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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 22, 2022. Boudhanath, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
This holiday season, all of us at FPMT International Office would like to offer our warmest wishes for you to actualize true joy, peace, love, and compassion in your heart. “The sun of real happiness shines in your life when you cherish others,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said, and this time of year offers us many opportunities to practice this.
Lama Yeshe taught in Silent Mind, Holy Mind, in 1971 “Some of you might think, ‘Oh, I want to have nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with the Bible.’ This is a very angry, emotional attitude to have towards Christianity. If you really understood, you would recognize that what Jesus taught was, ‘Love!’ It is as simple and as profound as that. If you had true love within you, I am sure you would feel much more peaceful than you do now.”
Representing all of us at FPMT International Office: Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Ven. Holly Ansett, Boudhanath, Nepal, December 22, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Rnipoche has offered the following definition of a “holiday” as:
- The mind abiding in correctly following the virtuous friend.
- The mind abiding in renunciation of samsara.
- The mind abiding in bodhicitta.
- The mind abiding in emptiness.
- The mind abiding in tantra path – the two stages.
- The completion of your holiday is when you cease all the obscurations and complete all the realizations.
Whatever traditions you enjoy this time of year, please consider taking Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching on compassion to heart:
Live with compassion
Work with compassion
Meditate with compassion
When problems come, experience them with compassion
Die with compassion
Enjoy with compassion
Practicing this gives you the best happy life
It fulfills all your wishes and all living beings’ wishes for happiness.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friends of FPMT member, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Kopan November Course, Nepal, December, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Everything comes from the mind, Rinpoche reminds us in this second teaching from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, given on December 8, 2022. Samsara, nirvana, suffering, enlightenment, all appearances we have, anything we hold as good or bad – all of this comes from the mind. Rinpoche uses the letter Z as an example. This letter appears and we hold on to that appearance. In fact, everything is like this. Nothing exists from its own side, not even an atom. Everything comes from the mind, is merely imputed by the mind, and later due to the false hallucination, appears as totally existing.
Do everything for sentient beings, Rinpoche advises, with a bodhicitta motivation. We have to cultivate the thought to naturally wish to lead every sentient being we meet to enlightenment, like how a mother feels for her child who fell in a fire. Even one second of her child being in a fire is unbearable to her. This is how it should feel toward sentient beings is samsara.
Rinpoche shared the following quotation from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment:
Without the wisdom realizing ultimate reality,
Even though you have generated renunciation and the mind of enlightenment,
You cannot cut the root cause of circling.
Therefore, attempt the method to realize dependent arising.
To eliminate ignorance, we have to realize the Prasangika school’s view of emptiness. The four schools happened in Buddha’s time in India, but the Prasangika view – this is the one we have to realize.
Rinpoche offers the oral transmission of the Heart Sutra starting at 2:14:33 in the video.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “How the Letter Z Comes Into Existence”:
https://youtu.be/RVRJolNbM-U
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill, with editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
These teachings are being livestreamed with transcription so that everyone can receive them, until the Kopan retreat ends on December 26, 2022. Subscribe to the FPMT YouTube channel to get notified when new videos are uploaded or a livestream starts. Livestreams are also announced on Telegram as well as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Facebook page, and the FPMT and Kopan Monastery Facebook pages. Livestreams can also be watched without a transcript for those who prefer that format.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Kopan lamrim meditation course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 9, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
As a reminder, an official long life puja will be offered on behalf of FPMT centers, projects, services, study groups, and students for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, on December 21, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. This second long life puja in 2022 will be offered in accordance with the advice of Khandro Kunga Bhuma (Khandro-la), and is part of a collection of practices offered for Rinpoche’s health, and the well-being of the entire FPMT organization.
The puja will be live streamed on the main FPMT Youtube livestream page and the FPMT Facebook page, starting around 8:30am in Nepal (2:45am GMT).
Please note: in our December FPMT Monthly e-news, we incorrectly shared the date of this puja as being December 22. The correct date is December 21 and we apologize for any confusion this has caused.
Our prayers have tremendous power, and we invite you to join us by rejoicing in the puja being offered, generating your own prayers for Rinpoche’s health and long life, or making an offering toward the expenses associated with the pujas and practices for Rinpoche’s health and long life.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
For all sessions and information about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s livestreamed teachings during the fifty-third Kopan November Course, which continues until December 26, please visit: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In this first teaching Rinpoche offered to the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, on December 7, 2022, Rinpoche thanked everyone for coming to Nepal to learn lamrim (the gradual path to enlightenment) and get to know the mind. The purpose of this is not just to intellectually learn, but to train the mind in non-anger, non-attachment, non-ignorance. We have tried everything for our happiness – studying in the university, trying yoga, so many activities in our busy lives done with self-cherishing thought. But we didn’t think to protect our minds, didn’t think of developing ourselves. Lamrim introduces us to who we are. The more we know Dharma, the more we know ourselves. Otherwise, we cheat ourselves with wrong concepts and ignorance.
The answers to why we have been suffering since beginningless rebirths is in the lamrim. The effect of meditating on the lamrim is peace and freedom because it leaves so many positive imprints for the mind to become closer to enlightenment. It brings the light of Dharma wisdom within oneself. This is called the gradual path to enlightenment because we can’t just jump to bodhicitta without having the lower realizations, we need the foundation. However, even though we are starting at the beginning, it is important to practice with the motivation of bodhicitta.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “By Studying Buddha Dharma, You Come to Know Yourself”:
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill, with editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
These teachings are being livestreamed with transcription so that everyone can receive them, until the Kopan retreat ends on December 26, 2022. Subscribe to the FPMT YouTube channel to get notified when new videos are uploaded or a livestream starts. Livestreams are also announced on Telegram as well as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Facebook page, and the FPMT and Kopan Monastery Facebook pages. Livestreams can also be watched without a transcript for those who prefer that format.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the celebration of his birthday, with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Ven. Roger Kunsang, and others at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. December 3, 2022.
Birthday Celebration
On Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, December 3, the Kopan community, joined by monks and nuns, locals, and November Course participants, offered a Sixteen Arhats long-life puja to Rinpoche, and organized a joyous celebration for FPMT’s spiritual director, which included many performances of song, traditional Tibetan dances, and prayers. During the celebration, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared and explained some extremely impactful quotations, including this verse from Padmasambhava:
However much effort you put into worldly activities, they never finish.
If you put effort into holy Dharma, you quickly finish the work.
Although samsaric works are good at the beginning, in the end they fail.
If you practice holy Dharma, the result never goes down.
And verses on bodhicitta, including this from Lama Atisha in the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment:
If the merits of generating bodhicitta
Were to take form,
They would fill the whole sky
And be even more than that.
Please enjoy this video of Rinpoche’s message as well as the ceremonies and festivities offered at Kopan Monastery in celebration of Rinpoche’s birthday:
FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world also had their own celebrations and offerings to Rinpoche on his birthday, including, for example, this video prepared by Chenrezig Institute, Australia, and this video offered by Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
Traditional Tibetan dance offered during the celebration of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 3, 2022.
Long Life Puja
An official long life puja will be offered on behalf of FPMT centers, projects, services, study groups, and students to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, on December 21, at Kopan Monastery. This second long life puja in 2022 will be offered in accordance with the advice of Khandro Kunga Bhuma (Khandro-la), and is part of a collection of practices offered for Rinpoche’s health, and the well-being of the entire FPMT organization.
Current Teachings at Kopan Monastery’s November Course
Lama Zopa Rinpoche started teaching at Kopan Monastery as part of the 2022 lamrim meditation retreat (known as the November Course). These teachings are being livestreamed so that everyone can receive them, please explore all the ways you can engage in these teachings both live and following each teaching.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.
These teachings are being livestreamed with transcription so that everyone can receive them. Subscribe to the FPMT YouTube channel to get notified when new videos are uploaded or a livestream starts. Livestreams are also announced on Telegram as well as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Facebook page, and the FPMT and Kopan Monastery Facebook pages. Livestreams can also be watched without a transcript for those who prefer that format. Additionally, we will also be blogging about the teachings and providing final videos, transcripts, and summaries of the topics Rinpoche is covering regularly, so if you haven’t yet, subscribe to our FPMT Daily News blog email list!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting students from Spanish speaking countries who are doing the November course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 30, 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
For all sessions and information about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s livestreamed teachings, please visit: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading prayers on how to bless sentient beings in the ocean, as well as blessing the ocean with the Namgyalma mantra board and blessed water, Singapore, July 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this video teaching on July 8, 2022 from Bedok Jetty, a popular fishing and walking pier, in Singapore. In this intimate video, Rinpoche shares prayers and mantras which are most beneficial for blessing beings in the ocean. Rinpoche stresses that these practices are not only beneficial to the beings abiding in the water, but are also enjoyable for us to offer.
We are also so happy to share this new booklet from FPMT Education Services, “Blessing Animals in the Ocean” which is based on the instructions from Rinpoche on this meaningful practice. This practice can be done on sentient beings living in any body of water including oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers, etc.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Kindness of Sentient Beings”:
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill, with editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Download “Blessing Animals in the Ocean” from the Foundation Store: https://shop.fpmt.org/Blessing-the-Animals-in-the-Ocean-PDF-_p_3758.html
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, November 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday is celebrated on December 3. We invite you to join the entire FPMT community as we rejoice in another year of Rinpoche’s compassionate and inspiring life, and transformative teachings.
A celebration for Rinpoche will begin at Kopan Monastery, first thing on December 3. Early in the morning a long life puja (Namgyal Tsechok) will be offered to Rinpoche. During this puja a monetary offering will be made to all of the monks and nuns in attendance on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. In the afternoon, lunch will be offered to all at Kopan including local people from the area, and November Course participants. After lunch, traditional entertainment will be offered including skits and Sherpa dance. We will share photos and more details of this joyous event after the occasion.
Please join the entire FPMT community, including students and friends around the world, in offering sincere prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long and healthy life. (All are welcome to download Long Life Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche.)
Rinpoche, on behalf of all the six-realm sentient beings who rely on you—please, please live long!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.
Turkeys at a farm. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Every year in the United States, tens of millions of turkeys are killed for the holiday of Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday, November 24, 2022. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice in a 2018 teaching to help benefit the turkeys killed, and how we can think during the holiday.
In “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”, Rinpoche explains,
“If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again. … If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.”
In this teaching Rinpoche provides detailed instructions on practices to purify negative karma, such as Vajrasattva, taking the eight Mahayana precepts, reciting sutras, engaging in nyung ne fasting retreats, generating love and compassion through the practice of tonglen and the Four Immeasureables, practicing Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha puja and specific mantras. Rinpoche also offers a special dedication to purify any negative karma that could cause future rebirth as a turkey.
Rinpoche explains that these practices can be applied beyond the Thanksgiving holiday, “These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten.”
For links to practice materials these detailed instructions, we invite you to read “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”. Included on the page is an additional short teaching from Rinpoche which we include below.
Further Commentary and Advice for Thanksgiving
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Boudanath, March 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
I don’t think the general population of America accepts clairvoyance, but if it did, people would understand where all the sufferings, such as depression, come from. The way people normally think—for example, what causes depression—is very limited. They only think about things that are to do with this life. If they had clairvoyance they could see much deeper; they could see things such as past and future lives. People normally think of only this life, not past and future lives.
In the past, many of the turkeys that Americans are eating were Americans who in the past had killed turkeys. Often it could even be a past family member that they are now eating.
There’s a sutra story about Buddha’s disciple Shariputra, who excelled in wisdom. Once when he was on his alms round he looked into a family’s house and saw that the father, who used to catch fish in his backyard pond, had died and been reborn as a fish in that pond. The mother, his wife, who had been very attached to the home, had also died and been reborn as the family dog. And the son’s enemy, who had been very attached to the son’s wife, had died and been reborn as their child. The son was holding the child, his former enemy, eating the fish, his late father, and beating the dog, his late mother, while it chewed on fish bones. Shariputra then observed, “The son is eating his father’s flesh, beating his mother with a stick, and cuddling his enemy on his lap—samsaric existence makes me laugh.”
If we have animals we have to remember this story and take care of them well. It is very important to understand the benefits of taking care of our pets and other animals by giving them food and drink. Think that you are making charity and don’t just do it out of attachment, thinking that you love the shape of the animals or something, doing everything simply for your own happiness. It’s the same with looking after your children. You create a child with attachment, for your own happiness, thinking how your life would be unbelievably happy if you had a child. Then you take care of the child, but it is for your own happiness.
It is also important to recognize and remember your animals’ most unbelievable kindness, how they have been kind to you in three ways, and then with that awareness give them food and drink. First recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and then blow over the food and drink to bless it. If you have mani pills, it’s good to crush them and put them into the food and drink, or even add blessed water. You don’t have to get blessed water from a lama; you can make it yourself. Whether or not you have daily commitments, recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and other mantras, such as OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ, the Mitrugpa mantra and so forth, and then blow on the water. You can recite however many repetitions of each mantra you want, like seven, ten, fifteen, or more, blow on the animal’s food or water and make prayers as well. Similarly, you can keep a bottle of water nearby and when you’ve done your commitments you can blow on the water and then use that to put on the food and water that you give to the animals.
Then make this dedication prayer:
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.
Finally, please remember the unbelievable benefits of making charity of food to the animals. As the Buddha said, “Anybody who makes charity well during the period my teachings exist will receive great enjoyments for 80,000 eons, even if the material that person offers is merely the size of a hair. That person will be free from pain and disease, will enjoy great happiness, will be enriched with all manner of desirable things, and will eventually achieve the result: peerless cessation and complete enlightenment.”
This advice has been extracted from the page “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving,” which shares a teaching and advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Switzerland in 2018. Scribed by Holly Ansett. Edited by Nicholas Ribush, November 2020.
For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras. You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering teachings at Thekchen Choling, Singapore, September 1, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continually stresses the importance of remembering impermanence and death, preparing for our own deaths, and helping others at the time of death. In this teaching, given at Thekchen Choling in Singapore on September 1, Rinpoche reminds us how unbelievably rare it is to receive this perfect human rebirth. Since we have been so fortunate to receive this, and we cannot say for certain when we will die, we must make the most use of the opportunity we have as human beings, in the most beneficial way—by practicing Dharma.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Importance of Remembering Impermanence and Death”:
Supplemental Materials for Death & Dying
Many newly available or recently revised practice materials are available for students wishing to help others at the time of death, as well as prepare for our own dying and death.
- Liberation Cloth to help others at the time of death.
- Helping Yourself and Others Die Happily: Instructions and Practices for the Time of Death
Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked that the practices found in this booklet be compiled to make it easy for us students to prepare for our own death, and also easy for us to help other people who are dying or dead. - Liberation Tools to Help the Dying and Deceased
This resource, previously known as the Liberation Box, is a collection of tools to help the dying and deceased has been assembled according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice. It contains powerful methods for ensuring a fortunate rebirth for those who are in the process of dying or have just died. - Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death
As Rinpoche says in Dying Happily with the Five Powers, practicing “the five powers to be applied during life” serves as a preparation for our death. But as the time of our death approaches, we should specifically engage in the practice of “the five powers for near the time of death,” which are what Rinpoche explains in this booklet. - The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra – MP3 Download
This album contains Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s oral transmission (*lung) of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra, a prayer that came from Buddha Amitabha. - Holy Objects to Place on the Body at the Time of Death
Contains four sets of holy objects to be placed on the body of the person or animal that is in the process of dying. Cut out one set and place it face down on the dying or deceased person’s chest. Leave it there until the body needs to be moved or washed. - Death & Dying: Practices and Resources homepage
This robust resource page has numerous essential practices related to the topic of death and dying, additional teachings and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and community service resources.
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama meeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India. November 2, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
On November 2, 2022, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in His Holiness’s residence in Dharamsala, India. Rinpoche was accompanied by Ven. Roger Kunsang, Geshe Ngawang Sangye, Ven. Tendar, and Ven. Topgye.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Ven. Roger Kunsang, Dharamsala, India. November 2, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Ven. Roger commented about the meeting, “From the time His Holiness came into the room, His Holiness showed the aspect of being very pleased with Rinpoche and taking time with the meeting, very happy. Everything was very comfortable and easy. His Holiness was really making clear His Holiness’s appreciation for Rinpoche’s activities for the benefit of sentient beings. This was the mood of the meeting.”
Geshe Ngawang Sangye provided the following report of the meeting:
“We arrived at the meeting hall at 7:45 a.m. while His Holiness was giving a public blessing and another meeting. Just after the general public blessing His Holiness came into the hall and He was very, very happy to meet with Rinpoche. His Holiness said, “Lama Zopa, Lama Zopa, My trustworthy longtime friend.” His Holiness blessed Rinpoche several times and Rinpoche offered five colored khata offerings. After that, Roger-la and all of the attendants offered khatas. His Holiness was holding Rinpoche’s hands and thanking Rinpoche for bringing Buddha’s teaching to the West. After this Rinpoche requested His Holiness for permission to ask some questions. His Holiness replied, “Ask anything, no rush.” Rinpoche then asked some questions about the FPMT and in relation to the future of the organization. Rinpoche also asked about a future book project he is working on about the practice of compassion. His Holiness showed the aspect of being very pleased about Rinpoche spreading this practice around the world and then gave a very special meditation to be included in the book. Rinpoche requested if His Holiness would accept a long life puja offered by FPMT and His Holiness immediately accepted the long life puja.” [We will share details about this long life puja as soon as they become available.]
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Roger Kunsang, Geshe Ngawang Sangye, Ven. Tendar and Ven. Topgye, Dharamsala, India, November 2, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Ven. Roger shares that the meeting was extremely positive and His Holiness offered Rinpoche a beautiful Buddha statue and strongly emphasized for Rinpoche to keep the statue with him always.
Please join the entire FPMT community in rejoicing in this most auspicious and precious meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama!
His Holiness the Dalai Lama meeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche in His Holiness’s residence in Dharamsala, India. November 2, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
For more on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his beneficial activities, please visit DalaiLama.com.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the end of a Most Secret Hayagriva puja, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, September 4, 2022.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this video teaching on September 4, 2022 from Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, at the end of a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong puja. This puja was done to stop wars, famine, disease, and the dangers of earth, water, fire, and wind. This puja was part of the more extensive advice Rinpoche gave recently for generating peace in the world.
During the teaching Rinpoche gave the lungs of several Padmasambhava texts and advised students in Singapore to recite these prayers in order to avoid problems for their country during the next two years.
Read Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent advice for generating world peace: https://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoches-recent-advice-for-generating-peace-in-the-world/
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video, below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Whenever You Generate Faith in Padmasambhava, He is There”:
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill, based on the live transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video and/or reading the full transcript.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.