Lama Zopa Rinpoche News

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“In reality, even if we believe that we will live for a long time, that we have so many years to live – like 100 years or more, and maybe after 100 years, we expect another hundred years (I’m joking) – in reality, there is nobody who has lived who has not died,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to the mother of a student, who was worried about death. “Even this big earth has to perish after another great eon. Since every person who is born in this world is under the control of karma and delusion, there is nobody, nobody, since human beings started until now, who has lived without death. There is nobody.

“Buddha has no death, because there is no cause of death. The cause of death is not outside but inside –karma and delusions. Buddha removed this inconceivable eons ago, because he purified the delusions and even the subtle obscurations which interrupt the omniscient mind, so it is impossible for the Buddha to experience death. There is no old age, no sickness, no death for him at all, but he showed holy deeds, passing away in the sorrowless state. If Buddha did not show death, then we would not appreciate his teachings and we would become very lazy. Buddha showed death to destroy the wrong concept of permanence of our lives, which are impermanent, and also to show us that we need to practice Dharma, because of suffering and the cause of suffering. …”

You can read the entire letter “The Cause of Death” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in England, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In February 1990, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a series of teachings as part of the Third Enlightened Experience Celebration, which took place in Bodhgaya, India. His discourse was based on the 15th-century text Opening the Door of Dharma. During the teachings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche described how he came across the text in his late twenties and what it meant to him:

“In 1974, while I was staying in the cave of the previous Lawudo Lama in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal, I decided to check through all the texts that had belonged to him. They were mostly Nyingma texts relating to the practices of various deities, but there was one text that is a fundamental practice of all four Tibetan sects. The text I found was Opening the Door of Dharma: The Initial Stage of Training the Mind in the Graduated Path to Enlightenment.

“A collection of the advice of many Kadampa geshes, Opening the Door of Dharma is by Lodrö Gyaltsen, a disciple of both Lama Tsongkhapa and Khedrub Rinpoche, one of Lama Tsongkhapa’s two spiritual sons. This text describes the initial stage of thought transformation, or mind training – in other words, the first thing to practice if you want to practice Dharma.

“Only when I read this text did I come to know what the practice of Dharma really means. During all the years of my life up until then I had not known. Practicing Dharma is usually regarded as reading scriptures, studying, memorizing, debating, saying prayers, performing rituals, and so forth. It was only when I read this text that I found out how to practice Dharma. I was very shocked that all my past actions had not been Dharma. When I checked back, all those past years of memorizing and saying prayers were not Dharma. From all those years, nothing was Dharma. …”

Rinpoche’s discourse on Opening the Door of Dharma can be read in the book The Door to Satisfaction, edited by Vens. Ailsa Cameraon and Robina Courtain and published by Wisdom Publications. A PDF of the “Foreward” by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpche, “Editor’s Preface” and “Prologue” is available from Wisdom online. The “Prologue” includes Rinpoche’s account of his education, meeting Lama Yeshe and returning to Lawudo as well as the significance of his discovery of Opening the Door of Dharma. 

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the new Amitabha Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“It is not good to leave statues or stupas completely empty. To leave a statue empty is like offering nothing to the buddhas and can create obstacles,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects.”

“Therefore, it is important to put something inside of the statue, even as little as a few mantras and some incense. This is also true when offering statues to your teachers, there should always be something placed inside of them for auspiciousness. If you need to wait a while until your statue/stupa can be properly filled and consecrated, then roll up a copy of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, or the five powerful mantras and place them inside the statue with some incense for the time being. …”

You can read more in FPMT Education Services’ “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects.” Also visit Education Services’ page on “Holy Objects” for more advice and resources.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche after shopping for flowers for offering with Vens. Sherab and Sangpo, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“In the lam-rim, or graduated path to enlightenment, the first meditation outline is the root of the path: how to devote to the virtuous friend. Why is guru devotion the root of the path to enlightenment? Enlightenment is like a ripe fruit, the path to enlightenment is like the trunk of a tree, and guru devotion is like the root of the tree. From the root of guru devotion, the trunk of the path grows in our mind and bears the fruit of enlightenment. Whether or not we can start to develop the path to enlightenment in our mind in this life is determined by our practice of guru devotion,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in The Heart of the Path.

“Proper devotion to the guru, or virtuous friend, is the root of all success, from success in this life up to enlightenment, just as the trunk, branches, leaves and fruit of a tree depend upon its root. Or we can think that guru devotion is like the fuel in a car or a plane, without which the vehicle cannot take us where we want to go. Without guru devotion, nothing happens – no realizations, no liberation, no enlightenment – just as without the root of a tree there can be no trunk, branches, leaves, or fruit. Everything, up to enlightenment, depends on guru devotion.

“Guru devotion is the root not only of ultimate success, achieving full enlightenment and bringing sentient beings to the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment, but also of temporary success and happiness. This practice is the foundation of the development of the whole path to enlightenment, as well as the foundation of all happiness. Since everything comes from the practice of guru devotion, it is called the root of the path. …”

You can read more in this excerpt from “Why Do We Need a Guru?,” the first chapter of the book The Heart of the Path: Seeing the Guru as Buddha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s homepage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“The Medicine Buddha encompasses all the buddhas. This means that when we practice the seven-limb prayer and make offerings with the seven limbs, we receive the same merit as we would if we had made offerings to all the buddhas. Similarly, when we recite the mantra of Medicine Buddha, we collect unbelievable merit just as when we offer the seven-limb practice to Medicine Buddha,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in “The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Practice.”

“To recite the Medicine Buddha mantra brings inconceivable merit. Manjushri requested the eight tathagatas (Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the seven Medicine Buddhas) to reveal a special mantra that would make the prayers they (the eight tathagatas) made in the past (prayers to be able to actualize the happiness of sentient beings by attaining the path to enlightenment and pacifying various problems, to be able to see all the buddhas, and for all wishes to be quickly realized) to quickly come to pass, especially for those sentient beings born in the time of the five degenerations who have small merit and who are possessed and overwhelmed by various diseases and spirit harms.

“During that time, all the eight tathagatas, in one voice, taught the Medicine Buddha mantra. Therefore, if you recite the mantra every day, the buddhas and bodhisattvas will always pay attention to you, and they will guide you. Vajrapani, owner of the secrets, and the four guardians will always protect and guide you. All your negative karmas will be pacified, and you will never be born in the three lower realms. Even just hearing a recitation of the names of the eight tathagatas pacifies all diseases and spirit harms – even spirit harms that arise as a condition of disease – and all your wishes are fulfilled. …”

From the FPMT Education Services’ booklet “The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Practice” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. For more on Medicine Buddha, see “Medicine Buddha Practice for Sickness and Poor Health.”

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping for flowers for offerings, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“People get excited about strange things. I recently saw a group of men kicking a ball into a big net between two sticks and hundreds of thousands of people were cheering and throwing their hands up in the air, while millions watched on television. Everybody was totally out of control with excitement. In fact, their faces were so distorted I couldn’t tell whether they were very happy or in great pain. This World Cup seems extremely important to many people, but it also brings misery and jealousy, as well as anger and hatred when your country beats my country,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in the first chapter of The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment.

“On the other hand, a real cause for excitement and happiness is simply having this human body. If we could truly understand even a tiny part of its value, we would have a million times more reason for jumping in the air and shouting for joy the way those soccer fans do. Every day – every second – we should have a huge feeling of joy in our hearts that we have this precious possession that gives us the opportunity to do whatever we want. With it, we can achieve anything we want, to benefit ourselves and to benefit others.

“In sports and in worldly activities, people are always chasing the best and trying to be first in whatever they do. But winning at the Olympics, climbing Mount Everest, whatever people consider to be a great achievement, is really nothing. We have all done this kind of thing innumerable times, in past lives if not in this one, and it certainly hasn’t made us any happier.

“In fact, in our countless previous lives we have enjoyed every kind of pleasure innumerable times. We have achieved states we can’t even imagine. There is no new pleasure or experience that we have never had. We have been born in god realms where there is no overt suffering at all. We have achieved great powers of concentration, a concentration so profound that, as the great master Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains in his commentary on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment, even a big drum beating right next to our ear could not disturb us. And we have even attained high psychic powers such as clairvoyance and the ability to fly. None of this is new. Such things seem special only because we don’t understand reincarnation and therefore don’t realize that in our beginningless previous lives we have done it all over and over again. …”

You can read more of this excerpt from “What is Dharma?” the first chapter of The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s homepage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“Why retreat on the lam-rim? Because of every single teaching of Buddha, of all three vehicles, even one syllable appears as an instruction, as the practice of one person to achieve enlightenment. Not even one syllable should be left out of Buddha’s teachings. The main goal of every single word of Buddha is to tame the mind, because your heart and mind is the creator of all the suffering of samsara, including the three lower realms. So when you transform your heart, you are the creator of your happiness and peace, liberation and enlightenment,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to students of FPMT’s Basic Program.

“Why specifically lam-rim retreat? Because it has a very special presentation to subdue the mind. The cause of all suffering of all sentient beings, from where all the suffering and problems come from, now and in the future, is the mind. If you analyze throughout your life, you will see this clearly. You can also understand this from what Buddha said:

“Do not engage in any harmful actions; 
Perform only those that are good; 
Subdue your own mind — 
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

“Whatever you do, if it does not subdue the delusions, it is not Dharma.”

You can read more from “Benefits of Retreat on Lam-rim” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other advice on the “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche” page.

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

A statue of Amitabha Buddha carved from the highest quality marble and newly situated at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A nun wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche with questions about practice and expressing her concern at not being able to find time to study and do her practice commitments while she was working at a Dharma center. Here’s part of Rinpoche’s response:

“… The whole essence to making decisions in life is to analyze according to the benefits. What brings you to enlightenment quicker? What brings more benefit to other sentient beings? Don’t get caught up in the words: ‘These are commitments,’ ‘these are preliminary practices,’ or ‘I don’t get time to do this because I have to work for the center.’ Don’t get caught in these labels. You should put your life, and so your main effort, into whatever is most beneficial for sentient beings, what brings enlightenment quickly. That means you can only judge the benefit by thinking of the lam-rim. Without the lam-rim, there is no way to judge what is most beneficial for sentient beings or most beneficial for bringing you to enlightenment quickly.

“Two important things in the lam-rim are bodhichitta and guru devotion. In my view, from what I hear and see in the texts, everything depends first on the practice of guru devotion. So, it seems your decision should be on that basis, because that is the root of the path to enlightenment. As you know, by meditating on the eight advantages of devoting to the guru and disadvantages of not devoting correctly to the guru, making mistakes, from that you can understand the beginning of the path to enlightenment. What the lam-rim and the lineage lamas emphasize is following the guru’s advice. This is what the texts say is the very first thing to think of when making a decision. They say this is the most important thing. Then, do other things on that basis.

“It all depends on what is more beneficial for others. The first thing to think of in particular is fulfilling the wishes or following the advice that’s given by the guru. Otherwise, you may think you are missing out on some practice or study because you are doing a lot of work at the center. If you forget to think of the guru’s advice first, and try to do something that you feel you are missing out on, you can do it, but you may not get much result. …”

You can read the entire post “Time for Practice” on the page of advice “Balancing Dharma Work with Wordly Work,” part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book compiled by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s homepage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Members of the Nepal Buddhist Federation including many senior monks from Kopan Monastery.

In 2006, for the first time in the history of the Nalanda Tradition, Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug traditions have formed an umbrella organization called Nepal Buddhist Federation (NBF).

Among many other projects, NBF is organizing a regular broadcast of Dharma teachings on television and radio in Nepal.

Each of the four traditions offered toward this project, the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund was delighted to make an offering to these efforts. Kopan Monastery has been very involved with the various projects of the NBF with many senior monks serving as members.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is committed to supporting the projects of the Nepal Buddhist Federation. Earlier this year, US$6,187 was also offered to the Rime Chirim Tendo Chenmo Monlam, a prayer festival for Saka Dawa dedicated to the healthy and long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the heads of the four Tibetan Buddhist schools, all other great masters, as well as for world peace.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Whatever we are doing, in our everyday life or our Dharma practice – listening, reflecting and meditating – our basic motivation, our attitude, has to be compassion,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught during the 24th Kopan Course in 1991. This teaching is featured in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s June 2014 E-letter. “Here we’re not just talking about partial compassion, compassion toward somebody who loves us or a friend – except when that friend has a problem – but compassion to strangers and enemies as well. Compassion toward all sentient beings should be the motivation for why we study the Dharma, why we do anything. That should be our motivation as much as possible for every action we do every twenty-four hours.

“Compassion is so important in order to achieve peerless happiness, full enlightenment, for the sake of all sentient beings. Even without talking about enlightenment, just concerning our day-to-day happiness, there’s the need for compassion. Happiness in our daily life depends on compassion; peace in our daily life depends on compassion, on us having compassion toward others and others having compassion toward us. Generally speaking, happiness depends on each other.

“Why does each of us need to generate compassion? First of all, what other sentient beings want is happiness; what they do not want is problems, suffering. And that is dependent on conditions, on whether we have compassion or not for them, whether we stop actions that disturb them, that give them harm, and whether we do actions that benefit them. Without compassion, with the ego, the self-centered mind, the self-cherishing thought, out of that mind we do actions that harm them. So others’ peace, others’ happiness is also dependent on our own attitude, our own actions. That’s why we all need to develop compassion. …”

You can read the entire teaching “Why We All Need to Develop Compassion” and sign-up to receive the monthly E-letter from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by visiting the Archive’s website at https://www.lamayeshe.com. 

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha making prayers in front of new Amitabha Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered new advice this week to bring peace to Israel and Palestine:

“1. [The] Golden Light Sutra – this is the best one to read at this time; this brings healing for the whole area,” Rinpoche’s advice begins. “It helps to not be controlled or have the country taken over by another, it gives power to the leader. I checked and it is more powerful to have the Sutra of Golden Light recited by the monks in the monastery, it is more effective. So sponsor Gaden Lachi (Gaden Shartse and Jangtse together) to read the Golden Light Sutra. Request the monks to deeply dedicate for Israel and Palestine to have peace. …” You can find the complete “Advice Regarding the Israel and Palestine Situation” as a PDF.

FPMT Education Services has created a page for the Sutra of Golden Light, which contains advice on the benefits of the sutra, links to PDF downloads of the sutra in 14 languages, and audio MP3s of an oral transmission of the sutra by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche.

In the advice, Rinpoche suggests recitation of the White Umbrella Deity (Sitatapatra) praise. FPMT Education Services makes available “A Praise and Repelling Practice of Sitatapatra” and “The Supreme Accomplishment of Sitatapatra” as PDFs.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a baby upon arriving at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa: practicing Dharma is giving yourself happiness!

– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on July 11, 2014

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

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