Living in the Path Online
Practice Instructions: The Refuge and Bodhichitta Verse

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 explains the verse that is often recited for taking refuge and generating bodhichitta:

I take refuge until I am enlightened

In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.

By my merits of generosity and so forth,

May I become a buddha to benefit transmigratory beings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche unpacks each word of this deceptively simple four-line verse to reveal its great profundity and tells us how to meditate on the whole path to enlightenment while reciting it.

Course Materials

The course materials consist of 68 pages of lightly edited transcripts accompanied by thirteen video excerpts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings drawn from the Light of the Path Retreats 2009 and 2010 held in North Carolina, USA. The module is introduced in a video featuring Ven. Amy Miller.

Chapters:

1. What Buddha Did for You

2. Two Deep Shocking Things

3. You Have Got to Help Your Mothers

4. In Order to Benefit

5. A Summary of How to Meditate on Refuge and Bodhichitta

Videos:

Video 1: “Introduction to Refuge”

Video 2: “The Benefits of Study”

Video 3: “What Buddha Did For You”

Video 4: “Two Deep Shocking Things”

Video 5: “Taking Mahayana Refuge”

Video 6: “Taking Cause and Result Refuge”

Video 7: “The Meaning of ‘DRO LA’”

Video 8: “’The Kindness of Our Mothers”

Video 9: “You Have Got to Help”

Video 10: “Believing the Hallucination”

Video 11: “You Must Meditate When You Do SANG GYÄ CHHÖ DANG”

Video 12: “The Most Urgent Thing”

Video 13: “DRO LA PHÄN CHHIR”

To help deepen your personal understanding and experience of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings, they are supplemented with:

• points for reflection at the beginning of each chapter
• guidelines for meditation at the end of each chapter
• 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.