Become a Servant for All Sentient Beings

Become a Servant for All Sentient Beings

Date of Advice:
November 2016
Date Posted:
May 2017

Rinpoche gave this advice to a student who was unable to forgive another person for a long time and felt they were being used by that person.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Mexico, January 2000. Photo by Brian Halterman.

Do you recite the Six-Session Guru Yoga every day or not? Do you recite refuge and bodhicitta? Do you recite the morning motivation that I composed, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness? It says “for all sentient beings” and “wish to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering.”

Do you take refuge and generate bodhicitta every day, but think, “All sentient beings, but just not this person who I don’t like?” When you recite the four immeasurables do you say, “Numberless sentient beings, except this person?” Do you say, “Except this person I don’t like,” so only that person is left out?

If you recite these verses then it includes all sentient beings, including this person you do not like. By doing these practices, you are generating this mind for all sentient beings, so this person is always included there, otherwise you have to say “all sentient beings except this one person.”

Do you recite the morning motivation I put together, The Method to Transform...? Do you read it every day?

We are meant to be used and to be the servant for all sentient beings. This is the bodhisattva practice. If you are doing the morning motivation, this is what you are meant to be wishing for. If you are not doing it, then please start and please think about this. You should be very happy to be used by sentient beings. This is the bodhisattva practice.

With much love and prayers...