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Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
- Willkommen
Die Stiftung zur Erhaltung der Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) ist eine Organisation, die sich weltweit für die Erhaltung und Verbreitung des Mahayana-Buddhismus einsetzt, indem sie Möglichkeiten schafft, den makellosen Lehren des Buddha zuzuhören, über sie zur reflektieren und zu meditieren und auf der Grundlage dieser Erfahrung das Dharma unter den Lebewesen zu verbreiten.
Wir bieten integrierte Schulungswege an, durch denen der Geist und das Herz der Menschen in ihr höchstes Potential verwandelt werden zum Wohl der anderen – inspiriert durch eine Haltung der universellen Verantwortung und dem Wunsch zu dienen. Wir haben uns verpflichtet, harmonische Umgebungen zu schaffen und allen Wesen zu helfen, ihr volles Potenzial unendlicher Weisheit und grenzenlosen Mitgefühls zu verwirklichen.
Unsere Organisation basiert auf der buddhistischen Tradition von Lama Tsongkhapa von Tibet, so wie sie uns von unseren Gründern Lama Thubten Yeshe und Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche gelehrt wird.
- Bienvenidos
La Fundación para la preservación de la tradición Mahayana (FPMT) es una organización que se dedica a preservar y difundir el budismo Mahayana en todo el mundo, creando oportunidades para escuchar, reflexionar, meditar, practicar y actualizar las enseñanzas inconfundibles de Buda y en base a esa experiencia difundir el Dharma a los seres.
Proporcionamos una educación integrada a través de la cual las mentes y los corazones de las personas se pueden transformar en su mayor potencial para el beneficio de los demás, inspirados por una actitud de responsabilidad y servicio universales. Estamos comprometidos a crear ambientes armoniosos y ayudar a todos los seres a desarrollar todo su potencial de infinita sabiduría y compasión.
Nuestra organización se basa en la tradición budista de Lama Tsongkhapa del Tíbet como nos lo enseñaron nuestros fundadores Lama Thubten Yeshe y Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
A continuación puede ver una lista de los centros y sus páginas web en su lengua preferida.
- Bienvenue
L’organisation de la FPMT a pour vocation la préservation et la diffusion du bouddhisme du mahayana dans le monde entier. Elle offre l’opportunité d’écouter, de réfléchir, de méditer, de pratiquer et de réaliser les enseignements excellents du Bouddha, pour ensuite transmettre le Dharma à tous les êtres. Nous proposons une formation intégrée grâce à laquelle le cœur et l’esprit de chacun peuvent accomplir leur potentiel le plus élevé pour le bien d’autrui, inspirés par le sens du service et une responsabilité universelle. Nous nous engageons à créer un environnement harmonieux et à aider tous les êtres à épanouir leur potentiel illimité de compassion et de sagesse. Notre organisation s’appuie sur la tradition guéloukpa de Lama Tsongkhapa du Tibet, telle qu’elle a été enseignée par nos fondateurs Lama Thoubtèn Yéshé et Lama Zopa Rinpoché.
Visitez le site de notre Editions Mahayana pour les traductions, conseils et nouvelles du Bureau international en français.
Voici une liste de centres et de leurs sites dans votre langue préférée
- Benvenuto
L’FPMT è un organizzazione il cui scopo è preservare e diffondere il Buddhismo Mahayana nel mondo, creando occasioni di ascolto, riflessione, meditazione e pratica dei perfetti insegnamenti del Buddha, al fine di attualizzare e diffondere il Dharma fra tutti gli esseri senzienti.
Offriamo un’educazione integrata, che può trasformare la mente e i cuori delle persone nel loro massimo potenziale, per il beneficio di tutti gli esseri, ispirati da un’attitudine di responsabilità universale e di servizio.
Il nostro obiettivo è quello di creare contesti armoniosi e aiutare tutti gli esseri a sviluppare in modo completo le proprie potenzialità di infinita saggezza e compassione.
La nostra organizzazione si basa sulla tradizione buddhista di Lama Tsongkhapa del Tibet, così come ci è stata insegnata dai nostri fondatori Lama Thubten Yeshe e Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Di seguito potete trovare un elenco dei centri e dei loro siti nella lingua da voi prescelta.
- 欢迎 / 歡迎
简体中文
“护持大乘法脉基金会”( 英文简称:FPMT。全名:Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) 是一个致力于护持和弘扬大乘佛法的国际佛教组织。我们提供听闻,思维,禅修,修行和实证佛陀无误教法的机会,以便让一切众生都能够享受佛法的指引和滋润。
我们全力创造和谐融洽的环境, 为人们提供解行并重的完整佛法教育,以便启发内在的环宇悲心及责任心,并开发内心所蕴藏的巨大潜能 — 无限的智慧与悲心 — 以便利益和服务一切有情。
FPMT的创办人是图腾耶喜喇嘛和喇嘛梭巴仁波切。我们所修习的是由两位上师所教导的,西藏喀巴大师的佛法传承。
繁體中文
護持大乘法脈基金會”( 英文簡稱:FPMT。全名:Found
ation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition ) 是一個致力於護持和弘揚大乘佛法的國際佛教組織。我們提供聽聞, 思維,禪修,修行和實證佛陀無誤教法的機會,以便讓一切眾生都能 夠享受佛法的指引和滋潤。 我們全力創造和諧融洽的環境,
為人們提供解行並重的完整佛法教育,以便啟發內在的環宇悲心及責 任心,並開發內心所蘊藏的巨大潛能 — 無限的智慧與悲心 – – 以便利益和服務一切有情。 FPMT的創辦人是圖騰耶喜喇嘛和喇嘛梭巴仁波切。
我們所修習的是由兩位上師所教導的,西藏喀巴大師的佛法傳承。 察看道场信息:
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Living in morality is one fundamental spiritual practice that is a very important source of happiness for you and for all living beings. This is also one of the best contributions that you can give to this world, for world peace.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
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The Foundation Store is FPMT’s online shop and features a vast selection of Buddhist study and practice materials written or recommended by our lineage gurus. These items include homestudy programs, prayers and practices in PDF or eBook format, materials for children, and other resources to support practitioners.
Items displayed in the shop are made available for Dharma practice and educational purposes, and never for the purpose of profiting from their sale. Please read FPMT Foundation Store Policy Regarding Dharma Items for more information.
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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News
26
By generating a bodhichitta motivation throughout each day, we can benefit ourselves and sentient beings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained while teaching at the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy.
Rinpoche’s advice, captured in a video clip from the October 10, 2017, teaching, emphasizes that by having a bodhichitta motivation in any number of activities, you are able to generate heaps of merit and become profoundly beneficial.
Making Offerings
“Of course if you have an actual realization of bodhichitta, there is no question of merit,” Rinpoche says. “But even if you have an effortful motivation of bodhichitta, when you offer light—one light, even one Christmas light, whatever light, a butter lamp, one candle—you collect merits more than the sky. Wow, wow, wow!”
Circumambulating Holy Objects
Rinpoche says, “If you generate a bodhichitta motivation when you circumambulate, with each step going around circumambulating, you collect merits more than the sky.”
Eating and Drinking
“When you eat food, with each bite or drink, if it is done with a motivation of bodhichitta, then you are eating food for sentient beings, to serve sentient beings, to bring them to enlightenment,” Rinpoche says.
“And then also to make offering, make yourself in oneness with the guru-deity Chenrezig. Visualize Chenrezig in your heart, same as the guru. So with each bite, with each drink, you collect more than skies of merit. You collect with each spoonful, with each sip, merits more than the sky.”
Speaking
“If you generate the motivation of bodhichitta for when you talk, whether you are consulting, whether you are teaching Dharma, if you generate the motivation of bodhichitta, not even the realization, but effortful bodhichitta, then with each word you collect merits more than sky,” Rinpoche advises.
Walking
Rinpoche adds, “The same thing as circumambulation, when you are going for a walk, going shopping, going for pilgrimage, whatever, if it is done with a bodhichitta motivation, then with each step you collect more than skies of merits.”
The Best Motivation Is Bodhichitta
“As the Buddha said, to work for yourself and others, numberless sentient beings, the best motivation is bodhichitta. So all the buddhas, they checked, they see, it is like that,” Rinpoche says.
“Even if you don’t have a realization of bodhichitta, but you generate a bodhichitta motivation, for any activity you do—in every minute, in every second—you collect merits more than the sky! There is no time for depression. There is no space for depression. Depression, goodbye!”
Your Main Refuge Is Bodhichitta
If you pay attention to having a bodhichitta motivation throughout your life, your whole day, and with every activity, then it is your main practice and your main refuge.
Rinpoche explains, “When your life is so busy, your main refuge is bodhichitta. So every hour—not only every day, every hour, every minute, every second—is bodhichitta.” By doing this, you create so much merit, “more than the sky! Amazing, amazing!”
“By generating the motivation of bodhichitta, then when you do prayers all day long or for one hour, with each word you collect more than skies of merit. Can you imagine?” Rinpoche asks.
“You have to realize how you are most unbelievably fortunate! You are so fortunate. You are so fortunate this time. Next, next life not sure, but this life ….”
Rinpoche concludes, “With a bodhichitta motivation, whatever you are doing, working for the center, working for the company or the family, with bodhichitta, the merits you create, wow, wow, wow!”
To see Rinpoche giving this teaching, watch the video “Practicing Dharma Skillfully with Bodhichitta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTcHrkEP8I8
The quotes from Rinpoche have been lightly edited and are based on the unedited transcript of the 100 Million Mani Mantra retreat in Italy, which you can find here with video recordings of the complete teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/
Find more video clips from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F6A5E3C2873F2EA
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.
- Tagged: bodhichitta, essential extract, lama zopa rinpoche, video
23
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived at Kopan Monastery in early February after spending two weeks at Tso Pema in India. Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme) visited Rinpoche at Kopan after he returned to the monastery.
Khadro-la joined Rinpoche for lunch. They then walked around the monastery, where they met Kamal, a long-time worker at Kopan who now has cancer. Khadro-la and Rinpoche did prayers with Kamal and blessed him.
On a tsog day, Khadro-la went with Rinpoche to Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, the Kopan nunnery, and did Vajrayogini self-initiation with the nuns. And on another day, Khadro-la and Rinpoche had lunch and then went to circumambulate the the base of Swayambhunath hill.
In mid-February, Rinpoche celebrated Losar, the Tibetan New Year, at Kopan.
Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Kopan’s current abbot; Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog; Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Kopan’s former abbot; Losang Namgyal Rinpoche, a high lama of the Tamang people; Charok Lama; and many other young lamas were also in attendance at Kopan’s Losar activities, which included pujas and a White Tara long life initiation given by 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.
19
Keep up with Lama Zopa Rinpoche on his travels throughout the world by viewing new photo albums of Rinpoche’s journeys. The new photo album of Rinpoche’s recent trip to India contains sixty photos, covering Rinpoche’s time at Root Institute in Bodhgaya and in Tso Pema:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/india-january-2018/
More photos from Rinpoche’s December visit to Nepal, to India in November, and to Italy, Austria, and the United States earlier in the year, plus many more, can be found on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s photo gallery page:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/
The photo gallery display has been updated to optimize viewing on mobile phones and tablets. New features have been added; click or tap on photos to see captions and enter slideshow mode.
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.
- Tagged: lama zopa rinpoche, photo gallery
16
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in Tso Pema, a place of pilgrimage in Himachal Pradesh, India, on January 21, coming from Bodhgaya.
Rinpoche traveled to the holy site associated with the 8th-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche, to receive oral transmissions from Khenpo Thinle Dorjee, the abbot of Zigar Monastery, a Kagyu monastery. The transmissions included various texts, such as Milarepa’s life story. At the conclusion of the oral transmissions, Rinpoche offered a long-life praise that he composed and other long-life items to the khenpo.
The story of Padmasambhava’s association with Tso Pema, also known as Rewalsar, is that Padmasambhava angered the king of the area by teaching Dharma to his daughter, Mandarava. The king had Padmasambhava burned alive in a pyre that created great clouds of smoke.
But after several days, a lake appeared in the same spot and Padmasambhava was sitting in the middle of the lake on a lotus and the king came to see the error of his ways. “Tso Pema” is Tibetan for “Lotus Lake.”
During his two-week visit, Rinpoche also spent time circumambulating the lake. On a tsog day, Rinpoche did Vajrayogini self-initiation until 4 a.m. And on another day, he did Trukchuma (Kalarupa) puja for several sick people and all who need it until 2 a.m.
Near the end of Rinpoche’s stay in Tso Pema, he went up to a sacred cave where Padmasambhava meditated and offered tsog.
A very large 123-foot (37.5-meter) tall Padmasambhava statue, completed in 2011 and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2012, overlooks the lake.
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.
- Tagged: lama zopa rinpoche, tso pema
12
Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent this letter to a family with whom he stayed. The letter contains advice on how to make this precious human life meaningful, suggesting a dedication for the worms and insects who are harmed when growing, picking, or offering flowers, and for any calves who are harmed in the production of milk for tea. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s letter:
I wanted to mention one thing. These days I have added in my prayers for the worms and insects harmed by growing, picking, and offering flowers. So many worms die or are killed for the flowers. Often where I go there are flowers in my room, therefore after lunch, if I do purification of pollutions received, I also normally try to do dedication, especially for the calves, because I drink so much tea. I dedicate like this:
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may all the calves who suffered so much, or who have died for this milk—the mothers and babies who are separated, with so much suffering and worrying—may they never be reborn in the lower realms and may they immediately be reborn in a pure land where they can get enlightened. May they receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings and meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend, may they achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
These days I also include the worms that have died. I guess worms died for the flowers. I should also dedicate for the people who killed the animals, so I also started to dedicate for the people.
Anyway, of course, flowers are very beautiful. Of course when people own flowers, it’s not so easy, and they have to indirectly kill worms and insects for the flowers to grow.
For this enjoyment we can also collect so many causes of happiness, all the happiness, as I have mentioned, and especially the happiness of enlightenment, by offering these beautiful flowers to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. All this is received by the kindness of sentient beings, the animals that died for this, the human beings who worked so hard.
What I wanted to say is this, if there are a lot of animals and worms that die, then I think it’s better not to dig for the plants in the garden. If you want flowers, you can buy them from the flower shop. You can put flowers there in pots, so you don’t have to dig.
Anyway, in case some worms get killed or something, maybe you can offer candles to the Buddha for those worms and dedicate like this:
I dedicate all the past, present and future merits collected by me, and all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, for that worm to never ever get reborn in the lower realms and to have a higher rebirth, and to generate bodhichitta and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
At least do something like that, to pray for that worm, in case one gets killed.
Regarding flowers, maybe buy flowers which are in a pot from the garden shop. You can buy them and make offerings with them, and it is easy.
From the advice “How to Make This Life Most Beneficial,” given in October 2017 and published in December 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/how-make-life-most-beneficial
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.
5
Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent a letter to a student who was experiencing a lot of obstacles, as well as fear, unhappiness, and worry. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice given in January 2016:
My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I heard about your difficulties. As you know, all these difficulties do not exist from their own side, even though they appear like that to our hallucinated mind. The difficulty appears to exist from its own side, to exist by itself. It appears real, using ordinary language.
Basically, what you believe is difficult is just your mind thinking, your mind merely labeling, “This is difficult.” Your mind is merely labeling that it is difficult and that’s how it came into existence. When the difficulty appeared to you, even though it is merely imputed, it appears totally opposite, as though it never came from the mind and it was never merely labeled by the mind. That is totally a hallucination.
For example, we are living our whole life in a hallucination, so like that, everything—including the I, form, sounds, smell, tangible objects; everything that appears to our senses, to our hallucinated mind—appears as real, as if something is existing from there. However, it doesn’t appear real unless our mind merely imputes it first. Everything that appears real is not true, it is a total hallucination. It is a totally hallucinated real I, a totally hallucinated real action and a totally hallucinated real object.
While everything—I, action, object—is totally empty of existing from its own side, it exists in mere name. Everything—I, action, object—exists in mere name; it is merely labeled by the valid mind, on the valid base.
What we think is difficult, in a complicated way, is all made up by our own concepts, and is to do with our own concepts.
Let me say something, what the great bodhisattva Shantideva has advised:
Whatever befalls me,
I shall not disturb my mental joy;
For having been made unhappy, I shall not accomplish what I wish,
And my virtues will decline.
— [Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 6, v. 9]
There are so many problems in the West; also in the East, but especially in the West. If there is a way for the problem to be fixed or mended, what is there to dislike about it? If there is a method then do it, and if there is no method and no way to fix it, then why dislike it? If there is a way to fix the problem, then do it, and if there isn’t, then no need to be worried. It just makes us mentally sick and it also causes physical sickness. As it increases more, it brings more problems.
Why be unhappy about something
If it can be remedied?
And what is the use of being unhappy about something
If it cannot be remedied?
— [Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 6, v. 10]
Please think about this. It is what Shantideva advised and this is my advice to you. When you think this way, it will bring happiness to your life. …
Read the complete advice “Remedy for Obstacles, Fear and Worry,” posted in January 2018 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/remedy-obstacles-fear-and-worry
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.
- Tagged: fear, hardships, lama zopa rinpoche
2
How you see something depends on past karma as well as on how you label it, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in a short video clip recorded during the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy in October 2017.
“Even if it is an unpleasant object, even if it is problem, in a relationship or whatever, the way you view it is the way you label it—positive label or negative label,” Rinpoche teaches. “You make a positive label by thinking of the benefits of the problem.”
“When you don’t think of the benefits,” Rinpoche continues, “then you just carry on putting on a negative label. Then you suffer like this; you torture yourself like this.”
“Therefore, you see that Dharma practice, meditation, is soooooooooooooooo important!” Rinpoche concludes. “If you know Dharma, if you practice Dharma, meditation, then you completely transform [problems] into happiness! So you enjoy your life, especially your life every day, every hour, minute. With bodhichitta, you make beneficial your life to numberless sentient beings!”
Watch “Change How You Experience Karma with Mind Training”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTPSieECQTk
Quoted text based on the unedited transcript of the 100 Million Mani Mantra retreat in Italy, which you can find here with video recordings of the complete teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/
Find more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F6A5E3C2873F2EA
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.
30
During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s stay at Root Institute, he was joined there by many important lamas. On January 12-13, His Eminence Ling Rinpoche visited Root Institute and gave teachings, which were attended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many Sangha members and lay students.
While at Root, Ling Rinpoche also visited Maitreya School, where he gave a short talk. The students recited “Praises to the Twenty-One Taras” in Sanskrit as an offering. He then visited Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Care Clinic, another project of Root Institute, and spoke to the staff and doctors there.
During Ling Rinpoche’s visit to Root, he praised Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s activities and spoke about how kind he was for helping the children with education and helping sick people with the health clinic. Ling Rinpoche commented on how clear the vision for Root Institute has been and on how much has been accomplished.
Teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama resumed on January 14. Then on the following day, Root Institute celebrated its thirtieth anniversary after His Holiness’s teaching for the day.
Ling Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la, Dagri Rinpoche, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche’s reincarnation, Geshe Sengye’s reincarnation, Richard Gere, and many others attended the joyous event.
Ven. Tenzin Paldron, the center director of Root, gave a short speech to the gathered crowd. Ling Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and others also spoke briefly about the center. Lama Zopa Rinpoche thanked everyone who had made it possible, including the sweepers and the secretary of the center. Then they all watched a seventeen-minute video of Root Institute’s history.
On January 17, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered the Sixteen Arhats puja for the long life of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. Since Khyongla Rato Rinpoche is a teacher of many lamas, the offering was attended by a number of high lamas, abbots, and former abbots.
In between all of these activities, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had non-stop meetings with many lamas and geshes. Also during his time in Bodhgaya, Rinpoche made several visits to the Mahabodhi Stupa, which marks the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
At the stupa, Rinpoche would recite the mantras for circumambulation and then lead people around the stupa, explaining the mantras and what to think while circumambulating. Rinpoche also made many flower offerings to the stupa with extensive offering prayers.
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.
Learn more about Root Institute at http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/.
- Tagged: bodhgaya, dagri rinpoche, khandro kunga bhuma, khyongla rato rinpoche, kyabje ling rinpoche, lama zopa rinpoche, maitreya school, richard gere, root institute
26
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, on January 3, traveling from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. The day after arriving, Rinpoche invited Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme) to Root Institute for lunch.
When Rinpoche meets his gurus, he always makes auspicious offerings, requesting for their long lives. Rinpoche did this for Khadro-la and also recited the Sixteen Arhat prayers.
After lunch, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche arrived at Root to visit Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Rinpoche made offerings and requests for Khyongla Rato Rinpoche’s long life. They had tea together with Khadro-la.
Rinpoche traveled to Bodhgaya for the teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which began on January 5. More than 50,000 attended the first day of a three-day teaching intended especially for Indian Buddhists.
At the start of the first two days, students from Maitreya School, a project of Root Institute, recited the Heart Sutra from memory in Sanskrit for His Holiness and all in attendance.
“The students recited it with their eyes closed and their hands in the mudra of prostration, like they’re meditating on it. It’s quite moving. A lot of the students are girls,” said Ven. Holly Ansett, who was at the teachings.
“It’s amazing to think about how far they’ve come; these little Bihari girls who would normally not have an education, and here they are representing their school and reciting in front of His Holiness. And His Holiness is so affectionate towards them, and so pleased when this happens. He spent time to offer a khata to everyone, shake their hands, and take a photo.”
After the Maitreya students’ recitation, His Holiness emphasized for all “that Buddhism originated in India, not in China or Tibet, and that masters of Nalanda like Nagarjuna were Indian too. Therefore, His Holiness said, it was propitious that the main disciples today were Indian. For more than 2000 years Buddhism has spread across Asia, so it would be appropriate if the Nalanda Tradition that has been kept alive in Tibet were to be re-established today in India,” DalaiLama.com reported.
On the third day of the teachings, the students recited “Praises to the Seventeen Masters of Nalanda” in Sanskrit. [See Mandala July-September 2012 for “The Seventeen Pandits of Nalanda Monastery”.]
“This prompted His Holiness to reflect what magnificent scholars [the Nalanda masters] were and how important it was that the Buddha established his teachings on the basis of reason and logic. How wonderful it is that these various masters’ writings are still available to us. We can read and study them, use them as our text books, and we can pass on what they had to say to others,” DalaiLama.com wrote.
On January 11, a special long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche based on White Tara was offered by Khadro-la at Root Institute. The day before the puja, some of the Kopan monks who were in Bodhgaya worked with Ven. Thupten Khadro, Root’s spiritual program coordinator, Ven. Tsenla, and many others to fill the small gompa with beautiful flower offerings, intricate decorations, and tormas.
The puja, which Khadro-la arranged and said should emphasize meditation and practice, was attended by many lamas, including Dagri Rinpoche, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, Kesang Rinpoche, Oser Rinpoche, and others.
During the puja, Khadro-la made many of the offerings, including making the first mandala offering. Ven. Roger Kunsang offered the second on behalf of the whole FPMT organization. The puja began at 6 a.m. and concluded nearly five hours later.
The long life puja was described as being very strong, powerful, and precious. Afterwards, Rinpoche offered a delicious lunch on the roof of Root Institute to those who attended.
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.
Learn more about Root Institute at http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/.
- Tagged: bodhgaya, dagri rinpoche, his holiness the dalai lama, khandro kunga bhuma, khyongla rato rinpoche, lama zopa rinpoche, maitreya school, root institute, serkong tsenshab rinpoche
22
In December, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling in Nepal hosted a 100,000 tsog offerings for Guru Rinpoche in front of the gigantic Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) thangka. Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the special puja, known as a “Guru bumtsog,” along with the young incarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche, a great master in the Nyingma tradition, who is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.
Also in attendance were Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan Monastery and its sister nunnery Khachoe Ghakyil Ling; Losang Namgyal Rinpoche, a Kopan monk who is also a high lama for the Tamang people of Nepal; and Rigsel Rinpoche, the young incarnation of the past Kopan abbot Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup. About a thousand ordained Sangha were there as well as many lay students.
This is the third year that the enormous thangka has been displayed at the nunnery with a Guru bumtsog. The thangka, which is 75 feet (23 meters) high and 87 feet (27 meters) wide, hung from a large scaffolding and depicts in stitched appliqué the Padmasambhava merit field in the center. On one side are the eight aspects of Padmasambhava and the other displays Padmasambhava’s pure land.
Through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, Rinpoche commissioned the thangka in 2011. It took two years to create and was completed in 2013. His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessed the thangka in late 2013, when it was displayed at Sera Je Monastery during the Jangchub Lamrim teachings.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is for centers to have large thangkas and organize festival days around their display. This year’s Guru bumtsog went very well and Rinpoche was very pleased with the event.
See new photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent visit to Nepal:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/nepal-december-2017/
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.
- Tagged: guru bumtsog, guru rinpoche, khachoe ghakyil ling, lama zopa rinpoche, large thangka, thangkas, trulshik rinpoche
15
“Even when you wash, you purify not only yourself but sentient beings. Not only are your obscurations purified, but all sentient beings’ obscurations are purified. For example, the first time washing with water, the disturbing thought obscurations are purified. Then, by putting soap, then washing the subtle obscurations, shedrib, of all sentient beings, not only yours, all sentient beings are purified,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in this video clip, recorded during the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy in October 2017.
“So you can think the same thing when you clean with soap the teeth. First purify the nyondrib, disturbing thought obscurations, yours and all sentient beings. Then second, put the toothpaste and washing, then subtle obscurations purified, not only yours and all sentient beings as well, like that. …
“There is no business in the world that can compete with bodhichitta benefits. So with the motivation of bodhichitta any action you do, then always increases and causes enlightenment. And after enlightenment what you can do is amazing, amazing, amazing. …”
Watch the entire teaching on “How to Think When Washing or Brushing Your Teeth”:
https://youtu.be/7o8_-TmHW2g
Watch complete teachings—with translations in French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as English transcripts—from the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/
Find more video clips from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F6A5E3C2873F2EA
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.
12
“Cherishing the I is opening the door for all the problems, all the obstacles, all the undesirable things; and cherishing others is the source of all the happiness, opening the door for all the happiness for oneself. As I mentioned before, moment to moment, day to day, moment to moment, peace and happiness, when we generate this thought, when we transform our mind into this bodhichitta, then up to enlightenment, we achieve all the happiness from this. And from our bodhichitta numberless sentient beings receive happiness. All the happiness is received from our bodhichitta,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in a teaching just published in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive December 2017 E-letter.
“So now, we put it this way. If we generated bodhichitta, if we changed our mind, our attitude, like Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did, like Maitreya Buddha did, if we changed our mind like them, then we would have been enlightened already. Then the numberless sentient beings who are dependent on us to receive teachings or to be guided, who are dependent on us—the numberless sentient beings who are dependent on us to receive guidance—they would have been enlightened already. The numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, suras and asura beings who are suffering unimaginably now, they would have been enlightened already. But because we did not change our attitude; we kept the ego, the self-cherishing thought in our heart; we followed that and never changed; therefore these numberless sentient beings of each realm are still suffering unimaginably.
“Guru Shakyamuni, Maitreya Buddha and so forth, changed their attitude inconceivable eons ago and already enlightened numberless sentient beings. Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, they enlighten numberless sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, we can’t wait, we can’t stand it, we can’t wait, it’s so unbearable, we can’t wait. How urgent it is, because there are numberless other beings who are suffering, who are dependent on us to receive guidance.
“We can understand by the example of how many sentient beings there are who are dependent on us to receive guidance. For example, in this life after we met the Dharma, then how many—many of us can use that example—how many people have met Dharma by our talking to them, only then they met Dharma. Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, only after they met us and heard teachings about meditation, then they got inspired and they continued to learn and follow the path, so how many people that happened for. That is an example, so there are numberless other sentient beings who are dependent on us to receive guidance in order to achieve enlightenment. Therefore, we need to generate bodhichitta without delaying even for a second.
“And then, we need to let go of the I and cherish sentient beings. We need to generate bodhichitta. We can’t wait, we can’t delay, it’s unbearable to delay even for a second, a minute or a second.” …
You can read the complete teaching, which was given during a retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini in France in 2003, in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive December 2017 E-Letter:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-174-december-2017
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.
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*powered by Google TranslateTranslation of pages on fpmt.org is performed by Google Translate, a third party service which FPMT has no control over. The service provides automated computer translations that are only an approximation of the websites' original content. The translations should not be considered exact and only used as a rough guide.It’s the foggy mind, the mind that’s attracted to an object and paints a distorted projection onto it, that makes you suffer. That’s all. It’s really quite simple.