Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 26-minute talk, Lama Zopa Rinpoche clarifies what truly constitutes abandoning the Dharma — a distinction between mental rejection and physical disrespect — while teaching the seven-limb practice that precedes all sadhana. He illustrates with the story of the Jokhang statue in Lhasa, made during the Buddha’s lifetime and still liberating countless beings, and with practical guidance on respectfully handling damaged religious texts. Each of the seven limbs (prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, requesting the Dharma wheel, requesting stabilization, and dedication) purifies specific karmas and develops Buddha’s qualities, culminating in long life for teacher and students. Rinpoche emphasizes that the Long Life Puja benefits everyone with a Dharma connection. Pitched at practitioners engaged in sadhana or tantric practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1 LLP.mp3
UUID: 664147d5-c012-4d58-a23c-22dca4ede77b
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: z Long Life Puja Singapore (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 25.7 minutes
Words: ~2,275
Good morning. So, as I often mentioned, The Long Life Puja. It’s not only for me, it’s for everyone. It’s for everyone of you. It’s a long life also for the disciple.
It it becomes it becomes naturally, it becomes long life approach also for the disciple. So it’s like So as I normally mention that we whenever we do saddhana or deity, there is seven limb practice. Before we begin the actual body of the practice, Vajrasattva, Vajra Tantra, Mahāyāna Tantra, Before the actual body of the meditation practice, or Sadhana, there’s seven practice. So, one of them is the so this so there are seven limb, as many of you know that so first limb is a prostration, with the body, speech, mind, which is antidote to delusion pride. And that it causes to achieve the to achieve, let’s say, vajra of holy body, vajra of speech, of holy mind.
The Buddha. The second one, the second limb is offering, antidote to attachment, miserliness, and that when you become enlightened being that you possess limitless kinds of offerings, enjoyments, purest enjoyments. Then confession practice which the antidote to the the negative karma of a person’s mind. The result when it’s the total the total cessation of the defilements. The mind that is totally free from all the gross subtle defilements.
From there one manifested to Rūpakāya. So then the rejoicing antidote to delusion or the jealousy Result, you achieve the Buddha’s perfect holy body that possesses all the beauties. Then then the next one is requesting to have this requesting, beseeching to turn the Dharma wheel. So that purifies the very heavy negative karma of having abandoned holy Dharma. negative karma is collected with the Dharma.
Heavier than having destroyed of avoiding the Dharma. While it is Buddha’s teaching, what is it? Inner teaching, Mahāyāna teaching, Mahāyāna sūtra teaching, Mahāyāna tantra teaching, Then one gives up on the object of respect. If you renounce, one give up.
So thinking that I’m practicing sūtra, you know, then the tantra, then you see thinking that while the tantra teaching is the Buddha’s teaching taught by Buddha, manifesting those different deities, but giving up, you see, instead of respecting, you see with the body’s mind then you see giving up. That’s a force in Dharma. However, lack of understanding, purpose and the techniques, what is such need. Giving up, Oh, I’m practicing tantra, I’m a tantra practitioner, so you give up the Hīnayāna teaching, this Pāramitāyāna teaching. Or you renounce so that giving up Uttama, avoiding Uttama.
So, all these philosophical teachings are so complicated, so difficult for me. So from a from a heart, instead of respecting instead of respecting the instead of respecting it, keeping it for the future to understand, instead of that then, you know, giving up on the heart what’s the use of this. So like talking about talking about the world, the explanation of the world, you see that that that point of view. Those views of those views of the world, those sentient beings view of the world, which is explained by Buddha, and then thinking that oh, this is something different than what scientists scientists say or something. So you give up.
What’s the point? What is what is it? What the purpose is? Alright. However, giving up from the heart.
That’s while it is teaching the Buddha, so there’s also avoiding the Dharma disregarding. So given up from the heart. So Dharma texts, what is Buddha teaching Dharma texts? Not just disrespect, burning, burning we see the those Dharma texts. These are missing pages.
However, just burning does not become abandoning Dharma. So, doesn’t become abandoning the Dharma. But if you kind of if you kind of, you know, give up on the object of respect, if you give up from the renounced heart, then it becomes avoiding all the dharma. So there’s some differences. Just all the disrespect doesn’t bring the karma of abandoning Dharma.
So I think I might mention it also in the past, but however, that when you burn, see, because you’re difficult to keep it to those missing pages, all these things. So in Tibet, you collect those things and you put into the cave, inside cave or especially sometimes they build small square house, house, small square house, so then any broken statues or missing pages like that, you see, you put inside. So that it doesn’t go into garbage or blown by wind and it goes in the road, you stay in the garbage like that. So otherwise, tension. You create negative karma and another thing is creating negative karma by people walking on top of that.
You know, that you see. So so I yeah. So since there’s no since it’s difficult to do to to have like that. So you burn that so you don’t actually burn the the lettuce mentally. Don’t burn.
You you burn the you burn the pepper, but the letters all say think that they’re empty or the all are all absorbed according to one lama, all letters absorbed in the air, sort of air absorbed to your heart. They just burn the paper. However, that’s that’s similar. If you’re walking if there’s not a choice, you have to walk over the you have to walk over the text. But there’s no choice.
Then you you walk over the text, but mentally, you go under the text. So this way, the mental so this way is still respected even though physically walking over. So in Lhasa, where the where the Buddha stepped, Lhasa Jokhang, the famous temple of Lhasa, which has the statue of Buddha that, you know, that was made during Buddha’s time. Buddha had to go Buddha goes to Tush I think maybe Tuśita, I think, there was a Buddha for three months, you know, the summer retreat. Summer retreat.
I don’t know, but rainy season, there may be other times of rainy season, I’m not sure. You know, but abiding summer retreat. Vinaya practice, so the mother misses Buddha so much. So the mother invited, see, a not ordinary artist. It’s a manifestation, a transformation. It’s an artist. So she asked him to make a statue of Buddha. So then at the end, Buddha blessed and predicted that the statue will benefit so many sentient beings in India. This meant a number of years. After that, Mongolia.
This meant a number of years. It will benefit so many sentient beings. And then after that, this statue will benefit so many sentient beings in China. And then after that, will go to Snowland, Tibet. It will benefit so many sentient beings in Tibet.
Then after that, it will go into the Naga land. So I think it’s the end of the ocean. There had to be some change happens after some time. The statue is taken away again. So the statue actually is a living statue.
You know, I said that, sorry. What did say? Actually is a actually living Buddha. Actually living Buddha. But you see, for ordinary people appeared as a statue and doing you see, so every day, tens of thousands, you know, from from different parts of the world and from from Tibet, come to Tibet.
They come to make offering to pay respect and accumulate merit. So liberating every day, so many tens of thousands, every day by making them letting you see, causing them to make offerings, like, the lamp offerings, prayers, you know, also, letting them to, you know, inspire and engage in these virtuous actions and purify them, bring them to not only liberation, to enlightenment, and to all the physical lives to rebirth so that that’s happening. So from this statue, you know, the Jokhang, from there, the other temple where there’s the precious statue brought from Nepal, another one, Ramoche. So that the after revolutionary war, things destroyed, the statue was taken back taken back to Peking. So on the ground, there’s a there was one ground where all the statues piled up, you know, broken, so the missing parts and the powder.
So when there was liberty freedom given in Tibet after Mao Zedong passed away, so when there was I say, the head of the religious affairs in Tibet of the by many Chinese government. So asked to go down and picking to find the statue. So found among those big piles, huge piles taken from Tibet, which I heard they used for atomic bombs or other weapons to make they were the material statue. So in which I found among them, this Ramoche, the one from Nepal, came with the princess from Nepal. See, Songtsen Gampo’s two princesses, one from China, one from Nepal.
One from China in Jokhang, then one from Nepal is in Ramoche of Songtsen Gampo. So so between that temple and other temple, when I was in Tibet, I was told in the end of the road, there were texts during those very hard times in Tibet. Text, texts were laid out in the road, you see, from that temple, other up to other temple. So the Tibetan people told me there’s a text end of the road. So like that, if you, you know, cover the earth.
So those things you see, then you have to think that I’m going to the text, you see, like that. So anyway, so this way is still respected, you see. So yeah, like that. So, like, they’re similar here when you burn the Dharma text or the missing pages or whatever. So but if you but if you give up on your heart, you know, treat like garbage, You give up that teaching whatever.
You see, give up on the heart, then I think might be avoiding the Dharma. So same thing like four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, four schools of Buddha’s teaching then you see, given up in some respect. Disregarding, disregarding people, they are abandoning Dharma. So therefore, yeah, requesting Dharma well, purifies all those negative karmas connected with dharma, with the scriptures. Mhmm.
I suppose the avoiding dharma, which is heavier than destroyed all the destroyed, not only stupa. It sounds like stupa. It looks like stupa. It sounds like stupa, but it’s not only stupa. Having destroyed all the statues and stupas, to all the holy objects that exist in the world.
You carry more heavy karma than having destroyed every single holy object that exist in the world. Sorry about that. Then then you criticize Dharma, all those things you see. As I mentioned before, criticize tantra teaching. Well, it’s a it’s Hīnayāna.
It’s a practitioner. Criticize the Mahāyāna teaching, or practitioners of Mahāyāna say the Mahāyāna teaching sūtra. They didn’t understand, do not have knowledge, that it came from Buddha or that it has special techniques. So I think criticize some of students saying that saying that’s not true and this and that, you see. So those are forms of abandoning the Dharma.
So anyway, so purifies the and of course, in the karmas collect this life in past lives. And then what one what one achieves as the result by doing the request to turn the Dharma wheel. And then perfect speech of the perfect perfect speech of Buddha, all the all the Buddhist holy speech that which disguise the qualities, limitless qualities. Each of those. It is a — this is not Brahma voice.
It’s a perfect, Brahma voice explained, perfect perfect, you see, melody or the type of the holy speech, one could one could cause to achieve like that. Then also that you are able to teach Dharma to other sentient beings in the future in the near future. This life in future lives, you’re able to teach Dharma to other sentient beings. It could cause for that. However, then the next one requesting requesting to requesting to turn the Dharma wheel, by offering a golden Dharmachakra, thousand-spoked, a golden Dharmachakra thousand-spoked.
Then the next one is requesting to have stabilized by offering the throne raised upon eight snow lions, which signifies the the Buddha’s qualities for fearlessness. It’s a power controlling power. So with the double vajra in front. So golden throne, decorative jewels. So so that’s requesting to have stabilized to the to the gurus, to the Buddhas, Nirmanakayas present.
So that is a particular that is antidote particularly to negative karma collected with the guru, disturbing the mind. So any of those karma is done in this life or in the past lives. So the practice from seven limb requesting to accept long life purifies these very heavy karmas in relationship with the spiritual friend. Then result, the immortal life, you know, the undying deity, the holy body that is not subject to death.
So one achieved So then dedication, the dedication and result, it’s a true kind of like that. So therefore, anyone who, especially anyone who has dharma connection with me and it’s everyone’s long life. So because of the connection. But, yeah, this puja, it was done more extensive way, but even normally in daily life requesting to turn the Dharma wheel, requesting to stabilize, it will become cause for oneself to have long life. So like that.
So so they will make good prayer and sincere from the heart and, you know, to purify all those negative karmas, from the beginning of the birth so that one can develop one’s mind in the path of enlightenment, you know, a special ability through clear light which causes to achieve enlightenment in this life. So that’s about it.