Lama Zopa Rinpoche

▶abstaining from telling lies
▶abstaining from taking alcohol
Generally, you are given the choice of taking all five or some or none when you take refuge.
The Buddha is so kind, so compassionate, giving us incredible freedom like this.
You can think of sexual misconduct as having sex with a person who doesn’t belong to you,
who is committed to somebody else. However, Lama Atisha is stricter than that. He said that
even having sex with your own wife or husband in the daytime is also regarded as sexual
misconduct.
From a long time ago in Kopan, we also included taking recreational drugs in the vow of
abstaining from alcohol, because they make you kind of hallucinated, crazy, and cause you to
harm yourself and others. But the texts mainly refer to alcohol. Abstaining from alcohol is
important. It creates so many problems within the family, causing whole families to break up
and forcing the drinkers onto the streets, turning them into beggars. This seems to happen at
lot in the West, and with alcohol there are many other dangers as well. It is easy to see how
drinking alcohol interferes with Dharma development, but abstaining from it is important
for normal life as well.
When we take these five lay vows we do so for more than our own temporary happiness.
The main purpose is to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and, not only that, to
achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric
suffering. We take the vows to free all sentient beings from cancer, from AIDS, from all
sickness, and from all the sufferings of rebirth, old age and death. We take the vows so that
all sentient beings can be free from the suffering of change and from pervasive
compounding suffering. We take vows to bring every sentient being to full enlightenment by
becoming enlightened ourselves. Taking the five lay vows is not just a small thing.
The importance of the Namgyälma mantra
When I give refuge and lay vows, I often give the students a Namgyälma mantra amulet to
wear, as well as a blessing string and a picture of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha. These things
are incredible because just having them constantly purifies negative karma.
Putting the Namgyälma mantra up somewhere in your house or flat brings protection and
makes it a holy place. Then, whatever sentient beings are inside—dogs, cats, mosquitoes
etc.—always have their negative karma and defilements purified and they obtain a higher
rebirth. If even the shadow of the house touches any being, like insects or people, their
negative karma is purified and they get a higher rebirth. If the Namgyälma mantra is on top
of a mountain, the whole mountain become holy and the negative karma of any being who
climbs or touches the mountain is purified and they obtain a higher rebirth.
I often tell people in the West that having a Namgyälma mantra card in the car is vital,
because not only the sentient beings inside but also all beings who touch the car have their
negative karma purified and they obtain a higher rebirth. When you drive, many insects and
ants are killed, especially at nighttime when so many insects fly into your windscreen or are
crushed under the wheels of the car. With a Namgyälma mantra inside [or a decal on the
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