Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
Die Stiftung zur Erhaltung der Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) ist eine Organisation, die sich weltweit für die Erhaltung und Verbreitung des Mahayana-Buddhismus einsetzt, indem sie Möglichkeiten schafft, den makellosen Lehren des Buddha zuzuhören, über sie zur reflektieren und zu meditieren und auf der Grundlage dieser Erfahrung das Dharma unter den Lebewesen zu verbreiten.
Wir bieten integrierte Schulungswege an, durch denen der Geist und das Herz der Menschen in ihr höchstes Potential verwandelt werden zum Wohl der anderen – inspiriert durch eine Haltung der universellen Verantwortung und dem Wunsch zu dienen. Wir haben uns verpflichtet, harmonische Umgebungen zu schaffen und allen Wesen zu helfen, ihr volles Potenzial unendlicher Weisheit und grenzenlosen Mitgefühls zu verwirklichen.
Unsere Organisation basiert auf der buddhistischen Tradition von Lama Tsongkhapa von Tibet, so wie sie uns von unseren Gründern Lama Thubten Yeshe und Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche gelehrt wird.
La Fundación para la preservación de la tradición Mahayana (FPMT) es una organización que se dedica a preservar y difundir el budismo Mahayana en todo el mundo, creando oportunidades para escuchar, reflexionar, meditar, practicar y actualizar las enseñanzas inconfundibles de Buda y en base a esa experiencia difundir el Dharma a los seres.
Proporcionamos una educación integrada a través de la cual las mentes y los corazones de las personas se pueden transformar en su mayor potencial para el beneficio de los demás, inspirados por una actitud de responsabilidad y servicio universales. Estamos comprometidos a crear ambientes armoniosos y ayudar a todos los seres a desarrollar todo su potencial de infinita sabiduría y compasión.
Nuestra organización se basa en la tradición budista de Lama Tsongkhapa del Tíbet como nos lo enseñaron nuestros fundadores Lama Thubten Yeshe y Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
A continuación puede ver una lista de los centros y sus páginas web en su lengua preferida.
L’organisation de la FPMT a pour vocation la préservation et la diffusion du bouddhisme du mahayana dans le monde entier. Elle offre l’opportunité d’écouter, de réfléchir, de méditer, de pratiquer et de réaliser les enseignements excellents du Bouddha, pour ensuite transmettre le Dharma à tous les êtres. Nous proposons une formation intégrée grâce à laquelle le cœur et l’esprit de chacun peuvent accomplir leur potentiel le plus élevé pour le bien d’autrui, inspirés par le sens du service et une responsabilité universelle. Nous nous engageons à créer un environnement harmonieux et à aider tous les êtres à épanouir leur potentiel illimité de compassion et de sagesse. Notre organisation s’appuie sur la tradition guéloukpa de Lama Tsongkhapa du Tibet, telle qu’elle a été enseignée par nos fondateurs Lama Thoubtèn Yéshé et Lama Zopa Rinpoché.
L’FPMT è un organizzazione il cui scopo è preservare e diffondere il Buddhismo Mahayana nel mondo, creando occasioni di ascolto, riflessione, meditazione e pratica dei perfetti insegnamenti del Buddha, al fine di attualizzare e diffondere il Dharma fra tutti gli esseri senzienti.
Offriamo un’educazione integrata, che può trasformare la mente e i cuori delle persone nel loro massimo potenziale, per il beneficio di tutti gli esseri, ispirati da un’attitudine di responsabilità universale e di servizio.
Il nostro obiettivo è quello di creare contesti armoniosi e aiutare tutti gli esseri a sviluppare in modo completo le proprie potenzialità di infinita saggezza e compassione.
La nostra organizzazione si basa sulla tradizione buddhista di Lama Tsongkhapa del Tibet, così come ci è stata insegnata dai nostri fondatori Lama Thubten Yeshe e Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Di seguito potete trovare un elenco dei centri e dei loro siti nella lingua da voi prescelta.
“护持大乘法脉基金会”( 英文简称：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) 是一个致力于护持和弘扬大乘佛法的国际佛教组织。我们提供听闻，思维，禅修，修行和实证佛陀无误教法的机会，以便让一切众生都能够享受佛法的指引和滋润。
護持大乘法脈基金會”（ 英文簡稱：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition ）是一個致力於護持和弘揚大乘佛法的國際佛教組織。我們提供聽聞，思維，禪修，修行和實證佛陀無誤教法的機會，以便讓一切眾生都能夠享受佛法的指引和滋潤。
We hear religious people talk a lot about morality. What is morality? Morality is the wisdom that understands the nature of the mind. The mind that understands its own nature automatically becomes moral, or positive; and the actions motivated by such a mind also become positive. That’s what we call morality. The basic nature of the narrow mind is ignorance; therefore the narrow mind is negative.
The Foundation Store is FPMT’s online shop and features a vast selection of Buddhist study and practice materials written or recommended by our lineage gurus. These items include homestudy programs, prayers and practices in PDF or eBook format, materials for children, and other resources to support practitioners.
Items displayed in the shop are made available for Dharma practice and educational purposes, and never for the purpose of profiting from their sale. Please read FPMT Foundation Store Policy Regarding Dharma Items for more information.
Image for the podcast show “Lama Zopa Rinpoche full-length teachings”
We are happy to announce a new podcast series featuring full-length teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Each episode corresponds to a new teaching in the ongoing video series of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings.
The podcast is currently available through a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and most major podcast apps. Search for the show title “Lama Zopa Rinpoche full-length teachings” to find the show in the podcast app. (For those using an RSS reader app, the RSS feed link is feed:https://feeds.captivate.fm/lama-zopa-rinpoche-full-length/.) If you have questions on how to listen to podcasts through an app, a search of the internet offers many resources to help you.
This podcast is also available translated into Italian. To find it, search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoce insegnamenti completi.”
Recent podcast episode
Each new podcast episode is published at the same time as the latest video teaching and blog from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In that way listeners will have access to transcripts 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 teaching from July 2021 onward (videos 102–118).
The idea for a podcast had been discussed for several years by Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT, Inc. and Rinpoche’s assistant. This year FPMT International Office staff turned their attention to making the podcast happen. We will eventually produce two podcasts shows. In addition to full-length teachings, we will have a show of edited teachings by Rinpoche. We hope to launch the second podcast show featuring Essential Extracts from Rinpoche in the coming months.
Rinpoche begins this teaching by reminding us that there are many ways in which we can help others. Even if you have limited Dharma understanding, limited experience of the path, there are ways you can benefit others. For example, when you build very big statues of buddhas, people come to see them, and then they purify and collect the most unbelievable merit. You can also bring Dharma books and teachings to people to help them dispel ignorance. There are many ways, according to their individual capacities, that you can help others.
Before taking ultimate refuge, you must check up. As Rinpoche has explained in his last two teachings, there are four qualities which make Buddha the ultimate refuge:
Buddha is free from suffering and the cause of suffering
Buddha is expert in the methods to free others from suffering
Buddha has no discriminating thought and has equal compassion and care for all
Buddha works to benefit every sentient being whether they benefit him or not
So why take refuge? This question is from your side only, Rinpoche explains. There are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas who have compassion for you. So why have you been suffering from beginningless rebirths up to now? Even if all the buddhas and bodhisattvas put their power together, they can’t guide you if you don’t decide to receive their help, if you don’t take refuge.
In Buddhism, your mind is the creator. Rinpoche quotes from A Good Vase Filled with Nectar (verse 3.7):
Whatever happiness and suffering there is in samsara,
All of it comes from your karma.
Therefore, through always examining your three doors,
Make effort to abandon nonvirtue and practice virtue.
Everything comes from the mind, including enlightenment and hell, samsara and nirvana, happiness and problems. Rinpoche emphasizes that we have to work and make effort in order to achieve enlightenment. Even though the help of the buddhas and bodhisattvas is available to you, the reason you have to suffer is because you made mistakes from your side. In this context, Rinpoche shares more stories about the spirit Dogyal.
Rinpoche also talks about how the annual one-month Kopan Course began and how he was inspired by reading Kachen Yeshe Gyaltshen’s lamrim. Rinpoche also credits as inspiration Lama Yeshe’s kindness and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche reflects that during the early Kopan Courses the already depressed Western students became even more depressed after hearing about the lower realms and eight worldly Dharmas. The accommodations at the early courses were very simple. It was great for the Western students to learn about lamrim and to see their lives, to realize what should be avoided, and what should be done for happiness in the life up to enlightenment.
Rinpoche shares that he and Lama Yeshe stayed at Kachen Yeshe Gyaltshen’s monastery in Boudhanath when they first came to Nepal. From there, Lama Yeshe could see Kopan Hill, about which, Rinpoche says, Lama Yeshe was very interested.
Kachen Yeshe Gyaltshen also advised people not to practice Dolgyal. Rinpoche then shares details of some of the various lamas who have advised not to practice Dolgyal, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
By taking refuge in Buddha, you won’t be reborn in the lower realms. By taking strong refuge in Buddha, your heavy negative karmas get purified. And if the merit of taking refuge was materialized, Rinpoche explains, it would not fit in three-thousand-fold galaxies.
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.
Rinpoche continues discussing refuge in this new video. Rinpoche begins by reminding us that we must be careful about the objects in which we take refuge—for example, people take refuge in animals, nature, or spirits.
To make the point of why it is best to go for refuge to Buddha, Rinpoche again discusses the four qualities of a Buddha and shares stories and commentary after each.
Buddha is free from suffering and the cause of suffering
Buddha is expert in the methods to free others from suffering
Buddha has no discriminating thought and has equal compassion and care for all
Buddha works to benefit every sentient being whether they benefit him or not
Worldly gods and spirits don’t have the four qualities of the Buddha.
Before you take refuge in things like food, drink, medicine, and clothes, you always check up on the quality. For example, you don’t buy food that has gone bad; you check it first before buying. Like this, you also have to check the quality of the one in whom you are going to take ultimate refuge. When you are dying, in order to not be born in the lower realms, to purify negative karma, to obtain a higher rebirth, Rinpoche says emphatically, “Rely on Buddha!” To free you from samsara, to achieve nirvana, ultimate happiness forever—”Rely on Buddha!” Buddha has all the power and qualities to guide you. If you take refuge in worldly beings, samsaric beings who have discriminating thoughts, no compassion for sentient beings, attachment, anger, ignorance, self-cherishing—how can they help you?
Rinpoche then shares several stories about the dangers of trusting worldly spirits, particularly in relation to the spirit Dolgyal (Shugden).
Things appear to us according to our karma. You see things as pure or impure based on how pure or impure your own mind is. For example, one container filled with liquid appears to a preta as pus, to a human as water, and to worldly gods, suras, and asuras as nectar. To Buddha’s attendant, who served him for twenty-two years, Buddha appeared to be a liar; he didn’t see Buddha as Buddha. Rinpoche explains that was due to his karma. Likewise, some lamas have showed the aspect of practicing Dolgyal, but didn’t actually do the practice. There are many examples of enlightened beings who showed the aspect of being ordinary. What we see in others is due to our own karma.
Rinpoche shares a verse from the Fifth Dalai Lama:
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.
Rinpoche advises that this is very, very powerful, and it is so important to do mindfulness practice in relation to guru yoga. Then you never give rise to heresy and anger. If you see any mistake in the guru, it is a reflection of your ordinary mind’s mistake. Don’t think that taking refuge is something easy. Monks and nuns study refuge and the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha their whole lives so they can learn the meaning of the words and actualize them to achieve enlightenment by completing the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is not easy! You take refuge to be free from samsara. In order to do that, you have to know what samsara is.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that it is very wise to take refuge while we have the opportunity as human beings. We may only have our human body this one time; it’s like a stone falling up, rather than down. It’s an impossible thing, but it has happened, and we must take full advantage of it to create merit and purify negativities while we can.
People take refuge in all kinds of things—trees, animals, rocks, the sun. The most wise and important refuge to take is in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is the way to wake up from the deep sleep of ignorance. Not just ignorance from birth in this life, but from ignorance from beginningless samsaric rebirths. Rinpoche implores us to, “Wake up!” If you are reborn in the lower realms, it is difficult to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So we have this incredible opportunity right now to do so before it is too late.
Rinpoche outlines and offers commentary on four reasons why Buddha can definitely guide you:
The Buddha Is Free from Suffering and the Cause of Suffering
Buddha Is Expert in the Methods to Free Others from Suffering
Buddha Has No Discriminating Thought and Has Equal Compassion for All
Buddha Works to Benefit All Sentient Beings Whether They Benefit Him or Not
There are many reasons to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It causes you to abandon the self-cherishing thought, which harms you and all sentient beings. The self-cherishing thought causes all the sufferings, obstacles, misfortunes, and problems. If you cherish yourself, the I, then you let go of others, you give up on others. That itself harms them. The nature of that mind is to harm others, to cause suffering, not to benefit them.
You cannot abandon suffering without giving up the I. From Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara (chapter 8, verses 135-6):
If you don’t let go of the fire [in your hand],
The burning cannot be stopped.
Like that, if you don’t give up the I,
Suffering cannot be abandoned.
Therefore, in order to pacify
Harm to yourself and others’ suffering,
Give up yourself for others
And cherish others as yourself.
Cherish others most—this is the nature of bodhichitta. Then, you become a bodhisattva. Before that, you should have a realization of renunciation, of how your samsara is totally in the nature of suffering. A bodhisattva cherishes every single sentient being as most precious. Numberless bodhisattvas cherish the most insignificant among us like this, even a mosquito biting and buzzing. For a bodhisattva, each sentient being is most kind and more precious than wish-granting jewels filling the whole sky.
Shakyamuni Buddha cherishes each and every sentient being as most precious. In his lifetimes, he practiced morality. He practiced charity by giving away his limbs and body countless times. He practiced patience for sentient beings, even the difficult ones. He practiced with so much hardship. Numberless buddhas cherish even one mosquito or ant as most precious, Rinpoche explains. Therefore, Buddha definitely guides you, especially if you go for refuge to Buddha.
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.
Sang gyä chhö dang tshog kyi chhog nam la
Jang chhub bar du dag ni kyab su chhi
Dag gi jin sog gyi päi tshog nam kyi
Dro la phän chhir sang gyä drub par shog
I take refuge until I am enlightened In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. By my merits of generosity and so forth, May I become a buddha to benefit transmigratory beings.
At the beginning of this video, Rinpoche talks about doing a tsog offering practice at Boudha Stupa and the benefits of making offerings to stupas. He explains how offering tsog to stupas makes you achieve all the realizations; offering medicine to stupas stops diseases; and offering grains to stupas stops famine in the world. Rinpoche also discusses how important it is to consecrate stupas, including the benefit of eliminating war.
From his room at Kopan Monastery, Rinpoche then leads an offering practice to Boudha Stupa accompanied by many senior Sangha members. You can follow along with the offering practice by watching the video (beginning at 6:43) and reading the transcript, which includes the text of the practice.
Boudha Stupa, Nepal, February 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Rinpoche also provides commentary on verses from Liberation Upon Hearing: The History of the Great Jarung Kashar Stupa by Padmasambhava on the benefits of making offerings to Boudha Stupa, which include the following:
Making requests to the stupa
Whoever supplicates it will spontaneously accomplish the benefit of self and others.
The benefits of offering water
Whoever offers drinking water to it will be born free of thirst and disease.
The benefits of offering flowers
Whoever offers flowers will completely attain the freedoms and advantages.
The benefits of offering light
Whoever offers butter lamps will see the manifest faces of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions.
Whoever offers grain oil lamps will be clarified of all obscurations of ignorance.
Whoever offers the fire for butter lamps will radiate the light rays of the Dharma throughout the ten directions.
The benefits of offering perfume
Whoever offers scented water will be freed from depression and all suffering.
The benefits of offering food and drink
Whoever offers food and drink will be sustained by the sustenance of samādhi.
The benefits of offering music
Whoever offers music will proclaim the melodious sound of Dharma throughout the ten directions.
Whoever offers cymbals will attain profound and perfect courage.
Whoever offers bells large and small will attain clear and melodious speech, and the voice of Brahmā.
The benefits of offering the five precious jewels (pearls, turquoise, lapis lazuli, gold, coral)
Whoever offers maṇḍalas of the five precious jewels will be free of poverty and attain an inexhaustible sky treasury.
Before doing the dedications, Rinpoche acknowledges that what is missing from his commentary is the benefits of offering the seven king’s objects, the eight auspicious signs, and the seven royal things.
Rinpoche concludes the teaching with the instruction that these offerings “should be done after the seven-limb practice. Do the Thirty-Five Buddhas, Vajrasattva, the seven limbs, then a short mandala, then a lamrim prayer, then after, dedication to complete the practice.”
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 “Making Offerings to Boudha Stupa”:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Maratika, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“We need have strong determination that the goal of bodhicitta is attainable and desirable. For that we need inspiration, and, to my mind, there is nothing more inspirational than Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Jewel Lamp and the first chapter of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. These two great bodhisattvas have given us verses of inspiration that are beautiful and profound; verses that are good to read and reread many, many times,” writes Gordon McDougall in the “Editor’s Preface” of The Nectar of Bodhicitta: Motivations for the Awakening Mind, a new book by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
In the book, Rinpoche’s teachings on bodhicitta have been assembled into two parts. In Part One, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on selected verses by Khunu Lama Rinpoche. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “Understanding and constantly reminding ourselves of the skies of benefits that bodhicitta brings is unbelievably worthwhile. This is the overall purpose of Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s book, to cause us to feel inspired and joyful that such a mind is possible.”
In Part Two, Rinpoche teaches on Shantideva’s verses, which describe the amazing benefits of developing the precious mind of bodhicitta, the supreme cause of happiness for all sentient beings.
Here is a short excerpt from Part One of The Nector of Bodhicitta by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Do Everything With Bodhicitta
Every action we do should be done with bodhicitta
Whatever action we do with a selfish motivation is not only a complete waste of time, it causes only further future suffering. On the other hand, any action done with a selfless bodhicitta motivation is utterly worthwhile. Therefore, every action we do, every action, should be done with the thought to benefit others. As Khunu Lama Rinpoche says in The Jewel Lamp:
[338] When you walk, walk with bodhicitta. When you sit, sit with bodhicitta. When you stand, stand with bodhicitta. When you sleep, sleep with bodhicitta.
[339] When you look, look with bodhicitta. When you eat, eat with bodhicitta. When you speak, speak with bodhicitta. When you think, think with bodhicitta.
Twenty-four hours a day, every action we do should be done with bodhicitta, not for ourselves but for others. No matter what action we do, if it’s done with the mind cherishing others it’s a Dharma action, one that will lead us to peerless happiness and lead all others to peerless happiness. On the other hand, as long as our actions don’t oppose the self-cherishing thought, they are worldly actions, done out of worldly concern, and can only result in increasing our ignorance and in having to experience future suffering.
I was so inspired by Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s verses that I thought it might be good to advertise them for people to see them and bring them into their lives. You can have the verses printed on a cup and remember them when you drink coffee or have them as a bumper sticker on your car. (The car I use in America is covered in Dharma slogans!) One way I actually did this was by having some people produce bookmarks with these ideas on them. They became very popular. We modified the verses for the bookmark, which finally said,
Live with compassion Work with compassion Die with compassion Meditate with compassion Enjoy with compassion When problems come, experience them with compassion
It is possible to do every action with bodhicitta. When we eat, we can eat to satisfy our greed or we can eat to sustain ourselves in order to best help others.
The purpose of our life is to help free all beings from suffering. That’s the reason we are alive; that’s the reason for our survival, each day, each hour, each minute—to eliminate all the suffering of every kind mother sentient being. With this motivation, every second of our life becomes incredibly meaningful, not narrow but infinite like the limitless sky. It gives meaning to every tiny thing we do. With a bodhicitta motivation, every action becomes a Dharma action; every action becomes immense, with great, great meaning.
When we generate bodhicitta, such as saying the refuge and bodhicitta prayer with our palms together to the Buddha, we collect far greater merit than making offerings of buddha fields equaling the number of grains of sand of the Ganges river, filled with jewels, diamonds, silver and gold. If the benefits could materialize, even the sky would not be enough to hold them. …
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by explaining that people who don’t understand holy Dharma use prayers to pray for success in this life alone—for their relationships, their children, and other situations that will end at the end of this life. No matter how many degrees they have from Oxford or Cambridge University or how much they study science, they pray for this life only without praying for enlightenment or liberation from samsara or even the happiness of future lives. They don’t know about Dharma, karma, reincarnation, or past and future lives. And if human beings are like this, what about animals? They just run around after food all of the time. This is ignorance.
When you experience happiness, it is due to the kindness of mother sentient beings—every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura being, every asura being, every intermediate state being. When you experience happiness, it is important to think, “I have received this by the kindness of others.” The other thing to think about when happiness occurs is that every happiness is thanks to the kindness of the guru.
Just like your consciousness has no beginning, your wrong concepts—which mean your delusions, ignorance, self-cherishing thought, attachment, and anger—are also beginningless. The antidote to impure appearances is tantra, Rinpoche explains. In tantra you visualize everything as pure—yourself as the deity, the place as the mandala, the beings you encounter as deities, sounds as mantras, thoughts as the dharmakaya. In tantra, the root of samsara is the impure subtle consciousness and wind. The continuation of all the wrong concepts has no beginning, so your suffering of samsara’s continuation also has no beginning. If you can remember that samsaric suffering is beginningless, you will immediately abandon nonvirtue and practice virtue. Once you think about beginningless samsaric suffering, hell, and the sufferings of all the realms, there is no time for self-cherishing, no time for all the negative karma.
In the West, people think, “I am alone, nobody loves me!” If you are Buddhist you must know that numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas cherish you the most! You are never alone. Buddha gave away his wives, sons, wealth, and body for sentient beings—including you! He practiced the six paramitas for sentient beings, including you! Buddha has perfect power—perfect holy body, holy speech, and holy mind—unlike us, who are limited. Buddha’s holy mind is everywhere. Once your obscurations are purified, you will see numberless buddhas wherever you are. Buddha’s compassion embraces all sentient beings, including you, all the time.
From the buddhas, you receive a perfect human rebirth, the happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment. They buddhas are working for you by manifesting in the ordinary aspect of the guru. All of your happiness comes from the guru. This is a very important thing for you to remember!
All of your happiness comes from the guru, but all of your suffering comes from harming others. Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara says:
If I hadn’t harmed others,
Nobody could harm me.
That means that if you have problems, suffering, depression, even if somebody kills you, beats you, gets angry at you—this is because you harmed them in the past, in past lives. It could have been numberless eons ago. Sometimes as soon as the person sees you in this life, they shoot you, they are angry with you, even before meeting them in this life.
In the view of your disturbed mind, whatever your delusions believe appears to be good. In the view of anger, you think it is good to destroy and harm others. In the view of ignorance, you think it is good to believe things are real. In the view of pride, you believe that it is good to think about how you are better than everyone else. This is all totally wrong. But in your impure view, you believe what you are doing is good. This is the dance of a crazy person.
Someone who harms you is only an object of compassion. You abused that person in past lives, so now they are creating negative karma by harming you. If you hadn’t ever harmed them in the past, they wouldn’t have to harm you now due to karma! And because of harming you, they will have to get lost in the hole of hell. This is why you must only have patience when someone harms you; don’t harm them back. You must help the person, even just recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Do whatever you can do to create benefit.
If you have depression, cancer, the virus, or any suffering, think, “By experiencing this, may all sentient beings be free from disease, spirit harm, negative karma, defilements, and achieve enlightenment.” This will help you from sinking into despair, thinking, “Why is this happening to me? I’m the only one who this happens to!”
The main purpose of practicing thought transformation is not to stop suffering. While you are suffering with pain or a problem, you use that as the path to enlightenment, to benefit sentient beings and cause them to achieve enlightenment. If the problem stops, you have no condition to use in the path to enlightenment. If you want to stop the problem—you can do this with the power of bodhichitta and the good heart.
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.
Rinpoche giving a video teaching in Maratika, Nepal, September 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation, recording this time in Maratika, Nepal. Rinpoche gave this teaching on the topic of depression at the request of a student. It was transmitted via Zoom to a live audience of students, mainly from Singapore, China, and Taiwan.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that to understand depression, we first have to understand our own craziness. Then, when we think of others, we will be able to more easily develop compassion.
Rinpoche then begins an explanation of how the I exists. There are non-Buddhist philosophies that believe that the I is permanent, exists alone, and has its own freedom. The four schools of Buddhist philosophy do not accept that. They believe that the I is impermanent and changes by causes and conditions, year by year, second by second.
As an example, Rinpoche talks about how a flower changes day by day to explain gross impermanence, which is evident in visible changes. When a person is young, they can appear beautiful, but over time that changes. Their entire form can change, and they are no more an object of attraction, of attachment. If you become attached to the beauty of an object, this brings so much pain and suffering to your heart due to impermanence. Because beauty changes, there’s nothing to be attached to.
Rinpoche then discusses how we mistakenly think that the I exists as permanent, alone, and with its own freedom. He also goes over other mistaken views of how the I exists, including those of some of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. But, Rinpoche acknowledges, the Chittamatra view that everything comes from the mind can help depression.
Emotions and problems come from the basic wrong concept that believes that the I is permanent, exists alone, and exists with its own freedom. From that, emotions and all the problems come. You fight while holding your wrong view—you kill and smash. It’s childish. Then in the view of a mind disturbed by spirit possession and delusions, harmful actions appear to be positive! For example, Rinpoche explains, when anger arises, a disturbed mind thinks that it is positive.
Attachment and anger arise based on how ignorance discriminates good and bad. Quoting from Lama Tsongkhapa in Lamrim Chenmo:
Ignorance, which is in the nature of exaggeration, exaggerates the differentiations into good and bad. Then attachment and anger arise. Therefore, the way of holding [objects] by these [wrong concepts] can also be gotten rid of by logic.
Rinpoche explains that an object is merely labeled. On the basis of that, ignorance exaggerates the object and sees it as not merely labeled. Then based on that exaggeration, you discriminate good and bad. After that, anger and attachment come. You can prove that anger and attachment are wrong and come from wrong concepts.
So, where is the depression? Attachment and anger. There is the depression that you understand the reason for and depression that you don’t know the reason for. In some cases, you know why you are feeling depressed. You wanted something that you didn’t get. Your attachment or self-cherishing didn’t get what it wants. In other cases, you don’t know why you are feeling depressed, and that is related to your past life actions of nonvirtue, your negative karma.
Depression does not come from the view of bodhichitta. Even if you have the view of effortful bodhichitta, you will not be depressed, Rinpoche explains. There is also no depression if you have the view of wisdom realizing emptiness.
So depression comes from the basic wrong concept of how the I exists. Your wrong concepts are the real craziness. There is so much to meditate on, to analyze, to learn, and to recognize. You have to discover the truth in your life, Rinpoche says. It is so important.
Rinpoche then discusses the Prasangika view of how the I exists. This ultimate right view is what we need to meditate on, realize, and develop because it ceases the seed of delusion and karma. The I that exists, exists in mere name, labeled by the mind that focuses on the valid base, the aggregates. That’s it, Rinpoche explains. Therefore, it is totally empty. There is not one atom of I exiting from its own side. Because nothing exists from its own side, there is no basis for depression to arise.
What can we do when we experience depression?
Practice mindfulness that nothing exists from its own side.
As you live your life, practice mindfulness that every action, every object, every phenomenon is totally empty. Like this, the depression is also empty; nothing exists from its own side.
Practice mindfulness that everything is a hallucination.
Whatever you do—the appearances, all the different wrong views that you have—understand that everything comes from the mind. So you recognize the dream as a dream. This helps keep the unhappy mind from arising. It also helps the immune system as anger has a negative effect on the immune system as well. So this also protects you from disease. So, loving kindness, peace, satisfaction, contentment, patience—all these help your physical health as well as your mental health.
Rinpoche offers a more detailed commentary on these points in the video, and anyone wishing to use Rinpoche’s advice to reduce depression is encouraged to watch the video and follow along in the transcript for the full advice.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “From Where Depression Comes”:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making prayers in front of sacred images in a museum of Newari art, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following short video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche examines the question of why certain things happen:
Why does a tornado pick up a car and drop it out of the sky, killing a certain person? Why are leaves and petals of a flower made a certain way? What decides the colors of a butterfly’s wings or the colors of a peacock’s tail?
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that the answer to all these questions is karma, in particular, subtle karma. Because all these things come from karma, that also means they all come from the mind.
Rinpoche says, “Because of that, we can create suffering, we can create happiness, we can create enlightenment, we can create hell. So we have freedom in our hands.”
In short, Rinpoche explains that we should use our understanding of the external world to understand how our mind has great freedom.
Mingyur Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Khadro-la at Swayambunath, Nepal, June 2021. Photo by Ven. Thubten Tendar.
During a retreat in 2017, a student asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche about a bad hurricane that had just caused great damage to parts of the Caribbean and Florida Keys: “If it is the karma of the people on the islands to experience the hurricane, how can we change their karma?” Here is a summary of Rinpoche’s response, which you can watch in the video below:
Rinpoche explains that we pray so that we can purify the negative karma so that the violent weather isn’t experienced and so the landlord beings do not create harm. Praying to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and to the Guru has the power to change things and help people who are in danger.
After all, why do we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? “That is a big question. Forget about the hurricane, [and think about] just yourself and how [Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and the Guru] can guide you,” Rinpoche says.
The lamrim explains there are four reasons why the Buddha can guide you, which Rinpoche discusses. “The Buddha himself is free from all dangers—so skillful in liberating others from all the sufferings, all the dangers—no discriminating thought, compassion to every sentient being.”
Rinpoche emphasizes that it is very important to study the lamrim. “If you never study then [it’s] difficult to understand. You must study [it], over and over, many times,” Rinpoche says, because each time you go over a part of the lamrim you will notice something different.
Rinpoche responded to the question before doing tsog. He tells all the retreat participants, “Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the merit field, [they] know what we are doing now, what we are asking. … So when you pray you have to know that [this is] not blah, blah, blah. … Then also when you pray you must be aware [that] they know what you are doing now, what you are asking.”
Watch the video “Question and Answer: Can We Change Karma?”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing out the Prajnaparamita in pure gold, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Recently we shared a video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche explaining some of the profound benefits of writing out the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and some of the history of Rinpoche’s ongoing project to write out this sutra in pure gold which Rinpoche and others have been undertaking for sixteen years including Ven. Tsering, Jane Seidlitz, and recently a monk from Kopan Monastery and a nun from Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery have joined these meritorious efforts.
We are pleased to share PART TWO of Rinpoche’s teachings on the benefits of Prajnaparamita and invite you to rejoice, again, that after a ten year break due to a stroke, Rinpoche is now writing out this sutra in pure gold again.
By hearing this sutra, writing it down, reading it aloud, or memorizing it, you create more merit than is fathomable. Rinpoche explains that by doing so, from life to life you crush the oceans of samsaric suffering, you crush the delusions. That is how profound this sutra is, it enables you to reach enlightenment.
The Prajnaparamita Project is an FPMT Charitable Project which covers the cost of gold, paper, and calligraphy pens for the ongoing writing out of this most precious and beneficial sutra by Rinpoche and others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche holding the book Lamrim Year, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lamrim Year: Making Life Meaningful Day By Day is an essential guide for students at any level of Buddhist study who want to develop their mind in the graduated path to enlightenment (lamrim).
The book was inspired by Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2013 advise to students on how they could study the entire lamrim over the course of a year:
“My suggestion would be to divide the twelve months of the year into lamrim meditations and then meditate on each subject for one month or two weeks to finish the whole lamrim in one year. . . . To meditate like this each year, wow, wow, wow! That would be great. Your life would be so rich and you would be getting closer to realization and closer to enlightenment. At the time of death you can be happy and satisfied that you spent enough of your life practicing Dharma.”
Taking Rinpoche’s advice to heart, Alison Murdoch, who compiled and edited Lamrim Year, set out to work her way through the indispensable lamrim text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, by the great Buddhist master Pabongka Rinpoche. Finding it hard to maintain daily momentum, she writes in the book’s Editor’s Preface that she had the idea to create “a 365-page daily route map through the lamrim that would consist entirely of extracts from the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and provide the best possible chance of fulfilling Rinpoche’s advice in the rough and tumble of modern life.”
Lamrim Year provides a 365-day outline of the graduated path in a clear, practical format that is suitable for both individual and group practice. Each day has a page with a quote and text selected from four decades of teachings by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The page concludes with a recap summarizing the main points for reflection and a reference to the lamrim topics covered, which closely follows the outline in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.
Here’s an excerpt from Lamrim Year: Making Life Meaningful Day By Day, published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
Day 64: The Perfect Human Rebirth (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)
“An appreciation of the perfect human rebirth is fundamental to our Dharma journey” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The great meditator, Lama Tsongkhapa, who formalized the whole lamrim structure, broke the lamrim up into two: appreciation of this life of freedom and richness—the perfect human rebirth—and how to make use of this precious opportunity—the rest of the lamrim topics from impermanence and death, refuge and karma up to the point where we attain full enlightenment.
The lamrim is not like a buffet, where we can pick and choose whatever we fancy. We have to eat the whole feast, otherwise we won’t get what we want, liberation or enlightenment. When we explore the lamrim we will see how each topic leads to the next and how each is therefore indispensable. The meditations on the perfect human rebirth come right at the beginning of the path, just after relying on a spiritual teacher. We need to understand karma and we need to have refuge, and to deepen our commitment we need to understand impermanence and death. But none of that will happen if we squander this precious and unique opportunity that we now have, this one time only.
Only those of us with this perfect human rebirth can become inner scientists and discover the true cause of happiness. We’re unbelievably fortunate. We have the opportunity to study, meditate, and understand everything that the Buddha taught, from the simplest lamrim topic to the most advanced. We have the opportunity to develop the altruistic heart, the attitude that wishes to be fully awakened to benefit others, and to understand the reality of things and events—emptiness. There is nothing we cannot understand with this perfect human rebirth.
The first section of the lamrim focuses on the perfect human rebirth
Each lamrim topic is an essential step on the journey to enlightenment
Only a perfect human rebirth gives us the opportunity to discover true happiness
For a printed copy of Lamrim Year: Making Life Meaningful Day By Day and links to more excerpts, visit the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website: https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/lamrim-year-book
We can transform any problem, even death, into happiness. The point is not to stop the experience of problems but to stop the conditions that we call ‘problems’ from disturbing our mind, and instead use them to support the spiritual path that we practice.
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