Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Reithalle, hosted by Aryatara Institute, Munich, Germany, November 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

“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,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche. “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.

“Vajrasattva practice is so important generally, and especially nowadays in the world, when there is not only global warming, but many other problems. There are so many other dangers—of war and sicknesses, cancer, and so many people whom you know are dying. There are so many sicknesses and other conditions for dying.

“This Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices are the ultimate answer, so everything in the world—what you see, every situation—tells you to practice Vajrasattva. To purify and do Vajrasattva practice is the ultimate answer, to stop the cause to be reborn in the lower realms and the immediate [result] is to have a higher rebirth, to make preparation for death and then to meet the Dharma, to meet the virtuous friend who reveals the path to enlightenment. Then to achieve ultimate happiness, to be free from samsara and to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings and to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.”

From “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/lama-zopa-rinpoches-online-advice-book

The FPMT Foundation Store offers many resources to support students in their Vajrasattva practice: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=vajrasattva&search=

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

Tsog offering during Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings in Martigny, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche received many messages wishing him “Happy Birthday” this year. So on Rinopche’s birthday, which is December 3, he recorded a video message as a thank you to all who offered him birthday greetings.

In the video, Rinpoche gives advice on how to best see one’s birthday and the practices that can be done that become the causes for total and complete enlightenment for oneself and for all sentient beings.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinopche’s Birthday Message:
https://youtu.be/ajT7srFuHw8

You can find the transcript of Rinpoche’s birthday message here:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/11/a-birthday-message-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/Lama-Zopa-Rinpoche-Birthday-Message-20181203.pdf

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings, including recent teachings in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and Kopan Monastery:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent a special video message to Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, describing the importance and benefit of having a Dharma center.

Rinpoche’s message was in honor of Jamyang’s fortieth anniversary, which was marked with two days of events in October.

The celebration included an evening remembering Lama Yeshe, the launch of the Cafe at Jamyang’s cookbook, a presentation on the history of Jamyang, cake, a group photo, and a look toward the center’s future.

In the video, Rinpoche thanks all the people who have helped Jamyang exist over the years.

Rinpoche also explains how FPMT centers can bring peace to the world by teaching people about compassion and how to develop a good heart. 

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Message Celebrating Jamyang Buddhist Centre’s 40 Anniversary:
https://youtu.be/8NCHapZcHgQ

Learn more about Jamyang Buddhist Center:
https://www.jamyang.co.uk/

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 the monks from Kopan Monastery doing Lama Chopa on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On last year’s Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a teaching on the true meaning of the guru at Kopan Monastery, while seated in front of the large statue of Lama Tsongkhapa in Kopan’s main gompa. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of that teaching:

I mentioned one quotation: “Even if you have complete qualities, without a guru you cannot be liberated from samsara.”

For example, you can say by heart more than a hundred volumes of the Buddha’s teachings, called the Kangyur, then more than two hundred volumes by Nagarjuna, Asanga, and all the great yogis and pandits from India—their commentaries are more than two hundred volumes—so you know all this by heart and you can explain it, but if you don’t have a guru, you cannot be free, you cannot be liberated from samsara, the oceans of suffering of samsara. You cannot be free. Do you understand?

Then it says, “Without an oarsman, the boat alone cannot cross over the water. Without the guru, there is no name, even the name ‘buddha’ doesn’t exist before the guru. Before the guru there is not even the name of buddha.” So numberless past buddhas, numberless present buddhas, numberless future buddhas, all came from the guru. That is the understanding, the realization, that we, including myself, need.

The mind has a gross mind, a subtle mind, and an extremely subtle mind. The body has a gross body, a subtle body, and an extremely subtle body. Why all sentient beings can become enlightened is because the nature of the mind has no mistakes. The mind is temporarily obscured, like the weather, the sky covered by clouds. The sky is not oneness with the clouds; it is temporarily obscured by the clouds. The mind is temporarily veiled. The nature of the mind is not oneness with the mistake. The nature is pure. That is why sentient beings can become enlightened; what it says in the philosophy is all sentient beings can become enlightened.

So here I’m talking about subtle consciousness, not only is it in nature pure, not only that, but even the primordial mind—this is highest tantra subject actually, normally you don’t hear about this except when you are studying highest tantra—but I think for you, to practice the most important subject for you, to really know what the guru is, you have to know that. That which is totally pure, having ceased, not only its nature is pure, but also free from temporary obscurations, so now [it is] bound with infinite compassion embracing us sentient beings.

This is what is mentioned in Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s Calling the Guru from Afar, the real thing, what is guru. At the beginning it says three times LA MA KHYEN, LA MA KHYEN, LA MA KHYEN, which means “may the guru understand.” It doesn’t mean that the guru doesn’t understand, doesn’t see, is totally blocked, totally dark. It doesn’t mean that. But that you have a very serious matter, that you have been suffering from beginningless rebirths, most serious, so you want to express that. Even the guru understands, but you want to express it. It is kind of emphasizing it.

SANG GYÄ KÜN GYI YE SHE DE CHHEN CHHÖ KUR RO CHIG
The wisdom of all buddhas, one taste with the great bliss dharmakaya,

DE NYI DRIN CHÄN LA MA KÜN GYI RANG ZHIN THAR THUG
Is itself the ultimate nature of all kind gurus.

LA MA CHHÖ KYI KU LA NYING NÄ SÖL WA DEB SO
I beseech you, Guru, dharmakaya,

DI CHHI BAR DO KÜN TU DRÄL ME JE SU ZUNG SHIG
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo. 

That is an incredible, unbelievably important subject. It takes time to understand and to feel. SANG GYÄ KÜN GYI YE SHE, “all the buddhas’,” YE SHE, “transcendental wisdom,” DE CHHEN CHHÖ KUR RO CHIG, “one taste in dharmakaya, dharmakaya the great bliss.” It says it is “one taste in the dharmakaya, the great bliss.”

Then the request is: DI CHHI BAR DO KÜN TU DRÄL ME JE SU ZUNG SHIG, “In this life, intermediate state, bardo, this life, next life, intermediate state, all the time.” “All the time” means every second, all the time. Then “without separation” means the guru and yourself without separation. “Please guide” means bring yourself to that same state, the dharmakaya. That is the meaning of “guide.”

We have the same prayer in Lama Chopa, “You are the guru, you are the deity, dakini, Dharma protector …”; that request is the same. Even if you are going to die today, or even if you have one hour to die, one minute, a few seconds, this is what you request to the guru. It is like that. That is the most important. …

Watch the teaching “The True Meaning of the Guru and How to Find and Follow Him Part 1”:
https://youtu.be/AUmsvrAwfdo

Watch the teaching “The True Meaning of the Guru and How to Find and Follow Him Part 2″:
https://youtu.be/_DFpJdKXN1U

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery, December 12, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, November 2018.

Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Ganden Ngamchoe, is on Sunday, December 2, this year. Find practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche here:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/lama-tsongkhapa-day-ganden-ngamchoe-is-on-december-2/

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 with the reincarnation of Domo Geshe Rinpoche at Sera Je Monastery, Bulakyppe, India, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent this story to a student, mentioning in his letter that Domo Geshe Rinpoche built Domo Drugkar Gompa in Tibet, where Rinpoche tells the student he became a monk:

This great yogi Domo Geshe Rinpoche and some other lamas were in Tsang together with their guru—probably their root guru—and one day the root guru sent each of them to a different place. The guru told one of the lamas to go to Tsang and said to him, “You won’t benefit sentient beings, but you will be able to do your own practice.”

Domo Geshe Rinpoche was sent by the guru toward Domo near Sikkim to live in the forest. There the gorillas used to offer fruit to him. The shepherd of one of the rich families in Domo used to go to the mountains to look after animals and while there he sometimes saw a monk coming out and sometimes he saw gorillas coming out. He told the family, his boss, and the family told him to go and see the monk and invite him to come to them. So the shepherd went to see the monk and invited him to come down to the house. The monk accepted and came down and stayed for one year in the shrine room of the house. Then after one year he asked the family if they could build a monastery and they started to build him one.

That family’s name was Bumpo Tsang and they were a rich family in the area. They started the monastery and it was a good monastery for a long time. I became a monk there, but I only stayed there for six months. At that time all of Tibet was taken over by the Chinese. It was 1959 and the monastery was full of spies. There was all kinds of mess and Chinese leaders used to come sometimes to give talks. I offered my first examination there on one volume of a text, but I didn’t get to memorize the second volume because I escaped. But I memorized the text in the mornings and evenings in Pagri, which is a big place where I lived for three years. In the mornings and evenings I would memorize the text and every day we would go to do puja for the families who were benefactors of Domo Geshe’s monastery. We went every day except maybe once a year.

I think Lama Govinda came to Tibet and met Domo Geshe Rinpoche, and maybe heard some teachings from him. That’s why he wrote The Way of the White Clouds and a second book, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, which is a mixture of tantra and science. The Way of the White Clouds was one of the first books available in the West and our very first student, Zina Rachevsky, the Russian princess, read that book and came to look for a guru at Domo Geshe’s monastery in Ghoom, Darjeeling. Maybe she was looking for Domo Geshe.

I was staying in a room in this monastery with my teacher who looked after me and my teacher Lama Yeshe. One monk met Zina outside. He could speak a few words of English so he brought her to my room, opened the door and said, “Oh, here’s your friend.” She was blond and had a Tibetan sweater from the Darjeeling bus station. My teacher offered Zina some Tibetan tea poured from a Tibetan kettle into a monk’s mug and that day she drank it completely. That was the only day I saw her drink Tibetan tea. From that time onwards I never saw her drink Tibetan tea again. It was by meeting Zina that we started Kopan monastery and built Lawudo at the same time. Gradually all the other centers happened and now there are 160 or maybe more, and we have forty-four geshes or maybe even more.

This story, “Precious Images,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in April 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/precious-images

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 giving a talk in Madrid, Spain, October 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During the 2017 month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught on karma, explaining a verse from Bodhicharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) by Shantideva, the great eighth-century Indian Buddhist master. This is what Rinpoche taught:

In Bodhicharyavatara it is mentioned that “in the past, I gave such harm to other sentient beings, therefore sentient beings harming me is worthwhile. It is worthwhile for me to receive this harm.”

When others are harming you—even fleas biting you, even a mosquito biting you, ants biting you, bees stinging, others getting angry at you, abusing you—you see that whatever happens, there is always a reason. The reason is you harmed others first. So you can understand, by remembering why it happens, remember the reason, so then you can think, “It is worthwhile that I received [the harm].”

Usually what we do is think, “I’m perfect, the most perfect, never wrong, others are wrong.” You blame others. Then somebody harms, abuses you, somebody looks at you bad, somebody says something bad, and you harm back, you crush them, you disintegrate them, whatever you can do, immediately. It is like this. “There is nothing wrong with me. I’m perfect. Others are wrong.” …

This is not an educated person’s action. It is not an educated person’s personality. No, [it is the action of] an uneducated person, same as a tiger, a dog; if somebody harms you, then you bite back, the same. Somebody harms you, so you harm back. That is animal character. You understand? It is not wise. But this is how normally we do.

The reason [you receive harm] is that in the past you cheated or you abused others in that way. You abused others in that way, so then this time it happens to you. This person, why this person abuses you? Why? It is because in the past you abused this person in that way. Even if a flea is biting you, it is the same. So everything is the same.

So the great bodhisattva Shantideva said, “It is worthwhile that I receive harm from others this time.” It is worthwhile. 

Then, it is mentioned, “My karma persuaded, then I received this harm. By that, didn’t I lose that sentient being in the hole of the hell?”

So, it means in the past you gave harm. Then because of that, your karma persuaded the person, and the result is that that person is harming you. That happens from that cause—you harmed the person in the past so in this life you are harmed by this person.

Now the person harming you is in the human world. But because of that harm, it makes the person not be in the human realm in the future but to reincarnate and fall down into the hole of the hell, the hell realm.

Thinking of that is a way of generating compassion. Instead of getting angry and harming back, you generate compassion, the root of happiness for yourself and all sentient beings. To generate compassion back is very important.

Generate compassion. When other sentient beings abuse you, whatever harm they do to you, use that to generate compassion.

Watch the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this excerpt is taken:
https://youtu.be/THzO0Nue3jg

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, December 8, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.

Find out more about the courses offered at Kopan Monastery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 the Peace Park at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During the 2018 retreat in Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained the various results of positive actions, captured in this excerpt and video clip:

What Guru Shakyamuni Buddha sees, all the rest of the buddhas see similarly. They don’t find mistakes. No buddha finds mistakes in the way Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s omniscient mind sees reincarnation and karma, all the past, present, and future things—karma and its result. From virtuous action, karma, the result of happiness arises; from nonvirtuous action the result of suffering arises.

As I explained before, by practicing morality [in the past]—abstaining from killing—then in this life you have received the body of a happy transmigratory being. You have received, this time, a human body. That is the ultimate reason. The real proof, reason, is that.

Then in a past life you made charity. You practiced Dharma and made charity, not being miserly, making charity to other sentient beings of materials. Your merit—you made charity to others, so in this life you received wealth.

In a past life you practiced patience, so in this lifetime you have a beautiful body. And if you want to receive or to be born a human being with a beautiful body then you must practice patience in this life. Not get angry and practice patience, you have to know that.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “How to Achieve a Beautiful Human Body”:
https://youtu.be/bxDHB7qLP2o

Like Michael Jackson, he went so many times to make-up shops, to fix his nose, to fix this, to fix that. So many times he went to make-up shops. Not make-up, what do you call it? Operation. So many times Michael Jackson went. He died. I don’t know where he is. Maybe he is still dancing in a different body, maybe in an animal body he is dancing. I can’t say. Or maybe as a deva with a goddess he is dancing. I’m not sure.

So many people while they are young, they change many times. Then as they get older, their skin hanging, then they do an operation. So many times. You don’t need that if you practice patience instead of getting angry. If instead of getting angry you practice patience.

Even if one time you practice patience with somebody who makes you angry, for five hundred lifetimes you will have a beautiful body. It is like that if you practice patience one time with somebody, with insects, ants, with a mouse, with your parents, with your children, with your husband or wife. You practice patience then [you receive] a beautiful body for five hundred lifetimes.

If you practice patience one time, then for thousands, millions, bah, bah, bah.… You don’t need to go to make-up shops. You don’t need to build so many debts, debts, money, money, debts. If you don’t get enough money from your job, you get debts. You borrow money so many times, then you fail. You can go bankrupt. Then you hide. You go to Mount Everest. You go behind Mount Everest, in Tibet—I’m joking—or you go to Mount Kailash to hide.

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, April 1, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE from Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, October 19-November 18! For links to live video streams:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 blessing a sick woman in Maratika, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche first taught at the month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery in 1971. Rinpoche continues to offer teachings at the course most years. During a teaching at the 2017 Kopan Course, Rinpoche spoke about the great Drukpa Kagyu practitioner Gyalwa Gotsangpa (1189–1258):

Gotsangpa was unbelievable. I read the life story. He almost passed away by so many lice attacking him. He purposefully made charity of his body to the lice. Two times or three times he almost passed away.

He bore most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable hardships to practice Dharma, purposefully. He was not just somebody who was very poor; he was poor, but not like that. He purposefully chose to bear hardships.

This lama, this great yogi, he had no interest in monasteries, organizations. His whole life was without monasteries, organizations. Gotsangpa. So comparing his Dharma practice to our Dharma practice, which is just between our lips, but his is wow, wow, wow, unbelievable hardships!

His advice is when you have sickness, when you experience cancer, relationship problems, or anything, pray: “May all sentient beings be free from sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma, defilements.” Negative karma and defilements are collected from beginningless rebirths. “May all sentient beings be free from disease, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements.”

“By my experiencing this sickness,” so every sickness, even relationship problems, or whatever, do according to that. So cancer, whatever it is: “By my experiencing this sickness or this problem, then may all sentient beings be free from sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements, and quickly be free and achieve enlightenment.”

You recite that like OM MANI PADME HUM, a mala. Like reciting a mantra, recite it like that. Meditate like that and recite like that. That is unbelievably good.

Even while you are walking, sitting, whatever, recite like that. So you collect merits more than the sky. You collect so many merits, more than the sky, when you do this, and it becomes the greatest purification, purifying the defilements and negative karma that you collected from beginningless rebirths. Then it becomes a quick path to enlightenment for you.

In other words, you use your problem; you use it for other sentient beings, numberless sentient beings, to achieve enlightenment. To free them from all the suffering and to achieve enlightenment, you use yourself, including your problem.

Like that, it is amazing. If you do like that, like reciting a mantra, if you do like that, then the cancer can be cured. Even if it is cancer, even if it is a disease for which there is no medicine, it can be cured.

Watch the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this excerpt is taken:
https://youtu.be/59YtMWKaxZ8

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, December 8, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.

Find out more about the courses offered at Kopan Monastery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 Ven. Roger Kunsang with FPMT Italy coordinator Lara Gatto’s dog, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pisa, Italy, November 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who had asked Rinpoche how to purify his dog’s negative karma.

Regarding purification for yourself and your dog, take strong refuge in the Buddha and think that the Buddha sends light to yourself and your dog, and to any other animals or beings you want to think about. Think nectar comes from the Buddha and purifies the negative karma, created from beginningless time, of yourself and the dog and other beings you are thinking about.

Then recite the refuge prayer. Keep reciting the refuge prayer while visualizing the Buddha sending nectar out of his compassion and loving kindness, like sunlight, to yourself and your dog. It’s like switching the light on in a dark room; it totally purifies the negative karma created since beginningless rebirths. You can keep the dog nearby when you do this so the dog can hear you reciting the refuge prayer. This leaves an imprint on the dog’s mind and plants the seed of enlightenment.

If there is no stupa near where you live, then maybe you can go to a center that has a stupa. If you are able to go there that would be very good, then you take your dog around the holy objects, the stupas. Go around the holy objects as many times as possible with the dog. This purifies the negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths, therefore go around as many holy objects as possible with the dog.

This advice, “How to Purify a Dog’s Karma,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in September 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/how-purify-dog%E2%80%99s-karma

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 Chenrezig Institute gompa, Eudlo, Australia, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During a teaching at Chenrezig Institute in June 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed how we don’t know when our time of death will arrive.

So death can happen any time. You never know.

At Kopan when we were together—Lama Yeshe and Losang Nyima, Lama’s disciple from Tibet, the attendant from Buxa, and then Zina Rachevsky, the first Russian student—when we were together, I was thinking, “Who will die first?” I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking, “Who will die first?” I was thinking it as we were sitting around.

Even the Buddha wasn’t in the same aspect. He showed impermanence with the holy body.

Lama Yeshe passed away, a long time ago. Now you see only the bones, Lama’s relics. Losang Nyima is dead. Zina is dead. Lama Lhundrup—who was an excellent disciple of Lama Yeshe from Tibet, had excellent Dharma knowledge of philosophy, debate and all that, who was totally devoted to Lama, devoted to whatever Lama said, and had a stable mind, devotion—he passed away. Lama Pasang, who helped to build houses, bring food, and all that, also dead. So many already left the monastery.

Just from that you can understand. So at the moment we are in the process—I don’t know whether it is good or bad that we didn’t die yet. We are in the process, in the same process of dying. Every day we are in the same process.

Watch the video clip of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on death:
https://youtu.be/DlTsfbEce1I

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chenrezig Institute in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Claire Isitt and Laura Miller, August 2018.

Find resources and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for time of death on the page “Death and Dying: Heart Practices and Advice”:
https://fpmt.org/death/

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 at Chenerzig Institute, Eudlo, Australia, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this advice during a teaching at Chenrezig Institute in June 2018.

There are so many wars. Hundreds of thousands get killed again and again. So many people get killed by bombs. Then so many people escape, then the boat is full, then sinks in the ocean. They try to run away, they can’t do anything: it is unbelievable. The people in the world are suffering.

Syria is one example. It originated from one person not understanding that all came from his mind. Not understanding that the creator is one’s own mind. Can you imagine it? Millions and millions of people killed by the one person who has power, who did not realize this.

Your mind is the creator of everything, all the suffering and all the happiness. That person didn’t realize that, thinks all is coming from outside. So that is an unbelievably important education to help the world, to help to bring peace and happiness in the world.

So therefore we need Dharma centers giving teachings. Lamrim teachings, yes, but what it is all about is compassion. Teaching compassion, to practice compassion with sentient beings. With whom you practice compassion, with whom you generate compassion is sentient beings.

That is the essence of Buddhism, the Buddha’s teachings—to generate compassion not only to human beings, but to every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, the tiniest and the big, like whales living in the ocean, the worms living under the earth, also the tiniest flies, which when you walk in the grass they run, jump away. There are numberless universes so there are numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, asura beings. Compassion to everyone—that is the essence of Buddhism. What differentiates it from others is that. To everyone, any sentient being, to have compassion, to never give them up, to have compassion for them.

Compassion means to not harm, and on top of that, if you can, to benefit. The motivation is compassion. If you want to practice Buddhism, you understand the conduct is to not harm sentient beings. And that comes from the right view, dependent arising, subtle dependent arising, which is unified with emptiness from its own side. The conduct comes from there—to not harm and to benefit sentient beings. That is often what His Holiness says. Now you can see that teaching Buddhism, through a course, or just talking about Buddhism to somebody, to explain compassion is the most important part.

Watch a clip of the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this advice is taken:
https://youtu.be/3V84cd4Cwcc?t=9m12s

A long time ago a million children were dying from no food in Africa—so much suffering, no rain coming, no water, drought. And even when the crops were there, suddenly a flood came and they were destroyed. So I thought to help. I thought first maybe to invite some lamas, some monks, to make it rain in Africa. I thought to invite them. Then I thought our students—here there are old students, Roger and Paula. I thought maybe to send them there to make it rain.

I translated lutor, Torma Offering to the Nagas, a long time ago. I didn’t translate it, I gave it to a Tibetan boy, a young man, to translate. He was a disciple of Tara Rinpoche. He translated it, and then I lost it. Then Paula found the translation in the Vajrapani Institute office. Then as it is advised there, she went to the mountains and did the puja to the nagas to make it rain. Then the rain did come, I heard that.

So I thought to send them to make rain. I also thought to invite lamas, monks there. I would sponsor them to make rain and then they would do puja to make it rain. But if the people don’t have good karma, it won’t work. If the people don’t have good karma, it won’t rain. To receive rain, it depends on having good karma. For everything, if it is happiness you have to have good karma. If you don’t have good karma, then you have to create good karma. Then you will achieve that happiness. You will experience it. You have to work through that.

People have to create good karma. So, how to do that? I was thinking about how to do that. I thought maybe I would go there, make friends with somebody in Africa. Talk about compassion to that person, so then that person is able to understand, then he can talk to his best friends about compassion, then they practice compassion. So little by little, three, four, five, then ten, like that, gradually, you talk about compassion, then they practice compassion, helping others. It doesn’t mean only people, but any sentient being. You practice compassion, to not harm and to help. So more and more people do that, and slowly it spreads, the positive actions, creating good karma. Then you make puja, a naga puja or whatever, then the rain will come.

You need to start like that. First you lead them in how to create good karma. You have to educate them to practice compassion. You need to do that a lot in the world. That is the most important thing, the most important education, the most important meditation to make the human being better, a better human being. To not become the cause of, to not become the creator of problems and suffering for yourself. You are human being this life, so don’t become a creator of problems in the world. To not become a creator of problems to all sentient beings, to the people in the world, to yourself, to your family, practice compassion. Then you become more and more a creator of happiness, peace, for you, your family, then your country, the world, all sentient beings. I thought like that but, sorry, I myself didn’t get to go there, to start like that.

So that’s what we need: teaching Buddhism, teaching Buddhadharma, establishing a center—a place where sentient beings can come to learn Dharma, to meditate, to purify and collect merits, to have realizations, a place where sentient beings open their minds, open their closed minds. The phenomena that they don’t see, to which they are closed, they become open to see all those phenomena—reincarnation and karma, all the rest of phenomena. Sentient beings are suffering—so therefore, what is needed is teaching Dharma, even to start a study group, no matter where you are living in the world, to study.

If you know some meditation, if you know lamrim, study it a little bit. Even just two or three people, to learn, to go through the lamrim, meditate and read and discuss is so important. So more people gain compassion. You aim for that. Not just learning to feed your intelligence, but to develop compassion. Your aim should be that: for you and also for other people to develop compassion. That is so good. It is so important. The more you learn compassion, then you give less harm to others, less harm and the more benefit to others. That is your source of achieving happiness up to enlightenment. It is the source of you achieving happiness up to enlightenment, for you and every sentient being; for you, and you cause that for every sentient being. Unbelievable.

You can see now you have to think in this way, of the proper motivation to have Dharma centers. Compassion is the most important. Even a Dharma study group, even one person, even one sentient being, to open the mind, to learn Dharma, to awaken the mind, to wake up the sleeping mind, the ignorant mind, even to help one person, one sentient being, even that is so important, unbelievably important. Teaching compassion, that brings them to enlightenment. That makes them have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment, the final goal. Wow wow wow.

On the last day of the Diamond Valley course, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, with their guest the English monk Phra Kantipalo, went with students to the land that would become Chenrezig Institute for an incense puja, Eudlo, Australia, September 1974. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

For example, Chenrezig Institute has benefited numberless sentient beings since it started. Since the beginning of the course in Diamond Valley* and up to now, so many sentient beings have come to learn Dharma, have come to meditate, have come to purify the cause of suffering, and create the merits, the cause of all happiness up to enlightenment—coming to Chenrezig Institute to learn Dharma, the whole path to enlightenment.

Since the course in Diamond Valley up to now, so many sentient beings got benefit. They purified the cause of suffering, samsara and lower realms. It is amazing, amazing. So many practiced renunciation of the cause of suffering, renouncing attachment, renouncing anger, ignorance. So many, so many, so many practiced bodhichitta, even if they didn’t have the realization but did the meditation. So many created the cause to achieve nirvana, to be free, liberated from samsara. Sooooooooooooo many sentient beings starting from the Diamond Valley course up to now, so many created the cause to achieve nirvana, to be liberated from samsara.

So many sentient beings meditated on, thought about, bodhichitta. They generated bodhichitta, even if it was not the actual realization. Every time they generate bodhichitta, it becomes the cause of enlightenment. Each time they generate bodhichitta, the cause of enlightenment, they create the cause to bring enlightenment to numberless sentient beings. That includes their own families, the numberless sentient beings, numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, then numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras, numberless intermediate state beings, to bring enlightenment to them.

They created the cause of enlightenment from the Diamond Valley course up to now, wow wow wow. Just from Chenrezig Institute, so many.

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chenrezig Institute in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Claire Isitt and Laura Miller, August 2018.

*The Diamond Valley course was the first Australian teaching event by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It took place August 30–September 28, 1974, in Diamond Valley, located not far the present-day Chenrezig Institute, in southeast Queensland, Australia. 

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), 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 having lunch at FPMT International Office, Portland, Oregon, US, August 2018. Photo by Diana Ospina.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche spoke about the FPMT organization during a teaching at Chenrezig Institute, Australia, in June 2018.

I think that although Lama Yeshe started the FPMT organization, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the head of the organization.

Now the organization is okay. Many studied the Masters Program, the Basic Program, many, many things. Now it is better. But some time before it was very easy for the organization to become a New Age shop, where you buy all kinds of things. Some people don’t check much, so it would have been very easy for the FPMT to become a New Age shop. Before, there was this danger.

Now it is safer because people have studied Buddhism very extensively, very deeply. We have forty-six resident geshes, who studied in those most famous monasteries from their youth, who practiced and did very extensive study of Dharma. So the FPMT is more stable; it is better now.

So the top is His Holiness. The one we follow is His Holiness, Chenrezig. Then it is good. Many people, many students, die as the years go by. But the top, the leader who is the top of all FPMT, is His Holiness.

That helps to prevent the FPMT from becoming a New Age shop. Otherwise there is danger. People don’t check well, so there was great danger before. With the very qualified virtuous friends, the teachers, and the study being done more and more, it is more stable, not a New Age shop.

We need to protect the organization, to make it most beneficial for sentient beings. That is very, very important.

Now I was thinking also to put effort into retreat, into actualizing the lamrim path. Not just counting the number of mantras, but retreat on lamrim, actualizing the path to enlightenment. What you studied extensively during those past years, now you actualize it.

Those who study lamrim, try to actualize in your heart rather than always keeping it in the book. While your heart is empty of Dharma, your heart is empty of realization. So not like that, with the lamrim only in the book but not in your heart.

To have bodhichitta in the heart, renunciation, right view, tantra—even to have the realizations of the sutras—even if one person, even if one or two or three have realizations, they can benefit unbelievably, like the sun rising in the world.

There is one sun in the world but when it rises, insects, people, animals can enjoy it. Like that it would help so much even if one or two people have realizations—unbelievable, unbelievable, especially bodhichitta.

Watch a video clip of the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this advice is taken:
https://youtu.be/DlTsfbEce1I?t=7m40s

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chenrezig Institute in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Claire Isitt and Laura Miller, August 2018.

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.