receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Nepal, December, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The first way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment is to purify our obscurations, and the best way to purify is to fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice; Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in his teaching from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, on December 11, 2022. There are many practices for purification and to collect merit, but the most important thing we can do is to make our guru’s mind happy.
The second way to quickly actualize the realizations on the path is to collect merit. Many practices, including mandala offerings, can be done, but again Rinpoche emphasizes that the most important thing you can do to collect merit is to make the guru most happy.
The third way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path is to one-pointedly—without a distracted mind—make requests to the guru with devotion: to receive blessings in our hearts, blessings to achieve enlightenment, blessings to understand Dharma and realize the meaning.
The fourth way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path is to meditate on the path. But meditation alone is not enough. First we need to purify obscurations and delusions, and collect the merit needed to achieve realizations and understand Dharma. Then, one-pointedly requesting the guru with devotion to receive blessings in the heart—then through this, the more and more we can “clean the mirror,” the more the reflection comes, because it has power. Then, meditation can lead to realizations.
Other’s happiness depends on how we act with our body, speech, and mind. Not only within our families, but everywhere we go in the world, anyone we meet, even animals, their happiness is in our hands, so we must be kind and peaceful. We have responsibility for the happiness and suffering of others, not just for our own. And everyone is the source of our own happiness—past, present, and future, up to enlightenment. They are the source of numberless Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha. Starting with our parents, partners, children, and extending outward to everyone—poor, rich, educated, uneducated, we must respect everyone. We should respect everyone just like we respect His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Yeshe.
We must be kind with our body, speech, and mind by doing pleasant actions to others. We can use sweet words, praise, and honorific language to others, this makes them very happy. No one, including animals, likes rude sounds directed at them, this causes others to feel threatened or run away. We can offer a smile from our heart to others, it not only creates the cause to be a very beautiful person in future lives, it also becomes the cause of enlightenment when done with bodhicitta. We can also be kind to others with our mind—how we think about those we meet, cultivating loving-kindness and compassion toward them, this is incredible. By having a good heart benefiting others, everything becomes the cause of enlightenment.
We can’t bring peace and harmony into our lives or our work with a selfish mind. A selfish mind causes others to be unhappy with us and creates so many problems. We have to work for others, at the beginning of anything we do, we can think, “I want to help others, I want to help others.”
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. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Others’ Happiness Depends on How Your Act with Your Body, Speech, and Mind”:
https://youtu.be/XQn0aqExQ5k
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell which was corrected by Tania Duratovic, Laura Haughey, and Ven. Tenzin Tsomo. 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.
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.