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Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Padmasambhava (also known as Guru Rinpoche)
Over the years, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered various pieces of advice on prayers and practices to follow when the world is in crisis and to help pacify the threat of war. When the world is in trouble, it can feel very powerless and overwhelming to not know what we can do to actually help. We hope the resources below will be useful and provide tangible actions to mitigate war and promote world peace.
“For the person who has met Buddhism, every situation of war or natural disasters, every situation that can shorten life, all the many life-threatening situations that create more uncertainty these days to be alive give incredible opportunities for us to do strong Dharma practice,” Rinpoche said in 2001 following the events of September 11. “These situations give very strong inspiration to practice because there is no other means to escape, whether immediate or ultimate escape, i.e., freedom from all suffering. Such circumstances, such terrifying circumstances, help make it easier for the mind to overcome delusions or the distractions of desire […] The strong practice of Dharma and the awareness of impermanence and death brings peace in your heart and no fear […] Make strong prayers for immediate transformation of all the hatred and anger in the minds of all people, to immediately transform their minds into minds of loving kindness and compassion, to immediately stop all the negative karmas – not only to stop the experience of them but as well to stop their creation again – and for the whole world to be filled with peace, happiness, and prosperity. Make strong prayers for a world without violence, sickness, or poverty, a world with no economic problems, and for people not to waste their time, not to waste their lives.“
In particular, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised reciting The Sutra of Golden Light for World Peace. “I would like to make this request with my two palms together, to please recite the Sutra of Golden Light for world peace as much as you can.”
Rinpoche also offered advice to IMI Sangha who sought advice in 2022 regarding what they could do to help generate world peace. This advice includes:
- Sampa Lhundrupma
- Recitation of Guru Rinpoche mantra
- Heart Sutra recitation
- Prayer to stop war: Prayer in Accordance with the Times
- Most Secret Hayagriva sadhana (for those who have received the initiation and can do the practice)
- Download compilation: Prayers to Stop War – Prayers 1–3
- Download Prayer in Accordance with the Three Times – Prayer 4.
Rinpoche offered valuable advice on how to motivate and think when doing these prayers and practices.
In 2014, Rinpoche offered essential advice regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but this advice applies to all world conflicts and wars. “Generally the whole world needs these prayers and pujas, there is the most unbelievable need,” Rinpoche stressed.
Rinpoche also offered advice to avoid negative rejoicing and how to be careful with our minds when hearing news of violence against people we regard as an enemy.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Italy, September 2004. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
We are happy to announce a new addition to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-Length Teachings Podcast featuring teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) in 2004. New episodes of this series will be released every week.
From September 3 through September 30, 2004, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered 44 teaching sessions during the Ganden Lha Gyama (Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga) retreat at ILTK.
These teachings provided a comprehensive overview of key Buddhist concepts, focusing on how to integrate them into daily practice to progress on the path to enlightenment.
During this retreat, Rinpoche said:
“You have come here now for the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga retreat, which is, of course, an extremely important practice. It is not only a guru yoga practice, but also involves purifying negative karma and developing wisdom. What this retreat on Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga practice involves, as well as developing wisdom, is developing compassion and power: compassion towards the numberless sentient beings and the power to do perfect work for all sentient beings, like Lama Tsongkhapa himself. The Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga practice has a secret meditation that goes with the migtsema, the requesting prayer, which involves developing compassion, power, and wisdom, three very important qualities needed to be able to do perfect work for sentient beings. Along with this, there are meditations for purification and also for developing wisdom.”
Improvements to Our Podcast
All audio has been vastly improved from the original, and descriptions with chapter markers have been added from YouTube, making it easy for any user to find the most interesting part of the teaching they are listening to. Furthermore, pauses have been trimmed, making the teaching quick and easy to enjoy in audio-only format.
Additionally, the transcripts for each session have been added to the podcast. These improvements are a first for our full-length teaching podcast, and we are confident they will make the podcast much more enjoyable and beneficial.
Video is available on our Rinpoche Available Now page. The audio improvements have been taken over to the videos as well, making them even more accessible.
How to Access the Podcast
This podcast is currently available through podcast apps, such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and most major podcast apps. Search for the show title “Lama Zopa Rinpoche full-length teachings” to find the show in the podcast app. If you want to know how to listen to podcasts through an app, the internet offers many resources to help you.
(For those wanting to listen in browsers like Chrome or Firefox [not Safari], the RSS feed link is https://feeds.captivate.fm/lama-zopa-rinpoche-full-length/).
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Medicine Buddha by Peter Iseli,
Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised that Dharma centers should perform the Medicine Buddha puja to bring peace and happiness, as well as inner and outer prosperity. Here we share Rinpoche discussing these benefits of Medicine Buddha practice in a teaching excerpt from the 36th Kopan Course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003.
“Medicine Buddha is very important, to make everything easy, so you can work with less pressure, so you can meditate on the lamrim, and you have more time to have an easy-going life.”
— Lama Zopa Rinpoche
“In the past, why Buddhism spread so well in Tibet and was able to go for a long time, why so many people were able to learn, to practice and to become bodhisattvas and why so many became enlightened, it is said, was because the Medicine Buddha practice spread out so much. I think especially the Fifth Dalai Lama very strongly emphasized the Medicine Buddha practice. I think the Fifth Dalai Lama composed this long version of the Medicine Buddha practice. Because of that, so much development happened in Tibet, to be able to practice the Dharma, to spread the Dharma, and there was so much peace and happiness in Tibet. It is explained this is due to the practice of Medicine Buddha. All sentient beings’ wishes were fulfilled, and there was inner prosperity and outer prosperity, wealth.
“So, if centers have many expenses and need financial support, if they need external prosperity and inner prosperity, I would like to emphasize this. I did mention this to one person at a center in America, and I would like to emphasis that all the centers on the Tibetan eighth [of the month] should do Medicine Buddha puja. As the Fifth Dalai Lama explained how great success happened in Tibet because of this, it is the same with our centers. So, on the Tibetan eighth, please do Medicine Buddha puja. Normally many centers do Tara puja, especially the older centers, but I want to emphasize that all the centers, especially the organization, do Medicine Buddha puja. Many people love to do Tara puja, as a female deity, so you can do Tara puja in the afternoon or evening and do the Medicine Buddha puja in the morning, because you have to abstain from black food: onions, garlic and meat, things like that. Therefore, it’s good to do it in the morning, before the meal.
“So, I thought that within the organization, the organizers don’t have to suffer, they don’t have to struggle with finances, they don’t have to struggle with so many things and they can have a very easy life with inner and outer prosperity. The organization has been developed over so many years with so much struggle, so many hardships, so much pain, struggling how to make the center more beneficial for sentient beings, how to make the center more accessible. With so much worry and fear, how to keep the center running, how to survive the next month. With many years of learning, going through so many hardships, so much pain, they have become really developed now, so beneficial; they are able to establish very good programs, good education, so people can learn Buddhist philosophy and do retreats. They have been able to create the conditions to offer this. Now, it is much better, much easier, because they have gained so much experience, building the experience for many, many years on how to do things. In the beginning, they had so much difficulty.” Please continue to read this full advice on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Excerpted from a teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 36th Kopan Course held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 2003. Lightly edited by Gordon McDougall.
Medicine Buddha Resources
- A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha | PDF | Audio
- A Very Short Medicine Buddha Practice | PDF
- Medicine Buddha Sadhana | PDF
- Medicine Buddha Mantras | PDF | Audio
- Medicine Buddha Pujas
* Extensive Medicine Buddha Puja: The Wish Granting Sovereign | PDF
* Medicine Buddha Puja: The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel – A simple puja (set of prayers) that can be performed by anyone with faith in the Buddha | English | Spanish | Sinhalese
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering the oral transmission of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land, August 29, 2020.
In this most precious video we are sharing today, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers the oral transmission (*lung) of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra, a prayer that came from Buddha Amitabha.
This is an incredibly powerful text to utilize when someone is passing away and in our care.
From the root text:
“In this eon, all Dharma practices that are sealed with this prayer of dedication are greatly meritorious. If those who write, recite, keep, or disseminate it, read or recite it three times, they will not experience sickness or [untimely] death. May all of their wishes be fulfilled, and may they meet with those who are propitious and endowed with the fortunate karma to be reborn in Sukhavati Pure Land. …”
“This is the essence of the ultimate. It is the pith of the dharmata. It is the king of all confessions of misdeeds. If you write and recite this, you will definitely be purified even if you kill insects and creatures, such as 100 people, 100 horses, 100 snakes, 100 dogs, 100 women, 100 cattle, 100 fish, 100 pigs, 100 monkeys, and 100 sheep; curse others; poison others; engage in miserliness and deceit; are the owner of a dog that kills deer; have degenerated your promises and commitments and then engage in sexual misconduct; kill your guru, abbot, or teacher; or do any of the ten nonvirtues.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised: As soon as someone dies, it is good to recite The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land loudly and clearly in their presence, without mumbling and whispering. After you have read it three times, tap the sūtra three times on the head of the dead person. It can also be recited on the day that the person is to be cremated, and even as they are being cremated.
Rinpoche also encourages us to recite this sutra daily: When you finish reading The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land for yourself, you should also tap the text on your head three times. Reading The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land every day becomes a preparation for your own death and causes you to be reborn in Blissful Realm of Amitābha Buddha. Therefore, this text is very useful both for you and for others.
In addition to the English version, we are delighted to share this oral transmission video with Rinpoche’s commentary translated into Chinese, Italian, and Spanish.
Additionally, we have the sutra available in English, Chinese, French, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Italian!
Audio is also available of Rinpoche chanting this sutra to his own tune, and giving a commentary on it in 2022.
During these powerful Fifteen Days of Miracles which end on March 3, we invite you to take advantage of this unbelievable opportunity to receive this oral transmission from Lama Zopa Rinpoche who so kindly granted permission for us to take it online.
*A lung (pronounced “loong”) is the oral transmission of a text, mantra, or practice by an authorized lineage holder. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave permission to take this transmission online. If you consciously decide to listen to this recording as oral transmissions (lung), then you are able to take it as such. Please remember to set an appropriate motivation and listen to every word in order to receive it. Please also be aware that if you decide to do this, it means you are creating a guru-disciple relationship.
Please explore all of the resources and opportunities available to make the very most of these powerful fifteen days of miracles, and please join us in rejoicing in all the meritorious activities happening within the FPMT organization and around the world on this auspicious merit-multiplying period!
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
- Take the eight Mahayana precepts: Students can receive the lineage of these precepts from a specially produced video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering them in May 2020.
- Recite the Sutra Remembering the Three Jewels
Rinpoche also suggested any of the following, as one is able:
- Perform the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha puja. A beautiful and deeply inspirational puja. The puja text is formatted with hyperlinks for smooth navigation, so that individuals can easily do the core practice and any additional ones as their time allows. (This puja was performed with Khandro Kunga Bhuma on Vesak Day 2022 at Losang Dragpa Centre in Malaysia, with its resident teacher, Geshe Jampa Tsondu, as chant master. You can watch this online, starting at 6:10 in the video.)
- Recite sutras, such as Vajra Cutter Sutra, Sutra of Golden Light, and Sanghata Sutra
- Undertake Nyung Nas
- Perform self-initiation, for those who fulfilled the necessary prerequisites
- Perform Lama Chopa, and at either the beginning of the practice or during the lamrim section, you can meditate on emptiness
- Recite other prayers, such as Chanting the Names of Manjushri, and King of Prayers
- Recite the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas, with prostrations
- Recite Vajrasattva mantras
- Recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ with bodhichitta
- Meditate on emptiness and dependent arising
- Meditate on bodhichitta
- Practice tonglen
- Practice rejoicing in the good deeds of others
- Liberating animals
Today, we are also sharing a short video from 2017 of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a teaching on practicing bodhichitta, which we hope will encourage you during your merit-making activities throughout this powerful period:
Of course, any other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are good to do on these days. If you choose to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on these or other days, please remember to report your recitations in the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.
Any Dharma activities done on these multiplying days, please do take the opportunity to continue reciting the swift return prayers of our most precious Lama Zopa Rinpoche, also dedicating all of the merit for Rinpoche’s reincarnation to have good health, a sharp mind, and good conditions for the fulfillment of all Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s works and wishes.
Please explore all of the resources and opportunities available to make the very most of these powerful fifteen days of miracles, and please join us in rejoicing in all the meritorious activities happening within the FPMT organization and around the world on this auspicious merit-multiplying period!
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia April 3, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In 2018, during a teaching at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared advice on how to see those who harm you as your virtuous friend of patience.
Rinpoche explains that if somebody makes you angry, then by seeing the opportunity to practice patience, you get closer to enlightenment. So, using logic and quotations will help you to see this person who makes you angry as your spiritual friend, you learn to see pure from your side. Then, you are able to free numberless sentient beings from the ocean of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment.
Please enjoy this Essential Extract of Rinpoche offering that teaching:
You can access all of the teachings Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered in Bendigo, Australia, April 1-May 12, 2018.
Change Your View of Others So They Also Change
In a phone conversation with a student in 2006, Rinpoche made these comments on how to resolve conflicts with other disciples of one’s guru, giving this advice for ridding oneself of past and present grudges by changing one’s own mind:
I have been wanting to tell you this for some time. There may have been something between you and that person before, some time ago, but now I want you to change your view of her and become harmonious with her. Change your view from your old way of looking at her and instead look at her with an open heart, seeing her as one of the pores of the guru.
The expression ‘pore of the guru’ refers to the way in which one should regard anyone related to the guru, that is, as an integral part that is indivisible from the guru, to which consequently one should pay the same respect as to the very guru. If you do that, then she will change her way of looking at you. She won’t see you in the old way any more either, and the problem will go away.
Then, in the future, when there are differences of opinion, of course it is OK to present your ideas to her so that she has many ways of looking at things. But do so with an open heart and with love, concern, and a wish to help, without getting upset. Always view her with an open heart, as one of the pores of the guru. Then there won’t be any problems.
It’s the same with people you may be upset with now. Remember they have been very kind to you in the past. They have helped you a lot. Because of them, you have been able to experience and finish up so much of your own negative karma from the past.
Therefore, you should view them as one of the pores, and with an open heart, apologize for any difficulties in the past and thank them for all their kindness to you. This way, when you change your view of others, they can also change.
This advice “Conflicts with Fellow Students” was originally published in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered teachings regularly at FPMT centers around the world. Many of these teachings are available as video and audio recordings together with other resources as a part of our Rinpoche Available Now (RAN) project. View the collection of full-length video teachings.
FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Students can also find Rinpoche’s advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during 1000-Armed Chenrezig initiation, Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, October 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave teachings at the Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia. October 4-6, 2019. These teachings were preliminary to the Great Chenrezig Initiation offered during this time. He continued to teach during the 100 Million Mani retreat that followed and lasted until October 20, 2019.
On October 4 Rinpoche offered a teaching on the benefits of practicing compassion. Particularly moving from this talk is Rinpoche discussing the incredible compassion of his mother who recited 50,000 MANI mantras every day even though she wasn’t able to read or follow texts, and the result was she had incredible compassion. Rinpoche also told some stories about lamas who had such great compassion that even their pets developed this quality and didn’t chase animals or became vegetarian.
Please watch this whole teaching, “Benefits of Practicing Compassion”
You can read more about Rinpoche’s 2019 visit to Russia and the 100 Million Mani retreat offered at that time.
Please explore all of the teachings Rinpoche offered in Russia October 2019.
We have many valuable resource for those wishing to enrich their practice of compassion. We have collated materials related to Chenrezig practice and mantras.
FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Students can also find Rinpoche’s advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Vajrasattva
With the new year approaching, many of us are reflecting on the past year— rejoicing in the blessings we received, and also assessing mistakes we have made in relation to ourselves and others. Fortunately, we have methods at our disposal to help us purify negative karma we have created. We can utilize these practices daily, and also as a way to enter the new year with a renewed sense of resolve to be the best versions of ourselves, so we can be of most benefit to others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in April 2023 from Kopan Monastery, “There are so many problems in the world—what should we do? Doing Vajrasattva practice is the answer; doing purification is the answer. You are purifying negative karma, from where all the sufferings came. Purification is the answer to war, famine, disease, and the dangers from fire, water, earth, and air. That is the answer.”
“Of course by purifying negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth and by collecting extensive merits, this allows you to have realizations on the path to enlightenment and for your mind to change,” Rinpoche once explained to a student. “There is always hope the mind can change, even to achieve enlightenment, so you can achieve a higher rebirth, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment.”
Please watch Rinpoche teaching, “By Doing Vajrasattva, You Are Doing Exactly What You Need to Do”
We have a special page dedicated to purification practice. Please explore all that is available to you.
Additional Resources:
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on Vajrasattva from 2023: April 2023 Teachings at Kopan Monastery
- Rinpoche’s four teachings on Vajrasattva from 2022: Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery
- Read more in “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe, Lake Arrowhead, 1975. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilderc courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
This holiday season, all of us at FPMT International Office would like to offer our warmest wishes for you to actualize true joy, peace, love, and compassion in your heart. “The sun of real happiness shines in your life when you cherish others,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught, and this time of year offers us many opportunities to practice this.
Whatever traditions you enjoy this time of year, please consider taking Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching on compassion to heart:
Live with compassion
Work with compassion
Meditate with compassion
When problems come, experience them with compassion
Die with compassion
Enjoy with compassion
Practicing this gives you the best happy life
It fulfills all your wishes and all living beings’ wishes for happiness.
“Compassion is not just for those with faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained in The Power of Mantra: Vital Practices for Transformation. “It is not just for those who are Buddhist, for those who seek enlightenment. Everyone needs compassion. No matter what style of life we have, the compassionate life is the best life. With that, our life is totally transformed. Before it was like kaka, but now it is transformed into gold. Before there was just ego, the self-cherishing mind, but now there is compassion. Compassion brings a huge difference in our life, like the difference between the earth and the sky.”
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Extensive offerings at the base of the large Padmasambhava thangka during Guru Bumtsog event, 2024. Photo courtesy of Kopan Nunnery.
For the tenth year in a row, a very large thangka of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) has been displayed and an auspicious 100,000 tsog offering event (Guru Bumtsog) has taken place at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling (Kopan Nunnery). Every year this event will occur on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, December 3, to commemorate Rinpoche’s life and dedicate to fulfill Rinpoche’s wishes. Here we share a report from Ven. Sarah Thresher on this year’s event, and some of the meaningful history. Please also read about the history of the Padmasambhava thangka from Geshe Ngawang Sangye.
Celebrating Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Birthdate with the Annual Guru Bumtsog–a Celebration of the Two Lawudo Lamas
By Ven. Sarah Thresher
Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a child in Rolwaling. Photo by Tom Weir
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born at sunrise on a Monday—the last day of the tenth lunar month of the wood bird year (December 3, 1945).[1] He was the fifth of six children, three of whom had died very young. When his mother was five months’ pregnant, she dreamt of entering a large cave with a staircase lined with stone statues of the deity Vajrayogini to whom she paid homage as she ascended, then descended the stairs. On waking, she suspected the child she was bearing could be someone special but told nobody.
One of the most remarkable details of Rinpoche’s birth is that he was born two months before his previous incarnation, Lawudo Lama Kunzang Yeshe, passed away.[2] In fact, Ven Jamyang Wangmo explains in The Lawudo Lama that the first Lawudo Lama actually dreamt of his new incarnation before passing and confided in Charog Lama Kusho Mangde the identity of the young boy who would continue his work for sentient beings.[3] This clearly indicates that Rinpoche was not an ordinary being but a great highly realized master who intentionally entered this world to benefit sentient beings.[4]
One of Rinpoche’s many great activities was the creation of numerous holy objects all over the world, including large thangkas that could be displayed at special times and festivals to help purify and create merit. Another of Rinpoche’s great activities was establishing the annual Guru Bumtsog—100,000 tsog offerings to Guru Rinpoche—for the Kopan monks and nuns and local community, where a huge 75 feet high (23m) by 87 feet wide (27m) silk applique thangka of Padmasambhava and surrounding merit field are displayed, along with 21 more exquisite silk applique thangkas of the Twenty-One Taras below.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche checking the progress on the Padmasambhava thangka, December 2012.
According to Ven. Thubten Tendar, Rinpoche’s close attendant, Rinpoche’s purpose in establishing the Guru Bumtsog was to pray for all His Holiness Dalai Lama’s wishes to be fulfilled, for peace and prosperity in this world and the elimination of all misfortunes and disasters, and for the preservation and spread of the pure Dharma teachings. Since Rinpoche’s passing, the decision was made to hold the Guru Bumtsog on Rinpoche’s birth date of December 3 each year, and to especially dedicate for all Rinpoche’s holy wishes to be fulfilled, and for everything to be auspicious for the Lawudo Lama’s next emanation.
Large Padmasambhava thangka at Kopan Nunnery, December 16, 2023. Photo courtesy of Kopan Monastery.
What makes the event especially poignant is that it is very much a collaborative event between the monks from Thame Monastery, Solu Khumbu—the gompa of the first Lawudo Lama and the monastery that Rinpoche first entered as a young child to become monk—and those of Kopan—the monastery and nunnery founded by Lama Zopa Rinpoche this lifetime. With seamless harmony, the two monasteries work together to make the event a success.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche prostrating to the giant Guru Rinpoche thangka during the Guru bumtsok at Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, January 2020.
The text used in the Guru Bumtsog is the Sadhana of the Lineage of Awareness-Holders from the Northern Treasures cycle revealed by Rigdzin Godem. The Northern Treasures is the main lineage practiced in the Thamichowa region of Khumbu where Rinpoche comes from and was the main lineage held by the first Lawudo Lama. Since this is a Nyingma lineage that is not practiced at Kopan, it was Rinpoche’s wish that monks from other monasteries who do hold the lineage lead the puja. This is why it is so important that Thame Monastery chant master, monks and ritual-masters work together with the Kopan monks and nuns to make the puja a success.
The grounds of Kopan Nunnery during the Guru Bumtsok event on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, December 3, 2024. Photo thanks to Kopan Nunnery.
Not only that, but during the day-long Guru Bumtsog, one section is set aside for the Cham dances and most of these religious dances are taken from the Mani Rimdu Festival held at Thame Monastery every year.[5] It means that Kopan monks are trained by the Thame monks to perform the ritual dancing, and both Thame and Kopan monks perform the Cham dances together. The same is true of the gyaling and ritual music which is performed according to the Thame Solu Khumbu tradition that Rinpoche liked so much.
Please watch a beautiful video of this year’s event:
This year’s Guru Bumtsog was again very special. The Thame monk Lhakpa Tenzin expertly lead the chanting while the presiding lama and special guest was His Eminence Jangtse Choeje Gosok Rinpoche of Sera Me. Gosok Rinpoche knew both Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche from his young days at Buxadaur Refugee Camp, and he told the Kopan monks and nuns about the incredible qualities both Lama and Rinpoche displayed already at that time, and of the exceptional benefit they had brought to this world. It was a visibly moving speech, delivered with a mindfulness that many of the younger sangha may not be aware how truly extraordinary the groundbreaking enlightened activity of Lama and Rinpoche was in this world. May a new emanation of the Lawudo Lama swiftly be revealed to continue the legacy of benefitting numberless sentient beings!
“With seamless harmony, the two monasteries—Thame and Kopan—work together to make the event a success.”
Written by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Nepal, December 4, 2025. Please read more about the rich history of the large Padmasambhava thangka from Geshe Ngawang Sangye.
Ven Sarah Thresher is a senior ordained nun and student of Lama Zopa Rinpohce and has been leading the annual Lawudo Anniversary Pilgrimages to Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Center.
[1] See Jamyang Wangmo, The Lawudo Lama, pp. 107-115 for more details. All these dates have been checked with the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute in Dharamsala.
[2] The first Lawudo Lama passed away at midnight of the full-moon day of the first month of the fire dog year (Friday, 15 February 1946).
[3] See Lawudo Lama, p.109 and n. 216.
[4] See Lawudo Lama, ch. 13 for more details of the first Lauwdo Lama’s realizations.
[5] Most of the dances are taken from Thame Mani Rimdu tradition, see Jamyang Wangmo Dancing in the Clouds. However two of them—Hashang and Kinkara Skeleton Couple—were taught to Kopan by Geshe Lama Konchog.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Turkeys at a farm. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Every year in the United States, tens of millions of turkeys are killed for the holiday of Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday, November 27, 2025. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice in a 2018 teaching to help benefit the turkeys killed, and how we can think during the holiday. Rinpoche explained that these practices can be applied beyond the Thanksgiving holiday, “These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten.”
In “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”, Rinpoche explains,
“If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again. … If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.”
In this teaching Rinpoche provides detailed instructions on practices to purify negative karma, such as Vajrasattva, taking the eight Mahayana precepts, reciting sutras, engaging in nyung ne fasting retreats, generating love and compassion through the practice of tonglen and the Four Immeasureables, practicing Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha puja and specific mantras. Rinpoche also offers a special dedication to purify any negative karma that could cause future rebirth as a turkey.
Of course, Rinpoche also has given extensive advice for benefiting animals and we invite you to explore all the resources available to you.
For links to practice materials in these detailed instructions, we invite you to read “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”.
For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras. You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, December 25, 2022.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered seventeen teachings during the fifty-third month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal which occurred November 26 to December 26, 2022. All videos from this course are available on video in English (with and without transcript overlay), Italian, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.
Today we are sharing one video from this course, “Others’ Happiness Depends on How You Act with Your Body, Speech, and Mind.”
In this teaching, Rinpoche explains that others’ happiness depends on how we act with our body, speech, and mind. Not only within our families, but everywhere we go in the world, anyone we meet, even animals, their happiness is in our hands, so we must be kind and peaceful. We have responsibility for the happiness and suffering of others, not just for our own. Therefore, we must be kind with our body, speech, and mind by doing pleasant actions to others.
No one, including animals, likes rude sounds directed at them, this causes others to feel threatened or run away. We can offer a smile from our heart to others, it not only creates the cause to be a very beautiful person in future lives, it also becomes the cause of enlightenment when done with bodhicitta. We can also be kind to others with our mind—how we think about those we meet, cultivating loving-kindness and compassion toward them, this is incredible. By having a good heart benefiting others, everything becomes the cause of enlightenment.
Please watch Rinpoche offer this teaching on December 11 ,2022: Others’ Happiness Depends on How You Act with Your Body, Speech, and Mind:
You are welcome to explore all seventeen teachings from the 2022 Kopan Course, offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You may also utilize a full transcript of the entire course.
FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Students can also find Rinpoche’s advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.