Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kathmandu, 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:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his explanation of Buddhist refuge.* This teaching begins with Rinpoche explaining that taking refuge is not something simple. It’s not something that you simply hear and chant. One has to understand the four noble truths extensively and also understand the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which can take one’s whole life to do this. This is why monks study their whole lives in monasteries.

Rinpoche reminds us of the proper motivation for listening to the teachings. It is not enough to achieve liberation from samsara and then achieve nirvana and everlasting happiness for oneself alone. Instead think, “I must achieve the state of omniscience, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations. I must achieve this to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone! Therefore, I am going to listen to the teachings.”

Rinpoche shares a verse from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymn of Experience:

If you don’t attempt to think of the shortcomings of true sufferings,
Seeking liberation won’t arise exactly.
If you don’t reflect on the causes, the evolution of samsara,
You won’t know how to cut the root of samsara.
Therefore, rely on an upset mind renouncing samsara
And cherish the understanding of what ties you to samsara.

Rinpoche explains that an “upset mind renouncing samsara” is so worthwhile even though to worldly people who don’t understand Dharma, it looks totally crazy and meaningless. The “upset mind” understands how karma and delusion lead to all suffering, and how one is trapped in the endless cycle of samsara. Due to being upset by this understanding of the suffering of samsara, one is motivated to go into isolation to actualize renunciation, bodhichitta, emptiness, the whole path to enlightenment—this makes that “upsetness” so worthwhile. “Skies of worthwhile upsetness,” Rinpoche says.

It is like poison to think that living in isolation and practicing Dharma is crazy and meaningless. The person who thinks this way does not achieve freedom from samsara along with nirvana and everlasting happiness. But the person who is practicing Dharma, who left worldly life with renunciation to actualize the path in isolation—wow! Worldly people don’t like suffering, but they don’t understand suffering. Westerners can be so shocked when someone lives in a cave. But there is no benefit to being upset with someone who has renounced the worldly life and is practicing Dharma. In fact, it is poison. Even though there are good-hearted people in the West, Rinpoche explains that many of the concepts and actions of body, speech, and mind in the West are totally opposite of Buddhadharma, the teachings of the Buddha.

It is extremely important to understand what ties you to samsara. You are suffering and you don’t like suffering, but you don’t know why you are suffering. Nothing and nobody tied you to samsara from the outside—in fact, you tied yourself to samsara with your hallucinated mind. You must understand this. It is up to you to cut this rope.

Rinpoche shares verses from Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen’s Melodious Song Bringing Joy to Lozang [Dragpa]: Responses to “Queries from a Sincere Heart,” which is a response to a text by Lama Tsongkhapa:

The way of reflecting on the hundreds of shortcomings of samsara:
Although there are many, through being frightened by the suffering of pain
Even animals wish to be free from it.

Even non-Buddhists renounce
Contaminated pleasant feeling.

Even animals renounce the suffering of pain, Rinpoche says. If you wield a stick toward a dog, it runs away. When they are hungry they run to look for food. They have the thought to be free from pain and the suffering of hunger and thirst. Likewise, even non-Buddhists renounce the suffering of change.

Rinpoche continues quoting Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen:

Therefore, these contaminated aggregates taken [by delusion and karma],
Which are the nature of being compounded,
Are the container of suffering that will be actualized and [already] actualized suffering,
Such as diseases, pustules, and sharp pains.
If you meditate through thinking about this, it will help you become free.

Rinpoche explains how in Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo there are eight types of suffering, unlike how there are six types of suffering in Phabongkha Rinpoche‘s lamrim text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Rinpoche then goes over Tsongkhapa’s five points on the eighth type of suffering, which is the suffering of “the five aggregates taken [by karma and delusion]”:

Thinking about the meaning of what Buddha said, “In brief, the five aggregates taken [by karma and delusions] are suffering,” has five points:

1. 1. They are a vessel for suffering that will be actualized.
   2. They are a vessel for suffering that is the base on which [suffering has already] been actualized.
   3. They are a vessel for the suffering of pain.
   4. They are a vessel for the suffering of change.
   5. They are the nature of compounding suffering.

So the aggregates, due to karma and delusion, contain already actualized suffering as well as this life’s future suffering and the suffering of future lives. Lama Tsongkhapa’s way of explaining the eighth human beings’ sufferings is that it is like an ocean,” Rinpoche says. Phabongkha Rinpoche didn’t explain the aggregates as a container of the different types of suffering, but this is how Lama Tsongkhapa explained it.

From the formless realm down to Avichi Hell, the aggregates are pervaded by suffering, under the control of delusion and karma. To be free from suffering, you have to become free from the seeds of delusion and karma. Pervasive compounding suffering is the main suffering renounced by Buddhists, Rinpoche explains.

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 “You Tie Yourself to Samsara”

*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.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• 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.