How Guru Shakyamuni Frees Sentient Beings

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So, what is the way that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, what is his way of freeing the sentient being from suffering? By revealing the absolute truth, by revealing the nature of the existence.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how Guru Buddha Shakyamuni frees us from suffering by revealing the true nature of reality. But the Buddha cannot transplant his realizations of emptiness into our minds. It is up to each of us to apply the teachings so we may generate our own realization of emptiness. Rinpoche gave these teachings at the 14th Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1981. You can also follow along with the transcript on our website.

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This Precious Human Rebirth

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

It is amazing how even within a minute, even in each second, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, wow, what you can do with this precious human body by understanding and practicing the Dharma.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche celebrates our perfect human rebirth and encourages us to bring every single moment in our life into the path to enlightenment. Rinpoche gave these teachings prior to a chöd initiation at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, in June 2009. You can read along with the transcript on our website.

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Karma in Everyday Life

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Introductory, Karma, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

We are released from confusion while we are aware of the reality of things.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to live our life with a mind that is aware of the reality of things so that we avoid the confusion that leads to negative karma. Rinpoche also recites in English the Heart Sutra and Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim text The Foundation of All Good Qualities. These teachings were given by Rinpoche during a lamrim course hosted by Maitreya Instituut in August, 1990. You can read along with the transcript on our website.

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We Are the Cure of Our Own Samsara

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All our suffering is caused by our belief that even though the I is merely labeled on the aggregates, it exists from its own side. This sickness is the root of all our suffering and our cure is our wisdom.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives a short vivid explanation about how we circle in samsara, why we circle, and whose fault it is that we circle and suffer. This teaching is from the Fourteenth Kopan Course, 1981. Read along with the transcript on our website here.

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The Essence of the Dharma

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sutras, Mantras and Root Texts

The essence of the Dharma is to subdue one’s mind by taming the disturbing, obscuring, emotional thoughts that bring so much suffering to yourself and to others, from life to life.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

In this teaching from the 33rd Kopan Course in 2000, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the classic Buddhist instruction “Engage in the perfect wholesome action. Subdue one’s own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha.” Rinpoche then leads us in the ultimate exercise to subdue the mind: a contemplation of emptiness. Read along with a transcript of these teachings on our website here.

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Everything Depends on Your Mind

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Karma, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

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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Let Go of Suffering for the Sake of Others

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Perfect Human Rebirth

As long as you don’t drop the burning fire, the fire that burns your hand, the burning cannot be stopped. So like that, as long as one doesn’t abandon the self, the I, one cannot abandon suffering, one cannot be free from the suffering.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche guides us through the preciousness of our present perfect human rebirth and explains how abandoning the self is the path to freedom from suffering for ourselves and all sentient beings. These teachings were given at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, in December 2003. Follow along with the transcript on our website.

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The Urgency of Realizing Lamrim

Benefiting Animals, Compassion and Bodhicitta, Death and Transitions, Dharma in Daily Life, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment), Perfect Human Rebirth, Renunciation

So we’re going to destroy, to totally cease, make it completely non-existent, this enemy, this inner enemy, this delusion, this demon, this self-cherishing thought that harms, that has been harming you, torturing you, and all the time, giving you problem all the time, even this life.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives this introductory teaching during a lamrim retreat at Vajrapani Institute in 2006. In this session Rinpoche impresses upon us the urgent importance of concentrating all our efforts on realizing the stages of the path to enlightenment for ourselves and all sentient beings. Read along with the transcript on our website.

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The Meaning of Secret Mantra

Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sutras, Mantras and Root Texts

The meaning of the word ‘mantra’ includes the whole path to enlightenment.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the use of mantra in highest yoga tantra and explains how our minds should approach the practice of the mantra of Chenrezig. These teachings were given at the Twenty-Eighth Kopan Meditation Course in November 1995. Read along with the transcript on our website here.

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The Qualities of the Dharma and Its Teachers

Guru Devotion, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Perfect Human Rebirth, Practice Commentary

The particular nature of the Dharma is that the more you study the teachings, the more the Dharma becomes deep and clear. And the holy beings, those who work for sentient beings, those who have accomplished the path, these holy beings are who bring the Dharma teachings to us.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes the qualities of the Holy Dharma and of those that teach us the Dharma. This teaching was given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the Fourteenth Kopan Meditation Course, Nepal, 1981. Read along with the transcript on our website at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-1-qualities-dharma-and-teachers

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