Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the recording of a video teaching at Kopan Monastery, 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 teaching by reminding us of the reason for these teachings on refuge: a young girl in China, as well as some others, have requested Rinpoche to offer the refuge ceremony. Rinpoche is using this opportunity to offer these refuge teachings to all of us in order to remind and persuade us to create less nonvirtue and to practice virtue.

The real meaning of life is to benefit others and not harm them. It is not enough to achieve liberation from samsara for oneself alone. You need to liberate every single numberless sentient being from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. To do this, you need omniscience. In omniscience, you have perfect power and infinite compassion embracing all sentient beings. Therefore, you listen to the teachings for every single sentient being without even one single hell being left out. This purpose becomes like the limitless sky with no end.

By going for refuge to the Three Precious Sublime Ones (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) you can become free from the lower realms, from samsara, and from the lower nirvana; and you can achieve enlightenment and free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsarmic sufferings.

Rinpoche resumes the discussion of the section “Taking Refuge and Not Asserting Another Religion” from “Day Twelve” of Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Rinpoche picks up the discussion with the sentence, “In short, taking refuge is not only reciting words.” Rinpoche then offers examples of what is not taking refuge. He explains that taking refuge is not merely reciting words like a robot, which has no mind.

Rinpoche continues by considering whether what robots say can be Dharma. Only a Buddha can give advice according to people’s different levels of mind. To help sentient beings exactly without mistake, you need to achieve enlightenment. You need to understand subtle karma by dispelling the obscurations to seeing it. You need omniscience to give answers according to the level of minds of numberless sentient beings. Therefore, you can’t make a robot like a buddha, Rinpoche explains. But if a robot is filled by learned people with answers based on Dharma, then a robot can benefit people, similar to how a Dharma book benefits people.

Rinpoche takes the opportunity to remind us that taking sentient beings around holy objects is one way to benefit them—in fact, this is very easy and creates the cause for them to reach enlightenment. This is a way to repay the kindness of sentient beings, by helping them in this way. Taking insects around holy objects is so precious. Imagine all of the numberless sentient beings that you find in your bed, on your body, in your room—this is like finding a wish-granting jewel, Rinpoche says.

You can use images of deities to bless sentient beings in your home. You can also create a box with mantras on it to purify the negative karma of beings that go in the box. (Rinpoche discusses Namgyalma mantra and Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha mantra  specifically.) Rinpoche also explains that if there are many insects in your house, that you find while you are cleaning, for example, you can put them in a bag and take them around holy objects.

Rinpoche discusses the kindnesses of sentient beings, who since beginningless rebirths have all been your mother:

1. The kindness of giving you a body numberless times from beginningless rebirths, particularly a human body.
2. The kindness of protecting your life from hundreds of dangers, every day.
3. The kindness of bearing hardships.
4. The kindness of giving you an education.

Rinpoche then overviews the four results of killing even one sentient being and provides commentary on each:

1. The ripened-aspect result of killing is rebirth in the lower realms.
2. The possessed result of killing is living in a place where there is fighting or disease and where food and medicine have negative side effects.
3. Experiencing the result similar to the cause of killing is being killed.
4. Creating the result similar to the cause of killing is you will kill again.

Sentient beings are also very kind to you when they are not your mother. Rinpoche discusses these kindnesses offered by others to us:

1. The kindness of giving shelter.
2. The kindness of giving clothing.
3. The kindness of giving food.

Rinpoche returns to discussing refuge. Those who don’t believe in reincarnation and karma have to practice having a good heart. They can at least do whatever they can to benefit others and make life beneficial to them. Those who do believe in reincarnation and karma have to practice Dharma. Any meditation should begin with refuge and bodhichitta. 

When you truly go for refuge, Rinpoche explains, you want to be saved because you are afraid of the lower realms and samsara. You also have total faith that the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha can guide you to safety, and you want to rely on them. From Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand:

Like someone who has made mistakes seeks help from an influential leader, being afraid of the evil-gone realms, samsara, and so forth and trusting that the Rare Sublime Ones have the capacity to protect you, you must develop the mental factor intention that totally relies upon these protectors. This is the criterion for having taken refuge.

Whether or not you generate refuge in your heart depends on whether or not you generate that [intention] in your heart. Therefore, don’t be like those who collect a hundred thousand words of refuge but do not generate the entity of refuge in their heart.

“[Refuge] depends on whether you have that feeling so strong that wants to rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,” Rinpoche says. Those who have a realization of refuge always have mindfulness of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—even on the moon! They never waste time, whether or not they are in a suffering place or a happy place. They are constantly collecting virtue with actions of body, speech, and mind.

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 “Taking Refuge Is Not Merely Reciting Words Like a Robot”:

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
• The text Lama Zopa Rinpoche is teaching on in this video comes from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications, 2006).
• 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.