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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News
Long life puja, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In January, a long life puja was done at Sera Je Monastery for all the former abbots, current abbot and the most senior monks who were at Buxa Duar, including Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Buxa Duar is where many Tibetan monastics first settled after escaping from Tibet in 1959. At Buxa, the monks continued with their monastic education in exile, including Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who met Lama Yeshe at Buxa and become his student. Rinpoche had been staying at Sera Je for part of December 2013 and January 2014.
Monks leaving the long life puja, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Geshe Domo Rinpoche’s tulku with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Domo Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the young Domo Geshe Rinpoche at Domo Labrang at Sera Je Monastry. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was a guest for dinner. As a boy, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was ordained and educated at Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s Drugkar Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering gifts to Domo Geshe Rinpoche after arriving for dinner at Domo Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Ven. Max Mathews (known as Mummy Max) was a very early student of Lama Yesha and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. She recounted a story about taking Domo Geshe Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe for a week on Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, in the forthcoming Lama Yeshe biography Big Love. “[Domo Geshe Rinpoche] and Lama were like two little old ladies, cooking, enjoying the lake, the flowers, the peace, and laughing at me. They laughed at everything,” Max said.
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, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Rinpoche is in Sera Je Monastery, South India right now,” wrote Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant in an update on Rinpoche’s health, posted on January 21. “This morning coming back from the long life puja (offered to the ex-abbots and abbot of Sera Je, as well as to the most senior lamas who were around from Tibet and Buxa, and to Lama Zopa Rinpoche), both Geshe Jinpa and Ven. Sangpo and I were walking behind Rinpoche and watching with great interest the improvement in Rinpoche’s right leg … the walking action is definitely improving. Then last night I watched as Rinpoche was writing the mantra for putting above the rabbit cage here in Osel Labrang. Again you can see improvement. And the rabbits noticed as well. …”
You can read the entire update and sign up to receive emails of new health updates by visiting “Rinpoche’s Health – Official Updates and Practices.”
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 offering a thank you mandala to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche at the end of the oral transmission of His Holiness Trijand Rinpoche’s sum bum, Osel Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Gyalten Samten.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the oral transmission of the collected works of his root guru His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche at Osel Labrang, part of Sera Je Monastic University in South India. Khyongla Rato Rinpoche gave the lungs of His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche’s sum bum at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Dagri Rinpoche and Ozer Rinpoche from Sera Me sat beside Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the transmission. Several times Rinpoche’s name was mentioned during the lungs as the collected works contain some instructions requested by the Lawudo Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s previous incarnation.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
During the lung of HH Trijang Rinpoche’s sum bum given by Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
From left: Dagri Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ozer Rinpoche and Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Osel Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Gyalten Samten.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing the special mantra Om Pema Ushnisha Bimala Hum Phat. This is to go above where all the white rabbits live at Osel Labrang. Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Try to think, whatever you do, 24 hours a day, of sentient beings: when you chant mantras, eat, go to sleep, go to work, and when you are talking; if you can, keep your mind in that thought.
“Then, with every action you collect numberless merits. Not only do you have a happy, satisfying, fulfilling life every day and every moment, but, especially, it is the best thing for the future, and not only liberation from samsara, but enlightenment.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the page “General Practice Advice: Quotations,” part of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book.”
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.
Rinpoche thanking benefactors for their very kind and generous donations to the Sera Je Food Fund, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Sera Je Food Fund, which was started by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1991, currently offers more than 3 million meals each year to the monks of Sera Je Monastery, allowing the monks there to focus on their studies.
“I just want to explain some things about the Sera Je Food Fund, just for your education and also maybe you can pass some of this on,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised in 2011 while at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India. “[To paraphrase,] Buddha said in the Arya Sanghata Sutra: the result of making charity, even the size of a single strand of hair, is happiness that you will experience for 80,000 eons. You will enjoy great wealth. …
“This quote means if you make charity of anything, even just a tiny amount, the result of this is happiness for an unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable length of time. Just from making charity one time,” Rinpoche continued.
“Regarding the Sera Je Food Fund, this is making offerings to Sangha … wow … wow! Can you imagine the merit of that? Even making small charity the size of a single strand of hair? Can you imagine? In the monastery there are Sangha living in the five vows, but the majority of the Sangha are living in higher vows such as getsül (36 vows) and gelong, a fully ordained bhikkshu (253 vows). Most of the Sangha are gelongs and living in highest number of vows … wow … wow … wow! One creates so much merit by making offerings to Sangha due to the power of the object. …”
For more, you can read Rinpoche’s complete advice, “Benefits of the Sera Je Food Fund.”
Learn more about the Sera Je Food Fund, including its history, and watch videos of the fund’s work by visiting the Sera Je Food Fund website.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting with Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven.Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinopche met with Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche while at Sera Je Monastery for the Jangchup Lamrim teachings.
Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche is the reincarnation of Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche, a highly accomplished lama born in Tibet in 1914. in 1948, having received his geshe lharampa degree, Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche was appointed one of the seven tsenshab or master debate partners to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche, who passed away in 1983, served His Holiness in this capacity for the rest of his life and imparted to His Holiness many lineages, initiations and oral transmissions. Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche was born in the Spiti Valley in India in 1984.
For more, visit the Berzin Archive’s “Portrait of Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche.”
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 with Geshe Jampa Gelek and Geshe Tenzin Tenphel (right), the resident geshes at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy, and Lara Gatto, the national coordinator for the FPMT Italian National Office; Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Filippo Scianna (left) and Fabrizio Pallotti, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Sera Monastery in South India were attended by 30,000 people. Among them were many FPMT geshes, registered teachers, center directors, spiritual program coordinators, students and benefactors. Here are a few photos of some of them who also met with Lama Zopa Rinpoche during and after the teachings.
Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view photos and streaming video of the teachings.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a group from Kurukulla Center in the US including the resident geshe, Geshe Tenley; Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ribur Rinpoche, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
While Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been at Sera Je Monastery, he has had the opportunity to meet with many high lamas and tulkus.
Ribur Rinpoche’s tulku was enthroned at Sera Me in May 2013. He was recognized as the incarnation of Ribur Rinpoche by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and was initially enthroned as the incarnation in Bodhgaya in 2010 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Woser Rinpoche.
The previous Ribur Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1923 and recognized by the 13th Dalai Lama. Ribur Rinpoche studied at Sera Me in Tibet and received his Geshe degree in 1948. He remained in Tibet until 1985 when he came to India. While in Tibet, in addition to being subjected to interrogation, torture and labor camps, Ribur Rinpoche worked to recover holy objects that had been removed or destroyed by the Chinese.
After going into exile, Ribur Rinpoche wrote many books, including a biography of the 13th Dalai Lama and a history of Tibet. He also lived and taught for many years in Northern California. He returned to India in 2006 where he passed away.
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.
Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Up to now, what we have been able to accomplish, benefiting this world in various ways, is, I think, basically through the kindness of the guru: His Holiness [the Dalai Lama], who is the only object of refuge of all sentient beings and the originator of all sentient beings’ happiness; and then, secondly, the founder of this organization, Lama Yeshe, whose holy name is extremely rare to mention, who is kinder than all the three time buddhas; and then the kindness of many other gurus. So, what we have been able to accomplish so far depends on how much guru devotion practice we did correctly, it is the result of that. …”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the page “The Benefits of Guru Devotion,” part of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book.”
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.
The garden at Osel Labrang full of students and Lama Zopa Rinpoche (to right), after His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Jangchup Lamrim teaching session, Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Lam-rim is what you should focus on your whole life, even while you are doing your job. You should keep your mind in this. It is the most meaningful, most profound practice, doing each action with the mind in bodhichitta. This should be your practice; this is what you should try to accomplish in life.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the page “The Value of the Lam-rim,” part of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book.”
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.
Ling Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The 2013 Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama successfully concluded on January 3 with His Holiness conferring the 1000-Armed Chenrezig initiation. His Eminence Ling Rinpoche is the main organizer of the Jangchup Lamrim teaching series.
“This year, His Holiness completed the commentary and oral transmission of several more of the 18 lam-rim texts, and he will continue teaching the remaining lam-rims in a location and on dates to be announced,” reported the Jangchup Lamrim website, which offers photos and videos of the teachings as well as news updates and quotations drawn from the 18 lam-rim commentaries that comprise the Jangchup Lamrim.
In order to make familiar to my own mind,
And to help benefit fortunate others as well,
I’ve explained here in words easy to understand
In its entirety the path that pleases the conquerors.
“Through this virtue may all beings be never divorced
From the perfectly pure excellent path” thus I pray;
I, a yogi, have made aspirations in this manner;
You, who aspire for liberation, too should pray likewise.
– From The Concise Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (also known as Song of the Stages of the Path) by Je Tsongkhapa. As translated in: Songs of Experience on the Stages of the Path by Je Tsongkhapa. Translated by Thubten Jinpa, PhD.
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.