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Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a Tara statue in a hotel in Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Our time to practice Dharma is fleeting. We don’t know when we will die. Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly encourages us to think about impermanence and death so we don’t procrastinate doing our Dharma practice. Below is an excerpt on this topic from “The Time to Practice is Now,” a detailed summary of the 2020 Thought Transformation Teachings offered by Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Following the excerpt is a short video on this topic from these teachings.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that meditating on death and impermanence is what controls and subdues our mind. He reminds us of the important points about death to remember and meditate on.
Death is definite. Everyone who is alive now will one day be dead. We are all in the process of dying. From the moment we are born, we are constantly running toward death. In the morning we could be involved in conversations and other activities, and by the evening we could be dead. This includes famous people and holy beings—all beings who are living now, at some point in the future will no longer be here, just their names will remain. But while we continuously see people around us dying of cancer, or currently from this virus, we never relate it to ourselves—we never think, “Just like them, I’m going to die.” To make sure that we don’t take our life for granted and waste it, therefore we need to remember how death is definite, thinking, “Sooner or later, I too will not be here.”
Although death is definite, the time of our death is uncertain. We are unbelievably fortunate to still be alive today. So many people died last night, but we are still alive. Although we can die at anytime, the best thing to think is that we could die today or, at most, we could die tomorrow. In this way, we will use every moment we have left to practice Dharma.
At the time of death nothing can benefit us other than Dharma. The family and friends that we love can’t come with us, nor can our wealth or possessions—not even our precious body that we cherish so much. We can’t carry even one atom with us. It is only our practice of the holy Dharma that can benefit us at the time of death, nothing else.
Remembering death and impermanence encourages us to practice right now. There is no time to waste. We don’t think about death to develop a fear of dying; we do it to encourage ourselves to practice Dharma without delay, to not put it off until we get old. By continually being aware of death and practicing Dharma, the best Dharma practitioners are able to die happy, the middling ones are able to die without sadness, and even the poorest ones are able to die without regret, Rinpoche explains.
“Among all the things to remember, the best is remembering impermanence-death. It reminds you to practice Dharma. Not just to practice Dharma in this life, but to practice Dharma—since when death will occur is not definite,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises.
Watch the Essential Extract “Remembering Impermanence-death, Everything You Do Becomes Holy Dharma”:
In this video Essential Extract, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains a quote by Milarepa that says that by remembering impermanence and death, we will conquer the mara of laziness. If, on the other hand, we don’t remember that we could die at any time, our main aim in life will be to achieve happiness in this life, today, and right now! Due to this procrastinating, we risk wasting our whole life. Milarepa also says that by remembering impermanence and death, whatever we do becomes Dharma, not only receiving teachings and meditating, but even activities such as eating, walking, working, and sleeping.
Read the transcript of this video extract from Rinpoche’s teaching:
https://fpmt.box.com/s/8doo87er18je0tg1vav6dgfpgusu55hx
You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos 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.