Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Medicine Buddha, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, July 2014. Photo by Chris Majors.

A student wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche and asked for advice about blessing food as the student’s family owns a factory that makes food that is later sold in shops. 

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling student,

Regarding your question about blessing the food, you recite OM AH HUM and visualize all the buddhas and bodhisattvas blessing the food with the qualities of holy body, speech and mind. This absorbs into the food where the food is. It is all absorbed into the food.

Then recite OM AH HUM.

Visualize that then every grain and part of the food is a blue HUM and into that numberless buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ holy body, speech and mind all absorb into that. Then do that quite a number of malas of the mantra (OM AH HUM); the more you do, the better. The HUMs become the grains or food particles.

Then make a prayer to the merit field, Medicine Buddha, Tara and Chenrezig (but particularly Medicine Buddha) and pray that all the buddhas and bodhisattvas bless the food and that there never comes from it any side effects; it immediately purifies, the minute the food goes inside the mouth, it immediately purifies all the negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirths, not only that envy, but all diseases and spirit harms are purified. Also, pray that all realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment are actualized, all the realizations are generated, especially bodhichitta, and it brings to all sentient beings perfect peace and happiness in this world. Then all the wishes of happiness and all successes – according to holy Dharma – are immediately received. All the wishes up to enlightenment are actualized.

That is what you should pray. You and everyone can do that meditation.

You can do the meditation and practice in the factory. You can also do it from home as long as all the food is piled up in one place and you know exactly where it is.

Please continue to make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhichitta night and day and in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, United States, October 2013. Lightly edited by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Each year Lama Zopa Rinpoche receives about 1,500 letters and emails. In his replies to these letters, Rinpoche may offer essential advice, thanks and, if requested, life practices. Here is one letter Rinpoche sent in 2014, thanking a student who had worked for many years at a number of FPMT centers:

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling xxxx,

Thank you billion times for your great support and service since you came to the center in 2007 and for the retreats you did — the Vajrasattva retreat and working at center — thank you billions of times. So this is working for all the sentient beings to educate them, to wake them up from ignorance, to enlighten them. Then by thinking of me as guru — then if working for center, then you collect the most extensive merit, most extensive and greatest purification every day, every hour, every minute and every second. Then also offering to numberless Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas and scriptures.

Sakya Pandita mentioned that thousands of eons of having practiced the paramita of charity — giving away one’s heads, legs and hands to the sentient beings for thousands of eons — all the merit collected like this is achieved in one second by the gurus path.

So that means when you work for the guru — following the gurus advice or fulfilling the gurus wishes — all that merit that has been collected for thousands of eons by making charity, in one second it gets done. So you have to understand this.

So please rejoice your whole life, unbelievable, most unbelievably happy, happy in Dharma, not happy with attachment and anger — this is totally different. It is happy to achieve enlightenment to benefit sentient beings. So like that there is no time for depression, day and night, even when you are sick … happy!

So please find attached — this is whole life time of practice, so you can die unbelievably in a most happy way, no worry. In this way nobody has to help you. You are guided by yourself and you are the happiest person in the world.

Thank you very much, with much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribe: Ven. Holly Ansett, USA, 2014. Lightly edited by Mandala.

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, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote the following letter in 2014 to a benefactor and said that this message could be given to others who are generous and in this way bringing sentient beings to enlightenment.

My very dear friend,

This is my heart message to you: Of course we put effort into the center, not just Dharma, but other areas such as social service, [areas] where people really need help. Also to have other Western Sangha there would be good, so we can help others and do consultation, like counseling. We need to research what is most needed in that area.

The Buddha’s teachings are priceless, their preservation according to Hinayana and Mahayana and within Mahayana Tantrayana (especially is very important) is really, really, really important. Even one sentient being just hearing the Buddha’s teaching not only causes higher rebirth, but liberates from samsara. There really is unimaginable benefit – unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable benefit. This is something really priceless, something hard to imagine, and this is the result of your kind contribution. That is the result of your compassion to sentient beings and that is the reality.

Skies of thanks! With my two small hands putting palms to together, with one hand in stroke aspect – my heartfelt thanks to you.

With much love and prayer,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Roger Kunsang, 2014. Lightly edited by Mandala.

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

Altar detail at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, 2014. Photo by Chris Majors.

“At the beginning, when the Sangha was flourishing, Lama Yeshe got all the monks and nuns to take turns to cook for the other Sangha members. Ven. Pemo didn’t know how to cook, so when it was her turn, she put some vegetables in oil and then served them raw,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in November 2014 to Ven. Ailsa Cameron.

“If you know how to make food, it is very beneficial. The highest benefit – bringing great purification of negative karma and delusions and collecting merit – is to offer delicious food to the guru. You can also make so many people happy by making delicious food for them.

“So, bodhisattvas learn anything to benefit sentient beings.”

Scribed by Ven. Ailsa Cameron, November 2014, Bendigo, Australia. Lightly edited by Michael Jolliffe for inclusion on FPMT.org.

More advice from Rinpoche can be found on the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche” on FPMT.org. 

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the names of the 35 Buddhas during a long life puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2104. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In late November and early December 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught as part of the annual month-long Kopan course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Rinpoche’s teachings covered a variety of subjects. What follows is an excerpt from a lightly edited transcript and video extract:

How to take care of your life? How to take care of your life? Life used for anger, to harm others, to
harm others; that is what in the world people do. You use your life, your intelligence, all that you
learned from school, from kindergarten, school, college, university, your human body, that which you have been taking care of for years and years, from childhood time, your education and your wealth, you use them to harm others. You live your life for anger, to work for anger, to destroy the world, to harm others. Then you live your life with attachment, then also you harm other sentient beings. Then ignorance harms, of course, yourself and sentient beings. By following those three poisonous minds you harm yourself, you harm others. So much suffering. So much suffering.

Now, the way of taking care of life, the correct way of taking care of your life, is to be non-attached – a positive mind of non-anger, non-ignorance, and non-attachment should be there. So there is taking care of your life with satisfied, inner happiness, a fully satisfied mind renouncing samsara. A fully satisfied mind, a totally happy, fully satisfied mind of renunciation of this life and renunciation of samsara – this is taking care of your life with renunciation. …

Watch “How to Take Care of Your Life” on YouTube.

You can find more MP3 recordings, transcripts and short video excerpts of Rinpoche’s teachings from the Kopan course on FPMT.org.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

In December 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught as part of the annual month-long Kopan course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Rinpoche taught on a variety of subjects, including how all things are “merely labeled by the mind.” What follow are a lightly edited transcript and video extract, made for Rinpoche Available Now, a new project from FPMT.org to bring Rinpoche’s major teachings to the public as they happen:

Another example. Okay. A design like this on a blackboard, a design like that is A. Okay? So you see A. You are taught A and you see A. You see A. But now go back, now you go back to your childhood time, now you back to your childhood time, to your childhood time before you were taught “This is A.” You go back to your childhood time before you learned A. So what you see at first is a design like this on the blackboard. Okay? It is just a design. You don’t see that “This is A.” You may be seeing A but you are not seeing “This is A.” You are not seeing that, you are not yet taught that. Because you are not taught that yet, so you see a design like this. Okay? Then your parents or teacher, somebody, introduces you, labels “A.” The person labeled “This is A.” They labeled it, they named it, from the mind. They taught you, so you believe it. Before that you see the base, you are not seeing “This is A.” You understand? It is very clear. You don’t see “This is A,” you see the base, just the base of the A. When you are taught by your parents or a teacher who label “This is A,” labeled by their mind “This is A,” then you follow, you believe that. Then your mind labels A. Then your mind merely… I want to add this one [word] even now: it is not only labeled but merely labeled A. Merely labeled A. Merely labeled A. Then after that… Your mind merely labeled A on that base that is like this, then after that, then there is the appearance of A. Then there is the appearance of A to you. Then you see A. Only then you see A. So your seeing A is dependent on first your mind labeling A, your mind merely imputing A, and that depends on somebody teaching you, introducing you, with their mind merely labeling A. So A came from your mind. You see? If you are not taught, if your mind does not merely label A, you don’t see “This is A,” at all. You see? That’s clear. Now the A that appears, that you see, came from your mind. Like that all phenomena came from your mind. Okay?

Watch “The Letter ‘A’: All Phenomena Come from the Mind” on YouTube.

You can find more MP3 recordings, transcripts and short video excerpts of Rinpoche’s teachings from the Kopan course on FPMT.org.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Vulture Peak, India, March 2014. Photo by Andy Melnic.

“My very dear most kind precious [student],” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who had written to Rinpoche about his book How to Practice Dharma, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “Skies of thanks for your discovering Dharma, trying to practice Dharma with every action. Thank you very, very much. That’s the real Dharma. Even in the monasteries studying so much extensive philosophy, but sometimes Dharma gets left out for some people. Looking like practicing Dharma, but not practicing Dharma.

“It is so precious what you have discovered, what you experienced. You discovered Dharma,
what Dharma is. Numberless thanks again.”

You can read the students letter and Rinpoche’s response as a PDF. More advice from Rinpoche can be found on the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche” on FPMT.org. 

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Bangalore, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“So, what is it that brings all that [Dharma] happiness?” Lama Zopa Rinpoche asks in The Joy of Compassion, a free ebook from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “It’s cherishing sentient beings; living your life cherishing sentient beings. Not that I actually do this myself, but intellectually, it’s what I think. Cherish sentient beings first; put enlightenment second.

“Why do I say put enlightenment second? For example, when you go into the kitchen, you’re looking for food, not crockery; your motivation is not to get a plate but delicious food. You go into the kitchen with food on your mind. But although your main motivation is to get food, you do need something to put it on – unless you can carry soup in your hands! Anyway, I’m joking again.

“Of course, enlightenment is extremely important because without it you cannot work perfectly for sentient beings. You cannot be a perfect guide, knowing, seeing directly, every sentient being’s mind, level of karma, intelligence, wishes and characteristics, as well as the various methods that suit their individual dispositions. But what should be in your heart is sentient beings as the reason for your attaining enlightenment. The first priority in your heart should be the happiness of sentient beings; sentient beings in your heart. What should be the first thing in your heart, in your life, the goal of your life? Sentient beings.”

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Buddha statue at Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, US. Photo by Chris Majors.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this advice in a letter to a student who offered gold to 1,000 buddha statues at Kopan Monastery in Nepal:

I thought to tell of some benefits.

In the time of Buddha Kashyapa, one person offered gold to a cement elephant and was born having an elephant that was gold and had golden kaka. The king at that time confiscated the elephant, at which time the elephant dissolved into the ground, while for the man, his karma was to get another, similar elephant.

Another benefit of offering gold is to be born with golden colored skin. Like that, unbelievable benefits. Unbelievable like that.

If someone offers a small flower or rice to a Buddha statue, a stupa or scripture, then the benefit extends from then up to enlightenment. Amazing, amazing. It is said in the sutra Piled Flowers, on top of that benefit, you achieve ultimate happiness – liberation from the causes of delusion and karma – and on top of that, full enlightenment – all the realizations and omniscient mind. After this, then you liberate numberless hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, suras and asuras from the ocean of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment. When all beings are brought to enlightenment, only then are all the results of offering achieved. So by offering gold, then wow, wow, wow. Can you imagine the result! From only a tiny offering (of a flower or rice) so much benefit is received due to that statue, etc. So really, holy objects are wish-fulfilling gems – so unbelievably precious.

Another story: In ancient times in India, there were four fully ordained monks, fully ordained but not aryas with the direct realization of emptiness. One person offered food to these monks and was later reborn as King Kashika. But now you are offering gold so can you imagine the result. Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!

Another benefit, in order for you to get an idea, comes from the Sutra of the Mudra, Developing the Power of Devotion. In that it says that someone who merely sees the image of a Buddha, great or small, immediately creates numberless merits. The food of the devas is nectar and their cloth is extremely precious – all the wealth of the world is not enough to buy their ornaments. Compared to making an offering of devas’ food and cloth 100 times to solitary realizers equaling the sand grains of the universe for 100 eons, to just look at the statue of Buddha has unimaginably more benefits. Wow! Wow! So imagine now offering gold. And offering has far, far, far more merit than seeing Buddha.

Now you see why we build big statues that people from all over the world come to see. You see how the benefit is there.

Thank you very much for your understanding,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Scribing, editing and any mistakes made belong to Tenzin Namdrol, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2012.

You can find more advice from FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT.org.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Vens. Roger Kunsang and Sangpo, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Matteo Passigato.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave teachings in New Delhi, India on January 23-26. On January 24, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared this on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: happiness or unhappiness come from the mind. If self-cherishing mind, then problems; if mind cherishing others, then happiness.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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

Kangaroo statue with mantras, Bendigo, Australia, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Namgyal.

While Lama Zopa Rinpoche was in the Bendigo-area for the CPMT 2014 meeting and the retreat that followed, he added mantras to statues of an elephant and a kangaroo and wrote text for many signs to be placed next to those statues and others. The sign at right reads:

I am an Australian kangaroo, I am not sure which part I come from maybe Kangaroo Island.

This is the first time I have seen the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion that is being built for the first time in Australia.

I am a most fortunate kangaroo I am able to see the stupa by just one luck [look]. 

I prostrate to the stupa to fully enlighten sentient beings.

ON MY LEFT SIDE IS THE MANTRA OF COMPASSIONATE BUDDHA KUAN YIN

GENERATE COMPASSION TO ALL SENTIENT BEINGS FREE THE NUMBERLESS SENTIENT BEINGS FROM OCEANS OF SAMSARIC SUFFERING AND BRING THEM TO ULTIMATE HAPPINESS, GREAT LIBERATION & GREAT BLISS.

ON MY RIGHT SIDE IS A MANTRA BUDDHA MENTIONED IN SUTRA CHU LONG BAI DO ANYONE JUST MERELY SEEING THIS, 100,000 AEONS OF NEGATIVE KARMA WILL BE PURIFIED.

So therefore I am the most happy sentient being. I want, and I can, enlighten not only Bendigo but Australia, the whole world and all numberless six realm sentient beings.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Yangsi Rinpoche, Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in January 9-15 at Choe Khor Sum Ling in Bangalore, India. On January 13, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: We have had an ordinary view from beginningless time. Even [if] Buddha appeared to us, we wouldn’t recognize. [We’d] just see [him] as ordinary.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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