Category Archives: Introductory

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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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 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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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

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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

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There is No Enlightenment Button

Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can’t attain the path just by knowing the words. You have to practice.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us that we can’t expect to just press a button, say a few words and become enlightened. After all we have accumulated countless causes of suffering during countless lives over countless eons. Even Shakyamuni Buddha himself demonstrated facing many hardships for the sake of enlightenment. We must also expect hardships while practicing Dharma with all our heart.

Rinpoche gave these teachings in June 2008 at the White Eagle Conference Center in Crestone, Colorado. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-three-part-b-bearing-hardships-lama-atisha

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Making This Precious Human Rebirth Meaningful

Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Perfect Human Rebirth

Be very clever. “I should be very skillful with my life from now on. I should be very careful with my life. I must make it, without wasting the precious human body which I have received now, without wasting it, I must make it meaningful, highly meaningful as much as I can.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This teaching on the great preciousness of our perfect human rebirth was given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Manjushri Institute, Cumbria, England, August 16-24, 1979. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/making-precious-human-rebirth-meaningful

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Compassion and Emptiness Together

Compassion and Bodhicitta, Introductory, Lama Yeshe

One must have the wisdom and method simultaneously developing.

-Lama Yeshe

Lama Yeshe gave a series of introductory talks in Los Angeles in 1975. In this excerpt from these talks Lama describes the difference between Hinayana and Mahayana motivation and impresses upon us the importance of developing our wisdom in order to generate bodhicitta without dualistic emotional obstacles. Read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/compassion-and-emptiness-part-a

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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.

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