Your Main Practice in Life Should Be Cherishing Others - Teaching #126

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal, offered to students from China and Malaysia via Zoom on June 13.All of the 84,000 teachings of Buddha are included in the advice to not harm sentient beings and to benefit them, Rinpoche explains. If we harm sentient beings, we can’t benefit them. All of the suffering we experience ourselves, as well as the suffering we cause others to experience, is caused by our self-cherishing thought. Our worst enemy is our self-cherishing thought. From Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara (v. 8.120):If you want to quickly guideYourself and others,Secretly practiceExchanging yourself and others.The conclusion, Rinpoche explains, is that the solution to our problems is bodhichitta. Our main practice in life should be bodhichitta, cherishing others. Without giving up the I, we cannot abandon suffering. The less self-cherishing and the more we cultivate the good heart, the less problems we have.Rinpoche discusses the kindness of mother sentient beings, and also the kindness of those who are not your mother starting at (1:07:28) in the video.In preparation for offering the refuge ceremony, Rinpoche discusses four of the five lay vows which one can take in addition to refuge. One can take refuge alone or any/all of the following vows in addition: the vow to abandon killing (1:16:57), the vow to abandon sexual misconduct (1:19:43), the vow to abandon stealing (1:20:27), the vow to abandon lying (Rinpoche did not discuss this vow in this teaching), the vow to abandon alcohol (1:21:37).Rinpoche offers the refuge ceremony at (1:24:48).