Lama Zopa Rinpoche

End Notes
1. Or his. Rather than use “they” or “their” for non-gender specific examples like this, we
shall just alternate the genders.
2. By Yongzin Yeshe Gyaltsen, section 8, vv. 18–19. Cf. Thupten Jinpa’s translation in The
Book of Kadam, p. 555.
3. The day Rinpoche started this series of teachings, the Tour de France, the most important
cycle race in the world, was starting in Leeds city centre a few miles away, with an estimated
million people in the streets watching.
4. The resident teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, since 1994; author of the
Foundation of Buddhist Thought series of books.
5. The five similarities are: they are produced in dependence on the same basis (Skt: ashraya;
Tib: ten); they observe the same object (Skt: alambana; Tib: mig-pa); they are generated in the
same aspect (Skt: akara; Tib: nam-pa); they occur at the same time (Skt: kala; Tib: dü) and they
are the same substantial entity (Skt: dravya; Tib: dzä). See Mind in Tibetan Bud- dhism, pp. 35–36.
Also The Mind and Its Functions, pp. 105–6, where they are listed as basis, duration, aspect,
referent and substance.
6. See Mind in Tibetan Buddhism, p. 36, where the five omnipresent factors (Tib: kün-dro nga)
are listed as feeling , discrimination, intention, mental engagement and contact.
7. Rinpoche differentiates ordinary clairvoyance, also called common siddhis, such as reading
minds, seeing into the future and so forth, from the supreme siddhi, which is enlightenment.
8. The principal consort of Padmasambhava.
9. For a more detailed discussion of samsara, see Rinpoche’s Bodhisattva Attitude, pp. 75–90.
10. See Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 42–45.
11. See Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 45–47.
12. Ch. 8, v. 120.
13. Ch. 8, vv. 129 & 130. The cited text has “Buddhas”; when Rinpoche was translating this
verse during the teachings he used “Mighty Ones,” an epithet of the buddhas.
14. Ch. 8, v. 131.
15. These are customs the Buddha established for monasteries. So-jong (Tib.) is a confession
ceremony where Sangha members admit any wrongdoings; abiding in summer retreat (Tib:
yar-ne) occurred every summer in India during the rainy season; and following Vinaya means
following the rules of discipline that the Buddha laid down.
16. Bön is the religion in Tibet that is often said to have preceded Buddhism. His Holiness
the Dalai Lama has recognized Bön as the fifth tradition along with the four major traditions
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