Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a very sick patient of Shakyamuni Health Clinic; Rinpoche did short Medicine Buddha practice for her and all the patients there, Bodhgaya, India, April 2017. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent the following advice to a person who fell down and was injured, and is still very sick as well as worried because he hasn’t gotten better.

Think that I am the most fortunate one, that I have this sickness, I am the most fortunate one. Why? Because by having this sickness now I can practice pure Dharma. I have been given the opportunity to practice pure Dharma. So I can experience all sentient beings’ pain, disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and obscurations, and they can all achieve the dharmakaya.

Also you can meditate that you receive all sentient beings’ pain, disease, negative karma, and obscurations. Think that you have received these in your heart in the form of darkness, like smoke, like black fog, and they destroy the self-cherishing thought, where all the sufferings come from. They are brought into the heart and received there, like throwing an atomic bomb on the enemy, so self-cherishing thoughts are totally smashed. So here you give this to the self-cherishing thought that has caused you beginningless oceans of samsara in the six realms up to the present, as well as the present and endless future oceans of suffering—not only your suffering but has also given suffering to numberless sentient beings from beginningless lives up to now—and as long as you don’t generate bodhichitta, it will bring endless suffering to numberless sentient beings again. So destroy the one enemy, this self-cherishing thought, so it is totally destroyed. And think that all sentient beings receive dharmakaya.

You can do tonglen, if you can, taking on others’ suffering and with compassion giving your body, possessions, and merits to other sentient beings, with loving kindness, so they all receive enlightenment, achieve rupakaya.

[If you can listen to the teachings that Rinpoche recently gave at the Light of the Path retreat in North Carolina, it is all online. If you can watch that or listen to that, it would be very good].

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Shakyamuni Health Clinic, Bodhgaya, India, April 2017. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

Then much of your day you can recite this, like a mantra but instead of a mantra. If you can, do at least a few malas a day of this:

“By my having to experience this sickness, may all sentient beings be free immediately from all the diseases, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements.”

So pray like this and recite this each day and do a few malas. This prayer is from the great yogi Choje Götsangpa.

So you can see this sickness is helping you. That is why I said how fortunate you are. You can collect more than skies of merit and purify negative karma and defilements collected from beginningless rebirth. This brings you to enlightenment quickly. This is why I said in the beginning how fortunate you are to think in this way.

It is very, very, very good, in reality it is like this. This is a gain, not a loss for you, the highest gain, so please do this.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Transcribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, USA, November 2016. Lightly edited by Mandala.

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.

Find recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching around the world, including at the Light of the Path retreat at https://fpmt.org/RinpocheNow/.

Join Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy: October 4-November 5, 2017. Find out more at:
https://www.iltk.org/en/lama-zopa-rinpoche-2017/

Sangha from Australia and New Zealand leading Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the teaching hall at the Light of the Path retreat, North Carolina, US, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the video below, Lama Zopa Rinpoche talks about the impact of keeping vows on the power of prayer. He says that the more vows we have, and keep purely, the more power our prayers will have. Therefore, when monastics pray for others, their prayers “have so much power”!

Whatever monks and nuns pray for will have more success because of their vows, says Rinpoche in the video, which was recorded at the Light of the Path 2016 retreat. Making offerings to monks and nuns is also very meritorious because their many vows help make them more pure; such offerings have enormous future karmic benefits for whoever makes them.

Watch Rinpoche talk on YouTube about the relationship between vows, merit, and effective prayers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XULE495JKZ0&feature=youtu.be

Watch more video from the 2016 Light of the Path Retreat and find links to translations, MP3s, and the complete transcript:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path retreat August 20-September 17, 2017: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

It’s not too late to join Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy: October 4-November 5, 2017. Find out more at:
https://www.iltk.org/en/lama-zopa-rinpoche-2017/

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 Australia 2014 retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Registration is now open for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, March 30-May 12, 2018! This six-week retreat is the third in series of retreats given in Australia by Rinpoche.

“This retreat came about because the late Khunu Lama Rinpoche requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to translate Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life),” explained Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT. “Khunu Lama Rinpoche made this request after he gave Lama Zopa Rinpoche the commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s request. So Lama Zopa Rinpoche is teaching the Bodhicaryavatara at the same time as translating it. (A small team led by Ven. Ailsa Cameron is carefully noting Rinpoche’s translation as he teaches.)

“Then Lama Zopa Rinpoche was requested by Ven. Gyatso (director of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery in Bendigo) to give the Rinjung Gyatsa set of initiations, which is quite rare. Rinpoche commented that it is common in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to organize initiations into ‘sets.’ Also that different deities have different purposes and benefits, and that once you receive the permission to practice that deity, you have more potential to help others and are also helping to preserve Buddhism.

“Lama Zopa Rinpoche has combined both into one retreat. The first installment of this retreat was in April 2011 and the second installment took place in September-October 2014.”

Rinpoche teaching at the Australia 2014 retreat. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

You can register for the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat 2018 at the Great Stupa and find additional information on the retreat website:
http://lamazoparetreat2018.org.au/

An early-bird discount is offered on registration before October 31, 2017.

Read about the April 2011 retreat in the Mandala story “The Retreat of a Life Time.” The September-October 2014 retreat was covered in many FPMT news blog posts, which include links to video from Rinpoche’s teachings there. You can also access video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings from the Australia 2014 retreat on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page (fpmt.org/rinpochenow/).

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path retreat August 20-September 17, 2017: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

It’s not too late to join Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy: October 4-November 5, 2017. Find out more at:
https://www.iltk.org/en/lama-zopa-rinpoche-2017/

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 before mantra balloon release at Light of the Path retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2017. Photos by Kalleen Mortensen.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche released balloons with mantras he had written on them to bless all the sentient beings who pass underneath them. During a break between sessions at the Light of the Path in North Carolina, Rinpoche had the retreatants gather and explained the meanings of some of the mantras written on the balloons before they were released.

Mantra balloons before being released to spread blessing to all sentient beings who pass underneath them

The mantras included OM MANI PADME HUM (the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion), the “Just by Seeing” mantra, “Six Syllables of Clairvoyance” mantra, and the “Lotus Pinnacle” mantra. The balloons also had extensive dedications written on them, which were read aloud. Rinpoche’s explanation, the dedications, and the balloon release were captured in a five-minute video.  

WATCH Rinpoche Explain the Benefits of Mantra Balloons on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/aL_UfDb3B6Y

Find more resources on mantras on FPMT Education Services’ mantra page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/mantras/

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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 Ven. Sangpo Sherpa watch balloons with mantras written on them float up into the sky and spread blessings, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2017. Photo by Kalleen Mortensen.

“How does taking vows or Mahayana precepts helps end famine and war?” a student asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the Light of the Path 2016 retreat. Rinpoche’s reply was captured in the video below.

Rinpoche responds by saying, “those vows have power!” He then talks about the positive impact of taking vows and precepts.Vows, he says, have power because the mind has power, and vows help make the mind positive.

The four harmonious friends. Photo FPMT.

Rinpoche briefly tells the story of the four harmonious friends, who all live in the five precepts. Due to the power of these vows, everything in their area is “auspicious”: rains come and crops flourish. The natural world, the environment, and the economy thrive. This, Rinpoche explains, is due to the power of positive mental states.

Because our experiences arise from the power of mind, the positivity created by vows has an effect, including stopping wars and so on. Thus, Rinpoche declares, “living in vows affects the world through the power of mind.”

Watch Rinpoche talk on YouTube about the power of vows and precepts:
https://youtu.be/kyYq8y3PqWo

Watch more video from the 2016 Light of the Path Retreat and find links to translations, MP3s, and the complete transcript:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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 Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

From August 9-14, Thubten Norbu Ling in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, hosted Lama Zopa Rinpoche for a series of teachings, jenangs, and an initiation. Spiritual program coordinator Bonnie Povolny shared news about the visit:

The initial session on August 9 began with a two-hour teaching prior to a White Manjushri jenang. His comments peppered with laughter, Lama Zopa greeted the audience saying, “Thank you very much! … For some, the first time to meet, and some, we met in the past. Some long time ago and some recent. Lama Yeshe says, ‘When you meet friends, a benefit to not being dead is to meet again.’ So like here, we meet again. ‘Again’ is two things: first one is that we met in a past life, so ‘again.’ The second one, [we’ve met] many times in this life, ‘again.’  ‘Again’ has two different meanings.” He continued by reminding us that we may have met in many different sentient forms: animals, insects, humans, ants, pigs, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and enemies.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Max Mathews, Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

Prior to the Vajrasattva jenang on August 10, Lama Zopa fielded a question about the title of his book, How to Enjoy Death, emphasizing in a joyful way that death is something we all will experience, should not fear, and that we have absolutely no idea when it will occur.

On August 11, the day when Lama Zopa was not teaching, the group met for a recitation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra, dedicated to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life.

The schedule was rearranged to accommodate an extended teaching on August 12 in which Lama Zopa Rinpoche helped us to develop a more clear view of reality. There was an emphasis on the problems caused by the belief in the inherent “I” and how even one person can cause long-term, worldwide problems. Both the preparation for and the initiation into the Great Medicine Buddha were conducted the following day.

The teachings were dedicated to Lama Zopa’s long life, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life, and to a successful capital campaign for a new center for Thubten Norbu Ling.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche met for lunch with the board of Thubten Norbu Ling on August 14 to further discuss the capital campaign for a new center. Afterward, he returned to bless the center and give a transmission, the lung of Chanting the Names of Manjushri. Later in the afternoon, he met with and blessed the volunteers.

All of us at Thubten Norbu Ling feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be in the presence of and receive teachings from Lama Zopa. His teachings and presence in Santa Fe opened the hearts and minds of so many people. May his health be strong and his life be long for the benefit of all sentient beings!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Geshe Sherab, and Don Handrick, who are the resident geshe and resident teacher, respectively, at Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

Watch video recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Thubten Norbu Ling:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-Santa-Fe-USA-2017/

Read more about the teachings, educational programs, and events at Thubten Norbu Ling:
http://www.tnlsf.org

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Rinpoche meeting local dignitaries at Root Institute. Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

While he was in Bodhgaya, India, in January this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche invited some influential people onto the roof of the FPMT center, Root Institute, for a small party. Included were actor Richard Gere as well as a number of local politicians and dignitaries.

During the event, Rinpoche spoke briefly about why he wants to build statues of Maitreya Buddha. The statues, he said, help people develop a good heart. That good heart in turn will help create peace and happiness in the world. 

Listen to Rinpoche discuss the role of Maitreya Buddha statues in creating a peaceful and happy world on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/AYVk1VrRsek

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat, August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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, Kadampa Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, US, August 2017. Photo via Twitter, (@LamaZopa).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, where he taught on August 19 at Kadampa Center. Then he traveled to Black Mountain where the month-long Light of the Path 2017 retreat commenced on the evening of August 20. This retreat is the fifth in a series of teaching retreats led by Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.

FPMT is live video streaming Rinpoche’s teachings at the retreat in several languages. Find links to all the live video streams here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

The first full day of teachings, Monday, August 21, coincides with the total solar eclipse that is crossing the United States. The retreat venue lies just outside the path of totality. Rinpoche has given advice on practices to do on eclipse days as they are merit multiplying days and can be done wherever you are in the world.

The Light of the Path retreat ends on September 17. Similar to past years, recordings and unedited transcripts from the retreat as well as Rinpoche’s teachings from other events are available on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page.

Students are also encouraged to explore the Living in the Path education program, created by FPMT Education Services. Based on Rinpoche’s teachings at the Light of the Path retreats, Living in the Path is an ever-growing collection of Rinpoche’s heart advice and lamrim teachings.

Rinpoche Available Now:
https://fpmt.org/RinpocheNow

Living in the Path:
https://fpmt.org/education/programs/living-in-the-path/

Eclipse day practices:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/practices-during-the-upcoming-solar-eclipse/

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 blesses a cat in Russia. May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.

Wherever he goes, Lama Zopa Rinpoche tries to find time to offer blessings not just to humans but also to animals. For example, in July, in New Mexico, Rinpoche blessed wild horses. In June, in California, Rinpoche blessed the Pacific Ocean and all the beings it in. In Russia, in May, Rinpoche made time to bless hundreds of pets of all kinds, including cats that had been brought from a shelter. In Nepal in April 2017, he blessed goats. And the list goes on.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Cham Tse Ling gompa with small dog in attendance. Hong Kong, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

When he stays at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) in Washington State, United States, Lama Zopa Rinpoche takes many measures to benefit the living beings—animals, insects, snakes, birds, and fish—who share the land and water there. Resident Sangha and visitors do the same on a regular basis even when Rinpoche is not present. Methods include the recitation of mantras, sutras, and prayers, as well as offering blessed food and other activities.

Many of these ways to bless small creatures are described by Ven. Tharchin, a resident of BAPL, in a 25-minute YouTube video on FPMT’s YouTube channel (see below).

According to Rinpoche in his book Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death, sentient beings can experience purification of their karma and avoid the lower realms in the future as a result of such practices. Rinpoche says: “When the Buddha gave teachings to 500 swans in a field, in their next life they were born as human beings. They became monks and all became arya beings, able to achieve the cessation of suffering and the true path. So the result is unbelievable, just by hearing Dharma words.”

Rinpoche and Sangha blessing a lake and all the beings in it in Washington State, US, October 2016

Watch Ven. Tharchin, a resident of Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, explain the many measures that are taken there to benefit living beings:
https://youtu.be/aqORZkZoAqQ

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#animals

For more about FPMT’s activities to benefit animals see:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/

Get Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death as an e-book or in a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberating-Animals-eBook_p_2334.html

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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 observes while incense offerings are made while new prayer flags are hung, Taos, New Mexico, August 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“When there was unceasing war in Kham (Me Nyak), Tibet, and nobody was able to create harmony, the Great Lord Yogi (Thang Thong Gyalpo) came to Kham, generated bodhichitta, and just by merely saying these true words and sprinkling flowers, all the vicious minds (jealousy and anger) were completely pacified and the war that had been continuous, ceased. There were prosperous harvests and so forth. The country became auspicious and peaceful. This is blessed vajra speech,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said as preface to his translation of a prayer by the great tantric yogi Thang Thong Gyalpo.

“… Through whatever merits have come from making this translation available, may wherever this text is (whichever country) and also by reading this prayer, cause all the people’s hearts be filled with loving kindness, bodhichitta, and the thought to only benefit and not harm. May the sun of peace and happiness arise and may any wars that are happening stop immediately. May there be harmony, peace, and may there never be war or violence again.” Rinpoche made this translation of Thang Thong Gyalpo’s “Prayer for Peace” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 in the United States.

HERE ARE THE WORDS OF TRUTH PACIFYING THE DANGERS OF WEAPONS

OM MANI PADME HUM

Great Loving Victorious One (Maitreya Buddha), Transcendental Sublime Compassionate Eye Looking One,
Wrathful Victorious Hayagriva, Fully Accomplished Totally Pure (Jetsun) Tara and so forth,
Merely hearing your holy names eliminates all dangers,
Objects of refuge in the nature of compassion, please pay attention!

When the sentient beings of the time of quarreling and five degenerations
By the explosion of the great ocean of evil karma and jealousy
Are tormented by the intensive suffering of fighting and quarreling
Please dry this up by the power of transcendental wisdom and compassion.

By letting great rainfalls of the nectar of loving kindness fall
On the migratory beings who are inflaming the conflagration of hatred-fire
Please grant blessings with the recognition of each other like father-mother
Then increase happiness and auspiciousness.

May the multitudes of the vicious evil spirits
Who enter the mental continuum and
Change it instantly to the mind of asura
From now on never run in this area (country/world).

I am requesting for even all the sentient beings who have died in the war
To abandon from that time onward all the evil karma, cause and effect,
Then having entered and been born in the Blissful Field (Amitabha’s Pure Land)
To lead all others to that Pure Land.

Please bless all those who are born and die (samsaric beings)
To have a long life, no sicknesses, to pacify all quarreling and fighting,
Enjoy the ten virtues, have rainfall at the right times, always have good harvests
And for all the habitat and inhabitants to be auspicious and increase.

By the ultimate reality which is pure by nature,
By phenomena having ultimate reality, cause and result are unbetrayable,
And by the compassion of the Guru, Mind-seal Deity and Rare Sublime Ones,
May these pure extensive prayers be completed.

Find “Prayer for Peace” on prayer flags available through the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Prayer-Flag-to-Avert-War_p_392.html

This “Prayer for Peace” was originally posted by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, where you can read Rinpoche’s complete comments on it:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/prayer-peace

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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 Bangalore, India, December 2016.

Rinpoche gave this advice to one student and said it is applicable to anyone.

If you are my student, then you must do the morning motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). Do not just read the words, but relate them to your life. You must recite these words and if after reciting the words your mind doesn’t change, then you are not doing it [correctly].

In addition, I want you to recite these two verses as a dedication and to memorize them:

Whenever someone has an angry or devotional thought arise
Just by looking at me,
May that attitude alone become a cause that always
Accomplishes all the temporary and ultimate purposes of that being.

Whenever others criticize me with their speech,
Harm me with their bodies,
Or likewise insult me behind my back,
May all of them be fortunate to achieve great enlightenment.

You must recite these two verses and if these don’t change your mind, then you are not thinking about the meaning. Therefore, use these two verses often as your dedication. This is most important to recite; it’s good to recite and to remember by heart.

You need to remember that you yourself have harmed numberless sentient beings from beginningless rebirths numberless times. You have given every kind of harm numberless times to the numberless sentient beings. Now what you experience—the way others harm you, the way they treat you, anything unpleasant—is the result of your negative karma. So you have to recognize the shortcomings of your self-cherishing thought.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, giving a short talk and offering blessings to people in Bhutan. June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

As the Kadampa geshe says:

Put all the blame to one. Toward others, meditate on their kindness.

Put all the blame to one—this is the self-cherishing thought. Even if someone sees you and dislikes you, thinks you are bad, or if anyone criticizes you or kicks you out of a center and so on, think it is the result of past karma, because you harmed others, numberless sentient beings, numberless times from beginningless rebirth.

Anything unpleasant you receive back is the result of your bad karma, your self-cherishing thought. This is what is to be abandoned in order to actualize bodhichitta.

In my morning motivation, it mentions, May I be used by sentient beings. This means you dedicate yourself to be the servant of sentient beings, to be totally used by sentient beings. This is what makes you achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. Otherwise if you have too much ego, then you go to hell. If that is what you want, if you want that, then it is a totally different situation; if you would like to go to hell. But if you don’t like to go to hell, then you need to change the mind, to renounce the ego.

As the Kadampa geshe mentions, the self-cherishing thought is something to be thrown away—a long distance—immediately. But others are to be taken into your heart and cherished immediately.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Transcribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, USA, November 6, 2016. Edited by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive under the title “Renounce the Ego“:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/renounce-ego.

Get copies of the The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) from the Foundation Store.

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. Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.