to change,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche once explained to a student. “There is always hope the mind can change, even to achieve enlightenment, so you can achieve a higher rebirth, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment.”
Rinpoche gave four teachings to students attending the 2022 Vajrasattva retreat at Kopan Monastery: an introductory teaching on March 30 and three subsequent teachings from April 26–28. You can find all the videos and a combined transcript of these teachings on our page Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery.
Of particular note: During the April 28, 2022 teaching, Rinpoche discusses the Four Opponent Powers practice, which is essential to Vajrasattva practice (starting at 1:12:14 in the video):
- The Power of Reliance
- The Power of Reflecting on the Shortcomings of Negative Karma (the Power of Regret)
- The Power of Always Engaging in the Remedy
- The Power of Not Committing the Negative Karma (Faults) Again
Rinpoche also discusses the meanings of both the long and short Vajrasattva mantras and offers instruction for the visualizations and meditations to be done when reciting the mantras (starting at 1:24:48 in the same video).
By practicing Vajrasattva, we can purify the five heavy negative karmas without break which cause us to be reborn in hell; and we can achieve the general and sublime realizations, Rinpoche explained in his April 28 teaching. This is why Rinpoche stresses that Vajrasattva practice is so important.
Explore Rinpoche’s four teachings on Vajrasattva from 2022: Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery.
Read more in “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/benefits-vajrasattva-practice
You can find resources to support your Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices on the new Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/