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Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Sangha and newly ordained Sangha, Nalanda Monastery, France, June 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche often highlights the importance of ordained Sangha along with the importance of Sangha in the West. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche teaching on this topic at Maitreya Instituut in The Netherlands in 2015:
From the side of the monk and the nun in the West, it is an unbelievable practice to dedicate onself to living in one’s ordination vows; it is great, great, great. It takes great courage, it is a great challenge, but it is so worthwhile.
Being Sangha in the West, being an ordained person in the West, is a billion times better than being in the Olympics. I must say it loudly! I must announce it loudly! It’s a billion, zillion, trillion times better than the Olympics or the World Cup. The world thinks that those things are so important, but it’s like a one-year-old baby playing, you understand? When I was a child in Solu Khumbu, where there is water and sand to play with, I would build something and say, “That is my house.” And some other children would destroy it, then I would cry, “Oh, my house!” Looking at the reality of life from the Dharma point of view, the Olympics and the World Cup are like child’s play.
In the West, when you win at the Olympics or World Cup you become famous in the world, you become like a god to young people; after you win at soccer the young people take you to be like a god.
Being ordained in the West, a monk and nun who is practicing—not ordained for political reasons or changing just the outside, or to get money, for example—really practicing Dharma, keeping the vows, whether it is for your own ultimate happiness, liberation, or for others who are numberless, is a billion, zillion, trillion times more important challenge than the Olympics or World Cup.
In reality it is like this, you understand?
The laypeople—and the Sangha themselves—must know that the Sangha practicing in the West are great champions. They are like an army going towards the enemy, who are carrying swords, carrying all the weapons to destroy them. They run towards the enemy to overcome them—the oceans of samsaric sufferings of the hells, the oceans of suffering of human beings, the oceans of suffering of the suras, the preta beings, asuras, animals.
Even living in vows just for yourself, for your own happiness, ultimate happiness—without even talking about enlightenment for sentient beings—you must realize you are a champion, a champion, you should realize that. You are a billion, zillion, trillion, numberless times more of a champioin than those who win the Olympics or World Cup; you must know that, feel that.
It is very, very important for the ordained Sangha to be strong in their Dharma practice; your mind practicing Dharma has to be strong—especially when lay people don’t appreciate it. That is how to enjoy life as Sangha.
It’s the same for lay people who are doing retreat and practicing Dharma, but especially for the Sangha. They are living in ordination in order to defeat delusions, you understand? To defeat delusions, the cause of samsara, to overcome them. It’s a huge difference, wow, wow, wow. You understand? You have to see the difference. The Sangha lead a very simple life, in a dedicated way, very renounced, in order to overcome delusion; what he or she practices is this.
We have been suffering from beginningless rebirths, beginningless rebirths, you understand? Suffering in the oceans of hell realms, human beings, six realms without beginning, can you imagine? The ordained Sangha, their practice is to overcome the causes of samsara, delusions and karma, you understand? You have to know that.
If people—the Sangha and lay people—just think that Sangha are simply changing from lay dress to Sangha dress, cutting the hair and changing the robe, then life has no meaning. You have to know why you become Sangha, you have to remember that. That is why I said the Olympics is nothing; all the things that worldly people think are so huge are nothing; they’re just child’s play. By following those you’re just being a servant to delusion, a total slave to delusion.
You have to understand that having met the Dharma and practicing Dharma—for lay people but especially Sangha—is a big, huge decision in life. Wow, wow, wow! It is not just a simple thing.
Colophon: Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on respect for Sangha in the West, at Maitreya Instituut, The Netherlands, July 15–16, 2015. Edited by Ven. Robina Courtin, August 19, 2020. Lightly edited for publication on FPMT.org
Watch 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/
Learn more about the nuns and monks of FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/centers/sangha/
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.