From December 6?18, 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught the students of the fifty-first Kopan course, the one-month intensive lamrim course given each year at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, the principal monastery of the FPMT. This ebook presents twelve lectures given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during this meditation course.

In the teachings, Rinpoche gives an overview of the path to enlightenment, and explains that the antidote to the sufferings of samsara is meditation on emptiness. The meditation course concluded with a Vajrasattva initiation on December 18. Prior to the empowerment, Rinpoche taught on Vajrasattva and explained how to purify our negative karma.

Rinpoche also discusses the importance of developing the good heart, and advises that with this precious human life we have a rare opportunity to practice Dharma and actualize the path. Other vital subjects covered in this course include the kindness of the mother, the ultimate nature of the mind, the twelve links and the Wheel of Life.

These teachings were simultaneously transcribed and then edited by Ven. Joan Nicell and simultaneously checked for errors by Tania Duratovic and Laura Haughey. They have been subsequently lightly edited by Gordon McDougall.