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Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la offering Tara Puja at Tara Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
With the new year approaching, many of us are reflecting on the past year— rejoicing in the blessings we received, and also assessing mistakes we have made. Fortunately, we have methods at our disposal to help us purify negative karma we have created. We can utilize these practices daily, and also as a way to enter the new year with a renewed sense of resolve to be the best versions of ourselves, so we can be of most benefit to others.
During the ongoing video Thought Transformation Teachings that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been offering from Kopan Monastery in Nepal, Rinpoche has, on several occasions, talked about purification practice. In “The Time to Practice is Now,” a detailed, overarching summary of the 2020 teachings published in Mandala, Rinpoche discusses the many benefits of having a perfect human rebirth, including how it grants us the opportunity to purify negative karma. Here’s an excerpt from this summary:
Rinpoche explains that having this one-time opportunity makes us unbelievably fortunate—a perfect human rebirth is more precious than the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels. This is because even skies of wish-granting jewels don’t have the power to purify our negative karma and save us from the lower realms, nor can they give us liberation from samsara and enlightenment, but having a perfect human rebirth can do this.
We have been creating negative karma from beginningless rebirths, which is why it is so important to do purification practices in this life—before our negative karma ripens. Once it ripens, there’s nothing we can do; we must experience the result. Therefore, we need to do a purification practice every day. There are many practices we can do for purification, including Vajrasattva practice, prostrations to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas, and others. Although these formal purification practices are extremely effective in purifying our negative karma, Rinpoche explains that the most powerful thing we can do to purify our negative karma is to follow our guru’s advice and please our guru. But if we don’t realize how valuable and important these practices are and that having a perfect human rebirth gives us the perfect opportunity to do them, we might think it is better to spend our time at the beach swimming in the water like a fish!
Watch Rinpoche discuss the importance of purification practices in “Purify Now Because You Can Die Anytime”:
Watch the ongoing video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation on FPMT.org and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read our summary article on Rinpoche’s 2020 teachings “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
You can find resources to support your purification practice on the Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
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.