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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Livestream of the prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return with the stupa and bodhi tree lit up and changing color in the distance. Photo by Tukba Akil.
We share this moving account from Ven. Sarah Thresher about the prayers offered for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return during the Fifteen Days of Miracles in Bodhgaya, India.
It’s common to hear chanting at the great place of enlightenment in Bodhgaya; groups travel thousands of miles to pray together at the stupa in Pali and Tibetan. It’s far less common to hear prayers chanted in English—and it certainly turns heads when that happens and is noticed by the many pilgrims from around the world.
It wasn’t till the second or third day of our fifteen days of prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return at the place of enlightenment during the miracle days that I realized this simple fact: coming together and chanting prayers together in English was itself a powerful way to repay the kindness of our precious spiritual guide Lama Zopa Rinpoche. There we were sitting together under the bodhi tree, three nuns—English, Chinese and Indian—along with a small but dedicated team of students from around the world praying together in English—the very language Rinpoche had used to teach us and lead us in prayers and practices; the language Rinpoche had learned from a young age in order to spread the Buddha’s teachings in this world. That simple act was proof of Rinpoche’s unfathomable kindness and achievement and greatness.
Group photo on the final evening of prayers—Chotrul Duchen. Photo by Pratyaksh Sehrawat.
Prayers underneath the bodhi tree at the seat of enlightenment. Photo by Tukba Akil.
All the Buddha merit increasing days are special at Root Institute because it’s a time when many offerings and prayers are made for the incredibly kind sponsors of the Festival of Lights and Merits (FLAM) and of Rinpoche’s projects in Bodhgaya. But this year it was decided to add a special prayer session every evening at the stupa with a selection of prayers either recommended by Rinpoche for the merit increasing days or advised by His Holiness and other holy beings to be recited for Rinpoche’s swift return. We were fortunate to get permission from the Temple management to reserve a place and to livestream the prayers for all fifteen days. We chose to sit under the bodhi tree right next to the only ancient Manjushri image in the stupa precincts—though some days we sat back amongst the smaller stupas so that people could see the stupa and bodhi tree spectacularly lit up and changing color as the prayer session unfolded.
A procession of students led by Rinpoche offering bowls of fruit to the main image of Shakyamuni Buddha in the temple. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Two nights it rained but we still showed up. Two nights we added extensive offerings of bowls of fruit in procession to the Buddha image following the prayers—something Ven. Roger sponsored as he mentioned it was what Rinpoche liked to do. On the penultimate evening, a monk came up towards the end of the prayers and asked if he could offer a khata to Rinpoche—many people would pay respect, show approval and request blessing when they saw Rinpoche’s photo. We of course happily agreed, only to find out that it was actually H.E. Avikrita Vajra Sakya who had sent the monk to ask and he along with his entourage then approached to offer khatas to Rinpoche’s photo. “That’s Manjushri offering to Rinpoche,” I said, feeling very moved by the gesture. It was as though the Buddhas themselves were acknowledging the prayers and heartfelt longing of us disciples for the return of our precious Lama and offering comfort.
Ven. Dekyong from Singapore, Ven. Sarah from England and Ven. Anshu from India who led the prayers. Photo by Nick Redmond.
Ven. Sarah Thresher is an English nun who graduated in 1982 and met the Dharma in Kopan shortly afterwards—taking refuge with Lama Thubten Yeshe. She worked many years as an editor for Wisdom Publications and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and has also taught at centers around the world. She ordained with His Holiness Dalai Lama in 1986. For the past five years she has been living in different locations in Nepal.
Please read about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice for reciting Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering advice to the students in Mongolia, September 2013. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang
Lama Zopa Rinpoche received thousands of letters every year from people seeking guidance on a variety of issues. In 2013 Rinpoche dictated a letter about the three types of suffering to a student’s mother who was worried about death.
“In reality, even if we believe that we will live for a long time, that we have so many years to live – like 100 years or more, and maybe after 100 years, we expect another hundred years (I’m joking) – in reality, there is nobody who has lived who has not died,” Rinpoche wrote.
“Even this big earth has to perish after another great eon. Since every person who is born in this world is under the control of karma and delusion, there is nobody, nobody, since human beings started until now, who has lived without death. There is nobody.
“Buddha has no death, because there is no cause of death. The cause of death is not outside but inside –karma and delusions. Buddha removed this inconceivable eons ago, because he purified the delusions and even the subtle obscurations which interrupt the omniscient mind, so it is impossible for the Buddha to experience death. There is no old age, no sickness, no death for him at all, but he showed holy deeds, passing away in the sorrowless state. If Buddha did not show death, then we would not appreciate his teachings and we would become very lazy. Buddha showed death to destroy the wrong concept of permanence of our lives, which are impermanent, and also to show us that we need to practice Dharma, because of suffering and the cause of suffering. …”
You can read the entire letter “The Cause of Death” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.
FPMT.org makes available many practices and resources available for the death and dying of ourselves and our loved ones (and pets!). All are welcome to explore all that is available, collected and compiled over time according to the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
fpmt.org/death
Please explore more recent teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on death and impermanence:
fpmt.org/tag/death-and-dying
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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.
Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
In October 2023 we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation.
We wanted to take the opportunity to remind students of this advice, particularly with Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles approaching when the merit of virtuous actions performed on each of these days is multiplied by 100 million.
We are pleased to share that Ganden Tri Rinpoche, head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and very close to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, will be offering the transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri on February 17, 2024 through Jamyang Buddhist Centre London and this will be available online for all with interest to join.
As a reminder, IMI has arranged continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones! Please read about how to sign up to join.
Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri Materials
The prayer is available for all to download: Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri.
Additionally, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive also offers Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s own commentary and oral transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri which is available to all.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
In The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas (2020), Lama Zopa Rinpoche walks us through the six perfections, which are a key Mahayana Buddhist teaching.
Today we share an excerpt from Rinpoche’s teaching on the perfection of charity from this book, available from Wisdom Publications:
Keeping our mind pure—free from pride, miserliness, and so forth—is very difficult for ordinary people like us. If we could give simply, without all these disturbing thoughts clouding our giving, our generosity would be perfect and attaining another perfect human rebirth would be easy. But this is a struggle for most of us. That is why we must always check our motivation and be diligent in observing our karma.
The villagers of Solu Khumbu, where I was born, have a very good custom to protect themselves and others. Because they are incredibly poor, theft is always a problem. Things are often stolen: cooking pots, money—even potatoes. In many villages the people bury pots of their precious potatoes outside to keep them safe, but thieves can generally guess where the pots are buried, and they dig them up. Also, sometimes people borrow things and don’t return them, no matter how much the owner complains and shouts.
In such cases of theft, the villagers often go to a monastery and ask the lama there to say prayers and dedicate the merit of the prayer to the thief, totally offering them that thing. Whether or not this becomes a virtuous act does not depend on the lama but on the mind of the victim. If the person can renounce the stolen object completely and offer it to the thief with compassion, then it is virtuous. The owner needs the object, but the thief also needs it, and so by renouncing it and offering it to the thief with compassion, the dedication becomes a virtuous action.
If somebody stole a hundred dollars from us and we cannot do the practice of dedication—if we cannot take the loss upon ourselves and offer the victory to that sentient being; if we still cling to that hundred dollars—how can we perfect the practice of charity? Even without considering how kind that sentient being has been, how precious they are, we should rejoice that they needed something and now they have it. Like us, they want happiness and do not want suffering—in that way they are completely equal to us—so why can’t they have that hundred dollars? If we were to find a hundred dollars, how happy we would be. If we were to find a thousand dollars or a million dollars, we would be so surprised and excited. We would clap our hands with joy. So why can’t we do the same thing for this sentient being who has come across a hundred dollars?
Excerpted from Chapter 1, The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, Wisdom Publications, 2020.
Explore more teachings on the six perfections from Lama Zopa Rinpoche including other excerpts from this book.
Learn more about The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, including order information, on Wisdom Publication’s website:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-six-perfections/
The Six Perfections is also available as an e-book from the Foundation Store.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In a 2022 letter to an FPMT center director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the perfect epitome of patience, offered an unmissable teaching on why patience is critically important, and how to protect and cultivate it through applying conscientious effort. Explaining the value of patience, Rinpoche said it protects our hard-won merits, which are necessary for our liberation from samsara but which are easily destroyed through our acts of anger and heresy.
Rinpoche then advised on how best to dedicate our merits so as to protect them. Rinpoche’s letter also offers guidance on six ways to train the mind in patience: by seeing the “enemy” as the guru and as positive support, by realizing that the “enemy” has no freedom to act differently, by developing compassion, and by remembering karma and the emptiness of phenomena.
We offered a short edited version of this advice in our 2022 Annual Review, and now we are very happy to share this entire advice available as a PDF download.
Please explore other teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the topic of patience.
You can read other advice that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered students on the topic of patience and anger.
Order Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s book, Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter from Wisdom Publications.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945–2023) was 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 Ven. Roger Kunsang in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Andrea Husnik.
In late September 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelugzentrum in Vienna, Austria. This was Rinpoche’s first official stay in Austria and his first visit to the FPMT center.
Following the 2017 Light of the Path retreat, and a long flight from North Carolina, US, to Austria, Rinpoche rested for a number of days with the Igel family at their home in Vienna. During his stay, Rinpoche was offered an apple strudel, which the mother of the family had made. The dish was so good that Rinpoche asked if he could be shown how to make the dessert.
Rinpoche gave a motivation before cooking, speaking about making cooking part of the path to enlightenment. This was followed by a demonstration and the actual instructions on how to make Austrian apple strudel (recipe available here) with Rinpoche also joining in to make it.
From the archives we are sharing an extremely joyful video showing such a precious aspect of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s ability to connect so genuinely with others, and also Rinpoche reminding us how to turn ordinary daily activities (like cooking or offering food) into Dharma activities.
In 2013 Rinpoche also offered some advice to the cooks of Tushita Mediation Centre on how to remember bodhichitta when when preparing and cooking food. This is timeless advice which we can all use to actualize the path to enlightenment, as cooking and preparing food for ourselves and others is a daily necessity.
When you are cutting anything, for example onions, think,
I am cutting the root of all sentient beings’ suffering which comes from ignorance and the self-cherishing thought, with the knife of the wisdom realizing emptiness (shunyata) and bodhichitta.
When you are washing pots and so on think,
I am washing away all the obscurations and negative karmas from all sentient beings’ minds.
You can think that you are washing away your own obscurations and negative karmas but most important is to think you are washing away those of all sentient beings. And you can think the water is nectar coming from Vajrasattva, the Guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. There is always a lot of washing up to do in the kitchen and you can use the opportunity to purify all sentient beings’ obscurations. It’s very good if you can sincerely think this way because all the washing up becomes Dharma practice purifying your negative karma and defilements and collecting merits. In India even the beggars keep their pots very clean!
When you are sweeping the floor think that the broom is the whole path to enlightenment, especially wisdom and bodhichitta, and that the dust is all sentient beings’ obscurations.
I am sweeping away the dust of all sentient beings’ obscurations with the broom of the path to enlightenment and especially wisdom and bodhichitta.
If you sincerely think this while you are cleaning it becomes real Dharma practice that benefits all sentient beings. In the lamrim it says to think that you are abandoning the dust of the three poisonous minds—anger, attachment, and ignorance—which are the gross obscurations and also the stains of the three poisonous minds, the subtle obscurations.
When you are kneading dough so that it can be made into any shape think,
I am taming all sentient beings’ minds by softening them with my two hands of the wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta.
When you are making momos or shapale—rolling out pastry and filling it with cheese, potato, and vegetables—think,
I am filling all sentient beings’ minds with the realizations of the path from guru devotion up to enlightenment so that they can actualize all the qualities of a buddha.
When you are cooking soup or other food you can think that the fire is the Six Yogas’ tummo fire that causes the kundalini to melt. Do the same meditation that is used to bless the inner offering in highest yoga tantra. Or you can think that the fire is the wisdom realizing emptiness and the uncooked food is the unsubdued mind. By cooking the food all the gross and even the subtle delusions are purified and all the realizations of Buddha are achieved.
These are some ways of thinking as you are working in the kitchen. You can think in a similar way with other kitchen activities.
This advice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche was typed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 17, 2013.
Related Practice Materials
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945–2023) was 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.
Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
An powerful prayer session was held in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree on December 31, 2023 for the swift return of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Incredibly, 2,500 ordained Sangha participated including Ganden Tri Rinpoche, His Eminence Ling Rinpoche, His Eminence Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, Kundeling Rinpoche, Osel Dorje Rinpoche, Lelung Tulku, Woser Rinpoche from Sera Mey Monastery, Sera Je Abbot Khenrinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsethar, Tashi Lhunpo Abbot Khenrinpoche Zeekgyab Tulku, Segyud Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Wangdu, Namgyal Abbot Khenrinpoche Thamthog Rinpoche, and Drepung Loseling Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Samten.
Ganden Tri Rinpoche at the prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Prayers recited were Calling the Guru from Afar, Chanting the Names of Manjushri, King of Prayers, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return prayer by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ven. Roger Kunsang arranged offerings to all the 2,500 Sangha.
The magnitude and beauty of this event is captured in this short video by Ven. Tenzin Michael:
This was an incredibly important and auspicious event. It is said that the merit created from any virtuous activity in Bodhgaya is multiplied eight times due to the blessings that have arisen from all the holy activities accomplished here by numerous holy beings. As Rinpoche has explained:
“Bodhgaya is not only the place where the Buddha showed the holy deed of achieving enlightenment under the bodhi tree but also where all the great pandits such as Nagarjuna and Asanga practised and made so many prayers. Also, many great enlightened beings and yogis from Tibet, China, Nepal and other countries came here and made so many prayers to benefit us sentient beings so there would be unbelievable, unbelievable opportunity for us to purify negative karma and accumulate merit as quickly as possible.
“That is why it is so important to come to Bodhgaya to practice; to circumambulate and make prayers under the tree. Even if you don’t know much Dharma, try to circumambulate as much as possible. It makes your life so special; there is unbelievable purification and it collects so much merit to quickly be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and achieve enlightenment.
“[The Mahabodhi Stupa] is so precious that if you don’t get to circumambulate it for even one day, it’s worse than losing skies filled with wish-granting jewels or billions of dollars.”
Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Additionally, with great rejoicing we share that on the first day of the New Year, Kopan Geshes, Lama Gyupas and sangha offered Most Secret Hayagriva tsog in front of Rinpoche’s holy body at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
May all of these powerful prayers be actualized without delay.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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.
From Wisdom Publications about this new release:
In this highly anticipated volume, the beloved teacher Lama Zopa Rinopche guides us as we dive deeply into perseverance, one of the core practices of the bodhisattvas. By interweaving his teachings with Shantideva’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things.
… Rinpoche’s commentary is structured around the fifth and seventh chapters of the beloved Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by the eighth-century philosopher-poet Shantideva. Interweaving his teaching with Shantideva’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things.
“When we have perseverance, we will have no obstacles, which means obstacles to any happiness, especially to ultimate happiness, the freedom from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and most importantly to peerless happiness, the state of the omniscience that is enlightenment.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Learn more about this new release from Wisdom Publications and order your copy today:
wisdomexperience.org/product/perseverance
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 offered four teachings at Kopan Monastery on April 7, 8, and 9 before leaving for Tsum Valley on April 10. As we now all know, Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away on April 13, and as such, these teachings are particularly precious as they are the last organized and recorded teachings Rinpoche offered in this life. Three of these teachings were to students attending the 2023 Vajrasattva retreat at Kopan during this time. Rinpoche also gave the White Tara Practice Oral Transmission and Visualization to Glen H. Mullin and a group of his students. You can access all of these teachings and transcripts to the teachings.
In his first teaching from this series on April 7, Rinpoche overviewed some of the many benefits of purification practice. Addressing the retreatants Rinpoche said:
“There are so many problems in the world—what should we do? Doing Vajrasattva practice is the answer; doing purification is the answer. You are purifying negative karma, from where all the sufferings came. Purification is the answer to war, famine, disease, and the dangers from fire, water, earth, and air. That is the answer.”
During one teaching to the 2022 Vajrasattva retreatants at Kopan, 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 discussed 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 to Vajrasattva retreatants in 2022. This is why Rinpoche stressed that Vajrasattva practice is so important.
Explore Rinpoche’s three teachings on Vajrasattva from 2023: April 2023 Teachings at Kopan Monastery
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 Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return at Sera Monastery Drati Khangtsen on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 7, 2023.
This year, Lama Tsongkhapa Day (Ganden Ngamchoe) fell on December 7. This special day celebrates of the anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana. A variety of prayers and practices were undertaken on this auspicious occasion and many FPMT centers and students used the opportunity to engage in prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return as well. At Kopan Monastery, extensive candle lights were offered, Kopan Lama Gyupa monks offered Guyasamaja Puja and constructed a sand mandala over three days, Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri was recited continuously for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as many other prayers, and visitors offered prayers in front of Rinpoche’s holy body.
Sera Je Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 7, 2023. Photo courtesy of Sere Je Monastery Facebook page.
We were also very moved to receive notice of Tibetan communities and Sangha engaging offering prayers in this way. As an example, at Sera Je Monastery Drati Khangtsen, India, as the monastery was illuminated with light offerings and with all monks in congregation, the Sangha recited prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return.
As a reminder, we received the very precious advice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation, and all are very welcome to join this ongoing collective effort.
We invite you to view this collection of photo galleries of some of the initial group prayers, pujas, and practices done for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Kopan Monastery; as well as monastic institutions and communities, FPMT centers, and at the sites of holy objects and gompas.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 cake offered during a birthday celebration, Kopan Monastery, December 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On December 3 we observe the birth date of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT International Office is sponsoring Lama Chopa with Tsog and recitation of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri at Kopan Monastery.
Students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are encouraged to engage in these practices themselves, as a way to honor Rinpoche’s extremely beneficial and inspiring life, and to pray and create merit for the swift return of his reincarnation as advised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan, Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Save the date: From April 15-20, 2024, Kopan Monastery is hosting a Heart Sutra Retreat. His Eminence the 104th Ganden Tripa Rinpoche will offer commentary during the retreat; and participants will be guided to meditate on the meaning of the Heart Sutra by Ven. Steve Carlier, a long-time student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other important teachers in the Gelug tradition.
This retreat will follow a commemoration, on April 13, 2024, of one year since Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away.
In July 2022 Rinpoche expressed his wish to lead a Heart Sutra Retreat, so this is quite significant that this retreat is being offered within the FPMT organization, as it was one of Rinpoche’s expressed wishes.
The Heart Sutra is the most widely known sutra of the Mahayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is part of the Prajnaparamita Sutras, which is a collection of about 40 sutras composed between 100 BCE and 500 CE. The Heart Sutra is a presentation of profound wisdom on the nature of emptiness. Reading and reciting the Heart Sutra is a powerful way to create the conditions for having a direct realization of emptiness.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that the only thing that can directly cut ignorance, which is the root of suffering and samsara, is wisdom realizing emptiness. There are many teachings on emptiness, but these teachings are found condensed in the Heart Sutra.
“Ignorance [has been] holding the false I as real from beginningless rebirths. That’s how we have been in samsara until now. Never liberated from suffering. But now there is, for example, the short one, the Heart Sutra, to cut that ignorance, that wrong concept,” Rinpoche explained before offering the oral transmission of the sutra in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015.
Just hearing the Heart Sutra, or reading it, Rinpoche explained, leaves a positive imprint to be free of samsara and to actualize the path, achieving enlightenment to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsara and bring them to enlightenment.
“If we are able to read or hear [the Heart Sutra] just one time, the positive imprint left by this definitely causes us in the near future to understand much more easily the teachings on emptiness. We will be able to understand the words and the meanings of the teachings on emptiness very easily, and we’ll be able to have realizations of emptiness easily, quickly in the future. Developing that wisdom ceases the gross and subtle defilements, the mistakes of the mind, and it makes us achieve the sorrowless state, the cessation of the suffering and its causes on our mental continuum, as well as great liberation even from the subtle mistakes of the mind, that which is full enlightenment on our own mental continuum,” Rinpoche explained.
Students can listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Heart Sutra on a digital audio album available in the FPMT Foundation Store. The downloadable album comes bundled with a digital version of the sutra in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats as well as the transcript of Rinpoche giving the oral transmission at the 2015 retreat in Mexico, from which the audio for the album was taken.
Students can find more links to Heart Sutra materials and resources below:
- The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – MP3 Download
- The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – eBook & PDF
- Watch the teaching in which Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of the Heart Sutra on video. (The oral transmission begins at 42:58.)
- FPMT Education’s Basic Program Online: Heart Sutra
- Essence Of The Heart Sutra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, eBook & PDF
Please learn more about the Heart Sutra Retreat and commemoration being offered at Kopan Monastery in April 2024.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.