Training the Mind in Lamrim

Dear one,
It comes out best to go to Bodhgaya and then to meditate on Liberation in the Palm of your Hand. Study this text from beginning to end, and do this twice. On top of this, it important to meditate on how samsara is in the nature of suffering, and the six types of suffering.

[The first type of suffering] is that nothing is definite in samsara and secondly, nothing gives satisfaction, however much we enjoy it, so of course there is always dissatisfaction. Nothing is definite in samsara, from life to life. Relationships change—friend, enemy, stranger, they all become like this—changing even in one life, even in one year, one month, one week or one day. In the morning that person is your friend, then by the evening they become your enemy. Also relatives change, so from life to life even relatives become enemies, changing from friend to enemy to friend.

The third one is having to leave the body again and again, whatever body is taken, however many beautiful bodies we have taken—as humans, non-humans, or worldly gods—we have taken all these bodies. Those looking very beautiful, male, female—all the human bodies that people think are very beautiful—also insects, butterflies and so forth, we have taken all these bodies numberless times. If we collect all the bodies we have taken, from one life to another life, there would be no empty space left.

Lama Tsongkhapa explained, for example, our father’s father’s fathers. It goes on and on like that, and also our mother’s mother’s mothers and so forth. From that meditation you can get an idea that this body is just a collection of old sperm and egg. Sperm from our father’s father’s fathers, and egg from our mother’s mother’s mothers. Realize it is garbage, it's extremely old garbage, and do not get attached. In this way, it helps to be free from samsara and to end taking rebirth [the fourth type of suffering], even though it has no beginning.

[The fifth type of suffering] is that after being high you become low; it’s always like that. We have been higher in the desire realm, as devas—form realm devas, formless realm devas, and the tip of samsara. We have received these rebirths numberless times through meditation, shamatha, but still we are not free from the suffering of samsara.

The form and formless realms are both in the nature of suffering. The form realm has no suffering of pain but it has the suffering of change. All the samsaric temporary pleasures are the suffering of change, therefore the form realm has the suffering of change. The formless realm doesn’t have those two [the suffering of pain and the suffering of change] but it has pervasive compounded suffering, from where the other two sufferings arise, being totally under the control of delusion and karma, and the contaminated seed of delusion. From there, suffering, delusion arises.

When you think about this in regards to the suffering of other sentient beings, then you develop compassion, from that you develop bodhicitta, and from that you generate the Mahayana path. If you practice tantra, on the basis of that, then practice tantra. This is the shortest path to enlightenment, so you can free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to buddhahood, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

So that’s my talk. Don't only read one time, please read again and again and study it. Also you can show your friends, if you want, those whom you want to understand.

Thank you.

I checked and what comes out best is for you to do is prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas. You need strong purification to have realization of the path to enlightenment.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear one,
I discussed with __ who thought to set up her mind in the proper way, which means not going to extremes, not engaging in the heaviest negative karma, not thinking only of others’ faults and putting the blame for one’s own difficulties and problems on others. Instead, thinking in the proper way to have a healthy mind and body in order to practice Dharma from life to life. Therefore I am very happy that both of you came to see me this time.

I understand that it’s not an easy life, because the mind is not easy. One minute we think this way according to guru devotion and then next minute we think the opposite. This is quite normal for us sentient beings.

My suggestion is for you to read the lamrim and really stick the mind with that. If the mind sticks with lamrim, you will achieve a lot of peace, happiness and satisfaction, in this life and beyond. In this life you will have good relationships and happiness and you will be able to offer service to others. Otherwise you will suffer so much and also cause many difficulties to others. Even living together there will be lots of fights and not much peace, but a lot of suffering.

My idea is for you to please read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand well from beginning to end, especially focusing on guru devotion, which is the root of the path. Depending on that we have obstacles or success. Also [read and meditate on] the perfect human rebirth, karma, and the suffering of samsara—each realm. That is very, very important. The extensive kindness of mother sentient beings is also very important, and then renouncing samsara and bodhicitta as much as possible.

Read it well from beginning to the end and meditate on it. Please read it well twice—slowly and well—relating it to your life and meditating on it while you read. After that spend five months meditating on guru devotion; two months on the perfect human rebirth up to karma; five months on the graduated path of the middle capable being; seven months on bodhicitta, the graduated path of the higher capable being, and nine months on emptiness. This means [that topic] is your main focus during that number of months.

Then go back again and whatever realization you didn’t have, go back again and again for that number of months. Do this based on the Guru Puja or Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga or Six-session Guru Yoga.

Please remember every morning when you wake up, rejoice, thinking, “I didn’t die today.” Think that life is very short; don’t think, “I will live very long.” If you think that you will live long, then problems will arise due to attachment, anger and the selfish mind. This increases problems in your life and causes harm to others, so it’s important to think about impermanence and death. It is very sure that death can happen any day, and if you remember that then everything will be very quiet and all the disturbing emotional thoughts will go away. The mind will be very quiet, there will be more Dharma in the heart, we will have a sincere wish to help to others and we won’t waste time. Please try to follow this as much as you can.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your email. Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is the main lamrim text you should study. Also try to read Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Lamrim, but the main text is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. 

Please read and study it from beginning to end. Write down any questions you have and check with a geshe or teacher who has studied the lamrim well. Read it twice from beginning to end. You can read any other lamrim text, but Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle Lamrim is one main one.

Anything you don’t understand, discuss with students who have studied well, who know it well. There are Sangha there, so it is easy to get questions answered and easy to study. If you know someone else or other Tibetans, then you can do that with them.

Use as a daily book The Essential Nectar or the outline of Liberation in the Palm of your Hand. After that, you can do effortless meditation.

This is the most important thing in the life, how to develop your mind in the path to enlightenment. Even if your life becomes busy, daily meditation on the lamrim is so important. Do this in the morning and in the evening, or just in the morning two times, or at least once a day with the preliminary practices.

With much love and prayers...

We have achieved a lot in Dharma education and study. Now we have to put effort into attaining the path. I don’t mean just doing a three-year retreat and counting a certain number of mantras, but the attainment of the path through the lamrim.

Realizations don’t have to come from being in formal retreat, you can achieve them while working and studying with meditation on the lamrim. You can be doing business and studying and meditating on the lamrim. You can have family and a job, and be meditating on the lamrim. The main thing now is attainment.

My most dear, kind, wish-fulfilling ones,
If possible, I should offer each of you trillions of  dollars for coming to Kopan to learn about Buddhism. This means your mind is open to real happiness—to be free from the gross suffering of the three lower realms and even not to be satisfied with the temporary happiness of the three upper realms, humans and gods. Most important, once you meet Dharma and practice, this frees you from samsaric happiness which is only suffering, and Dharma can give you full enlightenment, peerless happiness.

Learning Dharma and practicing is so important for yourself as well as for countless others, because when you achieve enlightenment, you can free countless living beings, all living beings, from the oceans of sufferings. So you can see there is nothing more important than this, to learn Dharma and practice.

Dharma is more important than money and all the rest of the worldly things that people believe are important for our happiness. We shouldn’t use this perfect human rebirth just to make money, as a servant to money. We need to work for future lives’ happiness and enlightenment.

We need some money, but money only comes from past virtuous actions, from good karma that we have created in the past, just as good crops come if we plant the right kinds of seeds.  People in the world who have no understanding of Dharma think material things come from money. They think external comforts come from money, so they think money is the most important thing.

Another strange thing is that generally people don’t learn about death. Life comes to an end, and it’s important to understand why this is so. Also, to know how the mind is different from the body—the mind is colorless, it has no shape and it perceives objects. The principal cause and secondary cause is the mind. The Buddha said the definition of the mind is clear and being able to perceive objects. There are many people who can remember past lives, their own and others. There is no-one who has discovered there is only one life and no reincarnation.

In the US there are many problems of the elements—flooding, fires and hurricanes—which are happening again and again. Also, children are shooting people, and there is senseless killing of people. People can’t understand why this happens these days; why there is so much senseless killing. This is because people don’t understand karma, how things come from the mind.

The most important essential practice is that of compassion. This is the essence of Buddhism—compassion to all beings who are numberless. Compassion brings us happiness and stops us from harming others. Compassion is the source of numberless beings’ happiness and it brings us to peerless happiness and enlightenment.

Thank you, please come to Kopan to study again.

Sincerely

Lama Zopa, from California

Dear Kim,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. Definitely according to your wish you can become students, even though I don’t have any qualities. I can, however, buy them from a shop—Wal-Mart—but maybe they will be very expensive.

I’m very happy that your books have helped your mind. That’s very important. You can read other Dharma books, but lamrim is very important. Buddha taught 84,000 teachings; Hinayana and Mahayana—sutra and tantra. All these are stages to enlightenment. The lower, medium and higher paths all come to the three principal aspects of the path—renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. That’s everything. We must know renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. These we must know, as without them we cannot practice.

Therefore it is very important to study and realize these in the whole life. That’s very important. There’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and also the Great Lamrim (Lamrim Chenmo). This latter one may be too hard, but you should read it one time. Then there’s the Middle Lamrim, as well as shorter lamrim texts. Whether you read these or not is OK, but Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is the main one for you to read in order to understand.

To achieve full enlightenment in order to free numberless hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, suras and asuras from oceans of suffering and bring them to full enlightenment is the main purpose of life. That’s all.

With much love and prayer...