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. 

Working for a company focused solely on money, even making a billion dollars a day, is nothing compared to the merit we create by helping people practice Dharma and by fulfilling the wishes of our guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says. Rinpoche recalls the story of Lama Atisha checking on the realizations of three disciples. He found that the ones who served as his cook and translator had more realizations than the one who focused on study and meditation. Working hard for sentient beings or offering service to the guru is the same as completing many hundred thousand prostrations, mandala offerings, or other preliminaries. Serving and pleasing the guru creates far more merit than making countless offerings and saving the lives of millions of creatures. All of our wishes succeed if we correctly accomplish our guru’s instructions. 

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. 

When we or others are experiencing sickness and pain, or obstacles of any kind, to recite the Heart Sutra while remembering that these obstacles are empty of existing from their own side is a powerful meditation for pacifying obstacles. The essence of Buddha’s 84,000 teachings is emptiness, which Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains, is set out in the Essence of Wisdom, also know as the Heart Sutra. Rinpoche reminds us that before reciting this sutra, we must remember the sufferings of the beings in the six realms, including ourselves, which we’ve been experiencing from beginningless rebirths. That is the most scary thing. Another most scary thing is that if we don’t realize emptiness, we will have to experience all these sufferings again! As Rinpoche says, compared to this beginningless and endless suffering, the problems of this life are nothing. Therefore, to eliminate the root of samara and put an end to all our suffering forever, we need to listen, reflect, and meditate on the Heart Sutra. The teaching for this episode was recorded on May 27, 2019, at Institut Vajra Yogini, France. 

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. 

Rinpoche discusses the meaning of “pores of the guru” as expressed in the section on the guru’s qualities in Lama Chopa. Pores of the guru not only refers to other disciples of our own guru, but also to their family and animals. All of these pores are a higher object of offering than the numberless buddhas, Dharma, and sangha and the numberless statues, stupas, and scriptures. In the large monasteries, there are thousands of sangha, and when we make offerings to them—even tea, while thinking that they are the pores of our guru, for example, of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we collect unbelievable merit. The teaching for this episode was recorded on April 06, 2018, at Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia. 

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. 

Even the most mundane activities of daily life provide us the opportunity to practice Dharma, Rinpoche says. While we are working, being busy, or even arguing with someone, part of the mind can recognize that what appears to be real is actually a total hallucination. Truly existent I and other people are not there but appear to be real due to our ignorance. To prevent this, we must not cling to things which appear true, we must remember that what appears real is not—like a mirage. Remembering this allows us to practice mindfulness of emptiness in all situations so we do not experience oceans of suffering in each realm without end. The teaching for this episode was recorded on December 12, 2018, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 

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. 

The guru is the essence of all buddhas, Rinpoche reminds us. Therefore, everything the guru does is the holy actions of all the buddhas. It is essential to remember these two things, otherwise we can view our guru as an ordinary being when anger, attachment, or heresy arises, and we can destroy our happiness—right up to enlightenment—by believing they are making mistakes. In reality there is no greater kindness than that of the guru manifesting in an ordinary aspect according to our impure karma. This is what frees us from samsara and brings us to enlightenment and enables us to do the same for the numberless sentient beings. We must remember this always. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 22, 2018, 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. 

Walking for exercise, sightseeing, or shopping, can all be used to meditate on impermanence and emptiness. Here Rinpoche offers guided meditations on how, in particular, to think about emptiness, to habituate our mind in a positive way to looking at everything that appears to be real as false. While walking, we can meditate on emptiness in three ways: By seeing the hallucination as a hallucination, by looking at everything we encounter including ourselves as merely labeled, and by looking at everything as empty. These meditations free us from the oceans of unimaginable sufferings of samsara forever in order to help all sentient beings become free from these sufferings as well. The teaching for this episode was recorded on December 13, 2018, 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. 

What enables us to quickly achieve enlightenment, Rinpoche explains, is correctly following the guru, the virtuous friend. For example, if for one thousand eons we made charity of our limbs and dedicated our merit—we would collect this much merit in one second by following the guru’s advice and fulfilling the guru’s wishes. We are unbelievably fortunate to have this opportunity, it is the quickest way to be free from samsara, which we have been suffering in from since beginningless rebirths. In addition, pleasing the guru purifies heavy negative karma in one second! Rinpoche says that when we experience hardships while following the guru’s advice, we purify the negative karma to wander in the lower realms for ten million eons. Instead, we experience a small suffering in this life or even in a dream. By receiving the blessings of the guru in our heart, realizations can happen quickly, like a seed receiving water so it can grow. The teaching for this episode was recorded on September 16, 2018, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore. 

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. 

There is no such thing as a “real I,” and subsequently, it is not possible for anything to be a “real mine,” Rinpoche says. In the first second, our mind merely imputes I on our aggregates. Then, in the next second, this I appears back to us as one hundred percent true, and we believe it. We trust that something is there from its own side. This becomes the basis for many delusions to arise and creates the root of samsara. For this reason, we need to collect much merit and continually purify negative karma. However, the most powerful thing we can do is to correctly follow the guru and thereby receive the blessings of the guru in our heart. The teaching for this episode was recorded on April 11, 2018, at Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia. 

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. 

Our gurus appear to us according to our impure karma, in an ordinary aspect, showing mistakes and having delusions. Because of this ordinary aspect, we are able to see the guru, communicate with the guru, and receive teachings and advice. Without their manifesting in this ordinary aspect we would remain lost in samsara, like a small child abandoned in a desert. We could not become free from the lower realms, from samsara, and from the lower nirvana, nor could we achieve the great nirvana of enlightenment. Because every second that our guru appears to us in an ordinary aspect is most unbelievably kind and precious, we should cherish our guru as more precious than the numberless buddhas. The teaching for this episode was recorded on April 6, 2018, at Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia. 

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. 

What would it be like to experience the world without the hallucination of true existence being projected onto everything we experience? We need to become a buddha for this to happen, Rinpoche explains. Right now the gross negative imprints left by ignorance from beginningless rebirths decorate whatever appears to us—form, sound, smell, taste, tangible object—making it appear real but it is actually a total hallucination. In reality, it is merely imputed by the mind. From birth to death everything that appears to us is a total hallucination, like watching a movie produced by our karma and then believing everything, including the I, is real. All of the problems of life arise on the basis of this hallucination. Our ignorance creates suffering, this is why we need to eliminate it. A buddha does not have this. Practicing mindfulness of emptiness in daily life is the most important awareness. After one realizes emptiness, all that has been appearing as real, including the I, is understood to not have even an atom of true existence. The teaching for this episode was recorded on June 30, 2019, at Ganden Buddhist Centre, Latvia.