Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an verbal transmission of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lekshe Nyingpo (Essence of True Eloquence) whilst residing at Kopan Monastery in Nepal earlier this year. The following is an edited extract from Rinpoche’s teaching:

Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that all the suffering in the world comes from ignorance; therefore the root of suffering is not outside. No matter how much scientific knowledge and education worldly people have they still believe the cause of suffering to be outside; but that’s wrong. The cause of suffering is in the mind and that’s why it is the mind that has to change. Changing the mind is more important than trying to change what’s outside; changing outside never finishes. Change has to come from the mind. It has to come from your mind.

The hell, hungry ghost and animal realms come from your mind, from your negative, impure mind and wrong way of thinking every moment and every day. While enlightenment, the fully awakened omniscient mind, liberation from samsara, and day-to-day happiness come from your mind and from the correct way of thinking, from positive thoughts. This is how everything comes from the mind.

When you have problems in daily life, practice patience, compassion, thought transformation, bodhichitta, emptiness and so on. At that time there are no more problems and during that hour and that minute when you change your mind and think differently the problems are gone. When you don’t change your mind and keep thinking the old way, as people generally do, well then the suffering never finishes. There is no end to suffering.

Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that all the sufferings come from ignorance, but this is not just something stated by Lama Tsongkhapa; the more you learn Dharma and check scientifically, the more you discover and realize that this is true.

Excerpted from a teaching before a Lekshe Nyingpo lung at Kopan Monastery on April 13, 2013. Transcribed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher.