Taking the Essence

Modules found in this section of Living in the Path focus on Lama Zopa Rinpoche's quintessential advice to his students on how to practice Dharma in daily life. In particular these modules convey Rinpoche's heartfelt request to his students to engage in certain practices. 

Modules on the following topics are currently available:

Transforming a Suffering Life into Happiness

In this module, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains three practices:

  • The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment): specifically compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a way for his students to start their day with bodhichitta
  • Blessing the Speech: to increase the power of speech and prevent its power from being taken away by idle talk and black foods
  • Daily Mantras: the recitation of various mantras for specific purposes

Bodhichitta Mindfulness

Based on the Sutra of the Clouds of the Sublime Rare Ones taught by the Buddha and supplemented by his own additions, Lama Zopa Rinpoche presents specific mindfulness practices for taking the essence of every moment of our precious human life by keeping bodhichitta present when doing all our normal daily activities, such as waking up, going to the bathroom, dressing, and so on. This module also includes extensive bodhichitta practices to do when eating, bathing, and going to sleep, as well as a tonglen mindfulness practice.

The Eight Mahayana Precepts

In this module of Living in the Path, Lama Zopa Rinpoche inspires us to make our life meaningful - to take its essence - by taking and keeping the eight Mahayana precepts for one day. If you have never received the lineage of the precepts from a master/teacher, Rinpoche gives special permission to receive it by repeating the words of the ritual after him while watching the video of the precept ceremony. 

Making Offerings

This module of Living the Path contains a compilation of various teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how to take the essence of a precious human life by creating "the limitless skies of benefits" that come from making various types of offerings.

Offering Food and Drink

Lama Zopa Rinpoche places great importance on taking every opportunity of our perfect human life to create the causes of enlightenment, including every time we eat and drink. This module of Living in the Path contains practices for offering food and drinks as well as a compilation of teachings on different ways of offering them.