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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan November Course, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Things can suddenly change in life with no warning, Rinpoche explains in a teaching given at the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery on December 12, 2022. We never expect that someone close to our heart could die without warning, but this happens all the time in the world. If there’s a strongly grasping mind, we can easily become crazy when this happens, and it can take a long time to recover. In addition, in the West we don’t know how to help the person who died. We live our lives with the expectation that ourselves and everyone in our lives will live forever. We never take to heart this verse from the Vajra Cutter Sutra:
A star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame,
An illusion, a dewdrop, a water bubble,
A dream, lightning, a cloud:
See all causative phenomena like this.
In the West, we believe that everything is going to last for a long time, when in reality, the nature of phenomena is emptiness, everything that is born also dies. We don’t understand death or rebirth, but this is the most important thing to learn. If we don’t think about and prepare for death, we will totally freak out when the time comes. Hospitals and elderly homes are good places to meditate on impermanence, death, and suffering.
We must know all the different methods to apply at the time of death. Your death and rebirth could happen at any time, so learning to apply the different methods according to sutra and tantra will help prepare for this time so there is no fear. Being afraid makes the situation so sad for friends and family who visit you at the time of death. Having people cry around us at the time of death also makes it difficult to leave, so much attachment arises.
There is so many practices that one can do at the time of death. Bodhicitta is the best practice at death, unbelievable, dying with the bodhicitta attitude of letting go of the I and cherishing others, it is the best way to die, then also emptiness, if you are able to meditate at that time. Then, one of the best ones for us to do, Rinpoche explains, is reliance on the guru. This is the best way of transferring the consciousness into a pure land. From Guru Puja (v. LC112):
If my time of death comes before I have completed the points of the path,
I seek your blessings that I may be led to a pure land
Through the instructions for correctly applying the five powers
Or the Guru’s transference of consciousness, the forceful means to enlightenment.
We should practice the Five Powers near the time of death, Rinpoche stresses.
Rinpoche also offers two mindfulness-of-emptiness practices. The first is to practice mindfulness of how everything is created by the mind. The second is to practice mindfulness that everything is empty.
The purpose of being born human is to be more kind, to have a good heart, and to give happiness to everyone we meet. Not only human beings, but also insects—no matter how tiny they are, we must try not to harm and only benefit others as much as possible.
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 “The Purpose of Being Born Human is to Practice the Good Heart“:
https://youtu.be/VQMwyjOl5aY
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. 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.
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.
Guru Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends the following for mitigating severe weather conditions, which is something many of us around the world will face at one time or another:
1. Protector prayers, especially “Tea Offering to the Eight Classes” (Degye Serkyem) (page 28)
2. The Prayer to Guru Rinpoche that Spontaneously Fulfills All Wishes (Sampa Lhundrupma)
Additional advice for various types of natural disasters from Lama Zopa Rinpoche advice is also available on Rinpoche’s advice page on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/#disasters
More advice from Rinpoche on this topic is also available on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/natural-disasters
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 with a collection of plants he purchased during an outing in Singapore, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, September 19, 2022.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this very short teaching, recorded on September 19, 2022 at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
All the pleasant things we experience, including beautiful plants, come from our good karma, Rinpoche explains. In this short video, Rinpoche discusses the emptiness of the plants, and how our own thoughts—how we label “good”, “bad”, “beautiful”, “ugly”—all come from the mind.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “How Everything Comes from Your Mind”:
https://youtu.be/zRsbtsXNqlo
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.
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 greeting participants of the Kopan November Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Since our last update, Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent beneficial time in India and Nepal in October and November, including a moving visit with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche also visited Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery in Bigu, Nepal where he gave ordination vows for forty-five new nuns and participated in a ceremony for their new gompa. Rinpoche then taught at the fifty-third Kopan November Course at Kopan Monastery throughout December, and received a long life puja on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. Rinpoche engaged in a variety of other auspicious activities, benefiting and blessing sentient beings in any way possible along the way.
We invite you to read more about some of these activities below and to join us in rejoicing about how Rinpoche inspires us all to live a full and beneficial life.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Roger Kunsang, and other monks, November 2, 2022. Dharamsala, India. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
A Most Auspicious Meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
On November 2, 2022, Rinpoche, accompanied by Ven. Roger Kunsang, Geshe Ngawang Sangye, Ven. Tendar, and Ven. Topgye; had a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in His Holiness’s residence in Dharamsala, India. 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.” During the meeting, His Holiness thanked Rinpoche for bringing Buddha’s teachings to the West, and accepted Rinpoche’s request that FPMT offer His Holiness a long life puja. You can read more details about this auspicious event.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave ordination over two days, with explanation, to forty-five new nuns at Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Nepal. November 18, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lhundrup Topgye.
Visit to Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Bigu, Nepal
On November 14, Rinpoche ceremoniously arrived at Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery in Bigu, Nepal. Since 2009, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and some kind donors has been sponsoring the nuns of this Kagyu nunnery to complete one and often two 100 million mani retreats (100 million recitations of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM) each year, including sponsoring the cost of food for all who participate. In addition to sponsoring the retreats, grants have also been offered for medical expenses and other needs at the nunnery over the years.
Rinpoche led an opening ceremony for their new gompa with Drukpa Rinpoche, offered Amitayus initiation, Vajrayogini initiation, and ordination for forty-five new nuns.
Young Kopan monks singing, “happy birthday” to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, December 3, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
A Birthday Celebration at Kopan Monastery
On 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. The events included many performances of song, traditional Tibetan dances, and prayers. FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world also held their own celebrations and offerings for this special occasion.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 9, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Teachings at the Fifty-third Lamrim Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery
Rinpoche arrived back at Kopan Monastery on November 9. On November 25, after a two-year break due to the pandemic restrictions and safety concerns, 175 students started the fifty-third lamrim meditation course (also known as the November Course) at Kopan with Geshe Tenzin Namdak serving as retreat teacher. Geshe Namdak is a Dutch senior monk who completed his Geshe degree at Sera University in India in 2017. Geshe Namdak is the first Westerner to complete the full course of studies at Sera Je Monastery and also to sit for the final geshe examination there, a tremendous achievement.
On December 7, Rinpoche began teaching at the November Course and offered sixteen teachings through December 25, concluding with a jenang (permission to practice) of Vajrasattva. The teachings were livestreamed on YouTube for all to join. All of these teachings are also available as edited videos, which are added to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Teachings from Kopan 2022 page with summaries of the teachings as they become available.
During this time, Rinpoche also offered course participants a refuge ceremony on December 23; course participants went on pilgrimage to the Swayambunath and Boudhanath stupas on December 24. Rinpoche also took this opportunity to meet with quite a few representatives of FPMT centers who were attending the November Course.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with IMI Sangha on Lama Tsongkhapa Day at Kopan Monastery. Photo courtesy of Kopan Monastery.
Pujas, Prayers, and Practices
Rinpoche is continuously engaging in pujas, prayers, and practices to benefit all sentient beings and benefit all variety of external conditions, including the elements, as extensively as possible.
Rinpoche spent time at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, from October 30 to November 5 where Rinpoche led Lama Chopa tsog with 102 students and visitors in attendance, protector prayers, and prayers to Ksitigarbha.
His Eminence the 102nd Ganden Tripa Rigzong Rinpoche passed away at the age of 95 on December 8, 2022. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and the Kopan Lama Gyupa offered Yamantaka self-initiation at news of the passing of this great lama, who was one of Rinpoche’s gurus.
A Sixteen Arhats long life puja was offered for Rinpoche at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery on December 15, prior to a celebration honoring eight nuns who completed their Geshema degrees in 2019 and 2022.
This year Lama Tsongkhapa Day fell on December 18. The day started at Kopan Monastery with a 1,000 Offerings to Maitreya Buddha puja offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and all of the sangha at Kopan. After a lunch for more than 35 IMI sangha members, Rinpoche led everyone around the Guhyasamaja sand mandala in the Lama Gyupa gompa, explaining the incredible benefits you get just from seeing the mandala. All of the sangha at Kopan then offered a heartfelt and powerful Heruka Lama Chopa with extensive light offerings made outside.
On December 22, Rinpoche led Chod tsog at Boudhanath stupa with Yangsi Rinpoche, a few nuns from Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, and Umze Geshe Sherab from Kopan Monastery.
Among many ongoing practices, Lama Chopa tsog, Wealth Vase puja, and Guhyasamaja self-initiation were offered at Kopan Monastery while Rinpoche was there.
Lama Zopa Runpoche during the long life puja offered to Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, December 21, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Long Life Puja for Rinpoche
A long life puja was offered by the entire FPMT organization to Rinpoche on December 21, at Kopan Monastery. This puja was 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.
Book Release Event for Rinpoche’s New Book in Nepali
Rinpoche recently authored a new book in Nepali, titled The Effects of Smoking and Living a Healthy and Happy life. Kopan Nunnery hosted a public book release, which drew over 600 guests, including dignitaries such as Mr. Gagan K. Thapa from the Nepali Parliament’s House of Representatives. Music was offered by renowned singers Raju Lama and Ani Choying Drolma during the event. This book is a mixture of life advice and also details the harms of smoking tobacco, citing Padmasambhava’s advice, as well as modern science.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a turtle and rabbit, with friends on the new land for Tushita Meditation Centre, New Delhi, India, November 6, 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Blessing Beings Everywhere
Rinpoche’s care for animals is legendary, and he uses every opportunity to bless and benefit sentient beings of all shapes and sizes, wherever he goes. While traveling, Rinpoche recited mantras and lamrim prayers to the dogs of Osel Labrang at Sera Je Monastery in October; and while in Delhi in November, Rinpoche recited “The Foundation of all Good Qualities” as a blessing for a turtle and a rabbit and then touched the texts to their heads.
Teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
On December 27, Rinpoche left Nepal for Bodhgaya to attend teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Kalachakra Teaching Ground in Bodhgaya, India. His Holiness began on December 29, offering a two-day teaching on Nagarjuna’s Commentary on Bodhicitta. On December 31, His Holiness conferred a jenang blessing of the Twenty-one Taras. On January 1, a long life puja was offered to His Holiness by the Gelug International Foundation, the organization representing the entire Geluk Tradition, at the Kalachakra Teaching Ground, in the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
We invite you to see more photos of Rinpoche in our India & Nepal October–December 2022 photo album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wQAPmuSsYjnBm6Ey9
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 in the Peace Park at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In this video extract from a 2018 teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes a useful method for developing our practice of patience. It consists of reflecting on how everything that we experience is the result of our past actions.
So, when something happens to us that we don’t like, we should think about how it is the result of our negative karma, our nonvirtuous actions in the past. That is the best way to think and then you don’t get angry, Rinpoche says. Think that it is your mistake, not the other person’s mistake.
Then we also need to understand that the person who hurts us has created their own negative karma and will suffer because of it. Rinpoche wants us to reflect on how we caused that suffering as well and how we need to think about that to develop compassion. When we understand how our anger creates more suffering, we won’t want to be angry anymore. Instead, we will only want to help and be beneficial. So we aren’t just practicing patience, we are also developing our compassion.
We need the people who bother us and disturb so we can develop our practice of patience. We wouldn’t be able to become enlightened without them because we wouldn’t have the opportunity to develop our practice of patience.
Watch the video “Practice Patience by Remembering Karma”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4P_O5gl6KI
The above video is extracted from a teaching given on May 8, 2018 at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. You can find more blogs with short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching as well as the complete collection of these “Essential Extracts” videos 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 teaching at the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Nepal, December, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The first way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment is to purify our obscurations, and the best way to purify is to fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice; Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in his teaching from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, on December 11, 2022. There are many practices for purification and to collect merit, but the most important thing we can do is to make our guru’s mind happy.
The second way to quickly actualize the realizations on the path is to collect merit. Many practices, including mandala offerings, can be done, but again Rinpoche emphasizes that the most important thing you can do to collect merit is to make the guru most happy.
The third way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path is to one-pointedly—without a distracted mind—make requests to the guru with devotion: to receive blessings in our hearts, blessings to achieve enlightenment, blessings to understand Dharma and realize the meaning.
The fourth way to quickly actualize the realizations of the path is to meditate on the path. But meditation alone is not enough. First we need to purify obscurations and delusions, and collect the merit needed to achieve realizations and understand Dharma. Then, one-pointedly requesting the guru with devotion to receive blessings in the heart—then through this, the more and more we can “clean the mirror,” the more the reflection comes, because it has power. Then, meditation can lead to realizations.
Other’s happiness depends on how we act with our body, speech, and mind. Not only within our families, but everywhere we go in the world, anyone we meet, even animals, their happiness is in our hands, so we must be kind and peaceful. We have responsibility for the happiness and suffering of others, not just for our own. And everyone is the source of our own happiness—past, present, and future, up to enlightenment. They are the source of numberless Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha. Starting with our parents, partners, children, and extending outward to everyone—poor, rich, educated, uneducated, we must respect everyone. We should respect everyone just like we respect His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Yeshe.
We must be kind with our body, speech, and mind by doing pleasant actions to others. We can use sweet words, praise, and honorific language to others, this makes them very happy. No one, including animals, likes rude sounds directed at them, this causes others to feel threatened or run away. We can offer a smile from our heart to others, it not only creates the cause to be a very beautiful person in future lives, it also becomes the cause of enlightenment when done with bodhicitta. We can also be kind to others with our mind—how we think about those we meet, cultivating loving-kindness and compassion toward them, this is incredible. By having a good heart benefiting others, everything becomes the cause of enlightenment.
We can’t bring peace and harmony into our lives or our work with a selfish mind. A selfish mind causes others to be unhappy with us and creates so many problems. We have to work for others, at the beginning of anything we do, we can think, “I want to help others, I want to help others.”
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 “Others’ Happiness Depends on How Your Act with Your Body, Speech, and Mind”:
https://youtu.be/XQn0aqExQ5k
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell which was corrected by Tania Duratovic, Laura Haughey, and Ven. Tenzin Tsomo. 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.
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.
Vajrasattva.
With the new year approaching, many of us are reflecting on the past year— rejoicing in the blessings we received, and also assessing mistakes we have made in relation to ourselves and others. Fortunately, we have methods at our disposal to help us purify negative karma we have created. We can utilize these practices daily, and also as a way to enter the new year with a renewed sense of resolve to be the best versions of ourselves, so we can be of most benefit to others.
“Of course by purifying negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth and by collecting extensive merits, this allows you to have realizations on the path to enlightenment and for your mind to change,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche once explained to a student. “There is always hope the mind can change, even to achieve enlightenment, so you can achieve a higher rebirth, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment.”
Rinpoche gave four teachings to students attending the 2022 Vajrasattva retreat at Kopan Monastery: an introductory teaching on March 30 and three subsequent teachings from April 26–28. You can find all the videos and a combined transcript of these teachings on our page Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery.
Of particular note: During the April 28, 2022 teaching, Rinpoche discusses the Four Opponent Powers practice, which is essential to Vajrasattva practice (starting at 1:12:14 in the video):
- The Power of Reliance
- The Power of Reflecting on the Shortcomings of Negative Karma (the Power of Regret)
- The Power of Always Engaging in the Remedy
- The Power of Not Committing the Negative Karma (Faults) Again
Rinpoche also discusses the meanings of both the long and short Vajrasattva mantras and offers instruction for the visualizations and meditations to be done when reciting the mantras (starting at 1:24:48 in the same video).
By practicing Vajrasattva, we can purify the five heavy negative karmas without break which cause us to be reborn in hell; and we can achieve the general and sublime realizations, Rinpoche explained in his April 28 teaching. This is why Rinpoche stresses that Vajrasattva practice is so important.
Explore Rinpoche’s four teachings on Vajrasattva from 2022: Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery.
Read more in “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/benefits-vajrasattva-practice
You can find resources to support your Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices on the new Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Kopan November Course, Nepal, December 9, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Rinpoche began this teaching, given on December 9, 2022 from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, reminding us that everything comes from the mind—depression, feeling suicidal, and everything we experience. When problems arise it becomes clear whether we are able to actually practice Dharma or not. If we examine our motivation in daily life, what arises is mostly anger and attachment. Virtuous thoughts are very rare. As a result, most of our actions come from negative karma and the result from them is suffering.
With one single action to benefit others, we achieve two goals: happiness for others and happiness for ourselves. Before becoming buddhas and bodhisattvas, they generated the realization of bodhicitta. This realization comes from great compassion understanding the numberless sufferings of numberless sentient beings. Rinpoche stressed the importance of having loving-kindness and compassion in our lives.
All of the problems in our lives come from the self-cherishing thought and not cherishing others. It is good to always think of serving others. If you live your life this way, you don’t cheat others, you don’t cause suffering, only happiness. Your future lives get better and better. We need to realize what samsara is and the nature of suffering. This is needed to generate compassion, bodhicitta, and to become a bodhisattva and a buddha.
Achieving happiness depends on how we use our minds. We need to change ourselves. If we don’t want suffering we need to change our mind. We need to realize emptiness, actualize bodhicitta, and achieve enlightenment
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. Unedited video recordings of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available in videos Part 1 and Part 2.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Great Compassion Comes from Realizing Samsara is the Nature of Suffering“:
https://youtu.be/OexUOGkh5EE
Unedited video recordings of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available in videos Part 1 and Part 2.)
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, 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.
Ripoche 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.