Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute teaching from the Mahāmudrā International Retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche transmits the core practice for generating bodhicitta: the sevenfold cause-and-effect method paired with self-other exchange meditation. He structures the teaching as a guided meditation: he begins with the merit-field visualization and preliminary breathing, then walks practitioners through equanimity practice, releasing the distinctions of friend, enemy, and stranger. He teaches the recollection of beings as mothers and their kindness, moving into the cultivation of love and compassion, and finally the tonglen practice of taking others’ suffering and offering happiness. Throughout, he weaves in prayers from Buddha’s previous bodhisattva lives and teachings on the six perfections and tantric path. The instruction concludes with guru yoga requests and dedication of merit. For serious practitioners engaged in formal retreat practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 31 2004 04 18 MR.mp3
UUID: 3372a4fc-e47a-4c47-9181-6c87f5071fa2
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: y Mahāmudrā International Retreat (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 2004-04-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 50.0 minutes
Words: ~3,191
So we reached page eighty one in the combined Lojong Shastra, developing bodhicitta through sevenfold cause and effect and first instruction. So before before we begin, then as is expressed in instructions and to sit sit in the correct position, and then cleanse the mind of worldly thoughts attached to seeking this life. And do this nine round breathing meditation. So we’ll do that now. Settle the mind.
Then once again, remember the merit field in visualized in front, seated on the lion throne, and the wish-granting tree in an ocean of milk. Then around the direct and indirect lamas, four classes of deities, Buddha’s bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddha, Arhats. Pratyekabuddha, and Arhats, and dakas and dakinis, dharmapalas, and the four guardians on the outside. Oh, with the awareness that each one of these is guru. As such, the guru manifests every single one of these merit field, even every pore of every member of the merit field is all the Buddhas.
And all the Buddhas are the guru. With awareness, dharmakaya, holy mind of all the Buddhas, bound by infinite compassion, manifests infinite forms, pure and impure, to guide me. With the Guru Yoga mind that sees gurus, all the Buddhas, and all the Buddhas as guru inseparable. Then with one pointed devotion, making request to that to gain the realizations of the stages of the path to enlightenment. So first, a really short motivation.
The self-cherishing thought is much more harmful than all the atomic bombs and weapons that exist in this world. Because even if all these bombs explode, that alone cannot send me to lower realms. But my self-cherishing thought compels me to create negative karma and go to lower realms again and again. This self-cherishing thought is more harmful than all the poison that exists. Poison can only separate the mind from the body.
And if I practice good heart and bodhicitta, I’ll go to pure land. But self-cherishing continually leads me to the lower realms. What prevents me from getting realizations even though I study so much and work so hard is self-cherishing thought. All my depression, unhappiness, failed Dharma practice, and failed worldly things is due to my ego and self-cherishing thought. When I analyze, it’s clear that all this is connected to the ego.
Therefore, I must do everything I can without delay even one second to abandon self-cherishing thought. This is the utmost urgency in my life. One sentient being, I, is to be let go of forever. All my past, present, and future happiness came from bodhicitta. If one cherishes others, all one’s own wishes for happiness, and all the limitless skies of qualities of Buddha’s holy body, speech, and mind are achieved.
If one cherishes others, one can cause every happiness to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras, both temporal and ultimate happiness. Therefore, I must cherish others forever. Whatever happens in my life, even at the time of death, whatever the circumstances, always I must keep as my heart practice cherishing others. Having considered how all these pitiful beings have been my mothers and have raised me in kindness again and again. I seek your blessings to develop unaffected compassion like that of a loving mother for her precious child.
So the outlines, first of all, meditate on equanimity, equalizing friend, enemy, stranger, seeing how these labels are totally nonsense, constantly changing, totally subjective, and seeing all beings equally without discrimination. Remember how we’ve had beginningless lives. The continuity of our mind stream has no beginning. In all these countless lives when we’ve been born as humans and animals, we’ve had a mother. Since this is beginningless, each and every sentient being at some point has been our mother, and not just once, but many times.
Everyone we meet, everyone we know, everyone we hear about, all of them have been our mother many times. Remember the kindness of this present life mother, how she gave us human body, protected us so we could practice Dharma, how she suffered so much for us, cherishing us, dearer than our heart, carried us in the womb nine months, Then after we were born, completely protected us from danger, fed us, cleaned us, did everything, Led us in the ways of the world. Sacrificed herself so much for our happiness and health. In the same way, all other sentient beings, when they were mother, were kind to us in numberless ways. Think even if I were to sacrifice my life countless times to bring them happiness, still it would not be possible to repay all the kindness of these mother beings.
It is beyond imagination. By remembering the kindness, let all beings appear to you in beauty. Devout the mind of heartfelt love, wishing all of them to have happiness, and taking responsibility personally to make that happen. Feel: in the past, they took care of me and cherished me. Now I’m fully responsible to care for all these beings.
Then think of their suffering. There is not one being trapped in saṃsāra who is not suffering. Feel fully responsible to free them from their suffering. Think I will do this, and I will do this by myself alone. Then recognize how ridiculous it is to say this since we cannot even free ourselves from suffering.
Who has the power to do this? Only Buddha. Therefore, develop the courage and determination. I myself must become fully enlightened Buddha in order to free all these beings, my kind mothers, from their suffering and place them in that state. Feel this thought very deeply in your heart, inseparable from your mind.
Focus single pointedly on this determination. And think from now on, I will do all activities with this thought. And developing bodhicitta through exchanging self others. There is no difference between myself and others. None of us wishes even the slightest suffering or is ever content with the happiness we have.
Realizing this, I seek your blessings, I may enhance the bliss and joy of others. This chronic disease of cherishing myself is a cause giving rise to my unsought suffering. Perceiving this, I seek your blessings to blame, begrudge, and destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness. The mind that cherishes all mother beings and secures their blessings is a gateway leading to infinite virtue. Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these beings more than my life, even should they rise up against me as my enemies.
In brief, childish beings labor only for their own ends, while Buddhas work solely for the welfare of others. With the mind understanding distinctions between the failings of one and the advantage of the other, I seek your blessings to enable me to equalize and exchange myself with others. Since cherishing myself is a doorway to all torment, while cherishing my mothers is the foundation of all that is good, I seek your blessings to make my core practice the yoga of exchanging self for others. So do the prayers of Buddha’s previous lives, page eighty five. When my teacher, the Buddha, the endowed transcendent subduer, was Prince Liberation-from-All on the path of mighty courage, He gave away his son, daughter, and the kingdom.
In the same way, might be able to give away without clinging my surroundings and possessions that are so dear to me. When he was born as king, Great Powerful Compassion, he fed the tigress with his own flesh. In the same way, may I be able to give with joy this cherished illusory body to the host of flesh eaters. When he was Prince Mighty Love, he fed the yakṣas with his own blood. In the same way, may I be able to give with compassion the warm blood of my heart, so difficult to part with to the blood drinkers.
When he was the son of a merchant and, irrigating with water, he liberated fish by reciting the names of the thus-gone ones. In the same way, may I be able to practice the giving of holy Dharma to all beings who are destitute of Dharma. When he was prince, great meaning of virtue, he was able to bear betrayal with compassion. In the same way, may I cherish with great compassion those around me who disturb with bad manners and perverse behavior. When he was the bodhisattva in the form of a monkey, he rescued the evil man from the well.
In the same way, may I be able to benefit evil beings without discouragement and compassionately guide them without expecting favors in return. Alas, there is no one who has not been my mother and father. There is not a moment of pure happiness and saṃsāra. Therefore, may I be able to lead all my mothers, including the gods and demons who appear and exist from the realms of Samsāra. May I always have love for those spirits who are still here and who dwell on the earth or in the sky, as well as for all beings who take birth and die.
May they all enjoy the dharma day and night. By this merit, may I maintain the state of seeing all existence as pure, and may I subdue the enemy, the delusions. May I liberate transmigraters in the ocean of saṃsāra with its turbulent ways of old age, sickness, and death. And thus, venerable, compassionate gurus, I seek your blessings, all karmic debts, obstacles, and sufferings of mother beings. May without exception ripen upon me right now, and that I may give my happiness and virtue to others, and thereby invest all beings in bliss..
And thus, venerable, compassionate gurus, I seek your blessings at all karmic debts, obstacles, and sufferings of mother beings. May without exception ripen upon me right now, and that I may give my happiness and virtue to others, and thereby invest all beings in bliss. And thus, venerable, compassionate gurus, I seek your blessings in all karmic debts, obstacles, and sufferings of mother beings. May without exception ripen upon me right now, that I may give my happiness and virtue to others, and thereby invest all beings in bliss. So just briefly do the practice, taking on the sufferings of all beings along with the causes and even imprints of those causes, delusions, and karma.
Taking them on to self-cherishing, and then giving away one’s body, possessions, and virtues of three times, body, possessions, wealth, everything. Should even my environment and the beings therein be filled with the fruits and negative actions and done wishful sufferings pour down in me like rain, I seek blessings to take these miserable conditions as a path by seeing them as causes to exhaust the results of my negative karma. In short, no matter what appearances arise, be they good or bad, I seek your blessings transform them into a path of enhancing the two bodhicittas through the practice of five forces that condense the entire Dharma, and thus enjoy solely a blissful mind. Whatever I occasion to meet, I seek your blessings that I may adapt it to my meditation by the skillful means of four applications. May I render this life of liberties and endowments infinitely meaningful by practicing the advice and commitments of thought training.
In order to rescue all beings from the vast sea’s existence, I seek your blessings to become adept and bodhicitta through a pure, selfless wish, as well as by love and compassion conjoined with the visualization technique of mounting giving and taking upon the breath. I seek your blessings, and I may eagerly endeavor to put into practice the three Mahāyāna moral codes and to restrain my mind stream with pure bodhisattva vows, the single path journeyed by all victorious ones of the three times. I seek your blessings to complete perfection of generosity through the guideline teaching enhancing the mind that gives without attachment, namely transforming my body, wealth, and collection of virtues over the three times into the objects desired by each and every sentient being. I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of moral discipline, working for the sake of sentient beings, enacting virtuous deeds, and not transgressing the bounds of Prātimokṣa, bodhicitta and Tantric vows, even at the cost of my life. Should even the myriad beings of three realms without exception become angry at me, humiliate, criticize, threaten, or even kill me.
I seek your blessings, complete perfection of patience, not to be distraught, but to work for their benefit in response to their harm. Even if I must remain for an ocean of eons in the fiery hells of Avici, for the sake of even just one sentient being, I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of joyous effort, to strive with compassion for supreme enlightenment, and not be discouraged. Having abandoned the fogginess, agitation, and mental wandering, I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of meditative concentration through a śamatha single-pointed placement upon the nature of reality, which is that all things are devoid of true existence. I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of wisdom through the space like yoga of single-minded placement upon ultimate truth, conjoined with the tranquility and great bliss induced by discriminating wisdom, analyzing suchness. I seek your blessings perfect Samādhi on illusion by realizing how all outer and inner phenomena lack true existence but still appear like a mirage, a dream, or the moon’s image on a still lake.
Samsāra and nirvana, like a veil of relative appearance, while cause and effect and dependent arising are infallible, I seek your blessings to discern the import of Nāgārjuna’s thought that these two are complementary and not contradictory. And thereupon, I seek your blessings that I may cross the ocean of tantra through the kindness of my navigator, Vajradhāra, by holding my vows and words of honor the roots of all powerful attainments more dear than my life. I seek your blessings to cleanse all stains of ordinary appearance and grasping through the first stage yoga of transforming birth, death, and the body into three bodies of Buddha so that whatever appears may arise as a deity. I seek your blessings to actualize in this life the path of unity of clear light and the illusory body that arises from placing your feet, my protector, in the eight petals of my heart at the very center of my central channel. Should I not have completed the points, the path, the time of death, I seek your blessings that I may be led to a pure land, either through the instructions of applying the five forces or by the forceful means of enlightenment, the guru’s transference of mind.
In short, I seek your blessings, my savior, to be guided and cared for by you, from birth to enlightenment throughout all my lives, and thus to become your chief disciple holding every secret of your body, speech, and mind. Savior, please grant all auspicious signs and may I be foremost among your very first circle of disciples wherever you manifest Buddhahood, so that all my temporal and ultimate wishes without exception may be effortlessly and spontaneously fulfilled. The merit field absorbs in light, gradually absorbing into the Lama. The Lama absorbs into Buddha Vajradhāra at the heart, comes to the crown of one’s head. And then we will make these heartfelt requests.
The very embodiment of the four bodies, lama supreme deity, to the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The very embodiment of the dharmakaya, free from obscurations, supreme lama. To the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The very great bliss embodied enjoyment body, supreme lama. To the mighty one, vajradhara, make request.
The very embodiment of the supreme emanation bodies, supreme Lama, to the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all Lamas, Lama, supreme deity, to the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all Yidams, Lama supreme deity, to the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all Buddha’s Lama supreme deity, to the mighty one vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all holy Dharma, Lama supreme deity, the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all Sangha, Lama supreme deity.
To the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all dakas and dakinis, Lama supreme deity. To the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. The embodiment of all dharmapalas, Lama supreme deity. To the mighty one, vajradhara, make request.
The embodiment of all objects of refuge, Lama supreme deity. To the mighty one, vajradhara, make request. To the founder, Bhagawan, Tathāgata, Aham, perfectly completed Buddha, glorious conqueror, Śākyamūni Buddha, I prostrate, make offerings, and go for refuge. So as you recite the mantra, think purifying all the obstacles to gain in whatever realization you’re focusing on. So at this point, we’re focusing on the precious human life.
And, grant all the blessings, receive all the blessings. Having thus been entreated, supreme gurus, pray grant this request so that you may bless me happily light in the crown of my head. And once again, set your radiant feet firmly in the coral of my lotus heart. Keep going. This is just another series of notes, such as the first one, which said Rinpoche would be down in half an hour.
That was an hour ago. And let’s do three more. I got a note, a message saying, Rinpoche said down in five to ten minutes. Suggest pee pee break now so people can stretch legs. And when I saw the word now, I just stopped.
Anyway, I think we should dedicate. Whatever white virtues are, I’ve thus created, I dedicated his cause, enabling me to uphold the holy Dharma scriptures and insights, and fulfill that exception of prayers and deeds of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of three times. Due to all three times, my merits created by myself, by all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, and by all sentient beings. May I myself and my family members and the members of this organization never be parted all our lives from Mahāyāna’s four spheres. And may we reach the end of our journey and on the path of renunciation, bodhicitta, pure view, and the two stages.
Through the essence of whatever white virtues there are in saṃsāra nirvana, may all be auspicious, may I be free here and now from all misfortune and hardship, and thus to enjoy a glorious and perfect blissful existence filled with virtue and goodness. May all be auspicious to the Buddhist teachings to endure long through your holders of Dharma, monks, nuns, and getsuls. Being filled with hosts of monks, nuns, yogis, and yoginis striving single-pointedly to master the three principal aspects of the path. Having requested your blessings, O Guru, from the time of your youth, my request, O supreme guru deity. May all be auspicious for you, Lama Vajradhāra, for the benefit of others.
May all be auspicious for all my entire endowments as well. Like a lake in the summer rains,. Bring an unbroken flow of rebirths of leisure and faultless families so that I may pass my days and nights with your holy Dharma, venerable one, and may you last your life and activity to perfection. So the Guru’s whole advice is to have a pee pee break.