Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Practicing Dharma is more important than anything else but it is so difficult for the majority
of people in the world to practice it. They are unable to create virtuous actions—the
positive, pure, healthy actions that are the cause of happiness—because they do not know
about the mind, they do not know about karma. Whether they are billionaires, zillionaires or
beggars, they do not know about Dharma, and so day and night, whatever they do with their
body, speech and mind becomes an action of attachment; it becomes nonvirtue.
There are people who are ignorant of Dharma but who naturally have a good heart. People
who think of others can possibly collect merit, but without dedicating or practicing patience
and compassion, that merit can easily be destroyed.
If, on the other hand, we dedicate whatever merit we create to achieving the state of the
omniscient mind, then even if anger or heresy arise, that merit might become weaker but
cannot be completely destroyed. As Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo said, even though you can
remove many rocks from a big mountain, the mountain itself will remain. Merit that has
been dedicated for enlightenment can be harmed but not completely destroyed. When it has
not been dedicated it can very easily be totally destroyed.
The best way to dedicate is with emptiness. That is why, when I do the dedications at the
end of a teaching, I do them with emptiness. If we dedicate our merit by meditating on
emptiness—not just saying the word “emptiness” but meditating on emptiness—the merit
will not be destroyed and later, if heresy or anger arise, they will not even weaken it.
Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche said only emptiness, and nothing else, can directly eliminate
the root of samsara, the ignorance holding the I as truly existent. Although it can help, even
bodhicitta does not have the power to do this.
The importance of the Dharma and Dharma centers
Just a little investigation will show clearly how much suffering sentient beings are
experiencing. Even if we don’t consider all sentient beings and simply look at the people in
this world, we can see how much suffering they must endure by being ignorant of Dharma
and how much not knowing Dharma harms them in this life. Even here in this world, where
the Buddha descended in the past and where Buddhism still exists, human beings are still
suffering so much. It hasn’t stopped yet. Looking at the plight of others, we should
appreciate how greatly fortunate we are to not only know Dharma but be able to continue to
study and assimilate it into our life.
From that perspective we can see how important a Dharma center is; a place with a teacher,
a translator and a good, functioning organization. That is unbelievably important. It is so
beneficial and so needed.
I want to use this opportunity to thank everybody who works for the Dharma centers in the
different countries and here in England, at Jamyang London and Jamyang Leeds and the
other study groups. I want to emphasize how important it is. Even small study groups are
very important. Even just one person volunteering at a center is very important.
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