Hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, what is true and false come from our mind. Whatever we see and hear, whatever we touch and smell, if someone likes us or is angry with us, whether we experience anything as good or bad from birth to death—all of this started with our mind. It came from our karma—the mental factor intention, Rinpoche says. On top of that, our mind imputes good and bad, the next second there is the appearance of good or bad, and then we believe it is real good or bad. This...

If we want more profit in our lives and less loss, we must see the guru as a buddha. In order to do this, the thought seeing their qualities as pure must be so powerful that it overwhelms the thought seeing their shortcomings or mistakes. When our guru seems to make mistakes, one way to view this is to think that due to our own lack of merit, we cannot be subdued by a guru showing a pure aspect so they must show an ordinary aspect having mistakes to benefit us, Rinpoche teaches. This is more...

We can change our minds in a positive way to mitigate problems; or we can also follow negative thoughts, our ordinary mind, to experience more problems. Using the analogy of the mind being like a television, Rinpoche says that we can change the channel of our mind to enlightenment or hell, to samsara or nirvana, to happiness or problems. Rinpoche explains how the mind and body are totally different phenomena. The mind has no beginning; it continues from life to life. „Mind“ is merely labeled...

In this week’s episode, we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave in April 2016 at http://www.fpmt-ldc.org/ (Losang Dragpa Centre )in Malaysia, titled “the kindness of the enemy”. This teaching falls in the category of Lojong, or mind training. These teachings show us how we can change our habituated approach to a situation or an event that would naturally feel uncomfortable and possibly generate anger or frustration. By changing our view and ultimately our reaction, we can avoid...