Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing the Dashain festival in Nepal, when tens of thousands of animals are ritually slaughtered. Rinpoche explains that the people who participate in this do not understand karma and experiencing the result similar to the cause in the human realm, which is that you get killed. Then, when reborn as an animal you get killed. If you killed one sentient being, you will be killed five hundred times. There is also creating the result similar to the cause. If you don’t confess the past negative karma that was created due to having killed and if you don’t promise not to do it again, you create the result continuously with no end.

Rinpoche began reading, and also asked the 330 nuns at Kopan Nunnery to read, One Hundred Thousand Names of Buddha for the animals killed during this festival and also for the forty million turkeys killed in the United States for the Thanksgiving holiday. They read it for all the animals—to purify their negative karma and for them not be reborn in the lower realms but to be born as human beings and to be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or at least meet the Mahayana teachings, meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru, and, by pleasing the guru, achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Rinpoche then engages in discussion and debate with Ven. Tenzin Gache on three subjects. We encourage you to look at the transcript of the teaching and follow along in the video to gain the full benefit of the subject matter covered in these discussions:

• Can killing be a virtuous action? Can killing be Dharma? (08:05 in video)
• Is doing tonglen for your own happiness lojong? (19:48 in video)
• Why do the Buddhas not help sentient beings without being requested to do so? (28:12 in video)

Before continuing the oral transmission of the Sutra of Great Liberation, Rinpoche offers commentary on the benefits of the sutra (40:15 in video). Anyone who even hears the name Sutra of Great Liberation collects more merit than filling up a billion universes with wish-granting jewels and offering them to sentient beings. By reading the sutra you collect more merit than filling up numberless universes with wish-granting jewels and offering them to sentient beings, and you are never ever reborn in the lower realms due to reading or even holding this sutra. And anyone who hears this sutra or keeps this sutra will achieve enlightenment. Wherever this sutra exists in the world, a buddha resides there.

Just by hearing the name Great Sutra of Liberation one can say goodbye to depression. Millions of people in the West suffer from depression because they don’t understand the meaning and purpose of life. Many can’t even get out of bed or go out at all, due to being so depressed. Not only hearing this sutra but reading it is so beneficial for a depressed mind.

Rinpoche explains that he has asked Ven. Lekden at Sera Je Monastery to translate this important sutra so that many people can read it in English. Rinpoche advises, if you can read Tibetan, it would be good to buy a copy of Sutra of Great Liberation, carry it with you, and read it from time to time.

Rinpoche offers the oral transmission of several pages of the sutra (1:00:37 in the video) for the animals killed in Nepal, the forty million turkeys killed in the United States, and for seventeen million minks killed in Denmark. (Rinpoche mentions the minks in his debate about “Can killing be a virtuous action?”) 

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Even by Hearing the Title of ‘Sutra of Great Liberation,’ You Say Goodbye to Depression”:
https://youtu.be/YGJhzUrH6bU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in the garden at Kopan Monastery, November 19, 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche with his giant birthday cake, which everyone enjoyed.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday is celebrated on December 3. Rinpoche is at Kopan Monastery where he has been for most of the year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Celebrations for Rinpoche’s birthday began at 5:30 a.m. at Kopan with the offering of the Sixteen Arhats Puja. Rinpoche attended and Khadro-la joined the puja and the whole day celebrations. During the puja the body, speech, and mind mandala was offered by Venerable Roger Kunsang on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. What followed was a day of activities including traditional Tibetan dances and dharma sketches, and a large birthday cake offered for all in attendance to enjoy. 

During the celebration, Rinpoche took time to explain that there are many ways to make one’s birthday most meaningful including Vajrasattva tsok or Medicine Buddha practice. Otherwise, it’s just a distraction and negative karma following attachment. You can invite your friends to do practice together, whatever is possible, even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM together with the strong thought of impermanence and bodhichitta. One can also think of the knife cutting the cake as cutting one’s ego. This makes even serving the delicious cake so meaningful! This way, you are not just wasting time.

Kopan Monstery monks looking on during Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebration.

Please enjoy this short video of the young Kopan monks singing happy birthday to Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://youtu.be/qpsLg3u-g5I

As Rinpoche is continually stressing: The purpose of life is to benefit sentient beings and not harm them. Rinpoche’s entire life has been an example of this: tirelessly benefiting others from the smallest and most vulnerable among us including insects or animals killed for meat or human pleasure; to the most feared and misunderstood including pretas, nagas, hell beings, and the most deluded and dangerous human beings among us. As Rinpoche explains: Every single happiness you have experienced since beginningless rebirths comes from them, including every ant you see on the road, mosquito flying around, person you don’t like, person who hates you—yes, even your enemy—every happiness comes from them. Numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha—they all came from every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura and asura, every bug that bites you. So who you take refuge in—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—they came from every sentient being, so every sentient being is so precious and so kind.

In 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared a video message from Switzerland on his birthday offering advice on how to best see one’s birthday and the practices that can be done that become the causes for total and complete enlightenment for oneself and for all sentient beings.
https://youtu.be/ajT7srFuHw8

We look forward to sharing more details and photos from Rinpoche’s birthday celebration at Kopan Monastery.

Please join the entire FPMT community and students around the world in offering sincere prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long and healthy life, so that he may continue to show us by his perfect example how to live life to the best of our ability in order to be of most benefit and the least harm to others. You can download Long Life Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

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.

Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during an online teaching, holding a stuffed toy with a Dharma message written on it, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that not only Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha come from every sentient being, but every holy object does as well. There are numberless holy objects, and they all come from sentient beings. We receive unbelievable merit by just seeing a holy object such as a stupa, statue, or scripture. Any by putting our hands together and making offerings to a holy object, we collect numberless, greater merits than by just seeing it. Making offerings to a painting or statue of Buddha is the same as making offerings to Buddha himself.

All the merit we receive comes from all sentient beings—every insect, every ant, mosquito, hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura being, asura being—every single sentient being. They are the most precious for you. The happiness that comes from money is nothing compared to the happiness that comes from sentient beings. Because of this, every happiness you experience, you offer to even the tiniest insect. Doing every activity in the service of other sentient beings is so important. Then, your life is so happy. You live your life and die without regret.

Even if your mind is not Dharma, every single action you do with your body—whether circumambulating, prostrating, making offerings, and so forth—toward a holy object becomes a cause for enlightenment.

Rinpoche then offers commentary, along with discussion with Ven. Tenzin Gache, on some verses from “Hymns of the Seventh Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Kalsang Gyatso” in the context of recognizing the gag ja (object to be refuted) through the Madyamaka Prasangika point of view.  We encourage you to watch this section on the video and follow along in the transcript provided. (This section begins at 35:16 in video, page 8 in the transcript.)

Rinpoche then explains, again, that you enter the path pleasing the buddhas when the I that you have been holding as so precious since beginningless rebirths, causing suffering, disappears. When you have the experience that there is no I existing from its own side, you have to go through the fear that arises. You may think you are falling into nihilism and believing that no I exists at all. But if you follow the lamrim’s analysis of the four vital points, starting with recognizing the object to be refuted, then you won’t fall into nihilism. So you have to cross that fear, like you have to cross a big river or the ocean. You cross it and then you are where you need to be. You have to go through this experience. Whether you are falling into nihilism or not depends on whether you started your meditation on emptiness by correctly recognizing the object to be refuted. The more you meditate and see that the I does not exist from its own side, the more you see that the I exists in mere name and vice versa.

Rinpoche concludes the teaching saying that there is a creator of virtue and nonvirtue—the I that exists in mere name. And the action of creating virtue and nonvirtue exists in mere name. And the result—happiness and suffering—you experience in mere name. Similarly, you experience the suffering of samsara in mere name. You experience nirvana in mere name. You experience the hell realm in mere name. You experience enlightenment in mere name.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “When the Real I Is Totally Gone, You Have Entered the Path Pleasing the Buddhas“:
https://youtu.be/6sOWsiJKx4Y

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche walking during a puja break at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us that the real meaning of life is to not harm and to only benefit the numberless sentient beings. The best way to benefit them is to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment by yourself alone. But to do that, you need to achieve the state of omniscience. To achieve that, you need to actualize the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment. Therefore, with this motivation, you listen to the teachings.

Rinpoche then continues to debate with Ven. Tenzin Gache in a lively, humorous, and illuminating exchange! We highly encourage students to watch this video to receive the benefits of the entire discussion.

Subjects debated between Rinpoche and Ven. Gache throughout this teaching include:

• What makes a table a table?
• What makes a house a house?
• If a table or house is broken, is it still a table or house?
• Is a broken table a table as long as it can support something?
• Is it a house if it doesn’t have a door, a roof, or a certain number of walls?
• Can a chair or sentient being be a table?
• Does whether something is a table or not depend on individual concept?
• Since the parts of a chariot are not a chariot, nor are the pieces assembled together a chariot, how can the parts of a table be a table?

Rinpoche then continues translating and teaching on Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, beginning with a discussion on how things come into existence. For a thing to exist, Rinpoche explains, it must have a valid base and a valid mind labeling it.

If the existence of something can be harmed by another conventional valid mind, it does not exist. As an example, Phabongkha Rinpoche uses a pile of stones in the distance that someone mistakes for a person. Although the person believes it is a human being, if another person who has actually ascertained it to be a pile of stones says, “That is a pile of stones,” the previous apprehension of the pile of stones as a human being will completely fade away. This is a sign that it was not a valid base to be labeled a human being.

Then, using the example of a “rabbit with horns,” Phabongkha Rinpoche shows that in addition to a conventional valid mind labeling something, a valid base must exist for that thing to exist. Because there is no valid base for a rabbit with horns, a rabbit with horns does not exist.

Because things exist in dependence on the collection of their parts, they do not exist from their own side. As an example, Rinpoche explains that if an American president existed from their own side, they wouldn’t need to depend on the collection of parts that form a valid base to be labeled “president.” But in actuality, in order for a person to be president, they must be a valid base, in the sense of possessing the qualities that make them worthy of being a leader and then getting the most votes [in the US from the electoral college]. Only then can they be labeled “American president.”

Further, the I does not exist from the side of the body and mind. There is just the appearance of I that comes about by being merely imputed by sound and concept on the collection of parts that is the valid base to be labeled—one’s own mind.

Phabongkha Rinpoche then shows us how all phenomena come into existence in the same way, which is to say they all come into existence when they are labeled by name and concept. For example, when a house is built with three identical empty rooms, at first the rooms do not exist as the bedroom, kitchen, and so forth. Only after the owner of the house labels them “bedroom,” “kitchen,” and so forth, do we think, “This is the bedroom,” and it comes into existence. Hence, it is not enough for the base to be labeled—the collection of three rooms—to exist. For the bedroom and other rooms to come into existence they need to be labeled by name and concept.

Like the bedroom as an example, any phenomenon whatsoever is the labeled phenomenon, not the base to be labeled. Likewise, the conventional I is also merely labeled by concept. However, to us the I appears to exist from its own side as the one experiencing happiness, suffering, and so forth. The mind that holds the I to exist from its own side is the innate true grasping or the innate view of the perishable collection. The I that is held to exist from its own side is the self that is the object to be refuted.

Phabongkha Rinpoche then provides a useful summary of the points he has made, saying: (1) things are imputed by concept; (2) they necessarily depend on a base to be labeled and that which labels; (3) they arise in dependence on other conditions; (4) they do not exist from their own side.

Following this Rinpoche discusses the I that is the conceived object, which is the object to be refuted. This is the I that is not merely imputed in dependence on the body and mind, and instead exists from its own side on the body and mind. Likewise, when we mistake a coiled rope for a snake at dusk, the conceived object that is held to exist as it appears is the object to be refuted. Therefore, we need to be sure to refute the I that exists from its own side, not the conventionally appearing I nor the I that appears to exist from its own side.

When the I that exists from its own side without depending on the body and mind becomes nonexistent for you, you have found the Madhyamaka Prasangika’s view and the path that pleases the buddhas.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “What Makes a Table a Table?“:
https://youtu.be/knfevmdH1WE

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with flower offering at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. We’ve added a new photo album for the months July through October 2020 with more than eighty photos of day to day life at Kopan Monastery and Nunnery.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Thubten Tendar walking around Kopan Monastery (with new gift), Boudhanath, Nepal, August 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.

The photos feature Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the monks and nuns of Kopan. Highlights include the fire puja for purification and healing that Rinpoche did with Khadro-la and other high lamas, a special long life puja for Rinpoche, Kopan’s annual consecration ceremony, and many other teachings, pujas, and daily activities. 

See more photos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/

The stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

One of the turkeys pardoned by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, at the White House, Washington DC, US. Photo by unnamed White House photographer via White House Facebook page.

This year, the holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on Thursday, November 26. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered the following advice on how to help the tens of millions of turkeys being killed for the holiday, and also how to think about this tradition of killing and eating turkeys. (For the most up to date version of this advice, please see the page “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”.)

On Thanksgiving eve, 2018, the Sangha in Switzerland and I did extensive prayers for those who rely on me, those for whom I promised to pray, those whose names were given to me, and, in particular, all the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving.

We also did Vajrasattva purification, the King of Prayers, and the Amitabha Buddha Prayer to be Reborn in the Land of Bliss. All these practices were dedicated for all beings, but especially for all the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving.

Recently I saw that President Trump had liberated, or pardoned, two Thanksgiving turkeys, a presidential ritual dating back to the 1940s. I am not sure who had the idea to produce and then kill so many turkeys in America for Thanksgiving, but I’ve heard that about 46 million turkeys are killed for that day, which is far, far more than the 250,000 or more animals killed in Nepal for the Gadhimai festival. At that time, Buddhists in Nepal do nyung näs and dedicate for the animals.

If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again.

Of course, there are buddhas and bodhisattvas who eat turkey and other animals, but that is only to benefit those animals. They have great compassion and can’t stand sentient beings remaining in samsara for even one more second. For them, being in samsara is like being caught in a fire or trapped naked in a thorn bush. Every second in samsara feels like that. Their compassion is hundreds and thousands times stronger than ours. Even if we have a little compassion, it is only for those we like; we have no compassion for those we don’t. We feel compassion for those we like because it is mixed with attachment.

If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.

Here are some practices and mantras you can do, with advice on how to motivate and dedicate.

Practices

1. Vajrasattva. Do this practice with the four opponent powers. If you have received a great initiation or a lower tantra initiation, you can visualize yourself as the deity. Then, in your heart, visualize a lotus, sun, and moon disc on which are all sentient beings, including all the turkeys. Also, if you want to pray for someone who has died or is in great suffering, you can visualize that person there as well. (See also below.)
2. Take the eight Mahayana precepts.
3. Recite prayers such as:
   * King of Prayers (in Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead, page 5)
   * the dedication chapter from Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara, (in Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead, page 20)
   * Prayer to be Reborn in the Land of Bliss (in Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead, page 34)
   * and any of the other Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead

4. Nyung nä. Start the day before Thanksgiving so that the main day of the nyung nä is on Thanksgiving Day itself.
5. Do several repetitions of the four immeasurables and tonglen together (in Daily Prayers, pages 4–5).
6. Recite the Golden Light Sutra.
7. Recite the Vajra Cutter Sutra.
8. Do Chenrezig practice with recitation of OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ.
9. Do the extensive Medicine Buddha puja (The Wish Granting Sovereign), middle-length Medicine Buddha puja (The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel), or short Medicine Buddha Sadhana.

These practices can be done together with others at your center or individually at home.

Mantras

1. Any or all of the five powerful mantras (zungchen dengawa), such as:
   * The long or short Namgyalma mantra. One of the benefits of dedicating your recitation of this mantra to the turkeys is that they will never be reborn in lower realms and will meet buddhas and bodhisattvas. This mantra is not only for long life; it is unbelievably powerful for purification. Just by reciting or even hearing it, you never get reborn into any of the lower realms, let alone as a turkey in the animal realm. Then, until you achieve enlightenment, you will always be reborn in the upper realms and will always be surrounded by buddhas and bodhisattvas. The skies of benefit of this mantra are unbelievable! For further resources, click here.
   * The Stainless Lotus Pinnacle mantra. (Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha mantra). This mantra is also very powerful. By reciting it even a few times, all the turkeys (and anyone else you recite it for) are purified of all their negative karma to be born in hot hells, including the five heavy negative karma without break, which brings rebirth in Avici, the hell of greatest suffering. This mantra also has skies of benefit.
   * The Kunrig mantra.

2. The mantra from the Sutra of Great Liberation. By reciting this just once, from now until enlightenment you will never be reborn in the lower realms. For further resources, click here.
3. OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ

At the end of your practice, dedicate the merit for yourself not to create the negative karma to be reborn as a turkey. So, I’m explaining how to purify the already-created negative karma to be reborn a turkey that has been collected over beginningless rebirths. The other thing, then, is to dedicate not to create such karma in the future. Of course, the basic cause to be reborn as a turkey is killing them, so obviously you need to abstain from that, not to mention killing any other sentient being. These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten.

Vajrasattva. Artist unknown.

Vajrasattva Practice

Motivation and Taking Refuge

Before you start the practice, reflect on how you have been wandering throughout the six realms from beginningless rebirths, suffering numberless times, and how if you do not practice Dharma now, while you have the chance, if you do not actualize the path at this time, you will have to continue experiencing suffering without end. That is the most important thing to think, and you do so on the basis of having studied the lamrim, the graduated paths of the lower and middle capable beings.

Next, take refuge by relying on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to free you from samsara. Then think that it’s not only you suffering in samsara. Contemplate how all the sentient beings in the six realms—the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the numberless suras, the numberless asuras, and the numberless intermediate state beings—have been experiencing oceans of suffering in each realm, from beginningless rebirths up to now, and will have to experience the same in the future over and over again; endless suffering in samsara, numberless times in each realm.

Meditating on your own suffering in samsara first and then thinking of the suffering of others gives you a much stronger feeling. At first you think about your own beginningless suffering, but realize that that is nothing; you are just one person. Your need for happiness and freedom from suffering is nothing compared to the similar needs of numberless sentient beings. Just like you, every being is important, every being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Therefore, you need to rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to free all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering right away. You can’t stand to see them suffer for even a second longer. So, with your whole heart, rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to guide them, to free them from samsara.

Then recite the refuge prayer at least three times:

Namo Gurubhya
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Dharmaya
Namo Sanghaya  

You can also recite longer refuge prayers, taking refuge for all sentient beings. This is Mahayana refuge. If you do it just for yourself, it’s Lesser Vehicle refuge.

Then think, “Due to all the past, present, and future merit collected by me and the numberless three-time buddhas and sentient beings, may I achieve full enlightenment in order to benefit all transmigratory beings.”

Here, then, there are two benefits. The first is that you yourself attain enlightenment, which gives you the ability to free all other beings from the ocean of samsaric suffering. The second is that you bring all sentient beings to enlightenment, by yourself alone. So think, “Therefore I am going to do the Vajrasattva purification practice for the benefit of all sentient beings, in particular, the turkeys.”

The Four Opponent Powers

1. The power of the object upon who you depend: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; the object in whom you take refuge. Then generate bodhichitta on the object of all sentient beings.
2. The power of blame: remembering and recognizing the negative karmas you have collected from beginningless rebirths up to now, the negative karma created by body, speech, and mind, by breaking the pratimoksha, bodhichitta, and tantra vows and especially the heaviest negative karma that is collected with the guru, which needs to be purified as a matter of urgency.
3. The power of always enjoying the remedy: that is reciting the mantra and visualizing Vajrasattva.
4. The power of committing not to do these negativities again: To do this sincerely and to avoid becoming a liar, think, “From now on I will keep what I can keep and I will abstain from those negativities that are extremely difficult to avoid for a day, an hour, a minute, or at least a few seconds.”

Visualization

Nectar beams emit from Vajrasattva, who is seated on a lotus and moon disc above the crown of your head. These enter your central channel through the crown of your head, purifying yourself, your family, and all six-realm sentient beings, especially all the turkeys. If you want to visualize somebody who has died or anybody else that you want to pray for, somebody who may be sick or experiencing other difficulties, you can visualize that person.

These purifying nectar beams wash away all beings’ obscurations, negative karmas, and broken samaya, which exit your body in the form of liquid coal, dirty black water, and so forth in vast quantities. Any sicknesses you have also leave in the form of pus and blood, and all the conditions for your sicknesses, such as spirit harms, come out in form of snakes, frogs, scorpions, and so forth as well. The main thing to purify is the cause of the sickness and spirit harm: the defilements and negative karmas, which leave in the form of dirty water. Visualize all that while reciting the mantra.

Mantra Recitation

OṂ VAJRASATVA SAMAYA / MANUPĀLAYA / VAJRASATVA TVENOPATIṢHṬHA / DṚIḌHO ME BHAVA / SUTOṢHYO ME BHAVA / SUPOṢHYO ME BHAVA / ANURAKTO ME BHAVA / SARVASIDDHIM ME PRAYACCHHA / SARVA KARMASU CHA ME / CHITTAṂ ŚHRĪYAṂ KURU HŪṂ / HA HA HA HA HOḤ / BHAGAVAN SARVATATHĀGATA / VAJRA MA ME MUÑCHA / VAJRĪ BHAVA / MAHĀ SAMAYASATVA ĀḤ HŪṂ PHAṬ

If you are doing twenty-one recitations of the long Vajrasattva mantra, do the first seven focusing on purifying downwards, called “chasing down”; the next seven focusing on purifying upwards, “chasing up”; and the final seven focusing on “instantaneous purification.”

With chasing down, all the negative karmas and defilements are pushed down by the nectar beams and leave your body through the lower orifices as described above. With chasing up, all the negative karmas and defilements are pushed up and leave through the top of your head, like the wind blowing your hat off. With the third set of seven mantras, focus on sudden purification, which is like switching on a light in a dark room: the darkness immediately goes away. All of a sudden, all your obscurations and negative karma, which are in form of darkness at your heart, disappear. You are totally filled with the radiant light of the nectar beams. This is how it is done.

When you do the Vajrasattva practice, always visualize all sentient beings, especially those with whom you have a connection, at your heart and purify them as well. That helps very much. And, by the way, when in the future you do powa (transference of consciousness) practice for those sentient beings, it works.

At the end of the purification practice Guru Vajrasattva says, “All your defilements, negative karmas, and broken samaya have been completely purified.” Try to really feel that.

Dedication

You can do the regular dedication prayers that are done, such as:

Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe
Ma kye pa nam kye gyur chig
Kye pa nyam pa me pa yi
Gong nä gong du phel war shog

May the precious supreme bodhichitta
Not yet born arise.
May that arisen not decline,
But increase more and more.

Then:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may bodhichitta, the source of all happiness and success for all sentient beings, be generated in the hearts of all the sentient beings of the six realms, and especially in the hearts of everybody in this world, including all the students and benefactors of the center and all the volunteers in the FPMT organization. May it be generated in the hearts of all those who rely upon me, all those for whom I have promised to pray, and all those whose names have been given to me. May it be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all my family members, those who are living and those who have died. May the bodhichitta that has already been generated increase.

Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, the numberless buddhas, and the numberless sentient beings, may all wars, sickness, famine, torture, poverty, and economic problems in the world and all dangers of earth, water, fire, and wind be pacified immediately and may perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s hearts and lives. May the Buddhadharma last for a long time and may the sentient beings in this world meet the Buddhadharma and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by the numberless buddhas and the numberless sentient beings, which are completely empty of existing from their own side, may I, who am completely empty of existing from my own side, achieve the state of full enlightenment, which is completely empty of existing from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are completely empty of existing from their own side, to that state, which is completely empty of existing from its own side, by myself alone, who is completely empty of existing from my own side.

Further Commentary and Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, November 14, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

I don’t think the general population of America accepts clairvoyance, but if it did, people would understand where all the sufferings, such as depression, come from. The way people normally think—for example, what causes depression—is very limited. They only think about things that are to do with this life. If they had clairvoyance they could see much deeper; they could see things such as past and future lives. People normally think of only this life, not past and future lives.

In the past, many of the turkeys that Americans are eating were Americans who in the past had killed turkeys. Often it could even be a past family member that they are now eating.

There’s a sutra story about Buddha’s disciple Shariputra, who excelled in wisdom. Once when he was on his alms round he looked into a family’s house and saw that the father, who used to catch fish in his backyard pond, had died and been reborn as a fish in that pond. The mother, his wife, who had been very attached to the home, had also died and been reborn as the family dog. And the son’s enemy, who had been very attached to the son’s wife, had died and been reborn as their child. The son was holding the child, his former enemy, eating the fish, his late father, and beating the dog, his late mother, while it chewed on fish bones. Shariputra then observed, “The son is eating his father’s flesh, beating his mother with a stick, and cuddling his enemy on his lap—samsaric existence makes me laugh.”

If we have animals we have remember this story and take care of them well. It is very important to understand the benefits of taking care of our pets and other animals by giving them food and drink. Think that you are making charity and don’t just do it out of attachment, thinking that you love the shape of the animals or something, doing everything simply for your own happiness. It’s the same with looking after your children. You create a child with attachment, for your own happiness, thinking how your life would be unbelievably happy if you had a child. Then you take care of the child, but it is for your own happiness.

It is also important to recognize and remember your animals’ most unbelievable kindness, how they have been kind to you in three ways, and then with that awareness give them food and drink. First recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and then blow over the food and drink to bless it. If you have mani pills, it’s good to crush them and put them into the food and drink, or even add blessed water. You don’t have to get blessed water from a lama; you can make it yourself. Whether or not you have daily commitments, recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and other mantras, such as OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ, the Mitrugpa mantra and so forth, and then blow on the water. You can recite however many repetitions of each mantra you want, like seven, ten, fifteen, or more, blow on the animal’s food or water and make prayers as well. Similarly, you can keep a bottle of water nearby and when you’ve done your commitments you can blow on the water and then use that to put on the food and water that you give to the animals.

Then make this dedication prayer, as above:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Finally, please remember the unbelievable benefits of making charity of food to the animals. As the Buddha said, “Anybody who makes charity well during the period my teachings exist will receive great enjoyments for 80,000 eons, even if the material that person offers is merely the size of a hair. That person will be free from pain and disease, will enjoy great happiness, will be enriched with all manner of desirable things, and will eventually achieve the result: peerless cessation and complete enlightenment.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this teaching in Switzerland in 2018. Scribed by Holly Ansett. Edited by Nicholas Ribush, November 2020.

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.

For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/mantras/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent video:

Rinpoche begins this video reminding us what he has been covering in recent teachings on emptiness as he has been going through Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa.

Rinpoche picks up the teaching where the previous teaching ended, quoting Phabongkah Rinpoche: “The imputed phenomenon also needs to have three attributes. The three attributes are: (1) it is renowned to a conventional mind, (2) it is not harmed by another conventional valid mind, and (3) it also is not harmed by the reasoning analyzing the ultimate. It must have these three.”

What follows in the video is a lively debate between Rinpoche and Ven. Tenzin Gache, an American monk who is in the geshe studies program at Sera Je Monastery in India and is currently staying at Kopan Monastery.

Ven. Tenzin Gache

For the last few weeks Ven. Gache has been present during the recording of the video teachings. Before going to Kopan, Ven. Gache spent several months in lockdown at Maratika, a Padmasambhava holy place in Nepal, where he went to do retreat in January 2020. 

Topics discussed and debated by Rinpoche and Ven. Gache include:

• For something to exist there also has to be a valid base in addition to the above three attributes.
• Whatever exists is merely imputed “from the side of the mind” by concept.
• Where does the I exist?
• Does the merely labeled I exist after death?
• Does the merely labeled I exist during sleep?
• Does the merely labeled I exist in the aggregates?

This teaching is a great opportunity for us to witness and learn from a wonderful debate. We recommend watching for yourself and following along with the transcript provided. 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “How Does the Merely Labeled I Exist on the Aggregates?”:
https://youtu.be/xJSL511LGfw

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Ven. Tenzin Gache grew up in the Boston area of the United States. After graduating college, he traveled to India, and received ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2006. Later that year he went to Sera Je Monastery, India, joining the house group of his teacher, Choden Rinpoche. Since then he has lived, studied, and practiced at Sera Je. Currently he has completed thirteen  years of the nineteern-year geshe study program at Sera Je. For the last three years he has been studying Middle Way philosophy in-depth. Ven. Gache is the translator of Choden Rinpoche’s book Mastering Meditation: Instructions on Calm Abiding and Mahamudra, which was released this year by Wisdom Publications.

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching from his room at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

On the auspicious occasion of Lhabab Duchen, November 7, 2020, Lama Zopa Rinpoche continued offering the oral transmission of the Sutra of Great Liberation (transmission begins at 0:08:43 in the video). Rinpoche celebrated Lhabab Duchen this year at Kopan Monastery, where there were many auspicious activities. 

Rinpoche begins this video explaining that this special day commemorates the day that Buddha descended to Earth from the God Realm, and reminds that on Buddha’s special days any merit one collects is multiplied by one hundred million. Rinpoche explains, that on these merit multiplying days, if you offer one light to Buddha it becomes one hundred million light offerings; if you do one prostration, it becomes one hundred million prostrations; one Vajrasattva mantra becomes one hundred million Vajrasattva mantras; one OM MANI PADME HUM becomes one hundred million OM MANI PADME HUMs. If you meditate on emptiness, bodhichitta, deity practice—whatever you do—the merit is multiplied by one hundred million.

Rinpoche has explained that the Sutra of Great Liberation is exactly what we need to hear now when there is so much danger in the world, including famine, disease, the virus, and so many problems. Just by hearing it, one doesn’t get reborn in the lower realms and there are so many incredible benefits including purification.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on “Sutra of Great Liberation on Lhabab Duchen”:
https://youtu.be/c2i8jSZO7Cw

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more on the four holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, see Practice on Merit Multiplying Days and Eclipses
• Find videos with Rinpoche giving the oral transmission of the Sutra of Great Liberatation as well as other oral transmissions
• Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with nuns from Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us that the I does not exist from its own side, because it is a dependent arising. The I has been appearing to our minds as if it exists from its own side since beginningless rebirths, and we have held on to that mistaken view. But it does not exist at all like this, it’s a total hallucination.

In fact, Rinpoche adds, all phenomena of samsara and nirvana do not exist from their own side because they are dependent arisings.

Rinpoche then comes back to the discussion of this verse from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path:

One who sees the cause and effect of all phenomena
Of both cyclic existence and the state beyond sorrow as forever unbetraying,
And for whom any object trusted in by the grasping mind has completely disappeared,
Has at that time entered the path pleasing the buddhas.

Rinpoche continues reading through Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary on this verse, beginning with this passage:

When this verse is stated in a syllogism: the subject, all the existents of samsara and beyond samsara, the focal points of [the ignorance] holding them as truly existent do not exist from their own side even in the slightest, because they are dependent connections.

Furthermore, “dependent connection” [shows that] since they are connected in dependence on other things or they arise in dependence on other things, there is no way for them to exist from their own side.

Rinpoche discusses the meaning of ten drel and ten jung. Ten means “depends on” or “depends to” so this eliminates eternalism. Jung is “arising,” drel is “connected.” “By depending on others, it arises.” So, “there is no existence at all from its own side.” Because it arises, this eliminates nihilism.

Continuing with Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary, Rinpoche explains the commentary’s example of an umdze (chant leader). Even though there exists a valid base to be labeled “umdze,” the umdze does not exist until he is labeled “umdze” by the abbot. If the umdze existed from his own side, he would be an umdze even while he was in his mother’s womb.

From Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary:

A valid base, a monk who is worthy to be an umdze, until he is labeled “This is the umdze” by a valid labeler, he is not called “umdze” and he also does not think, “I’m the umdze.” From the time that he is merely labeled by the concept, “You are the umdze,” he is called “umdze” and he also thinks, “I am the umdze.”

The umdze exists in mere name, Rinpoche explains, like all phenomena. 

Rinpoche then offers the example of the president of the United States. There is a person who is the valid base, who is worthy to be labeled “president,” then the valid mind merely labels, “This is the president of the United States.” So, until that happens, nobody thinks, “This person is the president of the United States,” and the person himself or herself also doesn’t think, “I’m the president.”

As another example, Rinpoche explains that a house, as well as all phenomena, is merely imputed on the collection of parts that is the base to be labeled. The house exists in mere name. The whole world is like this. This is unbelievably subtle, Rinpoche says. Whatever appears from its own side as real—a real world, a real Nepal, a real Kopan, a real I, my real money, my real car, my real body—all this, in reality, not even the slightest atom of that exists. It never existed. It is a total hallucination.

Rinpoche stresses that we have to practice mindfulness all day and night to see that what appears to be real has actually never existed from its own side. When we are not aware of this mistaken view, then the I and all other phenomena appear to us as real. When you believe that those appearances are true, then the self-cherishing thought—the ignorance holding the I as real—and all the delusions arise. Then we create karma and suffer in samsara. We have done that already from beginningless rebirths up to now. And so far, we haven’t become free from samsara. So we need to have the awareness that without depending on the base to be labeled, objects do not exist from their own side, not even an atom exists from its own side.

Rinpoche, following along with Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary, explains that an imputed phenomenon needs to have three attributes:

1. It is renowned to a conventional mind;
2. It is not harmed by another conventional valid mind; and
3. It also is not harmed by the reasoning analyzing the ultimate.

Rinpoche then explains the three attributes, beginning at 44:42 in the video.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Whole World Exists in Nothing More Than Mere Name”:
https://youtu.be/ObWzz3nHApg

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Rinpoche in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this video reminding us what he has been discussing in his most recent teachings: that ignorance holding the I as real is the root that keeps us circling in samsara.

Rinpoche goes on to say that the wrong view of the real I that appears when we are frightened contains all the objects to be refuted. He then explains the different schools’ views of the object to be refuted.

The Vaibhashikas refute an I that is permanent, exists without depending on its parts, and exists independently, without depending on causes and conditions. The Sautrantikas refute a self-sufficient I, an I that does not depend on the aggregates for its existence. The Chittamatrins refute an I that exists without depending on a substance left on the mind-basis-of-all, from which both subject and object arise simultaneously. The Svatantrikas refute an I that exists without depending on appearing to the undefective mind that labels it. The Prasangikas refute an I that is labeled by the mind yet still exists from its own side.

The I that appears when we are frightened is a gross object to be refuted. It is not the subtle object to be refuted of the Prasangika school mentioned above. By knowing the subtle object to be refuted of each school, you will come to know exactly the right view of emptiness. Then, by knowing that, you will understand the subtle dependent arising of the Prasangika school—that the I and all other phenomena exist in mere name.

You then realize the absolute truth, the truth for wisdom. As a result of that, you come to know the truth for the all-obscuring mind (often called “the conventional truth”). Therefore, it is very useful to understand the Prasangika school’s subtle object to be refuted.

Not only the I appears in these wrong ways to the hallucinated mind. All existence from forms up until omniscient mind appear in this way. The forms you see, the sounds you hear, the smells, the tastes, the things you touch, and the phenomena that are the objects of the mental consciousness—the way all these appear to our hallucinated minds contains all the objects to be refuted of the five schools. As an example, Rinpoche shows us how our wrong view of Kopan Monastery also contains all these objects to be refuted.

Rinpoche quotes from Phabongka Rinpoche’s commentary on Lama Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path: “The root of us circling in samsara depends on the ignorance holding the I. In order to cut that, you need to generate the wisdom realizing no self.”

Hearing this, people might get confused and ask, “There is no I? I do not exist?” No, Rinpoche says, it is not like that. Here we are discussing the real I that is the gag ja, the object of refutation, of the different schools, which does not exist.

According to the Prasangikas, what is to be refuted is an I that is labeled by the mind but still there is something there from its own side. The wisdom realizing that that I is totally nonexistent is the wisdom realizing the no self.

Rinpoche quotes Phabongka Rinpoche’s commentary again: “The elaborate way of explaining no self as taught in the lamrim in relation to the analysis of the four vital points is good. However, here I will explain in brief the important points of the right view in dependence on the reasoning of dependent arising. All phenomena arise by depending on the base to labeled and [the consciousness] labeling it. Without depending on these, nothing even the size of an atom exists from its own side.” This means that all the phenomena ranging from forms up to omniscient mind do not exist in the way that they appear to us and the way we hold on to them. They totally do not exist from their own side.

Pleasure—all the things we become addicted to or have desire for—is not there, Rinpoche explains. People become involved in so many problems, being addicted to things—drugs, alcohol, sex, killing. These “pleasures” are a total hallucination! It is like we become addicted to creating suffering for ourselves. When we learn emptiness, that helps us control our desire and stops us from becoming addicted to so many things by enabling us to see that they do not exist in the way that they appear to us.

Phabongkha Rinpoche continues: “The I also arises in dependence on being merely labeled on the collection of body and mind. Other than that, without depending on being labeled on the collection of body and mind, the I does not exist from its own side. The body and mind also do not exist from their own side individually.” In short, the I does not exist from its own side; your body and mind, that is, the aggregates, do not exist from their own side; the parts of your body do not exist from their own side; and even the atoms of your body do not exist from their own side.

A very good meditation is to think, “Everything exists by being merely imputed in dependence on the valid base to be labeled and the valid concept labeling it.” By meditating like this, you will come to realize that nothing is real and that everything is totally empty of existing from its own side, which is a completely logical experience.

There is no real driver, there is no real car, there is no real road. There is no real eater, there is no real eating, there is no real food. There is no real buyer, there is no real shopkeeper, there are no real things to buy. This doesn’t mean nihilism—that they don’t exist at all. They do exist; they exist by being merely imputed on a valid base by a valid mind, Rinpoche explains.

What your mind focuses on as truly existent doesn’t exist from its own side even in the slightest. That means I, action, and object, samsara and nirvana, enlightenment and hell, happiness and problems—everything is empty of existing from its own side. The reason is that they are dependent arisings; they arise in dependence on being merely labeled by a valid mind in relation to a valid base. Things exist, but in a totally different way than how they appear to you and how you believe they exist. This is how you should meditate all the time to learn the truth about your life.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Understanding Emptiness Is Learning the Truth about Your Life”:
https://youtu.be/GJudajnF-vY

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Three Principal Aspects of the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and Kopan Lama Gyupa monks reciting the Guhyasamaja root tantra on Lhabab Duchen, November 7, 2020, Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

One of the four great holy days on the Buddhist calendar, Lhabab Duchen, took place this year on November 7. FPMT centers and students around the world took this opportunity to engage in meritorious activities as recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

Rinpoche is still at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and he, along with the Sangha there, offered a variety of prayers and practices on the special occasion. 

Kopan Lama Gyupa monks created the sand mandala of Thirteen-Deity Yamantaka. They completed it the day before Lhabab Duchen. On Lhabab Duchen the monks do the Thirteen-Deity Yamantaka self initiation for three days. On the third day, they offered a peaceful fire puja and dismantled the sand mandala. The following day the sand went into the river. A naga puja followed. 

Thirteen-Deity Yamantaka sand mandala constructed by the Kopan Lama Gyupa monks.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi, and the Lama Gyupa monks also recited Guhyasamaja Tantra in Lama Gyupa gompa at Kopan Monastery next to the beautiful Thirteen-Deity sand mandala. 

“The Guhyasamaja Tantra holds a special place in the tantric tradition. In the Root Tantra, in the section on the title, it states that every secret of the body, speech, and mind of every tathagata is contained within this tantra. Lama Tsongkhapa says just to read, study, or even come into contact with this tantra is of immense benefit, and that as long as the Guhyasamaja Tantra remains, the teachings of the Buddha remain also, because ‘it is the amulet carrying the Buddhadharma,’” Thubten Jinpa writes in the introduction to A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages by Lama Tsongkhapa.

Please enjoy this video of the recitation of the Guhyasamaja Tantra recitation including footage of the sand mandala:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P7s1gWZqI8

Extensive light offerings were also offered at the monastery in the evening.

“It is mentioned that if we make offerings of light or incense, do prostrations and so forth, we collect numberless great merits,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in Singapore in 2013, when discussing the benefits of offering light. “By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. By offering light, you are never in darkness while you are circling in samsara. There will always be light. And offering light just one time to Buddha creates the karma to have great wealth for many hundreds or thousands of lifetimes. … [We also attain] a higher rebirth, in a pure land. We quickly achieve nirvana, and not only nirvana but also the great nirvana, enlightenment.”  

Please enjoy this short video of the offerings:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBSaIOWaj3k&feature=youtu.be

Rinpoche has advised that because merit is multiplied by 100 million on wheel-turning days, we need to “wake up” and not waste the opportunity by being distracted by worldly pleasures and worldly concerns.

Please rejoice in these meritorious practices completed on this holy occasion of Lhabab Duchen this year. May these and all the virtuous activities offered around the world on this special day be the cause for all beings to experience peace. 

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.

Watch the video series “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19” and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving advice to the nunnery staff, Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this video continuing with his discussion of Phabongka Rinpoche’s commentary on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa. Rinpoche focuses this teaching on the two verses “The Reason to Meditate on the Right View” and “How to Ascertain the Right View.”

As Lama Tsongkhapa says, we should “strive in the method to realize dependent arising.” Rinpoche first talks about what is meant by “dependent arising.” The Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, and Chittamatra schools understand it in relation only to impermanent phenomena—arising in dependence on causes and conditions. The Madhyamaka Svatantrika’s understanding of dependent arising—arising in dependence on its parts—is a little bit better in that it applies to both permanent and impermanent phenomena. The Prasangika school’s understanding—arising in dependence on a valid base to be labeled and the valid concept that labels it—is much subtler than the views of the lower schools. 

Phagongkha Rinpoche explains in his commentary that subtle dependent arising is not in itself the method for realizing emptiness. Rather, the dependent arising of cause and effect, which is accepted by all the schools, should be taught first in order to protect the meditator from falling into nihilism and help them realize the Prasangika’s view of emptiness. For these reasons, it is extremely important to be guided and to guide others by presenting the dependent arising of cause and effect at the very beginning.

In regard to the causes of samsara, Rinpoche explains how the ignorance holding the “I” as real is the root of samsara. First, the “I” appears real to the hallucinated mind. Then, what is “mine”—the aggregates and so forth—appear as real, as well as all the rest of phenomena. From that, the three poisonous minds, which can be elaborated in the six root delusions, the twenty secondary delusions, and the 84,000 delusions, arise. These delusions then motivate the karmic actions that result in all the sufferings of the six-realm sentient beings. From this, you can understand the evolution of samsara through the twelve links of dependent arising.

On the other hand, in regard to the causes of nirvana, by meditating on true paths, you are able to achieve true cessations, and, with the support of bodhichitta, you can purify the subtle obscurations and achieve enlightenment. 

All these phenomena of samsara and nirvana are to be seen as unbetraying. Otherwise, you risk falling into nihilism, thinking that there are no causes and results, and therefore that it is not important to keep pure morality because actions do not have results.

After you realize that phenomena do not exist from their own side, you still have the hallucinated appearance of truly existent phenomena, but you know it is not true. Rinpoche explains that this is like a scarecrow, which appears to be a real person; a mirage, which appears to be real water; and the things that appear in dreams, which appear to be real things.

Only buddhas don’t have this hallucinated appearance because they no longer have the negative imprints left by delusion, the knowledge obscurations, that project the dualistic view. These have been removed by the direct remedy of the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness possessed by bodhichitta. This is the method to annihilate (zhig pa) the false appearances—not an atom is left of the hallucination. Rinpoche spends some time discussing the meaning of “zhig pa,” explaining why “destroy” isn’t quite the right translation, since we typically think of “destroying” as turning something whole into pieces. Rather it means the total annihilation or disappearance of something, in this case, the appearance of true existence. It is gone, with no trace left, when you realize the Prasangika’s view.

Rinpoche explains that what follows is for you to train your mind in seeing objects as not truly existent at all. While there is still the hallucinated appearance of true existence, you realize with full awareness that things don’t exist from their own side, not even an atom. You have to go through the very deep experience of realizing that the “I” you have been holding on to as real from beginningless rebirths isn’t there. If at that time you fear you are falling into nihilism, it becomes a great interference to your realization of emptiness. Therefore, let go, and allow yourself to go through the fear. 

The “I” exists, but only in mere name, Rinpoche explains. How the “I” exists is extremely subtle; so subtle it is as if it doesn’t exist at all. Whatever is happening, it is not true. As His Holiness has said, “What exists is something else” from what ordinary people believe.

Our mind has been habituated—like a waterfall, so heavily since beginningless rebirths—with ignorance. Everything that has appeared to us has appeared as truly existent—and you 100% believed it! From that, all the delusions, karma, and the oceans of suffering of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals arise. Everything appears real, but what is there is only existing in mere name. This is unbelievably subtle.

To counter this wrong habituation, we need to train in meditating on emptiness. Whatever you are doing, it should become a meditation on emptiness. Rinpoche emphasizes that it is not that you can only meditate on emptiness while you are sitting on a cushion! There are three ways that you can meditate on emptiness while going about your daily activities. 

1. Meditate on everything as a hallucination: In every activity you do, look at the “I,” action, and object as a total hallucination, as they are a total hallucination. Whatever you do—such as shopping, using the toilet, eating food, or going to work—transform it into a meditation on emptiness by looking at it as a hallucination or as like a dream. 

2. Meditate on everything as merely labeled: Another method to meditate on emptiness in daily life is to think that the merely labeled “I” is doing the actions of your day. For example, when you are eating, think that the merely labeled “I” is doing the merely labeled action of eating merely labeled food. 

3. Meditate on everything as empty of true existence: Whatever you are doing, meditate that the real “I” that is doing the activity is not there, the real action you are doing is not there, and the real object of your action is not there. They are all empty of true existence; they are not there at all.

Of these three meditations, do a different one each day, or each week, or each month. This is the way to develop a positive habituation with emptiness and counter the wrong habituation with holding everything as real. Whether you know a lot about emptiness or just a little, this daily meditation on emptiness is the most important thing to do. 

Rinpoche concludes the teaching by citing two verses from Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way. If you destroy ignorance, you destroy the delusions. When you see dependent arising, ignorance doesn’t arise. Therefore, Rinpoche says we should try to realize the meaning of dependent arising. 

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Whatever You Are Doing, It Should Become Meditation on Emptiness”:
https://youtu.be/o3uW34o6TSQ

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.