receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explaining the Dharma messages he has written on stuffed toys, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August 2020. 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 teaching asking: As long as you are not free from samsara, how can you be well when you have the three types of suffering? To subdue the mind, you must remember impermanence and death.
Rinpoche mentions the six shortcomings of not remembering death from Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand:
- Not remembering Dharma;
- Even though you remember Dharma, you don’t practice it;
- Even though you practice Dharma, you are not able to practice it purely;
- Even if you practice Dharma purely, you will not do it precisely and continuously;
- You make yourself evil (meaning: you engage in negative karma); and
- At the time of death, you will die with much upsetness (worry).
Right now you think Dharma is good, but you don’t practice it because you think, Later, after some time I will do this. Then suddenly death comes and life is gone. There is no more time to practice, and the mind becomes so upset. The shortcomings of negative karma, the lower realms’ suffering, is unbelievable. Even a great suffering in the human realm cannot be compared to a small suffering in hell. Unless negative karma finishes, you will never be separated from unbearable suffering.
Rinpoche mentions the benefits of remembering death:
- It is highly meaningful;
- It is very powerful in order to overcome the delusions;
- It makes you follow Dharma;
- It persuades you to put effort into Dharma;
- It makes you actualize Dharma; and
- When you die, you die with great happiness.
The best Dharma practitioners die happy, the middling die without sadness, and the least die without regret.
It is very effective for the mind to meditate on the aspects of death.
When you die, the appearances of this life are like last night’s dream. Even though you believed that the dream was real life, when you look back at the time of death you can see it is totally false. So it is not worth being attached to, grasping at, or angry at—nothing to hate, nothing to destroy, nothing is real.
Desire enjoyments are like an illusion party. It is like a mirage, an hallucination to believe this is happiness. Meaningless activities are like ripples on water. There is no happiness to enjoy in future life from doing activities for the pleasure of this life alone. And while you are distracted by worldly concern, death will come. Since you have to leave everything behind, don’t be attached to things of this life. Everything that belongs to you is left behind at the time of death. By training your mind in death and impermanence, you avert your attraction to the appearances of this life. When you no longer believe in the attraction to the perfections of this life, you have generated renunciation of samsara.
Meditation of death and impermanence is the root of all qualities. Among all the recognitions, recognition of death and impermanence is the best. Remembering death stops the delusions from arising and stops you from engaging in negative karma. The mind is subdued by meditating on death and impermanence.
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 “Subdue Your Mind by Meditating on Death-Impermanence”:
https://youtu.be/VYM5NxJACqA
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Phabongka Dechen Nyingpo
- 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 translation, 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.