Category Archives: Compassion and Bodhicitta

Dharma in Daily Life



When you look at people, when you relate with them, if you look at their mind and how their life is motivated, you can see how much they’re suffering and you feel unbearable.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Please enjoy another extract from a series of teachings prior to a chöd initiation given by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, in June 2009.

In this extract, Rinpoche shows us how to examine each of our regular daily activities and to see whether we are motivated by Dharma or, as is more likely, motivated by worldly goals. We might not like what we find but at least we know enough to look because we have met the Dharma through the kindness of our gurus.

Rinpoche reminds us that the vast majority of people living in the world all around have not met the Dharma like we have. They have no idea that their endless efforts to find happiness are only creating more causes for even more suffering. Contemplating their situation intensifies our practice of compassion for them and our engagement with bodhicitta for their sake.

Here is the transcript for those who like to read along-> https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/dharma-daily-life


The Urgency of Realizing Lamrim



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.


How to Maintain a Harmonious Workplace



A short teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how we can maintain a harmonious workplace. Excerpted from teachings on the power of compassion given in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 14, 2006 and organized by Kasih Hospice. You can read the edited transcripts of this entire teaching at lamayeshe.com/article/power-compassion.

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The Best Attitude for Work



Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on the best attitude to have during all the work we do. Excerpted from teachings on the power of compassion given in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 14, 2006 and organized by Kasih Hospice. You can read the edited transcripts of this entire teaching at lamayeshe.com/article/power-compassion.

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28th Kopan Course: Lecture 1



These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 28th Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal in December, 1995. This is the first talk on compassion and includes discussion of the mantra of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. You can read the transcript of this talk here.

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Teachings from Barcelona: Day 1 Part 2



This talk is the conclusion of the first day’s teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Barcelona, Spain on September 2-4, 2005 and hosted by the FPMT’s Centro Nagarjuna. You can read along to the transcript of this talk and explore all the teachings given in this series.

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Let Go of Suffering for the Sake of Others



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.


The Yoga of Offering Food



With that continual thought of benefiting other sentient beings, then with every single morsel of food or drop of drink, you collect limitless skies of merit.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche teaches how and why to make all our meals the practice of Dharma and the cause of enlightenment. Rinpoche explains in detail the three motivations for making food offerings and then joins the students in a food  offering practice. Read along with the transcript of these teachings at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-7-yoga-offering-food


Loving-kindness and Realizing the Yidam



Lama Zopa Rinpoche answers questions from students on how to generate loving-kindness without generating attachment and does it mean to realize the yidam. Rinpoche also describes the many joys and benefits from living a meaningful life guided by the Dharma. These teachings given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California USA, in November 2003. You can follow along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-two-questions-and-answers


Seeing Oneself as Lower Than Others



So main thing is by practicing oneself as lower, then pride does not rise.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Listen to Day Two from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2003 commentary on Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa. This teaching was given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California USA. Rinpoche explains why we must purify the mind of pride, how to prepare our mind to be able to see ourselves as lower than all others and describes the great joy we will feel upon accomplishing this powerfully medicinal state of mind. You can read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-two-seeing-oneself-lower-others