Kopan Course No. 3 & 4 Index Page

The Index Page provides an outline of the topics discussed in each of the lectures. Click on the links below to go directly to a particular lecture.

Introduction

• About the 3rd and 4th Kopan Meditation Courses (1972–73)
• About the LYWA Kopan eBook Project

The Third Meditation Course: October–November 1972

We Must Remove the Veil of Ignorance

The Fourth Meditation Course: March–April 1973

1. Only the Dharma Can Bring Perfect Peace

• The Correct Way to Listen to the Dharma
• Meditation
• How Enlightenment Is Possible

2. A Meditation Practice

• The Lineage of the Teachings
• Morning Prayers
• Offerings
• Confession
• Refuge in the Holy Guru
• The Prayer of Taking Refuge in the Gurus
• Generating Bodhicitta
• Everything Comes from the Mind
• Bodhicitta
• Purifying the Place and Invocation
• Prostrations to the Thousand-arm Chenrezig
• How Chenrezig Attained Great Compassion
• The Visualization of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and Other Deities
• Visualizing Guru Shakyamuni Buddha
• Offerings to Lord Buddha
• Interferences
• Vajrasattva and Green Tara Meditations
• The Seven-Limb Prayer
• The Mandala Offering
• The Importance of the Right Motivation
• Checking Internally Before Checking the External World

3. The Perfect Human Rebirth

• The Negative Mind
• The Wrong View: Samsara
• The Eight Freedoms And Ten Richnesses
• The Reasons the Perfect Human Rebirth Is Highly Useful
• Wasting the Perfect Human Rebirth
• The Eight Worldly Dharmas
• Attachment Causes Us to Circle in Samsara
• The Power of Renunciation
• Is the Perfect Human Rebirth Easy to Attain?
• Morality and Charity
• The Secret of the Mind
• Denying Future Lives

4. Impermanence and Death

• Impermanence
• Overcoming Laziness
• Death Is Definite
• The Time of Death Is Indefinite
• Preparing for Death
• Running Toward Death
• Attachment to Our Body and Possessions
• Meditating on Death
• Because We Can’t Remember Past Lives Does Not Disprove Them
• Stories of Good Deaths
• The Evolution of the Original Human Beings
• The Evolution of Death
• The Intermediate State
• Meditation On Impermanence: A Summary

5. The Suffering of the Lower Realms

• Introduction to the Suffering of the Lower Realms:
• The Hell Realm
• The Hungry Ghost Realm
• The Animal Realm

6. Refuge

• Going for Refuge
• The Qualities of the Buddha
• The Sambhogakaya
• The Nirmanakaya
• The Qualities of the Buddha’s Holy Body, Speech and Mind
• The Qualities of the Dharma
• The Qualities of the Buddha’s Holy Speech
• Taking Refuge
• Instructions in the Practice of Refuge
• The Benefits of Taking Refuge
• A Meditation on Refuge
• Taking Refuge

7. Karma

• Karma and Emptiness
• Understanding Karma Leads to Understanding Everything
• Karma Is Definite
• Karma Is Expandable
• Examples of Karma Expanding
• We Cannot Meet the Result Unless We Have Created the Cause
• The Result of the Karma Created Is Never Lost
• The Four Opponent Powers
• Karmic Result

8. The General Sufferings of Samsara

• The Ten Nonvirtues
• The General Sufferings of Samsara
• Renunciation
• The Four Noble Truths
• The Truth of Suffering
• The Truth of the Cause of Suffering
• The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
• The Truth of the Path that Leads to the Cessation of Suffering
• The Suffering of Birth
• The Suffering of Birth
• Searching for the I
• Identifying the Wrong View
• Methods to Overcome the Belief in the Truly Existing I
• Using These Methods

9. The Delusions

• The Six Root Delusions: 1. Attachment
• 2. Anger
• 3. Ignorance
• 4. Pride
• 5. Doubt
• 6. The Five Wrong Views
• The Twenty Secondary Delusions
• The Four Changeable Mental Actions

10. The Wheel of Life

• 1. Ignorance
• 2. Karmic Formation
• 3. Consciousness
• 4. Name and Form
• 5. Six Sense Organs
• 6. Contact
• 7. Feelings
• 8. Craving
• 9. Grasping
• 10. Becoming
• 11. Birth
• 12. Aging and Death
• Future Karmic Results

11. The Suffering of the Three Upper Realms

• The Suffering of the Human Realm
• The Suffering of the Demigod Realm
• The Suffering of the Desire Realm God Realm
• The Gods of the Form and Formless Realms

12. Bodhicitta

• The Mahayana Equilibrium Meditation
• The Seven Techniques of Mahayana Cause and Effect
• 1. The Kindness of the Mother
• 2. Remembering the Kindness of All Mother Sentient Beings
• 3. Repaying the Kindness of All Mother Sentient Beings
• 4. Equalizing Oneself with Others

Appendix: The Eight Mahayana Precepts

• The Benefits of Taking Vows
• The Eight Mahayana Precepts
• Taking the Precepts
• The Benefits of Keeping the Precepts

Bibliography