Lama Zopa Rinpoche – Freeing them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to the peerless happiness of buddhahood: the total cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all realizations.
It all depends on your motivation. Continue reading
Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Meditate on bodhicitta
A student wrote to Rinpoche asking for practice advice.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche. With regard to your meditation, you can train your mind in the generation stage, until one sees all gurus as buddha and all buddhas as the guru, until one has very strong, stable devotion, not the devotion that arises after just a few hours or days, but devotion spontaneously arising from the heart. Continue reading
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche: His Holiness the Dalai Lama says that is it difficult at the time of death to really meditate as you did in life
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche: How to Benefit the Dying and the Dead
During the illness the main thing is to take care of the dying person’s mind. Many others can take care of the body, but we can take care of the mind.
The most worthwhile thing to do is to inspire the person to think of others with loving kindness and compassion, to wish others to be happy and free from suffering. If a person dies with the thought of benefiting others, their mind is naturally happy and this makes their death meaningful.
You can teach the person taking-and-giving meditation (tong-len; taking upon oneself others’ suffering and giving others one’s happiness) or loving kindness meditation (metta), according to the capacity of their mind. If the person has a more strong nature of compassion, a “brave mind,” they will be able to do tong-len, to take others’ suffering and give out happiness. If the person can do tong-len, it’s the best way to die, as it means dying with bodhicitta. His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls this a “self supporting death.” For those who don’t think others are more important than themselves, wishing others happiness and to be free of suffering is easier. Continue reading
Lama Zopa Rinpoche: The selfish attitude, anger and other disturbing thoughts become weaker and smaller by doing the preliminary practices.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Blessings of the Merit Field
Generating realizations and actualizing the graduated path to enlightenment, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, all comes from having received blessings. Each time we generate a realization in our mind, we have received a blessing. Each time we generate a realization or our mind changes and becomes more subdued, at that time we are receiving blessings. Before, the mind was completely empty of understanding karma, not knowing the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering at all. But now, we find a little bit of faith slowly arising as our understanding grows. That means many blessings have been received. Continue reading
We ourselves, our own life, our body, enemy, friend and stranger, the sense objects and so forth—all these things are in the nature of perishing, in the nature of changing within every second and can be stopped at any time. Continue reading
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Ego Wants So Many Things
Good afternoon. We’re going to read in English the praise paying homage to Buddha, remembering Buddha’s qualities, and Dharma, Sangha. Continue reading
Benefitting Sentient Beings Through the Gradual Path to Enlightenment
by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche Singapore, 2 June, l988
We are responsible for the welfare of each sentient being. We are completely responsible to enable other sentient beings to obtain happiness and pacify their sufferings. Continue reading
Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Since there is no change to the mind, the nature of life is always the same, constantly filled with problems.
I think there are some problems with the advice given by some areas of the psychology in Western culture. I quite often mention this. But I think nowadays as people’s minds are more open, maybe you use your own wisdom more rather than accepting the psychology, the guidelines written in [psychology] books. Nowadays maybe you should use your own wisdom more, rather than what is written in the books, the methods taught in the past or that have been used.
As I often mention, I’ve heard so many times that the basic psychological method that is advised for those people who are in an emotional state, such as anger, is to say whatever they want to say. The idea is this. Whatever hurting, bad words we want to say, we feel in the heart; whatever the mind wants to feel, we should express it to the other person, telling them whatever we think. Whatever comes out of anger, we just tell everything to the other person. Probably, that method is more based on us, we who have the problem, for our own interest, for our own happiness. Continue reading
Cutting the Source of Suffering: Realizing the Ultimate Nature of Phenomena
From a talk in Singapore by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
Let’s bring our attention to the ultimate nature of phenomena–the ultimate nature of the I, actions, objects, and all there is. Everything–what is called “this” and “that”–is all name coming from the mind, given by the mind. Continue reading
The Good Heart: A Talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Sakya Monastery, Seattle, WA, September 3, 1997
I want to say hello to everyone and thank you very much. I’m very happy to meet with those who I have met before in this life and those I haven’t met. Before the talk, before my blessing to the ears (along with my coughs) I want to do the preliminaries – to give torma to the interferers to receive the permission to practice the blessing of Vajrasattva’s holy body, holy speech, holy mind. Continue reading
The Importance of Retreat by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Edited from the newsletter of Vajrapani Institute, November, 1992. (Vajrapani Institute, Box I, Boulder Creek CA 95006).
What is the importance of doing retreat? Why do people need to do retreat? It is not simply to be quiet, to have a break from one’s family. Instead, there are very crucial reasons for doing retreat, very urgent reasons. Continue reading
Practicing Patience by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Zopa Rinpoche gave this talk at Vajrapani Institute in May, 1997. It was transcribed and edited by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron and is a chapter from A Chat about Heruka: Skillful Means to Take an Everlasting Holiday in the Pure Land of Vajrayogini, Tagpa Kacho, to be published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archives.
Q. I’m not at the level yet where I can use meditation on emptiness or the illusory nature of phenomena as an antidote to my anger. Continue reading
Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Death and Dying, Heart Practices and AdviceThese are Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Heart Practices to perform when someone is dying or has died. The Medicine Buddha Puja and 8 Prayers are the most essential practices to do.
“This is a very good meditation on emptiness,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book Kadampa Teachings, adding, “It’s simple but profound, and gives us a clear understanding.” Continue reading
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Our practice of meditation, of mental cultivation, should not be passive.
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche: The Purpose of Meditation
I would like to say a few words in introduction about the practice of meditation. Many people throughout the world, in the West as well as the East, are very interested in meditating. They are attracted to this practice and express great interest in it. Yet, of all the many people who engage in meditation, only a few really understand its purpose.
Each of us here possesses a physical body made up of bones, flesh, blood and such things. At present we are not able to exert complete control over this body and as a result we always experience problems. There might be a rich man whose wealth is equal to that of the entire world yet despite his enormous fortune, if his mind is tied up in an uncontrolled body, he will live in continual suffering. Continue reading