Using Everything to Practice Mindfulness

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Because you look at everything as empty, the strong selfish mind, the ego, doesn’t arise. When you think like this, it makes your life stable, filled with peace, happiness, contentment; it brings so much benefit.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to practice mindfulness as we go through our day, and offers advice on daily practice. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Listen along with the transcript on our website.

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Relying on the Buddha

Guru Devotion, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Refuge

Because we rely on the methods revealed by Buddha – the path to liberation and enlightenment – we naturally take refuge in the Buddha.

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we take refuge in the Buddha. Rinpoche then chants a prayer asking for blessings of the lineage lamas, followed by recitation of The Foundation of All Good Qualities, a lamrim prayer by Lama Tsongkhapa. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.

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Change Your Attitude, Change Your Action

Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Perfect Human Rebirth

The ego, this self-cherishing thought, the ego is much more harmful than all the atomic bombs that are in the world because atomic bomb even if it explodes, if you have bodhichitta it doesn’t cause you to be reborn in the hell realm, lower realm.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how Shakyamuni Buddha was just like us until he changed his attitude from ego to bodhichitta and explains how the ego causes more harm than even the most powerful weapon and must be abandoned. Rinpoche gave this teaching during the 33rd Kopan Meditation course in 2000. You can follow along with the transcript on our website. 

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Proof of Reincarnation by Habituation

Death and Transitions, Introductory, Karma, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

By training the mind in patience, it leaves a positive imprint on your mind. Then later you find it easier for the mind to be patient and more and more difficult for the mind to get angry. It’s the same with self-cherishing or bodhicitta. Whichever way one trains the mind, one can become more easily habituated towards that mind even in this life.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the difference between the mind and the body, engages in debate with the students on this difference, and ends by offering the proof of reincarnation by habituation. These teachings were given by Rinpoche during the 29th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1996. You can also read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.

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Where to Find Happiness

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nature of the Mind

Happiness comes from a positive attitude and action motivated by that.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche answers a student’s question about the relationship between the mind and the heart when practicing bodhichitta, how to be authentic in the practice of compassion, and where to locate happiness. This teaching was given by Rinpoche in 1990 in Boston, Massachusetts and was hosted by Kurukulla Center. You can also watch Rinpoche give these teachings on the LYWA YouTube channel.

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Our Practice Is Like A Seed

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment), Purification

The meditation practice is like the seed. The actual body of meditation, the practice, that is like the seed and purifying the hindrances and the accumulation of merit are like the soil and water.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we must prepare the ground of our mind with merit accumulation and karmic purification so that the seeds of our practice of listening, contemplation, and meditation can grow into realizations on the path to attain enlightenment for the sake of all mother sentient beings. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at Manjushri Institute, Cumbria, England, August 16-24, 1979.

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The Loving Compassionate Precious Thought for Enlightenment

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Even giving just one single tiny grain of rice to one single sentient being will accumulate infinite merit when you are motivated to give by the precious wish to attain enlightenment to benefit numberless sentient beings.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the power and importance of the precious bodhicitta during teachings on Geshe Langri Tangpa’s Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, given at Manjushri Institute, Cumbria, England, August 16-24, 1979. Read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.

 

 

 

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How We Name the World

Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Every single phenomena is like that. There’s merely gathered, the base to be labeled, then due to that, then mere imputation, then only after that, then you have that appearance.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

In these teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given during a lamrim retreat held at Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek, California, from August 20-23, 2006, Rinpoche explains how everything we experience is merely imputed by our minds by using the example of a child who is too young to speak. If a child doesn’t know the name of something, does it exist? You can follow along with the transcript here.

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The Living Heart of Compassion

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

 

Compassion should be at the heart of our life, at the center of all our relationships and in all our practices.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives the transmission of the mantra and dharani of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion and explains why reciting these mantra helps us to develop compassion from the center of our heart for all beings and especially for those we see as the enemy. Rinpoche illuminates how the path to enlightenment depends first on developing immeasurable compassion for each and every being. These teachings were given by Rinpoche during a Maitreya puja at Shakyamuni Center in Taichung, Taiwan, in March 2007. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.

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The Power of the Object of Merit

Dharma in Daily Life, Guru Devotion, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Perfect Human Rebirth, Practice Commentary

If you don’t practice Dharma, don’t learn Dharma, don’t meditate, if you don’t pray to have realization of the path to enlightenment, at least even the path to liberation, if you don’t do that then so many sentient beings have to suffer for you to live, for your happiness, it is so unimaginable, unbearable, so unbearable.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Everything we do to keep this human body alive inevitably harms other sentient beings and thus accumulates negative karma. Rinpoche describes this harm and the incredible power of the object to quickly accumulate huge amounts of positive merit. Contemplate how this power of the object can help us accumulate more than enough positive merit to offset the constantly accumulating negative karma of living. May we accumulate more than enough positive merit to quickly and more quickly constantly progress on the path to enlightenment for the sake of all mother sentient beings. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this Dharma talk prior to a refuge ceremony at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, on January 18, 2009. You can read along with the transcript on our website.

 

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