Lama Zopa Rinpoche
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▶abstaining from telling lies<br />
▶abstaining from taking alcohol<br />
Generally, you are given the choice of taking all five or some or none when you take refuge.<br />
The Buddha is so kind, so compassionate, giving us incredible freedom like this.<br />
You can think of sexual misconduct as having sex with a person who doesn’t belong to you,<br />
who is committed to somebody else. However, <strong>Lama</strong> Atisha is stricter than that. He said that<br />
even having sex with your own wife or husband in the daytime is also regarded as sexual<br />
misconduct.<br />
From a long time ago in Kopan, we also included taking recreational drugs in the vow of<br />
abstaining from alcohol, because they make you kind of hallucinated, crazy, and cause you to<br />
harm yourself and others. But the texts mainly refer to alcohol. Abstaining from alcohol is<br />
important. It creates so many problems within the family, causing whole families to break up<br />
and forcing the drinkers onto the streets, turning them into beggars. This seems to happen at<br />
lot in the West, and with alcohol there are many other dangers as well. It is easy to see how<br />
drinking alcohol interferes with Dharma development, but abstaining from it is important<br />
for normal life as well.<br />
When we take these five lay vows we do so for more than our own temporary happiness.<br />
The main purpose is to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and, not only that, to<br />
achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric<br />
suffering. We take the vows to free all sentient beings from cancer, from AIDS, from all<br />
sickness, and from all the sufferings of rebirth, old age and death. We take the vows so that<br />
all sentient beings can be free from the suffering of change and from pervasive<br />
compounding suffering. We take vows to bring every sentient being to full enlightenment by<br />
becoming enlightened ourselves. Taking the five lay vows is not just a small thing.<br />
The importance of the Namgyälma mantra<br />
When I give refuge and lay vows, I often give the students a Namgyälma mantra amulet to<br />
wear, as well as a blessing string and a picture of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha. These things<br />
are incredible because just having them constantly purifies negative karma.<br />
Putting the Namgyälma mantra up somewhere in your house or flat brings protection and<br />
makes it a holy place. Then, whatever sentient beings are inside—dogs, cats, mosquitoes<br />
etc.—always have their negative karma and defilements purified and they obtain a higher<br />
rebirth. If even the shadow of the house touches any being, like insects or people, their<br />
negative karma is purified and they get a higher rebirth. If the Namgyälma mantra is on top<br />
of a mountain, the whole mountain become holy and the negative karma of any being who<br />
climbs or touches the mountain is purified and they obtain a higher rebirth.<br />
I often tell people in the West that having a Namgyälma mantra card in the car is vital,<br />
because not only the sentient beings inside but also all beings who touch the car have their<br />
negative karma purified and they obtain a higher rebirth. When you drive, many insects and<br />
ants are killed, especially at nighttime when so many insects fly into your windscreen or are<br />
crushed under the wheels of the car. With a Namgyälma mantra inside [or a decal on the<br />
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