The Joy of Compassion

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Soquel, CA USA 1999 (Archive #1055)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on one of his favorite topics—compassion. Rinpoche also explains emptiness, karma and many other essential Buddhist subjects. As ever, his teachings are clear, relevant, humorous and direct—a perfect guide to making our lives meaningful.

Dedication (Joy of Compassion)

[Please dedicate the merit of having read the teachings in this book as follows.]

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, may bodhicitta, the source of all the happiness and success of myself and all other sentient beings, be generated in my own mind and in the minds of all sentient beings without even one second’s delay and may that which has been generated increase.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, may all my father-mother sentient beings have all happiness, may the three lower realms be empty forever and may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately. May I be able to cause all this by myself alone.

“Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, from now on may I offer extensive benefit like the sky to all sentient beings as Lama Tsongkhapa did by having within me in all my future lifetimes the same qualities that Lama Tsongkhapa possessed.

“Due to the merits of the three times collected by me, buddhas, bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings—which appear to be real merits, existing from there, from their own side, as projected by my hallucinating mind’s ignorance, but are in reality empty of that—may I—which is projected by my hallucinating mind’s ignorance as a real me, a real self existing from there, appearing from there, but which is empty of that, empty of the hallucination of a real I appearing from there—achieve enlightenment—which appears to be a real enlightenment as projected by my hallucinating mind’s ignorance but which is in fact empty of a real enlightenment appearing from there—and lead all sentient beings—which appear to me as real ones from there but which are a hallucination, a projection of my ignorance, empty of being real sentient beings appearing from there—to that enlightenment—which appears to me to be a real one from there but which is a hallucination projected by my ignorance, empty of being a real one appearing from there—by myself alone—who also appears to my mind as a real one appearing from there but which is a hallucination projected by my ignorance, which means that this me, this I, is totally empty of a real one appearing from there.

“May Lama Tsongkhapa’s complete path to be actualized within my mind and within the minds of my family members and all students and benefactors of this organization, spread and flourish in all directions, and may I be able to cause these teachings to be actualized in the minds of all sentient beings by myself alone.”