Category Archives: Dharma in Daily Life

The Dharma Will Protect Us

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

How to live the life? First your attitude becomes Dharma. Then with that attitude one lives the life, one does the works, one does the activities.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche observes that we think we can rely on purification practices to deal with our negative karma. Rinpoche warns us against relying too much on purification because it must be done perfectly to be effective. Rinpoche then directs our attention to the suffering realms around us and explains that in order to resist our karmic tendency to accumulate such causes of suffering, our main effort should be focused on living our lives according to the Dharma. These teachings were given by Rinpoche in Sydney, Australia in 1993. Follow along with the transcript on our website at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/purification-karma

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

How to be free of stress by changing the way we think

Dharma in Daily Life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment)

In this teaching given in Bendigo, Australia in August, 1991, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches us how to manage our stress by recognizing that stress is not forced upon us from outside but comes from within our own mind and is dependent upon the way we think. Rinpoche then explains how our own mind creates stress and how our own mind is also what can liberate us from stress. Read along with the transcript by visiting https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/how-i-exists

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Renouncing the Self-cherishing Thought

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

One must understand that by hurting others, you are also creating the cause to be hurt by others. To really solve the problem one has to do something with the cause, which is within your mind.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how the self-cherishing thought seeking happiness negatively affects our karma. But the study of karma is missing in Western psychology. So we must take special care to understand how  karma works so we will be inspired to practice the methods that will stop and purify our negative karma. These teaching were given during a lamrim course hosted by Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August, 1990. Follow along with the transcript on our website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

The Label Is Not Enough

Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Renunciation

Do not be confused by people who try to disprove the existence of objects of faith like reincarnation or karma by simply labeling them as nonexistent.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche addresses how some people try to disprove the existence of reincarnation and other objects of Buddhist faith by labeling them as false views or heresy. Rinpoche demonstrates how labeling something cannot make the labeled phenomena function according to that label. In a similar way, we should not be confused by people who label our objects of faith as nonexistent. Instead we should rely on our faith and apply our wisdom in meditation to experience their functional phenomenal existence. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a lamrim course at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August 1990. You can read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/benefits-understanding-karma

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Lama Yeshe Rides the Radio Waves

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

We hope you enjoy listening to a radio interview with Lama Yeshe on the “What’s Cooking?” radio show with Judy O. This wide-ranging interview took place in Boulder Creek, California on July 22, 1983, just before Lama offered public talks at UC Santa Cruz on the subject of “Anxiety in the Nuclear Age.”

Please also watch video of Lama giving these public talks on the LYWA Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeGpGqjz7TIXF3ghd2nHD5bDDg40bx3NE and experience a multimedia presentation of the teachings, edited by Nick Ribush and created by Megan Evart at https://multimedia.lamayeshe.com/2017/12/27/switch-your-mind-from-emotion-to-peace.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Peaceful action means skillful action

Dharma in Daily Life, Lama Yeshe

Lama Yeshe answers questions from the audience after a public talk given in 1983 in Berkeley, California about how to deal with our anxiety during divisive political times. By letting go of judgment and relaxing our mind, we can reduce our anxiety about the state of the world and become more skillful and effective in our personal and political interactions with others.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

The Benefits of Thought Transformation

Dharma in Daily Life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Practice Commentary

All the hindrances of life, all the hindrances of meditation, of practicing Dharma, by practicing Mahayana thought training, all those hindrances of meditation, of Dharma practice, all those become helpers, beneficial conditions to practice Dharma.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

When we face so many obstacles and challenges to our practice, it can be helpful to listen to this excerpt from teachings on Geshe Langri Tangpa’s Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Manjushri Institute, Cumbria, England, August 16-24, 1979. These teachings were given by Rinpoche while Lama Yeshe was still alive. You can follow along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/benefits-thought-transformation.

You can also read the history surrounding these teachings in Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe in Volume 2, Chapter 17: Even Your Enemy Who Tries to Kill You is Your Best Friend. Big Love is available at https://www.LamaYeshe.com/BigLove

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Your Mental Bureaucracy

Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Yeshe, Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment), Renunciation

Understanding, the wisdom makes you happy. Always with you. But all the material, what you consider build up this life, is, when you need, not there. It’s there, it’s not there.

Lama Yeshe explains in his uniquely skillful and powerful way how our mental bureaucracy, the departments of ego and attachment, are working together constantly to confuse us and keep us from finding the door to everlasting peace and happiness. Instead, these departments divert us into thinking that everlasting happiness can be found by clinging to compounded phenomena that are in fact impermanent by nature. This talk was given at a five-day meditation retreat in Australia, March 28-April 1, 1975 and is the basis for Chapter Four in the LYWA free book “Ego, Attachment and Liberation.” You can read along with the unedited transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/your-mental-bureaucracy-audio-and-unedited-transcript

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Make Your Mind an Ocean

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Lama Yeshe

Listen to Lama Yeshe’s original teaching which was later edited by Nicholas Ribush into the widely read and revered LYWA free book “Make Your Mind An Ocean.” This talk highlights the clarity and skill of Lama’s western teaching methods and explores the general topic of the mind during the course of Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s second world teaching tour in 1975. You can also read along with the transcript at http://www.lamayeshe.com/article/make-your-mind-ocean-audio-unedited-transcript.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More