Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: Recent Episodes
Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Listen to teachings from great Tibetan Buddhist masters Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Visit our website (www.LamaYeshe.com) to read teachings from many of the greatest teachers of our time and to order our free books.
Your mind should be doing retreat in emptiness, retreating away from ignorance, the hallucinated mind, the worldly dharmas, the king of the delusions.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers vast and profound retreat advice to participants present during the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig Retreat in Taiwan in 2001. You can read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.
It’s unbelievable what you can accomplish with this incredible human body. There is no greater joy than this.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to take advantage of the power of our human rebirth. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a commentary on Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa, given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California, USA, in November 2003. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
There are many different kinds of Dharma practice— hundreds of different mantras to recite, all kinds of meditation—but the most important of them all is the practice of compassion.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses how no matter how you lead your daily life—in retreat, studying Dharma, chanting sadhanas, reciting mantras or putting in long hours at the office—if you never let compassion leave your mind, if you constantly keep in mind the thought of benefiting others, everything you do becomes work for the welfare of others. These teachings were given during a four-day course at Tilopa Center, Decatur, Illinois, in August, 1997 and published in the LYWA free book, Virtue and Reality, edited by Nicholas Ribush.
When you read different teachings, you might get confused because they look contradictory. One teaching says you must never do something, then another teaching says you must do that. The difference is in the level of development of the mind.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how karma becomes negative or positive based not on the action but on the mind. A bodhisattva whose mind cherishes others can take actions that appear negative because they are motivated by the mind of enlightenment. But when we are motivated by self-cherishing, we must abandon such negative actions. Rinpoche gave these teachings during a lamrim course at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August 1990. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
As you listen to the oral transmission think, “May I be able to reveal each word to every sentient being and may they be able to actualize the path immediately in their mind when they hear it.”
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives teachings on guru devotion and a brief commentary on Pabongka Rinpoche’s Calling the Guru from Afar during an oral transmission of the text in Singapore in April 1992. You can read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.
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.
From our side, from us sentient beings, from our side, if we practice correctly, definitely, without doubt, definitely we’ll achieve the ultimate peace. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to practice in order to achieve the ultimate peace for ourselves and all sentient beings. These teachings were given by Rinpoche in Singapore in January, 1993. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
Once your inner enemy of delusion is destroyed, it is the same as if all outside enemies have been destroyed in one instant.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to protect ourselves from anger and expands upon the mind of loving kindness. 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 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.
When you follow the ego, you become a disciple of the ego. You follow the ego day and night and listen what ego says all the time. Even if you have received all the sutra and tantra teachings and have heard them many times, when you follow the ego nothing happens in your mind. -Lama … Continue reading The Shortcomings of Self-Cherishing
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.
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.
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.
Because we rely on the methods revealed by Buddha – the path to liberation and enlightenment – we naturally take refuge in the Buddha.
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we take refuge in the Buddha. Rinpoche then chants a prayer asking for blessings of the lineage lamas, followed by recitation of The Foundation of All Good Qualities, a lamrim prayer by Lama Tsongkhapa. 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 ego, this self-cherishing thought, the ego is much more harmful than all the atomic bombs that are in the world because atomic bomb even if it explodes, if you have bodhichitta it doesn’t cause you to be reborn in the hell realm, lower realm.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how Shakyamuni Buddha was just like us until he changed his attitude from ego to bodhichitta and explains how the ego causes more harm than even the most powerful weapon and must be abandoned. Rinpoche gave this teaching during the 33rd Kopan Meditation course in 2000. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.
By training the mind in patience, it leaves a positive imprint on your mind. Then later you find it easier for the mind to be patient and more and more difficult for the mind to get angry. It’s the same with self-cherishing or bodhicitta. Whichever way one trains the mind, one can become more easily habituated towards that mind even in this life.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the difference between the mind and the body, engages in debate with the students on this difference, and ends by offering the proof of reincarnation by habituation. These teachings were given by Rinpoche during the 29th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1996. You can also read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.
Happiness comes from a positive attitude and action motivated by that.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
This month on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive podcast, Lama Zopa Rinpoche answers a student’s question about the relationship between the mind and the heart when practicing bodhichitta, how to be authentic in the practice of compassion, and where to locate happiness. This teaching was given by Rinpoche in 1990 in Boston, Massachusetts and was hosted by Kurukulla Center. You can also watch Rinpoche give these teachings on the LYWA YouTube channel.
The meditation practice is like the seed. The actual body of meditation, the practice, that is like the seed and purifying the hindrances and the accumulation of merit are like the soil and water.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we must prepare the ground of our mind with merit accumulation and karmic purification so that the seeds of our practice of listening, contemplation, and meditation can grow into realizations on the path to attain enlightenment for the sake of all mother sentient beings. These teachings were given by Rinpoche at Manjushri Institute, Cumbria, England, August 16-24, 1979.
Even giving just one single tiny grain of rice to one single sentient being will accumulate infinite merit when you are motivated to give by the precious wish to attain enlightenment to benefit numberless sentient beings.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the power and importance of the precious bodhicitta during teachings on Geshe Langri Tangpa’s Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, given at Manjushri Institute, Cumbria, England, August 16-24, 1979. Read along with the transcript on the LYWA website.
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.
Compassion should be at the heart of our life, at the center of all our relationships and in all our practices.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives the transmission of the mantra and dharani of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion and explains why reciting these mantra helps us to develop compassion from the center of our heart for all beings and especially for those we see as the enemy. Rinpoche illuminates how the path to enlightenment depends first on developing immeasurable compassion for each and every being. These teachings were given by Rinpoche during a Maitreya puja at Shakyamuni Center in Taichung, Taiwan, in March 2007. You can follow along with the transcript on our website.
If you don’t practice Dharma, don’t learn Dharma, don’t meditate, if you don’t pray to have realization of the path to enlightenment, at least even the path to liberation, if you don’t do that then so many sentient beings have to suffer for you to live, for your happiness, it is so unimaginable, unbearable, so unbearable.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Everything we do to keep this human body alive inevitably harms other sentient beings and thus accumulates negative karma. Rinpoche describes this harm and the incredible power of the object to quickly accumulate huge amounts of positive merit. Contemplate how this power of the object can help us accumulate more than enough positive merit to offset the constantly accumulating negative karma of living. May we accumulate more than enough positive merit to quickly and more quickly constantly progress on the path to enlightenment for the sake of all mother sentient beings. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this Dharma talk prior to a refuge ceremony at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, on January 18, 2009. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
Manjushri bodhisattva is the highest manifestation of being, the embodiment of all knowledge.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti (Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri) consists of 160 verses and mantra sentences, condensing an enormous tantric lore. Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti in Tibetan. Rinpoche recorded this recitation in 2006, and asked for the recording to be made available for anyone to listen at any time during their day. Rinpoche also suggested to play it loudly so that animals and others nearby can hear it, and thereby benefit from it as well.
Recently His Holiness the Dalai Lama has offered us all the precious advice to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation. Thus all students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are requested to please recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri as much as you can, continuously, starting now. You can download the English translation of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri and read His Holiness’s letter of advice on the FPMT website.
The incredible, unbelievable, most unbelievable, no words, how most important to generate bodhicitta, can you imagine? -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche celebrates the power of bodhicitta during teachings given by Rinpoche at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive home office in October 2012. Rinpoche was in town to attend the visit of His Holiness the … Continue reading Imagine the Power of Bodhicitta →
If we don’t create good karma again, we cannot predict what will happen to us after this minute, after this hour, tonight, tomorrow, next year. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche From extensive teachings on karma excerpted from a lamrim course led by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August 1990. Read along with the … Continue reading Contemplate Karmic Appearance →
One must understand that by hurting others, you are also creating the cause to be hurt by others. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how the self-cherishing thought negatively affects our karma and must be renounced. These teaching were given during a lamrim course hosted by Maitreya Instituut, Emst, in August, 1990. Follow along … Continue reading Renouncing the Self-cherishing Thought →
So, what is the way that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, what is his way of freeing the sentient being from suffering? By revealing the absolute truth, by revealing the nature of the existence.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how Guru Buddha Shakyamuni frees us from suffering by revealing the true nature of reality. But the Buddha cannot transplant his realizations of emptiness into our minds. It is up to each of us to apply the teachings so we may generate our own realization of emptiness. Rinpoche gave these teachings at the 14th Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1981. You can also follow along with the transcript on our website.
It is amazing how even within a minute, even in each second, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, wow, what you can do with this precious human body by understanding and practicing the Dharma.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche celebrates our perfect human rebirth and encourages us to bring every single moment in our life into the path to enlightenment. Rinpoche gave these teachings prior to a chöd initiation at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, in June 2009. You can read along with the transcript on our website.
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.
All our suffering is caused by our belief that even though the I is merely labeled on the aggregates, it exists from its own side. This sickness is the root of all our suffering and our cure is our wisdom.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives a short vivid explanation about how we circle in samsara, why we circle, and whose fault it is that we circle and suffer. This teaching is from the Fourteenth Kopan Course, 1981. Read along with the transcript on our website here.
The essence of the Dharma is to subdue one’s mind by taming the disturbing, obscuring, emotional thoughts that bring so much suffering to yourself and to others, from life to life.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
In this teaching from the 33rd Kopan Course in 2000, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the classic Buddhist instruction “Engage in the perfect wholesome action. Subdue one’s own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha.” Rinpoche then leads us in the ultimate exercise to subdue the mind: a contemplation of emptiness. Read along with a transcript of these teachings on our website here.
As Buddha said, you are your own enemy or you are your own liberator. You can create a hell realm or you can create enlightenment. Everything depends on what you do with your mind.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
In these 2000 teachings given during the 33rd Kopan Course, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how everything is merely imputed by the mind and then shows how this wisdom can enable us to transform all karmic appearances into happiness. You can read along with the full transcript at https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/day-2-emptiness-everything-comes-mind
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 … Continue reading Let Go of Suffering for the Sake of Others →
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 … Continue reading The Urgency of Realizing Lamrim →
The meaning of the word ‘mantra’ includes the whole path to enlightenment. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the use of mantra in highest yoga tantra and explains how our minds should approach the practice of the mantra of Chenrezig. These teachings were given at the Twenty-Eighth Kopan Meditation Course in November 1995. Read along … Continue reading The Meaning of Secret Mantra →
The meaning of the word ‘mantra’ includes the whole path to enlightenment. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the use of mantra in highest yoga tantra and explains how our minds should approach the practice of the mantra of Chenrezig. These teachings were given at the Twenty-Eighth Kopan Meditation Course in November 1995. Read along … Continue reading The Meaning of Secret Mantra →
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 … Continue reading The Qualities of the Dharma →
The Buddha of Compassion is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ great compassion that embraces and never lets go, never gives up on sentient beings even for one second. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche These teachings on the benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha’s mantra were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Twenty-Eighth Kopan Meditation Course … Continue reading Buddha’s Compassion Never Gives Up →
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 … Continue reading The Dharma will protect us →
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 … Continue reading The Label Is Not Enough →
By developing the mind in patience, whatever happens to you, whatever harm others give you, you will never get angry. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the power of the mind of patience to bring happiness to all beings we encounter on the path to enlightenment. The most powerful way for us to develop … Continue reading The Enemy is the Kindest Person →
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 … Continue reading There is No Enlightenment Button →
The basic Buddhist philosophy is that everything comes from karma which comes from your mind, from your intention. Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how imprints condition our mind to project karmic appearances upon everything we see, hear, smell, touch and taste. By changing our mind, we can change our experience. This short teaching … Continue reading The King of the Superstitious Mind →
Those sentient beings who accumulate merit, especially the sentient beings who know how to accumulate merit, if they have long life you see, then the longer they live then they are able to make their life more meaningful. They are able to create more cause of happiness, so there is sense in living long. -Lama … Continue reading The Long-Life Mantra of White Tara →
If one practices mindfulness in the reality of these things, that which is impermanence, there is liberation from samsara. Lama Zopa Rinpoche The mind is the source of all suffering and the source of all happiness. In this session Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how subduing the mind by meditating on the reality of impermanence is … Continue reading Subduing the Mind →
Even if we feel we are only capable of doing small things to help others right now, don’t feel hopeless or depressed. Instead rejoice because even the smallest attempt to help others should fill our hearts with happiness and joy. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages us to examine whether our attempts to help … Continue reading The Power of Cherishing Others →
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 … Continue reading Making This Precious Human Rebirth Meaningful →
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 … Continue reading Compassion and Emptiness Together →
By being aware, by knowing about negative karma and all the suffering results, we are persuaded to practice purification. Lama Zopa Rinpoche These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche reminds us of the many kinds of negative karma … Continue reading Karma and Purification →
With that continual thought of benefiting other sentient beings, then with every single morsel of food or drop of drink, you collect limitless skies of merit. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal in 2003. In this session, Rinpoche teaches how … Continue reading The Yoga of Offering Food →
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 … Continue reading Lama Yeshe Rides the Radio Waves →
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 … Continue reading The Useful Fear of Death →
So this time I must receive full enlightenment, that which is free forever from samsara, for the sake of the sentient beings. Lama Zopa Rinpoche From teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche prior to a refuge ceremony at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, November 6, 1992. In this session, Rinpoche explains the eight benefits of practicing … Continue reading The Eight Benefits of Practicing Refuge →
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 … Continue reading A Meditation on 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 … Continue reading The Emptiness of 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 … Continue reading 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 … Continue reading The Shortcomings of 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 … Continue reading The Kindness of the 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 … Continue reading The Path of 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 … Continue reading The Power of Positive Attitude →
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 … Continue reading The Benefits of Thought Transformation →
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 … Continue reading Making Your Mind Vajrayana →
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 … Continue reading The Nature of the Mind on the Path →
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 →
With ignorant mind you cannot approach the omniscient mind. Like without the fuel in the car you cannot reach your destination. Even if you have the car, if you don’t have the fuel then you cannot reach to the desirable place. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche In this talk, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why we work with so … Continue reading Why Are There So Many Different Buddhas? →
If we take care of others, work for their happiness, we are automatically taking care of ourselves. Trying to make others happy is the best way of loving ourselves. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Listen to this profound teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on transforming everyday actions into the cause of enlightenment. Given during a four-day course … Continue reading Fulfilling Life’s Purpose →
Lama Zopa Rinpoche answers questions from students on how to generate loving-kindness without generating attachment and does it mean to realize the yidam. Rinpoche also describes the many joys and benefits from living a meaningful life guided by the Dharma. These teachings given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California USA, in November … Continue reading Loving-kindness and Realizing the Yidam →
The benefits of bodhicitta can never be finished explaining it is said in the teachings by Buddha, like limitless sky. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave these lamrim teachings on the immeasurable benefits of bodhicitta at the 29th Kopan Meditation Course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1996. You can also read along with the transcript by … Continue reading The Benefits of Bodhicitta →
So main thing is by practicing oneself as lower, then pride does not rise. -Lama Zopa Rinpoche Listen to Day Two from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2003 commentary on Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, an essential mind training text composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa. This teaching was given at Tse Chen Ling Center, in San Francisco, California … Continue reading Seeing Oneself as Lower Than Others →
Understanding, the wisdom makes you happy. Always with you. But all the material, what you consider build up this life, is, when you need, not there. It’s there, it’s not there. Lama Yeshe explains in his uniquely skillful and powerful way how our mental bureaucracy, the departments of ego and attachment, are working together constantly … Continue reading Your Mental Bureaucracy →
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
Sometimes uncontrollable anger arises and uncontrollable self-cherishing thought arises, self-concern, anger, pride also, but then sometimes it makes you aware there’s choice. There’s choice. You can choose. Listen to a public talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how to bring peace and happiness to oneself and others, given at Conway Hall, London, England on July … Continue reading Taking Care of the Mind →
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
Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of Lama Yeshe, gave this talk during the 45th Kopan Lamrim Course at Kopan Monastery in 2012. Ösel covers many lamrim topics such as guru devotion, Dharma, the sufferings of samsara, our five senses and love, all from a contemporary viewpoint. You can also read along to the transcript … Continue reading You have to find your own truth →
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 … Continue reading Chöd: Slaying the Ego →
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this Dharma talk in Madrid, Spain on June 10, 2009 and explains how compassion is our best and most reliable friend and will never cheat us, that compassion is the most powerful purification we can practice and that compassion should be our practice in every moment of our everyday life. Read … Continue reading Compassion Creates the Cause for Success →
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this talk in Madrid, Spain on June 10, 2009. The teaching includes a commentary on the visualization of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), the Buddha of Compassion, and group chanting of OM MANI PADME HUM mantra. Rinpoche also explained the benefits of compassion and the laws of karma. Read along with the transcript at http://www.lamayeshe.com/article/compassion-real-answer-audio-and-unedited-transcripts
An excerpt from a series of teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given in 2009 in Singapore. Follow along with the unedited transcript and listen to more of this teaching at lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/inspiration-kopan-courses.
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this Dharma talk prior to a refuge ceremony at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, on January 18, 2009. Rinpoche discusses the kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in taking responsibility for preserving and spreading the Buddhadharma. Other topics in this teaching include the kindness of all sentient beings, the benefits … Continue reading The Kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama →
This teaching is excerpted from Lecture 10 of the 41st Kopan Course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in December 2008. In this section of the teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the great meaning of the precious human rebirth, with reference to a verse from Calling the Guru From Afar, and the story of Milarepa, who achieved enlightenment … Continue reading Basic Philosophy of Buddhism →
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave these teachings in June, 2008 at the White Eagle Conference Center in Crestone, Colorado. This podcast presents the first session in this four day teaching series. In this session Rinpoche explores why we suffer, how to find the I that causes us to suffer and why we need to practice the … Continue reading Why We Need to Practice Dharma →
From the lam-rim teachings Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave at Guadalajara Mexico in April, 2008. You can follow along with the transcript and listen to the entire series of teachings at lamayeshe.com/article/teachings-guadalajara-days-1-4-audio-and-unedited-transcript.
Excerpted from a commentary and oral transmission by Lama Zopa Rinpoche of the Golden Light Sutra given at Maitripa Institute in Portland, Oregon on the 2nd and 3rd of November 2007. You can also read and listen to the entire unedited teaching at lamayeshe.com/article/golden-light-sutra-portland-or-audio.
Excerpted from a commentary and oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa Institute in Portland, Oregon on the 2nd and 3rd of November 2007. Go here for the entire unedited teaching.