This video begins with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi, the current abbot of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery in Nepal, sharing a short biography of his life and some history of Kopan Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching, recorded on May 20, 2020, at Kopan Monastery, discussing his time in Tibet, where he became a monk, and his subsequent time in Nepal, where he began teaching Western students, starting with Zina Rachevsky.
Rinpoche then reminds us that the purpose of life is to benefit others, to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering—and not only that, to bring them to enlightenment, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations. This includes everyone, every animal, even the tiniest insect. To do this, one has to achieve enlightenment for oneself.
Right now we think that happiness and suffering are caused by others. We point outside, and blame outside, but actually it’s our own mind that brings problems. The purpose of lojong (thought transformation) is that we can utilize any obstacle or enemy that appears in the path to enlightenment. In this way, the poison (problems) become medicine.
We have to train our minds. If we can’t yet do it with big discomforts and suffering, we can start with small problems. If you start transforming small suffering into happiness, then we can develop a greater and greater capacity for happiness. Then, eventually, we can transform even big problems into happiness.
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