Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 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:

Rinpoche begins this video by reminding us why he is offering these teachings on refuge. Due to a young girl and other students in China requesting refuge, Rinpoche will offer the ceremony—which all with interest are welcome to take when that video is released—after explaining the benefits of refuge.

As always, the motivation for listening to the teachings isn’t for oneself to achieve liberation from samsara; this is not sufficient. The real purpose of human life is to not harm and only benefit sentient beings. Since beginningless rebirths, there are numberless sentient beings from whom you have received happiness. They have suffered and died for you, including small sentient beings involved in making water and food. Because of this kindness, you cannot use your precious human life to achieve happiness for yourself alone.

Rinpoche then talks about Lama Serlingpa, from whom Lama Atisha received teachings, especially on bodhicitta. Lama Atisha traveled from India to Indonesia, where he stayed for twelve years, in order to learn from Lama Serlingpa. In Leveling Out All Conceptions, Lama Serlingpa said:

That called “I,” the root of negative karma,
Is a phenomenon to immediately cast far away.

If something is poisonous, dangerous, or deadly to you, you throw it out immediately. All of your suffering from beginningless rebirths and all of your future suffering comes from your self-cherishing thought. Not only that, you have harmed numberless sentient beings since beginningless time due to this. The I is the phenomenon that is to be cast far away and others are the phenomena to immediately cherish. Also in Leveling Out All Conceptions, Lama Serlingpa said:

That called “others,” the originator of enlightenment,
Is a phenomenon to immediately cherish.

You are totally busy your whole life from birth until you die in service to the I, but it isn’t even there. Everyone functions on the basis of this “real” concept of I, but there is no such thing in reality, Rinpoche explains. The exception is those who have realized emptiness and meditate every day on seeing everything—I, action, object—as an illusion. Otherwise, what you think you see is a complete hallucination, like a dream. On the basis of this wrong concept, the six delusions—attachment, anger, pride, doubt, ignorance, wrong view—and the twenty secondary delusions arise. What appears as real, what you hold as real, it’s not there. This doesn’t mean nihilism; it doesn’t mean that nothing exists.

It is important to put effort into thinking about the shortcomings of true suffering and understanding what binds you to samsara. To do this, rely on your mind being upset with samsara.

The suffering of dissatisfaction is the suffering of pain. Even billionaires, kings, and presidents suffer from this, from not being content. Contentment is not something that is taught or emphasized in universities in the West. Even in a world full of viruses, problems, and so much suffering, you can still have contentment and satisfaction.

Coming together with people and separating is the suffering of change. Collecting material objects and losing them is the suffering of change. Rebirth ending in death is the suffering of change. Samsaric pleasures, which are the suffering of change, cheat you. You are caught over and over by samsaric pleasures, which are like honey on a blade. At the beginning there is pleasure, and then it ends with the suffering of pain. You have to meditate on the renunciation of samsara, how samsara is in the nature of suffering.

For pervasive compounded suffering, the aggregates are under the control of karma and delusion, and so they are “pervaded” by suffering, Rinpoche explains. From the seed of karma and delusion, suffering arises again. So it is “compounded.”

Form realm beings have the suffering of change. They have desire for the five external sense objects. Formless realm beings don’t have the suffering of pain or the suffering of change. They only have pervasive compounded suffering. They don’t have a physical body, just a mind, which is under the control of delusion and karma. So from this contaminated seed, suffering arises. And when their karma to be in the formless realm finishes, they get reborn in the desire realm—in a hell or as a hungry ghost, an animal, or a human being. We have been through this numberless times: born in the form realm and formless realm numberless times since beginningless rebirths. We need to be free from this.

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 “Rely on a Mind That Is Upset with Samsara”

Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

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

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.