This teaching was given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lama Tsonkhapa Institute in Italy as part of the Ganden Lha Gyama retreat between September 3-30, 2004.

00:00:00 The heart of wisdom, the essential teaching of the Buddha, is realizing the truth of the nature of oneself and all phenomena. This wisdom cuts the root of samsara and liberates beings.

00:14:14 Rinpoche gives pith instructions on how to meditate on the emptiness of the "I".

00:37:10 It is important to listen to teachings on emptiness over and over again, and then correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, one can achieve the realization of emptiness.

00:41:05 Rinpoche tells the story of Tehor Kyorpen Rinpoche, a top Drepung scholar who renounced fame and lived in retreat and acted eccentrically to avoid distractions. Despite being misunderstood, he guided others to realize emptiness easily due to his deep realizations and great merit. According to this lama, a person with great merit has no difficulty realizing emptiness. Difficulties arise only for those with small merit. Therefore, it is important to collect extensive merit in daily life.

01:08:25 Rinpoche gives instructions on how to collect merits in daily life. Whatever action we are doing we should always try to transform it into virtue; we should always try to take the opportunity to collect merit.

01:54:00 Rinpoche explains that nothing exists from its own side and gives an example of a year and a day. Analyzing a "real" day - the 24 hours cannot be found in any of the individual hours or even in the collection of hours. The "year" and "day" are merely labeled by the mind in dependence on their parts.

02:41:31 In daily life, practice mindfulness that all appearances are like dreams - not truly existent as they appear. This prevents the mind from being disturbed by appearances.

Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at https://fpmt.org/

This teaching was given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lama Tsonkhapa Institute in Italy as part of the Ganden Lha Gyama retreat between September 3-30, 2004.

00:00:00 Rinpoche gives a commentary on Heart Sutra and teaches on how suffering arises.

01:15:05 Rinpoche gives extensive teachings on how to meditate on guru devotion based on teachings and quotations of Kunkyen Jamyang Shepa and Kungtang Jampel Yang about gurus manifesting as ordinary beings. Rinpoche tells stories about His Holiness the Dalai Lama as an example of showing ordinary aspect to students, but in actuality being an enlightened being. Rinpoche explains the difference between appearances and reality. Appearance of gurus as ordinary beings and believing that is true is due to a mistaken and obscured mind.

02:48:00 Prayers and dedications.

Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at https://fpmt.org/

This teaching was given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lama Tsonkhapa Institute in Italy as part of the Ganden Lha Gyama retreat between September 3-30, 2004.

00:00:00 Rinpoche tells about the importance of the practice of morality and teaches on the benefits of doing prostrations.

00:39:15 Rinpoche tells a short story about Khandro-la.

00:47:22 Prostrating to holy objects like statues and stupas immediately brings eight benefits, such as achieving a perfect body in future lives and being able to live in pure morality.

01:03:00 Pure morality is the main cause for achieving perfect concentration (shamatha). Without shamatha, one cannot achieve higher trainings of wisdom.

01:09:30 In the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition lineage lamas put so much effort into doing many hundred thousands of prostrations in their daily life. Rinpoche gives detailed explanations of how to do the practice of prostrations. Rinpoche also emphasizes that it is very good to have as many holy objects as possible in one's house to constantly create merit by seeing them.

02:10:05 According to Khedrup Je, in retreat once one increased the number of sessions to four, one doesn't decrease the number of sessions afterwards.

02:13:20 Torma offering, protector prayers, and dedications.

Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at https://fpmt.org/