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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving an online teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing two important and powerful holy objects.
First, Rinpoche discussed the three-story Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) statue being built in Maratika, Nepal, to pacify war, famine, and disease—and, of course, for all the six-realm sentient beings, who have been suffering from beginningless rebirths, to be free from samsara and achieve enlightenment.
Then, Rinpoche discusses the Maitreya Buddha statue being built in Bodhgaya, India, on the land offered to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This statue is also being built to pacify war, famine, and disease.
Rinpoche explains that one can never know what is going to happen. There are earthquakes, landslides, flooding, and other disasters of the elements. There can also be viruses, famine, war—all kinds of things can happen in samsara. Even in places like Germany, no one expected flash floods there, but they occurred. These dangers actually come from people’s minds, from their karma. So even in an area where a certain disaster wouldn’t be expected, it can happen. Most people don’t have the merit to understand karma, so they believe in the wrong things and attribute causes to the wrong things.
Because Buddhism explains the mind, studying it is important, Rinpoche says, even if you don’t believe it! Even if you are not practicing or believing, you are developing wisdom by studying the Dharma.
Due to practicing Dharma, karma can ripen as suffering in this life rather than in the hell realm. This is due to purification from practicing virtue. Instead of having to experience the heaviest suffering for eons, the karma ripens as some catastrophe in this life, and then there will be happiness in the future.
Rinpoche illustrates this point, quoting Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung from Mind Training: The Seventy-Two Exhortations:
Even this small present suffering
Finishes past heavy negative karma,
And then in the future there will be happiness.
Therefore, feel happy with your suffering.
Rinpoche then discusses verses 85–87 from Lama Chopa:
Realizing how this perfect human body of freedoms and richnesses
Is found only one time, is difficult to find again, and easily perishes,
Please bless me to make it meaningful and take its essence,
Without being distracted by the meaningless activities of this life.
Being afraid of the blazing suffering of the lower realms,
Please bless me to voluntarily persevere in
Going for refuge from my heart to the Three Rare Sublime Ones,
Abandoning negative karma, and practicing all the collections of virtue.
Violently tossed by the waves of afflicted actions and disturbing thoughts,
Harmed by the many water lions of the three types of suffering,
Please bless me to generate a strong wish to be liberated
From the endless and terrifying great ocean of samsara.
The first verse means we must make this perfect human rebirth truly meaningful. Then, we request the guru for blessings to go for refuge, abandon negative karma, and practice virtue. Rinpoche uses Milarepa as an example of how to practice this. Milarepa took on hardships purposefully. Many thought he was very poor and had nothing—but he achieved the whole path to enlightenment. Many people might think, “I have a job, I have money, I have an education.” They achieved whatever they needed to achieve, but they are still suffering in samsara because they don’t know Dharma.
Rinpoche emphasizes that it is so important to request the guru for blessings to generate a strong wish to be liberated from the great ocean of samsara. We should request this single-pointedly, making the strongest request.
This is the motivation we should have for listening to the teachings.
Rinpoche reminds us that our personal suffering in samsara is nothing compared to that of numberless sentient beings, who have suffered since beginningless rebirths. Practicing the higher training of morality is the foundation for helping all the numberless sentient beings. We are solely responsible for freeing them from oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to full enlightenment.
In order to do this, we need to achieve enlightenment so that we can do perfect work for others. To do this we need to be free from samsara. And to do that we must actualize the three higher trainings of morality, concentration, and wisdom. Rinpoche explains that the higher training of morality is the very foundation, and so it is most important to practice morality. “
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Higher Training of Morality Is the Foundation for Helping Sentient Beings”:
https://youtu.be/beY7voGsWXE
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- Links to Lama Chopa practices and commentary
- Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
- Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
You can read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Thought Transformation Teachings During the Time of COVID-19.”
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 on His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In the following video excerpt Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the advantages of cherishing others over cherishing oneself. Here’s a summary:
Rinpoche begins by sharing a story he heard from Gelek Rinpoche during a teaching many years ago in Delhi. The story was about how poor workers building roads out in the hot sun would see wealthy people in their nice houses and be attracted to their lives. But the rich people, thinking of their problems, would look at the workers and think, “I wish I could be like those people working on the road; they don’t have all these problems.” Rinpoche continues, describing how when we see a bird or a monkey or a mouse, we get attracted to them because we think that we have so many problems and that the animals have none. But we don’t know the suffering of the animals.
Rinpoche then explains that whatever we do, even studying the Dharma, reciting prayers, meditating, eating, or sleeping, if we do these things with the self-cherishing thought, they become obstacles to achieve enlightenment.
“Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, like the numberless buddhas, was in the beginning like us. But they all gave up the self-cherishing thought, the greatest obstacle to achieving enlightenment, the root of suffering, obstacles, all the obstacles to practicing Dharma, even the black magic, everything. So they changed their minds; they gave up the self-cherishing thought. Their minds changed into bodhichitta, cherishing the numberless sentient beings. For us, we cherish I, they cherish the numberless sentient beings and most happily let go of I. They let go of cherishing I, most happily, kind of with force,” Rinpoche says.
If you realize the benefits of cherishing others over yourself and you meditate and analyzed these two things you come to see that the unbelievable benefits of cherishing others are limitless like the sky. Rinpoche explains that the self-cherishing mind doesn’t allow you to achieve enlightenment, Buddhahood for sentient beings. It keeps you in the suffering of samsara.
So while we have received this perfect human rebirth, which is quickly coming to an end, we should put our efforts toward transforming our minds in order to actualize bodhichitta. Rinpoche explains that by thinking of the benefits of cherishing others and the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought, and of the kindness of other sentient beings, and on the basis of loving kindness and great compassion, we should be moving our minds as much as we can to bodhichitta. So that with every activity we are remembering bodhichitta, dedicating for sentient beings. “So each time when you dedicate the activity for sentient beings, you collect merits, unbelievable [the number of merits, like] the number of [specks of] dust of this earth, the limitless sky, or more than that, depending on the attitude,” Rinpoche explains.
Watch the video “Cherishing Others Versus Cherishing Oneself”:
https://youtu.be/sTfUu0dZzXo
The above video is extracted from the 2018 retreat 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.
Watch the ongoing video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. You can read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Thought Transformation Teachings During the Time of COVID-19.”
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 making offerings at Boudha Stupa after lockdowns were lifted, Nepal, June 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In the following short excerpt from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s video teachings on thought transformation, Rinpoche explains that attachment to others’ bodies comes from the beginningless habituation of thinking they are nice. This is not only true of human beings, but even insects have this attraction to the opposite sex.
Also, Rinpoche explains that our attachment changes. For example, our attraction to one person can disappear when we see someone who we think is even more attractive. This proves that attachment does not come from the side of the object, the other person’s body; it comes from our own mind.
“That means you have freedom in your hands. Hell and enlightenment, liberation from samsaric suffering, and nirvana—yes, even everyday problems and happiness—it is in your hands. It depends on how you think,” Rinpoche explains.
“If you keep your mind in Dharma, especially in bodhichitta, lojong, emptiness, it is unbelievable—only happiness! With bodhichitta, everything becomes a cause of enlightenment. With emptiness, everything becomes a remedy to samsara, everything that you do.”
Rinpoche emphasizes that we must understand that thinking that something is beautiful or ugly does not come from the object’s side. Thinking that is an exaggeration that comes from your own mind. Therefore, since our own mind produces attachment, our own mind also can become free from attachment.
Watch the video “Beauty Comes from Your Mind“:
https://youtu.be/-IzXuyTkW00
Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
The above video is extracted from the teaching “Attachment to Pleasure Cheats You” (Video 50, July 12, 2020).
Read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Thought Transformation Teachings During the Time of COVID-19.” Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Find more short video clips from Rinpoche’s teaching, or “Essential Extracts.”
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.
Tsa-tsas at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US. Photo by Chris Majors.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche dictated this advice on making tsa-tsas and requested that it be made available to all who do the practice of tsa-tsas.
If you do nine tsa-tsas according to the tradition of Lama Atisha, prepare everything according to what is normally instructed for making tsa-tsas.
When you make the first tsa-tsa think and dedicate: I will make this tsa-tsa to complete all the wishes of the holy mind that the three times (past, present, and future) virtuous friend has.
Second tsa-tsa: Dedicate, thinking to purify: May the tsa-tsa purify completely, purify the obscurations, and accumulate the merits of all the fathers and mothers of the past, present, and future.
Third tsa-tsa: Dedicate to purify the obscurations and the negative karma of having collected the five heavy negative karmas without interruption of myself and all sentient beings.
Fourth tsa-tsa: Dedicate for myself and every sentient being to not be reborn in the eight states, which have no freedom to practice Dharma.
Fifth tsa-tsa: Dedicate, particularly, for myself and every sentient being to not be reborn in the three lower realms.
Sixth tsa-tsa: Dedicate to heal all the diseases of all the sick people, myself, and every sentient being.
Seventh tsa-tsa: Dedicate that all devas who are dying not be reborn in a suffering world.
Eighth tsa-tsa: Dedicate for intermediate state beings (to not have fear, to not suffer, and to be born in a pure land where they can become enlightened or attain a perfect human body and meet Dharma in order to achieve enlightenment).
Ninth tsa-tsa: Dedicate for all the sentient beings (to purify all the obscurations and achieve enlightenment).
Tsa-tsas at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US. Photo by Chris Majors.
Lama Atisha gave this advice on how to dedicate tsa-tsas to Zue Dorje Gyaltsen (zus.rdo.rje rgyal.mtshan). Then Dorje Gyaltsen gave this practice to Geshe Drogpo Kharpa (dge.bshes grog.po mkhar.pa). Then he gave to Geshe Draknakpo (dge.bshe brag.nag.pa), who gave to Gomrimpa (sgom.rim.pa), then he gave to Droe (grod) then he gave to Zhang (zhang) and then he gave to Chim (chim).
This is Lama Atisha’s tradition of practice for making tsa-tsas, his holy heart practice. This is how he practiced. It is very inspiring. It gives incredible inspiration; then one wants to make tsa-tsas.
This is the idea of totally mad Zopa. In the West it is easier [to do this practice] as tsa-tsas are not made from earth dust. It’s plaster. So you can make many tsa-tsas at one time. You can dedicate each tsa-tsa, according to what Lama Atisha explained. You can do like that or if you want to do more then you can dedicate for each two tsa-tsas, each three tsa-tsas or five tsa-tsas, like that. You can do like that. And if you don’t have time at all, if you are going to die right now, then make one tsa-tsa before the breath stops. Make one tsa-tsa but dedicate that for all the nine purposes, the nine reasons.
Okay. [You are] most welcome to enlightenment and to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsara as quickly as possible and to bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Scribed by Ven. Tenzin Namdrol, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, January 2021.
For more on tsa-tsas, please see the tsa-tsa resource page:
https://fpmt.org/education/practice/holy-objects/tsa-tsas-a-resource-guide/
Watch Rinpoche’s recent teachings and find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more on the page Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19.
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 Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, April 2011. Photo by George Manos.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses reincarnation in a newly published archival video clip. During a quiet moment at the April 2011 retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion near Bendigo, Australia, Rinpoche gave an informal talk that was recorded by Ven. Thubten Kunsang, who traveled with Rinpoche, recording Rinpoche’s teachings and taking photos. The video was recorded before Rinpoche manifested a stroke at the retreat. Here’s a summary of the video:
Rinpoche begins by explaining that when someone dies, their body disintegrates and becomes dust, but their mind doesn’t stop. Their mind continues.
Rinpoche then offers the example of a family with children from the same mother. Some of the children in the family may be very intelligent or very compassionate, but sometimes there might also be a child who is very foolish and ignorant. One child may cry if they see someone else being beaten or even an insect being killed. That child can’t stand seeing others hurt and cries because of their compassion. And then, from the same mother, there may be one child who doesn’t care about this and maybe themselves want to kill.
Rinpoche explains that this shows that the minds of the different children didn’t come from the mother’s mind. The mind has its own continuity and is settled upon the body. The body of a child comes from their parents. But their mind doesn’t come from the parents. The mind has its own conditions from before.
So if in a past life one was more compassionate, the mind was trained in that, and the result is that in this life, they are compassionate, Rinpoche explains. Similarly if one was more angry in a past life, then the mind was trained or habituated to anger, which describes the result in this life. So there’s a cause from before a child takes birth in the mother’s womb that has a consequence in the present life. In past lives there were certain negative actions done, which polluted the mind. And so then there’s the result of that.
Rinpoche then talks about a book that he has in which a professor collected examples of children and older people who could remember their past lives. These are people in the West, but their stories are hidden and not part of the culture. They were discouraged from sharing their stories. Then there are people who can see other people’s past and future lives.
However, Rinpoche explains, there’s nobody who discovered or who realized that there’s no past and future lives and that there’s no reincarnation and karma. There’s nobody who has discovered or realized there is only one life. Many people have just assumed this or were taught this, but there’s nobody who realized this. Rinpoche concludes by explaining that those who have realized past and future lives are numberless.
You can watch the video “Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Reincarnation, April 2011”:
https://youtu.be/tL5dwNcN1BE
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. You can also read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
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.
Sunset on Kopan Hill while Lama Zopa Rinpoche is offering puja, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Recently Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered some advice for those experiencing the intense heatwave in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the midst of record-high temperatures, Rinpoche advised on how to look at our present difficulties as an opportunity to practice by utilizing our suffering as a pathway to the greatest happiness by cultivating bodhicitta, and especially, by taking all the suffering of every sentient being upon ourselves so that they may receive enlightenment. Additionally, Rinpoche recommends making strong, heartfelt prayers to Chenrezig for the blessing of rain. We hope that you will find this advice from Rinpoche useful:
First, think about karma, cause and effect. In Tibetan, ledre. Secondly, think about how Lama Atisha had 157 gurus and two root gurus. One was Lama Serlingpa, from whom he received bodhichitta teachings in Indonesia for twelve years, like however much nectar one pot has being poured completely into another pot. Lama Atisha had to travel twelve months by boat in dangerous conditions to Indonesia to receive these teachings.
The other root guru is Lama Dharmarakshita, who gave the teaching of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. One stanza from that says that when you have unbearable pain or disease, it’s due to you giving harm to others—the wheel of sharp weapons (bad karma) turned on yourself.
So now, you take all the pain, or the disease, onto yourself. This is what makes your pain or disease most worthwhile, causing all the sentient beings to achieve full enlightenment. So this means you experience every sentient being’s suffering and they become free from the entire suffering of samsara and achieve full enlightenment.
Actually it is sooooo precious. It harms your worst enemy—the self-cherishing thought that has caused you to suffer from beginningless rebirths in samsara, including causing samsara without end. If you don’t practice holy Dharma, particularly bodhichitta now, then you will have to continue suffering
That selfish mind has caused you to harm every sentient being. They suffer in the past and present and also future. You can’t imagine! This time and opportunity is soooo precious to destroy the enemy of bodhichitta. Not only mine, but every sentient being’s. As for others—I don’t know about people—but animals might suffer and die; even in the caves they have no air-conditioning or fans.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in front of 1,000 Arm Chenrezig, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, August 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Make heartfelt prayers to Chenrezig. In front of the statue, recite the Chenrezig mantra, some malas.
Make very strong prayers. You should know that Chenrezig is there, he sees and understands everything. Then request what is the most important need for sentient beings, which is black clouds and so much rain for a long time. Then that causes landslides and water floods—I’m joking! Visualize strong rain in the whole area where there is heat.
From the second buddha, Nagarjuna, who mentioned in A Letter to a Friend [as a comparison to the suffering in hell], “Here, having put 360 short spears heavily into the body,” there’s no need to question about that. For us, even a tiny thorn the size of a hair, if it goes in the flesh it’s unbearable without taking it out. So imagine the example of the 360 short spears—most unbelievable, unbelievable suffering.
Therefore, there’s no comparison [including having 360 short spears in the flesh] to the unbearable, unbearable, extremely unbearable suffering of even the slightest hell. And then there’s having to experience it for one hundred eons or ten million eons.
So until the negative karma finishes, one never separates from suffering. This is something to think about when we think about lower realm sufferings every day. This is the most unbearable, and it’s the very smallest hell suffering.
As I often say, the heaviest suffering of human beings is actually great peace and pleasure when compared to the hell sufferings. So you can understand from this quotation. Whether you believe that hell exists or not is just the limitation of merit, of intelligence. Those who have a lot merit, they can remember past and future lives. They have merit, like those bodhisattvas who achieve the bhumis. The bodhisattvas who achieve the first bhumi can see one hundred past and future lives. And on the second bhumi they can see one thousand past and future lives. Then more and more … it goes on and on. The higher and higher they go, the fewer and fewer obscurations.
It’s like the more you clean it, the more you see the beauty—the color and design comes out. The more you clean the dirt it becomes clearer, so the quality of the mind comes out. That’s a very good outside example.
For example, a cup is dirty and smelly with kaka, but because the cup is not kaka you can clean it with soap and water. It’s the same with cloth that is very black and dirty, you can wash it with soap and different things, and then it becomes fresh like a new one, especially if you iron it. So that’s a very good outside example. Because the cloth isn’t oneness with the dirt, it’s just temporarily obscured. The mind is also not oneness with the obscurations, not oneness with attachment, anger, and ignorance—ignorance holding I and phenomena as truly existent. While it exists in mere name, not even an atom is existing from its own side.
So it’s an example, and through meditation, if you really meditate, if you get experiences, you see more and more clearly past and future lives, karma, with higher and higher realizations. As the mind gets less and less obscured and purified, then you can see things deeper and deeper, what ordinary beings cannot see. It doesn’t mean just because you can’t see it now [it doesn’t exist]. When the mind has fewer obscurations through purification, you can see for yourself, you can prove to yourself.
Now here as I mentioned, this shows very clearly the example of hell sufferings. It’s not hell but it’s giving an example. It’s a human being suffering, but it’s like hell, it gives you an idea—then, it becomes unbelievably hot, beyond human suffering. The heat is there, it’s the same as in Bodhgaya where it’s hot every single year. It’s not been in America, but now it happens. In India, in Bodhgaya, it happens every year. It’s just that we don’t know about India. So you see, this didn’t come from the outside, it came from the mind.
Nearby, there’s a part of America—the name I don’t know—it’s in the corner of America, there is so much water, so much flooding, so much of that has happened. Then in Washington it’s so hot. Some areas are very hot while close by there is flooding. It looks like it comes from outside, but it comes from the inside—the mind—the result of past negative karma.
The foundation of Buddhism is that happiness and suffering come from the mind, from your mind. So your mind is the creator. It’s explained in Abidharmakosha, this is one important subject to study. The various worlds came from the mind, born from the mind. It’s either so hot, or there are landslides or earthquakes. These outside conditions are caused by non-human beings. But that’s not the main cause. The main cause is karma. Karma is the mind; it is not the body. It comes with the mind, not with the body. There is the primary mind and the fifty one mental factors. There are five omnipresent mental factors, in Tibetan, kundro nga, always existing—“omnipresent,” as it’s translated in English is okay but it’s not very exact. Karma is the mental factor intention, which is one of those five.
Yes, of course it can be purified before experiencing the result. Yes, it depends on how perfectly it’s purified, whether you experience some result or not. If purification is perfectly well done, then one never experiences the result of negative karma, suffering is not experienced in this life. Then the next one is that you experience past heavy karma in this life, but not as heavy as experiencing it in the lower realms for many eons. Unbelievable heaviness, but it manifests as some cancer or virus, some chaos to finish. So there will be happiness in the future. These are the benefits of purification.
Kadampa Geshe Kharagpa said, “This small present suffering finishes some past negative karma, then there will be happiness in the future. So therefore, be happy by having this suffering.” I think it means to rejoice and be happy by thinking of the benefits. So not just in one life, but from life to life, you’ll have more and more happiness. Also, you go to enlightenment and are free from samsara. It can happen more and more like that.
So it’s very good to rejoice. You’re experiencing the hottest heat now, but in Bodhgaya, where we have a center, the people who live there go through this every year, so hot. That’s what Roger reminded me. In America it’s a big surprise because it didn’t happen like that before. So you have to know and you have to rejoice. Be happy because your past negative karma is getting purified, purified of the lower realm sufferings, unbelievable sufferings. It finishes like that, so rejoice, be happy.
And not only that, be happy to receive all the numberless sentient beings’ sufferings—the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, and asuras—to take their suffering on yourself. Experience that suffering and the causes—karma and delusion—and let them be enlightened, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations.
Experience it for sentient beings rather than thinking, I’m suffering, I’m suffering. Unless of course, you want to fly to Mount Everest. So you see, in the northern hemisphere, in Iceland and in many places, there are huge ice mountains melting down. You hear about this all the time. Why is this happening? It came from the mind, basically. The great enlightened being, Padampa Sangye, who existed during Milarepa’s time said, “It looks like happiness and suffering come from the outside, but they come basically and originally from one’s mind.”
So you can ask, the virus came from China, but why does it have to be experienced in America? Some people have the virus while some people don’t have it—why? Also in the family, the father can die from the virus but not the children and not the mother—why? So you can ask like that.
You want to see yourself as an enlightened being and others as ordinary beings—this is totally ignorant because you don’t understand it came from the mind. Using a very simple example, when you recognize that you’re not well, that you’re sick, you go to the doctor. Because you don’t know how the sickness evolved, you don’t know the details, what happens with the sickness—you have no idea, so you go to see the doctor who knows better than you, who has studied more and who knows more than you. But you say this doctor is totally ignorant because he doesn’t know more than me, he hasn’t stopped suffering and ignorance up to thinking, “I’m an enlightened being,” and you disregard his advice.
So whatever is happening—the extreme weather, whatever it is that totally changes and then there’s suffering, hot, cold, big problems—you experience it for others. If you have intelligence, if you have a lot of merit, then you experience it for sentient beings. In that way you actualize the path to enlightenment. Then not only do you get enlightened but you enlighten other sentient beings. It’s so good, unbelievable. And if you die with that, as His Holiness always says, the best way to die is with bodhichitta.
Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche, the great bodhisattva from whom I received teachings, said in the Praise to Bodhicitta that even if you’re sick, be sick with bodhicitta; even if you die, die with bodhicitta. Whatever happens, that is best. The Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said that he prayed to be born in the hells for sentient beings, but at death time he had visions of the pure land where he’d be reborn. He said, “I didn’t achieve my wish, which was to be born in the hells for sentient beings.” He treated all sentient beings like how you would treat your mother or the most kind person. Their suffering being the most unbearable, he felt it for all sentient beings—for every ant, every mosquito, even the tiniest one, everyone, no matter how big they were—he felt it for everyone.
This is the best way to die and to experience problems. It’s the best way to transform it all into the path for all sentient beings. What else is more happiness than this and more important than this, to be able to benefit numberless sentient beings? It’s ridiculous to take drugs or whatever. It’s like a person who has delusions from spirits, that person is running on the cliffs and in his vision, his view, there’s a big road that goes down to the beach. This is explained by not just one person, but quoted by those who didn’t die. They explained what they have seen, where there’s actually no road, they see a road.
Thank you very, very much. I bring up some words for this situation where everybody is jumping [with anxiety]. There are many stories with the heat, but one can’t jump that much. So please think about what I’ve said. The best is tonglen [taking and giving] and lojong [thought transformation]—the most beneficial. Whatever it is, even death, sickness, or relationship problems, experience it for all sentient beings. That’s the happiest and the hippiest person.
Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Dictated to Ven. Tenzin Namdrol by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal; transcribed and lightly edited by Wongmo, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, June 30, 2021. Further edited by FPMT International Office, July 2, 2021.
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.
Learn more about the recent video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to videos, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering incense puja on Kopan Hill to mitigate the pandemic in Nepal, India, and the world; for many weeks Rinpoche offered sur, bath offering, incense puja, and tea offering for many hours each night; Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Since our last update, Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues to engage in as many beneficial activities as he can each day, including offering new videos from his Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 teaching series as well as video teachings in Tibetan. Rinpoche has remained in Nepal since March 2020, spending most of his time at Kopan Monastery. Following health precautions, Rinpoche, who has been vaccinated, has also done many meritorious activities in the Kathmandu area as well as making an auspicious visit to Maratika. Below we share a few details of Rinpoche’s activities over the past three months.
Pujas for the Benefit of All and for Rinpoche’s Long Life
In March and early April, Rinpoche offered Mahakala puja with the Lama Gyupa monks at Kopan Monastery, bath offering with the nuns Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, and Amitabha puja and strong prayers with the Kopan nuns for all who died in the tragic Taiwan train accident on April 2, 2021.
Khadro-la offering a statue to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the second White Tara long life puja offered to Rinpoche. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On April 19, the second official long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered this year. This was a White Tara long life puja and was preceded by seven days of practices led by Khadro-la, Kopan Lama Gyupas, and senior monks and nuns.
Maratika
Rinpoche descending into the main cave of Maratika, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
At the end of April, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la, and Sangha spent time in the Maratika Cave doing prayers, including recitation of the Amitayus Long Life Sutra, for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche has explained that “Maratika is the place where Padmasambhava achieved immortal realization, the state of Buddha Amitayus, the Limitless Light Buddha.” In the main cave there is a large rock, which is the naturally appearing long-life vase of the Buddha Amitayus, from Padmasambhava’s time. According to Rinpoche, this vase is the most holy object at Maratika.
The purpose of this trip to Maratika was to offer prayers and puja to consecrate land for a future very large Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) statue in Maratika. The statue will be 36 feet (11 meters) tall and be seated on a 30-foot (9-meter) tall throne. It will have a gold face, hands, and body, and will be in the aspect of the first manifestation of the Twelve Manifestations of Padmasambhava, Gyalwey Dungdzin (Padma Gyalpo), which is Guru Rinpoche’s magnetizing form. The construction of the statue will take approximately five years and is estimated to be complete in 2026.
View from the land where the 66 ft statue of Padmasambhava will be built – Maratika, Nepal; Photographer: Roger Kunsang; 2021-04
COVID-19 Outbreak at Kopan and Rinpoche’s Compassionate Response
At the end of April, Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery—both in Nepal—experienced a COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to receiving countless prayers and dedications from the international FPMT community, many Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries also prayed for Kopan during the outbreak. Rinpoche composed a letter thanking the monasteries and nunneries for their prayers.
While Rinpoche had already been doing continual practice and offering pujas for all those affected by the pandemic, these activities became even more extensive during the outbreak at Kopan and the spikes in Nepal and India. Each day, Rinpoche offered incense puja (to purify obstacles), bath offering (a practice of visualizing or actually offering an ablution to the merit field in order to clear away obscurations and create merit), tea offering (an offering of divine nectar), and sur practice (to clear obstacles and create merit by making charity to the sentient beings of the six realms). These practices were offered in the four directions and dedicated to all beings suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, India, Brazil, and throughout the world. Khadro-la regularly offered incense pujas at her location, which is not far from Kopan, and Losang Namgyal Rinpoche joined Rinpoche in reciting Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga before offering incense puja on occasion.
Watch Rinpoche blessing the incense for puja:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YP8jUUGj9g
Writing Out the Prajnaparamita Sutra, Offering Teachings, and Liberating Goats
In mid-May, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began to write out the Prajnaparamita in pure gold after a break of ten years! Rinpoche had been writing the 8,000 verse Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold for several years. But since 2011 when he manifested a stroke, Rinpoche hasn’t been able to write, as he felt his handwriting was not stable enough. Rinpoche has explained how important it is to write in one’s best calligraphy, due to the incredibly precious text that one is writing out. Under Rinpoche’s guidance several students have been writing out the Prajnaparamita on archival quality rainbow paper, including Ven. Tsering, who is now based at Kopan Monastery and is writing out volumes from the 12,000 verse Prajnaparamita in pure gold full-time, as well as Jane Seidlitz in US and Ven. Nina at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery. This is incredible that Rinpoche is writing out this most precious sutra again. Please let us rejoice!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving his first thought transformation video teachings in 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
From March-May Rinpoche continued offering thought transformation teachings through ten videos, including the conclusion of the Sutra of Great Liberation oral transmission and teachings specifically offering advice for ordained Sangha. In May, Rinpoche also began giving teachings in Tibetan. These videos can be found in “FPMT Tibetan” YouTube channel.
Rinpoche blessing six new goats that were bought and saved from the butcher. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Rinpoche bought six (and counting!) goats from a butcher on the side of the road in Kathmandu. These animals were liberated on behalf of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, all the Kopan monks and nuns, and for the Indian and Nepalese to be free from COVID-19. The goats were saved from death and will live the rest of their lives at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary near Kopan Monastery.
These are just a few of the many auspicious activities Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been engaged in over the past three months in Nepal. We invite you to enjoy the new online gallery of photos, which show even more of Rinpoche’s recent activities, in which we can all rejoice:
Visit the March and April 2021 photo album:
fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/nepal-march-april-2021
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.
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering incense puja on Kopan Hill to mitigate the pandemic in Nepal, India, and the world; for many weeks Rinpoche offered sur, bath offering, incense puja, and tea offering for many hours each night; Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In the following short excerpt, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that as Buddhists we train to be free from the pervasive compounding suffering and that the main goal of our human life is to bring all sentient beings of the six realms into peerless happiness, total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations, into enlightenment. Here’s a summary of the video:
We need to be free from pervasive compounding suffering, Rinpoche explains. That is the main thing we should free ourselves from. By doing this, we are forever free from the suffering of pain and suffering of change, and then we have ultimate happiness, liberation.
But even being free from samsara, achieving nirvana, is not sufficient. “The blissful state of peace for oneself is not enough,” Rinpoche says.
Why? Because the purpose of our human life is to be beneficial for all sentient beings and to cause the the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, and numberless asura beings to be free from samsara forever. Not only that, the purpose of this life is also to bring everyone—each and every one in six realms—to peerless happiness, total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations, sanggye.
“You need to do that!” Rinpoche says. That is the main purpose. That is why we are born a human being this time, to accomplish this aim. “That should be the main aim of our breathing, our eating food, going to sleep, everything. For that you need to achieve the state of omniscience.”
Watch the video “The Purpose of Our Human Life Is to Benefit All Sentient Beings”:
https://youtu.be/xAV-gvchhjw
The above video was extracted from the beginning of the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, recorded on October 6, 2017.
Learn more about the recent video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to videos, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
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 doing puja to mitigate the pandemic in Nepal, India, and the rest of the world at sunset on Kopan Hill, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the following short video clip, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that the greatest excitement in our life is to benefit all sentient beings. Listening to teachings, doing prayers and meditations, taking precepts, and living our life—all that—we dedicate to their well being. Here’s a summary of the video clip:
Rinpoche explains that we are listening to the teachings for numberless animals, in order to free them from samsara and lead them to enlightenment. “Can you imagine? Do you understand?” Rinpoche asks. “If you are not excited for this, then what else is exciting?”
“Other excitement is totally crazy,” Rinpoche explains. “It is over hallucination. There is hallucination and over hallucination. So here, can you imagine?”
The reason we are doing meditation is to benefit all sentient beings, not leaving out one single tiny fly, not one single ant. There are numberless universes. But not one single ant is left out, because of all the kind mother sentient beings, Rinpoche explains. If you think of the details it’s unbelievable!
So bodhichitta—practicing bodhichitta and benefiting sentient beings—is so great. “What other excitement do you want? Something else is more exciting that this?” Rinpoche asks. Nothing is more exciting and to think this is very strange, Rinpoche explains. It is like your mind is not right. “I’m talking including myself, not only you,” Rinpoche says.
Our reciting should be done with the thought that we are not leaving even the tiniest sentient being behind. We are reciting for everyone. “We get up for them in the morning, wash, and do the motivation, especially the Mahayana motivation, bodhichitta, wow!” Rinpoche says. We need to be alive to practice Dharma, to be of benefit, so we have to eat. So we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all sentient beings. We take precepts for them. We do meditation for them. “Every prayer is for them,” Rinpoche says. “Can you imagine?”
Watch the video “Nothing More Exciting than That”:
https://youtu.be/5zlddu2tgOo
The above video is extracted from the Light of the Path 2017 teachings, recorded on August 27, 2017, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, US.
Since early May 2021, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been offering video teachings in Tibetan from Kopan Monastery in Nepal.
Learn more about the recent video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to videos, transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
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 Kopan Monastery, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche composed a letter to the monasteries and nunneries who sent messages and letters to Rinpoche saying they were praying for Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery in Nepal after they heard of the COVID-19 outbreak at Kopan. Rinpoche’s letter, which was written in Tibetan, thanked the monasteries and nunneries, and shared an update on the situation. The English translation of the letter follows:
On behalf of Kopan Monastery (Pal Ogmin Jangchub Choling) and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, I, Thubten Zopa, would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the members of the different monasteries and nunneries who showed great concern and offered their prayers when they learned that several of the monks at Kopan and the nuns at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling had tested positive for COVID-19. These well-wishers belong to institutions that uphold the precious and sacred teachings of the Buddha and are a source of happiness in the past, present, and future for us weary beings who have been drowning in the great ocean of samsaric suffering since beginningless time.
One hundred seventy of the 460 monks at Kopan and ninety of the 370 nuns at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling tested positive for the virus. Geshe Lobsang Jinpa, who has been a philosophy teacher at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling for many years, fell ill. Suffering from breathing problems, he was hospitalized. The nuns recited prayers such as the White Umbrella for him, and for one month many captive animals were released once a week in the United States to aid in his speedy recovery. His symptoms eventually subsided, and he was able to return to the nunnery.
Former Kopan disciplinarian, Geshe Tsering Tashi, who completed the great approximation retreat of Yamantaka, also became ill. He had trouble breathing, was taken to the hospital, and has since recovered. A monk from Mongolia and a child monk who similarly suffered from breathing problems had to spend time in hospital but are now back at the monastery.
Animals were freed for the former disciplinarian, for our spiritual teachers, especially His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for all Indians, and so on. In total, six goats were liberated for the monks and nuns at Kopan and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling. The liberation of these animals benefited both the goats and the people who were sick, and just the thought that had the goats not been freed they would have been killed is unbearable.
The monks and nuns who tested positive remained in quarantine for eighteen days. One person who had first tested negative was later found to have contracted the virus.
As soon as people started to get ill, Kopan and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling tightened their rules and restricted the movement of their residents. However, many caught COVID without ever leaving the monastic premises, while others did not become infected, although they had to spend time outside the premises to be of service to the two institutions. For instance, the manager of Kopan, Geshe Jangchub, took the monks and nuns who tested positive to the hospital, ran errands, etc.; the care-taker, Sonam Zangpo, regularly went shopping for food supplies; the medical clinic manager, Gen Sangye Tenzin, and his two monk assistants often attended to outside medical matters; Gen Tenpa Choden, who is responsible for the advancement of Kopan, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, and their associated organizations, had to travel between the different institutions, and so forth—but none of them contracted the virus.
Unfortunately, Geshe Thubten Sherab, who teaches at the FPMT center in New Mexico, US, and in several other FPMT centers around the world, fell ill with COVID. But he has now left the hospital and is recovering.
Gen Sangye Tenzin, who is in charge of the medical clinic that belongs to the monastery and the nunnery, and his two monk assistants have been taking care of everyone very well. Kyabje Sengdrag Rinpoche kindly donated his precious Khyung nga pills that he had consecrated during a one year retreat. He gave nine pills to each monk who was hospitalized and five to everyone who was not.
I myself, as well as Ven. Roger Kunsang, the chief executive officer (CEO) of FPMT, and my attendants Ngarampa Tendar, Topgye, and Sherab, who does the computer work, are all well. None of us have become infected.
However, although I have not become ill, I am not sure whether this is desirable or not. For example, the owner of a five-star restaurant who is healthy, lives a long life, has numerous customers, and earns a lot of money is likely to accumulate the karma of killing every day. If he owns a restaurant by the sea, he is responsible for killing thousands of fish and other sea animals when he orders them to be caught to provide seafood for his guests. It is terrifying to think that after he breathes his last breath, he may be born into hellish existences for many eons to come. He similarly accumulates a lot of negative karma with regard to the other nonvirtues.
There are pure monks, on the other hand, who have no attachment to this life and pass away with a peaceful and joyous mind, even if they were sick their entire life, suffering from one illness after the other. They had accumulated negative karma in a previous existence that ripened in the present life in the form of diseases and other obstacles. This means that after their death, they might not be born in the lower realms but take rebirth in a pure realm and quickly attain the enlightened state of a Buddha. The Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung said:
Even by experiencing this small suffering now,
Through finishing past negative karma,
There will be happiness in the future.*
So, we should rejoice when we suffer. Since we have accumulated the karma to experience disease, although we may not fall ill right now, this does not rule out getting sick in the future. Therefore, the Buddha said:
Do not commit any unwholesome actions.
Engage in perfect, wholesome actions.
Subdue one’s own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddha.
Whether we study the scriptures extensively or not, we will definitely benefit from subduing our mind. I think this is an extremely comprehensive and profound advice. It is also what the glorious and unequaled Jowo Atisha taught.
In the Excellent Nectar Vase of the Essential Instructions of the Kadampa Volumes it says:
If we ourselves do not recognize it as our refuge,
Not even the strength of the buddhas and bodhisattvas
Will be able to save us from the abyss of the lower realms.
In the meantime, we should not deceive ourselves.
Whatever happiness and suffering exists in this samsaric place
Has all arisen from our karma.
So, we should examine our body, speech, and mind at all times
And make an effort to abandon wrongdoing and practice virtue.
These words indicate that although there are countless buddhas and bodhisattvas, there are also countless sentient beings who have been drowning in the great ocean of samsaric suffering from beginningless time. But now we have encountered the teachings of the Mahayana as part of the Buddha’s precious teachings, which is as if the impossible had become possible.
These days, the monks at Kopan and the nuns at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling are reading the Golden Light Sutra and the Arya Dharani Sutra five times and reciting the Great Dharani and others from the Kangyur. They are all cheerful. May the monks and nuns in all the other monastic institutions also be cheerful. In order to be of some benefit to others in accordance with the teachings of our lord of refuge and bright light, the Buddha, I focus on the entire world in general and on Dharamsala, India; Nepal; and so forth and perform the following rites: Incense Ritual by the Great Master Padmasambhava, (Nölsang; Wylie, mnol bsang), Purification Rite of the Four Directions (Sangsöl Chog Zhi; Wylie, bsang gsol phyogs bzhi), Cleansing Rite of the Four Directions (Thrü Söl Chog Zhi; Wylie, khrus gsol phyogs bzhi), Cleansing Rite of the Body (Ten Thrü; Wylie, rtren khrus), Cleansing Rite of the Place (Yul Thrü; Wylie, yul khrus), and Burning Food Ritual (Sur; Wylie, gsur).
Written by Thubten Zopa on behalf of Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery on May 18, 2021. Translated by Geshema Kelsang Wangmo; lightly edited for publication on FPMT.org.
*This is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s translation of the verse, done during the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, 2018.
Find Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s letter to monasteries and nunneries who prayed for Kopan in Tibetan.
You can find the practice booklet for Incense Ritual by the Great Master Padmasambhava (Nölsang) and Burning Food Ritual (Sur) in the Foundation Store. See also our resource page on the Golden Light Sutra.
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
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 blessing six goats that were purchased and saved from the butcher. The goats were liberated on behalf of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, all the Kopan monks and nuns, all the Nepali and Indian people, and all beings to be free from the Coronavirus, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Since early May 2021, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been offering video teachings in Tibetan from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. We anticipate Rinpoche will return to recording new video teachings in English in the near future.
In this short video extract from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s video series Teachings on Thought Transformation, Rinpoche explains why it is so important to practice Dharma right now.
Rinpoche begins the discussion with the following quote:
Having received this perfect human rebirth, you can reach the end of the oceans of rebirth
And plant the seeds of virtue of supreme enlightenment.
Who would not want the results of a human body,
Which has even greater qualities than a wish-granting jewel?
Rinpoche reminds us that we have had numberless rebirths and suffered in samsara since beginningless time. But because we have received a perfect human rebirth in this life, we can put an end to rebirths in samsara and plant the seeds of enlightenment.
Because of what we can accomplish with this human rebirth, it is much more precious than the whole sky filled with numberless wish-granting jewels. With this human rebirth we can achieve the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of all realizations; we can’t achieve that from a wish-granting jewel alone.
Rinpoche explains that for numberless eons we have not had a perfect human rebirth, but in this life we do. It is so precious. So we should use it well. If we waste this opportunity, it would be like putting poison in perfectly good food or like using our human body to create the cause for our future lives to be like firewood in hell.
Therefore, Rinpoche says, Do what is best in this life now!
Watch the nine-minute video “Do Your Best in This Life—Now!”:
https://youtu.be/WOq1–WquBI
Read the video transcript here.
The above video is extracted from Video 38: “Do Your Best in This Life!”
You can subscribe to the FPMT Tibetan video channel to receive updates on new video teachings in Tibetan and you can also find all the recent Tibetan teachings there.
Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more. Read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
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 and students participating in the retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, April 2011. Photo by George Manos.
More than ten years ago, nearly 200 students participated in a retreat of a lifetime with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. This was the first of the Australia retreat series—co-hosted by the Great Stupa, Atisha Centre, and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery—in which Rinpoche would focused on Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and the transmission of the rare Rinjung Gyatsa initiations. However, the April 2011 retreat is also remembered as the time when Rinpoche manifested the symptoms of a stroke.
“This became an intense teaching on so many levels for all of us, whether we were physically present at the retreat or back in our daily lives. The importance of making your life meaningful is resonating in my mind and how we really need to put effort into transforming our minds,” Helen Patrin told Mandala at the time. (For more, read “The Retreat of a Lifetime: Guru Devotion in Australia with Lama Zopa Rinpoche” and “When the Guru Manifests a Stroke: Ordinary Appearances and Extraordinary Teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche” from Mandala July-September 2011.)
Ven. Thubten Kunsang, the French monk who until his death in 2016 recorded Rinpoche’s teaching, created two short videos of the 2011 retreat. The first video shares many scenes with Rinpoche, including showing the open structure of the Great Stupa, where the teachings were held, before the Stupa’s exterior was complete. Other scenes include Rinpoche blessing insects, talking about the Mani caps, doing preta practice, and discussing the Namgyalma mantra. The video concludes with Rinpoche reminding us how our lives are all a hallucination.
Watch the archival video by Ven. Kunsang of Rinpoche at the 2011 Great Stupa Retreat:
https://youtu.be/GZcTZQr5sJY
In the second video, students are shown doing Lama Chopa (Guru Puja) after Rinpoche manifested a stroke and was staying in the hospital. More than 250 students attended the powerful and touching puja, which was held in front of the large Guru Rinpoche statue in the Great Stupa at the conclusion of the retreat and featured a display of holy relics.
Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la), who was in Dharamsala, India, was consulted by Ven. Roger Kunsang on Rinpoche’s illness and had recommended, among other practices, the puja, which was also attended by the FPMT resident geshes from Melbourne and Sydney.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has often spoken about the benefits of doing Lama Chopa. During the 2018 retreat at the Great Stupa, Rinpoche explained:
“Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen checked all the guru yogas, what made the great Indian yogis—Saraha, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, etc.—and the four sects’ great enlightened beings—Chokyi Dorje, Gyalwa Ensapa, etc.—achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime during degenerate times. He checked all the guru yogas that they practiced and put them together here in Lama Chopa. He put them together after checking them all. At the end of Lama Chopa is lamrim, the whole path to enlightenment; the essence of lamrim is there. There is lojong to transform the mind from an ordinary mind into the path of enlightenment. (Actually, the whole lamrim is lojong, but there is a particular part called ‘lojong’ that comes at the end.) By thinking of their benefits, you look at all the undesirable things as positive, using them in the path to achieve enlightenment quickly. It is all there in Lama Chopa. It is complete. Kyabje Phabongkha Rinpoche says, ‘Every day, if you get to practice Lama Chopa, then you are able to practice the condensed vital points of sutra and tantra, the complete path.’”
Watch the archival video of students doing Lama Chopa during the 2011 retreat at the Great Stupa:
https://youtu.be/CuhCpc6UW_8
Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation, where you can also find links to transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more.
Read a summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”
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.