Lama Zopa Rinpoche specifically compiled A Daily Meditation on Shakyamuni Buddhafor beginner Buddhist practitioners to use as the basis of a formal meditation practice. In this revised version, Rinpoche has reorganized some of the prayers and, in particular, has added an extensive explanation of the visualizations to be done while taking refuge. Drawn from Phabongkha Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, for each of the objects of refuge—Guru, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—there are visualizations for purifying negative karma, increasing qualities, and coming under the guidance of that object of refuge.
Subtitled “How to Meditate on the Graduated Path to Enlightenment” the practices contained in this PDF prepare the mind for lamrim meditation by purifying negative karma and collecting extensive merits—the two main causes for attaining the realizations of the path to enlightenment (renunciation, bodhichitta, and the right view of emptiness).
This practice can also be used as a basis for engaging in the preliminary practices of accumulating 100,000 prostrations, mandala offerings, and so forth.
28 pages, 2005 edition.