Annual Review 2020: Advice From Our Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice in 2020 to a Dharma center facing difficulties. Given the great challenges of our time, this advice from Rinpoche can help all of us. For too long we have focused our energy on trying to fix the outside world to ease our discomfort and suffering. But if we don’t give priority to working to change and develop our inner world through learning and practicing Dharma, we will not see any beneficial results—our efforts will go nowhere and our suffering will not end. We are sharing this advice as part of the FPMT Annual Review 2020: Transforming Challenges into the Path.

My Most Dear, Most Precious, Most Kind, Wish-Granting Jewels,

Lozang Tenpai Gyaltsen said:

When the blazing fire of anger, the enemy of the life of virtue,
Burns the seeds of liberation without exception,
Please extinguish it with the strong continual water
Of the nectar of your great compassion, Arya Compassionate-Eye-Looking One (Chenrezig).

His Holiness the Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelsang Gyatso, said:

In the view of the mind stirred by spirit possession and delusions,
Even though you feel that pride is good, it is like a dancing act of craziness.
However many collections of vices looked down upon by the holy beings you have done,
From the depths of your heart confess them individually with fervent regret.

The old mother sentient beings, who have guided me with kindness again and again,
Have fallen into the midst of a burning fire of suffering.
Since I don’t have the capacity to guide them now,
Please bless me to quickly achieve enlightenment.

On the basis of the teachings of the Buddha, the present founder of Buddhadharma, Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said in his Seven Points of Thought Transformation,

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

Putting all the blame on one means to blame one’s own negative mind, the self-cherishing thought. This is what causes you to suffer; this has been the creator of your suffering from beginningless rebirths up to now, and if you continue to follow the self-cherishing thought, you will suffer continuously. You will continuously be stuck in samsara, experiencing suffering forever. The self-cherishing mind controls you; it has harmed numberless sentient beings in the past and continues to do so in the present. It has prevented you from achieving enlightenment from beginningless rebirths up to now. As long as you follow this selfish mind, it will prevent you from becoming enlightened in the future and will continuously harm you and all other sentient beings. This is the great demon, the enemy—the self-cherishing thought.

What is the self?

Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, why so far have we not become free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings? Why do we suffer continuously? Why are we not yet enlightened? Why do we continue to suffer and suffer? We have followed our self-cherishing as if it were our best guide, a god, our best helper. We have been led by the selfish mind, the great demon, doing exactly what it says, thinking, “This is me. This is I. This is what I want.” That is totally wrong! That’s not you, that’s not me, that’s not the I. The body is not the I; mind is not the I; both together are not the I. Yet there is no I that exists separate from the aggregates.

Of course, I’m not saying that there is no I. There is an I. But what exists is nothing other than what is merely labeled by the mind. So what the I is, is most extremely subtle. We ordinary beings, like myself, never think we are acting for the merely-labeled I. If, for example, when we got angry we were able to meditate right at that time—“What is I? It exists in mere name”—there would be no place for our anger. It would totally disappear. It wouldn’t go anywhere; it would just become non-existent. The place from which that anger arises, the I, would no longer be there.

Similarly, the moment that you think the I exists in mere name, right at that time you see the real I is one hundred percent not there. That proves, or identifies, to your mind that the false I is simply an illusion.

In the first moment, the mind focuses on the aggregates, and then that same mind merely labels, or merely imputes, “I” upon them. That is how we create the I. Then, in the second moment, the I appears back to our mind as if it existed from its own side, as if it existed by itself, as if it were truly existent, or, in everyday language, as if it were a real I. It appears that way because of negative imprints left on our mental continuum from beginningless rebirths by the ignorance that holds the I as real, as existing from its own side, as existing by nature. That is projected, or decorated, by these negative imprints.

Then, in the third moment, we believe, or we hold on to, this concept of an I existing from its own side as one hundred percent true. Just to clarify, not a permanent I existing alone and existing with its own freedom. Also, not an I existing self-sufficiently. Also, not an I existing from its own side completely without depending on the substance, the imprint, left on the seventh consciousness, the mind-basis-of-all, and then experienced as both the object and the subject, the knowing mind. It is not even that, the gagja, the object to be refuted, according to the Cittamatra school of Buddhist philosophy.

The view of the next school higher than that, the Madhyamika Svatantrika, is that the gagja is the I that is not labeled by the mind but truly exists from its own side. According to the Svatantrika view, there is some existence from its own side but it is also labeled by the mind. Even that is not correct, but that is what they falsely believe. That is their right view.

However, in the view of the highest philosophical school, the Madhyamika Prasangika, this is the actual gagja, the object of refutation. Something that exists from its own side, even a little; something not totally from its own side but something from its own side, something small—that is totally non-existent according to Prasangika.

Realizing the total non-existence of that is the realization of the Prasangika view of emptiness. The wisdom realizing that is the only view that can directly eliminate the root of samsara, the ignorance that holds the I as real. Here I’m talking about the very subtle gagja—that there is something from its own side, even though it is labeled by mind. Even that is totally nonexistent. That belief is the root of samsara, the oceans of suffering. From that, ignorance arises, attachment arises, anger arises, jealousy arises, pride arises, and doubt arises. From that, the six root delusions and the twenty secondary delusions arise, and then in all the details, the 84,000 delusions.

Thus, that wrong concept, the ignorance that believes something exists from its own side, is the true cause of suffering, the principal one. From that, delusion and karma arise, bringing about all the various samsaric sufferings: the heavy suffering of the hells, the heavy suffering of the hungry ghosts, the heavy suffering of the animals, the heavy suffering of the human beings, the heavy suffering of the sura and asura beings, the suffering of rebirth, the suffering of sickness, the suffering of old age, and the suffering of death. All that comes from there.

The FPMT

I want to say that the FPMT is a religious organization, not a political one to hurt the world, to harm sentient beings. Buddhism differs from other religions in that it stresses compassion for all sentient beings in order to free them from suffering, and great compassion, where we take personal responsibility to do this by ourselves alone. The essence of Buddhism is not to harm sentient beings. That is so important.

The FPMT organization’s function is, on the basis of not harming others, to benefit them as much as possible; to bring them happiness. That does not mean allowing everybody to just do what they want, to destroy the world, even if that were to be the view of the majority, the democratic view. We cannot allow people to create the five extremely heavy negative karmas without break, creating the cause to be born in the lower realms for numberless eons just because they want to engage in such actions.

Say there are children at home and they don’t want to go to school. They want to stay home and play. Do the parents let them do that because that’s what they’d like to do? No. They get the children to go to school by cajoling them with sweet words and presents or by speaking wrathfully or punishing them, but out of heartfelt loving kindness and compassion. Parents do whatever they have to because it is important for the children to get an education so that they can get a job, make money, and survive in this world.

The practice of patience

As above, Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said:

Toward others, meditate on kindness.

Say, for example, a person is angry with you and tries to harm you with their body, speech, or mind. When the Buddha explained how to attain enlightenment through the practice of the six perfections, he gave complete teachings on patience. Then, as a representative of Shakyamuni Buddha, our guru taught us how to practice patience ourselves. But we don’t practice patience with the buddhas or with friends or strangers. The only person who gives us the opportunity to put the teachings on patience into practice is the one we consider an enemy, the angry person trying to harm us. That’s the only one.

By practicing patience with our enemy, we can overcome our anger, complete the perfection of patience, and attain enlightenment, the total cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all realizations. In doing so we achieve the infinite qualities of a buddha’s holy body, speech, and mind. And even before we get there, we become higher bodhisattvas on the eighth, ninth, and tenth levels; for us, they are like buddhas.

The one we call “enemy” gives us the infinite qualities of a buddha

But when we become enlightened, we become omniscient and can directly perceive all past, present, and future simultaneously. We can read every single sentient being’s mind at the same time, and there are numberless sentient beings in each realm. We also have the perfect power to reveal to them the methods that will free them from suffering and lead them from happiness to happiness, all the way to enlightenment, and we have complete, infinite compassion for every sentient being, with nothing more to develop. We are able to benefit them by freeing every single sentient being from all suffering and, ultimately, bringing them to enlightenment! Wow! Wow! Wow!

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha already did this for numberless sentient beings, is benefiting them now, and will continue to do so in the future, and we can do the same. We, too, can bring all this limitless benefit, as vast as the sky, and achieve all the infinite qualities of a buddha from the person we call the “enemy.” The one who is angry with us gives us the opportunity to gain all these enlightened qualities. The enemy’s kindness can never be repaid, even if we offer them skies filled with dollars, diamonds, even wish-granting jewels, all the material goods you need in life. We can never repay that unbelievable kindness; it’s like skies of kindness. What that person gives us is unimaginable. That person is most kind, most precious, most dear, our wish-fulfilling one.

So, everyone, please understand this. Read this letter carefully and think over its meaning well. This is the time to think well and not just breeze over it as if it’s some blah, blah, blah. Just this one time, think well, think well. Then you will realize what is really hallucination, false, and what in your life is the truth.

Your enemy is your teacher of patience

Now, in Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, the practice of patience with that person, the enemy, is regarded as the practice of seeing the enemy as the guru who is helping you complete the paramita of patience and making you achieve enlightenment. The enemy is your teacher, practically, your teacher of patience.

You can see now how that practice of patience is so priceless, how it changes your mind from negative to positive, into patience. And what happens from that? What can you achieve from that precious thought? You can achieve a healthy mind. We always seek to have a healthy body, but that comes from a healthy mind. A healthy mind is most important. So now, everybody, please think that you need a healthy mind.

Nowadays, His Holiness the Dalai Lama emphasizes very much to the world that it is not enough to be physically healthy; that really, physical health has to come from a healthy mind. Please everyone, practice that. These teachings are not just for listening by ear. We need to use these teachings for practice. If we don’t practice patience right now, right now, we will lose the opportunity, because that person’s anger won’t last for a long time, and when it’s gone, we will have lost an opportunity that is a much greater loss than losing skies of jewels, skies of gold, diamonds, or even wish-granting jewels.

Then, just to finish the quotation, by depending on that sentient being, the enemy who’s angry with or harming us, we generate great compassion. From great compassion, we generate bodhichitta. With bodhichitta, we become a bodhisattva, and from there we become a buddha. A buddha has two holy actions: one is in the buddha’s own holy mind and the other is in us sentient beings—all the virtue that we sentient beings create. From a buddha’s holy action comes all our virtue. That brings all happiness—all our past happiness from beginningless rebirths, all our present happiness, and all our future happiness, including that of enlightenment, the peerless happiness. Therefore, all our past, present, and future happiness, including enlightenment, even the happiness we experience in dreams, the happiness of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and even worldly happiness, every happiness that we experience is completely received from the person we call an enemy. So, that is how kind that person is. The sky has no limit in terms of measuring the kindness of that sentient being. So toward that sentient being, we should give the best of everything, like our own life. Just as we do the best for ourselves, likewise we should do the best for our enemies.

The source of suffering and happiness

All suffering comes from the I, from cherishing the I, and all happiness comes from cherishing others, as I just explained. Therefore, renounce the I and cherish other sentient beings most of all. Even that one sentient being. Like that, every sentient being is most precious, most kind, most dear, most wish-fulfilling; every single one. Also, from every sentient being, even a tiny insect, come all the numberless Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. They all come from this one.

When we take refuge at the beginning of any practice we do, the numberless Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in which we take refuge all came from this one sentient being. So, this sentient being is most precious, most kind, and wish-fulfilling. Therefore, for that one we do our best. This is our motivation and how we offer service to them.

With the mind, there’s always attachment to our own side and hatred toward others. On top of that we have jealousy, pride, and so forth, ignorance and self-cherishing. Day and night, we create so much negative karma with our body, speech, and mind.

How it seems is that for many lifetimes we practiced morality and prayed to be reborn human, but now that we’ve received a human body, all we do is create negative karma. It’s as if our purpose in having been born human is simply to create the cause to be reborn back into the lower realms, our permanent residence. This is how the state of our life appears. It looks as if we’ve prayed to create much heavier negative karma than even animals do so that we’ll be reborn in the lower realms and suffer greatly for many more numberless eons.

Do not harm others

Now you know that the numberless sentient beings are most kind, most dear, most precious, and totally wish-fulfilling. Now you know what I said at the beginning—this is the realization that we all should have if we really think of Dharma. If you want to be a really good human being, a better human being, at least do not harm others. Do no harm in this world. Do nothing harmful to others or yourself.

The most important thing I want you to know is that the real, the best Dharma practice is to hold others as most precious and to offer them the best of everything. Even if a child creates so many problems, the child’s mother loves that child the most; more than her own life. She will do the best for her child that she can.

That example shows us how we should be toward every sentient being. That is what allows us to attain enlightenment quickly. Otherwise our mind just follows delusion, and by living with delusion, jealousy, attachment, ignorance, and so forth we continuously create additional negative karma to remain in samsara and the lower realms.

Normally we create negative karma day and night and then, on top of that, we create additional negative karma as if it were in short supply. It’s as if we were worried that there is such a scarcity of negative karma that we need to plan to create some more, like pouring rain, by following delusion.

The conclusion is that we must stop, or at least cut down on, creating negative karma. Otherwise, instead of causing others to practice virtue, we will cause them to collect more negative karma and as a result everybody will continuously suffer in samsara, go to the lower realms, and suffer for eons and eons to come.

How to be an FPMT center director

The best way of being an FPMT center director is to study and practice the lamrim before taking the job. Don’t just study the lamrim intellectually, but practice it. Then you’ll be able to offer service to the FPMT and sentient beings correctly. Not only will you not harm sentient beings, you’ll benefit them as well. The more you understand the lamrim, the more you practice it, the more you realize it, the better you’ll be able to benefit sentient beings and serve the organization. You will purify your negative karma accumulated since beginningless rebirths, collect the greatest, most extensive merit, and attain enlightenment more quickly.

Of course, in general, I must stress how important it is for everybody to know the lamrim, but it is an essential prerequisite for an FPMT center director. We have a director’s manual to which I have added my own advice.

Before you become a director, you need some training. Even before becoming a waiter you need to be trained somewhat. You need to learn to be friendly when people come to the restaurant. Greet them nicely, “Hello, how are you?” Say some nice words, kind words. That makes people happy. Chat with them, and when they leave tell them goodbye, wish them a nice day, that sort of thing. Smile a lot. All these small things make people feel good. It’s also important for directors to be nice. You have to change your mind; you have to have a good heart. You have to have compassion for sentient beings and pay attention to the Buddhadharma, to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. You have to have patience. Then your service becomes correct.

If your motivation is self-cherishing based upon the root of samsara, the ignorance holding the I as real, a total, lifelong hallucination, attachment and anger arise, as Lama Tsongkhapa explained in the Great Treatise. If you live your life with self-cherishing and all those other delusions, nothing you do is pure; nothing becomes Dharma. Whatever you do—even if you attend teachings or study Dharma or meditate—when you offer service, nothing becomes Dharma. That is terrible, terrible, terrible—nothing becomes Dharma. Even if you are doing something, it doesn’t become Dharma. In your mind, you do not cherish others, you don’t have even effortful bodhichitta. All you have is strong self-cherishing thought and everything revolves around you: your happiness, your power, your wealth. Then, so many problems arise. You try to defeat others, bringing them anger and suffering and making them upset. There are problems at your center. Everybody is unhappy with you, everybody criticizes you. Like that, it is very sad.

It’s also possible that you don’t care about the center. All you care about is your own happiness, your own reputation. You pay no attention to the center. It’s like certain people who work for the government who care only about their own power and reputation. They don’t care about the government or the health and happiness of the population. They just care about themselves. When it’s very much like that at the center, only problems arise. When someone becomes a president or prime minister, many people become unhappy with that person. It can be the same with an FPMT center director.

I’ll tell you a story. There was one student who became a director of a large center, and immediately many people started criticizing him. It’s always like this. That’s why I say, when someone becomes director they should expect criticism. They should say to themselves, “I’m the person everybody is going to criticize.” Prepare yourself for that. Since that is going to happen, be ready for it. Then it won’t bother you. You won’t get emotional. It’s also very good for your Dharma practice; very, very good. And as a result, you become very kind to others. As a director, you have to be kind to others. As I said, with compassion for sentient beings, serve them. With devotion to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, serve them. That’s what an FPMT center director has to do.

If someone is untrained, they will create many problems, like presidents and ministers who run a country but are only in it for themselves. They work in politics only for their own happiness, reputation, and wealth, while so much of the population is unhappy. Then, they don’t like these leaders, they suffer, and eventually they rise up against them. Then there’s a civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people get killed. We’ve seen this happen in many countries. That’s the big one.

Thank you very much. Why I have to appeal to you is so that you won’t create downpours of negative karma. So, with palms pressed together at my heart, I thank you all for not doing that. Thank you very much.

In conclusion

I hope everyone has gotten some clarity from my blah, blah. It’s quite long. I’m sorry for that but I have to clarify everything for you. When things don’t get solved, then there is a lot of blah, blah, blah, and so much negative karma gets created with one’s body, speech, and mind due to attachment, anger, and ignorance, just like a rain falling.

Old students who know Dharma may understand what I am saying, all this blah, blah. When one’s motivation is not pure, when the eight worldly dharmas reign, then there’s anger and jealousy. Even if it’s a correct situation, you may think that it is wrong. Then you make wrong decisions. This happens many times in life, due to anger, the dictator of the self-cherishing thought, and so forth.

Unlike the buddhas and bodhisattvas, who totally serve sentient beings, we do not let the people of the center use us. Buddhas and bodhisattvas just let others use them, whether it’s with praise or criticism. They just totally dedicate themselves to others’ happiness. While we become a slave to the dictator, the self-cherishing thought, bodhisattvas who work for sentient beings have unbelievable peace and happiness. Compare this with using self-cherishing for power and so forth, which in reality is simply working for oneself.

When there’s a problem, one has to research both sides to establish what is right and what is wrong. If one considers only one side, one gets stuck in a quagmire that is hard to get out from. Many times both can be right and many times both can be mistaken.

Problems come from a wrong motivation, self-cherishing, and anger. Problems arise from delusion and karma. They are created by past karma and present delusion. Even if what you are doing is good, virtuous, but past lives’ karma can be experienced out because it was not purified well. One result is eons of suffering in an unfortunate realm or in some other form of chaos.

Kadampa Geshe Garab Wangchug said:

Experiencing the present small suffering purifies heavy suffering.

That means that for a long time, one will experience happiness like the sun shining, and from life to life things will get better and better. You can look at it as negative but you can also look at it as positive. That’s why the Kadampa geshes said, “Rejoice. Be happy with suffering.”

Then, with the motivation of compassion and actions done for sentient beings, if there’s limited wisdom, mistakes will be made because of not having full understanding. I want to say, buddhas are the ones who know politics best. Like His Holiness, they have omniscience, no ignorance. We are ignorant; therefore, we make mistakes and have suffered since beginningless rebirths. If you really think and feel that, not just the words, that’s the most frightening thing—how long we have suffered.

When people criticize you, it doesn’t mean that they are right. We carry past lives’ negative karma, give rise to heresy, and lack devotion. There are people who criticize His Holiness and there were six heretics who criticized the Buddha. You have to know that. One thing is that you can be evil, but others can look at you as positive, pure, and enlightened, even if you are a demon. The other is that you are a buddha, but people don’t see it.

For example, the Buddha’s attendant Legpai Karma always criticized him. One day the Buddha went out for alms and a girl offered a handful of grain into his begging bowl. As a result, the Buddha predicted her enlightenment as Sangye Tsema. Then the Buddha’s attendant thought, “Why is the Buddha saying that? He is lying.” For twenty-two years, he believed the Buddha had lied and in his next life he was born in hell for eons.

This example is brought up in the root text of the Graduated Path to Enlightenment. Therefore, you have to make an effort to make your mind pure, positive. You have the responsibility of becoming enlightened. Like you have the responsibility of getting better if you are sick, take care to keep your mind healthy. His Holiness emphasizes this, the hygiene of the emotions. Get sick with attachment and great negativity will ensue all day long. This happens with the five poisonous minds. We do take care of our body, but the best thing is to make sure you have a healthy mind; that’s what makes a very healthy body.

One final point

FPMT center, project, and services directors should be good human beings and, like a bodhisattva, have less attachment. They should not be partisan, should not abandon others, and so forth. When attachment increases, fighting follows.

This is the attitude of buddhas and bodhisattvas: every sentient being is most kind, most dear, most precious. Each is a wish-fulfilling-gem mother, as the Buddha taught in his sutra teachings and as integrated in the lamrim. Or, you can become the most loving mother toward all sentient beings, like when someone is suffering, a mother cherishes that person as if it were her most suffering child.

The more you understand Dharma, the better decisions you can make. Like when running a government, the more the motivation is pure, the better the result. The essence is understanding the Dharma, otherwise you’ll make many mistakes and put yourself into great suffering. Better than that is to have the clairvoyance that knows what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future. And best of all is to have omniscience.

The great bodhisattva Shantideva said in Bodhicharyavatara:

If I can’t bear even
This much present suffering,
Why don’t I abandon anger,
The cause of hell suffering?

And the glorious pandit Chandrakirti from Nalanda said:

Think: “This is not the mistake of sentient beings,
But the mistake of the disturbing thoughts.”
By examining, the Learned Ones don’t get angry with sentient beings,
But reflect on their kindness and don’t criticize them.

Thank you.

Thubten Zopa

Colophon: Excerpted from a letter sent to an FPMT center, written on July 20, 2020, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Scribed by Ven. Tenzin Namdrol. Edited by Ven. Joan Nicell and Nicholas Ribush for use in the FPMT International Office Annual Review 2020. You can find the complete letter “Reflecting on the Kindness of Others” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

This advice can also be seen on its own webpage.

• Tagged: advice from lama zopa rinpoche, fpmt centers, fpmt organization, offering service