Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses the seven attributes of a perfect human body and clarifies the points relating to caste and gender. He also discusses the eight ripening aspects that Lama Tsongkhapa emphasized in the Hymns of the Experience of the Path to Enlightenment.

Rinpoche highlights the preciousness of this perfect human body. He says that it is more precious than the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels. So, if we don’t get to practice Dharma for even a second, this would be a great loss. Thus, we must bear hardships to practice Dharma. If you don’t bear the hardships, you cannot practice Dharma, and then you will become lazy and waste your precious human body.

Rinpoche reminds us that we experience hardships because we are in samsara. Our body and mind came from karma and delusion, so they are in the nature of suffering. If we don’t practice Dharma because of the hardships, then we’ll be in samsara forever. We’ll never get free from the oceans of samsaric suffering.

The duration of this perfect human rebirth is very short, and it can stop at any moment. Therefore, we need to develop our mind in the stages of the path to enlightenment.

Rinpoche gives a clear description of how to meditate on the lamrim through daily meditations of the lower capable being. He stresses that it’s important to meditate on several points (guru devotion, perfect human rebirth, impermanence-death, renunciation), as if you only meditate on one aspect throughout your life, you may not achieve even that realization. He also stresses that bodhicitta can only be attained after realizing renunciation.

From April 10 to May 10, 2004, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extensive teachings during the Mahamudra Retreat at Buddha House in Australia. While the retreat focused on Mahamudra, Rinpoche also taught on a wide range of Lamrim topics. This retreat marked the beginning of a series of month-long retreats in Australia. Subsequent retreats were held in 2011, 2014, and 2018, hosted by the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo.

Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at https://fpmt.org/