Zopa Rinpoche Quotes

What is the mind? It is a phenomenon that is not body, not substantial, has no form, no shape, no color, but, like a mirror, can clearly reflect objects

In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Pabongka Rinpoche explains how the great Atisha would purify any negativity, no matter how small, immediately. Even in public or when riding his horse, as soon as he noticed a breach of his ethics, he would stop what he was doing, drop to one knee and then and there, purify it with the four opponent powers—the powers of dependence, regret, remedy and restraint. Of course, compared to us, Atisha may not have had that much to purify. Still, he would say, “I never break my pratimoksha vows; I rarely break my bodhisattva vows; but my tantric vows—I transgress those like falling rain.” Atisha practiced purification in this way because of his deep realization of the psycho-mechanics of negative karma, especially its four fundamentals: negative karma is certain to bring suffering; it multiplies exponentially; if eradicated, it cannot bring its suffering result; and once created, it never simply disappears. Through the study and practice of Dharma, we should try to attain Atisha’s level of understanding. In the meantime, we should try to practice as he did.

This is why the renunciation of samsara and the realization of bodhicitta are every bit as vital as the realization of emptiness.

They had such unbelievably fixed minds, fixed ideas—strong, unchangeable beliefs that there was just this one life; no understanding that the mind can exist without the body. Their thinking was unbelievably gross. People like this needed something external to break their concepts and enable them to see things more deeply.

This means that when the guru appears, he purposely shows us this mistaken, ordinary aspect in order to guide us and all other transmigratory beings to enlightenment. The conclusion is that without the guru guiding us in this ordinary aspect, we would be without a guide, totally lost in samsara. We would be like a baby left out in a hot desert with no food or water, surrounded by dangerous animals.

Otherwise we might have done this retreat or that retreat, this practice or that practice, received this teaching or that teaching, this initiation or that initiation, this and this and this, but nothing happens in our mind. Our mind is still like an empty container. Maybe we know the Dharma intellectually, but when a problem comes it looks like we don’t know it at all, like we have never learned it. This is why correctly devoting to the spiritual friend is called the root of the path to enlightenment.

Without ever having met the Dharma, the Buddha’s legacy to the world, and without having developed a good heart, everything we do can only be the cause of the lower realms. Our education is solely for this purpose. We go to kindergarten, primary school, high school and then college and university just to create the causes of the lower realms. I don’t think I have ever put it this way before.

Kadampa Geshe Chengawa mentioned, A disciple who practices correct devotion to the virtuous friend, even if he is as foolish as a dog or a pig, will have no difficulty in becoming like Manjushri.

If you neglect to protect your mind, you can neither close the door to suffering nor open the door to happiness.– Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The mind is also empty of true existence, of existence from its own side. This quality of mind, known as Buddha-nature, gives us the potential to free ourselves completely from all suffering, including disease, and the causes of suffering and to achieve any happiness we wish, including the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has all this potential, we do not need to feel depressed or hopeless. It is not as if we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our mind in any way that we wish. It is simply a question of finding the right way to use the potential of our mind. – Lama Zopa Rinpoche