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Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving an online teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. In this teaching, Rinpoche continues his commentary on the text The Hundred Clear Realizations of the Glorious One from Narthang, which describes how to make offerings and prayers on the anniversary of the passing of the guru. According to the text, in addition to the six remembrances you have as you make offerings, there are prayers you should make. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us of our motivation for listening to the teachings, which is to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations—full enlightenment—by oneself alone. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to listen to the teachings.
Rinpoche then continues his advice on what to do on the anniversary of your guru’s passing away by continuing to offer commentary on the text The Hundred Clear Realizations of the Glorious One from Narthang. On this occasion, it’s good to purify mistakes made in relation to the guru. Students should pray that all of the vices created in dependence on the guru are purified.
From the text:
Also for us, the vices that depend on the guru, such as harming the holy body, charging [the guru] money, disobeying the advice, expressing [the guru’s] vices, judging [the guru’s] holy mind, disturbing the holy mind, and so forth; may all this collection of vices, whatever occurred, be purified.
One mistake Rinpoche mentions is when a student gossips about and criticizes the guru’s perceived mistakes to others. By doing so, you are judging the guru’s mind with pride or anger, as if you can understand the level of the guru’s mind. Students should also avoid causing trouble for the holy mind of the guru.
On the anniversary of the guru’s passing away, one example of what to do is to pray to meet a perfect virtuous friend in all lifetimes and only please them. If you don’t correctly follow the guru, it is easy to create so much negative karma and the more gurus, the more potential negative karma. So it’s very good to pray to never displease the guru, not even for a second.
Another example from Rinpoche’s commentary on the verses of The Hundred Clear Realizations of the Glorious One from Narthang is to pray to enjoy the liberation story of the virtuous friend. By hearing the story of the guru—their unbelievable dedication and sacrifice—you realize this life has no essence, the guru gave up all the pleasures because samsaric pleasure is only suffering. By hearing their story you are inspired by their renunciation.
For example, the stories of the Sixteen Arhats inspire others to practice, particularly the Sangha. The sixteen arhats are enlightened beings doing the activities of a bodhisattva.
Rinpoche advises that on the anniversary of your guru’s passing it is also good to do the long version of Four Mandala Offerings of Tara Puja. Rinpoche then mentions that this needs to be translated into English.
Rinpoche indicated at the end of the video that he will soon be returning to teaching on the topic of emptiness.
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 “Make Prayers by Means of the Six Remembrances”:
https://youtu.be/8HD90tBlNrA
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- The Wish-fulfilling Gem Enhancing the Buddha’s Doctrine, a Method for Making Offerings and Prayers to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the Sixteen Arhats by Yeshe Gyaltsen
- Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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/
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.