Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Patience Is of Utmost Importance

In a letter to a director at an FPMT center in 2022, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who is known for his exceptional patience, provided a valuable teaching on the significance of patience and how to nurture and safeguard it.

Lama Zopa emphasized that patience is crucial because it safeguards the merits we have accumulated, which are essential for our liberation from the cycle of suffering, but can be easily diminished by anger and disbelief.

He proceeded to give advice on the most effective way to dedicate our merits in order to safeguard them.

Lama Zopa’s letter also provides instructions on six methods for cultivating patience: viewing the “enemy” as the teacher and a source of positive assistance, recognizing that the “enemy” lacks the freedom to behave differently, cultivating compassion, and contemplating karma and the absence of inherent existence in phenomena.

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