Kopan Course No. 33 Teachings by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 33rd Kopan Course November 2000 Lightly edited by Gordon McDougall January 2011 © Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche 2011 2 Contents Lecture 1 ................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 6 How amazing Westerners have an interest in Buddhism ....................................................... 6 The purpose of meditation ..................................................................................................... 7 The meaning of life ................................................................................................................ 9 Emptiness: How the I exists ................................................................................................. 11 Ignorance and the six realms ................................................................................................ 11 The different views of emptiness ......................................................................................... 12 The benefits of listening to Dharma ..................................................................................... 13 Dedications .......................................................................................................................... 15 Lecture 2 ................................................................................................................................. 15 The body and mind are in the nature of suffering ................................................................ 15 The enlightened mind .......................................................................................................... 17 Emptiness: The ignorance of what the I is ........................................................................... 18 Emptiness: Base and label, child and name ......................................................................... 19 Emptiness: Labeling the table .............................................................................................. 20 Emptiness: The object of refutation ..................................................................................... 21 Emptiness: Imputing true existence on the base ................................................................. 22 Emptiness: Imputing beautiful ............................................................................................. 22 The body and mind are in the nature of suffering ................................................................ 24 The purpose of life is to liberate others ............................................................................... 25 Oral transmission of the Diamond Cutter Sutra ................................................................... 25 The emptiness of the A ........................................................................................................ 26 Meditating on how all objects are labeled by the mind ....................................................... 27 Everything comes from the mind ......................................................................................... 28 Guru devotion is the root of the path ................................................................................... 29 Lecture 3 ................................................................................................................................. 31 Emptiness: How the mind labels .......................................................................................... 31 Emptiness: Good and bad depend on the label .................................................................... 36 The kindness of the enemy .................................................................................................. 37 Rinpoche’s two alphabet teachers and his early life ............................................................ 38 Geshe Rabten ....................................................................................................................... 41 Good and bad are labeled by the mind ................................................................................. 41 Problems come from our own karma, not other people ....................................................... 42 Seeing problems as opportunities ........................................................................................ 44 Lecture 4 ................................................................................................................................. 45 Compassion is the essence of religion ................................................................................. 45 Subduing the mind is right view .......................................................................................... 47 Meditation on Emptiness ..................................................................................................... 47 Shakyamuni visualization meditation .................................................................................. 48 Bodhicitta makes it easy to realize emptiness ...................................................................... 49 Practicing patience ............................................................................................................... 50 The enemy is the kindest person .......................................................................................... 52 The benefits of practicing patience ...................................................................................... 53 Thought transformation is the best psychology ................................................................... 55 The four noble truths: the origin of suffering ...................................................................... 56 3 The twelve links: karma and consciousness ........................................................................ 56 The twelve links: name and form......................................................................................... 57 The twelve links: consciousness, karma and ignorance....................................................... 58 Everything comes from the mind ......................................................................................... 59 [Dedications] ........................................................................................................................ 60 Lecture 5 ................................................................................................................................. 60 The four noble truths: The four aspects of the truth of suffering, impermanence ............... 60 Problems come from not understanding impermanence and selflessness ........................... 61 Meditating on impermanence and death .............................................................................. 62 The twelve links: Seeing how problems come from our own karma .................................. 64 Being aware in the break time of how we label everything ................................................. 65 A pure mind sees things purely (the preta, the deva and the human) .................................. 66 Meditating on how everything comes from the mind .......................................................... 66 The ten nonvirtues: Killing .................................................................................................. 67 The ten nonvirtues: Sexual misconduct ............................................................................... 69 The karmic results of keeping vows .................................................................................... 70 Introducing Geshe Sopa ....................................................................................................... 71 Oral transmission of the Thirty-five Buddhas, introduction ................................................ 71 Lecture 6 ................................................................................................................................. 72 Emptiness: How things appear to exist from their own side ............................................... 72 Emptiness: The “A” seems to appear from its own side ...................................................... 73 Emptiness: The I is neither one with nor separate from the aggregates .............................. 76 Emptiness: The I is not one with the aggregates .................................................................. 77 Emptiness: Nor is the I separate from the aggregates .......................................................... 79 Emptiness: Year is merely imputed ..................................................................................... 80 Emptiness: Seeing life as like an illusion ............................................................................ 81 Emptiness: A year is merely imputed .................................................................................. 82 Emptiness: the aggregates are merely imputed .................................................................... 84 Everything is merely labeled ............................................................................................... 85 Lecture 7 ................................................................................................................................. 86 Emptiness: The rope and the snake are merely