Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching from his room at Kopan Monastery with his furry friends, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video begins with another practical example from a young Kopan monk about how we can transform everyday activities into bodhichitta mindfulness. While cutting up vegetables or food for a meal, one can think: I am cutting all the sentient beings’ ignorance and delusions with this knife.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by explaining that bodhichitta is a remedy for unfavorable conditions, undesirable sufferings, and problems. Rinpoche then quotes the great Buddhist master Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara: “If you want to guide yourself and others, exchange yourself with others.” Right now, most of us live our lives cherishing ourselves, “I,” more than others. We let others suffer while we get happiness.

But where is this “I” that we cherish so dearly?

Rinpoche explains that if you look for the “I”—from the head all the way down to the toes, you won’t find it in the body or in the mind, or in the five aggregates together. If you analyze it, you will find that this is a big inaccuracy and shows how “false” we have lived our lives. You cannot find the real “I.” Rinpoche says that the biggest false, the biggest shock, the biggest ignorance is that this “I” which we cherish more than everyone else, doesn’t even exist.

The root of the suffering and problems that exist in the world come from the mind, created by wrong concepts.  We typically don’t think that our ignorance is the cause of our suffering; we think it comes from outside. We ask why this virus has come. The most important discovery is that all sufferings come from the mind. Because of ignorance, we have been suffering in beginningless rebirths up until now, Rinpoche explains. And if we don’t do anything, if we believe in the hallucinations of this life, we reincarnate again and again without end.

One needs good karma, merit, to meet the Dharma and receive correct teachings from a legitimate guru. The West doesn’t talk much about merit, Rinpoche says. There is a lack of concern about merit—creating the cause for happiness.

The method for letting go of the “I,”—where all the problems come from—is to exchange oneself with others, to cherish others. When your activities of the body, speech, and mind are done with bodhichitta, you collect not only skies of merit but more than skies of merit. This merit helps to realize emptiness. Then, one is able to cease the disturbing thought obscurations. In this way, bodhichitta helps achieve enlightenment. Rinpoche asks us to remember this deep in our hearts: When you do everything with bodhichitta—the ultimate good heart wishing to benefit all sentient beings and free them from the oceans of suffering—then you collect more than skies of merit every time.

Of course, Rinpoche explains, the object from whom you collect the most merit from is the guru. Even the tiniest offering to Buddha, even one tiny Christmas light, one nut or raisin, or one drop of water, this becomes the cause for enlightenment. This benefit is for yourself, but then, if you dedicate the merit to numberless sentient beings, this causes so much happiness for them. Rinpoche asks: If that is not the happiest life, what else can be the happiest life?

Rinpoche says again, “The most important thing is bodhichitta. If you want to help yourself and you want to help others, the ultimate thing is exchanging oneself and others.” Rinpoche concludes this teaching quoting from the Bodhicharyavatara that one’s practice of exchanging self with others should be done secretly.  Rinpoche explains that this is to help with arrogance, because once we start asserting, “I am this,” there is no Dharma practice.

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 video teaching “If You Want to Guide and Help Others, Exchange Yourself with Others”:
https://youtu.be/VYYB1QQG9gE

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “If You Want to Guide and Help Others, Exchange Yourself with Others.”
• Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

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.