Category Archives: Introductory

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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The Nature of Samsara

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

These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, December 26-31, 2006.  The selection begins with a question and answer between Rinpoche and students on the nature of the mind followed by a discourse by Rinpoche on the nature of samsara.  You can also read along with a lightly edited transcript of these teachings at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-six-nature-samsara

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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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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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Pervasive Compounding Suffering

Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment), Renunciation

Letting go of desire is not losing; it is only gaining. It is freeing ourselves from the prison of samsara. We are put in the prison in chains but by letting go of desire we are released; we are free.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

These teachings were given by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche teaches on the shortcomings of desire and how the path to liberation must begin with renunciation. Rinpoche also explains the three scopes of practice and emphasizes that we must practice all three scopes on the graduated path to enlightenment. Read the transcript of these teachings at www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-5-pervasive-compounding-suffering

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The Useful Fear of Death

Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Refuge

Once we are free from delusion and karma, there is no cause for fear, so we are free from fear forever.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche explains how to use our fear of death as a potent cause of refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Read along with the lightly edited transcript of these teachings at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-6-refuge-and-bodhicitta

 

 

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It’s all in your mind

Dharma in Daily Life, Introductory, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lamrim (Path to Enlightenment), Perfect Human Rebirth, Renunciation

You have no enemy when you don’t have anger. Only when you have anger you have enemy in your life. So it’s all to do with your concept. It’s all in your mind.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

These teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the power of our perfect human rebirth are from a commentary Rinpoche gave on the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa. These teachings were hosted by Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California, in November 2003. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website.

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The Kindness of the Enemy

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

The minute our anger arises, we find an enemy in our life. We see a person that we hate or we want to hurt, or a person harms us and we see them as an enemy. But the minute our anger is gone, we don’t see them as an enemy.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche discusses how we can only practice patience with those who appear to be our enemy. By resisting our urge to respond to the enemy in anger, we protect our mind and advance our realizations. Because these benefits are dependent upon the practice of patience, Rinpoche urges us to recognize the special kindness of the enemy and to feel a very deep sense of gratitude towards them.

You can also read along with the transcript of this podcast at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-3-kindness-enemy.

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The Path of Universal Responsibility

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

Just by lecturing that we need compassion, that alone cannot generate compassion in the hearts of the people in this world. We need to learn how to develop compassion. Compassion, like rain falling, doesn’t just happen.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

These teachings were given by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. In this first lecture, Rinpoche begins by describing universal responsibility and illustrates this practice by telling the story of the four harmonious brothers. Rinpoche explains how living in harmony is the cause of inner and outer peace and powerful beauty. Rinpoche also gives commentary on the eight Mahayana precepts and ends with a guided meditation on universal responsibility. You can read along with a lightly edited transcript on our website at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-1-universal-responsibility

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Make Your Life Worthwhile

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

Don’t cheat yourself. Don’t deceive yourself. Don’t be distracted by sense pleasures. Exist where you are right now. Make your life worthwhile.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This month’s LYWA podcast is a short spontaneous Dharma talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the importance of making this life worthwhile, given on April 20, 2000 while Rinpoche was traveling in a car through San Francisco on the way to FPMT’s Tse Chen Ling Center.

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