Virtue and Reality: Method and Wisdom in the Practice of Dharma
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About this ebook
This book contains methods for transforming everyday actions into the cause of enlightenment, anger into patience, and the ordinary view of phenomena as inherently existent into the wisdom realizing emptiness. It also includes several meditations led by Rinpoche, although everything in the book is a topic for meditation.
It would be hard to find a simpler, clearer, more practical explanation of the two fundamental paths of compassion and wisdom than the one Lama Zopa offers us here.
This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings freely available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books.
Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there.
Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website.
Thank you so much, and please enjoy this ebook.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was one of the most internationally renowned masters of Tibetan Buddhism, working and teaching ceaselessly on almost every continent. He was the spiritual director and cofounder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Buddhist projects, including monasteries in six countries and meditation centers in over thirty; health and nutrition clinics, and clinics specializing in the treatment of leprosy and polio; as well as hospices, schools, publishing activities, and prison outreach projects worldwide. He passed away in 2023.
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Book preview
Virtue and Reality - Lama Zopa Rinpoche
VIRTUE AND REALITY
Method and Wisdom in the Practice of Dharma
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Edited by
Nicholas Ribush
May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, or talks or thinks about these books never be reborn in unfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths in situations conducive to the perfect practice of Dharma, meet only perfectly qualified spiritual guides, quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive • Boston
www.LamaYeshe.com
A non-profit charitable organization for the benefit of all sentient beings and an affiliate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
www.fpmt.org
Copyright Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche 2012
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
PO Box 636, Lincoln, MA 01773, USA
Please do not reproduce any part of this book by any means whatsoever without our permission.
Cover photograph Roger Kunsang
Cover line art by Robert Beer
Interior photos of Rinpoche at Yucca Valley, CA, 1977, by Carol Royce-Wilder
Cover designed by Gopa&Ted2 Inc.
Ebook ISBN 978-1-891868-40-5
Smashwords Edition
The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Bringing you the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche
This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings freely available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books.
Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there.
Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website at http://www.LamaYeshe.com.
Thank you so much, and please enjoy this e-book.
Previously published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Becoming Your Own Therapist, by Lama Yeshe
Advice for Monks and Nuns, by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Make Your Mind an Ocean, by Lama Yeshe
Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism, by Lama Yeshe
Making Life Meaningful, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Teachings from the Mani Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Direct and Unmistaken Method, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Yoga of Offering Food, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind, by Lama Yeshe
Teachings from Tibet, by various great lamas
The Joy of Compassion, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Kindness of Others, by Geshe Jampa Tegchok
Ego, Attachment and Liberation, by Lama Yeshe
How Things Exist, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Universal Love, by Lama Yeshe
The Heart of the Path, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Teachings from the Medicine Buddha Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Freedom Through Understanding, by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Kadampa Teachings, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Life, Death and After Death, by Lama Yeshe
Bodhisattva Attitude, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
How to Practice Dharma, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
For initiates only:
A Teaching on Heruka, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
A Teaching on Yamantaka, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
In association with TDL Publications, Los Angeles:
Mirror of Wisdom, by Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen
Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Lama Yeshe DVDs
The Three Principal Aspects of the Path • Introduction to Tantra • Offering Tsok to Heruka Vajrasattva • Anxiety in the Nuclear Age • Bringing Dharma to the West • Lama Yeshe at Disneyland • Freedom Through Understanding • Life, Death and After Death • Christmas 1982 (online only)
Table of Contents
Title Page
About Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Previously Published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Publisher's Acknowledgement
Editor’s Introduction
1. Fulfilling Life’s Purpose
Oral transmission
Universal responsibility
2. Living with Bodhicitta
The Three Principle Aspects of the Path
The importance of compassion
Bodhicitta transforms your life
The five paths
Merely labeled
More about the five paths
Incomparable bodhicitta
Awareness and the self
3. Patience and the Compassionate Heart
Don't be yourself
Eliminating enemies
The benefits of patience
How to practice patience
The power of positive thinking
What creates the labels?
4. Meditation on Emptiness
How things exist
A valid base
The worst ignorance
Hallucination
What is the mind?
Schools of Buddhist philosophy and the object of refutation
How to meditate on emptiness
5. Practicing the Good Heart
When do we need compassion?
How to enlighten all sentient beings
Developing compassion
The importance of the meditation center
6. Dedication
About LYWA
About FPMT
About FPMT Online Learning Center
Other Teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche
What to do with Dharma Teachings
Dedication
About Lama Zopa Rinpoche
About Dr. Nicholas Ribush
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We are extremely grateful to our friends and supporters who have made it possible for the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive to both exist and function: Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whose kindness is impossible to repay; Peter and Nicole Kedge and Venerable Ailsa Cameron for their initial work on the Archive; Venerable Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s tireless assistant, for his kindness and consideration; and our sustaining supporters—Barry and Connie Hershey, Joan Thompson, Tony Steel, Vajrayana Institute, Claire Atkins, Thubten Yeshe, Roger and Claire Ash-Wheeler, Hawk Furman, Richard Gere, Doss McDavid, Therese Miller, Janet Hintermann, Nick and Gisela Dawson, Tom and Suzanne Castles, Lily Chang Wu, Doren and Mary Harper and other anonymous benefactors.
We are also deeply grateful to all those who have become members of the Archive over the past few years. Details of our membership program may be found at the back of this book and if you are not a member, please do consider joining up. Due to the kindness of those who have, we now have five editors working on our vast collection of teachings for the benefit of all. We have also posted our list of individual and corporate members on our website, www.LamaYeshe.com.
In particular, we thank our anonymous benefactor, whose dedication reads: Many people are involved with this book: the teacher, those who worked to get the book published, those who see, read and study it and many more. May the merit created by all these people become the cause for ending all sentient beings’ suffering and bringing all beings to enlightenment.
Furthermore, we would like to express our appreciation for the kindness and compassion of all those other generous benefactors who have contributed funds to our work since we began publishing free books. Thankfully, you are too numerous to mention individually in this book, but we value highly each and every donation made to spreading the Dharma for the sake of the kind mother sentient beings and now pay tribute to you all on our website. Thank you so much.
Finally, I would like to thank the many other kind people who have asked that their donations be kept anonymous; my wife, Wendy Cook, for her support and editing skills; our dedicated office staff, Jennifer Barlow and Ven. Ani Tenzin Desal; our editors Ven. Ailsa Cameron, Ven. Connie Miller, Gordon McDougall and Sandy Smith; Ven. Kunsang for recording Lama Zopa Rinpoche; our transcribers Ven. Thubten Munsel, Ven. Thubten Labdron and Dr. Su Hung; Ven. Bob Alcorn for his work on our Lama Yeshe DVDs; David Zinn for his digital imaging expertise; our audio editors Jonathan Steyn and Mike Shaw; our e-publishing team Megan Evart and Sonal Shastri; Mandala Books and Wisdom Books for their help with our distribution in Australia and Europe and Amitabha Buddhist Centre and Losang Dragpa Centre for their help with our distribution in Singapore and Malaysia respectively; and everybody else who helps us in so many ways. Thank you all.
If you, dear reader, would like to join this noble group of open hearted altruists by contributing to the production of more books by Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or to any other aspect of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s work, please contact us to find out how.
—Dr. Nicholas Ribush
Through the merit