Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Kabir Saxena before the Maitreya Project ceremony, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While attending the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Maitreya Project, Lama Zopa Rinpoche signed a special edition of a Maitreya envelope, issued by the Indian postal service to commemorate the December 13 event on the new land in Kushinagar. The envelope will be distributed to more than 40 countries. Rinpoche and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav signed about 15-20 envelopes as collectors’ items.

For more, see Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s speech given at the 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.

Long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Drati Khangsten, Sera Je Monastic University, India, December 22, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche was held on December 22, 2013, at Drati Khangtsen, Sera Je Monastic University in South India. ”So many people attended, 70 FPMT Centers were represented, 17 FPMT Geshes were present and so many overseas students, more than a thousand monks and lay people,” shared Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant. ”The puja went very well, coming at the end of this period of lungs of the Most Secret Hayagriva transmission.”

The five dakinis during the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Drati Khangstan, Sera Je Monastic University, India, December 22, 2013. Photo by Fabrizio Palloti.

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 during speech, Maitreya Project trustee Ven. Kabir Saxena interpreting into Hindi, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

On December 13, 2013, the state government of Uttar Pradesh, India, handed over approximately 275 acres of land to the Maitreya Project, the FPMT Project to build an enormous bronze statue of Matireya Buddha. At the ceremony marking the historic land transfer and the laying of the foundation stone, FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered the following speech to gathered dignitaries, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and an audience of 100,000. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

I am thanking from my heart His Excellency the Honorable Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Ministers for Culture, Tourism, Home Guard and Professional Education and the rest of the compassionate leaders who are attending the Maitreya Project celebration in Kushinagar and bringing peace and happiness to this world, and especially to India.

My heartfelt thanks to the Uttar Pradesh government for giving Maitreya Project the land and to all the farmers who offered their land for the Maitreya Project to bring not just peace and happiness, but ultimate happiness, with total cessation of the oceans of samsaric suffering—the sufferings of rebirth, old age, sickness, death and so forth; second, samsaric pleasures, that which are suffering; and the foundation of those sufferings, pervasive, compounding suffering—and full enlightenment, the complete cessation of even the subtle obscurations and the completion of all realizations, to the six types of numberless living beings, especially in this world, and especially in India.

The Maitreya Project came to be in Kushinagar when we had great difficulties in obtaining land for the Maitreya statue in Bodhgaya for such a long time. I requested His Holiness the Dalai Lama for advice, and His Holiness requested in front of the Buddha statue in the Bodhgaya Stupa [Mahabodhi Temple] and the answer came out Kushinagar. The evolution is that Kushinagar came from Buddha and His Holiness.

A photo of a life-sized replica of the Maitreya Buddha statue to be built in Kushinagar, India, December 12, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

In regard to the purpose of the Maitreya Project, there are general benefits and particular benefits in this world. The general benefits are that Maitreya Buddha will be the fifth founder of Buddhadharma, the next after Shakyamuni Buddha, who will descend in this world also in India and perform the 12 holy deeds, as Shakyamuni Buddha did. I discovered in a teaching from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru that Kushinagar will be the place where Maitreya Buddha will be born. I thought it very auspicious that Maitreya Buddha will show the holy deed of taking birth in Kushinagar.

Building this statue of Maitreya Buddha, Loving Buddha, will bring loving kindness to the hearts of everyone in this world, and especially to India.

Not only the organization working for this statue, but all the people who offered the land and who work on building the statue will become the first disciples of Maitreya Buddha, will receive teachings from Maitreya Buddha and will also receive the prediction of their enlightenment.

In regard to the particular benefits, in the near future the whole world will be full of wars, with so many people being killed; there will be famine all over the world, with so many people dying; and there will be sicknesses everywhere in the world, with so many people dying. The more Maitreya Buddha statues that are built, the more this suffering will be decreased and able to be stopped. This is a very, very important reason.

Therefore, I would like to thank very much the Uttar Pradesh government and the farmers of Kushinagar. 

Audience and press at ceremony, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

The Tibetan Buddhism that Tibetan lamas studied, practiced and actualized, with incredible numbers becoming bodhisattvas and buddhas, has now spread almost all over the world in a way that never happened before. In the USA, Australia and some other countries, the fastest growing religion is Buddha’s teachings, which were taught in India by Shakyamuni Buddha and also by the Indian pandits, the Six Ornaments (Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dignaga and Dharmakirti) and the Two Supreme Disciples (Gunaprabha and Shakyaprabha), whose paintings are here around the people, on the right and left sides. These great Indian pandits wrote commentaries to Buddha’s teachings, such as the five great treatises of sutra: Pramanavartika (the science of mind that logically proves reincarnation, karma, that Buddha is pure and reliable as well as his teachings and so forth), Abhisamaya-alamkarika (which shows how to develop compassion to all living beings, that which is the source of peace and happiness, enlightenment and the details of the path to enlightenment and the qualities of Buddha), Madhyamaka (study of the two truths: the whole of existence is embodied in the two truths; the ultimate wisdom of shunyata can totally eradicate the root of the suffering of samsara, the ignorance), Abhidharmkosha (details of the mind and mental factors, the evolution of the world and so forth) and Vinaya (the morality, or ethics, to achieve rebirth as a human being or deva; the monks’ and nuns’ discipline, which is the basis to achieve the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom, to achieve liberation from samsara and full enlightenment, the omniscient mind, the peerless happiness, for sentient beings.

Cultural performance in front of thangkas brought from Kopan Monastery, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

Then there were many other great pandits and many great meditators in Tibet from the four Mahayana traditions: Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug. There were Padmasambhava; Gyalwa Longchenpa; the five great Sakya lamas, including Sakya Pandita; Marpa and Milarepa; Lama Tsongkhapa; and so forth, who wrote many commentaries to what Buddha had explained. So, like this, Tibetan Buddhism came from India. There’s no other separate Buddhism that Tibetan lamas practice that didn’t come from India. Shantarakshita, Lama Atisha and so forth brought Buddhism from India to Tibet, so everyone must know that which was being taught in India by Shakyamuni Buddha and what the fully distinguished Indian pandits taught, the knowledge of Buddha, wide and deep like the Pacific Ocean, in the great Buddhist university of Nalanda, which had 300 pandits (and there was also Vikramashila) has not been degenerated. In Tibet these have been the main teachings, the main practice and the main path to actualize, so it has flourished in Tibet, even though it was stopped after Mao Zedong took over Tibet.

Now, mainly because His Holiness the Dalai Lama was able to come to India, along with some learned lamas, Buddhism is able to flourish so much in India. It is a good time to offer the knowledge, and not just intellectual understanding, but the experience of realization, back to the Arya Mother Land, India, and to the Indian people. It can be returned by learning and by realizing the Buddha’s teachings.

Monks from Kopan Monastery chanting the Heart Sutra, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

Buddhism has not only spread all over the West, but even top scientists are finding it very scientific and that they have much to learn from Buddhism. So, this is basically Indian Buddhism. You must rejoice and appreciate that this Buddhism is what came from India.

In regard to helping the Kushinagar community, I would really like to begin by offering medical services, and then assess whatever other needs the community has. My heart is there. Building the statue is also a social service. So many hundreds, or thousands, of people will find jobs so that they can look after their families and send their children to school.

Exchanging gifts at ceremony, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

Please pray for the success of the Maitreya Project. I hope we meet again when the statue is up. Thank you very much. Please, everyone, enjoy the celebration. Thank you very much from my heart to the monks who did the dances and prayers, the performers and everyone else who worked so hard for this function.

Colophon: Lama Zopa Rinopche speaking at historic foundation stone laying ceremony for the Maitreya Project in Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Lightly edited Ven. Ailsa Cameron.

For more, read Ven. Thubten Labdron’s report and Ven. Gyalten Samten’s reflections on arranging the foundation stone laying ceremony in five days. 

Mandala’s ongoing coverage of the Maitreya Project can be read online. 

Dancers doing traditional Tibetan dance, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Rinpoche recently finished a brand new teaching and translation on the benefits of offering to stupas – Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas. It is quite an amazing, monumental work, which took Rinpoche more than two months to complete, and which Rinpoche would like to be used far and wide. The text details the benefits of circumambulating, and prostrating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. The booklet is available in eBook, booklet letter, and A4 formats as well as in Italian.

Holy objects, including stupas, are very important to Rinpoche and the FPMT for enabling students to create merit on their path to enlightenment. Building 100,000 stupas around the world is one of Rinpoche’s Vast Visions. Please enjoy the very inspiring collection of information and photos of the 48 stupas completed so far!

You will find more advice from Rinpoche about holy objects below.

Detail of White Tara beaded thangka, Nepal, November 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche will offer His Holiness the Dalai Lama a hand-beaded White Tara thangka when Rinpoche sees His Holiness in December in South India. His Holiness will be continuing the teaching and transmission of the Jangchup Lamrim at Sera Monastic University from December 25, 2013 to January 3, 2014. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and artist of White Tara beaded thangka that will be offered to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, November 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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 circumambulating at night the 1,000 buddhas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“On every atom are buddhas numberless as atoms,
Each amidst a host of bodhisattvas,
And I am confident the sphere of all phenomena
Is entirely filled with buddhas in this way.”

– From “King of Prayers – The Extraordinary Aspiration of the Practice of Samantabhadra” 

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 teaching to the Nepali staff of Yak and Yeti on the good heart. Marcel Bertels in the background with some of the fine silk clothing they manufacture, December 5, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Lama Zopa: The essence of all religions is practicing good heartedness, kindness to everyone. This is the real cause of happiness … satisfaction.”

– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on December 6, 2013

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.)

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 exercising with a soccer ball, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, October 2013. Photos by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In October 2013, while at Kachoe Dechen Ling in California, Lama Zopa Rinpoche occasionally played with a soccer ball after lunch as a way to exercise and build up strength and coordination in his right arm and leg, which were affected by the stroke he manifested in 2011. Ven. Roger Kungsang, Rinpoche’s assistant, captured photos of Rinpoche and Sangha playing with a soccer ball one day during an exercise session.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche prepared to bat a soccer ball to improve strength and coordination

Any movement of Rinpoche’s leg and arm on his right side is important for his recovery. Rinpoche appears to enjoy kicking and batting the soccer ball around with Sangha more than doing some of the regular physical therapy exercises. The most important part is to get Rinopche to move his arm and leg as Rinpoche mainly wants to be sitting doing practice 24 hours a day.

Success!

Tenzin Ösel Hita came to lunch on two occasions and stayed to exercise with Rinpoche.

Tenzin Ösel Hita and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his attendants playing with a soccer ball, Kachoe Dechen Ling, October 2013

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 before flying in a helicopter to Kushinagar for Maitreya Project ceremony, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was flown by the Uttar Pradesh State Government from Lucknow, India, to the site of the future Maitreya Buddha statue at Kushinagar for the foundation stone laying ceremony. Rinpoche and Akhilesh Yadev, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, addressed a crowd of 100,000 during the ceremony. The event marked the handing over of approximately 275 acres of land to the Maitreya Project Trust for the Maitreya Buddha statue. 

Aerial view of ceremony site and Maitreya Project land, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In addition to building the Maitreya statue, the project plans to engage in a range of social programs aimed specifically at providing employment, education and healthcare to the local community. His Holiness the Dalai Lama sent a letter of good wishes that was read at the event. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitreya Project ceremony, Kushinagar, India, December 13, 2013. Photo by Ven. Sangpo Sherpa.

For more, see the December 2013 Announcement from the Maitreya Project Kushinagar and Mandala’s coverage.

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 his sister Ani Ngawang Samten, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s older sister Ani Ngawang Samten visited with Rinpoche after his return to Kopan Monastery in November. Ani Samten came down to Kathmandu from Lawudo Retreat Centre, in the mountainous Solu Kumbu region of Nepal.  Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant, described Ani Samten as ”the ’mother’ of Lawudo. [She] looks after everything … except the recent building work which Rinpoche’s brother Sangay Sherpa does as the director.”

Lawudo is where Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s previous incarnation meditated. Ani Samten was key to the development and buidling of Lawudo Gompa and has taken care of the students, teachers and retreaters who have visited Lawudo since the early days of FPMT. Read more about her amazing contributions and work in the Mandala January-February 1998 article, “The Keeper of Lawudo.” 

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 teaching at Kopan Monastery on how important it is to serve others, Nepal, December 1, 2013. Photo by Ven.Roger Kunsang.

“… When you abandon harm to others, you receive so much happiness from others, from life to life, for 100 lifetimes,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised. “Just by abstaining from harm to others one time you receive benefit for 100 lifetimes. By practicing the morality of not stealing, you receive wealth for 100 lifetimes. By practicing charity one time, you will enjoy good results in hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. In the Arya Sanghatasutra it is said that by practicing generosity once to a sentient being you will gain enjoyment for 80 or 80,000 eons. With a good heart, if you benefit somebody, you will receive enjoyment for 100 lifetimes, since karma is expandable. From one virtue, you experience the result for so many lifetimes or for so many times in one life.

“Firstly, you should think that sentient beings are wish-fulfilling jewels. Secondly, you should be the wish-fulfilling jewel to other sentient beings in daily life. This is very important. Even if you are not working or you are in a cave, not seeing anybody, not even an insect, you should editate on bodhicitta. You should think how precious sentient beings are. And think, “I must do the same.” This is an excellent way to live life, especially living a busy life with others. By living life with this attitude, it is the happiest life and most meaningful life. There will be nothing to be scared of in the future. Life is like sunshine in the future.

“I presented the above in relation to Dharma and Buddhism – how others will feel if you are a wish-fulfilling jewel to others. If you become a wish-fulfilling jewel to others, as a result, others will become a wish-fulfilling jewel to you. This can be explained on this basis. …”

— Excerpted from “Attitude for Offering Service,” a letter written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, April 2008

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 playing a damaru, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT, shared that “Rinpoche [is] playing the damaru with his right hand. [It’s] a little difficult, but managing. The right leg and arm continue to improve.”

Rinpoche manifested a stroke in 2011, which affected his right arm and leg. His recovery continues to progress. Rinpoche is able to do many activities with his right arm and hand such as writing mantras and playing cymbals (and damaru) during puja.

VIDEO: Rinpoche playing cymbals

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. Visit “Rinpoche’s Health — Official Updates and Practices” to learn more and receive updates on Rinpoche’s health.