Thubten Zopa > Quotes

“The root of our problems is within our mind. It is our unskillful ways of thinking. We have to recognize the right ways of thinking, which bring happiness, and the wrong ways of thinking, which bring suffering. With one way of thinking, we have problems in our life; with another way of thinking, we don't. In other words, happiness and suffering come from our own mind. Our mind creates our life.”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“The real miracle is when someone is able to stop the cause of suffering and create the cause of happiness by learning that their own mind is the source of their suffering and happiness. The real miracle is to transform our mind, because this will take care of us for many lifetimes. Our positive attitude will stop us from creating the cause of problems, thus ensuring our happiness not only in this life but in hundreds, or even thousands, of future lives up to enlightenment. This is the greatest success. (p. 30)”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Pabongka Rinpoche explains how the great Atisha would purify any negativity, no matter how small, immediately. Even in public or when riding his horse, as soon as he noticed a breach of his ethics, he would stop what he was doing, drop to one knee and then and there, purify it with the four opponent powers—the powers of dependence, regret, remedy and restraint. Of course, compared to us, Atisha may not have had that much to purify. Still, he would say, “I never break my pratimoksha vows; I rarely break my bodhisattva vows; but my tantric vows—I transgress those like falling rain.” Atisha practiced purification in this way because of his deep realization of the psycho-mechanics of negative karma, especially its four fundamentals: negative karma is certain to bring suffering; it multiplies exponentially; if eradicated, it cannot bring its suffering result; and once created, it never simply disappears. Through the study and practice of Dharma, we should try to attain Atisha’s level of understanding. In the meantime, we should try to practice as he did.”
― Thubten Zopa, Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice

“What is the mind? It is a phenomenon that is not body, not substantial, has no form, no shape, no color, but, like a mirror, can clearly reflect objects”
― Lama Zopa Rinpoche

“By healing our mind with great compassion, we will be able to solve all our own problems and those of others. The positive thought of compassion will not only help us to recover from sickness but bring us peace, happiness, and satisfaction. It will enable us to enjoy life. It will also bring peace and happiness to our family and friends and to other people around us. Because we will have no negative thoughts toward them, the people — and even the animals — we deal with will feel happy. If we have loving kindness and compassion, our prime concern will always be not to hurt others, and this itself is healing. A compassionate person is the most powerful healer, not only of their own disease and other problems, but of those of others. A person with loving kindness and compassion heals others simply by existing. (p. 8)”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“Whenever you hear that someone else has been successful, rejoice. Always practice rejoicing for others-whether your friend or your enemy. If you cannot practice rejoicing, no matter how long you live, you will not be happy.”
― Thubten Zopa

“The transformation of the mind is the ultimate healing. I may be the one saying all this, but the actual healing has to come from you, from your own mind. The healing comes through your meditation, through your positive thinking, which basically means through your own wisdom and compassion. Meditation on emptiness and on loving kindness and compassion ends the need for healing. Through this ultimate healing, you will never have to experience disease again. (p. 10)”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“Meditation not only heals disease but brings great peace to the mind. It is the nature of positive thoughts to make us feel calm and relaxed. The best positive thoughts for healing are loving kindness and compassion. Loving kindness is the wish that others have happiness and the causes of happiness; great loving kindness is taking the responsibility upon ourselves to bring others happiness and its causes. Compassion is the wish that others be free from suffering and the causes of suffering; great compassion is taking the responsibility upon ourselves to free others from suffering and its causes. Generating these positive attitudes can heal disease. Compassion is the best healer. The most powerful healing comes from developing compassion for all other living beings, irrespective of their race, nationality, religious belief, or relationship to us. We need to feel compassion for all living beings, every single one of whom wants happiness and does not want suffering. We need to develop not only compassion, the wish to free everyone from all suffering, but great compassion, which means taking upon ourselves the responsibility for doing this. This brings deep and powerful healing. (p. 7)”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“Since healing essentially comes from our mind, not from our body, it is important to understand the nature of the mind. The intrinsic nature of the mind is pure in the sense that it is not one with the faults of the mind, with the disturbing thoughts and obscurations. All the faults of our mind — our selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt, and other disturbing thoughts — are temporary, not permanent and everlasting. And since the cause of our suffering, our disturbing thoughts and obscurations, is temporary, our suffering is also temporary.

The mind is also empty of true existence, of existence from its own side. This quality of mind, known as Buddha Nature, gives us the potential to free ourselves completely from all suffering, including disease, and the causes of suffering and to achieve any happiness we wish, including the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has all this potential, we do not need to feel depressed or hopeless. It is not as if we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our mind in any way that we wish. It is simply a question of finding the right way to use the potential of our mind.”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“A loving, compassionate person heals others simply by existing. Wherever they are, compassionate people are healing, because they do everything they can to help others with their body, speech, and mind. Merely being near a compassionate person heals us because it brings us peace and happiness. Simply seeing the face of a kind, warmhearted person makes us feel happy. (p. 51)”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“This means that when the guru appears, he purposely shows us this mistaken, ordinary aspect in order to guide us and all other transmigratory beings to enlightenment. The conclusion is that without the guru guiding us in this ordinary aspect, we would be without a guide, totally lost in samsara. We would be like a baby left out in a hot desert with no food or water, surrounded by dangerous animals.”
― Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings

“As soon as your object of concern changes from yourself to someone else, your heart is released from the bondage of the self-cherishing thought. As soon as you change the object of your cherishing, there is peace in your heart.”
― Thubten Zopa, The Door to Satisfaction: The Heart Advice of a Tibetan Buddhist Master

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama does Yamantaka self-initiation every day. He has said that when he does, he keeps Geshe Kelsang in his heart. Geshe Kelsang is totally against His Holiness; he demonstrates and criticizes so much, but His Holiness says he keeps him in his heart. He told us this.”
― Thubten Zopa, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings

“To make our life meaningful, we have to do meaningful actions.”
― Thubten Zopa, The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment

“Relying on the boat of a human body, Free yourself from the great river of pain! As it is hard to find this boat again, This is no time to sleep, you fool. [11]”
― Thubten Zopa, The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment

“You are not alone because all the time there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas surrounding you, everywhere loving you, guiding you, that is what they do.”
― Thubten Zopa, How to Be Happy

“The mind is also empty of true existence, of existence from its own side. This quality of mind, known as Buddha-nature, gives us the potential to free ourselves completely from all suffering, including disease, and the causes of suffering and to achieve any happiness we wish, including the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has all this potential, we do not need to feel depressed or hopeless. It is not as if we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our mind in any way that we wish. It is simply a question of finding the right way to use the potential of our mind. – Lama Zopa Rinpoche”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“If you neglect to protect your mind, you can neither close the door to suffering nor open the door to happiness.– Lama Zopa Rinpoche”
― Thubten Zopa, The Door to Satisfaction: The Heart Advice of a Tibetan Buddhist Master

“To accomplish the vast work of bringing all living beings happiness, especially the peerless happiness of full enlightenment, we need to become enlightened. To guide others perfectly, we need to develop the inner qualities of our mind, especially omniscient wisdom, compassion for all beings, and the perfect power to reveal the methods to help others. These qualities are vital in healing ourselves and all other living beings. Enlightenment means cessation of ignorance, anger, attachment, and all other unhealthy thoughts, as well as cessation of even their subtle imprints, and completion of all realizations. And enlightenment is achieved through mental development. We need to develop both compassion and wisdom. We need to develop not only the wisdom that understands conventional reality, especially the causes of happiness and suffering, but also the wisdom that understands ultimate reality, because it is only then that we can eliminate the ignorance that is the root of all suffering and its causes and achieve liberation.

Normally, before we can teach others about literature, philosophy, science, or handicrafts we ourselves need to be qualified to teach. For example, before doctors can train other people to become doctors, they must have the knowledge and clinical skills needed to diagnose even obscure diseases. In a similar way, we cannot lead all living beings to the state of full enlightenment unless we are perfectly qualified through development of the positive qualities of mind, especially compassion and wisdom. Only then can we really help others. The purpose of our life is to heal every single living being's body and mind of all suffering and its causes and to bring every one of them to the ultimate, everlasting happiness of full enlightenment. Developing our inner qualities of wisdom and compassion is the way to heal our own mind and body, and through this we will then also be able to heal others. (p. 31)”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“Without ever having met the Dharma, the Buddha’s legacy to the world, and without having developed a good heart, everything we do can only be the cause of the lower realms. Our education is solely for this purpose. We go to kindergarten, primary school, high school and then college and university just to create the causes of the lower realms. I don’t think I have ever put it this way before.”
― Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings

“the mind is a dependent arising, which means that it exists in dependence upon causes and conditions, our mind can be transformed in any way we choose;”
― Thubten Zopa, Bodhisattva Attitude: How to Dedicate Your Life to Others

“The mind is like a baby The mind of most of us ordinary beings is like a child, a baby, and needs to be taken care of like a baby. We can’t listen to and do everything that our mind says, just as we can’t listen to and do everything that a child says. Before acting on what a child says we have to analyze whether or not it’s worthwhile. If it is, we can do it; if it’s not, we don’t. Since our mind is like a child, it’s dangerous to do everything it says—doing so can destroy our life; instead of bringing peace and happiness, it can bring great harm to us and others. Therefore, using our own wisdom, we need to analyze the validity of what our mind tells us to see whether it’s beneficial or harmful. With that wisdom we can then direct, or guide, our mind. In other words, we can then guide and protect ourselves.”
― Thubten Zopa, How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness

“The compassion that you generate for even one second, one minute, towards someone else brings you to enlightenment. Each time you generate compassion brings you closer to bodhichitta, closer to enlightenment. So even if you cannot do many other practices, keeping the mind in the thought of benefiting others makes your whole life, twenty-four hours a day, like gold, like a diamond, completely transformed. Your whole life becomes extremely meaningful, so beneficial for all sentient beings. Your life becomes the cause of happiness for all sentient beings, not just your own.”
― Thubten Zopa, Meditations on White Tara

“OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMARDANE / TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE SAMYAKSAM BUDDHAYA / TADYATHA / OM VAJRE VAJRE MAHA VAJRE / MAHA TEJA VAJRE / MAHA VIDYA VAJRE / MAHA BODHICITTA VAJRE / MAHA BODHI MÄNDO PASAM KRAMANA VAJRE / SARVA KARMA AVARANA VISHO DHANA VAJRE SVAHA (3X)”
― Thubten Zopa, Making Life Meaningful

“Benefiting other sentient beings doesn’t mean causing them only temporary physical and mental happiness in this life.”
― Thubten Zopa, How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness

“Having these negative imprints on my mental continuum is unbearable. “It’s as if I’ve swallowed a lethal poison. I must practice the antidote right away and purify all this negative karma immediately, without a second’s delay.” In this way, generate strong feelings of urgency and regret.”
― Thubten Zopa, Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice

“The mind and the body are two distinct phenomena. Mind is defined as that which is clear and perceives objects. Like reflections appearing in a mirror, objects appear clearly to the mind, and the mind is able to recognize them. Whereas the body is substantial, the mind is formless, without color or shape. Whereas the body disintegrates after death, the mind continues from life to life. It is not uncommon to hear of people in both the East and the West who are able to remember past lives and to see future lives, not only their own but also those of others. Some are born with this capacity; others develop it through meditation. Some people can remember lives hundreds or thousands of years ago. When Lama Yeshe, who guided me for many years, visited the pyramids in Egypt, he was able to remember that he had lived there in a past life.

The point is that even though many people do not believe in past and future lives, no one has actually proved that past and future lives do not exist. On the other hand, many people have realized that past lives exist because they remember them very clearly, just as we remember what we did yesterday. They realize the truth of reincarnation because they have the capacity of mind to see past and future lives.”
― Thubten Zopa, Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion

“They had such unbelievably fixed minds, fixed ideas—strong, unchangeable beliefs that there was just this one life; no understanding that the mind can exist without the body. Their thinking was unbelievably gross. People like this needed something external to break their concepts and enable them to see things more deeply.”
― Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Practicing the Unmistaken Path: Lamrim Teachings from Kopan 1991 (volume 1)

“Kadampa Geshe Chengawa mentioned, A disciple who practices correct devotion to the virtuous friend, even if he is as foolish as a dog or a pig, will have no difficulty in becoming like Manjushri.”
― Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings

“Also, no matter how much education we have, if the inner factor of developing our mind is missing, if the practice of compassion is missing, again there’s no peace in our life. Even if we have learned every language and have every other kind of knowledge that exists in the world, even if we have memorized and can explain all the Buddha’s teachings, all the sutras and tantras, if we have not transformed our mind, if we have not developed compassion for other beings, once more our life will be full of problems. We will still have anger and the dissatisfied minds of desire, pride, jealousy and all the other delusions; with more education, our inner problems can become even bigger than they were before.”
― Thubten Zopa, How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness