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Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a sick woman in Maratika, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche first taught at the month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery in 1971. Rinpoche continues to offer teachings at the course most years. During a teaching at the 2017 Kopan Course, Rinpoche spoke about the great Drukpa Kagyu practitioner Gyalwa Gotsangpa (1189–1258):
Gotsangpa was unbelievable. I read the life story. He almost passed away by so many lice attacking him. He purposefully made charity of his body to the lice. Two times or three times he almost passed away.
He bore most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable hardships to practice Dharma, purposefully. He was not just somebody who was very poor; he was poor, but not like that. He purposefully chose to bear hardships.
This lama, this great yogi, he had no interest in monasteries, organizations. His whole life was without monasteries, organizations. Gotsangpa. So comparing his Dharma practice to our Dharma practice, which is just between our lips, but his is wow, wow, wow, unbelievable hardships!
His advice is when you have sickness, when you experience cancer, relationship problems, or anything, pray: “May all sentient beings be free from sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma, defilements.” Negative karma and defilements are collected from beginningless rebirths. “May all sentient beings be free from disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements.”
“By my experiencing this sickness,” so every sickness, even relationship problems, or whatever, do according to that. So cancer, whatever it is: “By my experiencing this sickness or this problem, then may all sentient beings be free from sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements, and quickly be free and achieve enlightenment.”
You recite that like OM MANI PADME HUM, a mala. Like reciting a mantra, recite it like that. Meditate like that and recite like that. That is unbelievably good.
Even while you are walking, sitting, whatever, recite like that. So you collect merits more than the sky. You collect so many merits, more than the sky, when you do this, and it becomes the greatest purification, purifying the defilements and negative karma that you collected from beginningless rebirths. Then it becomes a quick path to enlightenment for you.
In other words, you use your problem; you use it for other sentient beings, numberless sentient beings, to achieve enlightenment. To free them from all the suffering and to achieve enlightenment, you use yourself, including your problem.
Like that, it is amazing. If you do like that, like reciting a mantra, if you do like that, then the cancer can be cured. Even if it is cancer, even if it is a disease for which there is no medicine, it can be cured.
Watch the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this excerpt is taken:
https://youtu.be/59YtMWKaxZ8
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, December 8, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.
Find out more about the courses offered at Kopan Monastery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses
Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
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.