Practicing Compassion

Compassion makes everything sweet, rich, meaningful, worthwhile, and the cause of enlightenment. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the all-pervasive importance of compassion. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin, July, 1999. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website.

How can I practice patience if no one gets angry with me? How will I find the opportunity to develop my mind in patience? The opportunity is completely due to the kindness of this person who is angry at me. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in detail why it is so important to practice patience with those who wish to harm us and with those who are angry with us. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can listen along with the transcript on our website.

It is extremely important to reflect, to meditate, to think deeply about karma so that it does not become just a word. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche leads a recitation of the Heart Sutra, the Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Tsong Khapa, and Shakyamuni Buddha’s mantra, before describing the importance of karma in everyday life. These teachings were given during a lamrim course led by Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, in August 1990. You can also listen along with the transcript on our website.

When the subject of karma is missing, there’s no understanding that harming others means harming oneself.  -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche considers how Western psychology lacks an understanding of karma and discusses how it is not enough for a patient to attain superficial happiness if the deeper cause of suffering remains untreated. These teachings were given during a lamrim course led by Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, The Netherlands, in August 1990. You can also read along with the transcript on our website.

We have this negative karma collected on our mental continuum, and we have to do something to clean it, to purify it. If we do nothing, it piles up like mountains and we will experience life’s problems again and again, again and again, because the negative karma is still there. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche urges us to face the facts: our problems arise from our own karma. We must recognize it and then do something about it. It is not enough to feel regret, we must apply the treatment, the method that will serve as an antidote to this poisonous karma piling up in our mind stream. Rinpoche gave these teachings on karma during a lamrim course at Maitreya Instituut, The Netherlands, in August 1990. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.

Ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, enlightenment, everything, all this happiness – the creator is your mind, not somebody outside. This gives you incredible freedom. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to make the best use of our lives by realizing how the mind is the creator of all our happiness and suffering. Through the practice of thought transformation, we can find freedom. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.

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.  

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.  

The meaning of blessings is transforming one’s own mind into the whole path to enlightenment of method and wisdom with the goal of transforming these into the Dharmakaya and the Rupakaya. So the meaning of blessing contains all this. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains what it means to receive the blessings of the guru, and then recites Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim prayer, the Foundation of All Good Qualities, in Tibetan. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at the Thirty-third Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2000. Read along with the transcript on our website.  

All existence are condensed into two truths. MANI signifies the truth for all-obscuring mind, the dependent arising, and PADME is the truth for the absolute wisdom, the emptiness. Then HUM is the unification of dependent arising and emptiness. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche In this month’s podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the meaning of the mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM, and then offers an oral transmission of the Long Chenrezig Mantra. These teachings were given in Singapore, in January 1993. You can read along with the transcript on our website.