Blog Post 25: Of Lama Chopa and Happiness

"Lama Chopa is the highest yoga tantra sadhana."

This piece is extracted from the advice of Singha Rinpoche on the Lama Chopa text. First things first, reading Lama Chopa like a book is not recommended. One needs to receive proper initiations of the three main highest yoga tantra deity texts. It is a secret practice and not meant to read for fun.

If we have received the initiations, we have to become our highest yoga tantra deity and perform it as a whole set of rituals. We read it only when our Guru permits. And then, the moment we pick it up, it becomes an automatic lifelong commitment to recite it and offer Lama Chopa every day for the rest of our lives. Doing so is non-negotiable. And since it will be like a meditation process, it is best to memorize it in our native language.

Lama Chopa means Guru Puja. It is the most powerful sadhana where we make offerings to our Guru. The Guru here is not to be seen as a human being because then we will not see the activities of more profound wisdom. We will start to judge everything a human being does and put it onto our Guru. And things can become contradictory.

Hence, we need to have solemn renunciation – of others and then of self, realizing the emptiness of all outer phenomena, and then of inner phenomena.

Once we can see that the "outside" does not truly exist, then "I" also does not truly exist either. But this is not easy for most of us. The fastest method to accumulate vast and deep merit is to cultivate the Guru Puja. To see the Guru and to offer the Guru. We can see the outside as the Guru, but what is the inner meaning of the activities of the Guru? And then there are the deities that reside in the body of the Guru. If we can train to see like that and practice as such, we will receive the Abhishek. It will come even if we do not ask for it. Our minds will become moisturized with the dharma that can be of benefit for all sentient beings.

The intent of Buddhism is not to give us happiness. When Buddha said, "May you be well and happy, what it meant was "May you cherish being well and may you choose to be happy." So we must reflect upon this and then choose to be fulfilled in heart and mind.

Samsara is all about ignorance, anger, and greed. All our complaints are about ignorance, anger, and greed. Because our happiness is only temporary, it causes us great suffering. But when we hold something that fulfills our own and other being's needs, it is even more significant than the feeling of being happy. That's why when we cultivate Buddhism, it is not for happiness but fulfillment. 

Dharma Teaching by Singha Rinpoche and edited by Sandeep Nath
28 Feb 2021