This podcast is from a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave about Buddhist refuge for the graduation ceremony of the first cohort of Human Spirit, an Israel-based Buddhist-psychoanalytic training program over Zoom. Here’s a summary of Rinpoche’s teaching, which was offered on June 8, 2022, from Kopan Monastery in Nepal.

All happiness and suffering come from the mind, not from the outside, Rinpoche reminds us. Since we want happiness and don't want suffering, the vast subject of the mind should be of utmost importance for us to investigate. To become healthy—both physically and mentally—we practice meditation, study the Dharma, and learn about the mind in order to clean it up. A negative and unhealthy mind brings sickness and suffering in so many forms. By continuing with effort to clean up the mind, going deeper and deeper through meditation and analysis, you can completely cease delusions and karma and remove the cause of suffering.

By realizing the ultimate nature of the mind—the ultimate nature of I—then we can develop wisdom and realize emptiness. This is ultimate Dharma. The real refuge is ultimate Dharma. This is like taking medicine; it ceases the cause of suffering, delusions, and karma. Since Buddha revealed the path, in the analogy of medicine, Buddha is the doctor. You take refuge in the Buddha when you take refuge in the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha. And the Sangha are those who help you actualize the absolute Dharma and understand conventional Dharma through the scriptures. So this is why we take refuge in the Sangha.

Anger makes us very frightening and ugly, and causes us to want to harm others. So much negative karma of the body, speech, and mind are created when we view others as the enemy. This is why the benefits of practicing patience are unbelievable. By completing the perfection of patience, it is impossible for anger to arise. All the gross and subtle obscurations are ceased, purified. Then the mind becomes an enlightened mind. When the mind becomes enlightened, we can liberate the numberless sentient beings from suffering. This is the ultimate benefit to oneself and others, unlike anger which only harms self and others. When you practice patience, there is no enemy. In this way, the person who gives you an opportunity to practice patience is the most precious one in your life! 

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. Find links to the transcript and more:

https://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/the-real-refuge-is-your-wisdom-realizing-the-ultimate-nature/