Domestic turkeys, Vardane-Verino, Adlersky District, Sochi, Russian, October 2016. Photo by SKas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The American holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated each year in late November. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extensive advice in 2018 on how to help the tens of millions of turkeys being killed for the holiday, and also how to think about this tradition of killing and eating turkeys. Here is an excerpt and short summary from this advice, called “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”:

“On Thanksgiving eve, 2018, the Sangha in Switzerland and I did extensive prayers for those who rely on me, those for whom I promised to pray, those whose names were given to me, and, in particular, all the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving. We also did Vajrasattva purification, the King of Prayers, and the Amitabha Buddha Prayer to be Reborn in the Land of Bliss. All these practices were dedicated for all beings, but especially for all the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving,” Rinpoche says.

“If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again. … If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.”

To purify past negative karma, Rinpoche gives detailed advice on doing Vajrasattva practice with the four opponent powers. Rinpoche recommends for those who can to take the eight Mahayana precepts. He also recommends reciting prayers from the Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead, doing a nyung na retreat, reciting the four immeasurable and tonglen, reciting the Golden Light Sutra and Vajra Cutter Sutra, doing Chenrezig practice and Medicine Buddha puja, and the recitation of several specific mantras. Rinpoche also explains how to dedicate your practice in order to purify the already created negative karma to be reborn as a turkey and to not create such karma in the future.

“These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten,” Rinpoche explains.

For links to practice materials and detailed instructions, see “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/turkeys-at-thanksgiving/

Further Commentary and Advice for Thanksgiving

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

I don’t think the general population of America accepts clairvoyance, but if it did, people would understand where all the sufferings, such as depression, come from. The way people normally think—for example, what causes depression—is very limited. They only think about things that are to do with this life. If they had clairvoyance they could see much deeper; they could see things such as past and future lives. People normally think of only this life, not past and future lives.

In the past, many of the turkeys that Americans are eating were Americans who in the past had killed turkeys. Often it could even be a past family member that they are now eating.

There’s a sutra story about Buddha’s disciple Shariputra, who excelled in wisdom. Once when he was on his alms round he looked into a family’s house and saw that the father, who used to catch fish in his backyard pond, had died and been reborn as a fish in that pond. The mother, his wife, who had been very attached to the home, had also died and been reborn as the family dog. And the son’s enemy, who had been very attached to the son’s wife, had died and been reborn as their child. The son was holding the child, his former enemy, eating the fish, his late father, and beating the dog, his late mother, while it chewed on fish bones. Shariputra then observed, “The son is eating his father’s flesh, beating his mother with a stick, and cuddling his enemy on his lap—samsaric existence makes me laugh.”

If we have animals we have to remember this story and take care of them well. It is very important to understand the benefits of taking care of our pets and other animals by giving them food and drink. Think that you are making charity and don’t just do it out of attachment, thinking that you love the shape of the animals or something, doing everything simply for your own happiness. It’s the same with looking after your children. You create a child with attachment, for your own happiness, thinking how your life would be unbelievably happy if you had a child. Then you take care of the child, but it is for your own happiness.

It is also important to recognize and remember your animals’ most unbelievable kindness, how they have been kind to you in three ways, and then with that awareness give them food and drink. First recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and then blow over the food and drink to bless it. If you have mani pills, it’s good to crush them and put them into the food and drink, or even add blessed water. You don’t have to get blessed water from a lama; you can make it yourself. Whether or not you have daily commitments, recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and other mantras, such as OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ, the Mitrugpa mantra and so forth, and then blow on the water. You can recite however many repetitions of each mantra you want, like seven, ten, fifteen, or more, blow on the animal’s food or water and make prayers as well. Similarly, you can keep a bottle of water nearby and when you’ve done your commitments you can blow on the water and then use that to put on the food and water that you give to the animals.

Then make this dedication prayer:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Finally, please remember the unbelievable benefits of making charity of food to the animals. As the Buddha said, “Anybody who makes charity well during the period my teachings exist will receive great enjoyments for 80,000 eons, even if the material that person offers is merely the size of a hair. That person will be free from pain and disease, will enjoy great happiness, will be enriched with all manner of desirable things, and will eventually achieve the result: peerless cessation and complete enlightenment.”

This advice has been extracted from the page “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving,” which shares a teaching and advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Switzerland in 2018. Scribed by Holly Ansett. Edited by Nicholas Ribush, November 2020.

For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras. You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la doing puja on Lhabab Duchen at Swayambunath, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In the following short video from the 2019 Vajaryogini retreat at Institute Vajra Yogini, Lama Zopa Rinpoche guides us through the reasoning why we should be very grateful to those who hate or abuse us:

When you understand that the person who you call “enemy” is an obscured, suffering sentient being, then you can generate compassion based on that understanding, Rinpoche explains. Generating compassion is the basis for all the buddhas and all our good karma and happiness, Rinpoche says, describing the process for this step by step.

“Present and future [happiness], up to and including enlightenment, everything came from your good karma, that which is the buddhas’ holy actions. So your past, present, and future, all three-time happiness, you receive from the buddhas,” Rinpoche explains. “So a buddha came from a bodhisattva, a bodhisattva came from bodhichitta, bodhichitta came from great compassion, great compassion is generated by depending on, by the kindness of, the person whom you call ‘enemy,’ who abuses you, who doesn’t love you, who is angry with you.”

The person you think of as “enemy” is also the object of your practice of patience. Instead of anger towards that person, you can develop your patience and complete the paramita of patience. “If you cherish that person, you achieve enlightenment from that person. That person gives you enlightenment,” Rinpoche says.

Rinpoche also emphasizes how important it is to have compassion for all beings. He then explains that to have an actual Dharma practice, one that isn’t just words, you must cherish those that you don’t like or who hurt you.

“If you don’t cherish that person whom you call enemy, there is no enlightenment at all. It is sooooo important to cherish that [person]. If you are able to cherish them, then there is enlightenment,” Rinpoche explains. “Those things are the most important practice in our daily life!”

Watch the video “It Is Only Due to the Kindness of Your Enemy That You Can Reach Enlightenment”:

Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

The above video is extracted from a teaching given on May 16, 2019, during the Vajrayogini retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.

Watch videos from the series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read an in-depth summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”

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.

Rinpoche giving teachings at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Since our last update, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has remained in Nepal and has been offering two ongoing teaching events. Rinpoche also celebrated Lhabab Duchen, gave advice via video at the fortieth anniversaries of two FPMT centers, and engaged in many other beneficial activities. We invite you to enjoy some of the details of Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others! 

Rinpoche Offers Teachings

Rinpoche continued his video thought transformation teachings during this time, offering teachings for ordained Sangha and also extensive teachings on Buddhist refuge. In Rinpoche’s refuge teachings he warns that we must be careful about the objects in which we take refuge. For example, people take refuge in animals, nature, or spirits, but none of these have the qualities of the Buddha or can offer us ultimate refuge—freedom from samsara. Rinpoche also discussed depression, explaining that to understand the mental states of others we first have to understand our own craziness. Then, when we think of others, we will be able to more easily develop compassion. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Rinpoche has been offering regular teachings at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, also known as the Kopan Nunnery, for the past three weeks. These teachings are being translated into Nepali from Tibetan, providing a rare opportunity for Nepali people to have access to Rinpoche’s teachings in their own language. These teachings are available on the FPMT Tibetan YouTube channel. Half in attendance at the teachings are nuns and half are people from outside the nunnery. Topics taught include what is and is not holy Dharma, the eight worldly dharmas, the preciousness of this human rebirth, karma, proper motivation, the importance of a good heart, and the kindness of the enemy. Rinpoche offered a White Tara jenang and the oral transmission of the Vajra Cutter Sutra. The teaching series will end with a Medicine Buddha initiation.

A recent podcast episode.

“Of all practices, the practice of kindness is best,” Rinpoche emphasized during these teachings. “Of all forms of education, the best education is how to be a kind person. Parents should teach their children to have a kind heart from a young age. That will help them the most when they grow up. It will help their friends, their neighborhood, their town, their country, the world.” 

A new podcast series featuring full-length teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche was recently launched. Each episode corresponds to a new video in the ongoing series of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings. Episodes are released shortly after the latest video teaching and blog are published, so listeners have access to the transcript and other materials associated with a specific teaching. For the podcast episodes, pauses have been shortened and background noise reduced, but otherwise the teachings are unedited. Currently we have podcast episodes for Rinpoche’s video teachings from July 2021 onward (videos 102–123).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche walking to offer puja on the land in Maratika where the giant Padmasambhava statue will be built, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche Travels to Maratika

In September 2021, Rinpoche returned to Maratika along with Kopan lama gyupas monks and nuns to bless the land where a 45-foot (14-meter) tall statue of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) on a 15-foot (4.5-meter) tall throne will be built. The statue will be in the aspect of Padma Gyalpo, Padmasambhava’s magnetizing form, and will be made of bronze and plated with gold. It is expected to take around five years to complete. During this visit, Rinpoche spent time meeting with some local people, including the mayor of Maratika. He offered teachings to two hotel owners. He also blessed the goats in Maratika liberated for his long life, gave two online Zoom teachings, and visited the main cave, which was opened only for Rinpoche, to make special prayers at the long life vase.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering puja in front of Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal, October 15, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche Circumambulates and Makes Offerings to Stupas

While Rinpoche is in Nepal, he frequently goes to visit the great stupas of Boudhanath and Swayambhunath to circumambulate and make offerings and prayers. Sometimes Rinpoche goes in the evenings, sometimes after teachings, sometimes on the way back from trips in Kathmandu or other places. 

When Rinpoche goes to Boudha Stupa he usually does korwa while reciting the mantras that increase the power of making circumambulation. Students in attendance join in as Rinpoche recites out loud In Praise of Dependent Origination by Lama Tsongkhapa, followed by several repetitions of the Confession of Downfalls to the Thirty-five Buddhas and Vajrasattva mantra to purify. At the end of the circumambulations, Rinpoche leads a group offering of five-colored khatas to the stupa and dedication prayers. During the circumabulations, Rinpoche also likes to offer incense and rice visualized as wish-granting jewels, bless the dogs, and turn the prayer wheels. 

Lama Zopa Rinpocha and Khadro-la offering five-colored khata at Swayambhunath Stupa on Lhabab Duchen. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

When Rinpoche goes to Swayambhunath, he circumambulates around the base of the hill. As Rinpoche circumambulates, he recites prayers, offers rice visualized as wish-granting jewels, and rejoices for all those who helped construct the many prayer wheels and stupas that encircle the hill. Rinpoche stops at a special Padmasambhava statue to chant prayers and pray for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet. Rinpoche also stops at the local cremation grounds to recite prayers for those who have recently died and whose corpses are being burned.

On Lhabab Duchen Rinpoche offered pujas, prayers, and five-colored khatas with Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme) at Swayambunath. You can read more about the activities sponsored during this merit-multiplying Buddha day. 

Winter Debates at Kopan

Monks have held the Jang Guncho, the winter debate festival, for centuries. The first Nuns’ Jang Guncho took place in Dharamsala, India, in 1995. Jang Guncho is an opportunity for ordained Sangha to gather together to train in and practice debate. Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the winter debates of both Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling early this October.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attending the winter debate of the nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, Nepal, October 11, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attending the winter debate of the monks of Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 8, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche Offers Encouragement and Advice during the Fortieth Anniversary Celebrations of Two FPMT Centers

Nalanda Monastery, the FPMT monastery in the south of France, has been celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year. In October, Rinpoche offered the Nalanda community an encouraging and joyful talk from Kopan Monastery, urging everyone to meditate strongly on impermanence and death in order to change worldly dharma into holy Dharma. Rinpoche also praised those who are Sangha in the West, explaining that they are the “real heroes” due to the “incredible renunciation” of becoming ordained. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a talk to the Nalanda Monastery community, France, October 18, 2021. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery’s Facebook page.

Buddha House, an FPMT center located in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, also celebrated its fortieth anniversary this year. In October, Rinpoche offered a teaching via video on the importance of FPMT centers and on emptiness. “You can see how it is most important for the center to exist!” Rinpoche said. “[Centers share] Lama Tsongkhapa teachings, Buddha’s teachings. [Centers create] an opportunity for sentient beings to study, to learn with no mistakes! Thank you very much!” We look forward to sharing video of this teaching with you and a summary of the main points Rinpoche expressed. (Extensive advice from Rinpoche is always available on the benefits of offering service as well as on the benefits of centers and the FPMT Organization. See Rinpoche’s Advice page.)

Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue and Twenty-one Tara statues at Amitabha Buddha Centre with image of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a talk via video, Singapore. Photo courtesy of ABC.

Twenty-one Tara Statues Consecration at Amitabha Buddhist Centre

In 1995, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC) in Singapore to buy land and build on it a dedicated temple that has as its central image Thousand-arm Chenrezig surrounded by the Twenty-one Taras. The land was bought in 1998. Construction began in 2003. And in 2007, the center opened its doors. The Thousand-arm Chenrezig statue was completed in 2016. And this year, the Twenty-one Tara statues were completed and consecrated on October 27. 

ABC organized a celebratory event for the consecration, which was broadcast live over several online platforms with translations offered in seven languages. Lama Zopa Rinpoche did the consecration of the statues via Zoom from Kopan Monastery. He also gave a teaching and made strong prayers for the statues to be of great benefit to sentient beings. Nine hundred people joined via Zoom with a thousand others joining on Facebook Live. Center Director Tan Hup Cheng offered an opening speech for the event. There was a short video of how the statues were made in Nepal and installed on the altar. Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, ABC’s resident teacher, unveiled the statues. Ven. Sangye Khadro and Ven. Thubten Chodron shared congratulatory messages via video, including a moving prayer to Tara, which had been translated by Lama Yeshe from the Cittamani Tara long sadhana. The program ended with extensive dedications. We are pleased to share video of this auspicious event. A complete transcript of this teaching, as well as more photos and details of the event will be shared in the near future. 

Please Enjoy New Photos of Rinpoche’s Recent Activities

Please join us in rejoicing in all of Rinpoche’s beneficial activities for others! We have created a new photo album of Rinpoche, including many activities we didn’t mention above, which we invite you to enjoy. 

Visit the September–October 2021 photo album:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/nepal-september-october-2021/

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.

Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 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/

Rinpoche in the stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been teaching on refuge during his recent video teachings. Rinpoche is currently offering teachings at Kopan Nunnery and taking a break from recording video teachings. During this break we will offer Essential Extracts of Rinpoche’s teachings. In the following teaching extract, from the 2017 Light of the Path Retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the practice of refuge and how compassion should be the root of all our activities:

First, Rinpoche explains, we need to develop our awareness that we have been experiencing the oceans of suffering of each of the six realms numberless times since beginningless rebirths. We then think of how unbearable this suffering is and that is why we rely on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha for refuge. This is the small scope way of taking refuge.

There are also numberless sentient beings in all the six realms experiencing the oceans of samsaric sufferings since beginningless rebirths just like us. We need to feel how unbearable this is. Then relying on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, request that all these sentient beings become free from samsaric suffering. This is the Mahayana way of taking refuge—compassion for the numberless sentient beings.

During your refuge practice, Rinpoche says, you should remember your friend or parent who is dying, your child who is sick or having problems, those who have already died, all who are suffering. You can think about those who are being affected by hurricanes or earthquakes and so forth. Remember them when you take refuge and then rely on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to free them from oceans of samsaric sufferings.

The more people who are practicing loving kindness and compassion, the more peace there will be in the world due to the results of their actions. This is why we have FPMT centers, Rinpoche says. Dharma centers help our minds, help us turn away from the self-cherishing thought. At the Dharma center, we can learn how to have a compassionate motivation and receive teachings on emptiness. Both of these are needed to achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations, and to do perfect work for sentient beings.

So our aim is to achieve enlightenment in order to bring all sentient beings to peerless happiness. That should also be the main aim of the FPMT organization. To accomplish all of this, Rinpoche says, our root is compassion, then due to that, all the wisdom will happen.

Watch the video “Take Refuge in the Three Jewel to Be Free from Suffering”:

The above video is extracted from a teaching given on September 8, 2017, at the Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, US. You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos on FPMT.org.

Watch videos from the series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read an in-depth summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Maratika, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was invited to write a foreword for a translation of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Illuminating the Intent: An Exposition of Candrakirti’s Entering the Middle Way. Lama Tsongkhapa completed this text a year before his death, and it is recognized by the Tibetan tradition as his final standpoint on many philosophical questions. In particular, Lama Tsongkhapa draws clear distinctions between the views of the Madhyamaka and Cittamatra schools. Lama Zopa Rinpoche composed the following as a foreword to this first full English translation of Lama Tsongkhapa’s important philosophical text.

From the text, Having Realized and Revealed How Things—I, Action, Object, and Phenomena—Are Dependent Arising (tenjung in Tibetan), Lama Tsongkhapa not only praised the Buddha, but by revealing that, numberless sentient beings have not only been freed from samsara but have become enlightened, are being enlightened and will be enlightened in the future. It is said there, how much world suffering there is, the root is ignorance—unseeing—and for anyone, by seeing that, the world suffering gets stopped, gets ceased. Therefore, Buddha has taught dependent arising—tenjung. It has a very important meaning. “Ten” meaning “depending on,” eliminates eternalism, existence from its own side. Even one atom does not exist from its own side, at all. Then, because of that, “jung”—“arising”—eliminates nihilism. Hence all phenomena exist in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind because there’s a valid base existing, and even that exists in mere name.

Lama Tsongkhapa said in the lamrim, that on the valid basis, exaggeration occurs. By exaggerating good or bad and specially, by exaggerated good or bad, attachment and anger arises. The way these concepts hold their objects, as proved by logicians, make them wrong concepts because their objects do not exist according to what they believe and hold on to. So it clearly shows that we live our life in suffering because we live life with attachment and anger, with concepts that hold objects that do not exist at all. All these concepts hold objects that do not exist at all. This means all these concepts are totally wrong because they are built on the basis of ignorance, holding I, action, object, phenomena as existing from their own side, which is totally non-existent. This proves ignorance is a totally wrong concept.

We sentient beings do not like suffering and want happiness. Hence we should recognize and realize that believing this ignorance—the root of samsara—is a totally hallucinated mind, a wrong concept. Not only should we realize this, we need to try to achieve special insight, a meditation on emptiness unified with samatha. This is achieved by depending first on the perfect higher training of meditation—samatha—and for that we need pure morality, the higher training of pure morality.

Therefore, the Middle Way, devoid of eternalism and nihilism taught by Buddha and specially propagated by Nagajuna and after that Chandrakirti, is here clearly explained by Lama Tsongkhapa. He explains very deeply, like the oceans, with a very deep and wide view, clearly what is the middle view is. The root text was written by Chandrakirti, the great pandit from Nalanda, and its commentary was made by Lama Tsongkhapa, in Clarifying the Intention.

In spite of how many degrees one receives from the most famous universities in the world, if one hasn’t studied these teachings, not elaborately, not even middling and not even the essence, then one is totally ignorant, like a pig. One becomes like that. You live your life, not only from birth but from beginningless rebirths, only in hallucination, acting with body, speech, and mind out of this ignorance, in a total hallucination, thinking things exist from their own side. We have suffered from beginningless rebirths, experiencing oceans of each of the six realms suffering, by not being enlightened in this subject. With the wrong concept, then again endlessly we suffer in samsara. Of course we don’t want that, so then one must study these subjects, as much as one can. It is the most important thing, more than money or any worldly pleasure in the life. Please study with all the hardships.

If you are like a pig, if you are too ignorant in the middle way, the Madhyamika view, how can you benefit others, let alone become liberated from the oceans of samsaric suffering. No way. No matter how much hardship you bear, it’s worthwhile to study. The more and more you study, the quicker it is to realize emptiness, the quicker to be free from samsara and quicker to achieve enlightenment. It’s quicker to be able to generate very strong compassion, great compassion to the sentient beings, and then bodhicitta. Those two are the two wings to go for enlightenment, to go to buddhahood—the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations—the peerless happiness. The swans with two wings can cross the ocean so like that, with these two wings—right view, the middle view, and bodhicitta—on the basis of these, you can cross the oceans of samsaric suffering and go to enlightenment.

Through developing the higher training of wisdom you can achieve the right-seeing path where you have wisdom directly perceiving emptiness and then by developing that, it removes the obscurations that that path needs to remove, and by developing that path further, you purify the obscurations, removed by the path of meditation. After that comes no-more-learning, whereby one has totally ceased the seeds of delusion and karma. That’s how you become totally free from the oceans of sufferings of samsara, forever.

For everyone who reads this, most welcome to complete the works for self and for others, achieved only when you accomplish this. I hope this book, the translation of which was done by His Holiness’s translator Geshe Thupten Jinpa, will open the mind of wisdom to all the suffering of obscured sentient beings.

—Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

This foreword is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s words verbatim and has only been edited to accord with the FPMT Education Style Guide in terms of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Lama Tsongkhapa’s Illuminating the Intent: An Exposition Of Candrakirti’s Entering The Middle Way, edited by Geshe Thupten Jinpa as part of the Library of Tibetan Classics, is available as a PDF and eBook through the Foundation Store (shop.FPMT.org). The hardcover version of this book may be ordered directly from Wisdom Publications (WisdomExperience.org).

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the recording of a video teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this teaching by reminding us of the reason for these teachings on refuge: a young girl in China, as well as some others, have requested Rinpoche to offer the refuge ceremony. Rinpoche is using this opportunity to offer these refuge teachings to all of us in order to remind and persuade us to create less nonvirtue and to practice virtue.

The real meaning of life is to benefit others and not harm them. It is not enough to achieve liberation from samsara for oneself alone. You need to liberate every single numberless sentient being from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. To do this, you need omniscience. In omniscience, you have perfect power and infinite compassion embracing all sentient beings. Therefore, you listen to the teachings for every single sentient being without even one single hell being left out. This purpose becomes like the limitless sky with no end.

By going for refuge to the Three Precious Sublime Ones (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) you can become free from the lower realms, from samsara, and from the lower nirvana; and you can achieve enlightenment and free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsarmic sufferings.

Rinpoche resumes the discussion of the section “Taking Refuge and Not Asserting Another Religion” from “Day Twelve” of Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Rinpoche picks up the discussion with the sentence, “In short, taking refuge is not only reciting words.” Rinpoche then offers examples of what is not taking refuge. He explains that taking refuge is not merely reciting words like a robot, which has no mind.

Rinpoche continues by considering whether what robots say can be Dharma. Only a Buddha can give advice according to people’s different levels of mind. To help sentient beings exactly without mistake, you need to achieve enlightenment. You need to understand subtle karma by dispelling the obscurations to seeing it. You need omniscience to give answers according to the level of minds of numberless sentient beings. Therefore, you can’t make a robot like a buddha, Rinpoche explains. But if a robot is filled by learned people with answers based on Dharma, then a robot can benefit people, similar to how a Dharma book benefits people.

Rinpoche takes the opportunity to remind us that taking sentient beings around holy objects is one way to benefit them—in fact, this is very easy and creates the cause for them to reach enlightenment. This is a way to repay the kindness of sentient beings, by helping them in this way. Taking insects around holy objects is so precious. Imagine all of the numberless sentient beings that you find in your bed, on your body, in your room—this is like finding a wish-granting jewel, Rinpoche says.

You can use images of deities to bless sentient beings in your home. You can also create a box with mantras on it to purify the negative karma of beings that go in the box. (Rinpoche discusses Namgyalma mantra and Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha mantra  specifically.) Rinpoche also explains that if there are many insects in your house, that you find while you are cleaning, for example, you can put them in a bag and take them around holy objects.

Rinpoche discusses the kindnesses of sentient beings, who since beginningless rebirths have all been your mother:

1. The kindness of giving you a body numberless times from beginningless rebirths, particularly a human body.
2. The kindness of protecting your life from hundreds of dangers, every day.
3. The kindness of bearing hardships.
4. The kindness of giving you an education.

Rinpoche then overviews the four results of killing even one sentient being and provides commentary on each:

1. The ripened-aspect result of killing is rebirth in the lower realms.
2. The possessed result of killing is living in a place where there is fighting or disease and where food and medicine have negative side effects.
3. Experiencing the result similar to the cause of killing is being killed.
4. Creating the result similar to the cause of killing is you will kill again.

Sentient beings are also very kind to you when they are not your mother. Rinpoche discusses these kindnesses offered by others to us:

1. The kindness of giving shelter.
2. The kindness of giving clothing.
3. The kindness of giving food.

Rinpoche returns to discussing refuge. Those who don’t believe in reincarnation and karma have to practice having a good heart. They can at least do whatever they can to benefit others and make life beneficial to them. Those who do believe in reincarnation and karma have to practice Dharma. Any meditation should begin with refuge and bodhichitta. 

When you truly go for refuge, Rinpoche explains, you want to be saved because you are afraid of the lower realms and samsara. You also have total faith that the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha can guide you to safety, and you want to rely on them. From Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand:

Like someone who has made mistakes seeks help from an influential leader, being afraid of the evil-gone realms, samsara, and so forth and trusting that the Rare Sublime Ones have the capacity to protect you, you must develop the mental factor intention that totally relies upon these protectors. This is the criterion for having taken refuge.

Whether or not you generate refuge in your heart depends on whether or not you generate that [intention] in your heart. Therefore, don’t be like those who collect a hundred thousand words of refuge but do not generate the entity of refuge in their heart.

“[Refuge] depends on whether you have that feeling so strong that wants to rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,” Rinpoche says. Those who have a realization of refuge always have mindfulness of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—even on the moon! They never waste time, whether or not they are in a suffering place or a happy place. They are constantly collecting virtue with actions of body, speech, and mind.

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 “Taking Refuge Is Not Merely Reciting Words Like a Robot”:

Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The text Lama Zopa Rinpoche is teaching on in this video comes from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications, 2006).
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

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/

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.

Rinpoche meeting with the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsering, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In a new touching video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche meets with the young incarnation—currently named Kunga Choyang—of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsering (1923-2014) and his family. Rinpoche shares stories in the video about this extraordinary teacher.

Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsering was born in Tibet and ordained at age five. At twelve, he started his Buddhist philosophical studies. At seventeen, he joined Sera Je Monastery, then in Tibet, where he pursued rigorous philosophical studies. He served as a philosophy teacher at Sera Je for three years. In 1959, he was imprisoned by Chinese authorities for seven years and underwent extreme hardship. In 1969, he fled Tibet for India. At the rebuilt Sera Je Monastery in South India, he completed his Geshe Lharampa examination in 1978. In 1986, he was enthroned the seventieth abbot of Sera Je Monastery. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 91.

Rinpoche offering a statue of Buddha to the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsering, the former abbot of Sera Je, Kathmadu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in the video that many of the best, most educated teachers nowadays, including many geshes teaching in FPMT centers, are the disciples of Khensur Rinpoche. In addition, many of his disciples are teaching the young monks at Sera Je. Rinpoche said that Geshe Lobsang, as he calls him, had a very special, very clear way of teaching—more clear than other teachers. Geshe Lobsang had received this lineage of teaching philosophy from a well known teacher in Tibet. Geshe Sopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe also received this lineage and were known for their clear presentation of the Dharma.

Rinpoche talks about how he and Khensur Rinpoche had been friends since the early days of Sera Je in South India. In the evenings, they would talk until 2:30 A.M. In addition to discussing Dharma, they would talk about Khensur Rinpoche’s experience in prison in Tibet. Rinpoche recalls that they would have a thermos of tea and drink and talk until it was late. Rinpoche says, “He was an excellent teacher in the world. Amazing. Really amazing.”

When Khensur Rinpoche was chosen as abbot of Sera Je in 1986, he became very busy, Rinpoche says, and they didn’t meet much during that time. Khensur Rinpoche sent monks to do religious dance in the West to raise money for Sera Je to build a gompa. In 1991, in discussion with Khensur Rinpoche, it was determined that the most beneficial offering to the monastery from Lama Zopa Rinpoche would be to create a food fund, whereby all of the monks at Sera Je Monastery could be offered quality meals for free. This offering continued for twenty-six years until a substantial endowment was offered to the monastery through FPMT International Office. This allowed the monastery to become self sufficient, using the interest generated annually from the endowment to cover the entire Sera Je Food Fund expense. Khensur Rinpoche remained the abbot of Sera Monastery until 1993.

Khensur Rinpoche passed away in Bylakkupe, India. According to Rinpoche, he told his attendants that he would be reincarnated in Amdo, Tibet, because individuals in Amdo have so much devotion and faith. Rinpoche shared that His Holiness came to Sera Je to speak to Khensur Rinpoche and asked him to reincarnate as a child who is very awakened. In the video, gesturing to the young incarnation who is sitting across from him, Rinpoche says, “This is by the development of the mind and Dharma. Not the development of anger and attachment, which is the cause to be reborn in the lower realms. But this is because of the mind of Dharma.”

Rinpoche sitting and talking with the family of the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsering, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

About the young incarnation’s upcoming education, Rinpoche explains that Kunga Choyang will be at Kopan Monastery for some years, then he will go to Sera Monastery. Rinpoche concludes the video by saying, “As he was an expert in his past life, he should be an expert in this life too. This life he won’t be an expert in the same way as his last life, but he will be an expert in order to benefit extensively.” 

Watch the video “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Meets with the Young Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsering”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recording a video teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins by explaining that it’s very important to expand on the topic of refuge because it can take one’s whole life—even as a monk or nun studying—or many lifetimes to understand it. Rinpoche reminds us that he’s giving these teachings on refuge because a young girl and other students in China have requested for Rinpoche to offer the refuge ceremony.

The motivation for listening to the teachings, and for taking refuge, is not just for oneself or for temporary happiness. It isn’t enough to want to not be reborn in the lower realms or to obtain a deva or human rebirth in the next life. It also isn’t enough to want to be free from samsara and achieve nirvana. The real motivation is the desire to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations—Buddhahood—by yourself. In order to do that, you must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, for that purpose, you listen to the teachings and take refuge.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche then begins to read from, and provide commentary on, a discussion of refuge from “Day Twelve” of Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Phabongkha Rinpoche teaches that when going for refuge, we make a promise to:

1. 1. Buddha, the founder of refuge;
   2. Dharma, the actual refuge; and
      
   3. Sangha, the helper for actualizing refuge.

Therefore, Phabongkha Rinpoche explains, we should rely on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha like we rely on a doctor, medicine, and nurses when we are sick. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that similar to how we must make sure that the doctor we chose is expert and that the medicine and nurses are correct, when taking refuge we must rely on Buddha, the founder of refuge; Dharma, the actual refuge; and Sangha, the helper for actualizing refuge ourselves.

Phabongkha Rinpoche then tells the story of two non-Buddhist brothers who became Buddhist when they saw Maheshvara taking refuge in Buddha. One of the brothers composed a text, which Phabongkha Rinpoche refers to, saying:

Like this text says, having taken refuge in our Teacher and being disciples of his teachings, we should hold firmly to them, unable to be converted to other [religions], and not take refuge in Bön, Mutegpa, and so forth, which are outside this Dharma.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that these brothers went for refuge to the Buddha “a hundred percent, totally. Their mind is indestructible.” They will not go back to their old religion, change to following other religions, or follow Bön or Mutegpa. They firmly took refuge in Buddha.

Rinpoche describes “Mutegpa” as meaning “non-level.” He explains how the Buddhist schools—Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Mind-Only,  Madhyamaka Svatantrika, and Madhyamaka Prasangika—are “teg pa,” or “levels,” like steps. Understanding the Vaibhashika view, helps you understand Sautrantika view, and so on. So understanding the Madhyamaka Svatantrika view is unbelievably helpful for understanding the Madhyamaka Prasangika view, Rinpoche explains. The other religions don’t help understand the most correct subtle emptiness and are therefore “Mutegpa.” Rinpoche offers the example of the Hindu tradition, where the I is permanent, exists alone, and exists with its own freedom. In contrast, Buddhism teaches that the I is impermanent, depends on causes and conditions, and does not exist with its own freedom.

Phabongkha Rinpoche continues on the topic of refuge, making two additional points: the more you think about other religions, the more you become devoted to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; and if you have two refuges, you lose your refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Within this context, Phabongkha Rinpoche begins a discussion of the Bön religion, which was prevalent in Tibet before Buddhism. As explained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Phabongkha Rinpoche says that the founder of Bön cannot be said to have ceased all the gross defilements and subtle defilements and completed all the qualities; the Bön religion itself doesn’t have a method for the delusions to decrease; and the “Sangha” in Bön, those intent on virtue, do not have a lineage through vows to the founder. So the founder, the religion, and the followers do not have the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

It is important to understand the references for Bön, “such as those found in the authentic histories in the texts of past learned [highly attained] scholars,” Phabongkha Rinpoche says, continuing from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand:

Therefore, all three—the founder of Bön, the Bön teachings, and the Bön views—are mixed with the views and meditations of non-Buddhists. They have stolen things from the Buddhist scriptures and made them into a false Dharma and so forth. This happened a very long time ago but this widespread bad tradition has spread. Therefore, it is not worthy to be a refuge for those seeking liberation nor is it trustworthy.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues reading through this section of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and adding commentary. Phabongkha Rinpoche’s points here included that the Bönpo’s views are distorted views of the Mutegpa; that even if Bönpos and Mutegpa appear to have quick attainments, they eventually fall into lower realms; that Bön does not free you from samsara; that only a Buddha can liberate others from samsara; that those who are themselves bound to samsara cannot liberate others; and that Milarepa says that Bön is a wrong religion.

Phabongkha Rinpoche also debates the Bönpo’s claims that there are Bonpo buddhas and bodhisattvas, saying that “since those who say that have minds polluted by the bad imprints of wrong views, these are the great words of the highly ignorant.” Phabongka Rinpoche completes his debate making the following point:

Those who desire what is excellent should completely discard nauseating bad customs like discarding stones used to clean kaka. The refuge of Buddhists is only the Three Rare Sublime Ones. You should hold these objects of refuge as pure. It is important to totally trust in them.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche concludes this teaching with Phabongkha Rinpoche’s point that “taking refuge is not only reciting words”:

Like someone who has made mistakes seeks help from an influential leader, being afraid of the evil-gone realms, samsara, and so forth and trusting that the Rare Sublime Ones have the capacity to protect you, you must develop the mental factor intention that totally relies upon these protectors. This is the criterion for having taken refuge.

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 “It Is Good to Know About the Bön Religion”

Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• The text Lama Zopa Rinpoche is teaching on in this video comes from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications, 2006) chapter “Day Twelve,” pp. 371—374, starting from the outline “Taking Refuge Owing to One’s Beliefs.” 
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

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/

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a talk to the Nalanda Monastery community, October 18, 2021. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery’s Facebook page.

Nalanda Monastery, located in the South of France, was established in 1981 by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries for Westerners.

During Nalanda’s fortieth anniversary celebration, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered the Nalanda community an encouraging and joyful talk from Kopan Monastery, urging everyone to meditate strongly on impermanence and death in order to change worldly dharma into holy Dharma. Rinpoche also praises those who are sangha in the West, explaining again that they are the “real heroes” due to the “incredible renunciation” of becoming ordained. 

All are welcome to listen to this teaching, which contains advice all students can take to heart. We also invite you to join us in rejoicing in this forty-year milestone for Nalanda Monastery! 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching for Nalanda Monastery’s Fortieth Anniversary. 

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.

You can learn more about Nalanda Monastery‘s programs, events, and how to help support this monastic institution. Find the “Nalanda Monastery 40th Anniversary, Honouring Our Former Generations” videos and more on Nalanda Monastery’s YouTube channel.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this video by reminding us why he is offering these teachings on refuge. Due to a young girl and other students in China requesting refuge, Rinpoche will offer the ceremony—which all with interest are welcome to take when that video is released—after explaining the benefits of refuge.

As always, the motivation for listening to the teachings isn’t for oneself to achieve liberation from samsara; this is not sufficient. The real purpose of human life is to not harm and only benefit sentient beings. Since beginningless rebirths, there are numberless sentient beings from whom you have received happiness. They have suffered and died for you, including small sentient beings involved in making water and food. Because of this kindness, you cannot use your precious human life to achieve happiness for yourself alone.

Rinpoche then talks about Lama Serlingpa, from whom Lama Atisha received teachings, especially on bodhicitta. Lama Atisha traveled from India to Indonesia, where he stayed for twelve years, in order to learn from Lama Serlingpa. In Leveling Out All Conceptions, Lama Serlingpa said:

That called “I,” the root of negative karma,
Is a phenomenon to immediately cast far away.

If something is poisonous, dangerous, or deadly to you, you throw it out immediately. All of your suffering from beginningless rebirths and all of your future suffering comes from your self-cherishing thought. Not only that, you have harmed numberless sentient beings since beginningless time due to this. The I is the phenomenon that is to be cast far away and others are the phenomena to immediately cherish. Also in Leveling Out All Conceptions, Lama Serlingpa said:

That called “others,” the originator of enlightenment,
Is a phenomenon to immediately cherish.

You are totally busy your whole life from birth until you die in service to the I, but it isn’t even there. Everyone functions on the basis of this “real” concept of I, but there is no such thing in reality, Rinpoche explains. The exception is those who have realized emptiness and meditate every day on seeing everything—I, action, object—as an illusion. Otherwise, what you think you see is a complete hallucination, like a dream. On the basis of this wrong concept, the six delusions—attachment, anger, pride, doubt, ignorance, wrong view—and the twenty secondary delusions arise. What appears as real, what you hold as real, it’s not there. This doesn’t mean nihilism; it doesn’t mean that nothing exists.

It is important to put effort into thinking about the shortcomings of true suffering and understanding what binds you to samsara. To do this, rely on your mind being upset with samsara.

The suffering of dissatisfaction is the suffering of pain. Even billionaires, kings, and presidents suffer from this, from not being content. Contentment is not something that is taught or emphasized in universities in the West. Even in a world full of viruses, problems, and so much suffering, you can still have contentment and satisfaction.

Coming together with people and separating is the suffering of change. Collecting material objects and losing them is the suffering of change. Rebirth ending in death is the suffering of change. Samsaric pleasures, which are the suffering of change, cheat you. You are caught over and over by samsaric pleasures, which are like honey on a blade. At the beginning there is pleasure, and then it ends with the suffering of pain. You have to meditate on the renunciation of samsara, how samsara is in the nature of suffering.

For pervasive compounded suffering, the aggregates are under the control of karma and delusion, and so they are “pervaded” by suffering, Rinpoche explains. From the seed of karma and delusion, suffering arises again. So it is “compounded.”

Form realm beings have the suffering of change. They have desire for the five external sense objects. Formless realm beings don’t have the suffering of pain or the suffering of change. They only have pervasive compounded suffering. They don’t have a physical body, just a mind, which is under the control of delusion and karma. So from this contaminated seed, suffering arises. And when their karma to be in the formless realm finishes, they get reborn in the desire realm—in a hell or as a hungry ghost, an animal, or a human being. We have been through this numberless times: born in the form realm and formless realm numberless times since beginningless rebirths. We need to be free from this.

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 “Rely on a Mind That Is Upset with Samsara”

Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses

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/

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his explanation of Buddhist refuge.* This teaching begins with Rinpoche explaining that taking refuge is not something simple. It’s not something that you simply hear and chant. One has to understand the four noble truths extensively and also understand the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which can take one’s whole life to do this. This is why monks study their whole lives in monasteries.

Rinpoche reminds us of the proper motivation for listening to the teachings. It is not enough to achieve liberation from samsara and then achieve nirvana and everlasting happiness for oneself alone. Instead think, “I must achieve the state of omniscience, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations. I must achieve this to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone! Therefore, I am going to listen to the teachings.”

Rinpoche shares a verse from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Hymn of Experience:

If you don’t attempt to think of the shortcomings of true sufferings,
Seeking liberation won’t arise exactly.
If you don’t reflect on the causes, the evolution of samsara,
You won’t know how to cut the root of samsara.
Therefore, rely on an upset mind renouncing samsara
And cherish the understanding of what ties you to samsara.

Rinpoche explains that an “upset mind renouncing samsara” is so worthwhile even though to worldly people who don’t understand Dharma, it looks totally crazy and meaningless. The “upset mind” understands how karma and delusion lead to all suffering, and how one is trapped in the endless cycle of samsara. Due to being upset by this understanding of the suffering of samsara, one is motivated to go into isolation to actualize renunciation, bodhichitta, emptiness, the whole path to enlightenment—this makes that “upsetness” so worthwhile. “Skies of worthwhile upsetness,” Rinpoche says.

It is like poison to think that living in isolation and practicing Dharma is crazy and meaningless. The person who thinks this way does not achieve freedom from samsara along with nirvana and everlasting happiness. But the person who is practicing Dharma, who left worldly life with renunciation to actualize the path in isolation—wow! Worldly people don’t like suffering, but they don’t understand suffering. Westerners can be so shocked when someone lives in a cave. But there is no benefit to being upset with someone who has renounced the worldly life and is practicing Dharma. In fact, it is poison. Even though there are good-hearted people in the West, Rinpoche explains that many of the concepts and actions of body, speech, and mind in the West are totally opposite of Buddhadharma, the teachings of the Buddha.

It is extremely important to understand what ties you to samsara. You are suffering and you don’t like suffering, but you don’t know why you are suffering. Nothing and nobody tied you to samsara from the outside—in fact, you tied yourself to samsara with your hallucinated mind. You must understand this. It is up to you to cut this rope.

Rinpoche shares verses from Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen’s Melodious Song Bringing Joy to Lozang [Dragpa]: Responses to “Queries from a Sincere Heart,” which is a response to a text by Lama Tsongkhapa:

The way of reflecting on the hundreds of shortcomings of samsara:
Although there are many, through being frightened by the suffering of pain
Even animals wish to be free from it.

Even non-Buddhists renounce
Contaminated pleasant feeling.

Even animals renounce the suffering of pain, Rinpoche says. If you wield a stick toward a dog, it runs away. When they are hungry they run to look for food. They have the thought to be free from pain and the suffering of hunger and thirst. Likewise, even non-Buddhists renounce the suffering of change.

Rinpoche continues quoting Panchen Lozang Chokyi Gyaltsen:

Therefore, these contaminated aggregates taken [by delusion and karma],
Which are the nature of being compounded,
Are the container of suffering that will be actualized and [already] actualized suffering,
Such as diseases, pustules, and sharp pains.
If you meditate through thinking about this, it will help you become free.

Rinpoche explains how in Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo there are eight types of suffering, unlike how there are six types of suffering in Phabongkha Rinpoche‘s lamrim text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Rinpoche then goes over Tsongkhapa’s five points on the eighth type of suffering, which is the suffering of “the five aggregates taken [by karma and delusion]”:

Thinking about the meaning of what Buddha said, “In brief, the five aggregates taken [by karma and delusions] are suffering,” has five points:

1. 1. They are a vessel for suffering that will be actualized.
   2. They are a vessel for suffering that is the base on which [suffering has already] been actualized.
   3. They are a vessel for the suffering of pain.
   4. They are a vessel for the suffering of change.
   5. They are the nature of compounding suffering.

So the aggregates, due to karma and delusion, contain already actualized suffering as well as this life’s future suffering and the suffering of future lives. Lama Tsongkhapa’s way of explaining the eighth human beings’ sufferings is that it is like an ocean,” Rinpoche says. Phabongkha Rinpoche didn’t explain the aggregates as a container of the different types of suffering, but this is how Lama Tsongkhapa explained it.

From the formless realm down to Avichi Hell, the aggregates are pervaded by suffering, under the control of delusion and karma. To be free from suffering, you have to become free from the seeds of delusion and karma. Pervasive compounding suffering is the main suffering renounced by Buddhists, Rinpoche explains.

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 “You Tie Yourself to Samsara”

*Rinpoche teachings on refuge will conclude with Rinpoche offering refuge in a video. Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings on refuge. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• Dedication verses

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/

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues a short series of teachings on refuge. These teachings will culminate with Rinpoche offering the refuge ceremony, which will be available to anyone wishing to take the life-long refuge vows from Rinpoche. This series is due to the request of a few Chinese students, including a young girl, for Rinpoche to offer refuge vows. In response, Rinpoche is explaining refuge in detail prior to offering the vows.

Rinpoche begins by warning us that we must be aware of the heavy negative karma one creates by belittling one’s guru. Rinpoche recommends writing down the following verse from the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, in our prayer books:

In the view of your own perverted mind,
Your own mistakes appear in the guru’s actions.
Your heart is totally rotten from the depths.
Recognizing that it is your own mistake, abandon it like poison.

Even if you killed your mother, your father, or an arhat, or caused blood to flow from a Buddha, or created disunity in the sangha, you can still purify those mistakes and achieve enlightenment. But the heaviest negative karma is belittling a guru with whom you have made a Dharma connection, Rinpoche explains. This verse from the Fifth Dalai Lama if very powerful for protecting you from mistakes, including breaking vows and belittling the guru. You need to recognize that seeing mistakes in your guru’s actions is your own mistake. And your own mistakes appear in the guru’s actions.

In the West, Rinpoche explains, people look for a guru, then they create the heaviest negative karma in relation to the guru. This is like finding gold and using it for a toilet or a garbage can.

Instead of seeing mistakes, we need to see whatever the guru does as positive. The Fifth Dalai Lama advises this:

With the pure appearance that sees whatever is done as positive
And the devotion that accomplishes whatever is said as advice,
Whatever you do becomes the profound vital point of accomplishing Dharma.
Understand this to be the root of the benefit and virtue that accomplish whatever you wish.

In this way, seeing whatever your guru does as positive, allows you to accomplish whatever your guru advises. Rinpoche says that this is another important verse to write down in one’s prayer book so it isn’t forgotten.

Rinpoche shares that at the time of death, Dolgyal practice harms those who do it and when a practitioner dies, terrifying visions, incredible fear, and regret appear. When the body of a Dolgyal practitioner is offered to the birds, vultures won’t even eat the bodies of those who practiced this deity. Rinpoche shares this to warn, “Be careful before taking refuge. Be careful about whom you take refuge from. Don’t cheat yourself.”

Rinpoche then offers a translation of a short sutra on going for refuge, The Mahayana Sutra Called “Going for Refuge to the Arya Three Rare Sublime Ones” (at 46:35 in the video). This sutra describes just how precious it is to take refuge. “Be careful,” Rinpoche advises. “Don’t waste your life.”

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 “The Sutra ‘Going for Refuge to the Arya Three Rare Sublime Ones'”

Those wishing to take refuge with Rinpoche should continue to watch these teachings from Rinpoche. Past teachings on the topic of refuge are also available to watch and rewatch.

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The Foundation Store offers many resources for your practice of refuge.
• Dedication verses

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/

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.