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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving advice at a picnic organized by Shantideva Meditation Center in a park next to the Hudson River in New York City. Rinpoche explained about the ancient Tara statue that he always carries, which he had in his previous life and kept all the time with him, August 2016. Photo by Roger Kunsang.
On July 31, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Twitter page this very brief teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
Rinpoche; everything is in your hand, your happiness, your suffering, all up to you, up to your mind. Our potential is unbelievable!
Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings and activities on Rinpoche’s Twitter page.
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 receive FPMT News.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live at the Light of the Path Retreat in August 2016 on FPMT’s YouTube channel. Streaming will be available in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Danish. Backup live streaming in English will also be available on Livestream.com. All video and audio recordings of the 2016 teachings, as well as transcripts, will be made available on the “Rinpoche Available Now” page on FPMT.org soon after the teaching.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at LOP 2014, Blue Ridge Assembly, NC, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Light of the Path Retreat 2016 with Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins on Sunday, August 14, at 5 p.m. local time (UTC -5). This retreat is the fourth in a series of teaching retreats led by Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.
You can enjoy all of these teachings in real time on FPMT’s YouTube channel. Streaming will be available in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese. Backup live streaming in English will also be available on Livestream.com.
UPDATE, August 15: Due to technical difficulties, live streaming is currently only available in English on FPMT’s Livestream page. Check it for updates on live streaming:
http://livestream.com/FPMT/LOP2016
The retreat, which concludes on August 28, takes place at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in rural Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States. Kadampa Center, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, organized the retreat.
Even if you miss the live streamed teachings, all video and audio recording of the 2016 teachings, as well as transcripts, will be available on the “Rinpoche Available Now” page on FPMT.org soon after.
Many resources and materials have been developed from the previous precious retreat teachings:
- All teachings from the 2009, 2010 and 2014 are available on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
- Together with many additional resources, the Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings. Organized into structured modules, you will find this program on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Thubten Tendar offering an incense puja at Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“In America it sometimes happens that small schoolchildren kill many people. Not only small children but adults as well. This happened last year and, from time to time, it has happened before; suddenly, surprisingly. I’m sure it’s not only in America but in the rest of the world as well,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in this excerpted from the forthcoming book Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“For example, in America they have talked for years without ever deciding about the right to have guns. At present, everybody can have a gun, so if your enemy or somebody shoots at you, you can shoot back. That seems to be the ordinary mind in America. And so it has happened many times that even young children have killed many people.
“After such a shooting incident, people talk about it on TV and elsewhere for weeks and weeks and weeks. They wonder how a small child could kill so many people. They talk and talk and talk but there is no solution. Once, after a man had killed many people, they checked for insanity but found he was a normal person, or what they call a ‘normal’ person. He was just doing a normal job and living a normal life, like those who are regarded as sane by the government and other organizations. On that particular day, however, his way of thinking suddenly changed, he got a gun and killed many people. This happened.
“Everybody was very surprised. On CNN, Anderson Cooper demanded to know how this could happen, but at the same time said he knew people wouldn’t have an answer. To his mind there was no answer as to how to stop this kind of killing. I’m sorry to say this but he was wrong, there is a way. If the killer had met the Dharma and listened to the teachings of the Omniscient One, he would know there is a method to transform his mind so that such things wouldn’t happen. The method is to purify past negative karma, the obscurations, not just from this life but also from all the beginningless rebirths; to confess and purify. If he could have purified the obscurations that caused him to change his mind and kill all those people, that negative thought would not have arisen and the shooting would not have happened. People might be shocked at what I’m saying but this is the solution.
“Similarly, if the victims of the shooting had known the practice of purification then the result of being killed would not have happened. This is possible. In that way, both victim and perpetrator need purification.
“There is a method, there is something we can do, and that is to work with the mind, not simply to try to effect change from outside but to transform the mind. It’s a purely mental action. Just working with the mind can do that. But unfortunately, because these people have not met the Dharma, they don’t know the method, the solution.
“That is the reason I want to talk about the mind, about how to transform the mind, to stop thinking in unhealthy, nonvirtuous ways that brings problems to others and ourselves and to transform the mind into a positive way of thinking, to be able to live the happiest, most positive life. …”
Read this excerpt in its entirety in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive June 2016 E-letter:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-156-june-2016
Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Gordon McDougall, contains teachings Rinpoche gave in the United Kingdom in July 2014. Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive publishes the new free book in August 2016. For more:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/sun-devotion-stream-blessings
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org, including post on Rinpoche’s recent trip to Bhutan.
If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tso Pema, India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Even if other people don’t practice the good heart, still we should practice the good heart because we want happiness and we don’t want suffering. Even if other sentient beings don’t practice the good heart or they try to harm us, cause us loss, kill us and so forth, if we practice only the good heart from our own side – if we are kind and only benefit others with our body, speech and mind or at the very least we don’t cause harm to other sentient beings, then we will experience happiness,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive E-Letter for August 2011.
“As a result of one act of kindness, the good heart, we will experience the result, happiness, for thousands of lifetimes. From that one act of kindness, benefiting someone with our body, speech and mind or at the least not harming another, the result is happiness. This is the result, even if we are looking only for our own happiness.
“Generating the good heart helps all sentient beings, and at least not harming sentient beings purifies instantly our negative karmas and defilements created from beginningless rebirth and we collect unbelievable merit.
“It is mentioned in the Bodhicaryavatara by the great holy being, the bodhisattva Shantideva, that even thinking about healing the headache of sentient beings has benefit. No question if we are actually working for the happiness of all sentient beings. There is no need to mention the benefit from that, the most unbelievable, unbelievable great benefit that has. …”
You can read this complete advice on having a good heart, which was given by Rinpoche in June 2011 at Kopan Monastery, in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive August 2011 E-Letter:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-99-august-2011
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org, including posts on Rinpoche’s recent trip to Bhutan.
If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Damien van Effenterre.
“The fourth limb of the seven-limb practice is rejoicing. This is a very important practice and we should do it each day as many times as possible. It is the easiest way to accumulate merit,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Eletter for May 2016. “By doing this practice we can accumulate merit as infinite as space. Rejoicing increases merit, like investing $100 and then constantly receiving interest until we have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and then millions of dollars. When we rejoice, the merit increases greatly.
“It is said in the teachings that among the virtues, or good karmas, the best one to practice is rejoicing. In other words, if we want to create good luck, rejoicing is the best way. People usually think that luck is something that comes from its own side. That’s completely wrong. It is not that luck suddenly comes from outside, without our having to create it. Luck comes from our mind. If we experience good luck, it’s luck that we have created with our mind. If we are going to experience luck, we have to have created it. There is no way we can experience luck that other people have created or independent luck, which has no creator. We create our own luck by having faith in karma and by knowing how to practice Dharma. With the seven-limb practice, mandala offering, bodhicitta, meditation on emptiness and the various other practices, as well as with Vajrayana practice, we create so much good luck.
“Among the virtues, rejoicing is the best, because it is the easiest one to practice. It simply involves our mind thinking, and the merit we accumulate is infinite. If we rejoice in our own merit, we accumulate more merit than we actually accumulated by doing the virtuous action. When we rejoice in the merit of other sentient beings, if their level of mind is lower than ours, we accumulate more merit than they accumulated; but if their level of mind is higher than ours, we get half or a quarter of that merit. If we rejoice in the merit one bodhisattva accumulates in one day, we accumulate half or a quarter of that merit. If we were going to accumulate the merit that one bodhisattva accumulates in one day, it would take us 15,000 years without rejoicing, but by rejoicing we can accumulate in a few seconds the merit that would otherwise have taken us 15,000 years.
“Generally in our life we should practice rejoicing as much as possible. We should rejoice whenever we see good things happening to other people. When other people develop their Dharma practice and have realizations, have education, wealth, happy families or many friends, we should always think how wonderful it is. When somebody succeeds in business or any other good thing happens to them, we should always rejoice, thinking, ‘How good it is! How wonderful it is!’ It then becomes the best business for us. Why? Because by rejoicing we are creating the cause for success, success in our Dharma practice, success in benefiting sentient beings and the teachings, and success in even the ordinary activities of this life. By rejoicing, we are creating the best cause for success. But if we feel jealous of other people’s success, which is the opposite of rejoicing, we create obstacles for our own success. It is important to understand this and to practice rejoicing. …”
Read this entire teaching on rejoicing in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Eletter for May 2016:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-155-may-2016
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org, including posts on Rinpoche’s recent trip to Bhutan.
If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Taktsang (Tiger’s Nest) Monastery in Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Damien van Effenterre.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s definition of “holiday” is:
- The mind abiding in correctly following the virtuous friend.
- The mind abiding in renunciation of samsara.
- The mind abiding in bodhichitta.
- The mind abiding in emptiness.
- The mind abiding in tantra path – the two stages.
- The completion of your holiday is when you cease all the obscurations and complete all the realizations.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org, including posts on Rinpoche’s recent trip to Bhutan.
If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting Arya Sanghata Sutra for Ven. Kunsang, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent recorded advice to the French monk Ven. Thubten Kunsang and his caregivers during the final days of Ven. Kunsang’s life. Ven. Kunsang passed away on July 24 in India. He had traveled in Rinpoche’s entourage for many years, recording Rinpoche’s talks, taking photographs of Rinpoche, and cooking for Rinpoche. Ven. Kunsang received a diagnosis of cancer in very early January 2016 while in India and remained there for treatment and to prepare for his death, receiving advice from Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) and prayers from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In his first recording for Ven. Kunsang, Rinpoche advised Ven. Kunsang to listen with full attention to Rinpoche reading lines from the Arya Sanghata Sutra. Rinpoche said that even listening to a few lines purifies and creates much merit.
“It purifies completely the heaviest negative karma – killing one’s father and mother, killing an arhat, drawing blood from a buddha and causing disunity amongst the Sangha,” Rinpoche said. “So that means, when that’s purified, there is no question about the normal 10 non-virtuous actions. They all get purified, okay?
“And then it is said, there is no returning from enlightenment, your life is always going towards enlightenment, no returning to [the] lower realm, at all. And it is said that by hearing Arya Sanghata Sutra, you don’t get reborn in lower realms for 3,000 eons, 30,000 eons, 30,000 and 1,000 eons, you don’t get reborn [in the] lower realm.
“So then you collect unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merit, like making offerings of all the pleasures to as many buddhas as 12 times the sand grains in the River Ganga in India. Just by listening to the Arya Sanghata Sutra, you collect that much merit – unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! So you need to rejoice!”
Rinpoche also told Ven. Kunsang that as Kyabje Choden Rinpoche has said, as a Buddhist, one doesn’t have to be afraid of being reborn in the lower realms, because you can take refuge with the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Rinpoche ended his messages to Ven. Kunsang with “See you soon!”
LISTEN TO “LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE’S ADVICE TO VEN. KUNSANG” ON YOUTUBE:
https://youtu.be/2gYRAaNjkd0
Unedited transcript of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice to Ven. Kunsang”
Unedited transcript of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice to Ven. Kunsang, Part 2”
Rinpoche also recorded a message for Ven. Kunsang’s caregivers. Rinpoche instructed them to say the name mantra of the buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chän in the dying person’s ear loudly: CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO. As advised by the great bodhisattva Khunu Lama Rinpoche, this prevents rebirth in the lower realms. Rinpoche also advised reciting the names of the seven Medicine Buddhas, the Heart Sutra, lam-rim prayers, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s name mantra and other mantras and prayers.
Unedited transcript of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Helping People Who Are Dying”
More advice from Rinpoche on death is freely available on the page fpmt.org/death. Rinpoche’s recent book How to Enjoy Death, published by Wisdom Publications, also shares in detail the prayers and practices to be done in preparation for death and at time of death.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Bear Mountain, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Recently in July, Ogmin Jangchub Sishu Tsogpa, the association of former Kopan Monastery Sherpa monks and nuns living in New York, US, hosted a picnic for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Bear Mountain State Park, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) up the Hudson River from New York City. Last year when Rinpoche was in New York, he also had a picnic with the Sherpa people there. New York City reportedly has the largest settlement of Sherpa people outside of Nepal and India, numbering 2,500. Rinpoche has a strong connection with the Sherpas as he shares that ethnic background, coming from the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal. Ven. Roger Kunsang, FPMT CEO and assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, was at the picnic and shared this report with Mandala:
On our arrival at the park, we went to the top of the mountain and there was an incredible view of the lake and forests below. Then the Sherpas offered tea. Out of nowhere came a group of Korean nuns and monks. They seemed to know of Rinpoche and wanted to make offerings and prostrations. Then Rinpoche went down to the lake to have lunch. After lunch, we rented a boat and zig-zagged back and forth across the lake, blessing it and all the creatures in it. We sprinkled blessed water that had thousands of mantras recited on it. And also blessed the lake with a Padmasambhava relic and by holding the blessed power cylinder above the water (it has so many powerful mantras inside).
Korean monks and nuns making prostrations to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on top of Bear Mountain, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his attendant Ven. Sangpo Sherpa with a group of Korean monks and nuns on top of Bear Mountain, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Walking next to the lake at Bear Mountain State Park, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
After blessing the lake, Rinpoche continued with an oral transmission from last year – three more pages of the Vajra Cutter Sutra. Rinpoche didn’t finish but he said he will continue next year. Prior to the lung, which took about five or six minutes, the motivation, which was on the lam-rim, took about two hours. It included teachings on how to educate children, since the Sherpa children are Buddhist, so their life can become highly meaningful and worthwhile, and explaining, among other things, about offerings.
Rinpoche said that one is not just placing offerings on an altar but actually offering, thinking of the Buddha and offering correctly to the Buddha. “This makes life so worthwhile. Incredible, the benefits of offering – beyond our concept! You get numberless great merit from just seeing the image of the Buddha, which I have explained many times. Unbelievable infinite merit! So actually offering to the Buddha, make offerings to the Buddha is far greater merit. Can you imagine! I gave the example many times, hard to imagine the infinite great merit.”
Then the Sherpas offered a dance and sang a song of offering long life to Rinpoche, which they did very nicely.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Sherpa picnic at Bear Mountain State Park, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Sherpa dancers at the picnic at Bear Mountain State Park, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Group photo from the picnic at Bear Mountain State Park, New York, US, July 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Then they all came up for blessings from Rinpoche. Rinpoche said as you take blessings from the powerful mantras, etc., think that you have purified all the negative karmas created since beginingless time. All received blessing strings, Namgyälma mantras, which has so many benefits, and bodhi seeds from the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, which Rinpoche said to eat straight away.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Dzongdrakha, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited many sacred places connected with Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) during his June 2016 trip to the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan. In addition to the holy sites of Guru Rinpoche’s body and speech, Rinpoche visited Dzongdrakha, the place of Guru Rinpoche’s mind. According to Lonely Planet, “Dzongdrakha is one of several local sites where Guru Rinpoche suppressed local demons …. A string of four chapels and a large chorten perch on the cliff face.”
Dzongdrakha, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Dzongdrakha, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Dzongdrakha, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Dzongdrakha, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
If you’d like to include prayers to Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) in your practice, FPMT Education Services offers PDFs of three prayers:
- Requesting Prayer to Padmasambhava
- Prayer to Clear Obstacles on the Path
- Illuminating the Obstacles and Accomplishing the Wishes
You can read all of our blog posts about Rinpoche’s recent trip to Bhutan 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.
The road up to Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang. The road was completed only a few years ago.
Towards the end of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to Bhutan in June, Rinpoche went to Dongkarla Lhakhang, one of the highest holy sites in Bhutan at an elevation of 11,975 feet (3,650 meters).
View from Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The temple was built in the 15th century by Terton Tshering Dorji and houses sacred relics, “including ‘Neychhen,’ a statue of Buddha brought to Bhutan by Guru Rinpoche, which was later discovered by Terton Pema Lingpa in Bumthang,” according to the Bhutan Observer. Dongkarla Lhakhang received significant damage from the September 2011 earthquake in Bhutan, but has been slowly rebuilt.
Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Dongkarla overlooks some of the highest mountain passes of Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered an incense puja during his visit.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Thubten Tendar doing an incense puja at Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering an incense puja at Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Damien van Effenterre.
Ven. Roger Kunsang during the incense puja at Dongkarla Lhakhang, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Damien van Effenterre.
View from Dongkarla Lhakhang, elevation 11,975 (3,650 meteres), Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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 offering blessing strings and Namgyälma protections at Drakarpo, the holy site of Guru Rinpoche’s body, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In June 2016, Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent most of his time visiting holy sites in Bhutan. Rinpoche was very taken by the country because of its unique policies and values, including the coining and promotion of the concept of Gross National Happiness; its accomplishment of carbon neutrality and negativity; a total ban on hunting; no use of plastic bags; and the 2010 Tobacco Control Act, which bans the “the cultivation, harvesting, production, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products” as well as smoking tobacco in most places. The Tobacco Control Act “recognizes the harmful effects of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke on both spiritual and social health” and reflects Padmasambhava’s teachings on the effects of tobacco smoke.
The country is the only Buddhist kingdom in the world and Dharma greatly influences how it is run. Also, any casual observer will notice how Dharma is embedded into daily life, with holy objects incorporated into the public sphere. “Rinpoche is keen to give the place as much exposure as possible,” Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and Rinpoche’s assistant, emailed during the visit.
Paro Taktsang (Tiger’s Nest), Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The beauty and inspiration Western Dharma practitioners find while visiting Bhutan is not without complications. Long-time student and FPMT-registered teacher Renate Ogilvie, who visited Bhutan in 2011 at the official invitation of the then prime minister and later in 2012 and 2013, offered her account of this country facing the pressures of Western influence:
“Bhutan is undergoing rapid changes as it has begun to open up to the glittering samsara of the West. The Dharma, which is still practiced and taught in a predominantly traditional monastic way, will eventually be influenced and changed in turn.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting Tashichö Dzong, which contains the seat of the Bhutanese government as well as a monastery and 30 temples, Thimphu, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Tashichö Dzong Monastery in Thimphu, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Following an invitation by the then prime minister, I visited a number of schools and colleges across the country to give talks about Buddhism and life in the West. Lama Zopa Rinpoche had given me specific additional teachings about the nature and preciousness of the Dharma. This was received with great courtesy, but another theme slowly emerged as the students overcame their shyness and began to offer their opinions.
“Speaking in English, the language now preferred by the young, they described traditional Bhutan, the local language Dzongkha, and the olden ways as old-fashioned and unrelated to their life, and Buddhism as the domain of grandmothers and the clergy. The students were astonished to hear that Buddhism in the West is considered not only modern, but also a pioneering form of spiritual movement in a sea of materialism.
Prayer wheels at Kyichu Lhakhang, Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche watching a young boy covering his mouth in respect coming towards him, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“They were too polite to mention it, but they were clearly surprised that a lay person (and woman!) like myself was also a teacher of the Dharma. Even more surprising and fascinating to them was the idea that the teachings of the Buddha could be used for everyday life problems, and that transforming the mind would set them free.
Dzongdrakha, the place of Guru Rinpoche’s mind, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“The change in Bhutan is unstoppable. During several subsequent visits to that hauntingly beautiful country, I witnessed the ever more intense embrace of the doubtful blessings of the West. There is a real need to prevent the Dharma from gradually becoming a respected but dusty irrelevancy for the new generations of Bhutan. Several precious teachers are already setting up educational centers with comprehensive Dharma study programs for monks and nuns, and increasingly open to lay students.
“In addition, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is now stressing the necessity of integrating the ethical aspects of the Dharma in the general school curriculum of Bhutan by using the principles developed by Lama Yeshe for Universal Education. This is a potentially major FPMT project that will need funds and energy.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving a talk and reciting mantras to people living in a clinic who are waiting for kidney transplants or who are on dialysis, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche circumambulates his rootop veranda altar, Taiwan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In May 2016, Lama Zopa Rinpoche made a private visit to Taiwan. Over his short stay, Rinpoche converted the rooftop veranda of Shakyamuni Center, where he was staying, into a beautiful practice space for circumambulation. A table with a large main stupa and many tsa-tsas was set up and Rinpoche went out a few times to shop for offerings, including potted flowers and trees. Rinpoche circumambulated the table a few times each day.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche circumambulates the rootop veranda altar at night, Taiwan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s rootop veranda altar, Taiwan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Rinpoche consistently emphasizes the benefits of circumambulation and the power of holy objects, and takes great interest in illustrating how holy objects can be part of our daily lives. At Kachoe Dechen Ling, Rinpoche’s house in California, for example, stupas were installed according to Rinpoche’s advice so that they can be walked around when talking on the phone and as part of the daily comings and goings.
A stupa surrounded by other holy objects and offerings at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s house in Aptos, California, US, 2015. Rinpoche also has mantras above the doorway to bless anyone who walks through.
You can read the complete advice “How to Make Talking on the Telephone Beneficial” online as well as Rinpoche’s advice on the “Benefits of Having Many Holy Objects.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice on Circumambulation is a short practice that can be done to make one’s practice of circumambulating holy objects as powerful as possible.
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.