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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing full length prostrations at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Lama Zopa: I found a note from Lama Yeshe saying ‘the real learned wise person is one who is truly humble.’”
A quotation from Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on May 9, 2014, at the Light of the Path retreat. You can watch Rinpoche’s teachings at Light of the Path online.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
The Light of the Path concluded on Sunday, May 18, in North Carolina. If you were unable to attend, you can still watch recordings of teachings.
Rinpoche offered the concluding teaching for this year’s retreat during the evening session on Saturday, May 17, which you can watch here.
All Light of the Path retreat resources from 2009, 2010 and 2014 are available on the Online Learning Center.
The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
More information, photos, schedule 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 Mayra Rocha Sandoval, Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA, May 2014. Photo by Sarah Brooks.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues teaching at the Light of the Path, the two-week lam-rim retreat series hosted by Kadampa Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States. Students attending the retreat, like Mayra Rocha Sandoval (right), have been rejoicing that they have been able to hear Rinpoche’s animated and energetic lam-rim teachings every day. For those not at Light of the Path, teaching sessions continue to be webcast live as well as made available as recorded video.
Mayra flew from Mexico to attend Light of the Path and holds the honorable distinction of having completed a three-year lam-rim retreat, a rare accomplishment, at Rinpoche’s request. If three years’ devotion to practice weren’t inspiring enough, Mayra completed the retreat at home, in bustling Mexico City. You can read more about her fascinating story in Mandala‘s October-December 2013 interview, now available on fpmt.org/mandala/.
The retreat concludes on Sunday, May 18. Rinpoche travels next to Italy for the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama hosted by Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa.
For more on the teachings, visit the Living in the Path course resource page, where materials from all three years of Light of the Path events are being made available.
More information, photos, schedule 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.
“If it was possible, I should offer you each trillions of dollars for learning about Buddhism. This means your mind is open for real happiness, to be free from the gross suffering in the three lower realms and even not to be satisfied with the temporary happiness of the three upper realms. Most importantly, once you can meet and practice Dharma, this frees you from samsaric happiness, which is only suffering; and Dharma can give you full enlightenment, peerless happiness. Learning Dharma and practicing it is so important for yourself as well as others, countless others, as once you can achieve enlightenment, you can free countless living beings – all living beings – from the oceans of suffering. So you can see there is nothing more important than this: to learn Dharma and practice.”
Read the full advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Light of the Path, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues teaching at Light of the Path in North Carolina, US. Rinpoche’s teachings at the two-week retreat are being webcast live in English and Spanish. Due to technical issues, the webcast in French will be on a delayed stream.
Rinpoche is scheduled to teach twice each day of the retreat, which began on May 4 and runs through May 18. The scheduled teachings times are 4:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. EDT (1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. PDT; 8:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. UTC; 1:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. IST; 6:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. AEST). Video recordings of the teachings will be made available as quickly as possible in English, Spanish and French.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and retreat participants, YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
The Light of the Path Retreat 2014, hosted by Kadampa Center in North Carolina, US, is the third of a five-year series of teaching retreats led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. The first two retreats took place in 2009 and 2010 and many resources and materials have been developed from these precious teachings:
- All teachings from the 2009 and 2010 Light of the Path retreats are freely available in the resources area of the FPMT Online Learning Center.
- MP3 audio and MP4 video files are available for download in the Light of the Path Retreat Materials 2009, 2010 and 2014 course. This course also contains the root text and other information associated with the retreat, including reviews, guided meditations, and the complete transcript of the retreat.
- The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
For all the latest details on webcasts, visit the Light of the Path webcast page.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
More information, photos, schedule 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 doing circumambulation, Raleigh, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
After arriving in Raleigh, North Carolina, Rinpoche was very happy to find 48 buddhas to circumambulate in the house where he was staying. Rinpoche taught at Kadampa Center in Raleigh on May 3 and then continued on to teach at the two-week Light of the Path retreat in western North Carolina.
You can watch video from the retreat, including live streaming of teachings as they happen, on the Light of the Path webcast page! Visit the page now to see when the next live webcast is scheduled.
The family who hosted Rinpoche has made 800 of these beautiful statues. They have only 200 left to go for their commitment of 1,000. They cast the statues using an example Rinpoche gave them, which had also been used at Nalanda Monastery in France for a similar project.
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 looking at digital photos with Alison Murdoch, Tim McNeill, Stephen Meyer, Paula de Wijs-Koolkin and Karuna Cayton at FPMT International Office, Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Do you want to see where Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been? Visit the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Photo Gallery! With more than 100 albums and thousands of photos going back to 2001, this extensive collection of photos of Rinpoche’s beneficial activities spans the globe.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche before boarding a flight to United States, Taipei, Taiwan, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
New albums include Rinpoche’s recent visits to FPMT International Office and Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, US; Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington state, US; Jinsiu Farlin in Taipei, Taiwan; Choe Khur Sum Ling in Bangalore, India; Sarnath and Bodhgaya, India; and Sera Monastery in South India.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on Vulture’s Peak, India, March 2014. Photo by Andy Melnic.
Remember to check the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Photo Gallery every few months as new photo albums are added as Rinpoche continues his tireless travels to benefit all beings everywhere.
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 while teaching at Light of the Path retreat as seen via webcast
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Light of the Path retreat are being streamed live in English, Spanish and French!
Rinpoche is expected to teach one or two times each day during the two-week retreat that began on Sunday, May 4, 2014, in North Carolina, US. The schedule of teachings will be shared as it becomes available.
The details of the three live webcasts:
- English on FPMT Livestream page: https://new.livestream.com/FPMT/lop2014
- Spanish on alternative FPMT Livestream page: https://new.livestream.com/fpmtinc/lop2014ES
- French on justreality Livestream page: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/1581856/events/2974873?cat=event&query
Video recordings of the teachings will be made available as soon as possible.
More information, photos, schedule 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 with Geshe Gelek, Kadampa Center resident geshe; Geshe Tenley, Kurukulla Center resident geshe; Geshe Sangpo; Damcho, the translator; Rinpoche’s attendants Vens. Sangpo and Sherab; and Rinpoche’s host Mr. Son Pham out for a walk in the park in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in North Carolina and visited Kadampa Center in Raleigh on Saturday, May 3. During the one-day visit, Rinpoche taught on the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation.
The following day, Rinpoche traveled to the Light of the Path retreat at a retreat center in the North Carolina Smoky Mountains. More than 200 students are participating in the two-week retreat with Rinpoche.
You can watch video from the retreat, including live streaming of teachings as they happen, on the Light of the Path webcast page! Visit the page now to see when the next live webcast is scheduled.
Screen shot of Light of the Path webcast page
More information, photos, schedule 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 in northcentral Washington, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Beginning on Sunday, May 4, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Light of the Path retreat will be webcast live for students around the world to watch. The teaching on Sunday is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. PDT, 11:30 p.m. UTC; Monday, May 5, 5:00 a.m. IST, 9:30 a.m. AEST). Video recordings of the teachings will be made available as quickly as possible in English, Spanish and French.
The Light of the Path Retreat 2014, hosted by Kadampa Center in North Carolina, US, is the third of a five-year series of teaching retreats led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. The first two retreats took place in 2009 and 2010 and many resources and materials have been developed from these precious teachings:
- All teachings from the 2009 and 2010 Light of the Path retreats are freely available in the resources area of the FPMT Online Learning Center.
- MP3 audio and MP4 video files are available for download in the Light of the Path Retreat Materials 2009, 2010 and 2014 course. This course also contains the root text and other information associated with the retreat, including reviews, guided meditations, and the complete transcript of the retreat.
- The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
For updates on the live webcast schedule and news on the video recordings, please see the FPMT website and the FPMT Facebook page.
More information, photos, schedule 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 explaining the benefits of the Namgyälma mantra at the FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Mandala.
While visiting the FPMT International Office, Lama Zopa Rinpoche carefully explained the benefits of carrying the powerful Namgyälma mantra and having it on one’s car and home. Rinpoche offered Namgyälma amulets and decals to staff. Rinpoche explained that if you are carrying a paper version of the mantra on your body, you need to protect it in plastic. He then explained how to use it in this video.
The FPMT Foundation Store carries many items with the Namgyälma mantra, including cards and decals.
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 on the first day of teaching at Choe Khor Sum Ling Study Group, Bangalore, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a week of teachings at Choe Khor Sum Ling Study Group in Bangalore, India, in March 2014. Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT, Rinpoche shared that Rinpoche gave animated and dynamic teachings on emptiness that were “so clear on the subtle aspects.” Rinpoche also enthusiastically taught on Dharma practice, the meaning of refuge and the importance of Dharma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Choe Khor Sum Ling Study Group, Bangalore, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
According to Ven. Roger, Rinpoche said: “Dharma protects you from suffering. Happiness and suffering come from the mind … so protect your mind … keep your mind content … cultivate happiness from within!”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Choe Khor Sum Ling Study Group, Bangalore, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Ven. Roger also shared that Rinpoche said: “Milarepa had nothing and yet was always blissful! Many people have everything materially and are still unhappy. … True lasting happiness comes from within. … Satisfaction and contentment are mental states. … These inner qualities don’t depend on outside things.”
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.