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Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, AUS, April 3, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
FPMT.org’s Rinpoche Available Now page is an incredibly rich resource for those wishing to explore full teaching events offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche over the years.
In 2018 Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent six weeks leading the Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, offering more than sixty teachings. This was the third time Rinpoche offered this retreat series at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion.
In early April 2011, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began teaching this retreat series, co-hosted by the Great Stupa, Atisha Centre, and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, and attended by nearly 200 students, Rinpoche taught for about ten days before manifesting the symptoms of a stroke.
The first teachings in this series from 2011 are also available on the Rinpoche Available Now page. Rinpoche continued his retreat series at the Great Stupa in September-October 2014 (also available on the Rinpoche Available Now page) and in April-May 2018 (referenced here), and was scheduled to lead the March-April 2020 retreat, which was postponed due to the pandemic.
Video recordings of these teachings from 2018 are available, as well as additional teachings from this time at Chag-tong Chen-Tong Centre and Chenrezig Institute on our Rinpoche Available Now page. In addition to video recordings, unedited transcripts and audio files from these teachings are also made available for each teaching event.
Today we are sharing the video teaching, “Only Solution to Problems is to Practice Dharma and Subdue the Mind,” given on April 2, 2018 at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion.
In this teaching Rinpoche stresses that we have experienced problems since beginningless rebirths and if we don’t practice Dharma in this life and actualize the path, these problems will just continue. Most of us only practice Dharma after everything else, and Dharma gets left out when we don’t have time. However, practicing Dharma is the most important thing, otherwise problems never finish. Thus, the only solution is to practice Dharma. To take care of oneself means not only taking care of the body, but subduing the mind. In fact, the best way to take care of the body is to take care of the mind. Practicing Dharma is to take care of oneself, but additionally to take care of the numberless sentient beings who are just like yourself, with bodhichitta. This is the most important.
Watch “Only Solution to Problems is to Practice Dharma and Subdue the Mind”:
2011 Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat in Australia can be viewed here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-bendigo-australia-2011/
2014 can be viewed here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-australia/
2018 can be viewed here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-bendigo-2018/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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.