Kopan Course No. 20 (1987)
These teachings were given by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at the 20th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1987. Also included is a discourse on the bodhisattva vows by Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, late abbot of Kopan Monastery. The edited transcript of these teachings is now available for download as PDF file.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings were edited by Namdrol Adams; second light edit by Sandra Smith. The teaching by Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup was edited by Sandra Smith.
Kopan Course No. 20 Index Page
The Index Page provides an outline of the topics discussed in each of the lectures. Note that as this is a transcript from audio tape, there are some comments related to the tapes within the transcript.
Contents
Lecture One: Refuge and Bodhicitta
- Integrating practice
- Refuge
- Bodhicitta motivation
- Highest happiness
- Benefits of reciting Guru Shakyamuni Buddha's name and mantra
Lecture Two: Cherishing Others
- Seven techniques of Mahayana cause and effect
- Shortcomings of the self-cherishing mind
- Benefits of cherishing others
- Exchanging self for others
- Immeasurable equanimity
- Stop disliking problems
- Motivation for precepts
- The kindness of others
- Practicing and not practicing the good heart
- Benefits of taking vows
- Universal responsibility
- How to regard the enemy
- Karmic appearance
- How to regard the enemy
- Everything comes from the mind
- Compassion for the enemy
- Labeling the I
- Labeling "David", "I", "Lama Zopa"
- Ignorance of true existence
- Suffering nature of human, animal bodies
- Meaning of OM MANI PADME HUM
Lecture Five: The Merely Labeled I
- Labeling
- Meditating on the Heart Sutra
- Labeling president, fire
- Labeling on the base
- Merely labeled I
- Real I
- Awareness of emptiness and Dharma in daily life
Lecture Six: Labeling Appearances
- Equalizing the eight worldly dharmas
- Labeling friend and enemy
- A Tibetan monk
- Things in the supermarket, toilet paper
- Mind is creator
- Awareness that everything is merely labeled
Lecture Seven: The Eight Mahayana Precepts
- Benefits of the eight Mahayaya precepts
- Subduing the mind
Lecture Eight: The Benefits of Precepts
- Benefits of precepts
- Four suffering results
- Perfect human rebirth
- Abandoning desire
Lecture Nine: Emptiness of the I
- How the I exists
- I is emptiness (shunyata)
- Delusions are dependent arising
- How to control delusions
- Emptiness is I
Lecture Ten: Equilibrium Meditation
- Great equanimity: three reasons from side of others; three reasons from side of self
- Kindness of the enemy
- Equanimity
- Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda
- Equanimity
- Nothing is definite in samsara
- Dependent arising of here and there, I and others, friend and enemy
- Trouble in Tibet
- Importance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Lecture Twelve: The Cause of Happiness
- Free will and karma
- Desire and happiness
- Nature of the mind, of phenomena
- Emptiness of tea
- Lung of Manjushri praise and mantra
- Meditation: how the I exists
- The I is empty; emptiness is the I
- Walking meditation
Lecture Thirteen: The Bodhisattva Vows (Lama Lhundrup)
- The eighteen root bodhisattva vows
Lecture Fourteen: Samsara and the Twelve Links
- The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation
- The four noble truths
- Enlightenment
- Making the decision
- Twelve links: ignorance, farmer, field etc
- Importance of realizing emptiness
- Refuge
- Reincarnation
- Preparing to meditate on the lamrim
- Importance of the lamrim
- Kadampa geshes
- Lamrim prayer: The Foundation of All Good Qualities
Lecture Sixteen: The Suffering of Samsara
- How we enter samsara
- True suffering
- Karma and disturbing thoughts
- Attachment
Lecture Seventeen: The Five Views
- Nature of attachment, anger, ignorance, doubt, pride
- Five views
- Everything comes from the mind
- Lungs: Medicine Buddha, Tara, Samayavajra
Lecture Eighteen: How to Practice Dharma
- The Heart Sutra
- Q&A: emptiness, death process, location of emotions, death process
- Causes of delusion: imprint, object, distraction, explanation, habit, inappropriate attention
- Death and dying
- Intermediate state
- Wheel of Life
- Eight Verses of Thought Transformation
- Impermanence-death
- Daily practice
- Dedications
Next chapter: Lecture One: Refuge and Bodhicitta »