Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to address self-cherishing ego through Kṣitigarbha visualization and tonglen practice. He grounds the work in emptiness—showing how recitation and the meditator exist as mere imputed names, not absolute reality—before guiding the central visualization: Buddha Kṣitigarbha’s light purifies sickness, harm, ignorance, and negative karma in oneself and all sentient beings, with special focus on those in regions of war and suffering. He teaches tonglen methodology in detail: inhaling others’ suffering as pollutants through the nostril, releasing happiness to dissolve ego-driven patterns. He also covers the Golden Light Sūtra as an alternative merit-gathering practice and emphasizes that group prayer has a hundred times more power than solitary meditation. For initiated practitioners.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 KR.mp3
UUID: 3c73cd72-5f88-4dad-86a2-3b6ebcf27022
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: z Kṣitigarbha Retreat Hong Kong (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~2,531
Maybe this is one or two questions. Yeah. Go on. Yes. Think just think there’s nothing.
Think there’s nothing. Think there’s nothing. No you, no mantra, no recitation. No. Of course, you can do that in emptiness.
In emptiness, there’s no I, no recitation, no action of reciting, no mantra. Any emptiness. To our hallucinate mind, You do the one who recites your action reciting mantra. Absolutely, absolutely existing. Absolutely existing.
Real one in the sense existing from the outside. Appear like that and believe like that, but in reality there’s no thing. In reality there’s no such thing. So while they they are empty of absolutely existing, they exist. Exists mere name, merely imputed by mind.
So, know what? And they exist and how it exists is a middle way, devoid of the two extremes. There’s no such thing, nothing just exists. Devoid of nihilism and devoid of eternalism eternally exist, as an absolutely existing. The one visualization I already explained yesterday, beams emitted from the Buddha Kṣitigarbha and completely illuminated with holy light.
Then if you think your body becomes like natural light, becomes clear, the mind to be completely purified, or the sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma, the following. These four things. Whenever you do visualization purifying, can do these four things. And then, the same thing also happened. Everybody all the people in Hong Kong, people, animals, everyone in Hong Kong, same, and all the rest same things.
The same things in this world and the rest of the same things are also purified. Chant mantra, with this visualization, some mantra, whatever, twenty one times or half of that or half hour, one month, whatever, then the other part is receive qualities. So the qualities, receiving, or especially the bodhicitta and the whole part of the enlightenment. So, see, that’s by looking by looking at your check, you know, guru, Buddha, all the guru, Dharma Sangha, like that. That’s one aspect to see, in one aspect like this.
Enlightened faculties, omniscient mind, perfect understanding and perfect power to benefit others, and then perfect compassion, you see, for that. Think So with that visualization, especially bodhicitta. All the qualities are received. I think it’s a very good Particular, we think of people, those who have such a people who have very vicious mind, want to harm the world. Especially think of them and all those, their bad thoughts are purified.
Bad thoughts are purified. You know? So, especially focus on sentient beings, young but particularly the purified, I think it’s very good to bring peace in the world, to bring peace to everybody. Facing those countries where the people always have poverty, famine, war, the time ongoing, so much suffering, so much fear, danger and all that. So it’s very good.
As there are so many you my offering in the Vajrasattva prayer mentioned on the Kṣitigarbha and the prayer, is you already prayed will succeed very quickly. So I think if many people make strong prayer, many people make very strong prayer, can help those countries where there’s a lot of violence. One one thing is reading Golden Light Sūtra. Ārya Suvarnaprabhasa Sūtra, there’s no other method in the life. Unbelievable, unbelievable.
Merit. If you’re collecting good karma, merit. Good luck. And this is one that, especially if you write, just listening is unbelievable. Later I’ll mention and then reading, then write.
Most meritorious, you write one syllable, just unimaginable. And unbelievable power of purification. But the Golden Light Sūtra is also a collective of unbelievable merit. Within the Golden Light Sūtra, there is one mantra, mantra of immeasurable merit. This short mantra I can’t remember at the moment.
So, I do recite this for the projects, Maitreya Maitreya project and all other projects. Maitreya project, of course, it cost two hundred million and fifty million. That’s approximate. But that’s nothing compared to all other projects. It is very small.
It is that the material project is small compared to all other projects happening in different parts. That social service and guesthouses many things. So, compared to project, small. So, compare all other projects. So, I’ve found this mantra in Golden Light Sūtra.
It’s I can’t remember this. It’s just unbelievable, unbelievable. In such short time to collect. Mean, what’s it? Except I say unbelievable, that’s not the word I can say.
So, just unbelievable, unbelievable, And unbelievable. Maybe four times, unbelievable. Five times, unbelievable. That’s all I There are details that I don’t remember at the moment, that’s kind of mentioned. So, there’s another word I can express.
But then, Golden Light Sūtra has those benefits. But on top of that, bringing peace in the country, bringing peace world and especially in your own country, in one’s own country. So so if you read that you read that here in Hong Kong, it becomes healing all the sick people in Hong Kong. So, that city, you see. If you are reading that other people in that city, where you are, it becomes healing everybody.
And then bring peace, happiness and protection for the country. And it’s giving protection to the leader of the country, king or president or whatever, gives so much power to the protection to the leader. And if other country is attacking, there’s a problem of attacking Muslims, controlling the or to fight. So, this is a very powerful thing for society. So, this way, change their mind or they lose, the power of Buddha Dharma, Sūtra, they cannot attack all the country or cannot harm.
So, because it’s very much about the effect of bringing peace and happiness to this world and country. So, I thought somebody reach one month or some, know, perhaps some time in those countries where there’s a lot of war of fighting ongoing, actually, really really in that country, then I prepare household. I think from ABC, Ahmedabad Center Singapore, I think the friends of one of the member, Fred Chum, he is the I don’t know what his position is. What is his position? That’s one thing.
He is the king of the rebirthing animals. He is king of the rebirthing animals in this world. I don’t know if there’s anybody like that. Already he has done four million, more than four million than four million animal liberations. So, target is to liberate one hundred million.
So, his position, not in the command, but something in army. Yeah, major in army. So, major army. So, he does get up for one, does a few hours of his practice, daily practice. And then, when he goes to the army, gets what he talked what he talked to his armies about compassion.
There’s a lot of lot of talk about compassion and So, after after giving speech to him for some time, there was one Indian, I think a Sikh or something, Indian Sikh, one in the army, so came to him and said, Oh. He made a conclusion after hearing all the talks, The very of life is compassion to others. So, he came up after hearing how many months of And then he came up and said, Oh, the very of life is compassion to others. She realized in the conclusion of the talk after hearing on the talk. So he expressed to Fred Chum.
Anyway, so he said, armies had to go to Iraq. So, I think he sent some Ārya Suvarnaprabhasa Sūtra. No, Ārya Suvarnaprabhasa Sūtra? Golden Light Sūtra. I remember.
I think Golden Light Sūtra, maybe. So, So, I don’t know. That’s what he said. So I think some moms have to go there, so from there, He gave them to, you know, bring them to put them to read or something like that. So, anyway, yeah, I see.
That is not how I brought these talks because talking about praying, see, the Dharma is very powerful, you know, the main prayer is bodhicitta. Main goal is to generate bodhicitta in their hearts. bodhicitta is generated in the heart of the people in the world, then no matter how many atomic bombs there are, how many weapons there are, they don’t make a dangerous problem for that. It harm others. It is bodhicitta.
If the mind of people in the world change, it is bodhicitta. So so that they how much weapon the country has over there in the world doesn’t doesn’t harm the other. Weapons themselves don’t have mind. People use the weapon. Weapons don’t have mind to harm others.
It is up to the people. It’s up to people’s minds. It’s up people’s People’s change. Change loving kind of compassion. That’s it.
Think an apple a day, goodbye doctor. Compassion, say, Good heart. Good heart a day. Good heart a day. Say, Good heart a day.
Good heart a day, good night. Goodbye, all the weapons. Goodbye, all the It was sent, I think I can’t remember. Do you remember? Oh, he mentioned something, but I don’t remember.
He sent something. So, he was telling me that Chum going back to Fred Chum. So, when he was doing army training, he had to stand. I don’t know, a little while. So, he takes that opportunity to do his commitment.
He says, Uncommitment is he does his prayers. I’m in training, he was standing up. So, after he retired, time, first time, in the beginning he mentioned that he will be going for retreat, retreat in his firm wish was to go for retreat and never come back. Go forever in retreat. This is he very strongly wishes, one year at a time, go for whatever, it never comes back.
A complete life like that. Then I think, I don’t know what happened. Just before that, then he said, Oh, that was my plan, but whatever you say, I will do. He said, Well, to help the organisation. Whatever.
Since next before I left, said, changes. That’s his news. So I want to mention this also. Praying praying with many people together has more power being a success, than you are praying alone in your room. It is said in the Kadam, the Lama teachers, the followers, Kadam teachers, those were great scholar and highly attained beings, those great mentors.
Mentioned in their teaching, doing prayer together, and you do prayer alone in your room, doing prayer together with many people, assembly, see, hundred times much more power. Praying together has a hundred times much more power, success than doing in your own room alone. That so therefore something like this, retreat situation where many people can pray together. She has a lot of power, Hundred times more power. After praying together, then you pray in your room.
Also, at the center, it’s also similar. At the center, praying together other, as many as possible, with other people and has much more power. Praying together has much more power than praying in your room. Of course, as I mentioned before, you can do, of course, meditation emptiness. During this this mantra, One can do whatever the child remember.
You can do meditation on guru devotion, develop that. You can do meditation on the lamrim, renunciation of saṃsāra. So, good question, renunciation, heart of enlightenment. Then, also, one can contemplate renunciation of saṃsāra, reflecting how saṃsāra makes you suffer all those shortcomings, particular suffering from each realm and generally suffering from saṃsāra and those. Then, you can maintain bodhicitta, you can maintain, you see, kindness towards other sentient beings, we mentioned that.
All sentient beings bodhicitta with the techniques of mind cause and effect. Maintaining that all sentient beings are your kind mother, then you can meditate on that. To that, you can do that, or generally maintaining bodhicitta, bodhicitta from the kindness of other sentient beings. So, on the one Then, there is a right view emptiness. However, one best meditation that pleases all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, including Śākyamūni.
That is this practice of taking, giving, taking all other sentient beings and suffering cause. For example, helping all those in cold hell, all these ice mountains, all the ground that they are caught in, all those in the hot hells, all these iron ground, one is the fire, the burning iron house without doors or windows. Those huge containers of liquid molten iron, I don’t remember the name. So, even those things, all the karma, delusion karma, and then also as a result of suffering, even those environment, they place undesirable. So, take it upon all then take it on yourself.
Take it in the form of in the form of pollution, went through the nose, then inside heart, take it right inside heart. Give the ego self-cherishing thought that who has been harmed you from the beginningless birth, and who never allowed you to achieve enlightenment, never allowed you to achieve liberation from saṃsāra, even for yourself. Realization, we’re never allowed to have any realization before. Then, who always who’s always causing obstacles to develop your mind path, to develop your mind, to develop your mind, path to liberation enlightenment. always causing obstacle that doesn’t allow you to do positive action, Collect a virtue causes obstacles whenever doesn’t allow to practice virtue, to practice Dharma, doesn’t allow to practice morality, and even one has taken vows, but doesn’t allow to keep pure and see.
So, the ego, the one which causes all the problems, all the obstacles. So, anyway, even doesn’t allow you to have success of this life happiness. It doesn’t allow you to have success even the maintaining activities, success. Doesn’t allow to have success in business Interfere in that. Because because in the past in the past, you see, due to ego, I, you know, only seeking happiness happens upon itself.
Only cherishing I, only seeking happiness for itself, then you feel jealous of others having success in business so forth, you see. Whatever progression happening to others, Dharma practice or realizations or success in the world. So, jealous, or disparage, that interferes with others’ success. That in the path cheated others. So, didn’t allow others to have, you know, to have to have, success or to have wealth.
However, it had taken things ungiven by others. Things have been stolen from others, ungiven have taken things ungiven by others. So, due to ego cherishing I, only seeking happens for ourselves and doesn’t care others. Due to that, then also engage all those various negative karma which was created in the past. So, then, now you experience the result.
So, that you are cheated by others, that you are deceived by others, and many obstacles. One experience is that other people don’t help you. Even if ask them help, they don’t help you. So in the past, they didn’t do practice of giving to others. They might have changed, might have missed, so forth.
So, who brings all the uncertain things? You take all this in your heart and then destroy the ego, self-cherishing thought, which has been developing in your heart from beginning to the birth, up and down all the time harmed you, never allowed you to be liberated from saṃsāra. Totally destroy that. Totally