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Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Kopan November Course, Nepal, December 9, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Rinpoche began this teaching, given on December 9, 2022 from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, reminding us that everything comes from the mind—depression, feeling suicidal, and everything we experience. When problems arise it becomes clear whether we are able to actually practice Dharma or not. If we examine our motivation in daily life, what arises is mostly anger and attachment. Virtuous thoughts are very rare. As a result, most of our actions come from negative karma and the result from them is suffering.
With one single action to benefit others, we achieve two goals: happiness for others and happiness for ourselves. Before becoming buddhas and bodhisattvas, they generated the realization of bodhicitta. This realization comes from great compassion understanding the numberless sufferings of numberless sentient beings. Rinpoche stressed the importance of having loving-kindness and compassion in our lives.
All of the problems in our lives come from the self-cherishing thought and not cherishing others. It is good to always think of serving others. If you live your life this way, you don’t cheat others, you don’t cause suffering, only happiness. Your future lives get better and better. We need to realize what samsara is and the nature of suffering. This is needed to generate compassion, bodhicitta, and to become a bodhisattva and a buddha.
Achieving happiness depends on how we use our minds. We need to change ourselves. If we don’t want suffering we need to change our mind. We need to realize emptiness, actualize bodhicitta, and achieve enlightenment
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. Unedited video recordings of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available in videos Part 1 and Part 2.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Great Compassion Comes from Realizing Samsara is the Nature of Suffering“:
https://youtu.be/OexUOGkh5EE
Unedited video recordings of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available in videos Part 1 and Part 2.)
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill, with editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
These teachings are being livestreamed with transcription so that everyone can receive them, until the Kopan retreat ends on December 26, 2022. Subscribe to the FPMT YouTube channel to get notified when new videos are uploaded or a livestream starts. Livestreams are also announced on Telegram as well as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Facebook page, and the FPMT and Kopan Monastery Facebook pages. Livestreams can also be watched without a transcript for those who prefer that format.
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.