Lama Zopa Rinpoche

dust of this earth can be counted, the number of raindrops can be counted, the number of
drops of water in the oceans can be counted, but we cannot count the benefits of reciting
this mantra. It is so unbelievable, especially if you recite it with bodhicitta. Each time you
recite the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM once, each time you recite one buddha’s name,
you collect more than skies of merit. And besides powerfully purifying obscurations
collected from beginningless rebirths and collecting extensive merit, it generates compassion
within your heart for the numberless sentient beings: the human beings, the gods, the
demigods, the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals—for every sentient being, without
leaving out even one insect. You develop the most amazing compassion.
Without generating compassion for sentient beings, there is no enlightenment; by generating
compassion for others, there is enlightenment. That is one hundred percent sure. The
benefit of generating compassion for even one sentient being—whether it is a mosquito, an
ant, any kind of insect or whatever, no matter how big or small it is, even as big as a
mountain—generating compassion for even one sentient being brings you to enlightenment.
I must tell you this. In Solu Khumbu, lay people quite often do nyung-näs at the small temples
in the different villages but, although they have the text, the sadhana, they cannot read it at
all, because they have not even learned ka kha ga nga, the Tibetan alphabet. Those who can
read do so, but they are very few. What most people do is go there with great faith and recite
OM MANI PADME HUM, OM MANI PADME HUM, doing the sessions with
prostrations. They also take the eight Mahayana precepts on both days of the nyung-nä.
Each precept you take with bodhicitta, you benefit numberless sentient beings. You are a
great source of happiness and success, an unbelievable source of enlightenment for every
being. Doing such practices combines many powerful things.
Khadro-la’s story
Chanting the Palden Lhamo prayer is an important aspect of Mönlam Chenmo. When
Khadro-la and I are in different places we chant this prayer. Once she made the comment
that the prayer actually makes Palden Lhamo come, which is why she likes chanting it.
Sorry! Again there’s a story. Palden Lhamo is a servant to Khadro-la. She serves Khadro-la.
When Khadro-la was going to Mt. Kailash she rode on Palden Lhamo’s mule. That is just
the essence of the story.
When Khadro-la first went to Dharamsala it took her a year to see His Holiness because,
coming from lower Kham, Chamdo, so far away, she had the appearance of a villager, with
very messy hair and so forth. Of course, that was just her external appearance and no
indication of the level of her mind and the realizations she had. On the outside she appeared
as a very ordinary Tibetan village girl, kind of disheveled, whereas in reality she was
something else entirely. If I tell you some of her story—I don’t need to tell it all—that will
show you.
She worked in a Tibetan government restaurant in Dharamsala but because of her
appearance they made her clean the toilets. Not having any tools, she had to clean them by
scratching the kaka off with her fingernails. That’s what she said, but I think maybe this is
not public talk.
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