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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching and giving oral transmissions to children from Ladakh at Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“The Destroyer Qualified Gone Beyond One (Bhagawan) said, ‘The bodhisattva does not follow many Dharmas. The bodhisattva holds one Dharma well and realizes it well. The whole Buddhadharma will be in the hand of that person.’ What is that Dharma? It is great COMPASSION. (From the Chenrezig Sutra Well-Condensed Dharma.)”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche from “Compassion Is of the Utmost Need”
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 Holiness the Karmapa and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 31, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
His Holiness the Karmapa visited Root Institute and Maitreya School in Bodhgaya, India, on January 31. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who is currently staying at Root Institute, welcomed the Karmapa. After giving a talk to students and teachers at the Maitreya School, His Holiness offered a teaching in the main gompa at Root Institute.
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 talking to the reincarnation of Gen Lamrimpa, Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
While staying at Sera Monastery in India, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited with many young tulkus including the reincarnation of Gen Lamrimpa, who is currently studying at Sera Me. The previous Gen Lamrimpa was born in Tibet in 1936 and was an accomplished meditator and teacher. He is well known to many Western Dharma students for leading a year-long shamatha retreat at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center in the US Pacific Northwest. His teachings from this retreat were published in the books How to Practice Shamatha Meditation (also published as Calming the Mind) and How to Realize Emptiness.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the tulku of Gen Lamrimpa, Sera Me 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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explaining in a video interview the path to enlightenment and how fortunate all are, Osel Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Think, ‘How fortunate I am that I am able to offer (service) in the present, in the future,’ so rather than taking it as a burden, follow the bodhisattvas’ path. Follow the bodhisattvas’ attitude – that’s the way to achieve enlightenment. So in that way you achieve enlightenment very fast, without taking many eons. So the stronger compassion you have, how much good heart you have, you are able to achieve enlightenment quicker. So how much you are able to offer service to sentient beings, that much negative karma, so many eons of negative karma gets purified and you collect inconceivable merit and so that makes you able to achieve enlightenment quickly – quicker.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche from “Rejoice in Your Efforts,” new from 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 doing korwa around Mahabodhi Stupa at night, Bodhgaya, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in Bodhgaya this week. Bodhgaya is the location of the Mahabodhi Stupa, marking the location where Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened.
Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, 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.
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 recorded the following conversation with a student directly on his iPad in November 2013. The student was sharing the news that gold was being offered to the spire of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, and Rinpoche was telling the student to rejoice, as jealousy only causes suffering, not happiness.
“Tell people this: hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, every day happiness and suffering, come from one’s own mind. Thinking this way leads to hell, thinking that way leads to enlightenment. Every day happiness and suffering as well as samsara and nirvana all depend upon what concept we generate.
So therefore, it becomes so important to always generate positive concepts, positive ways of thinking. This is Dharma practice.”
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.