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Rinpoche and Khadro-la doing prayer where the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre, the FPMT center in Kathmandu, is going to be, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by referencing this quote by Thogme Sango in Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva:
All sufferings come from desiring happiness for oneself.
Full enlightenment comes from the thought of benefitting others.
Therefore, exchanging one’s own happiness for the suffering of others
Is the practice of bodhisattvas.
Rinpoche gives commentary on this passage and explains that all undesirable things, all the sufferings we experience, come from desiring happiness for oneself. Therefore, exchanging one’s own happiness for the suffering of others is the practice of bodhisattvas.
When pleasure and problems happen, you can see whether or not you are practicing Dharma. When a problem comes, it is like you are completely drowned in the ocean. Instead of thinking of Dharma to solve and overcome your problem, you are “under” the problem, not having control over it. When pleasure comes, you are totally distracted by it, you are under the control of worldly concern and attachment, again—like you are drowning in the ocean. This is when you can see if you are practicing Dharma or not.
Because you are a human being, and not a stone or wood, you can benefit others. Even the ants or mosquitoes—you can make sure not to step on them, you can take them around holy objects, you can do what you can to benefit them. Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM three times and blowing on any sentient being purifies so much negative karma. If you aren’t living to benefit others, you are living a very dry, uninteresting, boring life! Using your life to achieve enlightenment is not boring at all.
Rinpoche then reviews the motivation for receiving oral transmissions and teachings. He also discusses the great yogi Thangtong Gyalpo in preparation for the oral transmissions he gives later in the teaching.
Before the oral transmissions, Rinpoche explains that the benefits of reciting and hearing OM MANI PADME HUM are extensive. Rinpoche lists many of these benefits and provides commentary on each:
- Reciting it one time purifies the four defeats of a fully ordained monk
- Reciting it purifies the five heavy negative karmas without a break
- Reciting it seven times purifies the negative karma of one hundred lifetimes
- Reciting it twenty-one times purifies the negative karma of 1,000 eons
- Reciting it 108 times purifies the negative karma of 40,000 eons
- Anyone who hears it gets a higher rebirth
- When you recite it, your mind is free from expectations and therefore pure
In short, Rinpoche stresses to us that we must recite OM MANI PADME HUM while we still have a perfect human rebirth.
Rinpoche then offers, “a million, zillion, trillion” thanks to everyone who join together on Saturdays for twenty-four hours to recite OM MANI PADME HUM for the COVID-19 pandemic. He also thanks everybody at Chenrezig Institute who arranged all the technical aspects that allow for this to happen online.
Rinpoche ends this video by offering commentary on and the oral transmissions in Tibetan of three prayers of Thangtong Gyalpo: “Liberating Sakya from Disease” (starting at 37:45 in the video), “Words of Truth Pacifying the Danger of Weapons” (39:45), and “A Request to Pacify the Fear of Famine” (42:57). Rinpoche also offers the oral transmission of King of Prayers (1:01:21), Homage to Tathagata Amitabha and Buddha Amitayus, A Brief Prayer to Be Reborn in Sukhavati (1:11:04), and The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land (1:13:15).
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “A Zillion Thanks to the Sangha for Reciting Manis During the Pandemic”:
https://youtu.be/D8v5VTdAANs
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- Links to the oral transmission texts:
- The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: The Blessed Prayer Known as “Liberating Sakya from Disease”
- The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: Words of Truth Pacifying the Danger of Weapons
- The Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: A Request to Pacify the Fear of Famine
- King of Prayers
- Homage to Tathagata Amitabha and Buddha Amitayus, A Brief Prayer to Be Reborn in Sukhavati
- The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land
- Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.