Living in the Path Online
Realizing the Lamrim, Perfect Human Rebirth: The Happiness of Dharma

Overview

Living in the Path is an online program taught exclusively by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of the FPMT. Many of the modules are extracted from Rinpoche’s explanations of the topics of the lamrim – the teachings on the stages of the path to enlightenment according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa (Gelug). Other modules cover specific practices intended to help us purify our negative karma and create the merit necessary to actualize the lamrim topics.

Prerequisites

Living in the Path is ideal for anyone who wishes to deepen their personal practice and develop the realizations of the path to enlightenment by relying on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s heart advice and teachings. However, as Rinpoche’s teachings often assume familiarity with the topics of the lamrim, it is advisable to have done some prior study of the lamrim, such as by having completed some or all of the modules of Discovering Buddhism.

Course Contents

In this module of Living in the Path, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives teachings on the subject of the precious, or perfect, human rebirth and shows us how all our happiness comes from practicing Dharma.

When constantly the mind is living in Dharma, you are constantly creating the cause of happiness, enlightenment. Then the happiness of future lives comes by the way. Even though you are not looking for that, the cause of that naturally happens, even if you are totally detached from this life. The mind is totally detached but by practicing Dharma, then, by the way, the happiness of this life comes. It comes from Dharma. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

The meditation on the perfect human rebirth enables us to recognize what an unbelievably precious opportunity this human body qualified by the eight freedoms and ten richnesses provides us. This understanding serves to exhort us to practice Dharma so as to make the best possible use of this perfect human life. As Rinpoche says:

You can’t imagine how you are most fortunate this time. To have such a perfect human body as this, which has this incredible opportunity, is just about this one time. So the conclusion is that in every minute and second you should be most careful, most joyful, and most happy to have this precious human rebirth.

Course Materials

The course materials consist of 56 pages of lightly edited transcripts accompanied by twelve short video excerpts (2-14 minutes) of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings drawn from the Light of the Path Retreat 2010 held in North Carolina, USA. This module is introduced in a video featuring Ven. Thubten Dondrub (Neil Houston).

Chapters:

Introduction

1. This Inexpressible Fortune
2. All Happiness Comes from Dharma
3. Every Second is So Important
4. The Ultimate Goal
5. The Happiness of Enjoying Dharma
6. The Real Meaning of Life

Videos:

Video 1: “It Happens and It’s Gone”
Video 2: “This Unimaginable Freedom”
Video 3: “This Amazing Opportunity”
Video 4: “Happiness is Important”
Video 5: “An Introduction to Life”
Video 6: “Happiness Comes from Dharma”
Video 7: “Every Second is So Important”
Video 8: “It’s Total Nonsense”
Video 9: “When Everything is for Others”
Video 10: “The Real Practice of Dharma”
Video 11: “How Precious It Is”
Video 12: “It Is So Easy”

To help you deepen your personal understanding and experience of the teachings, they are supplemented with:

• points for reflection at the beginning of each chapter
• guidelines for meditation
• mindfulness practices for keeping the teachings present throughout the day
• a service practice to benefit others

Important information about your order of online materials: Following your order, you will receive an email with a link to a webpage to download a PDF document which will contain the enrollment key for the course and instructions on how to access the course on the FPMT Online Learning Center.