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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visits with some Sherpa pilgrims, Tsopema, India, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Cherish sentient beings first; put enlightenment second,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book The Joy of Compassion, available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive online as well as in print and digital formats.
“Why do I say put enlightenment second?” he asks. “Of course, enlightenment is extremely important because without it you cannot work perfectly for sentient beings. You cannot be a perfect guide … But what should be the first thing in your heart, in your life, the goal of your life? Sentient beings. At present, who is the most precious person in your life, in your heart? It’s yourself or, if not yourself, then your greatest object of attachment. I don’t think you hold your object of anger most precious. It’s your object of attachment; that particular person. So that’s how you should hold sentient beings, feel them to be most precious. No matter how much you help the person to whom you are most attached, no matter how kind you are to that person, all you want is for that person to be happy. If that person receives help, achieves happiness, you’re satisfied. That’s your goal; you don’t want anything in return. You don’t need that person to respect you, to praise you or to do something good for you in return; you don’t have any such expectation. Your attitude is such that you are simply satisfied by that person’s receiving happiness or help. What do you call it—unconditional love? … Then, enlightenment is the method.”
Read more from The Joy of Compassion on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joy-compassion
Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Joy-of-Compassion-eBook_p_2364.html
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 prepares for a party in Singapore, February 2016
“You can collect a huge amount of merit even in your own home by having a party,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in his latest book, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats.
“Whenever you throw a party for your family or friends,” he explains, “if you can also invite your enemy, that is the best party! That is something that worldly people don’t do. Worldly people usually harm the enemy, insulting him, shooting him and things like that. If you are a Dharma practitioner, you can invite your enemy and offer him apple pie or momos or whatever. At a party, if you think of each guest as your guru or His Holiness the Dalai Lama when you offer them food and drink, you are making offerings to your guru or His Holiness. In that way you collect the greatest merit and make the most powerful purification … So, by imagining all the guests at your party as your guru, as His Holiness, that is your Dharma practice, your guru devotion practice … It is such a quick way to achieve enlightenment.”
Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings
Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.html
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.
Amitabha Buddha during the celebration at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, October 2016. Photos by Ven. Losang Sherab.
On Saturday, October 1, the second Amitabha Buddha Festival was held at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in rural Washington State, US. About 60 people, which included neighbors, local students and guests from out-of-town, attended the celebration, which began at 9 a.m. and lasted until 5 p.m. The festival was envisioned by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to honor the large Amitabha Buddha statue and the retreat land that surrounds it and featured dance offerings and a community lunch. The 13-foot (4-meter) tall Amitabha Buddha statue is made of highest-quality white marble from Vietnam and weighs 16 tons (14,790 kilograms). It took over two years for the sculpting to be completed and was invited onto the land in late-June 2016.
Sherpas from Seattle and Portland perform a traditional dance
About 25 Sherpas traveled from the Seattle and Portland areas to do one of the dance offerings in traditional dress and to help offer lunch, which was sponsored by Rinpoche. They were impressed by the land and the two large statues there and thought it beautiful. Students from nearby Pamtingpa Center in Tonasket, offered a Tara dance and a local Native American offered a song. (A dance offering by local Native Americans had been planned, but had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.) The dances were performed facing the statue as well as the extensive offerings.
Rinpoche and festival attendees watch the Tara dance offering
Rinpoche created the text for the celebration, basing it on Lama Tsongkhapa’s text for the Monlam celebration. The text includes an extensive bath offering, prayers to the 35 Buddhas of Confession, and an extensive offering practice, similar to one done during a long life puja. For each offering, Rinpoche held up the item being offered and recited the text in Tibetan. Ven. René Fuesi then read the meaning of the offering in English. This year Rinpoche composed two new verses about cars and airplanes that were added to the text:
Offering Trucks, Cars, Trains and Other Vehicles
Due to the merits of having offered these vehicles
May ourselves and all transmigratory beings
Realize the basis of the two truths.
(The truth for the absolute wisdom and the truth for the all obscuring mind)
And by completing the path method possessed by wisdom and wisdom possessed by method
Cross from beyond the oceans of samsaric suffering and
May the unified holy body and mind of Buddha be achieved.
Offering Airplanes
Due to the method of having offered these airplanes
And especially by the blessings of the Virtuous Friend,
The essence of embodiment of numberless Buddhas.
May ourselves and all transmigratory beings actualize the unification
Of holy body and holy mind of no more learning
In the brief lifetime of degenerated time.
When Rinpoche completes the celebration text, he has indicated that it can be used for other big festival days at FPMT centers around the world.
Items offered during the extensive offerings part of the celebration
Resident Sangha and students from Pamtingpa Center took care of the arrangements for the celebration, which included collecting the offerings, building platforms, bringing chairs and carpets, putting up brocades, and sewing intricate umbrellas for the Amitabha Buddha and Medicine Buddha statues on the property and for the large Tara thangka that was also displayed during the festival.
The Sangha at Rinpoche’s house at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land were up all night finishing the preparations. The festival was scheduled at the last minute but came together beautifully and Rinpoche seemed pleased. He has said that he would like it to happen annually. The first Amitabha Buddha Festival took place in 2014. The festival didn’t happen last year due to devastating wildfires there.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche watches the Sherpa dance offering
Supporting the creation of holy objects is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vasts visions for FPMT.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to receive FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches to Western students, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“You have to start with words,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in his latest book, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats, “but without actualizing the path in your mind, without transforming your life, then it is merely study.”
He adds, “Both sutra and tantra are what the monks studied in the monasteries in Tibet for their whole lives. Through that, numberless meditators became bodhisattvas and were able to achieve buddhahood, becoming enlightened beings. In many other holy places in Tibet practitioners also achieved realizations; not only Milarepa but many others attained enlightenment there as well. Because of that, there are many, many places in Tibet that are unbelievably blessed. Just as the pandits did in Tibet, you Western students also need to study what is written in the texts and, through intensive contemplation, meditate on and actualize the path. You must try to hold in your heart the teachings that the Buddha and those other great holy beings in India and Tibet explained. If you can do that then the West too can become an extremely blessed place, like India, Nepal and Tibet.”
Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings
Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.html
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 praying at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, September 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“In our life, whether we believe in karma, reincarnation, and so forth, we need to help others as much as possible.” So says Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his latest book, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats.
He continues: “As my guru, Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, says, we need to try to help even an insect that is suffering from having fallen into water by taking it out and freeing it. And if two insects are fighting, killing each other, we need to separate them. Even if we just offer to carry an older person’s heavy luggage or offer somebody a seat on the bus or train, even if it is just a small benefit in our everyday life, we should do whatever we can to help free others from suffering, to benefit them … To practice Dharma, the real thing is to serve others, to benefit others. Sentient beings are the objects most cherished by the buddhas … This tiny ant, this mosquito, this human—whether a rich man or a beggar—is the object most cherished by the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas.”
Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings
Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.html
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 his attendant Ven. Roger Kunsang, Washington State, USA, September 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“This is a real story,” recounts Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his latest book Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats.
“At Buxa, there was a monk called Jamyang, who was Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo’s attendant in Tibet. Even though he couldn’t read texts because he was illiterate—he couldn’t even read the Tibetan alphabet—Rinpoche had told him that in the future he would be able to read the Guru Puja by himself, without anybody teaching him. Then, one day in Buxa, he was suddenly able to read the entire Guru Puja from beginning to end. This was the blessing of having served Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Tibet. By serving him he purified his mind and it happened exactly as Pabongka Rinpoche had predicted. This was the great benefit of having impeccable guru devotion to Pabongka Rinpoche. He didn’t tell me this himself; Lama Lhundrup told me … There are many other stories of people serving the guru who have suddenly realized emptiness or seen deities. That is the power, the benefit of showing devotion to and serving our guru.”
Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings
Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.html
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 during teaching at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Whenever Lama Zopa Rinpoche visits a holy site, a stupa or a gompa, he offers khatas to the statues and holy images there. During his visit to Maitreya Instituut Loenen in the Netherlands in July 2015, Rinpoche gave a spontaneous teaching on how to offer a khata to holy objects, which was captured in a short video. Rinpoche emphasized how you offer the khata on behalf of all sentient beings, how all spiritual attainments come from the guru and that you offer the khata so that oneself and all sentient beings may achieve the indestructible holy body.
Watch “How to Offer a Khata to Holy Objects” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/kijVc2lWXHA
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
The white conch shell, painted by Gelek Sherpa
Translated with commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche; paintings of the eight auspicious signs by Gelek Sherpa.
Probably many of us do not know how important these eight auspicious signs are and how they affect our lives. They can be used externally to help with one’s own success as well as with the FPMT organization to be successful in benefiting others and working for the teachings of the Buddha. Putting these eight auspicious signs around everywhere, outside and also inside the rooms, makes things very auspicious. It is not necessary to put all eight together, and they don’t all need to be in the same place. They can be placed separately at different locations, but you should have all of them.
The eight auspicious signs are the
- umbrella
- yellow fish
- vase
- lotus
- white conch shell
- glorious peu1
- banner
- Dharma chakra
Here is the meaning of these eight auspicious signs according to my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Dorje Chang’s explanation.2
Wherever these eight auspicious signs exist, there will be the dependent arising of increasing the virtue of auspiciousness.
Colophon: Dictated by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Ven. Sarah Thresher at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 4, 2014. Edited with the help of Losang Hursthouse.
1. Skt. Srivatsa. Rinpoche has not translated this because it is not clear exactly how it should be translated. It is usually referred to as the “unending knot” but this is not the literal meaning of the words.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing two dogs on the way to teaching, Maitreya Instituut, Loenen, Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this advice while in New York City in July 2016.
I have heard that you have to take indoor dogs out three times a day, so I thought that this gives you an unbelievable, incredible opportunity to help them.
By not harming and practicing morality toward even one sentient being, including these dogs, you can attain the state of the happy transmigratory beings. By not harming and practicing concentration and wisdom, even with dogs, you can achieve the happiness that is free from samsaric suffering. And by generating compassion, bodhichitta, you can attain buddhahood, ultimate happiness—the completion of all realizations and total freedom from all obscurations—through depending on these sentient beings, these dogs.
Another way to understand this is that by cherishing these dogs you can receive hundreds of thousands of happy rebirths and so forth in future lives. By cherishing these sentient beings, these dogs, you can achieve ultimate happiness forever. By cherishing these sentient being dogs you can achieve the peerless happiness of buddhahood. Not only that, but you also achieve the numberless past happinesses that you already have received since beginningless rebirths as well as your present happiness and all future happiness, including full enlightenment.
You may find this difficult to believe but it is logical. Your three time happinesses come from your good karma and your virtuous mind is the action of the Buddha. There are two actions of Buddha: one is within us sentient beings; the other is possessed only by the Buddha’s holy mind. Buddha comes from the bodhisattva, the bodhisattva comes from bodhichitta and bodhichitta comes from great compassion, which embraces numberless sentient beings, not leaving out even one: the numberless hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, asuras and suras.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and a cute canine friend, Adelaide, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
So this is how you receive all your past, present and future happiness from each and every sentient being, which includes the dogs that you take out for a walk three times a day. So these dogs are most precious—think like this—most precious, most kind, most dear and wish-fulfilling for you.
The next thing to understand is that these sentient beings are objects to not be harmed. They are to be cherished by you, to be taken care of with your body, speech and mind; you are to serve them.
One more thing to understand is that you have been experiencing the sufferings of the six realms numberless times from beginningless rebirths and you will have to experience them again without end, over and over again, if you don’t practice Dharma.
At this time you have received the impossible, a precious human life. And not only have you received a perfect human rebirth but you have also met the Mahayana sutra and tantra teachings, so not only can you achieve liberation from samsara; through having met the Mahayana sutra teachings you can achieve full enlightenment for sentient beings. Furthermore, through having met the Mahayana tantric teachings you can achieve enlightenment in just one lifetime—you don’t need the three countless great eons to collect merit and purify obscurations that you do when practicing sutra. Finally, you have met maha-anuttara yoga tantra, through which you can achieve the unified state of enlightenment in one brief lifetime of this degenerate age. So this time you are most fortunate.
Now, sentient beings who have received a perfect human rebirth like yours are extremely rare. Most other sentient beings haven’t even met the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, which means they will have to experience samsaric suffering endlessly. If you really think about it you won’t be able to stand it, not even for a second, without wanting to free them from samsara. And not only that—they have been experiencing such suffering from beginningless, numberless lives.
Now the dogs are exactly the same. You have to think about this. These dogs have been experiencing suffering since beginningless lifetimes and will continue to do so without end. You can’t stand leaving them in that state of suffering for even one second.
Dogs gathered at Jangsa Animal Saving Trust while Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives blessings, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
So when you take your dogs out you should recite mostly OM MANI PADME HUM and the Maitreya Buddha mantras so that the dogs can hear them. That purifies their negative karma collected since beginningless time and allows them to collect merit. It purifies their mental continuum and brings them to enlightenment in the future: by meeting the Dharma they receive a higher rebirth, develop understanding through practicing Dharma and eventually achieve enlightenment. It is as if you are giving a wish-granting jewel to the dogs. Just by chanting you help them so much.
You can also recite the Medicine Buddha mantra, which helps them to not be reborn in the lower realms ever again, and the short Namgyälma mantra, which makes it impossible for them to be reborn in lower realms; this will be their last rebirth as an animal. Another mantra you can recite is OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT. When you take the dogs out, chant so that they can hear it.
At the beginning, generate bodhichitta by thinking, “The purpose of my life is not simply to achieve the happiness of this life; nor is it to achieve either temporary or ultimate happiness for myself alone. The purpose of my life is to achieve enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore I must achieve the state of omniscience. Therefore I am going to recite these mantras for the dogs and even others who are passing by.”
You can recite the mantras by chanting them like a song. Others might then just see you as happy person walking along with your dogs. If people ask what you’re singing you can say that you’re chanting mantras. It depends on who asks.
Scribed by Ven. Roger Kunsang, July 2016, New York, United States. Edited by Nicholas Ribush.
Find the mantras Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends above on FPMT Education Services’ mantra resource page on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Roger Kunsang and Buddha Amitabha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Every time you look at holy objects—pictures of the Buddha, statues, scriptures, stupas—they plant the seed of liberation and enlightenment in your mental continuum. So every time you look at them they purify your mind. They plant the seed of enlightenment, which includes all the causes to achieve enlightenment,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the advice “Why Holy Objects are Precious and Wish-fulfilling.”
“How? When you look at them they plant a seed or positive imprint on your mental continuum so that later when you meet Buddhadharma, either in this life or in future lives, you are able to understand the words and the meaning of the teachings. From that, you are able to practice the meaning of the Dharma you have understood, which causes you to cease the gross and subtle defilements by actualizing the path and then your mental continuum becomes omniscient mind. This is what is meant when we say that by seeing holy objects it plants the seed of enlightenment on the mind—it contains the whole path from guru devotion and the three principals up to the two stages of tantra and enlightenment. Seeing holy objects makes us actualize all of this as a result. This is the effect we get from seeing them and this is how they cause us to achieve enlightenment.
“Every time we see holy objects it purifies so much negative karma, so many defilements. This is because of the power of the holy object. Holy objects have so much power. It’s like an atomic bomb—even though it is small it can bring so much harm and cause so much destruction. That example is negative but what I am saying is that the material has power, like electricity. The material of an atomic bomb has the power to harm and destroy the world. The material of holy objects—statues, scriptures and stupas—has the power to affect our mind, to leave a positive imprint. …”
Read the entire advice from Rinpoche, “Why Holy Objects are Precious and Wish-fulfilling,” on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/ImportanceofHolyObjects.pdf
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving advice to the elder Sherpa community in New York City, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On August 10, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had lunch with and gave a public talk and oral transmission of the Medicine Buddha mantra to the members of the Himalayan Elders Project during his 2016 visit to New York City. After the teachings, Rinpoche personally blessed each participant.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at an event organized by the Himalayan Elders Project in New York City, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche having lunch with the members of he Himalayan Elders Project, New York, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The Himalayan Elders Project “is a community initiative which provides time and space for our seniors to gather, practice Dharma, socialize, share life experiences, enjoy community connectedness and enjoy a renewed sense of independence.”
Watch “Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to the Himalayan Elders Project” on YouTube (Tibetan):
https://youtu.be/kjz-QlGn2yU
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Light of the Path retreat, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the recent Light of the Path retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche dictated this advice and had it distributed to all participants. Rinpoche also wanted it shared with people offering service at FPMT centers, projects and service as well as with all beings everywhere.
Freeing them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to the peerless happiness of buddhahood—the total cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all realizations
It all depends on your motivation. If you are motivated by the self-cherishing thought, concern for only your own happiness, your own power, and have no concern for others’ happiness, your motivation is coming from your delusions, such as attachment, anger, ignorance and so forth. Then your actions of body, speech and mind will manifest as ugly, unpeaceful and hurtful to others and, as a result, others will react in an ugly, unpeaceful and hurtful way with their body, speech and mind; for example, by getting angry at you. It is like a circle. How you treat others and how they treat you in return is similar, with such negative thoughts and actions. You have to be fully aware of that in your everyday life.
Generally you have to know that you are responsible to not cause others suffering but to bring them happiness. Even if you don’t think of practicing Dharma, to at least be a good human being you need to know this. You are totally responsible as to whether you bring happiness or suffering to others. It is totally dependent on your motivation and how you treat others; it’s up to you whether your motivation is pure or not. Even just to be a good person, a generous human being, you have to know that. If you have a bad motivation and your actions of body, speech and mind are harmful for others, you make others create negative karma when they retaliate by harming you in return. By harming others you therefore cause them to be reborn in the lower realms; to lose their human rebirth and take a lower rebirth and suffer for eons. Can you imagine yourself being in the lower realms? That’s where you’re causing other sentient beings to go and have unhappiness instead of enjoyment.
In the Bodhicaryavatara, Shantideva said,
Smiling at others (showing them a pleasant face)
Causes you to have a beautiful body in future lives.
So you don’t need to have plastic surgery or other expensive procedures. Your positive mind can give you a pleasant, happy, smiling face and a peaceful, not a political, smile. Others will feel this and also become like that, having a good heart and being smiling and happy. Thus you always have to be aware of how others act toward you, positive or negative. It is totally dependent upon your own mind.
The morning motivation, the Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness, contains the details for keeping your mind positive. If you do this motivation every morning you will always act positively toward others for the rest of the day.
However, first think that all your past, present and future happiness, including enlightenment, is received from every sentient being. You receive everything through the kindness of every sentient being, which includes even those people you don’t like—those who make you angry merely upon sight or when you hear their voice. It is so important to understand this evolution. Therefore you should hold all sentient beings in your heart and feel that they are most precious, most kind, most dear and wish fulfilling for you. Then there will be no way for your mind to get angry or to generate ignorance, attachment, selfishness or self-cherishing and, therefore, no way for you to harm others. You absolutely dare not harm others, even in the slightest way.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Even Buddha, Dharma and Sangha—in whom you always take refuge to be free from the lower realms and get higher rebirths; to be free from samsara and achieve liberation, lower nirvana; and to be free from the self-cherishing thought and achieve the peerless happiness of total cessation of all mistakes and completion of all realizations—even this Buddha, Dharma, Sangha in whom you take refuge and who give you all this happiness come from sentient beings, including the ones that are angry at or who harm you, who speak to you hurtfully and so forth, sentient beings that you don’t like. Therefore they are all so precious, unbelievably precious to you. On top of that, they have been your kind mother from beginningless rebirths and even now; it’s unbelievable. So you have to think about this and the dependent arising I mentioned before as well. Think about these two things—it makes not harming and only benefiting others very deep. In that way your life will be only of benefit.
The conclusion is that to be free from the suffering of samsara as quickly as possible and to achieve peerless happiness, the total cessation of all mistakes and the completion of all realizations, then with this thought, smile at others, respect them with your body, speech and mind and speak to them in a nice, respectful way.
Treat people the way you’d like them to treat you: with respect, nice speech and smiles that come from a good heart. If you do that, then, as a result of karma, many others will treat you in the same way. Otherwise others will be angry with you, speak to you rudely and hurtfully, and harm you with the actions of their body, speech and mind.
So here I am mentioning how sentient beings are most kind, most precious, most dear and wish fulfilling. Then you can really enjoy life with them, bring them much inner happiness, and in your own mind you will also enjoy much inner happiness, and that will make them happy too.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama respects even ordinary people. He bends down in respect; Lama Yeshe also did this. Even when he heard about someone’s mistakes, some problems with monks and so forth, when he later met them he showed respect. Like that, this is an incredible practice, rather than feeling pride, showing arrogance and putting others down. Most people might do that, but in my experience, Lama Yeshe never did.
Behaving like this is a great, great, great responsibility of the center director, secretary, board members, office manager, treasurer, spiritual program coordinator, bookshop manager and so forth. Especially these people, but in general, this is for everybody. It’s a question of karma, to not create negative karma and to create good karma. This not only makes you happy but also makes other sentient beings happy. So even with your speech you can make so many sentient beings happy.
Light of the Path retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
You have to be aware that there are very powerful mantras given to us by the Buddha to make our speech very powerful and beneficial for sentient beings. If in the morning you recite the Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light mantra after blessing your speech, then anybody who simply hears your voice that day, animals or people—whether they hear you singing or in any other way (not necessarily reciting mantras)—is purified of the five heavy negative karmas without break.
The Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light mantra:
NAMA NAWA NAWA TII NÄN / TATHAAGATA GANG GAA NAM
DIIWAA LUKAA NÄN / KOTINI YUTA SHATA SAHA SRAA NÄN /
OM BOBORI / TSARI NI* TSARI / MORI GOLI TSALA WAARI
SWAAHAA (recite this a few times) [*indicates a high tone]
Then if you also recite one thousand OM MANI PADME HUM mantras every morning, seven generations of your family will not be reborn in the lower realms. Moreover, when other sentient beings see you, even in places where there are many other people, just by seeing you their negative karma will be purified. Also, when you die and your body is cremated, if the smoke from the fire touches any sentient being, human, insect or whatever, it purifies their negative karma and helps them not be reborn in the lower realms.
From Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta,
That which benefits lower sentient beings is bodhichitta.
That which benefits middling sentient beings is bodhichitta.
That which benefits sublime sentient beings is bodhichitta.
Isn’t bodhichitta of benefit to all?
If you want to look, look with bodhichitta.
If you want to eat, eat with bodhichitta.
If you want to speak, speak with bodhichitta.
If you want to examine, examine with bodhichitta.
If you desire happiness for transmigratory beings equaling the sky,
Then cherish bodhichitta.
If you desire to benefit transmigratory beings equaling the sky,
Then cherish bodhichitta.
Bodhichitta eliminates pain.
Bodhichitta destroys harm.
Bodhichitta eliminates unhappiness.
Bodhichitta dispels fear.
Scribe: Holly Ansett, 17 August 2016, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US. Edited by Nicholas Ribush.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.