Lama Zopa Rinpoche full length teachings

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the Guru Puja prayers and offerings. He begins by reminding us to cultivate the special bodhicitta motivation and visualize offering all the extensive offerings in front of us as well as those in all the FPMT center gompas worldwide. By offering these on behalf of every sentient being to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, it becomes a very powerful puja for all sentient beings.

Rinpoche also explains that if a family member has passed away (or is in the process of dying), it’s very good to make offerings on their behalf. He de...

In explaining the general confession, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that there are two types of regret. One type is useless because it only brings suffering; the other is positive as it leads to happiness. For example, if you feel regret after having done a virtuous action, it decreases the merit. Conversely, if you feel regret about a non-virtuous action, it weakens the negative karma. So, one way to purify negative karma is by regretting negative actions. Another method of purification is to look at the emptiness of each negative karma. These negative karmas do exist, but not in the...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that any happiness—temporary or up to enlightenment—depends on merit. Therefore, merit is incredibly precious. Rinpoche urges us to rejoice and feel happiness in our heart by recollecting all our past, present, and future merits. Each time we rejoice, the merit doubles. We should also rejoice in others’ merit. If we rejoice in the merits of a being whose mind is lower than ours, we collect double the merit that they collected. However, if the being’s mind is higher than ours, we collect half of their merit. Rinpoche gives the example of rejoicing in a bod...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the extensive offerings that are being made at FPMT centers around the world and explains how to make charity by offering these on behalf of all sentient beings. In this way, every single offering becomes an offering from every single sentient being and they all gain merit. So, this becomes a great puja for the happiness of all sentient beings.

Rinpoche says that each offering has ten benefits, but depending on which offering is made, the result is slightly different. He gives the example of incense, which has the particular result of pure...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the Lama Chöpa prayers, visualizations, and offerings. He mentions that this sort of explanation is not common within the Tibetan tradition, but for Westerners, he wants to provide some detail. Rinpoche says that the essential point is faith. If the prayers are recited with deep devotion, they become powerful. In this way, any mantra or prayer contains the complete path to enlightenment, and we receive all the blessings and realizations. Rinpoche gives the example of the refuge prayer. He says that when it is recited with devotion, it contains the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha. O...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche takes us through a meditation on emptiness. He explains how everything appears inherently existent but is merely labelled by the mind and doesn’t have even an atom of true existence from its own side. Using various examples (the self, the five aggregates, actions, objects, phenomena, forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, colors, samsara, nirvana, lower realms, upper realms), he explains how they are all merely imputed by the mind. Nothing exists inherently. In emptiness, even emptiness itself doesn’t exist. Even the mind that is imputing the phenomena is also merely imputed by the thought. From...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche outlines how the Gyalwa Gyatso initiation integrates the stages of the graduated path for beings of lower, middling, and greater capacity. Rinpoche shows the parallels between each initiation and the path to enlightenment. For example, he explains how achieving the second initiation (the secret initiation) helps to achieve the illusory body, and the third initiation (the wisdom initiation) makes it possible to achieve the clear light.

Rinpoche highlights that all stages of the path to enlightenment rely on the root of the path: correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. This means to see the...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche details the deep meaning of the mudras and explains that the essence of the merit field is the absolute guru. There’s no deity separate from the guru.

He reminds us of how precious it is to be born human and to hear the teachings. Yet, even once we hear them, there are still a lot of hardships. To understand and have faith depends on how much merit we’ve collected. For some, it’s very easy to attain realizations. For others, it doesn’t happen even over many lifetimes. It’s a question of how muc...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains why the first of the four-point analysis of emptiness—recognizing the object to be refuted—has unbelievable importance and has to come first. Without first recognizing the object to be refuted, you cannot do the other analyses. It is like recognizing the thief who has been harming you. After you recognize them, you can unleash weapons on them. You won’t shoot the wrong person. Similarly, if you don’t recognize the object to be refuted, all subsequent reasonings will not be on the object of ignorance. Thus, there’s a danger of using the I or pheno...

Lama Zopa Rinpoche highlights the importance of practicing Guru Puja (Lama Chöpa), as it integrates many important practices. He cites Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, who stated that the Guru Puja practice contains all the importance of the complete sutra and tantra. He also mentioned how His Holiness Song Rinpoche often praised the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition by expressing how Gyalwa Ensapa was different from Milarepa. They both achieved enlightenment in one brief lifetime during a degenerated time, but Gyalwa Ensapa did so while eating delicious food and living a comfortable life. The reason is because his heart practice was Lama C...