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Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing chickens at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Bendigo, Australia, April 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the 2018 retreat in Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was asked, “What is the best way to develop bodhichitta?” You can read Rinpoche’s response in this excerpt from the teaching and in the following video clip.
Many people think there must be some other way to develop bodhichitta. There must be some other way, not lamrim. There must be something special. Not lamrim, not lamrim! Something fantastic! Some other way.
I say “renunciation.” My answer is “renunciation.” The more strongly you see your own suffering in samsara, then when you think of others, you have stronger compassion. You feel others’ suffering in samsara. Then also you have loving kindness for others. You want others to have happiness. And then you have stronger compassion for others to be free from samsara.
For one to do that by oneself—to free all sentient beings from samsara and bring to buddhahood—one has to achieve enlightenment. To do that by oneself alone, then one has to achieve enlightenment. So how strong one’s bodhichitta is depends on the foundation—strong renunciation, strong compassion. When they are strong, then there is strong bodhichitta.
In this southern continent there are all kinds of happiness, but there are all kinds of suffering. There is so much suffering that you can see, you can hear, so much in the world.
The other worlds are not like that. Like the northern continent where everybody lives for one thousand years, nobody is poor, everybody is unbelievably wealthy. Everybody lives for one thousand years. So like that it is very difficult to get renunciation of samsara, so difficult to achieve compassion and bodhichitta.
Here in this world it is much easier. You can see so much suffering. You can feel your own suffering of samsara more strongly. Then it is so easy to develop compassion and so easy to develop bodhichitta.
It is said in Tibetan that due to karma, strong karma, it is easy to generate strong bodhichitta. So we are incredibly fortunate to be born in this time in the southern continent. We are so fortunate because of that. That makes it easy to achieve enlightenment.
Watch Rinpoche teach on “The Best Way to Develop Bodhichitta”:
https://youtu.be/ofZX77L7vnY
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, April 10, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, March 2019.
Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
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.