Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts

Rinpoche explains that Lama Tsongkhapa asked Manjushri “what is the quickest way to actualize realizations on the path to enlightenment?” Manjushri replied that there are four things. First, purify the obscurations. Obscurations can be purified because they are not in the nature of the mind. The mind’s true nature is buddha nature; it is completely empty of existing in the way it appears to us. The more we purify the obscurations, the more realizations come–this is because of the power of the mind. In the West it might seem like if you have a mind then it has to have attachment, it has to have anger and ignorance, it has to have the self-cherishing thought, but the Buddha taught that the mind’s true nature is totally free from attachment, anger and ignorance. The best purification is pleasing the guru. Everything depends completely on correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. Second, collect the cause, which is virtue. There are many practices to help do this, such as mandala offerings, but the main practice is following the guru’s advice and wishes. Third, one-pointedly make requests to the guru to receive blessings of the path in your heart and to understand Dharma. “One-pointedly” means looking at the guru as a buddha, using quotations and reasoning. Through your requests, you will receive blessings like rainfall, nourishing the seed of realizations in your heart. Fourth, meditation. But meditation alone is not enough to achieve enlightenment. If you think like this, this is not understanding how to practice lamrim, how to achieve liberation from samsara how to go to enlightenment. Manjushri said that if you correctly practice with all the support–purifying, collecting merits and one-pointedly requesting the guru–then enlightenment happens. 

When one is upset or afraid—and also happy—remember bodhichitta so life is not wasted and everything we experience is dedicated to others, Rinpoche advises. When we recite mantras with a bodhichitta motivation, it becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment. Afterward, dedicate the merits for oneself to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings, so that the merits become unceasing, like a drop of water added to the ocean. Also, we can seal the dedication with emptiness so the merits won’t be subject to being destroyed by anger or heresy. Since beginningless rebirths we have been believing the hallucination that everything we experience, including the I, is real; this ignorance the root of our suffering. Dedicating with emptiness leaves positive imprints on our mind, even if we don’t fully understand the words we are saying at this time. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 09, 2017, at Light of the Path Retreat, United States. 

The Buddha said that we get exactly the same merit from making an offering, no matter how tiny, to a statue or painting of the Buddha as we would from making an offering to the actual Buddha. How can we maximize our offerings to be of most benefit? Rinpoche says that even if we have nothing more than a clean bowl in which to offer water—we can visualize this offering as nectar, since a buddha actually sees nectar, and in this way we collect unbelievable merit. Rinpoche also discusses how to offer a mandala—by precisely visualizing each item in it, we get the merit of having actually offered whatever it is we visualized, not what we actually offered, which may just be a small pile of grain or sand. By doing purification with Vajrasattva and collecting merits with mandala offerings, gradually we will be able to change our mind, which once seemed impossible to change, from selfishness into bodhicitta. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 15, 2017, at Light of the Path Retreat, United States. 

To practice the paramita of patience, we need someone who makes us angry or doesn’t give us what we want. Practicing the paramita of patience enables us to achieve enlightenment. Therefore, the person who makes us angry gives us enlightenment and then we are able to bring numberless sentient beings to enlightenment as well. In this way, we can see the kindness of the person who makes us angry is like a limitless sky. There’s no way to retaliate back, you remain totally positive. We can think similarly when experiencing other heavy negative karmas, such as cancer. By experiencing the cancer, we are finishing the negative karma and won’t have to go to the lower realms and suffer for eons. It becomes purification. Further, we can experience the cancer on behalf of all sentient beings and use it to achieve enlightenment. This makes our cancer most unbelievably positive and beneficial for every sentient being. The teaching for this episode was recorded on May 10, 2018, at Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia. 

It is impossible to escape problems while suffering in samsara, but we can utilize any disturbing experience in the path to enlightenment. Rinpoche explains how we can take on any suffering and use it to destroy our ego and self-cherishing thought. This makes it possible to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings and then bring them to enlightenment as well. When we practice lojong (thought transformation), we need problems, even horrible ones like cancer. When suffering, including when you are dying, think over and over again, “By my experiencing this, may all sentient beings be free from sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements, and achieve enlightenment.” As His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says, dying with bodhicitta is the best way to die. Rinpoche quotes several masters to illustrate how to think and practice when we experience suffering. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 08, 2019, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore. 

We can generate loving-kindness by offering the numberless sentient beings in every realm our body, enjoyments, and merit. When we give all of our past, present, and future merit to the numberless sentient beings, they get whatever they want and whatever they need. This enables them to become Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya, Chenrezig, or any deity. Rinpoche explains that when we do this, we collect skies of merit and purify the negative karma we have collected since beginningless rebirths and become closer to buddhahood. Offering charity in this way is the happiest life, Rinpoche assures us. The teaching for this episode was recorded on December 07, 2019, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 

What is the benefit of having compassion for those who mistreat us and how is our survival, comfort, happiness—and ultimately—enlightenment dependent on the kindness of others, especially those who we consider an enemy? All of our past, present, and future happiness come from our virtuous actions. These come from the buddhas’ holy actions, which come from a buddha, which come from a bodhisattva, which come from bodhicitta, which come from great compassion. Great compassion comes from those sentient beings who are always angry, criticize, abuse, and harm us. Rinpoche explains that, therefore, the benefit they offer us is like the limitless sky. They fulfill all our wishes. All our happiness comes from sentient beings. The teaching for this episode was recorded on June 30, 2019, at Ganden Buddhist Centre, Latvia. 

The door to all suffering comes from the self-cherishing thought, only thinking of our own happiness, Rinpoche warns. This not only harms us, but also harms numberless sentient beings now, has harmed them in the past from beginningless rebirths, and will harm them in the future. Conversely, cherishing others, changing our mind into bodhicitta, opens the door to all happiness up to enlightenment. The purpose of life is to benefit others, not to use them for our own pleasure. A selfish mind brings many problems, so we must let go of the I and cherish others. Rinpoche emphasizes that by cherishing even one sentient being, we can achieve enlightenment. The teaching for this episode was recorded on November 10, 2018, at Nagarjuna C E T Madrid, Spain. 

Whether we understand the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha or not, if we open our hearts to them and rely on them, we will have an unmistaken refuge—like catching hold of a rope when we are about to fall into a fire. When we come to understand how Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha free us from samsara and bring us to enlightenment, our faith will become more and more stable. Rinpoche explains that Refuge begins by considering our own situation until we can’t stand being in samsara for even a second more. Next we can think of how numberless other sentient beings have also been experiencing the sufferings of samsara from beginningless rebirths. Like us, they don’t like suffering but create the cause for suffering, without end, day and night. Thinking of this helps us generate compassion for ourself and others who are numberless. Because we can’t stand this situation for ourselves or others, we must rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha strongly, from our bones, with all our heart. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 16, 2017, at Light of the Path Retreat, United States. 

The purpose of taking a long-life initiation is not to gain more time for creating negative karma through harming ourselves and other sentient beings. Rather, the purpose is to pacify life obstacles and to use the resulting long life to collect virtue, to abandon the causes of suffering, and to purify the negative karma already collected. Most importantly a long life should be used to benefit others.We have taken this human body to free others from suffering and cause them happiness. By cherishing others, they give us enlightenment. On the other hand, by following self-cherishing thought, we won’t succeed even in accomplishing the works of this life. To fulfill the purpose of our life, we need to have a good heart. That will make us happy and then we can make others happy.The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 22, 2019, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore. 

All of our failures, problems, illnesses, and suffering from beginningless rebirths come from cherishing ourselves, Rinpoche warns. If we want happiness, we must start cherishing others. If someone harms us, instead of blaming them, direct the anger toward the real enemy—self-cherishing. This way, there is no anger toward others, no external enemy for us to harm and kill, and we can put the blame where it belongs, our own mind. This is like shooting a long-range missile exactly on target, causing the enemy (the self-cherishing thought) to burst into a thousand pieces. Less anger means more happiness, more peace. Cherishing others is the root cause of happiness for ourselves and others, all the way up to enlightenment. The teaching for this episode was recorded on December 10, 2017, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 

What does it mean to practice Dharma? Renouncing this life, Rinpoche says. Anger, ignorance, pride, relationship issues—all of these problems come from attachment to this life. Practicing Dharma means renouncing this attachment like throwing out poison because of all the harm it can cause us. People who don’t understand might think, “I’m giving up my happiness if I give up attachment. Giving up attachment is worse than being in prison.” However, what actually happens is we are giving up the root of all our problems in order to experience much happiness. Dharma practice is not just reading texts, reciting mantras, meditating, circumambulating, doing retreat, or living in a monastery—we have to renounce our attachment to the pleasures of this life. If we don’t understand this, nothing we do will become Dharma. The teaching for this episode was recorded on October 21, 2018, at Nagarjuna C E T Madrid, Spain. 

Hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, what is true and false come from our mind. Whatever we see and hear, whatever we touch and smell, if someone likes us or is angry with us, whether we experience anything as good or bad from birth to death—all of this started with our mind. It came from our karma—the mental factor intention, Rinpoche says. On top of that, our mind imputes good and bad, the next second there is the appearance of good or bad, and then we believe it is real good or bad. This is why Buddha said, “The mind is the creator.” Normally people think that everything they experience came from outside, from others, and has nothing to do with the mind and so anger and attachment arise creating karma over and over. This is a total hallucination and what we experience as good or bad is our interpretation, from our mind. The teaching for this episode was recorded on May 10, 2018, at Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia.