Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche looking at bees on a bush at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing how to make life most beneficial, useful, and easy—particularly to other sentient beings. Even if we are having a happy life and enjoying it, it would be unfortunate if we wasted the opportunity of this precious human life.

Rinpoche tells the story of a former abbot of Sera Je Monastery, who survived prison following the Chinese invasion of Tibet by eating undigested beans found in the feces of Chinese prison workers left in the field near the prison. He was offered so little food, but with the beans in the feces, he was able to survive. He was educated at Sera Monastery, became a Madhyamaka and Prajnaparamita expert, and had nearly a thousand students. Many highly educated geshes, some who now serve in FPMT centers and elsewhere, as well as reincarnated lamas, were all students of his. Through the hardship of prison and hunger he was able to bring the teachings of Buddha to so many monks who have also had very beneficial lives teaching others as well.

When everything we do is in service to the ignorance holding the “I” as real, we are a slave and attachment is the master. This is who we are working for (self-cherishing), and for whom we create the cause of all the suffering and have to experience all the suffering. Even if you study Dharma but are still clinging to the happiness of this life, you aren’t practicing holy Dharma, it is worldly Dharma, non-virtue. Giving up attachment, clinging to this life, is the very beginning Dharma.

Before the karma is ripened, there is so much a human being can do: purification, collection of merit, and actualizing the path. But once it is ripened, because you didn’t get the practice done, you must experience it.

We need to practice holy Dharma to achieve peace and real happiness and to be free from all the problems and suffering of the world. From that happiness, one can achieve liberation from samsara—a blissful state of peace for yourself and ultimate happiness, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations.

Remembering impermanence and death at the beginning makes it possible to follow holy Dharma. In the middle, it is necessary to actualize the path. And at the end, remembering death and impermanence makes it possible to achieve enlightenment. This frees us from the poison of the eight worldly concerns. The realization of death and impermanence is so important. We shouldn’t think, “Oh, this doesn’t matter, it is only a beginning Dharma practice.” That is very foolish.

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 Very Beginning Dharma Is Giving Up the Attachment Clinging to This Life”:
https://youtu.be/4S9rlzUOSyI

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Very Beginning Dharma Is Giving Up the Attachment Clinging to This Life”
• Recognizing the False I (PDF,.epub, .mobi) is a commentary written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a set of short meditations to help students identify the object to be refuted—what Rinpoche calls “the false I”—during reflections on emptiness
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

The stupas of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup (left) and Geshe Lama Konchog at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video begins with a brief biography of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, the former abbot of Kopan Monastery in Nepal, who arrived at Kopan in 1973 and oversaw the growth and development of the monastery and nunnery for almost forty years, until his passing in 2011. Ven. Thubten Kunkhen, who served as Khensur Rinpoche’s attendant for two decades, shares stories of the much loved abbot’s history, accomplishments, and qualities, and introduces seven-year-old Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, the recognized reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup.  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing the number of people who have died in the United States due to the coronavirus. He then asks why the number is going down. Rinpoche explains that this is because people don’t know what is true and what is false; they use their whole life to create the cause of suffering. The right view is karma. From virtuous thoughts and actions, the result is happiness. From non-virtuous thoughts and actions, the result is suffering and problems.

Those who have met the Dharma are unbelievably fortunate because they can use their precious human bodies to achieve enlightenment. Using the example of Milarepa—who who didn’t even have one rupee to his name, lived on nettles and water, and faced many hardships in life while practicing Dharma—Rinpoche explains that if one has the will, perseverance, and patience, one can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. Even if you don’t meet the Dharma, one still can think that the human body is so precious because you can cause happiness to others.

We wake up in the morning clinging and grasping to the happiness of this life. We get up, get dressed, wash up, eat breakfast, and go to work with the motivation of attachment and non-virtue. We think: When can I be happy? Meanwhile, many Tibetans recite OM MANI PADME HUM and engage in other Dharma practices while doing daily activities. This makes life unbelievably meaningful with constant purification and collection of merit.

The most important thing to practice is compassion. Without it, your life becomes empty.

We have to be very careful. If from the beginning we practiced Dharma, we wouldn’t need to experience the virus. There are people all over the world who won’t get the virus or die from it, while thousands of others die every day. This is why we have to watch our mind all the time—to police the mind. You are the guru, mother, father, and bodyguard of your own mind. When you follow delusion, you harm yourself. When you follow virtue, such as renunciation, bodhichitta, and right view, you are benefiting yourself and therefore benefiting numberless sentient beings, especially with bodhichitta.

All of the harm we experience comes from harming others in the past; and all happiness depends on what we do with our mind. Everything we experience depends on our way of thinking right now. Therefore, continual purification is so important. There are many practices one can do for purification, including Vajrasattva practice and prostrations to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas, and so forth, but the most powerful thing one can do for purification is to follow your guru’s advice and make your guru’s mind most happy. 

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 “If We Had Been Careful of Karma, There Would Be No Reason for the Virus to Happen”:
https://youtu.be/kbcjMW6kQ28

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “If We Had Been Careful of Karma, There Would Be No Reason for the Virus to Happen.”
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with senior Kopan monks doing Nolsang to protect and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, Kopan Monastery, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Now is the time to practice Dharma! This is what Lama Zopa Rinpoche is stressing during the COVID-19 crisis.

In regular video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal, Rinpoche offers a consistent message that we can use these difficult times to strengthen and deepen our Dharma practice. Through discussions of compassion, emptiness, and thought transformation, and many inspiring stories, Rinpoche helps guide our understanding of how this global crisis can be transformed so that all can benefit. He urges us to go beyond engaging with the teachings as theory and to put them into actual practice in our daily lives.

In addition, these videos feature short introductory teachings from monks at Kopan Monastery, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Having glimpses into life at the monastery and the activities of the monks also provides an opportunity to connect more deeply with Kopan—the “bedrock” from which the international FPMT organization arose.

If you haven’t taken advantage of these videos yet, you can find them—plus summaries of the teachings, the videos in translation (Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish), transcripts, additional advice from Rinpoche, and materials and resources to further explore the themes discussed—all in one page: “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Visit this regularly updated page, and through the wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings, discover the courage and strength to make the most of this challenging time.

Find links to these new videos and Rinpoche’s advice, plus links to many other resources on “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the Coronavirus Pandemic”:
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 teaching from his room at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Rinpoche explains that the teddy bear behind him is wearing a mask because he is afraid to look at the world. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video beings with Ven. Thubten Kunkhen of Kopan Monastery giving a short biography of the great yogi Geshe Lama Konchog.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching discussing lojong, or thought transformation. This means transforming all problems into happiness, not temporary happiness or today’s happiness, but ultimate happiness, which is liberation from samsara forever, Buddhahood. To understand the term “enlightenment,” one has to study the meaning of total awakening: that one has completed the realizations and there is nothing more to achieve, nothing more to learn. That means complete peerless happiness, forever.

This perfect, unbelievably rare human rebirth is a one-time opportunity to practice, receive teachings, and actualize the path, Rinpoche teaches. This is why it is so important to bear hardships, however difficult, in order to actualize the path within our mind. Then the mind becomes the path to enlightenment.

We are totally deceived by attachment, which is a hallucinated mind, a wrong concept. If you have not actualized Dharma at the time of death, suddenly you realize that you should have studied Dharma, but there is no time. You realize you should have practiced seriously instead of casually experimenting with Dharma, like you would restaurants or a trip around the world.  

Impermanence is easy to understand and, Rinpoche emphasizes, it is so important! It is difficult to control the mind and the delusions that our mind has been habituated with since beginningless rebirths. The time of death is uncertain. The best thing to think is that you might die today or tomorrow. Meditation on impermanence isn’t difficult, but we must think about it from our heart. Awareness of impermanence and death helps us receive realizations and complete the path. Otherwise, if you learn Dharma only intellectually, Rinpoche warns, your whole life is still meaningless actions of nonvirtue.

The purpose of this life is to benefit others. It is unbelievable what one can do. What you do with an ultimate good heart, bodhichitta, makes the best most meaningful life. Wisdom realizing emptiness is the only remedy for the wrong concept from where all suffering comes from—ignorance.

A Buddha doesn’t have negative imprints left by ignorance, which projects the hallucination of true existence. Bodhisattvas, even arya bodhisattvas, do. However, they know it isn’t real. It is like dreaming but knowing you are dreaming. They know it is a hallucination because they know nothing exists from its own side—they have a direct perception of emptiness.

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 “If You Don’t Remember Impermanence-Death, Your Life Becomes a Trip and Wisdom Eliminates the Two Obscurations”:
https://youtu.be/2HEyCke6rTE

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching 
• The text for the Sur practice referred to in this teaching is forthcoming.
• Recognizing the False I (PDF,.epub, .mobi) is a commentary written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a set of short meditations to help students identify the object to be refuted—what Rinpoche calls “the false I”—during reflections on emptiness.
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 walking the grounds at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching discussing how many people have died around the world from the coronavirus. This is because life is in the nature of impermanence, and we are born under the control of delusion and karma. However, those who have the karma to receive correct teachings and listen, reflect, meditate, and actualize the four noble truths correctly can become free from suffering and the cause of suffering. Through actualizing wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, they can cease the seed of delusion and karma.

Those of us born under the control of delusion and karma didn’t get to develop the mind and actualize Buddha’s teachings, and our lives have been under the control of laziness and a wrong concept of permanence, Rinpoche says. Even if we accept that we are going to die, when we wake up in the morning we think, I will live for a long time. Because of this hallucination of life, this wrong concept of permanence, Dharma is left out of life. Controlling and subduing the mind is left out, even if one knows the words from sutra and tantra, philosophy, lamrim, etc., we don’t practice and experience it. This is like having medicine but not taking it.

However many years we have left of life, half of those years are finished while sleeping. Rinpoche stresses that we can use this time for practicing Dharma, even though it is difficult. With a Dharma motivation, particularly with bodhichitta, even sleeping becomes the cause for enlightenment.

A person who generates bodhichitta, or at least the motivation of bodhichitta, is most lucky. Even if you meditate on bochichitta, it covers all sentient beings. There is no nationality, no race, nothing like that. Friends, enemies, and strangers are included.

Given the current situation in the world with the virus and all of the suffering, there is no choice but to develop compassion. Then, when considering karma, that this is due to ignorance not knowing Dharma, it makes you feel deeper compassion for others. This inspires you to abandon negative karma—the cause of suffering—and to practice virtue—the cause of happiness.

The doctors and nurses who dedicate their lives to others, even though there is danger that they could get the contagious disease, from their hearts they want to serve and take care. Even if they get the disease and die, they will never be reborn in the lower realms. This is the best thing for those who sincerely want to help—they are saved from the lower realms and will go to a pure land or have the opportunity to have a higher rebirth such as a deva or human. We all must die, so to die with compassion for others, this is a very good death. Rinpoche reminds that His Holiness says that dying with bodhichitta is the best death.  

One tries to have a long healthy life—watching the food we eat, going for walks, taking time off from working, etc. So, you cherish your life, but the real “I” you cherish is not there. However, Rinpoche says, any charity you offer to others that is bigger than a hair—any charity you give to others—you are offering your life, and from this you get happiness.

Do whatever you can to help animals and people: even a tiny insect like an ant, or a tiny being like a fishing worm; even a small gesture such as carrying heavy luggage for someone or offering your seat on the train or bus. From such a small virtue, the result is happiness.

In conclusion, on the basis of not causing harm, you serve others. The best thing is bodhichitta 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 “Coronavirus Leaves Us No Choice But to Develop Compassion and 80,000 Eons of Benefit from Making Charity”:
https://youtu.be/u6YSt0xytYg

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Coronavirus Leaves Us No Choice But to Develop Compassion and 80,000 Eons of Benefit for Making Charity.” 
• Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta (published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea)
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
• For more advice on practicing bodhichitta in everyday life, read Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities.

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video begins with Losang Namgyal Rinpoche sharing some thoughts about this difficult time due to the coronavirus. He suggests we not only need to stay safe and healthy, but should remember that we have this precious human rebirth. We must also remember impermanence and karma, and this will help us to overcome. He reminds us of the incredible service being offered by health care professionals around the world who deserve our great respect and good heart. And for those who are sick from this virus, we must have great compassion.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching discussing how many people have died from the coronavirus in the United States. He then explains that people all over the world will die—from sickness, famine, in war, due to killing, etc. In fact, the entire world will end sooner or later and anything that grows or was built, will one day end. This is the nature of impermanence.

Rinpoche says that this virus should make us think more about karma. The virus, and the entire world coming into existence, this all came from the mind. Because everything comes from the mind, how to stop suffering also comes from the mind. Rinpoche explains that there is individual suffering, but there are also world problems, called collective karma. In Buddhism, you can stop the suffering and create happiness. One can do this by understanding, learning, and hearing from a perfect teacher. Then by reflecting and meditating, one can actualize the path. Your mind becomes the path to overcome the oceans of suffering in samsara, including the virus, which is only one thing, one suffering.

In the West we are always distracting ourselves from the suffering of death. But when it comes, we have to experience it. If you haven’t met Dharma, you don’t want to think about it, and when you do, your thoughts are only of fear. There’s no method or preparation, just fear. So we ignore it.

Even though we wish to never be separated from that which brings us comfort—including our family, clothing, money, and possessions—at the time of death we will definitely be separated from everything we enjoy. These things cheat us, and we have to give them up at the time of death. 

What this virus is telling us is that we must practice Dharma. The virus came from the mind. But the mind also creates happiness, Rinpoche reminds us, not just suffering. A positive mind creates happiness. To practice Dharma means to cultivate a happy mind. Buddha’s teachings persuade us to overcome suffering. Not only this virus, but all suffering—including the suffering of death, suffering of rebirth, suffering of old age, suffering of sickness, and the suffering of pain. Buddha’s teachings also liberate us from the suffering of change of samsaric pleasures, which become the suffering of pain in the end. Since beginningless rebirths up until now we haven’t had even a one-second break from suffering. From birth the suffering of pain, and then the suffering of change, arises.

All the problems of the world are giving us instruction to practice Dharma, to meditate. By meditation, Rinpoche means making the mind more familiar with virtue, the cause of happiness—making the mind become the path to enlightenment.

In conclusion, Rinpoche gives some advice on what to do if we lose our brave heart, feel weak, lose enthusiasm about working for others, become lazy, or get depressed: Remember bodhichitta. This will transform one’s life.

Rinpoche then leads a powerful dedication to actualize bodhichitta, with prayers for the sick and those who have died, for Lama Tsongkhapa to be our direct guru in all future lives, and to cultivate the bodhisattva attitude of using our very life to benefit others, to regard all sentient beings as most precious.

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 video teaching “All the Problems in the World, Including the Coronavirus, Are Telling Us to Practice Dharma”:
https://youtu.be/OwX9ew7wLb4

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “All the Problems in the World, Including the Coronavirus, Are Telling Us to Practice Dharma.” 
• Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 teaching from his room at Kopan Monastery with his furry friends, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video begins with another practical example from a young Kopan monk about how we can transform everyday activities into bodhichitta mindfulness. While cutting up vegetables or food for a meal, one can think: I am cutting all the sentient beings’ ignorance and delusions with this knife.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by explaining that bodhichitta is a remedy for unfavorable conditions, undesirable sufferings, and problems. Rinpoche then quotes the great Buddhist master Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara: “If you want to guide yourself and others, exchange yourself with others.” Right now, most of us live our lives cherishing ourselves, “I,” more than others. We let others suffer while we get happiness.

But where is this “I” that we cherish so dearly?

Rinpoche explains that if you look for the “I”—from the head all the way down to the toes, you won’t find it in the body or in the mind, or in the five aggregates together. If you analyze it, you will find that this is a big inaccuracy and shows how “false” we have lived our lives. You cannot find the real “I.” Rinpoche says that the biggest false, the biggest shock, the biggest ignorance is that this “I” which we cherish more than everyone else, doesn’t even exist.

The root of the suffering and problems that exist in the world come from the mind, created by wrong concepts.  We typically don’t think that our ignorance is the cause of our suffering; we think it comes from outside. We ask why this virus has come. The most important discovery is that all sufferings come from the mind. Because of ignorance, we have been suffering in beginningless rebirths up until now, Rinpoche explains. And if we don’t do anything, if we believe in the hallucinations of this life, we reincarnate again and again without end.

One needs good karma, merit, to meet the Dharma and receive correct teachings from a legitimate guru. The West doesn’t talk much about merit, Rinpoche says. There is a lack of concern about merit—creating the cause for happiness.

The method for letting go of the “I,”—where all the problems come from—is to exchange oneself with others, to cherish others. When your activities of the body, speech, and mind are done with bodhichitta, you collect not only skies of merit but more than skies of merit. This merit helps to realize emptiness. Then, one is able to cease the disturbing thought obscurations. In this way, bodhichitta helps achieve enlightenment. Rinpoche asks us to remember this deep in our hearts: When you do everything with bodhichitta—the ultimate good heart wishing to benefit all sentient beings and free them from the oceans of suffering—then you collect more than skies of merit every time.

Of course, Rinpoche explains, the object from whom you collect the most merit from is the guru. Even the tiniest offering to Buddha, even one tiny Christmas light, one nut or raisin, or one drop of water, this becomes the cause for enlightenment. This benefit is for yourself, but then, if you dedicate the merit to numberless sentient beings, this causes so much happiness for them. Rinpoche asks: If that is not the happiest life, what else can be the happiest life?

Rinpoche says again, “The most important thing is bodhichitta. If you want to help yourself and you want to help others, the ultimate thing is exchanging oneself and others.” Rinpoche concludes this teaching quoting from the Bodhicharyavatara that one’s practice of exchanging self with others should be done secretly.  Rinpoche explains that this is to help with arrogance, because once we start asserting, “I am this,” there is no Dharma 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 video teaching “If You Want to Guide and Help Others, Exchange Yourself with Others”:
https://youtu.be/VYYB1QQG9gE

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “If You Want to Guide and Help Others, Exchange Yourself with Others.”
• Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video begins with a young Kopan monk washing his hands and letting us know that he is washing the stains of delusion from himself and all sentient beings. In this way, even the seemingly mundane task of washing the body can be utilized in the path to enlightenment for the benefit of all. Yes, even washing up can become a practice in bodhichitta mindfulness!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching remind us that if we wish to benefit all, if we wish for others to rely on us and trust us, we need bodhichitta.

What is bodhichitta?

Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word meaning, as Rinpoche explains, “the precious thought of enlightenment”—the mind that wishes to achieve enlightenment in order to lead all other beings into that same state. It is the attitude of the bodhisattva, of the person who makes the compassionate vow to save others from suffering.

Rinpoche explains that to gain the trust of others, to be a virtuous friend to sentient beings, the best way to achieve this is through bodhichitta realization. To do this, one must learn and reflect on the bodhichittta teachings. At first, when one has a bodhichitta motivation, it might not be real, meaning, it might not be fully felt in the heart. However, through training the mind, this practice eventually leads to effortless bodhichitta. To begin on the path to bodhichitta, the key factor is a good heart. Then, slowly, slowly, one progresses toward bodhichitta.  

The real purpose of life is to benefit others: to free them from oceans of samsaric suffering and to liberate them from the causes of that suffering—delusion and karma.

Due to this virus, the whole world is scared, Rinpoche observes. However, we do have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to transform this suffering into happiness. Rinpoche explains that he is not talking about short-term happiness, but rather, utilizing this crisis in the path to enlightenment for numberless sentient beings. One can use their own suffering—sickness or whatever problem one is having, as well as all pleasure one experiences—to achieve enlightenment for others. If you get the virus, for example, no matter how much pain you experience, you can make it worthwhile. You can experience it for sentient beings. When you are able to do that, this is the best life, according to Rinpoche. This is the greatest purification and the way to collect most extensive merit.

Rinpoche reminds us that Buddha was like us. He had problems and suffering the same as we do. But, he cherished others. He changed his mind and cherished others more than himself, despite hardships, and achieved enlightenment for you! This gives us courage to know we can achieve this ourselves, and it also gives us strength to know that Buddha is here for us, through his teachings.

Everything exists in mere name, but if one doesn’t have the merit to understand, one thinks this is nihilism, that nothing exists. Rinpoche says, This thinking is where suffering comes from. The root of all suffering that beings experience, including the coronavirus, is ignorance. By realizing emptiness, this stops ignorance. Therefore, Buddha taught about dependent arising.

Rinpoche warns that what the “I” is, is so unbelievably subtle that one needs to meditate to see it. What we think is real now, this is a hallucination. A worldly person can have so much education and science, but seeing the truth of “I” is so rare. So, what appears and what you believe, in reality, is not true.

Rinpoche asks that we pray for all people who are sick and particularly those who have the coronavirus.

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 Rinopche’s teaching “Use Pleasure and Suffering to Achieve Enlightenment and Experience the Virus for Numberless Sentient Beings”:
https://youtu.be/jSZCrZMrqdk

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Use Pleasure and Suffering to Achieve Enlightenment and Experience the Virus for Numberless Sentient Beings.” 
• Rinpoche quotes verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s Verses in Praise of Bodhichitta, published in English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep at the Sea.
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

This new video begins with a short powerful message from Geshe Ngawang Sangye, sharing Shantideva’s wisdom, from A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life: “If a problem can be solved, what reason is there to be upset? If there is no possible solution, what use is there to being sad?” Geshe Sangye suggests that the way to combat mental and physical challenges produced from the lockdown is to remember that “every cloud has a silver lining” and many good things can be learned from staying indoors, such as preparing the mind to look for solutions to beat the coronavirus internally—including distancing ourselves from negative thoughts, not just from social situations.   

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching by explaining that through actualizing the path—especially wisdom directly realizing emptiness—one eliminates the subtle hallucination, the negative imprint left by delusion—this becomes totally purified. There is no more learning and one becomes enlightened.

What is the path? And how can we actualize it?

Rinpoche acknowledges that due to the coronavirus pandemic, so many people in the most affected countries are scared due to many people getting sick and dying. However, we can utilize anything, big or small—unfavorable things, undesirable things, and even pleasures and happiness in the life—all can be transformed into the path to enlightenment, not just short-term happiness—total cessation of gross and subtle mistakes of the mind, and the completion of realizations.  

How can we use this crisis to get enlightened?

Rinpoche says we can. Right now, due to our obscured mind, we see the pandemic as a “crisis,” as difficult. We believe in it, we buy into the story of it. Like we are dreaming but don’t realize we are dreaming. We can transform this experience into the path to enlightenment, great liberation, peerless happiness—not just short-term happiness. 

Rinpoche explains that this is how to make one’s life meaningful and not wasted, not “garbage.” Not just to benefit oneself, but also to benefit every single being in every realm. We make our life meaningful and cause ultimate happiness for them. This is being wise, using our lives to benefit others, and not wasting it on benefiting only ourselves. 

We hold the wrong view that sentient beings—people and animals—are there to be used by us for our pleasure. However, Rinpoche explains, that by cherishing them, as we cherish ourselves, then we realize that all suffering comes from “I,” and all happiness comes from others.

If we want happiness, we have to create the cause for happiness and abandon the cause for suffering. We say we want happiness, and believe we want happiness, but we typically use our life in a way that creates suffering. However, we are so fortunate to have met the Dharma, to learn new methods for creating the cause for real happiness. 

Every sentient being who is not free from samsara (suffering in rebirth, old age, sickness, death, and all the worldly pleasures that are also in the nature of suffering) needs to be liberated from the root of suffering: delusion and karma, and the ignorance that holds the “I” as truly existent.

With Dharma, one can continue and develop.

Rinpoche assures us that Buddha’s teachings contain no betrayal, no deception. Of course, when one is a beginner, it is important to examine and assess the teachings, and if one has the merit, one is able understand and discover the teachings and develop stable devotion. With no devotion, one analyzes, but without merit, no discovery comes, and one remains very skeptical. Rinpoche explains that in the West, we often are very clever, but don’t always have the merit to discover the teachings and instead focus our energies on short-term happiness in this life alone. To become enlightened, to cease all of the obscurations of the mind, and to come to all the realizations—what one needs to do is purify the mind and collect merit.

Rinpoche reminds us that Buddha’s holy name, the profound mantras, and prayers contain so much benefit. By reciting for yourself or for other sentient beings like animals, even on dead bones or hair of animals or people (including when one is eating meat), you can help purify the negative karma of that being. 

In conclusion, Rinpoche made the strong point that there is nothing more beneficial to do with one’s life—job, family, extensive education, your own body—nothing else brings a more meaningful life than practicing Dharma.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here in summary, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinopche’s teaching “Don’t Make Your Life Garbage and the Buddha’s Teachings Are Unbetraying”:
https://youtu.be/ueYg7Zrhlcg

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Don’t Make Your Life Garbage and the Buddha’s Teachings Are Unbetraying.”
• In this video, Rinpoche mentions several mantras, including Shayamuni Buddha’s name and mantra, that can be found on our “Mantras” page.
• Read Recognizing the False I (PDF, .epub, .mobi), a commentary written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on and set of simple meditation techniques for identifying the object to be refuted— what Rinpoche calls “the false I”—during reflections on emptiness.
• In the dedication, Rinpoche recites the dedication verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485.

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 in front of the main gompa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this video teaching quoting His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice that because individuals have different minds and different karma, there need to be different religions in the world.  Rinpoche then explains how sentient beings are the source of all happiness and how they must be foremost in our thoughts and actions. This is necessary, Rinpoche says, for there to be peace in the world—if we value sentient beings above all else, we won’t harm them.

“Sentient beings are the most precious, most kind, most dear, wishfulfilling. That is the main one—sentient beings. Then, then, the second is God. If you believe in God, the second is God. [Thinking] in this way, the world has greeeeeeeat peace, no harm to each other, no war, no fighting others, no putting down others,” Rinpoche explains. “When you think sentient beings are more precious and God is second, oh, then there is incredible peace and happiness in the world.”

Rinpoche continues by explaining how the self-cherishing mind, which puts the self before others, creates so much suffering. So cherishing sentient beings—having great compassion and bodhichitta, and putting them first—takes away the suffering, Rinpoche says, and is pleasing to God. “If you cherish sentient beings, then that is the best offering to God. That is the best offering to the Buddha. It is the best offering for Dharma. What please most buddhas and bodhisattvas is that.”

Rinpoche also talks about how powerful bodhichitta is for calming the mind. “When you remember bodhichitta, your upsetness is utilized in the path to enlightenment,” Rinpoche says, referring to a quote from Khunu Lama Rinpoche.

In the second part of the video, Rinpoche continues to offer instruction on how to help people who are dying, or who have died, with mantra recitation. 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Sentient Beings Come before God and Mantras to Benefit Others”:
https://youtu.be/RzpNYj_DdS4

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “Sentient Beings Come before God and Mantras to Benefit Others.”
• In this video, Rinpoche mentions several mantras, most can be found in mantras to recite for the dying. You can find Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name and mantra, Holy name of Buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chen, and other mantras on FPMT Education’s Mantra page.
• In the dedication, Rinpoche refers to and recites the dedication verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485.
• More links on death and dying.

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 at Kopan Monastery, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins his teaching explaining how a nonvirtuous mind leads to negative actions that create the negative karma for suffering, and how a virtuous, healthy minds results in positive actions that create the positive karma for happiness. Because of this, Rinpoche says, we should come to the conclusion that we must work on improving our minds through studying the teachings of the Buddha:

“That is what the Buddha said—’Subdue one’s own mind.’ Oh-hoh, everything comes on the mind. Once you know karma— So many outside subjects are unknown, undiscovered, no idea at all. You only think they are coming from outside, the virus is coming from outside, it is not coming from the mind. There is no understanding of them coming from the mind. So as I said before, to give some idea, therefore, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings, the conclusion is ‘Subdue one’s own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha.’ Oh, that is the most important. So you see, if you are studying just lamrim [the graduated path to enlightenment], lojong [mind training], it is not just for knowledge, not just to get knowledge so you can show your pride to others. Oh, you know Buddhism, not like that. You have to use the lamrim to subdue your mind.”

This video begins with an introduction from Charok Lama, a young reincarnate lama who usually studies at Sera Je Monastery in South India, but is staying at Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Conclusion Is Subdue One’s Own Mind”:
https://youtu.be/6sddp2C-da8

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Conclusion Is Subdue One’s Own Mind.”

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2020-during-covid-19-crisis/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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 next to a coffee tree at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings from Kopan Monastery in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic.

In this video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the four causes of unknowing, which need to be removed in order to become fully enlightened and do perfect work for sentient beings. 

Rinpoche tells a story from the time of the Buddha about an old man whose karma to become a monk was the result of going around a stupa in a past life as a fly following the scent of dung. The abbot Sharipu couldn’t see the old man’s karma and refused to accept him as a monk. However, the Buddha, because he had removed the four causes of unknowing, could see the karma of the old man. And because of that, the old man became a monk and eventually had realizations and entered the arya path.

Rinpoche shares the story as an illustration of why we need to become enlightened. “As practitioners of Mahayana Buddhism, the whole aim of the life is to achieve enlightenment, not just for yourself to space out, but so that you are perfectly qualified—the numberless sentient beings, able to liberate them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment,” Rinpoche explains. “[You should think] ‘therefore, I must achieve full enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to listen to the teaching.’ Generally the outlines of lojong [mind training], the whole teaching is about that.”

Rinpoche then gives the oral transmission of the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras with commentary on the benefits of the mantras. 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach on “The Four Causes of Unknowing and the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras”:
https://youtu.be/guiwtTPPs_0

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching “The Four Causes of Unknowing and the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras.”
• Find links to the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras.
• Read the dedication verses from Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland, v. 483–485.
• For more on how the Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart mantras are used with holy objects, see the booklet Filling and Blessing Statues.

Find more video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis.

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.