40 How To Make This Life Meaningful 28-Apr-2004

Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasizes that this perfect human body is more precious than skies of wish-fulfilling gems. It enables you to achieve any happiness you want. Therefore, it’s important not to waste it. Rinpoche cites Shantideva, who said that while one is ignorant, don’t sleep. Rinpoche explains that this not only refers to sleep, but also the mind being distracted by meaningless activities, particularly the eight worldly dharmas.
Rinpoche mentions that watching TV can waste time and life. Like many activities, if it’s following the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas, then so much life is wasted. However, he says that if you watch with the idea of lamrim and think about how samsara is in the nature of suffering, it becomes inspiration to seek liberation. You can see how people are totally living in hallucination.
Rinpoche talks about the correct motivation to have when raising a child. He suggests viewing them with compassion as one of the numberless sentient beings, not as an object of attachment and self-cherishing. He also elaborates on the proper attitude to have when offering charity to a beggar and helping in a Dharma center. He says that it’s very important to have the proper motivation to make your activities beneficial. This makes life meaningful.
Rinpoche discusses universal education. He says that education about how to live life inwardly is more important than external aspects, but this is lacking in schools, colleges, and universities. If people aren’t educated about the good heart, then whatever they do only becomes a cause of samsara. Thus, people need education about the good heart; they need to learn the psychology of how attachment destroys life. They also need to learn tolerance, patience, rejoicing, and forgiveness. Rinpoche says these qualities are essential for living a happy and meaningful life.
Rinpoche concludes by talking about prostrations. He says that this is another extremely important daily practice to make life meaningful. He outlines the ten benefits of prostrations and describes how to do them properly. Rinpoche says that how much purification and merit you attain mainly depends on the quality of your prostrations not the quantity.
Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at fpmt.org/