Lama Zopa Rinpoche
55OTzl52A
55OTzl52A
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We need to explain this to people who don’t know or practice Dharma, to show them how<br />
to live their life. If we want to bring peace and happiness to others, to not harm them but to<br />
benefit them, we need to lead an ethical life. And if we do that it will have made our parents’<br />
lives meaningful. They suffered so much for us, therefore we must make it all worthwhile,<br />
otherwise we have not given them any meaning in return for all the work they did. That<br />
would be very sad. It’s very important to think about these things.<br />
The guru is the most powerful object<br />
As I mentioned, our parents are very powerful objects but the ordained Sangha are even<br />
more powerful because of the number of vows they live in. By being of service or making<br />
offerings to them we collect much more merit and purify many more defilements than we do<br />
with our parents.<br />
After this come arya beings, arhats, who have freed themselves from the oceans of samsaric<br />
suffering and attained the blissful state of peace for themselves. By making material offerings<br />
or offering service to them we collect unbelievable merit and purify vast amounts of negative<br />
karma and obscurations, much more than we would in connection with ordinary ordained<br />
people.<br />
Next, when we compare the numberless arhats with one bodhisattva, if we offer service or<br />
make offerings to one bodhisattva, we collect much more powerful merit—unbelievable,<br />
unbelievable merit—and purify much more negative karma collected from beginningless<br />
rebirths. So many eons of negative karma and obscurations are purified. It is unbelievably<br />
more powerful offering service or making offerings to one bodhisattva than to numberless<br />
arhats.<br />
Now we compare numberless bodhisattvas with just one buddha. By serving or making<br />
offerings to one buddha, we purify the most unbelievable negative karma and obscurations<br />
collected from beginningless rebirths and collect the most unbelievable merit—more than<br />
having served or made offerings to numberless bodhisattvas. That becomes very small<br />
compared to serving or making offerings to one buddha even just once.<br />
Finally, we compare the numberless buddhas with one guru. By offering to the numberless<br />
buddhas, even just some candy or a glass of water, we collect the most extensive merit and<br />
achieve the most powerful purification of negative karma and obscurations collected from<br />
beginningless rebirths. So many eons of negative karma and obscurations are purified and so<br />
much merit is created by serving or making offerings to numberless buddhas, but even<br />
though that is unbelievable, it is tiny compared to serving and making offerings to the guru.<br />
Being able to follow the guru’s advice or fulfill one of his wishes just once creates the most<br />
powerful merit and is the most powerful purification. Doing the same for the numberless<br />
buddhas, although great in itself, becomes very small in comparison.<br />
Having a relationship with a holy being where we are the disciple and he or she is the guru is<br />
a dependent arising. The second after that connection is made, the guru becomes the most<br />
powerful person in our life and one from whom we can collect the causes of happiness and<br />
purify the causes of suffering, negative karma and defilements.<br />
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