Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching, recorded on August 11, 2021, at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, by reminding us that we are so fortunate to have received a precious and perfect human rebirth. While it is precious, it is also fragile and can be ended at any time with death. In this precious life we have received teachings on how we should not harm any sentient being, and not just the ones we love and like to help, but including those we don’t like such as mice, rats, spiders, cockroaches, and mosquitoes. When mosquitoes come near your ears you become very concerned with the real I, which doesn’t even exist in mere name. This has been happening since beginningless rebirths. So much suffering, including all wars, comes from believing in the real I! Even spiders and ants suffer due to believing in the real I.The pandemic and all of the disasters of the world are happening because of ignorance. This all comes from the mind. Therefore, you have to take care of the mind: don’t let it go berserk. If you don’t want to suffer, if you don’t want bad things in the world, if you don’t want problems with the environment, if you want to make a happy world, then take care of the mind.Rinpoche shares several stories about how great bodhisattvas are able to manipulate the elements or perform actions that look like miracles. They are able to do this due to their minds. Whether you make the world more peaceful or not depends on your mind. Rinpoche also shares the story of how the young incarnation of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama said, “I’m the one who works for all beings” to the lama Keutsang Rinpoche when he came to check whether the four-year-old child recognized him. Rinpoche expressed being moved to tears when he heard that His Holiness had said that as a young child.Rinpoche then discusses verses 5.4-5.5 of Bodhicharyavatara: Tigers, lions, elephants, bears,Snakes, and all enemies,The guardians of hell beings,Evil spirits, and likewise cannibals, Are all fastenedBy fastening only this mind.They are all subduedBy subduing only this mind.Rinpoche urges us to write these verses down in our prayer books so we will see them every day. Especially when we are angry or selfish, or when we have so much attachment. When we subdue our minds, everything is subdued. When we have control over our minds, we are free from fear. By controlling our minds and making them free from attachment and anger, from the self-cherishing thought, and from the ignorance holding the I as real when it’s not, then, all those who would otherwise harm us are subdued.We produce all the suffering we experience with our mind, so the solution for problems, harm, enemies, and fear is to pacify the mind.Verse 5.12cd of Bodhicharyavatara says: If you subdue the mind of anger alone,It is like you have subdued all your enemies.And as Nagarjuna said: If you kill your anger,You kill all your enemies.We have to learn this if we want to bring peace and happiness to the world. Otherwise, you just talk, talk, talk. Everything depends on whether you control your mind or not. Rinpoche translates verse 5.3 of Bodhicharyavatara as: If you fasten the elephant of your mindWith the rope of remembrance all the time,All fears will become nonexistentAnd all virtues will come into your hands.By subduing the mind, which is like a crazy elephant, you can achieve anything you want. Whether or not you experience samsara or nirvana, hell or enlightenment—this all depends on whether or not you control your mind.Verse 5.17 of Bodhicharyavatara says:If someone doesn’t know the supreme principal of the Dharma,The secrecy of the mind,Even if they wish to achieve happiness and destroy suffering,They will wander in samsara...

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