In May 1982, towards the end of the Enlightened Experience Celebration in India, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a talk to the remaining retreaters at Tushita in Dharamsala. He talked about the kindness of the guru. Rinpoche referred constantly to the kindness of his own guru, Lama Yeshe, and how it is through his tireless work that so much benefit has come to others. He used as an example the Dharma centers that have been established around the world as a result of Lama Yeshe’s energy and inspiration. And Rinpoche talked about the people who work at the centers; for fortunate they are to be able to help others in this way. We publish here a short extract from the three-hour discourse.
Think of the benefit to others brought by Dharma centers. Since starting the centers, how many people have come? How many people have had the seed of omniscience planted in their minds? How many people have been saved from the lower realms by coming to the centers, by understanding Dharma, by understanding refuge?
Just to think about this should make you feel so happy, should bring you incredible joy. To think that by working at Dharma centers we have been able to help others find a refuge object that is reliable, that does not betray or misguide. Forget about actually practicing lam-rim or training the mind in bodhichitta or tantra; just to meet a reliable refuge object, that alone is unbelievable.
And because of the first centers, many more have been started and from these many sentient beings have received peace and benefit. So many people have been able to create the cause for happiness in future lives. So many have opened the eye of wisdom that sees the cause of happiness and the cause of suffering.
Dedicating your life to the work that brings this kind of benefit to others is truly an incredible accomplishment and makes your life worthwhile.
Also, the suffering is worthwhile. In order to accomplish this much you have had to bear much hardship. Perhaps you have had a hard time with the lama: you do something this way and Lama says do it that way. You do it that way and Lama says do something else again. So difficult to please even though work so hard! And for so many years you have had to put up with criticism from people, complaining about you for doing this or that; complaints from the Eastern side, from the Western side, from all the ten directions (but perhaps not from the buddhas!). It’s like living in thorns.
But all this hardship, this criticism has been worthwhile, because by working for sentient beings you have brought them benefit, both temporal and ultimate. We should think of the advantages: how sentient beings have benefited, what sentient beings have received, what we have been able to offer them. Then, instead of being discouraged, instead of the mind becoming smaller, we shall develop an even stronger will to work for others, to work continuously.
I don’t mean that you should feel pride: “Oh, I have done this and that, I am so great.” No, that doesn’t benefit others or yourself. What I mean is that it’s very important to rejoice again and again in the work you do for others; especially if you work for the Dharma centers.
What is so fortunate is that you are already able to be of benefit to others even before you become enlightened, even before you generate any lam-rim realizations. It’s not easy, it’s dependent on many things, so if you can benefit in this way you are a very fortunate person and you should rejoice.
Working in this way you are repaying Lama’s incredible kindness and fulfilling his wishes – and his wishes are the happiness of ourselves and of others. It is by the kindness of Lama that we have been able to offer such great benefit to others.
To fulfill Lama’s wishes, that itself is the path. For example, Lama Atisha was able to do great work for the Dharma in India and Tibet because he had 153 gurus and because nothing that he did was against the wishes of any of them.
In the Kalachakra teachings it says, “Even if you make offering for three eons to all the buddhas guiding the millions of lives of millions of creatures, you will not become enlightened in this life. But if with faith you fulfill the wishes of the guru, then you will definitely achieve realizations in this life.”
So, you should check what is the best way you can benefit sentient beings in your life. Think about what brings the most benefit, then give up the actions that bring only small benefit and start doing those that bring great benefit.
Lama Thubten Zöpa Rinpoche (born 1946) is a lama from Thami, a village in the Khumbu region of Nepal. Early in life, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, from the same region (hence the title "Rinpoche"). He took his monastic vows at Dungkar Monastery in Tibet where he travelled in 1957, but he had to flee due to severe treatment on monks inflicted by the Chinese army after the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Instead of continuing in Tibet, his spiritual teacher, Geshe Rabten, entrusted him to the care of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Lama Zöpa is most noteworthy as the co-founder, with Lama Yeshe, of Kopan Monastery and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Since the 1984 death of Lama Yeshe, Rinpoche has served as the FPMT's spiritual director.
Lama Zöpa's books are published by Wisdom Publications. Free transcripts of some of his teachings are available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. There is an extensive biography of him in the book The Lawudo Lama by Jamyang Wangmo.
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