Lama Zopa Rinpoche

I’m sorry; my mind is bad. I watch children at airports or wherever for five minutes, seeing
how demanding they are, constantly demanding, demanding all the time from their parents.
They never give any peace, always crying, always demanding.
Our mother, too, bore many hardships for us and this is not the first time. Even just as a
human mother she has borne hardships from beginningless rebirths. This is without talking
about the times she has been an animal mother, having to bear unbelievable hardships, such
as a mother bird having to guard her eggs against predators coming to eat them. Can you
imagine all the sacrifices that animal mothers have to make?
It would be impossible to repay the kindness of this current human mother who had to bear
so much hardship for us, even if we gave up our lives equaling the number of dust particles
of this earth. We can never finish repaying that kindness.
Then, fourth, there is the kindness of giving us an education, also called the “kindness of leading
us in the path of the world.” Our parents educated us themselves and also sent us to school,
right up to university, spending a great deal of money for all that education.
Of course, in this life they have also given us access to the Dharma. We’re able to read, write
and study Dharma books because of the education they gave us. Then we come to know
why we have to get sick, why we have to get old, why we have to die, why we have to be
reborn. And we can understand that this is not the first time. For numberless times from
beginningless rebirths we have had to go through that. And because of that education we
know that if we cannot actualize the path in this life, especially the direct perception of
emptiness, then we will have to again endlessly suffer. Through our education we come to
know this. We learn the correct teachings from qualified teachers, from the four noble truths
onwards.
We are unbelievably fortunate. We can see even this world, the southern world system, just
how few people know about this. They do not know about the mind, reincarnation, karma
or things like that. Most people have no awareness of death. Because they don’t know what
to do, they put off thinking about death.
Even though at the moment we have not actualized the path to overcome death by realizing
emptiness and so forth, we can still experience an incredibly happy death. We can use death
in the happiest way, making it most beneficial for sentient beings, to free sentient beings
from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. So while we
have to experience death, we can use it for that through the practice of lo-jong and bodhicitta.
People only think of this life, nothing else, only this life, only this year, this month, this week,
just that. We all have to die but probably because they are unable to accept death, because
they do not know what to do, they refuse to think about it. To learn about death is the most
important subject in life, so it is very strange how people just put it off, just ignore it. It
doesn’t help.
On the other hand, we are so fortunate to have this education and that is due to our mother’s
kindness. She gave us this education. And this is not the first time. She has shown us the
kindness of giving us an education from beginningless rebirths, even just by being our
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