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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and students participating in the retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, April 2011. Photo by George Manos.
More than ten years ago, nearly 200 students participated in a retreat of a lifetime with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. This was the first of the Australia retreat series—co-hosted by the Great Stupa, Atisha Centre, and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery—in which Rinpoche would focused on Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and the transmission of the rare Rinjung Gyatsa initiations. However, the April 2011 retreat is also remembered as the time when Rinpoche manifested the symptoms of a stroke.
“This became an intense teaching on so many levels for all of us, whether we were physically present at the retreat or back in our daily lives. The importance of making your life meaningful is resonating in my mind and how we really need to put effort into transforming our minds,” Helen Patrin told Mandala at the time. (For more, read “The Retreat of a Lifetime: Guru Devotion in Australia with Lama Zopa Rinpoche” and “When the Guru Manifests a Stroke: Ordinary Appearances and Extraordinary Teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche” from Mandala July-September 2011.)
Ven. Thubten Kunsang, the French monk who until his death in 2016 recorded Rinpoche’s teaching, created two short videos of the 2011 retreat. The first video shares many scenes with Rinpoche, including showing the open structure of the Great Stupa, where the teachings were held, before the Stupa’s exterior was complete. Other scenes include Rinpoche blessing insects, talking about the Mani caps, doing preta practice, and discussing the Namgyalma mantra. The video concludes with Rinpoche reminding us how our lives are all a hallucination.
Watch the archival video by Ven. Kunsang of Rinpoche at the 2011 Great Stupa Retreat:
https://youtu.be/GZcTZQr5sJY
In the second video, students are shown doing Lama Chopa (Guru Puja) after Rinpoche manifested a stroke and was staying in the hospital. More than 250 students attended the powerful and touching puja, which was held in front of the large Guru Rinpoche statue in the Great Stupa at the conclusion of the retreat and featured a display of holy relics.
Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la), who was in Dharamsala, India, was consulted by Ven. Roger Kunsang on Rinpoche’s illness and had recommended, among other practices, the puja, which was also attended by the FPMT resident geshes from Melbourne and Sydney.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has often spoken about the benefits of doing Lama Chopa. During the 2018 retreat at the Great Stupa, Rinpoche explained:
“Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen checked all the guru yogas, what made the great Indian yogis—Saraha, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, etc.—and the four sects’ great enlightened beings—Chokyi Dorje, Gyalwa Ensapa, etc.—achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime during degenerate times. He checked all the guru yogas that they practiced and put them together here in Lama Chopa. He put them together after checking them all. At the end of Lama Chopa is lamrim, the whole path to enlightenment; the essence of lamrim is there. There is lojong to transform the mind from an ordinary mind into the path of enlightenment. (Actually, the whole lamrim is lojong, but there is a particular part called ‘lojong’ that comes at the end.) By thinking of their benefits, you look at all the undesirable things as positive, using them in the path to achieve enlightenment quickly. It is all there in Lama Chopa. It is complete. Kyabje Phabongkha Rinpoche says, ‘Every day, if you get to practice Lama Chopa, then you are able to practice the condensed vital points of sutra and tantra, the complete path.’”
Watch the archival video of students doing Lama Chopa during the 2011 retreat at the Great Stupa:
https://youtu.be/CuhCpc6UW_8
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
Read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
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 during His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 8, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama offered a teaching on February 8, 2021, at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization on Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin).
At the beginning and conclusion of the teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche read an introduction and dedication that he had composed for the teaching in Tibetan and made mandala offerings to His Holiness. The following is an English translation of Rinpoche’s introduction and dedication.
Introduction
The great compassion of all the ten-direction, three-time buddhas manifested in human form,
Chenrezig, Supreme Being, Compassionate-Eye-Looking One, the karmic deity of the Snow Land of Tibet,
The sole object of refuge of us transmigratory beings—human beings, devas, asuras, hell beings, pretas, and animals—every single one,
Your Eminence, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for world peace and happiness,
The guide of devas and human beings, the refuge-savior, wish-granting jewel who is always extremely busy enacting holy activities,
Out of your great compassion, thank you for your kindness in granting us, the students of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, the teaching of the holy Dharma of Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View. For that, I, a humble disciple, Thubten Zopa, on behalf of the FPMT, wish to express the compassion of your incalculable kindness.
[A mandala offering is made.]
By the sound of the great drum of Dharma,
May you set suffering sentient beings free.
Please teach us the Dharma and live
For inconceivable tens of millions of eons.
Like Bodhisattva Always Crying One followed Cho Phag,
Without being distracted by all—our body, life, and possessions,
May we please our holy virtuous friend well
And never displease you even for a second.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Vens. Topgye and Tendar watching His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 8, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Conclusion and Dedication
[A short thanksgiving mandala is offered.]
The wish-granting, wish-fulfilling jewel,
Source of every single benefit and happiness in this world,
The incomparably kind, supreme Tenzin Gyatso,
May your life be long and all your holy wishes be spontaneously fulfilled.
Today our refuge-savior, the omniscient one, has kindly granted us Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View. Even if we FPMT students were to fill the whole sky with wish-granting jewels and offer them to you, our refuge-savior, the omniscient one, and even if we were to achieve full enlightenment, how could we ever repay your kindness? There is no way for us to ever repay it.
That in this world Buddhism is considered by scientists and scholars to be so precious and valuable, and that each year Tibetans are held in good regard by more and more people, as human beings who are sincere in nature with good thoughts to benefit others, is totally and solely due to your kindness, precious refuge-savior.
But I, an ignorant one, have explained this. If there are people who can’t accept it, then the Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso, said:
“In the view of the mind stirred up by delusions and spirit possession,
Even though we feel it is right, it is like the dancing act of a crazy one.
However many multitudes of vices looked down upon by the holy beings have been done,
From the depths of the heart, confess them individually with fervent regret.”
It is like that, but the difference is that, in the view of the mind stirred up by delusion or by spirit possession, feeling that the Pure One is bad is like the dancing act of a crazy one. Whatever collection of vices have been done that are looked down upon by the holy beings, from the heart, with strong regretfulness, individually confess them.
In the Madhyamika philosophy: “A container full of that which is wet and moist appears as water to human beings. But for those of greater fortune, the devas, it appears as nectar, while for those who lack merit, the pretas, it appears as pus and blood. It is helpful to think in that way.”
The Seventh Dalai Lama also said:
“The old mother sentient beings who have guided us with kindness again and again
Have fallen into the midst of a blazing fire of suffering.
Since we don’t have the ability to save them now,
Please bless us to quickly achieve enlightenment.”
Precious refuge-savior, whatever holy actions you do with your body, speech, and mind, even breathing in and out, they are all only a method for us transmigratory beings to quickly achieve the state of buddhahood.
The sublime, precious refuge-savior is like the eye looking at and the heart inside the body of this southern world and, in particular, the Snow Land of Tibet. Please remain until our samsara ends.
In the past Your Holiness visited many FPMT centers and granted us your holy teachings, guiding us with great compassion. We thank you for your peerless kindness.
I one-pointedly request that you continue to guide Tibetans in general and the students of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition in all our lives, without separation.
Screenshot of Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Vens. Topgye and Tendar. Rinpoche is listening to His Holiness the Dalai Lama talk to him, February 8, 2021
His Holiness’s Response
After the dedication, His Holiness declared, “Zopa Rinpoche and I have known each other a long time. We are trusted friends. You and your teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe founded many centers around the world to help others. Rinpoche, you have done your best, thank you. Please be determined to keep up your efforts. What you have achieved cannot be overlooked. Thank you and Tashi Delek.”
Watch the teaching and find links to resources
Students can watch a recording of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching “Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song on the View” on DalaiLama.com.
Download the PDF of the English translation of Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin).
You can read a detailed summary of His Holiness’s teaching and question and answer session on DalaiLama.com.
Find explanatory notes of Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View by Geshe Kelsang Wongmo on the FPMT “Prayers and Practices Free Downloads” page.
Find translations of the text on DalaiLama.com in:
For more live teachings and video recordings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, visit DalaiLama.com.
Read our earlier story on this event: “FPMT Community Rejoices for Teaching with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”
Currently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is taking a break from offering his video series Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. Find links to the ninety published videos in this series as well as transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
A young Kopan monk making light offerings on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Of course by purifying negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth and by collecting extensive merits, this allows you to have realizations on the path to enlightenment and for your mind to change,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche. “There is always hope the mind can change, even to achieve enlightenment, so you can achieve a higher rebirth, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment.”
“Vajrasattva practice is so important generally, and especially nowadays in the world, when there is not only global warming, but many other problems. There are so many other dangers—of war and sicknesses, cancer, and so many people whom you know are dying. There are so many sicknesses and other conditions for dying.”
“This Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices are the ultimate answer, so everything in the world—what you see, every situation—tells you to practice Vajrasattva. To purify and do Vajrasattva practice is the ultimate answer, to stop the cause to be reborn in the lower realms and the immediate [result] is to have a higher rebirth, to make preparation for death and then to meet the Dharma, to meet the virtuous friend who reveals the path to enlightenment. Then to achieve ultimate happiness, to be free from samsara and to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings and to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.”
From “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/benefits-vajrasattva-practice
You can find resources to support your Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices on the new Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
The cover photo for Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison by Lama Zopa Rinpoche; Rinpoche is enjoying the flower offerings at the Jewel, Singapore, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison is a new book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who serves as the spiritual director of the Liberation Prison Project, asked Ven. Robina Courtin, who ran the project until 2009, to compile the more than one hundered letters he had written over the years in response to people in prison who’d contacted him. She edited Rinpoche’s spiritual advice into a narrative that covers all points of the path to enlightenment.
About the book: “Direct and uncompromising, Rinpoche makes it crystal clear that being in prison is a perfect opportunity for developing the radical approach, perfected by all great Tibetan practitioners, of transforming despair and hopelessness into happiness and liberation.
“The extent of the heartfelt compassion and love that Rinpoche offers the people who write to him is incredible. He empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others.
“This advice is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us.”
Here’s a short excerpt from Chapter 1:
Prison Is Not the Real Prison
Living one’s life under the control of ignorance is actually the heaviest prison—and everyone is living in it.
The inner prison
People who are not in prison think that only people like you are in prison, but they have no idea about all the prisons they themselves are in. Ordinary people, those who are not practicing Dharma—including people from the courts, the police, kings, and presidents—are actually living in prison. People who are free to travel around, going wherever they want, doing whatever they like, or billionaires who think they have everything, all the desire objects, are all living in prison. Your external prison, the building you live in, is nothing in comparison with their inner prisons! It is very important to look at other sentient beings in this world and see how much they are suffering. They are the real prisoners. There are so many examples of this, people who are suffering so much, their inner life is so miserable, they are crying and unhappy. Wealthy people, for example, having so many things but still not having found satisfaction, can be more unhappy than people who have very little. Even if they’re billionaires, trillionaires, zillionaires, living in a house made of diamonds, with billons of cars, swimming pools, millions of servants—they are not happy. Some years ago, the most successful person of the year was on the cover of Time magazine—successful in making money, that is. After he became rich he couldn’t even go outside, because he was so scared that people would kidnap him. So he stayed inside his whole life, which means it was exactly like living in prison, mentally living in prison, and mentally suffering even more than a person in prison. So much suffering!
The prison of wrong concepts
In fact, we are all in these inner prisons. We are trapped in the prison of wrong concepts: believing that impermanent phenomena are permanent; believing that samsaric temporal pleasure is happiness; believing that the body, which is only a container of dirty things, is clean. There are so many wrong concepts and views, and these prisons are from time without beginning.
The prison of attachment
We are living in the most harmful prison, the prison of attachment, of desire. Normally we live just for this life’s happiness. We look at samsara as if it’s a beautiful park, but in reality it is suffering. When we live with attachment—doing the things that attachment wants twenty-four hours a day, always working for attachment, always clinging to this life—all our actions become negative karma, the cause of samsara. Attachment traps us like a fly trapped in the hot wax of a burning candle. It overtakes us like a giant tidal wave. The result is so many problems, one after the other. Our heart is filled with misery. There is no peace. There is only confusion and dissatisfaction.
The prison of anger
And when we don’t succeed in getting what our attachment wants, anger arises and we harm other sentient beings, thus destroying the causes of our happiness, our merit and good karma. Our mind is wild, not only now but since beginningless rebirths. We are wild, out of control, like a mad elephant.
The prison of self-cherishing
We live in the prison of self-cherishing, living our life with self-cherishing thought. We feel this self is the most important one, more precious than others, the most precious one among all sentient beings. Perhaps we think that we are the most important one even among all the holy beings, the buddhas and bodhisattvas! When we follow the self- cherishing thought, whatever we do, all the actions of our body, speech, and mind, become an obstacle to achieving happiness and, eventually, enlightenment, and an obstacle to liberating numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and leading them to enlightenment. …
For more on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison and to read the complete first chapter:
EnjoyLifeLiberatedFromTheInnerPrison.com
Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison has been published as a fundraiser for Liberation Prison Project by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and sponsored by The Bodhichitta Trust. For the past twenty-five years the Liberation Prison Project has been a lifeline for people in prison worldwide, who turned to it for Buddhist books and spiritual advice in an effort to find meaning in life when everything else was lost.
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.
Kopan monks making light offerings on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 10, 2020, Kopan Monastery. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Tsongkhapa Day, or Ganden Ngamchoe, is a celebration of the anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana. It is celebrated on the 25th day of the 10th month of the Tibetan calendar. This year, Lama Tsongkhapa Day fell on December 10.
Lama Tsongkhapa Day light offerings at Kopan Monastery, December 10, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 10, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Kopan Monastery offered a variety of auspicious activities on this occasion. We are pleased to share this short video of some of the events of the day, including a Heruka Lama Chopa in the morning, the Kopan Lama Gyupas taking Guhyasamaja self initiation, and a clip of Lama Zopa Rinpoche sharing this about light offerings: “Light offering is very important, in particular, by making light offerings you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and develop Dharma wisdom. Any light offering can dispel darkness, it doesn’t have to be just a butter lamp. You can offer electric lights and even the sun.”
The video ends with many monks making light offerings in the dark while circumambulating the stupas on the Kopan grounds.
https://youtu.be/YT0cwI9PEoA
Please join us in rejoicing in all of the powerful and merit-making activities offered around the world in celebration of Lama Tsongkhapa.
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.
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in the garden at Kopan Monastery, November 19, 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.
Rinpoche with his giant birthday cake, which everyone enjoyed.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday is celebrated on December 3. Rinpoche is at Kopan Monastery where he has been for most of the year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Celebrations for Rinpoche’s birthday began at 5:30 a.m. at Kopan with the offering of the Sixteen Arhats Puja. Rinpoche attended and Khadro-la joined the puja and the whole day celebrations. During the puja the body, speech, and mind mandala was offered by Venerable Roger Kunsang on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. What followed was a day of activities including traditional Tibetan dances and dharma sketches, and a large birthday cake offered for all in attendance to enjoy.
During the celebration, Rinpoche took time to explain that there are many ways to make one’s birthday most meaningful including Vajrasattva tsok or Medicine Buddha practice. Otherwise, it’s just a distraction and negative karma following attachment. You can invite your friends to do practice together, whatever is possible, even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM together with the strong thought of impermanence and bodhichitta. One can also think of the knife cutting the cake as cutting one’s ego. This makes even serving the delicious cake so meaningful! This way, you are not just wasting time.
Kopan Monstery monks looking on during Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebration.
Please enjoy this short video of the young Kopan monks singing happy birthday to Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://youtu.be/qpsLg3u-g5I
As Rinpoche is continually stressing: The purpose of life is to benefit sentient beings and not harm them. Rinpoche’s entire life has been an example of this: tirelessly benefiting others from the smallest and most vulnerable among us including insects or animals killed for meat or human pleasure; to the most feared and misunderstood including pretas, nagas, hell beings, and the most deluded and dangerous human beings among us. As Rinpoche explains: Every single happiness you have experienced since beginningless rebirths comes from them, including every ant you see on the road, mosquito flying around, person you don’t like, person who hates you—yes, even your enemy—every happiness comes from them. Numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha—they all came from every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura and asura, every bug that bites you. So who you take refuge in—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—they came from every sentient being, so every sentient being is so precious and so kind.
In 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared a video message from Switzerland on his birthday offering advice on how to best see one’s birthday and the practices that can be done that become the causes for total and complete enlightenment for oneself and for all sentient beings.
https://youtu.be/ajT7srFuHw8
We look forward to sharing more details and photos from Rinpoche’s birthday celebration at Kopan Monastery.
Please join the entire FPMT community and students around the world in offering sincere prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long and healthy life, so that he may continue to show us by his perfect example how to live life to the best of our ability in order to be of most benefit and the least harm to others. You can download Long Life Prayers for 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.
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with flower offering at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. We’ve added a new photo album for the months July through October 2020 with more than eighty photos of day to day life at Kopan Monastery and Nunnery.
Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Thubten Tendar walking around Kopan Monastery (with new gift), Boudhanath, Nepal, August 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.
The photos feature Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the monks and nuns of Kopan. Highlights include the fire puja for purification and healing that Rinpoche did with Khadro-la and other high lamas, a special long life puja for Rinpoche, Kopan’s annual consecration ceremony, and many other teachings, pujas, and daily activities.
See more photos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/
The stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
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, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and Kopan Lama Gyupa monks reciting the Guhyasamaja root tantra on Lhabab Duchen, November 7, 2020, Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
One of the four great holy days on the Buddhist calendar, Lhabab Duchen, took place this year on November 7. FPMT centers and students around the world took this opportunity to engage in meritorious activities as recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Rinpoche is still at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and he, along with the Sangha there, offered a variety of prayers and practices on the special occasion.
Kopan Lama Gyupa monks created the sand mandala of Thirteen-Deity Yamantaka. They completed it the day before Lhabab Duchen. On Lhabab Duchen the monks do the Thirteen-Deity Yamantaka self initiation for three days. On the third day, they offered a peaceful fire puja and dismantled the sand mandala. The following day the sand went into the river. A naga puja followed.
Thirteen-Deity Yamantaka sand mandala constructed by the Kopan Lama Gyupa monks.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi, and the Lama Gyupa monks also recited Guhyasamaja Tantra in Lama Gyupa gompa at Kopan Monastery next to the beautiful Thirteen-Deity sand mandala.
“The Guhyasamaja Tantra holds a special place in the tantric tradition. In the Root Tantra, in the section on the title, it states that every secret of the body, speech, and mind of every tathagata is contained within this tantra. Lama Tsongkhapa says just to read, study, or even come into contact with this tantra is of immense benefit, and that as long as the Guhyasamaja Tantra remains, the teachings of the Buddha remain also, because ‘it is the amulet carrying the Buddhadharma,’” Thubten Jinpa writes in the introduction to A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages by Lama Tsongkhapa.
Please enjoy this video of the recitation of the Guhyasamaja Tantra recitation including footage of the sand mandala:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P7s1gWZqI8
Extensive light offerings were also offered at the monastery in the evening.
“It is mentioned that if we make offerings of light or incense, do prostrations and so forth, we collect numberless great merits,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in Singapore in 2013, when discussing the benefits of offering light. “By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. By offering light, you are never in darkness while you are circling in samsara. There will always be light. And offering light just one time to Buddha creates the karma to have great wealth for many hundreds or thousands of lifetimes. … [We also attain] a higher rebirth, in a pure land. We quickly achieve nirvana, and not only nirvana but also the great nirvana, enlightenment.”
Please enjoy this short video of the offerings:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBSaIOWaj3k&feature=youtu.be
Rinpoche has advised that because merit is multiplied by 100 million on wheel-turning days, we need to “wake up” and not waste the opportunity by being distracted by worldly pleasures and worldly concerns.
Please rejoice in these meritorious practices completed on this holy occasion of Lhabab Duchen this year. May these and all the virtuous activities offered around the world on this special day be the cause for all beings to experience peace.
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.
Watch the video series “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19” and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche attends annual consecration ceremony at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Every year at Kopan Monastery a three-day consecration ceremony is performed by the Lama Gyupa monks. This year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the afternoon session, in the recently rebuilt Chenrezig gompa, of the ceremony’s second day, which was also Chokhor Duchen. (For scenes from the ceremony, please see the video below.)
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with Kopan Lama Gyupa monks during annual consecration ceremony, Kopan Monastery, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The first day began with self-initiation in the morning and the consecration ceremony in the afternoon. On the second day, the practices done included Yamantaka Thirteen Deities sadhana, self-initiation, and increasing fire puja in the morning and the consecration ceremony in the afternoon. On the third day, the practices included Yamantaka Thirteen Deities sadhana, peaceful fire puja, and protector puja and tsog offering.
Please enjoy scenes from the annual consecration ceremony at Kopan Monastery:
https://youtu.be/EDRzJbc79I0
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
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.
Khadro-la; Tsoknyi Rinpoche; Mingyur Rinpoche; Lama Zopa Rinpoche; the Abbot of Shechen Monastery, Yeshe Gyaltsan; the Abbot of Mindroling Monastery, Theckchok Gyaltsan; and Kopan Monastery abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi offering fire pujas. These fire pujas are for all beings and the current world situation, for healing and purifying obstacles, Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
More than forty fire pujas are being done in Nepal to purify and heal the coronavirus pandemic situation and its negative impact in Nepal and around the world.
Based on advice from Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la), several high lamas and abbots in Nepal are participating in the fire pujas, which began earlier in the month. The fire pujas, which require extensive preparations, are being done in different locations in Kathmandu.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a fire puja held at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In a message written on Chokhor Duchen (July 24), Khadro-la explains the purpose of the ritual practices as well as all the practices she has initiated. After acknowledging the supreme importance of the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, she writes:
“In these most decadent of times, the world we live in has become a frightening place. It is if we are being held between the very fangs of the lord of death himself. As such, it is correct to petition the three Rare and Sublime Ones to send forth a downpour of cooling nectar to, extinguish, pacify, and thoroughly wash away the raging fires of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, may improper action and thought, that which serves to belittle and harm others, saber rattling, the readying of weapons, and all forms of warfare be naturally pacified. May virtue increase and be completed in a perfect and timely way and may the sun of truth never set on the plight of the Tibetan people.
“In essence, may the mistaking of appearances, the clouds of grasping at independent existence, co-emergent ignorance, which shower such suffering, be completely blown away, allowing the naturally bright sun—the natural and spontaneously present wisdom, a natural state of emptiness and awareness conjoined which is arisen in of itself and abides inherently awake and self-liberated. It is the primordial nature, the basic-space of the ground that pervades all beings—to rise without impediment in a bright and clear sky; it’s natural and brilliant knowledge and wisdom radiating outwardly as the illumination of the unmistaken mutual dependence of things.
“I considered that if the causes were correctly assembled, the ensuing result would prove meaningful.”
The tantric college monks and other monks offering prayers, while Khadro-la, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the Abbot of Shechen Monastery, the Abbot of Mindroling Monastery, and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi offer the fire pujas, Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
(From left) The Abbot of Shechen Monastery, Khadro-la, Mingyur Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, the Abbot of Mindroling Monastery, and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi in the gardens at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The core group of lamas participating in the fire pujas are Khadro-la; Tsoknyi Rinpoche; Mingyur Rinpoche; Lama Zopa Rinpoche; the Abbot of Shechen Monastery, Yeshe Gyaltsan; and the Abbot of Mindroling Monastery, Theckchok Gyaltsan. They have been joined by Osel Dorje Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and other geshes, depending on the day and location.
(From left) Khadro-la, the Abbot of Shechen Monastery, Mingyur Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, the Abbot of Mindroling Monastery, and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi doing an incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The fire pujas are often accompanied by an incense puja, such as Padmasambhava incense puja or incense puja for the four directions. In total, seven sets of fire pujas will be completed by the six core lamas in the coming weeks.
Please enjoy this inspiring video of scenes from a fire puja at Kopan Nunnery:
https://youtu.be/HAJ6OtrY4Yo
PLease enjoy this inspiring video of scenes from an incense puja at Kopan Monastery:
https://youtu.be/gcXVLpiHJHE
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Ven. Tenpa Chodon, and Ven. Sangpo Sherpa on top of Kopan Hill, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, June 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Now you can see more than seventy photos of day to day life at Kopan under lockdown in a new photo album spanning March through June 2020. In addition to photos of Rinpoche, we’ve collected photos of Kopan monks and staff as they do some of their daily activities.
We’ve also added albums from Rinpoche’s visits to India between December 2019 and February 2020, and Rinpoche’s short visit to Kopan Monastery in January 2020 for a long life puja.
See more photos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/
The Himalayan Mountains seen from Kopan Monastery. With the lockdown, pollution in the Kathmandu Valley decreased enough to no longer obscure views of the mountains, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
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 during the long life puja offered at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in January 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A long life puja was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in January 2020. A long-time student composed the following prayer and praise for the puja. Of it, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “The long life prayer is telling the false and the truth in our life. … This is because this student understands Dharma and is a good writer.”
Long-life Prayer for Kyabje Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
May the incomparable Spiritual Friend,
Who is more precious than a wish-granting jewel,
Have a long, fruitful life and continue guiding us
Along the path he himself has traveled.
Although you have shown us well that the pleasures of samsara
Are nothing more than suffering in disguise,
Still we remain addicted to these transient pleasures,
Grasping onto them as if they were real—
O Guru, please be patient with short-sighted beings like myself
And continue to reveal the truth behind samsara’s lies
Until all of us come to realize that there is no essence at all
In any of the objects of worldly desire.
Although you have shown us well that, despite appearances,
Nothing exists solely from its own side,
And that the hallucination that it does
Is what traps us perpetually in unsatisfactory existence—
O Guru, please be patient with thick-headed beings like myself
Who return empty-handed from the Jewel Island of Dharma,
Having repeatedly heard the words of the teachings,
But have failed to realize their essential meaning.
Although you have shown us well that cherishing ourselves
More than others is the falsest of friends—
It promises us the fulfilment of our innermost desires,
Yet condemns us to perpetual frustration instead—
O Guru, please be patient with slaves of selfishness like myself
Who fail to learn from your perfect example
That service to others is the only source of true happiness,
The only cure for the miseries of the world.
O Guru, who never tires revealing the path to Full Awakening
To those who, like myself, are addicted to sleep,
Please be patient with all our shortcomings
And remain with us until all beings are free.
COLOPHON: Composed in California by the lay devotee Jhampa Togme on January 22, 2020, to coincide with a long-life puja offered to Kyabje Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, by a gathering of his worldwide circle of fortunate disciples. May all our sincere wishes to be continuously cared for by him be fulfilled!
Find more prayers and praises for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the new page “Long Life Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche Composed by Others”:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/prayers-by-others/
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in translation, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
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.