How to Practice Dharma: Teachings on the Eight Worldly Dharmas

FPMT Lineage Series
By Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Edited by Gordon McDougall

FPMT Lineage is a series of books of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on the graduated path to enlightenment (lam-rim) drawn from his four decades of discourses on the topic based on his own textbook, The Wish-fulfilling Golden Sun, and several traditional lam-rim texts and in general arranged according to the outline of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. This series will be the most extensive contemporary lam-rim commentary available and comprises the essence of the FPMT’s education program.

"Even if we understand nothing else, if, by recognizing the eight worldly dharmas, we can clearly differentiate between what is Dharma and what is not Dharma, we’re very fortunate. This is the essential point. This knowledge alone gives us a great chance to really put Dharma practice into our daily life and create an incredible amount of merit.

"Buddhism is a house full of treasures—practices for gaining the happiness of future lives, the bliss of liberation and the supreme happiness of enlightenment—but knowing the difference between Dharma and non-Dharma is the key that opens the door to all those treasures. No matter how much we know about emptiness, the chakras or controlling our vital energy through kundalini yoga, it’s all pointless without this crucial understanding of how to practice Dharma, how to correct our actions. There are vast numbers of people who delude themselves and waste their entire life studying the most esoteric aspects of Buddhism but never understand the most fundamental point, the distinction between Dharma and non-Dharma.

"It is very easy to do Dharma activities such as reciting mantras, saying prayers, making offerings and things like that with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. That happens. But in reality, the holy Dharma, which includes all these activities, actually means renouncing this life. Therefore holy Dharma and worldly dharma can never be done together. Nobody can do these two things—renounce this life and seek the happiness of this life with the eight worldly dharmas—at once. We can do one and then the other but never both together in the one mind at the same time."
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Reader Feedback

"Thank you! My copy of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's book, How to Practice Dharma,
arrived at my office address yesterday.

"It is simply beautiful--from the gorgeous photograph of Rinpoche that
graces the cover to the stellar glossary in the back! A real triumph!!

"I can hear Lama Zopa's early discourses at Kopan: 'If you mix Dharma with
worldly dharma, then it is not Dharma.' How wonderful to have this
precious teaching--to hold in one's hands and to take to heart.

"Thank you and LYWA for your great work!"

Janice D Willis
Professor of Religion
Wesleyan University

The book is not meant as a coherent presentation on any particular topic; however, one is rewarded by just opening it and reading anywhere. Lama Zopa is a clear and effective teacher, and his stories are endlessly entertaining and inspiring.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche says:  "Dharma books plant the seed of the path to enlightenment in the mind of the reader. That imprint ripens, realizations come, and liberation is attained. Books open the wisdom eye; you can understand death and the nature of mind; they teach you how to develop compassion; they bring world peace.

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive publishes authentic Dharma books. When you read and practice them, you can understand karma, how everything comes from the mind, that the external cause is not the only one. This can lead you to a happy death and a happy rebirth."

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