An excerpt from a series of teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given in 2003 in San Francisco, CA, USA. Follow along with the unedited transcript and listen to the entire teaching here.
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Category Archives: Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment)
It’s all in your mind
You have no enemy when you don’t have anger. Only when you have anger you have enemy in your life. So it’s all to do with your concept. It’s all in your mind.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
These teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the power of our perfect human rebirth are from a commentary Rinpoche gave on the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa. These teachings were hosted by Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California, in November 2003. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website.
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The Kindness of the Enemy
The minute our anger arises, we find an enemy in our life. We see a person that we hate or we want to hurt, or a person harms us and we see them as an enemy. But the minute our anger is gone, we don’t see them as an enemy.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche discusses how we can only practice patience with those who appear to be our enemy. By resisting our urge to respond to the enemy in anger, we protect our mind and advance our realizations. Because these benefits are dependent upon the practice of patience, Rinpoche urges us to recognize the special kindness of the enemy and to feel a very deep sense of gratitude towards them.
You can also read along with the transcript of this podcast at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-3-kindness-enemy.
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The Path of Universal Responsibility
Just by lecturing that we need compassion, that alone cannot generate compassion in the hearts of the people in this world. We need to learn how to develop compassion. Compassion, like rain falling, doesn’t just happen.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
These teachings were given by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. In this first lecture, Rinpoche begins by describing universal responsibility and illustrates this practice by telling the story of the four harmonious brothers. Rinpoche explains how living in harmony is the cause of inner and outer peace and powerful beauty. Rinpoche also gives commentary on the eight Mahayana precepts and ends with a guided meditation on universal responsibility. You can read along with a lightly edited transcript on our website at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-1-universal-responsibility
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Cultivating the view of impermanence
Lama Zopa Rinpoche helps us understand how the wrong view of permanence is the cause of so much of our negative karma and creates so much fear. Rinpoche further explores how to realize gross and subtle impermanence which cultivates courage and is an essential part of realizing the Four Noble Truths. Rinpoche also gives profound teachings on how all things are merely imputed by the mind. These teachings were given during the 33rd Kopan Course held in 2000 at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-5-four-noble-truths-karma
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Everything Depends on Your Mind
As Buddha said, you are your own enemy or you are your own liberator. You can create a hell realm or you can create enlightenment. Everything depends on what you do with your mind.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
In these 2000 teachings given during the 33rd Kopan Course, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how everything is merely imputed by the mind and then shows how this wisdom can enable us to transform all karmic appearances into happiness. You can read along with the full transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-2-emptiness-everything-comes-mind
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33rd Kopan Meditation Course: Introduction
This is the opening talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 33rd Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, 2000. Listen to the rest of the series and follow along with the unedited transcripts here.
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Make Your Life Worthwhile
Don’t cheat yourself. Don’t deceive yourself. Don’t be distracted by sense pleasures. Exist where you are right now. Make your life worthwhile.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
This month’s LYWA podcast is a short spontaneous Dharma talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the importance of making this life worthwhile, given on April 20, 2000 while Rinpoche was traveling in a car through San Francisco on the way to FPMT’s Tse Chen Ling Center.
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The Enemy is the Kindest Person
By developing the mind in patience, whatever happens to you, whatever harm others give you, you will never get angry.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the power of the mind of patience to bring happiness to all beings we encounter on the path to enlightenment. The most powerful way for us to develop stable patience is to practice when confronted by the anger of others. Thus the angry person is the most kind to us, kinder than the friends that love us and the strangers we ignore.
Rinpoche gave these teachings at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-4-practicing-patience-enemy-kindest-person
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Fulfilling Life’s Purpose
If we take care of others, work for their happiness, we are automatically taking care of ourselves. Trying to make others happy is the best way of loving ourselves.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Listen to this profound teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on transforming everyday actions into the cause of enlightenment. Given during a four-day course at FPMT’s Tilopa Center in Decatur, Illinois, August, 1997, these teachings detail practical methods for developing compassion and wisdom in our everyday lives. The teachings in this podcast were ultimately published as Chapter 1 in Virtue and Reality bit.ly/Fulfilling-Lifes-Purpose
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