Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, August 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Since the early days of the COVID pandemic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been offering teachings on thought transformation (lojong). In these teachings, Rinpoche has been urging us to use these difficult times, and any obstacles in life, on the path to enlightenment.

Recently, Rinpoche offered some advice to a geshe in Singapore who contracted COVID. Rinpoche shared this advice during his September 3, 2022 thought transformation teaching from Amitabha Buddhist Centre and requested that copies of this advice be made available so that those who receive it will, “enjoy the most and be most happy.” We will share a summary and video of this entire teaching in tomorrow’s blog. 

While this advice was given to an advanced practitioner, in it we will all find inspiration for turning problems into opportunities to practice and rejoice.

My dear One,

So I heard this morning that you got COVID. You should think, “Woooow! I found a wish-granting jewel.” Diamonds and gold, are nothing, even skies of gold and diamonds, are not as precious. You getting COVID is more precious than skies of wish-granting jewels which don’t stop rebirth in the  lower realms, don’t stop rebirth in samsara, cannot  free you from samsara, cannot  free you from lower nirvana, cannot bring you to enlightenment. So it is nothing.

But COVID destroys the self-cherishing thought making it possible to generate bodhicitta, then become free from samsara, free from the lower realms, and that is main cause to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings then liberate the numberless sentient beings from lower realms, from samsara, from lower nirvana. You bring all the sentient beings to enlightenment. It is unbelievable what COVID does for you, unbelievable benefit. You You should feel unbelievable,  great happiness to have COVID.

Why? Because you can experience all sentient beings’ COVID now. You can experience and dedicate it. You can experience all the sentient beings’—numberless human beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras in different universes—you can experience all the numberless sentient beings’ COVID. You can experience and dedicate all the sentient beings’ COVID, all the suffering and causes, the negative karma and defilements, then let the sentient beings achieve enlightenment.

Choje Gotsangpa, a great Kagyu lama, advised:

“By me experiencing this, may sentient beings be free from all the sufferings, all the sicknesses, all causes, negative karma, due to that may sentient beings​​ become enlightened.”

You can recite this as mantra like OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ. You can recite this prayer, so incredibly precious. Because of this, then you can take all the sentient beings’ COVID, so, so precious. All the sufferings came from self-cherishing thought, given to you by self-cherishing thought. Self-cherishing thought caused you to suffer from beginningless rebirths.

Not only in the past, not only in the present, the self-cherishing thought continuously harms you in the future as long as you follow it. Not just harm for yourself, the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras–you have been harming numberless sentient beings, with the self-cherishing thought! They have had to suffer from beginningless rebirths up to now. So much suffering. Then again in the future, due to the self-cherishing thought. So therefore, the self-cherishing thought is the main enemy, the main worst enemy in the world, in the life, not only for you, it is most harmful to numberless sentient beings, already harmed from beginningless rebirths now and in the future. So now this is the worst enemy.

So COVID is so important. It is given to you by the self-cherishing thought, now you give back. You experience all the sentient beings’ COVID, you give it back to the self-cherishing thought and the self-cherishing thought is eliminated. Every time, every time the self-cherishing thought is destroyed, eliminated, then with that then your root of your samsara, oceans of sufferings, ignorance, holding the I as real, I that appeared real and truly existing, then mind holding onto that, looking at that as real and true. The aggregates appear real from there, then holding that as true. That is ignorance. So all that is eliminated. Eliminated because the I, real I appearing there, is not there at all. What appeared from there is not there at all, so you see, totally empty. So stay there a little while, then you do giving. Ok, but mostly you spend time taking. That is great, great.

Then it makes you to do tonglen. Each time you take sentient beings’ suffering, each time you give away your body, possessions, and merits to numberless sentient beings, then you become closer to enlightenment, you collect more than skies of merits each time and you become closer and closer to enlightenment.

You are so lucky, so fortunate to get COVID, you should think that way, so rejoice. It is so good. “Oh, I got COVID!” Rejoice. Even if you die, by experiencing COVID for sentient beings, experiencing COVID with bodhicitta, then you don’t go to lower realms.

Actually bodhisattvas prefer to be reborn in the lower realms, in the hell, for the sake of even one sentient being, to liberate them from samsara, from the lower realms; they pray to be born in hell for even one sentient being, to liberate them from there. That is their great wish, stronger than even the arhats, who like the blissful state of peace for oneself. You understand?

So you see by experiencing for sentient beings, that is the power of a good heart. Then you never get reborn in the lower realms. Like the Kadampa geshe, Chekawa, always prayed to be born in the lower realms, but the day he was going to die, the appearance of pure land happened right away, around him, so he told his attendant he didn’t succeed, so now make offerings. So understand, you are so lucky, you should rejoice.

Thank you very much. I’m giving an example but like that you should do similar with all the obstacles. Like that. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, September 2, 2022. Lightly edited by Ven. Holly Ansett and further edited for publication by Carina Rumrill.

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.

Explore Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching series 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/