Bodhisattva Attitude: How to Dedicate Your Life to Others

by Thubten Zopa, Sara Thresher (Editor), Nicholas Ribush (Editor)

This book comprises several motivations taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche called Bodhicitta Motivations For Life, intended for us to use first thing every morning to generate the mind of bodhicitta and dedicate our life to numberless sentient beings. The Bodhisattva Attitude is taken from the sutra teachings of the Buddha and is based on verses by the great bodhisattva Shantideva in his Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life.


The verses are meant to be recited each morning to remind us of how we are going to dedicate our lives to others. We all understand the importance of motivation and attitude and how they affect the quality of our work and the result that can be achieved. Rinpoche particularly emphasizes the need for us to have a very clear direction and purpose for life. The real meaning of our lives is to bring both temporary and ultimate happiness to all sentient beings and to do this we need to achieve enlightenment. Enlightenment depends on first generating bodhicitta and training our minds in the bodhisattva attitude enables us to do that.


This book is drawn from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s essential teachings given from 2008 onward. It is the first volume in LYWA’s Heart Advice Series.


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Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 4, 2012

About the author

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཐུབ་བསྟན་བཟོད་པ་, Wylie: Thub-bstan Bzod-pa, often published as Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, is held to be the reincarnation of the Sherpa Nyingma yogi Kunsang Yeshe, the Lawudo Lama. Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Thami, not far from the cave Lawudo, in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, where his predecessor meditated for the last twenty years of his life. While his predecessor had belonged to the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the Lawudo Lama himself had been a great master of the complete tantric teachings of the Nyingma tradition.

Rinpoche left Thami when he was about 4 years old and was put in a Monastery that was very close to the border of Nepal and Tibet. Rinpoche stayed at this Monastery for several years until he went to Tibet and took getsul ordination in 1958, and continued his studies in Domo Geshe's monastery in Phagri, Tibet.

In 1959 Rinpoche escaped from Tibet and continued his studies in Sera Jhe monastery in Buxa Duar, in the north of India. This is where the Indian Government housed the monks from Sera, Ganden and Drepung Monasteries who wanted to continue their studies, along with monks from the other sects. It was at Bux a Duar that Rinpoche became the disciple of Geshe Rabten Rinpoche and then of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Frida Bedi then invited him to join her school for incarnate lamas in Dalhousie where they were given the chance to learn English for 6 months. Upon the completion returned to Buxa Duar and his studies.

Lama Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche's contact with Westerners began in 1965 in Darjeeling, when they met Princess Zina Rachevsky from Russia. She became the Lamas' first Western student. In 1969 they founded the Nepal Mahayana Gompa Center at Kopan, above Boudhnath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. At the insistence of Zina Rachevsky the Lamas started to teach courses on Buddhism for Westerns at Kopan.

In 1971 Rinpoche took gelong ordination from His Holiness Ling Rinpoche in Bodh Gaya. By 1975, twelve centers had started. In 1976, the growing worldwide organization was named by Lama Yeshe 'the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition'(FPMT). The FPMT is an organization devoted to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and service.

There are 147 FPMT centers and projects worldwide as of March 2007.

FPMT currently has 8 standard Buddhist education programs that are taught in many of the centers. Two of these, the Masters Program and the Basic Program are committed courses of 6 and 5 years of study respectively. Based on the great philosophical texts studied in the monasteries of Tibet, FPMT holds to rigid standards of translation and has a passion for authentic texts to ensure that complete accuracy of the meaning found within these profound texts is not forfeited in the transmission from East to West.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has many other projects around the world; one of the most important is the 500ft Maitreya Statue that Rinpoche is building in Bodh Gaya that will include schools, hospitals and other social projects such as Leprosy clinics (these social projects are already in existence and have been functioning for the last
15 years). Some of the other projects that Rinpoche has founded are Sera Jhe food fund – which offers breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday to 2700 monks. The Lama Tsong Khapa Teacher Fund offers an allowance to the
main 100 teachers in the Gelukpa tradition from various monasteries. Rinpoche also has a number of other funds that are for building holy objects, such as Stupas, prayer wheels etc. Rinpoche has a very strong interest in collecting texts from all the different traditions.

Reviews

[Navneet Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bodhisattva Attitude - Lama Zopa Rinpoche ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


The is a book of motivations, aspirations and practices that need to be followed on the Bodhisattva path. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a very conversational style of teaching that makes it all very accessible. But it is also very profound at the same time

[Translator Monkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been fascinated with bodhicitta teachings for 18 years, and this one was one of the most approachable in spite of its depth. I ranted a bit about the unnecessarily juvenile language used for bodily functions, but this is a minor complaint.

[Fluencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. My favourite section is the one about his Lama Zopa Rinpoche's early life.

[Stephan Zeijlemaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first encounter with Buddhism's practice. For me as a westerner the concepts are hard to understand. My I/ego is an illussion, I have to embrace emptiness, see live as suffering (dukkha) and live for (the enlightenment of) all other sentient beings. Whilst reading I looked at some interviews/lectures with/from the Dalai Lama who uses very clear and simple language to explain Buddhism. There's a lot of wisdom and beauty in it which I will explore further.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but more about the religious practices and prayers of Tibetan Buddhists than the tenets of Buddhism in general.