These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Third Kopan Meditation Course, October-November 1972, and the Fourth Kopan Meditation Course, March-April, 1973, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Lightly edited by Gordon McDougall.
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We Must Remove the Veil of Ignorance
The Third Meditation Course: October–November 1972
The mind—why does it exist? Parents do not produce the mind. The previous [moment of mind] produces the present [one], which produces the future mind. The mind is impermanent, created by impulses.
Enlightenment clarifies the above statement.
Those who believe there is only one life are like we ignorant ones who even forget yesterday and tomorrow. We must recall past lives and prepare for the future—those who don’t will certainly have present and future problems. We should eliminate the obscuration of the mind by a proven method, thus becoming a buddha.
We need a perfect understanding for this meditation course. Since suffering and its cause are mental, the method to cure them is also mental. This can’t be done with materials or chemicals. Smoking hash slows the brain. The pure mind helps other beings.
Meditation should be done through the process of checking and thinking. This comes from listening. Positive meditation and positive Dharma practice are inseparable. Meditation is positive if it is done for one or all of the following three reasons:
- For better future lives
- To destroy suffering and delusions, bringing complete understanding and release from ignorance
- To achieve the highest, perfect peace
Positive meditation is perfect the Dharma practice.
Training the mind brings compassion. We should train ourselves so that the mind is one with the path. There are many levels on the path before enlightenment. Understanding overcomes suffering. The most important rule for meditation, and the reason for doing this course, is to make meditation a positive thing through understanding the reasons. Nothing arises in the mind intuitively, without reasons. We must hear the right subjects, and this will bring right understanding, which will then lead to right action and to purity.
Dharma can be created in the mind by anyone.
To understand any subject, instead of trying to increase the amount of material we take in, we must remove the veil of ignorance.