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Essential Extracts
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 20: Every Moment Is an Opportunity to Practice Dharma
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave December 12, 2018, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
Even the most mundane activities of daily life provide us the opportunity to practice Dharma, Rinpoche says. While we are working, being busy, or even arguing with someone, part of the mind can recognize that what appears to be real is actually a total hallucination. The truly existent I and other people are not there but appear to be real due to our ignorance. To prevent this mistaken view, we must not cling to things that appear true; we must remember that what appears real is not—like a mirage. Remembering this allows us to practice mindfulness of emptiness in all situations so we do not experience oceans of suffering in each realm without end.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 19: All Problems Can Be Utilized in the Path to Enlightenment
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 8, 2019, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
It is impossible to escape problems while suffering in samsara, but we can utilize any disturbing experience as we progress on the path to enlightenment. Rinpoche explains how we can take on any suffering and use it to destroy our ego and self-cherishing thought. This makes it possible to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and then bring them to enlightenment as well. When we practice lojong (thought transformation), we need problems, even horrible ones like cancer. When suffering, including when you are dying, think over and over again, “By my experiencing this, may all sentient beings be free from sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements, and achieve enlightenment.” As His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says, dying with bodhicitta is the best way to die. Rinpoche quotes several masters to illustrate how to think and practice when we experience suffering.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 18: Everything the Guru Does Brings Us to Enlightenment
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 22, 2018, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
The guru is the essence of all buddhas, Rinpoche reminds us. Therefore, everything the guru does is the holy actions of all the buddhas. It is essential to remember these two things, otherwise we can view our guru as an ordinary being when anger, attachment, or heresy arises, and we can destroy our happiness—right up to enlightenment—by believing they are making mistakes. In reality there is no greater kindness than that of the guru manifesting in an ordinary aspect according to our impure karma. This is what frees us from samsara and brings us to enlightenment and enables us to do the same for the numberless sentient beings. We must remember this always.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 17: Give Away Your Body, Enjoyments, and Merit to Others
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave December 7, 2019, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
We can generate loving-kindness by offering the numberless sentient beings in every realm our body, enjoyments, and merit. When we give all of our past, present, and future merit to the numberless sentient beings, they get whatever they want and whatever they need. This enables them to become Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya, Chenrezig, or any deity. Rinpoche explains that when we do this, we collect skies of merit and purify the negative karma we have collected since beginningless rebirths and come closer to buddhahood. Offering charity in this way is the happiest life, Rinpoche assures us.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 16: Meditate on Emptiness While Walking
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave December 13, 2018, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
Walking for exercise, sightseeing, or shopping can all be used to meditate on impermanence and emptiness. Here Rinpoche offers guided meditations on how, in particular, to think about emptiness, to habituate our mind in a positive way to seeing everything that appears to be real as false. While walking, we can meditate on emptiness in three ways: By seeing the hallucination as a hallucination, by looking at everything we encounter, including ourselves, as merely labeled, and by looking at everything as empty. These meditations free us from the oceans of unimaginable sufferings of samsara forever in order to help all sentient beings become free from these sufferings as well.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 15: All Our Happiness Comes from Those Who Harm Us
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave June 30, 2019, at Ganden Buddhist Centre, Latvia.
What is the benefit of having compassion for those who mistreat us? And how is our survival, comfort, happiness, and, ultimately, our enlightenment dependent on the kindness of others, especially those who we consider an enemy? All of our past, present, and future happiness come from our virtuous actions. These come from the buddhas’ holy actions, which come from a buddha, which come from a bodhisattva, which come from bodhicitta, which come from great compassion. Great compassion comes from those sentient beings who are always angry at, criticize, abuse, and harm us. Rinpoche explains that the benefit they offer us is like the limitless sky. They fulfill all our wishes. All our happiness comes from sentient beings.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 14: By Pleasing the Guru, We Collect Unimaginable Merit, Purify Negative Karma, and Achieve Realizations
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 16, 2018, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
What enables us to quickly achieve enlightenment, Rinpoche explains, is correctly following the guru, the virtuous friend. For example, if for one thousand eons we made charity of our limbs and dedicated our merit, we would collect this much merit in one second by following the guru’s advice and fulfilling the guru’s wishes. We are unbelievably fortunate to have this opportunity. It is the quickest way to be free from samsara, where we have been suffering since beginningless rebirths. In addition, pleasing the guru purifies heavy negative karma in one second! Rinpoche says that when we experience hardships while following the guru’s advice, we purify the negative karma to wander in the lower realms for ten million eons. Instead, we experience it as a small suffering in this life or even in a dream. By receiving the blessings of the guru in our heart, realizations can happen quickly, like a seed receiving water so it can grow.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 13: Cherishing Others Opens the Door to Happiness
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave November 10, 2018, at Nagarjuna C E T Madrid, Spain.
The door to all suffering comes from the self-cherishing thought, only thinking of our own happiness, Rinpoche warns. This not only harms us, but also harms numberless sentient beings now, has harmed them in the past from beginningless rebirths, and will harm them in the future. Conversely, cherishing others, changing our mind into bodhicitta, opens the door to all happiness up to enlightenment. The purpose of life is to benefit others, not to use them for our own pleasure. A selfish mind brings many problems, so we must let go of the I and cherish others. Rinpoche emphasizes that by cherishing even one sentient being, we can achieve enlightenment.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 12: Believing in a Real I Creates the Root of Samsara
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave April 11, 2018, at the Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia.
There is no such thing as a “real I,” and subsequently, it is not possible for anything to be a “real mine,” Rinpoche says. In the first second, our mind merely imputes I on our aggregates. Then, in the next second, this I appears back to us as one hundred percent true, and we believe it. We trust that something is there from its own side. This becomes the basis for many delusions to arise and creates the root of samsara. For this reason, we need to collect much merit and continually purify negative karma. However, the most powerful thing we can do is to correctly follow the guru and thereby receive the blessings of the guru in our heart.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 11: Because We Can’t Stand Suffering for Ourself or Others, We Must Take Refuge
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 16, 2017, at the Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, US.
Whether we understand the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha or not, if we open our hearts to them and rely on them, we will have an unmistaken refuge—like catching hold of a rope when we are about to fall into a fire. When we come to understand how Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha free us from samsara and bring us to enlightenment, our faith will become more and more stable. Rinpoche explains that refuge begins by considering our own situation until we can’t stand being in samsara for even a second more. Next we can think of how numberless other sentient beings have also been experiencing the sufferings of samsara from beginningless rebirths. Like us, they don’t like suffering but create the cause for suffering, without end, day and night. Thinking of this helps us generate compassion for ourselves and others who are numberless. Because we can’t stand this situation for ourselves or others, we must rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha strongly, from our bones, with all our heart.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 10: The Guru Appearing in Ordinary Form Is Most Kind to Us
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave April 6, 2018, at the Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia.
Our gurus appear to us according to our impure karma, in an ordinary aspect, showing mistakes and having delusions. Because of this ordinary aspect, we are able to see the guru, communicate with the guru, and receive teachings and advice. Without their manifesting in this ordinary aspect we would remain lost in samsara, like a small child abandoned in a desert. We could not become free from the lower realms, from samsara, and from the lower nirvana, nor could we achieve the great nirvana of enlightenment. Because every second that our guru appears to us in an ordinary aspect is most unbelievably kind and precious, we should cherish our guru as more precious than the numberless buddhas.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 9: A Long Life Should Be Used to Benefit Others
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 22, 2019, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
The purpose of taking a long-life initiation is not to gain more time for creating negative karma through harming ourselves and other sentient beings. Rather, the purpose is to pacify life obstacles and to use the resulting long life to collect virtue, to abandon the causes of suffering, and to purify the negative karma already collected. Most importantly a long life should be used to benefit others. We have taken this human body to free others from suffering and cause them happiness. By cherishing others, they give us enlightenment. On the other hand, by following the self-cherishing thought, we won’t succeed even in accomplishing the works of this life. To fulfill the purpose of our life, we need to have a good heart. That will make us happy, and then we can make others happy.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.