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Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ladakhi Lama, the attendant of the previous great Khunu Lama Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Buddha’s teaching on the four noble truths are essential to our understanding and practice of Buddhism. Lama Zopa Rinpoche provides clear instruction on this fundamental teaching in his new book The Four Noble Truths: A Guide to Everyday Life, just published by Wisdom Publications.
Here we share a short extract from a longer excerpt published on Wisdom’s blog. In the excerpt, Rinpoche discusses actualizing bodhichitta and offers examples of twentieth century Tibetan masters, including the following.
… The late Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche, a learned and pure practitioner of bodhichitta, was tutored by the great Buddhist masters in Tibet on philosophy and other types of knowledge. During the early days of Tibetans arriving in India after the Chinese takeover of their country, Khunu Lama Rinpoche lived like a yogi, dwelling with the Hindu sadhus in Varanasi along the Ganges River. One day, clothed like a sadhu—wrapped up in plain cloth and looking unwashed—Rinpoche went to a local Tibetan monastery to ask for a small room. The monks there did not recognize Rinpoche and said no room was available. Rinpoche slept outside on the bare ground, the way the beggars did.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was visiting that place at the time and knew what was happening, so he went directly to where Khunu Lama Rinpoche was and requested teachings and commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara. Word quickly spread that a great bodhisattva was living there, and soon long lines of people gathered seeking advice from Rinpoche.
Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche was able to recite by heart passages from any root text of the Buddha’s teachings and any of the commentaries. His mind was so robust and totally clear it was most amazing. His holy mind was like the entire Buddhist library.
I once went alone to Rinpoche to request a commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara. Rinpoche declined on that occasion but gave me the complete oral transmission of that text. Rinpoche then told me to translate the Bodhicaryavatara, even though he knew others had already translated it. “You translate,” Rinpoche said to me, advising me that before translating one must know the language and the subject well. I have not yet done the translation, but hope to do so sometime in the future.
I once attended teachings by Rinpoche that went on for a whole day with no break. Rinpoche then approached the wisdom chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara, an unbelievably precious teaching for one who seeks freedom from samsara. However, the minute Rinpoche started teachings on that chapter, I fell asleep. Until that moment I was wide awake. But when Rinpoche began the commentary, sleep overcame me. Some unbelievably bad and heavy negative karma from my past life must have caused that. Imagine—at the wisdom teaching that will bring liberation, I fell asleep!
After the teaching, Rinpoche gave some kambu, which are apricots in a bottle, that I think were from Ladakh. As he gave me the apricots, he said, “Subdue their minds.” I think that that was the last advice I received from Rinpoche. “You have the responsibility to subdue their minds.”
I have not yet subdued my own mind, so I do not know how to subdue the minds of others. But I try to offer advice when I am asked to give teachings. …
Read the entire excerpt from The Four Noble Truths by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Yeo Puay Huei, on Wisdom Publications blog:
https://wisdomexperience.org/blog/201806/exchanging-self-others
The Four Noble Truths is available for purchase from the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Four-Noble-Truths-_p_3107.html
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.