Lama Zopa Rinpoche showing a stuffed toy upon which he had Dharma messages written, Kopan Monastery, 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 referring to his earlier teachings on the importance of receiving blessings from the guru, which he discussed in the previous two video teachings.

Rinpoche then initiates a discussion of karma, listing the four results of negative karma, which describe the ways karma will ripen in this life or in future lives:

1. The ripened-aspect result is the karmic result that happens even if you are ignorant of the karma you created.
2. The possessed result is the result that happens in the environment around you based on your past actions. For example as a result of killing, you are born into a land where there are wars, fighting, disease, and so forth.
3. Experiencing the result similar to the cause is when you experience what you have done to others in the past. For example, if you killed someone, in the future you will be killed by someone.
4. Creating the result similar to the cause is when you continue to do something or have a habit to do something because of past actions. For example if you killed in the past, you will continue to kill in the present and future. This happens until the negative karma is confessed and purified. 

It is very easy to create the negative karma of killing, particularly with tiny insects. For example, it is important to check the sink for insects before you turn water on. You also need to have this awareness when you want to slap at your body because of an insect crawling on your skin. In general it is important to have an awareness of small creatures so you don’t harm them. Because it is so easy to create this kind of negative karma, we must apply the remedy with the four opponent powers and purification practices such as Vajrasattva practice, prostrations to the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas, and so forth. Without doing this, negative karma will have to be experienced in many lifetimes.

The guru manifests in whatever way is necessary to subdue sentient beings. In fact, wherever you are, there are numberless buddhas there in various forms. You never think that the animals you see could be buddhas manifesting to benefit you. In fact, buddhas manifest in all kinds of aspects to guide you, but they do mainly manifest as the guru which, is actually, numberless buddhas.

When the guru is praising you, all the buddhas are praising you; when the guru scolds you, all the buddhas are scolding you. When you see actions of your guru as mistakes such as attachment, ignorance, immoral behavior, and so forth, you have to remember that a buddha never makes mistakes. Rather, the guru is showing you the aspect of mistakes because your mind is so obscured and defiled that the only way for the guru to guide you is in an ordinary aspect. If the guru didn’t show themselves in ordinary aspect, you wouldn’t be able to receive vows, teachings, and so forth. In this way, the guru showing an ordinary aspect is kinder than all the buddhas and is like the limitless sky.

Rinpoche then talks about the benefit of prostration, which is the remedy to pride and a very good method to humble yourself and show respect. Further, you should respect sentient beings in the same way that you respect buddhas, if not for their sake, then for the sake of yourself. When you harm others you experience the result of torment in the lower realms, which could last for eons! This is not just from harming human beings, but also when, for own pleasure, you kill and eat animals. When you use others for your own happiness, you will experience the result such as being used by others in the future. However, if you cherish others with a bodhichitta motivation and think of only their happiness, you create the cause for happiness and you become a leader in this life or the next life for your country or the world; you lead others in Dharma, you lead them to happiness, to enlightenment.

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 “With Awareness of the Kindness of the Guru, You Generate Respect”:
https://youtu.be/NX3sc-ImndU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find more teachings on karma on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
• 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.