Category Archives: Emptiness

How to Deal with Difficult Situations

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Karma, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The minute you accept your own karma, you cut the problem. You have to accept your own karma.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

As Lama Yeshe once said, “Once a situation has manifested, the best thing to do is to accept the fact and deal with it.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how we can use such challenging situations to develop compassion and to cut the root of concepts. These teachings were given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000.

Please note: Personal safety and self-care are paramount, and if you or someone you know is experiencing any form of violence and abuse, please seek help from a suitable service in your region to develop a safety plan. If engagement with these teachings brings underlying issues in relation to past abuse to the surface, we recommend that you seek professional support.

 

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The Problem Is Coming From Inside Your Mind

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nature of the Mind

Somebody who helps you to destroy your ego is so precious and shows you unbelievable kindness. This kindness you should feel deeply from bottom of your heart.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche illustrates the way that all suffering and happiness is created by the mind. Rinpoche then shares a story of how as a young monk, Rinpoche applied this wisdom to a teacher who had challenged his ego, thereby changing his view of the teacher from an enemy to one most kind. From teachings given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can read along with the transcript on our website.

 

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How Things Appear to Exist from their Own Side

Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The way the ‘I’ and phenomena appear to us, to our hallucinated mind, is they are not merely labeled by mind. As long as these things appear to you that way – not merely labeled by mind – they don’t exist. They’re totally empty there.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how things appear to exist from their own side. These teachings were given at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can listen also along to the transcript on our website.

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Everything Comes From The Mind

Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Through this way of meditating, you begin to realize it’s not the object that is disturbing. It’s your mind; it’s your concept. Your mind is making you unhappy; your mind is disturbing you.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how everything we experience comes from the mind. These teachings were given during the Thirty-third Kopan meditation course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2000. Read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.

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Listening Like the Limitless Sky

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

Even if you find it very hard to understand the teachings on emptiness, you will leave positive imprints on the mind and remove the imprints of delusion. The benefits you receive just by listening is like the limitless sky.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche elaborates on the emptiness of the I, then  gives oral transmission of the Heart Sutra and partial transmission of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. These teachings were given by Rinpoche on Lhabab Duchen during 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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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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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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How to Find Our Real Potential

Dharma in Daily Life, Emptiness, Tenzin Ösel Hita

Tenzin Ösel Hita gives a talk on “How to overcome limitations to find our real potential” at the Center for Wisdom and Compassion in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 11, 2017.

Read the talk at http://www.lamayeshe.com/article/how-find-our-real-potential

Learn more about Ösel at http://www.lamayeshe.com/teacher/tenzin-osel-hita

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Meditation on Emptiness at Vulture’s Peak

Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

On March 12, 2014, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche ascended Vulture’s Peak, Rajgir, India, to give a transmission of the Vajra Cutter Sutra to a group of students. Rinpoche began by reading out a Dedication Prayer by Mipham Dawa Rinpoche, then, after the sutra transmission, Rinpoche led students in a meditation on emptiness. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/meditation-emptiness-vultures-peak-audio-and-transcript

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Chöd: Slaying the Ego

Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Practice Commentary

Practicing Dharma is just a question of changing, you know, your own mind, changing, from self-cherishing thought into cherishing others, from anger, those violent, harmful mind, into loving-kindness, compassion to others, so, basically like that.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Enjoy this profound excerpt from a series of teachings given prior to a chöd initiation by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, in June 2009. Read along with the transcript at bit.ly/CHOD-SLAYING-THE-EGO

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