Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute talk, Lama Zopa Rinpoche cuts to karma as the primary inner cause of happiness and suffering, arguing that external conditions alone mean nothing without it. He identifies creating good karma daily as our essential work—unlike money, karma never fails or diminishes. He then guides practitioners through foundations: receiving a precious human body (essential for benefiting others), moral discipline, devotion, and a broad mind that rejoices in others’ virtue rather than jealousy. He walks through four specific prayers and practices—for long life, for turning the Dharma wheel—along with their purifications, before concluding with merit dedication. Pitched at serious practitioners already familiar with Buddhist concepts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 28 WWNN.mp3
UUID: 37908ff3-e31a-4d2e-afd5-49b04e3ca93b
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: y What the World Needs Now 1987 Audios (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.1 minutes
Words: ~2,188
Inner cause is conditioned. It’s not the main cause. Main cause is this. Inner cause is not the outer working condition. So, therefore, if you don’t have this, no matter how much is done outside, you see, and there’s no if there’s no this real cause, then outside how much is You see, there’s no hope.
So if there’s this, then outside condition is done, then it that is that is the result. So even, you see, I think even there’s the strong cause, then it just happens. Yeah. Yeah. Even though even one without putting particular effort, then it it happens.
Yeah. So therefore, the real business that we should not fail in is this creating good karma in everyday life. Has this one. If one from our own side, if you don’t do it, that’s it. From our own side, if you don’t do it, then that is it.
Except that otherwise, there’s no cheating. As long as we do from our side, we accumulate good karma. As long as we are able to create a good karma, there’s no cheating from the side of the karma, not receiving the result happiness. There’s no cheating. There’s no such a time and I become I said, there’s no such a time, you know, like gold or like gold or the money or like that, it changes, economic changes.
The karma doesn’t have that. Benefits, you see, making benefits are all the same, The extensive benefits are all the same. There’s no such decreasing. Now it’s high. Now it’s gone down.
There’s no such time. So therefore, the smart person, the very smart person, the person with know who every day, by knowing the karma, by understanding the karma and having faith in that, and then putting into the practice the various good karmas, trying to accommodate as much as possible. This is really smart. That is skillful. Clever.
The real clever person. Yeah. Think I’ll stop there. So maybe For the final, it says, maintain is missed. Maintain of final, this is missed.
Okay. Think I forgot. I have tea, then maybe So just in putting palms together like this, to do easy holy object, the a merit-field Buddha. Even this has benefits like this in future life to receive beautiful body. See now the body makes the big differences, you see, especially, you see now, to receive necessary conditions for your own works, for success of your own happiness practice, especially the benefits to to be able to benefit for others also depending on that.
That’s not the main thing, but it’s dependent. You see? That’s why in the Lamrim teachings, the Lamrim and also emphasized how important it is that we should pray to receive the eight qualities. It’s a human body having eight qualities. One receives the result, you know, and the result is a beautiful body.
Next life. If one has a beautiful body, then we see particularly to benefit particularly benefiting others. Other people pay attention. Other people listen to that. They say, listen to that person.
The way the person appears, if it is interesting, if it is an attractive that people find, see, other people find. They respond, you know, what he says, you see. They accept or they respond or they do, they listen. So to a beautiful body, they have perfect surroundings. Perfect, I know, perfect surroundings, you see.
If one has perfect surroundings, then one can accomplish the works for self or works for others, especially works for others in any situation. Then, able to live in a morality and devotion. So, without morality, I think, cannot receive the of the happy mind, the greater benefit. Therefore, human beings cannot receive. So you so without the morality, cannot cannot achieve liberation, cannot achieve enlightenment.
Know? So morality, then without devotion without the devotion, then no realization. So devotion, then having a broad attitude, broad mind. If want a broad mind, then one can become enlightened. That is what makes possible to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime, like many of those yogis who sacrificed oneself completely for other sentient beings.
Internal and external interferences, internally outside, interferences cannot interfere. So bring your breath mind. So then all the one can achieve all the realizations, enlightenment. Then one the happy path, the Mahāyāna path. There were Hīnayāna.
Then, achieves Arhat. You see, wisdom directly perceives emptiness. Arhat, one achieves enlightenment. So even like this to the Buddha, eight benefits. All the benefits are integrated in eight.
Every offering that we do Buddha has an inconceivable benefits. So therefore, whenever we see holy object, we should not waste our body. We should not waste. Yeah. Anyway, so therefore, especially in the form of when we see holy object anywhere, that we should make useful, know, waste.
Body, speech, mind, body that which we spent so many from the birth into now, you see, from the birth into now we spent for this body, thousands and millions of dollars, giving food and clothing, house, so much effort is put to take care of this body. And parents suffered so much to take care of this body. If you don’t make it worthwhile, this body, while it is all the opportunities to act on the virtue, if you don’t get used, then this body who spends other sentient beings put so much time and effort, especially parents. Having taken other sentient beings, wealth possession, and other longings used for this. And by a negative karma, in order to take out this body in a kind of optimal means of living conditions to take care of this body.
So what it looks is that once that, know, like when someone is come and I see, you know, one trying to take care of this body, as well as other sentient beings, you know, by creating a negative karma, see, trying to protect or take care of this body. So, again, is in this body continuously. It is used for only creating negative karma. Okay? You see, all these things come, you know.
Mountains of food that is given to this body so far, all the money that is spent. However, all the time that is put, life that is put to take care of this body is completely lost. Everything becomes empty, completely wasted. If this is not you, if this doesn’t get used, then to this precious human body doesn’t get used that which we have for some that which we have for a few months or a few years, then a few days. If you don’t get used obtain happiness beyond from this line up to enlightenment, then everything becomes Nothing else except loss So therefore, prostration, the practice of prostration is very important.
In the mornings, after one gets up, prostration to the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha before going to bed or staying in prostration as much as one can. The benefit is the particular benefit, the idea of how extensive merit one accumulates as it is explained in the beginning of the meditation course book, we feel good in some, there’s a brief quotation from the Lankavatara Sūtra, Benefits of Prostrations. So, one can remember that when one does prostration, or when one feels lazy to do prostration, then she remembers those benefits. I’m not going to repeat. Those are the benefits.
So the result I don’t remember one hundred percent. I think it may have mentioned Rūpakāya. Specifically, it may have mentioned Rūpakāya. However, when you do like this, It might It might signify the whole thing. Two truths, the relative truth and the conventional truth.
The all of the all obscuring the all-obscuring truth, conventional truth, then absolute truth. Here, in that empty, you know, it may seem a part of that. And then empty one, absolute truth. Then the physical performance, the compassion to the all obscuring truth. Mental wisdom, mental wisdom, wisdom or the path of accumulation, path of preparation, path of seeing, path of meditation.
This is a whole signification. So I’ll compare another result of the offering and the holy body of complete enjoyment. Having complete control of all the you see, having complete control of all the enjoyments. So when one achieves enlightenment, there’s complete control all the enjoyments. The merit the merit of fortune and the merit of wisdom is completed.
So, therefore, there’s complete enjoyment. So, as a result of offering, then compassion, I think I may have mentioned Dharmakāya. The the holy mind, you know, that is completely that is completely separate away from the all the stains. The question, the result holy body, body that which has every beauties, every beauties, you know. All the holy signs, you know, every beauties.
You see, how how long, you know, no matter how no matter how, you know, how much you see, no, you see, no boring, you know. Example is similar to holy beings. Holy beings are in the Bodhisattvas, the holy beings, how much you can be near, how long you can be near, you see, so happy, all the time wanting to see. There’s no getting tired of seeing it. So how much one sees?
No satisfaction, how much one sees? Therefore, the self awareness is very important. Everyday life to practice, if somebody has a good job, even that feel happy to practice how wonderful it is. And then if somebody has found a good apartment, a good house, a nice garden, practice this If somebody is a good friend, practice this When one hears somebody has found a good friend, then how good it is that he received what he wanted for his happiness, how good it is. In everyday life, whenever we hear something good of others, somebody has intelligence, more understanding, somebody has good understanding of Dharma, and practice this often.
Whenever one hears good things about others, I think should be used all that to practice rejoicing. So this becomes Bodhisattva’s deeds. Even though small, you see, other sentient beings have having received some sort of perfections. Even those who say, practice what one hears, what one sees, should practice rejoicing. So in this way, jealousy, this way then, jealousy does not arise.
Then asking to have a stable life, long life, that causes to achieve. the Vajra, the Vajra holy body. And the un dying, immortality, the undying Buddha’s holy body, cause to achieve. Then even it becomes a method to prolong one’s own life, to to have long life for one’s life, living in this life, besides future lives. Then, this purifies this practice purifies negative karmas accumulated with the relationship with the The negative karma accumulated, the particular negative karma accumulated with the virtuous teacher having criticized or disrespectful.
These negative karmas get purified by this practice. The question of the long life. Then, asking to turn the Dharma wheel. That causes to achieve. In the future life, the Buddha’s holy speech, has sixty qualities, every single being becomes enlightened and continuously to turn the Dharma, is able to turning the Dharma wheel one on one becomes enlightened continuously.
So it creates cause for that. And also it creates cause to receive teachings. It creates cause in the future times to receive teachings. It could cause for that. And also, this practice, asking to turn the Dharma wheel, purifies the negative karmas that we have accumulated, such as avoiding holy Dharma, avoiding holy Dharma, Disrespect, the scriptures, the writing, the scriptures, Buddhist teachings, avoiding Dharma, avoiding holy Dharma, stepping over, putting materials on the book.
The negative karma that is accumulated with the relationship of the holy objects and scriptures are recognized as a material and in any way, karma that is accumulated with the with the teachings, and get purified. While it is teaching taught by Buddha, came from Buddha, and then criticized by certain Theravadins. In that it has pure morality and precise in the general Pali canon teaching. That is not taught by Buddha, so forth, as well as vajrayana, as well as the four Tibetan Mahāyāna sects. Not so much one person’s mistake, but in order to criticize in general, one is good and one is bad.
Or general teaching. Then avoiding Dharma. These negative karmas. get purified. Disrespectfully, in the holy scriptures.
Disrespectfully treating the holy scriptures. Then last one. The last one. So the question for a long, often the tone, and then ask me to turn the Dharma wheel. To turn the Dharma wheel, creates the cause, and later, you see, sooner or later than in this or future lives to be able to teach Dharma to other sentient beings by sitting on the Dharma throne and revealing teaching to the sentient beings.
Then the dedication. So, one wants to dedicate their merits. Generally, even one wants to offer other practices. It is same. So here, one of the dedication.
The merely imputed I, you see, dedicating the merely imputed merits, to achieve merely imputed enlightenment, then for the merely imputed sentient beings. So it’s by in this way in this way, then