Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving a video teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 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 explaining that it is very wise to take refuge while we have the opportunity as human beings. We may only have our human body this one time; it’s like a stone falling up, rather than down. It’s an impossible thing, but it has happened, and we must take full advantage of it to create merit and purify negativities while we can.

People take refuge in all kinds of things—trees, animals, rocks, the sun. The most wise and important refuge to take is in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is the way to wake up from the deep sleep of ignorance. Not just ignorance from birth in this life, but from ignorance from beginningless samsaric rebirths. Rinpoche implores us to, “Wake up!” If you are reborn in the lower realms, it is difficult to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So we have this incredible opportunity right now to do so before it is too late.

Rinpoche outlines and offers commentary on four reasons why Buddha can definitely guide you:

1. The Buddha Is Free from Suffering and the Cause of Suffering
2. Buddha Is Expert in the Methods to Free Others from Suffering
3. Buddha Has No Discriminating Thought and Has Equal Compassion for All
4. Buddha Works to Benefit All Sentient Beings Whether They Benefit Him or Not

There are many reasons to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It causes you to abandon the self-cherishing thought, which harms you and all sentient beings. The self-cherishing thought causes all the sufferings, obstacles, misfortunes, and problems. If you cherish yourself, the I, then you let go of others, you give up on others. That itself harms them. The nature of that mind is to harm others, to cause suffering, not to benefit them.

You cannot abandon suffering without giving up the I. From Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara (chapter 8, verses 135-6):

If you don’t let go of the fire [in your hand],
The burning cannot be stopped.
Like that, if you don’t give up the I,
Suffering cannot be abandoned.

Therefore, in order to pacify
Harm to yourself and others’ suffering,
Give up yourself for others
And cherish others as yourself.

Cherish others most—this is the nature of bodhichitta. Then, you become a bodhisattva. Before that, you should have a realization of renunciation, of how your samsara is totally in the nature of suffering. A bodhisattva cherishes every single sentient being as most precious. Numberless bodhisattvas cherish the most insignificant among us like this, even a mosquito biting and buzzing. For a bodhisattva, each sentient being is most kind and more precious than wish-granting jewels filling the whole sky.

Shakyamuni Buddha cherishes each and every sentient being as most precious. In his lifetimes, he practiced morality. He practiced charity by giving away his limbs and body countless times. He practiced patience for sentient beings, even the difficult ones. He practiced with so much hardship. Numberless buddhas cherish even one mosquito or ant as most precious, Rinpoche explains. Therefore, Buddha definitely guides you, especially if you go for refuge to Buddha.

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 “If You Go for Refuge to Buddha, Buddha Definitely Guides You”:

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• Dedication verses

Resources for your Refuge Practice

Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive shared Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended meditation to do when reciting this prayer. 

Sang gyä chhö dang tshog kyi chhog nam la 
Jang chhub bar du dag ni kyab su chhi 
Dag gi jin sog gyi päi tshog nam kyi 
Dro la phän chhir sang gyä drub par shog

I take refuge until I am enlightened
In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.
By my merits of generosity and so forth,
May I become a buddha to benefit transmigratory beings. 

From FPMT Education Services’ Daily Prayers.

Additional Resources 

• Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice booklet, How to Take Refuge in the Three Rare Sublime Ones as a Preliminary Practice, edited by Ven. Robina Courtin, is available as a PDF.
• A Daily Meditation on Shakyamuni Buddha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers an extensive explanation of the visualizations to be done while taking refuge.
• Lama Yeshe gave the teaching, Refuge is a State of Mind, at a refuge ceremony held at Chenrezig Institute, AUS, in 1979. 

• The FPMT Education program Discovering Buddhism contains a module called, “Refuge in the Three Jewels” and the Living in the Path program contains a module called, “The Refuge and Bodhicitta Verse.”

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation 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/

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.