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Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving “Your Main Practice in Life Should Be Cherishing Others” teaching on June 13, 2022 from Kopan Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of a teaching he offered to students from China and Malaysia via Zoom on June 13:
All of the 84,000 teachings of Buddha are included in the advice to not harm sentient beings and to benefit them, Rinpoche explains. If we harm sentient beings, we can’t benefit them. All of the suffering we experience ourselves, as well as the suffering we cause others to experience, is caused by our self-cherishing thought. Our worst enemy is our self-cherishing thought. From Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara (v. 8.120):
If you want to quickly guide
Yourself and others,
Secretly practice
Exchanging yourself and others.
The conclusion, Rinpoche explains, is that the solution to our problems is bodhichitta. Our main practice in life should be bodhichitta, cherishing others. Without giving up the I, we cannot abandon suffering. The less self-cherishing and the more we cultivate the good heart, the less problems we have.
Rinpoche discusses the kindness of mother sentient beings, and also the kindness of those who are not your mother starting at (1:07:28) in the video, and on page 17 of the transcript.
In preparation for offering the refuge ceremony, Rinpoche discusses four of the five lay vows which one can take in addition to refuge. One can take refuge alone or any/all of the following vows in addition: the vow to abandon killing (1:16:57), the vow to abandon sexual misconduct (1:19:43), the vow to abandon stealing (1:20:27), the vow to abandon lying (Rinpoche did not discuss this vow in this teaching), the vow to abandon alcohol (1:21:37).
Rinpoche offers the refuge ceremony at (1:24:48).
Rinpoche offered an eleven-part series of teachings on refuge in the thought transformation series starting at video 116 on September 26, 2021, and ending with video 126 on June 13, 2022.
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 “Your Main Practice in Life Should Be Cherishing Others”:
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into various languages.
- The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
- Dedication verses
Summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell with editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video and/or reading the full transcript.
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/
You can listen to this teaching on our full-length-teachings podcast as well:
https://fpmt.org/media/podcasts/
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.