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Delusion and karma come from the mind; they don’t come from outside. The main cause is the mind, so we need to learn more about our own mind, about delusion and karma, and about the path. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Like a star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame, an illusion. These classic teachings on emptiness are explained with great compassion by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a retreat on the four Kadampa deities held at Institut Vajra Yogini, France in 2003. Read along with a lightly edited transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/6-meditation-emptiness

When we hear the sound, we will know what is the hallucination and what is the reality, what is false and what is the truth of our view of the sound. Lama Zopa Rinpoche This short excerpt is from a series of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at a retreat held at Institut Vajra Yogini, France, from April 18 to May 11, 2003. A torrential rainstorm had begun and Rinpoche takes that opportunity to lead the students in a profound meditation on the emptiness of sound. Read the transcript of these teachings at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/3-emptiness-sound

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

Desire will be there all the time, but on top of that there is more anger. So much of the problem is desire; it is really the whole world’s problem. 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 must understand how pervasive compounding suffering permeates everything we experience. Without understanding this, we can never remove our suffering completely and instead will wander mindlessly in ignorant darkness driven by endless desire and dissatisfaction. But with Dharma wisdom, you are a success no matter what happens. Read along with the lighted edited transcript of these teachings at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-4-shortcomings-desire

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.

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

When we protect our mind, we protect our life. Lama Zopa Rinpoche These teachings were given in June 2008 at the White Eagle Conference Center in Crestone, Colorado. Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that when we practice a positive attitude, the good heart, we cause ourselves and everyone around us to be happy and healthy. Rinpoche notes that the good heart is so powerfully protective that a person doesn’t necessarily need a Buddhist motivation for their actions to become Dharma. You can read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-one-part-b-positive-attitude-taking-care-yourself-dedications

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

So whatever happens, whatever is happening around, around you, your heart has peace. Lama Zopa Rinpoche In this month’s podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche leads us in the vajra practice of Chenrezig. Rinpoche begins by chanting Om Mani Padme Hum slowly and powerfully. Within that resonance Rinpoche teaches on how to maintain the vajra visualization of Chenrezig where method and wisdom are unified in one mind. Rinpoche also touches upon the vajra method of hearing all sounds as mantra and then leads the group again in chanting Om Mani Padme Hum, this time using the kind of chanting Rinpoche says he would hear his mother use at Lawudo. While chanting Rinpoche repeatedly pauses to refresh the visualization of Chenrezig on the crown of all sentient beings to whom the practice is dedicated. After ending this session of chanting while visualizing mindfully, Rinpoche returns to analyzing the emptiness of Chenrezig and helps us see how true existence looks when it is projected on that visualization. Listening to this experiential teaching will both increase your knowledge of the ultimate view and deepen your practice of Chenrezig for the benefit of all. Rinpoche gave this talk in Madrid, Spain on June 10, 2009. You can follow along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/chenrezig-visualization.  

Taking refuge, now, becomes a very serious matter or serious practice, very fundamental, like the earth is used for many things, roads, houses, to grow food, crops, plants and so forth; the earth is used for so many things, for happiness. Lama Zopa Rinpoche These teachings on the nature of the mind and the stages of the path, including extensive teachings on refuge, were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Twenty-Eighth Kopan Meditation Course in November, 1995. You can read along with the transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lecture-nine-nature-mind

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 … Continue reading Dharma in Daily Life →

I know you people understand something, have discovered something; but many things are only intellectual and not yet realization, therefore, I think you need something more. Lama Yeshe In the early 70s, Lama Yeshe used to give Sunday afternoon lectures at the location of Kopan Monastery and people would come from all around to listen. … Continue reading Integrating What You Have Heard →

Devotion is like the mother. From the mother comes many children, then grandchildren, then all the generations. Like that, from devotion all the qualities come, the realizations and all the qualities. From devotion comes the understanding of Dharma words and then the realization of their meaning. From devotion so many qualities come, and also with … Continue reading The Meaning of Guru Devotion →

Our meeting the spiritual friend, the spiritual master, who reveals the right path, is like the stick that meets the gong. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche In this talk Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how the nature of our mind is the source of our freedom. It is simply a matter of gathering the causes and conditions to … Continue reading The Power and Potential of the Mind →

There’s no other way to do this perfect work for others, so therefore one must actualize the steps of the path to enlightenment; to do that one must purify the obstacles, the negative karmas, obscurations, so therefore then one must do Vajrasattva practice which is the most powerful one by which any negative karma can … Continue reading The Benefits of Purification →

Because uncontrolled, undisciplined mind is opposite of knowledge-wisdom and happy, that nature is dissatisfaction. So your mind put such way, control, with your own wisdom, there is space, you can discover peace and joyful. So your life is becomes joyful, peaceful, no matter the outside world is up and down, up and down. -Lama Yeshe … Continue reading The Purpose of Meditation →

On August 11th, 2019, Tenzin Ösel Hita participated in the ongoing series “Taste of Buddhism” offered by FPMT center Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco. Tse Chen Ling describes Ösel as “a radical free-thinker, former monk, filmmaker, and musician who is highly gifted at sharing the essence of the Dharma and how it can be … Continue reading My Life as a Tulku →

It is huge, it is most profound meditation, of the most important meditation, just thinking meaning of existing, or just thinking meaning of dependent arising, just that word, think meaning, meditate on meaning of dependent, then meditate on meaning of arising without many words, that’s just, say, the two truths are there. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche … Continue reading The Prajnaparamita, the Wisdom Gone Beyond →

So now you have to understand, purified completely one negative karma. What does it mean? What does it mean? Now, it means a lot to you. Do you understand? Unbelievable. The four suffering results. You don’t experience at all. Wow! Can imagine? So, like that we have to understand what it means. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche … Continue reading How to Purify Negative Karma →

May the good heart, altruism, source of all the happiness, may it be generated within my mind, in the mind of the family, all sentient beings; those who have this altruism, bodhicitta, thought of full enlightenment to benefit others, to be developed due to all these merits, positive actions that one did in the past, … Continue reading The Source of All Happiness →