Live for Sentient Beings and If You Are Dying, Die for Sentient Beings

Live for Sentient Beings and If You Are Dying, Die for Sentient Beings

Date of Advice:
July 2021
Date Posted:
December 2022

Rinpoche gave this advice to a student who had cancer. Written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and lightly edited for publication.

The Golden Light Sutra should be read five times at Kopan Monastery.

You don’t need a biopsy now, but if there is no choice and you need to do that, then think that every check-up in hospital and every single treatment should be done for the benefit of every sentient being, only for the sake of sentient beings.

Please live for sentient beings, not for yourself, and if you are dying, die for sentient beings.

If you are living, live for sentient beings. If you are dying, take every sentient being’s death on yourself, on the I, because by cherishing the I, this is what causes you to suffer from beginningless rebirths and now again, for endless rebirths.

[Cherishing the I] has harmed every sentient being, causing them to suffer from beginningless rebirths and now, without end, endlessly. It is the worst enemy and should be destroyed, without delaying even for a second.

Experience death for every sentient being, for them to achieve the cessation of suffering and dharmakaya.