Lama Zopa Rinpoche

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There is no sentient being we have not eaten. In the past, you have eaten me numberless times; I have eaten you numberless times. This might come as a big shock but that’s what has happened. This is the same rationale as when we meditate on the kindness of the mother, how the mother has been kind to us numberless times. It is very amazing. The only thing is that we cannot remember our past lives. We don’t even remember coming from our mother’s womb or the nine months spent in her womb. During the one-month Kopan course we do a meditation on the continuity of the consciousness where we think about how today’s consciousness comes from yesterday’s and yesterday’s comes from that of the day before and how this year’s consciousness comes from last year’s and the year before that and before that, right back to childhood, right back to when the consciousness entered the mother’s womb. After one of these meditations a nun from Israel said she remembered coming out from her mother’s womb. But most people don’t remember even that, so how can they say that past lives do not exist? Asserting that there are no past lives because they don’t remember them, they would also have to assert that they had not existed in their mother’s womb for nine months. How could they say that? That is completely wrong, completely stupid. Everybody knows they have come from their mother’s womb. How can we assume something has not happened just because we can’t remember it? There are so many things from this life’s childhood that we cannot remember, so using that way of thinking we would have to assert that we had never done them. Using an inability to remember as proof of something not happening is very funny logic, very strange logic. A popular quote says, You cannot be sure which will come first, Tomorrow or the next life, Therefore, do not put effort into tomorrow’s plans But instead it is worthwhile to attend to the next life. 103 We just cannot be sure which will come first, tomorrow or our next life. Because of that it is unbelievably worthwhile to work for the next life, to attend to the next life by accumulating merit to not be reborn in the lower realms. Then, if we were to die tomorrow, our work would have been done. And even if we do not die tomorrow, our work has still been done. This is what <strong>Lama</strong> Tsongkhapa said in Lamrim Chenmo: by practicing Dharma with the thought that we might die today, if we do die we have made the preparation, and if we don’t die then we have further opportunities to collect more merit. Therefore, thinking, “I’m going to die today,” and working for future lives, practicing Dharma to benefit our future lives, is most worthwhile. One way that the Kadampa geshes defined Dharma was that it is something that benefits future lives; something that brings happiness in future lives. If what we are practicing does not do that, it is not Dharma. Another way they defined it was that if any action of our body, speech and mind becomes an antidote to delusion, it is Dharma; if it does not become an 153
antidote to delusion, it is not Dharma. This is how the Kadampa geshes differentiated between what is Dharma and what is not. Renounce this life One day Dromtönpa, <strong>Lama</strong> Atisha’s translator, was walking in the forest near Reting Monastery when he saw an old man circumambulating the temple. When he asked the old man what he was doing he said, “I’m circumambulating.” Gyalwa Dromtönpa replied, “It’s good that you are circumambulating, but wouldn’t it be better if you practiced Dharma?” After a while the old man reconsidered and thought that reading texts might be what Dromtönpa meant, so he sat down and started doing that. Dromtönpa came upon him again and asked, “What are you doing?” to which the old man replied, “I’m reading texts.” Dromtönpa said, “It’s good that you are reading texts, but wouldn’t it better if you practiced Dharma?” Then the old man thought that maybe meditating is what he meant by Dharma so he sat down and started meditating. Again Dromtönpa came upon him and asked, “What are you doing?” and again the old man replied, “I’m meditating.” Dromtönpa said, “It’s good that you are meditating, but wouldn’t it be better if you practiced Dharma?” Only then did the old man ask, “What do you mean by practicing Dharma?” Gyalwa Dromtönpa replied, “Renounce this life!” The meaning of “renounce this life” is huge. Not renouncing this life is where all our difficulties come from—all our negative emotions, all our breakdowns, all our relationship problems and all the rest. All our problems come from attachment to this life. All the obstacles to practicing Dharma—delaying practicing Dharma, not wanting to practice Dharma, wrong concepts, laziness, all these things—come from the attachment clinging to this life. That is the root of all the disease, mental pain and other problems in the world; all the problems that people pay psychologists for. People go to see psychologists and it is so expensive. People pay and pay and build debt on debt. It’s never-ending. The root of this is attachment; all the other problems spread out from there, like branches spreading out from the main trunk of a tree. Like this, from the root problem, all of life’s problems spread out—so many problems, all kinds of problems, anger, pride and so forth. So when Gyalwa Dromtönpa told the old man to renounce this life he meant to renounce attachment to this life. That means renouncing the attachment that brings with it so many expectations, which in turn cause us to work so hard to try to fulfill those expectations. From that come worry and fear and all the diseases of body and mind. So when we renounce this, we renounce all the other problems. Therefore, if we are able to practice Dharma, to renounce this life, there is so much inner peace and happiness in our life. When the root has been cut, all the branches stop growing. We see in Milarepa’s life story how he developed incredible peace and happiness from just this basic practice of renouncing this life, without talking about his tantric realizations. 154
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SUN OF DEVOTION, STREAM OF BLESSING
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The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Bring
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6. The Guru Is the Most Powerful Ob
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Editor’s Preface This book is the
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Chapter 1. Taking Care of the Mind
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We still have to experience death b
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In a well-cultivated field, whateve
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What a pleasant life we human being
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enefit the teachings of the Buddha
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Among those fifty-one secondary min
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means the cessation of all the gros
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Padmasambhava’s ways of diagnosin
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Practicing Dharma is subduing our m
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from life to life, we will be able
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In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s W
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said, that allows them to develop i
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contained in the Tengyur, a collect
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Thus the misconceptions about Buddh
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Not understanding this specific emp
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Cutter Sutra eventually does. Then
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There are sentient beings who are a
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vase, the neck is not the vase, the
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4. The freedom of not being born as
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sentient beings, not only to the ti
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If Milarepa could do that after kil
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All of us, believers or nonbeliever
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The need for refuge in our life Per
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▶abstaining from telling lies ▶
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Otherwise they come into the kitche
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Our life is so important, so precio
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Even though our mind, or the other
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We will realize this as we are abou
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The emptiness of the Z I want to en
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the greatest problem that affluent
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Without a guru, we cannot be free f
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This is mentioned in Pabongka Deche
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particles of dust of the earth. Eve
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human mother. If we were to sacrifi
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Buddhism came from the Buddha, from
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obscurations but also the obscurati
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Chapter 7. A Talk about Dolgyal Rec
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seemed to like us and we were able
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very crowded. That’s how we lived
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him about the bum-pa, the vase. Thi
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A key element of guru devotion prac
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who helped with his education, his
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In short, practicing Dolgyal is har
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Khadro-la and earthquakes Although
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esult of negative karma is rebirth
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Publicly she is like an ordinary pe
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There are other quotations but that
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Page 106 and 107: is the kind root guru. Then it star
Page 108 and 109: It is as the quote says, Before the
Page 110 and 111: The importance of guru devotion Pad
Page 112 and 113: So now, this is a real story. At Bu
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Page 116 and 117: Practicing Dharma is more important
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Page 120 and 121: egin by achieving a long life, wher
Page 122 and 123: Chapter 10. Seeing the Guru as a Bu
Page 124 and 125: The monks did that, but of course,
Page 126 and 127: uddhas. That is also mentioned in t
Page 128 and 129: person without head. I don’t know
Page 130 and 131: Those meditators who have achieved
Page 132 and 133: When I was in Tibet I visited Tsurp
Page 134 and 135: Why should they be called kon-chog
Page 136 and 137: that it is his mistake. It is like
Page 138 and 139: Chapter 11. More Precious than a Wi
Page 140 and 141: patience, perseverance, meditation
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Page 144 and 145: we were once crossing a short bridg
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Page 148 and 149: Whether or not we eat animals is in
Page 150 and 151: Having been born at a time when the
Page 152 and 153: We must prepare for the next life T
Page 156 and 157: Probably many people think that ren
Page 158 and 159: Chapter 12. Cutting the Root of Sam
Page 160 and 161: Because things appear to us not as
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Page 164 and 165: This is all karma. What the Buddha
Page 166 and 167: numberless suffering sentient being
Page 168 and 169: By seeing that person as a wish-gra
Page 170 and 171: light more and some illusory body.
Page 172 and 173: to achieve enlightenment. The other
Page 174 and 175: together is the transcendental wisd
Page 176 and 177: Then you make a promise to generate
Page 178 and 179: eings who also need the Medicine Bu
Page 180 and 181: Focus on the deity’s holy body th
Page 182 and 183: End Notes 1. Or his. Rather than us
Page 184 and 185: 30. Khedrub Sang ye Yeshe (1525-91)
Page 186 and 187: 64. In other teachings Rinpoche has
Page 188 and 189: 97. These are the three ways to und
Page 190 and 191: Where and when these teachings were
Page 192 and 193: Gyatso, Tenzin, the Fourteenth Dala
Page 194 and 195: ———. How to Practice Dharma:
Page 196 and 197: If you, dear reader, would like to
Page 198 and 199: Other available teachings by Lama Y
Page 200 and 201: Our further development similarly d
Page 202 and 203: The Foundation for the Preservation
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Dedication Through the merit create
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About Gordon McDougall Gordon McDou
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