Training the Mind in Lamrim

My most dear, kind, wish-fulfilling ones,
If possible, I should offer each of you trillions of  dollars for coming to Kopan to learn about Buddhism. This means your mind is open to real happiness—to be free from the gross suffering of the three lower realms and even not to be satisfied with the temporary happiness of the three upper realms, humans and gods. Most important, once you meet Dharma and practice, this frees you from samsaric happiness which is only suffering, and Dharma can give you full enlightenment, peerless happiness.

Learning Dharma and practicing is so important for yourself as well as for countless others, because when you achieve enlightenment, you can free countless living beings, all living beings, from the oceans of sufferings. So you can see there is nothing more important than this, to learn Dharma and practice.

Dharma is more important than money and all the rest of the worldly things that people believe are important for our happiness. We shouldn’t use this perfect human rebirth just to make money, as a servant to money. We need to work for future lives’ happiness and enlightenment.

We need some money, but money only comes from past virtuous actions, from good karma that we have created in the past, just as good crops come if we plant the right kinds of seeds.  People in the world who have no understanding of Dharma think material things come from money. They think external comforts come from money, so they think money is the most important thing.

Another strange thing is that generally people don’t learn about death. Life comes to an end, and it’s important to understand why this is so. Also, to know how the mind is different from the body—the mind is colorless, it has no shape and it perceives objects. The principal cause and secondary cause is the mind. The Buddha said the definition of the mind is clear and being able to perceive objects. There are many people who can remember past lives, their own and others. There is no-one who has discovered there is only one life and no reincarnation.

In the US there are many problems of the elements—flooding, fires and hurricanes—which are happening again and again. Also, children are shooting people, and there is senseless killing of people. People can’t understand why this happens these days; why there is so much senseless killing. This is because people don’t understand karma, how things come from the mind.

The most important essential practice is that of compassion. This is the essence of Buddhism—compassion to all beings who are numberless. Compassion brings us happiness and stops us from harming others. Compassion is the source of numberless beings’ happiness and it brings us to peerless happiness and enlightenment.

Thank you, please come to Kopan to study again.

Sincerely

Lama Zopa, from California

Dear Kim,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Definitely according to your wish you can become students, even though I don’t have any qualities. I can, however, buy them from a shop—Wal-Mart—but maybe they will be very expensive.

I’m very happy that your books have helped your mind. That’s very important. You can read other Dharma books, but lamrim is very important. Buddha taught 84,000 teachings; Hinayana and Mahayana—sutra and tantra. All these are stages to enlightenment. The lower, medium and higher paths all come to the three principal aspects of the path—renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. That’s everything. We must know renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. These we must know, as without them we cannot practice.

Therefore it is very important to study and realize these in the whole life. That’s very important. There’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and also the Great Lamrim (Lamrim Chenmo). This latter one may be too hard, but you should read it one time. Then there’s the Middle Lamrim, as well as shorter lamrim texts. Whether you read these or not is OK, but Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is the main one for you to read in order to understand.

To achieve full enlightenment in order to free numberless hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, suras and asuras from oceans of suffering and bring them to full enlightenment is the main purpose of life. That’s all.

With much love and prayer...

My very dear Anna,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, I was very happy to receive it and read your news. Please find attached my advice for your practice, what you should focus on for your life.

It is very important to meditate every day on the lamrim, this is very important. Also recite one lamrim prayer, such as The Foundation of all Good Qualities, The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, etc, every day, reading the prayer slowly to go over the meaning.

Lamrim is what you need to actualize, no matter how long it takes, so please put your effort into that. You are probably doing Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga every day. If so, this is excellent; if not, then you can start doing this now. Stop and do the lamrim meditation before the guru absorbs into you. Stop and meditate on whatever section of the lamrim you are up to.

One meditation that you must try to do every day is on guru devotion. If you miss it sometimes, that’s ok, but then just continue. There is no question of time, it is up to you what fits.

Then continue with whatever lamrim topic you are on, doing the meditation every day and going through the subjects slowly. Whatever meditation you did in the morning, continue with that mind during the day, so that your mind is in lamrim all day.

Please try to meditate on the lamrim based on guru yoga like this and on this basis you will get all the realizations and the most success in your life. It is important to try to achieve all the realizations, in order to actualize enlightenment. This is in order to liberate numberless sentient beings and to enlighten them. That’s the real project, the real goal of one’s life.

So please practice as much as you can. Life is not long; the nature of this life is impermanent and death can happen at any time. This is the foundation of Buddha’s teachings, and this was the last advice Buddha gave, before showing the aspect of passing away.

What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim, then living your life with bodhicitta motivation. This is the best.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear Losang,
Thank you for your kind letter and news. I checked and BEST is to study and practice the lamrim. Learn the lamrim by following the guidelines and outlines and going through the meditations step-by-step until you have stable realizations. Keep going through the lamrim in this way.

It is very good if you go to study with Geshe __ in France or Spain, but following the lamrim is the main thing. Of course if you can also study other things, such as the Basic Program, that is also very good, as long as lamrim is the main one.

At the moment, the main thing is to study lamrim by following the outline, but on that basis of lamrim you can take other teachings such as Basic Program etc, then it is very good. I am attaching some details on how to meditate on lamrim.

Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta, whatever you do day and night, make all your actions come from bodhicitta, this is the best life.

With much love and prayers...

Dear John,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Regarding faith, it depends on which faith and faith in what. Generally speaking, we need a lot of merit to generate faith, and we also need to purify negative karma and defilements. So, we need both of these practices.

If we wish to generate devotion, then we must one-pointedly make requests to the guru and meditate on the lamrim (as Manjushri advised Lama Tsongkhapa), following the outlines from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Spend two weeks each on the sections on benefits and disadvantages, referring to the commentaries on Liberation and other texts. Spend four weeks on the four outlines in the section on recognizing the qualities and two weeks on the section recollecting the kindness of the guru. In terms of actions, we should obey the advice, offer service, and if we have offerings, then offer these. These four outlines on how to meditate in relation to guru devotion are mentioned in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

If we wish to generate faith in the truth of karma, we need to read about it while also making strong purification and accumulating merit with one-pointed requests to the guru. In the Jorchö practice (preliminary practice for meditating on the lamrim), there’s a long section of requests to the lineage lamas and the guru. We can do the long version or a shorter version, but with many requests to the guru. We can do the short request to the guru many times—ten, fifteen, fifty times, or one mala—not just saying the words but from the heart.

Nectar emanates and purifies all the negativities and obstructions to realization. Basically, if the mind is blocked this is due to defilements. Even geshes who have studied using many kinds of logic have things they don’t understand. Continue the three (purification, accumulation and requests), and if these are done purely, we realize that the teachings are true. Basically, it is like that. Studying the teachings is not enough—in order to realize them, we have to make strong requests. Similarly, generate faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That’s about it.

The deities for your practice are Secret Vajrapani and Hevajra. Of the two, Secret Vajrapani is your yidam.

With much love and prayer...

PS. Please make your life meaningful with bodhicitta, as this life is received just once. Even if there are skies filled with wish-granting jewels, without this jewel of a perfect human rebirth we can’t achieve a perfect human rebirth or higher rebirth again. Pay attention to not wasting this human body.

Student:  I heard that if you have studied the five great treatises in past lives it’s not necessary to go through extensive studies of them in order to attain realizations, and that by just studying and meditating on the lamrim you can traverse the grounds and paths completely. When I heard this I had a few questions. First, how are you supposed to know if you studied the five great treatises in past lives? Second, it seems that most of the past great lineage lamas went through exhaustive and extensive studies. Je Rinpoche showed an extraordinary example of the meeting of study and practice, and so did great lamas like Baso Chokyi Gyaltsen, Sangye Yeshe, Gyalwa Ensapa, etc. Some even showed aspects of great realization at a young age and still went on to study extensively. Relating to my own future practice and study, I plan to stay at Shine Land until it is sold and to continue retreat somewhere after leaving Shine Land. I also thought going to a monastery to study might be helpful. Do you have advice relating to this? I also have some places in mind to check with you.

Rinpoche:  You can attain realizations. You need to study the lamrim, meditate and practice correctly, and then realizations will come. The realizations are the main purpose, just as butter comes through churning milk.

Whether you know a little Dharma or whether you know everything, the point is to have realizations. This is the key thing—to have realizations. Without realizations, it’s as if you don’t have any wealth and you’re only talking about other people’s wealth, "This person has this, this, this." It always becomes like that. Also, the mind isn’t subdued unless you have realizations. No matter how much education and understanding you might have, the mind is not subdued. It becomes like a big collection of DHI, DHI, DHI, DHI, DHI. Without realizations, the mind becomes the same as a computer. The essence is realizations; what is most attractive is realizations. No matter if you have a small understanding or big understanding, that’s what you should look for. Somebody who has realizations—that’s success.

Sometimes study and sometimes retreat is good. Also, sometimes you can do retreat and study together. That’s another thing. Also, there are the benefits of understanding. Like the experienced great teachers, the more you learn the more you understand, which means you make fewer mistakes. There is less misunderstanding and less mistakes in your practice and more correct realizations. You will have a broader understanding of what are mistakes and what is correct. Then, if you want to practice you will know how. Otherwise, you can make a lot of mistakes. If your understanding is limited, a lot of mistakes can arise.

It is all according to your state of mind. You need to judge your mind and decide whether it needs to be in an isolated place or with people. If your mind is very disturbed, very easily affected, and you can’t practice Dharma, then go to an isolated place. Sometimes when you need to learn more, then you can be with people to practice and study. You have to watch your mind, then, according to your mind, do what is better—go away to practice, study or do retreat. In this way it’s safer. If you have a fixed idea, then think that it is no longer beneficial when many things are disturbing you, then you lose out, are unable to practice, and waste your life.

Basically, I think this is better—just watch your mind. Wherever is more beneficial, stay longer there. Otherwise, if you’re fixed about staying somewhere and things aren’t going well, there is no benefit and you lose your precious human life. I’m giving you a general idea. Judge how your mind is and basically protect your mind, for its development. That is better than having a fixed idea, like always being at the center, always studying, or always in retreat. It all depends on what’s more beneficial at the time.

It is amazing that you are reading and reciting the Middling Lamrim. That is amazing, really unbelievable, so good. Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middling Lamrim is quite extensive and his explanation is very deep and extensive. When you read Lama Tsongkhapa, even if you’ve read many lamrims for many years, it is so deep and profound—a very different flavor. You are the most lucky one. Many people don’t read it again and again. To complete the reading is very rare, and on top of that, so many times; this is extremely rare. If you don’t get to read Lama Tsongkhapa, no matter how many other lamrims you read, you’ll feel regret. I think once you’ve read Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim, you won’t have much regret about not having read other lamrims. 

Student:  After I finish what you advised, reciting and meditating all the way through the Middling Lamrim 20 times, should I then go back to your previous advice of breaking the lamrim up into periods for each scope for a certain number of months. Or can I take one topic at a time and just work on that topic until I attain the realization, then move on to the next one. Of these two methods, which one would you advise? 

Rinpoche:  You can do the second way. Since you will have read the lamrim many times, do this—one by one, for how many weeks or months it takes. Proceed like that until you have stable realizations. After you have read it that many times, wow, this is what you should do. 

Student:  I’m wondering how much lamrim realization you need in order to do a three-year tantric retreat? 

Rinpoche:  The best is to have the realization of bodhicitta—this is unbelievable. Whether you have the realization of emptiness or not, if you have the realization of bodhicitta, that is unbelievable. Then, you will do a great retreat. Great retreat means the number of mantras. That’s amazing, fantastic. It’s like you have already made the cake and then you put the cream on top. 

Student:  You advised to recite the graduated path of my tantric deity prayer every day. Should I continue to recite this? 

Rinpoche:  Yes, that is very important, if that’s the main deity for your practice. Each day recite at least one lamrim prayer (such as The Foundation of All Good Qualities) and then the tantra stages of the path. These two should be recited whether you’re meditating or not, at least to plant the seed for enlightenment, the complete path of lamrim and tantra. This must be done. 

Student:  In 2003, you advised reciting the Vajra Cutter Sutra once a week. I’ve been reciting it since then, and I’m wondering if you would advise to continue? 

Rinpoche:  That’s unbelievable. Yes, you should continue this for your whole life. That’s unbelievable merit, and the quick way to realize emptiness. It is unbelievable purification. Actually, I started to memorize it in Washington. There’s a lady who is working in a supermarket, and she has started to memorize it. She has done half. She inspired me to memorize it, though after that I didn’t finish. Memorizing is very good if it can be done.

Sometimes you can learn some of the meanings and you can do meditation on that. Maybe you can do meditation with a group of people some time in the future, and explain and study commentaries.