Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

The Bylakuppe School for Tibetans, Karnataka, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Sera Monastery is located in the Tibetan settlement Bylakuppe near Mysore, Karnataka in South India. Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsored the new kitchen at the Bylakuppe School for Tibetans, which was inaugurated on December 19, 2013. 

Bylakuppe School for Tibetans students greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Plaque commemorating the new kitchen, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, December 2013. 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. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Sera Monastery, India, December 24, 2013. Photo by Melissa Mouldin.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived at Sera Monastery in South India on December 24 to offer the second series of Jangchup Lamrim teachings, which were attended by 30,000.

Photographer Melissa Mouldin caught sight of Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Sera that same day. She shared some of her photos of Rinpoche greeting many people, including Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) and several Western students.

Khadro-la greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sera Monastery, December 24, 2013. Photo by Melissa Mouldin.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche being offered khatas by students while Khadro-la and Dagri Rinpoche greet each other, Sera Monastery, India, December 24, 2013. Photo by Melissa Mouldin.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sera Monastery, India, December 24, 2013. Photo by Melissa Mouldin.

Upon his arrival, His Holiness was greeted at Sera Lachi by all the senior lamas and dignitaries in attendance. Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant Ven. Roger Kunsang shared a photo of the gathering.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s arrival at Sera Lachi, India, December 24, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Many more photos from the Jangchup Lamrim teachings are available on the website of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and also on the Jangchup Lamrim website, where you can find streaming video of the 10 days of 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 Khensur Rinpoche Losang Tsering, who is offering a long life statue to Rinpoche, Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While at Sera Monastery in December 2013, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had dinner with Khensur Rinpoche Losang Tsering. Khensur Rinpoche offered a long life statue to Rinpoche and thanked him for all his kindness to the monks of Sera Je. 

When Khensur Rinpoche was serving as abbot of Sera Je in 1990, he made a request to Lama Zopa Rinpoche to sponsor the food for Sera Je monks. It was a very practical request made to help all of the monks there at the time Lama Ösel entered the monastery. Khensur Rinpoche is now 91 years old and considered one of the great teachers at Sera Je. He counts many of the Kopan monks as his students. 

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 offering dharmachakra to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sera Monastery, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, January 2, 2014. Photo courtesy of OHHDL.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered His Holiness the Dalai Lama a body, speech and mind mandala on January 2, 2014, during the Jangchup Lamrim teaching at Sera Monastery in South India. The teachings, which were attended by 30,000, concluded on January 3.

VIDEO: Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offering Mandala

Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view photos and streaming video of the teachings.

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.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ani Ngawang Samten, Sera Monastery, India, January 2, 2014. Photo courtesy OHHDL.

FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his older sister Ani Ngawang Samten met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on January 2, 2014. Rinpoche and Ani Samten were attending the Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness at Sera Monastery in South India.

Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view photos and streaming video of the teachings.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche being offered a relic of Lama Atisha, Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While at Sera Je Monastery in South India, FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered a relic of Lama Atisha. The relic was given by the abbot of Dharmarajika Monastery in Bangladesh to a very kind benefactor who then offered it to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, requesting that Rinpoche have a long and healthy life and for the the rapid success of the Maitreya Project. 

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 European FPMT Center Directors, Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The directors of FPMT centers in Europe met with FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche while he was at Sera Je Monastery in December. The directors made a heartfelt request for Lama Zopa Rinpoche to come to Europe and offer teachings. To the directors’ pleasure, Rinpoche said that he would visit.

Directors from FPMT centers in Europe making request to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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 greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has met with several tulkus, or reincarnate lamas, while at Sera Monastery for the Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The current series began on December 25 and concludes on January 3.

Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche visited Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Phuntsok Rinpoche is the recognized reincarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog, a great yogi who taught at Kopan Monastery in the 1980s and ’90s before passing away in 2001. The search for Geshe Lama Konchog’s reincarnation is documented in the film Unmistaken Child.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche also met with the recognized reincarnation of Domo Geshe Rinpoche. As a boy, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was educated at the previous Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monastery.  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the young tulku Domo Geshe Rinpoche, Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the tulku of Bakula Rinpoche, Sera Monastery, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The tulku of Bakula Rinpoche visited Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who made a mandala offering to the young rinpoche. The previous Bakula Rinpoche was one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers. Bakula Rinpoche served as India’s ambassador to Mongolia in the 1990s and was a key figure in the reestablishment of Buddhism in the country, hosting His Holiness the Dalai Lama and inviting Lama Zopa Rinpoche to visit Mongolia on several occasions.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche also met with two young tulkus from Mongolia.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with two of the young Mongolian tulkus who are studying at Sera Je, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view photos and streaming video of the teachings.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with International Mahayana Institute (IMI) monks at Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While at Sera Monastery for the Jangchup Lamrim teachings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Shedrup Sungdrel Ling — the Sera IMI House — and the monks living there. According to Rinpoche’s assistant Ven. Roger Kunsang, the monks are all doing very well with their studies at Sera Je.

The ordained students within FPMT form the International Mahayana Institute (IMI). There are several IMI communities for monks and nuns around the world, including the Sera IMI House at Sera Je Monastery in South India.

“Lama Thubten Yeshe, the founder of FPMT, established the IMI in 1973 in order to develop a community of nuns and monks where we would not only be cared for, but where we would also take care of each other,” explains the IMI website.

Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view streaming video and photos of the teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

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. 

Khadro-la greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Sera Monastery, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) met for dinner recently while at Sera Monastery in South India.

Rinpoche and Khadro-la are attending the Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Sera Monastery. The teachings, which began on December 25 and continue through January 3, can be viewed on streaming video, available in six languages.

Many thousand monks from Sera are attending the teachings as well as monks and nuns from Kopan Monastery. In addition, many FPMT geshes, registered teachers, center directors and students from Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe are also present.

Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view streaming video and photos of the event. More photos from the event and news are also available on His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s website, dalailama.com.

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.

His Eminence Ling Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Bylakuppe, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited with His Eminence Ling Rinpoche before the Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Sera Monastery. Ling Rinpoche is the main organizer of this lam-rim teachings series. The current round of teachings began on December 25, 3013, and runs through January 3, 2014.

Visit the Jangchup Lamrim website for more information and to view streaming video of the teachings.

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. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arriving at Maitreya Project foundation stone laying ceremony, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

“There is great loving kindness in the heart of the Buddha for us, from time without beginning, as the continuity of our life is beginningless. So, until full enlightenment is achieved, the Buddha has loving kindness for us,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained in a 2005 message thanking all the Dharma centers for making prayers to benefit the Maitreya Project.

“Maitreya Buddha is the embodiment of each buddha’s loving kindness, and the symbol of all the bodhisattvas’ loving kindness for all sentient beings.

“Peace experienced throughout the entire universe, global peace, national peace, and each individual’s peace comes from the good heart, loving kindness. Maitreya Buddha is a symbol of this.”

You can read Rinpoche’s complete message in “Maitreya Project: Thanks for Prayers and Donations” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

The Maitreya Project is an FPMT project to build a very large statue of Maitreya Buddha in India. To learn about recent developments in Kushinagar, see Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s speech given at the Maitreya Project foundation stone laying ceremony and read Ven. Thubten Labdron’s report and Ven. Gyalten Samten’s reflections on the event. 

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.