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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the beginning of the Vajrayogini Retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is currently in the middle of teaching at the five-week Vajrayogini Retreat at Institut Vajra Vogini in the south of France. FPMT students from around the world—many of them students of Rinpoche for more than thirty years—are attending the retreat, which began on May 10. More than 450 people attended the first two weeks of the retreat, including about fifty ordained Sangha. More than 250 students are staying for the entire retreat.
Gordon McDougall, a UK student of Rinpoche and frequent editor of Rinpoche’s books, is attending the retreat and shares this report:
Varjayogini Retreat participants in front of the Kadampa stupa at Insitut Vajra Yogini, France, May 2019
Greetings from Vajrayogini’s pure land, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche so aptly named Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) at the beginning of the five-week Vajrayogini retreat. I remember when Violette (one of the retreat’s key organizers) first told me Rinpoche had accepted to lead this retreat, it seemed that it would be something very special, and it is proving to be that.
What could have been an organizational nightmare has been made to look blissfully easy by the IVY team, which includes seventy volunteers. The chateau and grounds (and the beautiful French countryside around) are at their best, and the huge teaching tent feels surprisingly spacious. There is the usual array of audio-video equipment for the interpreters, video recording, and live webcast, and a big screen for Ven. Joan Nicell’s simultaneous transcriptions of Rinpoche’s teachings. And there are many flowers, offerings, and thangkas. If you’ve been to a big Rinpoche teaching event, you’ll probably be able to picture it well.
What I notice here, though, is the meticulous eye for detail, from the seating arrangements to the surprising small tables we each have. (When Ven. Chantal Carrerot, the retreat leader, mentioned that the table tops lift and the legs extend, she had to break for a few minutes while we all had great fun playing with them.)
It was wonderful to see the care the team took with the students as they arrived. Because there had been a general strike in France right before the retreat began, people had been stuck in strange cities or forced to find other ways of getting here and many arrived without their baggage, which was floating around France somewhere. In short, chaos, but it hasn’t seemed like that from this side. The team worked so hard to ensure everybody settled in without hassle.
As usual, the first couple of days were a frenzy of reunions. The energy was so high, with people who have been Dharma siblings for decades meeting each other again. I found it quite daunting to face so many people at once and so much hugging and greeting, but, at the same time, it is a fantastic feeling to be back among the FPMT family. And it really does feel like a family. I have known some—many—of the people smiling at me as we go around the big Kadampa stupa for thirty years. They are still at it, still devoted to our amazing holy guru. We worked out there is probably over 10,000 years Dharma experience here. All we have to do now is get enlightened.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during the Vajrayogini Retreat, Institut Vajra Yogini, France, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.
Owen Cole, a long-time FPMT student from Hayagriya Buddhist Centre in Perth, Australia, shares his experience of the first part of the retreat:
The retreat has every thing going for it. During the Heruka and Vajrayogini initiations, Lama Zopa Rinpoche pushed students to the limit with two separate nights of only three hours sleep, though we did get a generous break the next day. The students have responded with enthusiasm and discipline by attending sessions and observing course discipline, such as the silence periods.
The program follows the one favored by Rinpoche in retreats around the world with Guru Puja/Jorcho and additional prayers chanted first thing. This is followed by the sadhana or a teaching by Rinpoche or a talk by a Western Sangha member. We do protector prayers at night. Though everything is subject to change and often does.
IVY director Françios Lecointre and his amazing team are an inspiration for how they have organized the retreat, which has stretched the center’s facilities to capacity. Ever room in the old chateau is jam packed full of people with the overflow housed at nearby Nalanda Monastery, Dorje Palmo Nunnery, and other facilities near the quintessentially French town of Lavaur.
Volunteers serving a meal at the Varjayogini Retreat, Institut Vajra Yogini, France, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.
The IVY staff and volunteers have gone out of their way to make the minds of participants happy, offering sun lounges to relieve the pressure on campers, umbrellas when it started raining, and extra blankets for those feeling the cold; taking great care of those who had to be hospitalized; and providing beautiful food in copious quantities. The volunteers are working to the point of exhaustion to help retreatants and keep things running smoothly. And they are patiently doing everything with a smile, which creates a wonderful sense of cooperative community.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche acknowledged their efforts in a teaching by saying their work had already achieved the same result of many lifetimes of retreat, adding that they had purified so many eons of negative karma as they were helping people look after their minds.
You can find links to live webcast of Rinpoche’s teachings here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Watch recorded video of the non-restricted teachings from the retreat here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/vajrayogini-retreat-2019/
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.
If you wish to read FPMT International Office’s May 24 update regarding Dagri Rinpoche, it is available here.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche felt strongly that it was important for him to offer the following advice to the students of Dagri Rinpoche out of concern for their guru-disciple relationship. Rinpoche also offered advice on guru devotion to all students.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Adelaide, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Many people who have studied Dharma know this, but other people may not know this: In the Lesser Vehicle teachings the ten non-virtues cannot become virtue by depending on the motivation. If the action happened, then it is just non-virtue. But it’s different in Mahayana Buddhism if the three non-virtuous actions of the body and the four non-virtuous actions of the speech are done with unbelievably strong compassion. For example, if you prefer to be born in hell yourself instead of another sentient being being born in hell, you will not be born in hell. You are able to choose like that. For bodhisattvas, to achieve the blissful state of peace, or nirvana, for oneself is extremely dirty. In the texts it says that it is like spit or snot thrown away on a road. I use the example of used toilet paper with kaka on it—you immediately throw it away. It is like that for a bodhisattva’s holy mind. But to be born in hell for sentient being, to be able to save sentient beings, is like a swan entering a pond. The swan is so happy to enter the pond. It is the most happy, most exciting thing; it is what they really want. So, it is like that for a bodhisattva’s holy mind. That is the example given in the texts.
There is the story of the bodhisattva captain. A long time ago, way back when Shakyamuni Buddha was a bodhisattva, he was the captain of a ship. One man on the ship, who was short and carrying a spear, wanted to kill the 500 other people on the boat. Knowing this, the bodhisattva captain felt unbelievable compassion because the man would then be reborn in the lower realms and suffer for eons. The bodhisattva captain really wanted to be born in hell himself and not the man. So, with that mind of unbelievable compassion, wanting to protect the man from negative karma and from many eons of suffering in the hells, he then killed the man. The effect of doing that, because it was done with such unbelievable compassion, was to cause the bodhisattva captain to be 100,000 eons closer to enlightenment and to being free from samsara. It became an unbelievable purification. This was because the motivation of unbearable compassion made the action not only become Dharma but the cause of enlightenment.
Then the Vajrayogini commentary tells how Nagpo Chopa, the guru, was going to practice tantric conduct (the last practice just before enlightenment) in a place called Oddiyana, near Buxa, in India, where I lived for eight years. Waiting near a big river was a woman who had leprosy, with pus and blood coming out of her. She was totally, unbelievably dirty. The leper woman asked Nagpo Chopa to please carry her on his back across the river, but he didn’t answer her and just went straight across the river. After some time his disciple, Getsul Tsembulwa, who was not a full bhikshu, came by, and she asked him to carry her across to the other side of the river. When he saw her, unbelievable compassion immediately arose within him. Without any thought of the contagious disease or of being a monk, but with only unbelievable compassion, he immediately carried her on his back across the river. When he reached the middle of the river, his heavy negative karma that prevented him from seeing her as the enlightened being Dorje Phagmo and made him only see her as a terrible, dirty, and sick was purified. That ordinary appearance finished because his negative karma was purified. The mind that projected that ordinary appearance was gone, purified. So, that woman was Dorje Phagmo, who then took Getsul Tsembulwa to the pure land of Dagpa Kachoe (the Vajrayogini pure land), in his same body, without his needing to die first. Since one definitely becomes enlightened there in Dagpa Kachoe, he probably became enlightened earlier than his guru, Nagpo Chopa. This was because he generated unbelievable compassion.
Another example is from Asanga’s life story—many people know this story. Asanga spent twelve years in retreat trying to achieve Maitreya Buddha. He left after every three years of retreat, and different conditions happened that inspired him each time to go back into retreat. One time he saw a bird flying in and out of a cave to its nest. The bird’s wings were so soft, but where they touched the rock was being worn down. That inspired Asanga so much that he thought he would go back into retreat to try to achieve Maitreya Buddha. When he came down after another three years, he saw a thread being used to cut hard rock. Over time they were able to cut the rock with just a tiny thread. Again that inspired him to go back into retreat. Three years later when he came down, he saw water dripping onto a rock—one, two, three drops—and the rock was being worn down, with a hole starting to form. This again inspired him and he went back into retreat.
Still nothing happened, and after three years he again left the retreat. As he was walking down the road, he saw a wounded dog, the lower part of whose body was totally full of maggots. Asanga cut a piece of flesh off his thigh to put the maggots on, so they had something to eat. Since he didn’t want to harm the maggots by picking them up with his fingers, he closed his eyes and stretched out his tongue, intending to pick them up with his tongue. But he could not touch them. When he opened his eyes, there was no longer a wounded dog but Maitreya Buddha.
Asanga then complained, saying, “Why didn’t I see you during the retreat?” Maitreya Buddha said, “I was there with you. Look at your spit on my robes.” To prove it, he showed the marks on his robes where Asanga had spat. Asanga then requested teachings, and Maitreya Buddha took him to Tushita pure land, Yiga Chozin, and gave him the five divisions of teachings (Jangchub Denma). One morning in Tushita pure land is equal to fifty human years. Asanga then came back and wrote the five commentaries. From that, so many people have done listening, reflecting, and meditation, achieved the path and become enlightened. (Of course, later in Tibet, Lama Atisha wrote The Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, which again so many people in the world have studied and thus subdued their mind and achieved enlightenment. This came from Nalanda in India.)
In the great monasteries in Tibet, people studied and took these teachings for many years. Then nowadays many nuns in nunneries, including the Kopan nunnery, have also been studying these teachings. They are all unbelievably fortunate to learn Buddhadharma in such an extensive way. They are very fortunate to learn how to generate the path and how to achieve enlightenment.
These are just a few examples of the results of Asanga’s great compassion. All these benefits received by so many sentient beings, which we have also been receiving, came from Asanga’s great compassion.
We have to have expansive knowledge and understanding. For example, according to the Mahayana, while Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was showing enlightenment in this world, in another world he was showing descending from Tushita; then at the same time, in another world he was showing conception; then in other worlds he was showing teaching the Dharma or subduing the maras. All these different things were happening at the same time. But according to Theravadin Buddhism, when Buddha showed enlightenment in Bodhgaya, it was the first time he was enlightened.
Even though there is need for laws in a country and vinaya rules in a monastery, it is your own practice to subdue your mind. Buddha said: “Do not commit any unwholesome action; engage in wholesome actions; and subdue your own mind.” If subduing your own mind is missing, then you are not practicing real Buddhism. Externally it looks like you are practicing Buddhism, but inwardly you are not practicing Buddhism.
There are similar cases in the monasteries, where there is the study of the major philosophical texts: you study Dharma outwardly, but are not studying Dharma inwardly. Therefore, you don’t find happiness from Buddhism. You have the same problems in your mind that you had even before you met Buddhism—maybe even worse problems. You then spend your life creating negative karma by criticizing others all the time. I wonder why Buddha said, “Subdue your own mind”?
In the practices of Sangha there is a practice called ge jong je sho she. It means that if somebody is angry with you, you don’t get angry back; if somebody shouts at and scolds you, you don’t do that back; if somebody beats you, you don’t beat them back; if somebody provokes you, you don’t provoke them back. Otherwise, it is like there is no purpose in Buddha teaching us to subdue our own mind.
My greatest interest is: Are there sentient beings who have been pure from beginningless rebirths, with no disturbing-thought obscurations and no subtle obscurations? Are there any sentient beings like this other than my gurus? Are there any sentient beings whose minds have been totally pure, with no mistakes, no disturbing-thought obscurations and no subtle obscurations, from beginningless rebirth? That is what I am wondering.
No matter what people in the world say to criticize Dagri Rinpoche, I keep my mind in the understanding that this is a holy being. I don’t become like a cow with a rope tied through its nose that is led around by people and has to go wherever the people pull it. Even though I am extremely ignorant of the world and I have no understanding of Dharma, I have this slight wisdom and I stay with that. This is a holy being, not an ordinary being, as I mentioned before.
Somebody who practices patience and has unbelievable compassion in return to anger or harm receives unbelievable benefits from that, up to enlightenment. Those who don’t practice holy Dharma get angry. You can see that it totally depends on the person’s mind, on what label the person puts on that: harm or benefit, negative or positive. You can use it whichever way you like, for delusion or not. Those actions make some people so happy; even for attachment it makes them so happy. Some people who are not interested at that time, who don’t like it, get angry back. Even in regard to delusions, it is like that. It depends on whether you like or dislike something. If you like it, then you are so happy; if you dislike it, then you get so angry. Even with delusion it depends on which label you put, like or dislike. So, it comes from the person’s mind. So much depends on the mind of the person, of the perceiver, who judges something as good or bad. It is the same with kaka. For human beings it is something to throw out, but for dogs and even pretas, kaka is what they need, what they enjoy. It is the same with durian. Some people like durian so much, but others hate it. So, it’s up to a person’s karma, and even the same person might like or dislike something at different times.
In regard to investigating, in my understanding, is the investigation of today? Of this year or last year? From his childhood? From when he was conceived in his mother’s womb? Should the investigation be of his past life? In his past life Dagri Rinpoche was Pari Dorje Chang, a very famous lama in Lhasa, and Lama Yeshe’s guru. He gave the oral transmission of the Kangyur in the large monasteries in Tibet. Or should the investigation be of the life before that? Should the investigation be from beginningless rebirths? Then we will be investigating endless samsara. We will have to achieve enlightenment in order to investigate the beginningless rebirths of Dagri Rinpoche. We have to be enlightened; otherwise, we can’t investigate. This is my logic.
Here, it seems that only Rinpoche is wrong and all of us are totally pure, have never engaged in non-virtue. It becomes like that. In Rinpoche’s case, this is all I have to say. I have nothing else to say.
This case doesn’t apply only to Dagri Rinpoche. People bring up everyone in the world as having mistakes. People even criticize His Holiness the Dalai Lama, because His Holiness gives advice on the shortcomings of following dolgyal, which some people believe is a Dharma protector. This advice comes from His Holiness’s own experience, over a long time, over years and years. Others hide the mistakes and don’t reveal them publically because people will criticize them. But His Holiness has unbelievable compassion, so instead of hiding the truth he revealed it. His Holiness showed what is true and what is false, what is harmful and what is helpful.
Not only His Holiness the Dalai Lama but many high lamas in Tibet stopped the practice of dolgyal, such as:
- 54th Ganden Tripa Trichen Ngawang Chogden – Regent of Lama Tsongkhapa, he advised to not have it in the constitution of the monastery, to not practice it.
- Purchog Ngawang Jampa (an incarnation of Maitreya Buddha and a great Sera lama)
- 8th Dalai Lama Gyalwa Jampa Gyatso
- Yongdzin Yeshe Gyaltsen
- Thuken Chokyi Nyima
- Changkya Rolpai Dorje
- Yangchen Drupai Dorje
- Ngulchu Dharmabhadra
- Lama Chosang Chokyi Nyingje
- Dodrup Jigme Tenpai Nyima
- Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
- 8th Panchen Lama Tenpai Wangchuk
And there are many others, great lamas who brought extensive benefit to sentient beings and the teachings of Buddha, like the sun and moon in the world. All these great lamas advised to not do the practice, even putting it in the constitution of the monasteries. It’s not just the view of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who protects us sentient beings and guides us with so much compassion.
It’s very important to study the advice of those lamas, which was given a long time ago in Tibet. In general, people don’t have much idea. They think it’s only His Holiness. Then, depending on what they like and don’t like, they then criticize His Holiness. But they don’t follow the analysis of whether it is a harmful thing or a helpful thing. They don’t check that.
Then, in the twenty-first century, those, such as myself, with very, very obscured ordinary minds, who are very ignorant and without the wisdom to analyze things, should then say that great enlightened Heruka Kyabje Pabongka; Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, my root guru; Kyabje Zong Rinpoche; Geshe Rabten and Lama Yeshe didn’t practice dolgyal, but showed the aspect of practicing dolgyal. In the section on perfectly following the guru, there is the word “tsul,” which means showed the aspect. They showed the aspect; they acted that way, but it was not real. So, for me and the twenty-first century sentient beings, whose minds are so obscured and so ignorant, with no wisdom to check whether it is helpful or harmful, they appeared to practice, but actually they did not practice. It was an act.
When Bodhisattva Meaningful to Behold asked Buddha, “Now we are guided by you, but in the future who will guide us?” Buddha replied, “Hi, I will reveal birth, old age, sickness, and death in order to ripen the minds of sentient beings.”
In brief, I mention this quotation of what Buddha said. Even arhats, who are free from delusion and karma and samsara, do not have birth, old age, sickness, and death, so how is it possible for Buddha to have them?
I am talking about this on the basis of not even having met Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, but I have read a lot of his teachings, so on the basis of that, from my side, they are all Buddha.
So, it depends on what you like and don’t like. In this instance, people criticize His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If it is opposite to what you like, then you criticize. People do that. Even Buddha was criticized by the Hindu followers.
Then it becomes that nobody is enlightened. It comes to that point. Then the whole of the teachings are not true. Even nowadays, even recently, in the past years, so many beings achieved seeing the guru as buddha, renunciation, bodhichitta, right view, and tantric realizations of the generation and completion stages. It is happening even now. Even we ourselves find that when we read lamrim our problems go away; our mind becomes peaceful. You can see the logic of what Buddha said: “Mighty Ones, Bhikshus, learned ones, check my teachings like one examines gold by burning, cutting, and rubbing. One then sees refined gold. Take the teachings in the same way, not by blind faith.”
So, that is not only for beginners, for Westerners in particular, but includes even learned lamas and geshes with many disciples. In Tibet, many valid high lamas, such as Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and many others, even though they were followers of and extremely devoted to Pabongka Rinpoche, did not practice dolgyal.
I deeply apologize if my previous advice caused any unhappiness. Whichever way you speak, it causes unhappiness to different people. Of course, in the world, even if somebody does a really positive thing, there are people who take that as very negative; then somebody does a very negative thing and some people take it as very positive. So, it is like that. I want to say that I am deeply sorry about all the people who got hurt from Rinpoche’s holy actions.
So, this is additional clarification of my previous advice to students of Dagri Rinpoche.
Thank you very much for your understanding, and thank you very much for spending your precious human life and precious time reading my blah, blah, blah.
Lama Zopa
Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France
Scribed by Holly Ansett, May 19-21, 2019; edited by Ailsa Cameron.
Find Rinpoche’s May 14 advice for students of Dagri Rinpoche here.
FPMT International Office’s updates regarding Dagri Rinpoche are available here:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/updates-regarding-dagri-rinpoche/
If you wish to read FPMT International Office’s updates regarding Dagri Rinpoche, they can be found here.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche felt strongly that it was important for him to offer the following advice to the students of Dagri Rinpoche out of concern for their guru-disciple relationship. Rinpoche also offered advice on guru devotion to all students.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna, Bilbao, Spain, May 6, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
From my understanding, in my view and according to my mind, Dagri Rinpoche is a very positive, holy being—definitely not an ordinary person.
One night a very long time ago at Tushita in Dharamsala, Dagri Rinpoche told me that he had a dream that he visited the pure land of Lama Tsongkhapa (Yiga Chozin). He was saying how unbelievably, unbelievably wonderful it was, with all the beautiful enjoyments and view, wow, wow, wow!
Then in Sera Je Monastery, when I was having dinner at his house, he told me another story. After he recited Rinjung Gyatso mantras, he led the pujas of the Hayagriva group in Sera Je. During the puja he himself was a huge Hayagriva and all the monks were very little. When he was telling me this, his way of expressing it was bringing himself down, saying that maybe he was hallucinating. These are just a few stories that I have heard. But this is definitely not an ordinary being, someone scared of death and the lower realms. That is one hundred percent certain. This is according to my personal view, according to my mind.
Therefore, I want to tell the students who have received initiations and teachings from Dagri Rinpoche that you should definitely one hundred percent rejoice, no matter what the world says, no matter if some people criticize him. Even after Buddha became enlightened, he showed the aspect of having pain in his foot when a piece of wood went through it. Buddha said that the suffering was the result of sexual misconduct with a woman in one of his past lives, a long time ago. Of course, even arhats, who haven’t achieved the five Mahayana paths, the ten Bhumis or the tantric path, don’t have pain. They are free from samsara, since they are totally free from delusions and karma, the cause of samsara. How is it possible for someone to experience pain, rebirth, old age, and death if they have totally ceased the cause of suffering? It then becomes that Buddha is not true and Buddha’s teachings are not true. It becomes like that. Numberless beings have become enlightened: yogi-pandits such as Saraha, Tilopa and Naropa, and many beings from all four sects of Tibetan Buddhism, including Padmasambhava and other Nyingma lamas, Marpa and Milarepa, the five great highly attained Sakya Lamas, Lama Tsongkhapa himself, and many others in the Gelug tradition. With this reasoning everything becomes not true.
Buddha showed the aspect of a piece of wood going into his foot and said that a long time ago, in one of his past lives, he committed sexual misconduct with a woman. He did this to show the karma to the disciples, to the sentient beings who are the objects to be subdued. So, Buddha himself showed suffering, even though he didn’t have suffering.
This also includes the present Dalai Lama. You can see that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is all that is explained by Buddha, the great yogi-pandits and Lama Tsongkhapa. You can see that his holy mind possesses all the qualities of the path. His holy mind has all the supreme qualities, all the inexpressible qualities beyond the path, that have been explained in the texts by Buddha and up to the present buddhas’, enlightened ones’, experiences, as well as being unbelievably practical and cherishing others like a mother cherishes her most beloved child. No matter whether someone is rich or poor, educated or uneducated, His Holiness sees everyone in the world as equal and gives the most practical advice. Now, even this would not be true. But here you can see this with your own eyes, so then how could you say that it’s not true. The incredible qualities of His Holiness’s gurus and so many other holy beings that you have seen would also not be true. You would then have to say that there are no holy beings. So, these mistakes would arise.
You can see for yourself that if you practice Buddhism—lamrim, for example—your mind has greater and greater peace and becomes more and more holy. How can you then say that even that doesn’t happen? It’s the same as saying that everything you did, everything you experienced, is a hallucination. Of course, this is not related to the view of true existence. The hallucination, in this case, is that nothing exists in mere name: suffering, the cause of suffering, cessation of suffering, the path. Nothing then exists: there’s no hell, no enlightenment, no karma, no samsara, no nirvana.
Then, in the sutra Meeting of the Father and Son, it says, “Buddha works for sentient beings by taking the costume of Indra, Brahmin, sometimes as mara, (but people in the world do not know this). He also shows the conduct, the costume, of a woman. Also, Buddha takes animal forms. There is no attachment but he shows attachment; there is no fear but he shows fear; there is no ignorance but he shows ignorance; there is no craziness but he shows craziness; there is no lameness but he shows being lame. In various aspects, Buddha works for sentient beings and subdues the minds of sentient beings.”
Please understand this. Even enlightened buddhas work for sentient beings like this. So we, including myself, need to see things as positive. From our minds, from our side, we have to try to see the positive side.
Otherwise, it means you don’t need to meditate, you don’t need to practice Dharma, from your side. Otherwise, why do you need to meditate? Why do you need to practice Dharma? Without needing to put effort from your side, you expect everything outside to be positive. To be able to see the Guru is numberless past, present, and future buddhas, to be able to realize that, you have to put effort from your own side.
That’s why Lama Tsongkhapa said in The Foundation of All Good Qualities:
The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and perfect, pure Guru;
Correct devotion to him is the root of the path.
By clearly seeing this and applying great effort,
Please bless me to rely upon him with great respect.
The verse says: “The kind, perfect guru is the basis of all good qualities and correctly following the virtuous friend is the root of the path to enlightenment. By seeing well, which means seeing the guru as numberless past, present, future buddhas, WITH MUCH EFFORT, please grant me blessings to be able to follow the guru with great devotion and respect.” So, this means from your own side, with great effort. Lama Tsongkhapa said this from his own experience.
Since we (myself, for example) don’t have that understanding, we expect that we don’t have to do anything from our side. We only expect to see the guru’s qualities, to see the guru as pure, as the essence of buddha, from outside. It doesn’t happen like this.
Even if you saw the person before as full of mistakes, after you make a Dharma connection with them, you need to practice the root of path to enlightenment: correctly following the virtuous friend. By training your mind in that, then you are able to see that is buddha, which means one who has totally ceased the gross and subtle obscurations and completed all the qualities. You then realize the root of the path to enlightenment: correctly following the virtuous friend. From there, you then actualize the graduated paths of the lower capable being, the middle capable being and then the higher capable being. Bodhichitta and then tantric realizations happen easily.
Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened eons ago, according to Mahayana, according to reality. Gelong Lekpai Garma, Buddha’s attendant, served Buddha for twenty-two years, but he always looked at Buddha as a liar. This was because one time when Buddha was on alms round, a young girl offered a handful of grain in Buddha’s begging bowl. At that time Buddha predicted that from that karma she would become enlightened as Buddha Tseme. Gelong Lekpai Garma thought that was a lie and that Buddha was just flattering her. He thought it was too much: “How is it possible for that to happen from offering one handful of grain?” So, for his whole life he saw Buddha as a liar and as an ordinary being. Buddha was a buddha, but he never saw him as a buddha. He had more faith in his Hindu guru. One time his Hindu guru was sick and Buddha advised his Hindu guru not to eat brown sugar. Gelong Lekpai Garma didn’t believe Buddha, he thought he was lying, so he offered his Hindu guru brown sugar. His Hindu guru died and was reborn as a preta; one time this preta made a sound as Buddha was walking by on a road. When Gelong Lekpai Garma died, he was reborn in the hell realms for eons. It is important to know these stories.
Thank you very much. Have no regrets. The only thing is to enjoy life, which is very short and can be ended at any time.
Thank you very much,
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
May 12, 2019, Lavaur, France. Scribe: Ven. Holly Ansett, edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arriving at Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France, May 2019. Photo by Harald Weichhart.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently arrived at Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) after giving teachings in Spain. A large gathering of students held khatas, glowing LED lights, and banners depicting the eight auspicious symbols as they awaited his night-time arrival at the FPMT center in southern France.
On Saturday, May 11, Rinpoche began teaching at a five-week Vajrayogini retreat, hosted by IVY. More than 400 students from around the world are attending the first ten days of the retreat. More than 250 students will be attending the entire retreat. Preliminary and non-restricted teachings by Rinpoche at the retreat will be webcast live.
For details and links to watch Rinpoche teach live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Nalanda Monastery, Labastide Saint Georges, France, May 2019. Photo by Harald Weichhart.
On May 9, Rinpoche visited nearby Nalanda Monastery, where Rinpoche was offered lunch and was greeted by the resident monks and other students. Rinpoche gave an oral transmission and teaching during his visit there.
Watch the video of Rinpoche’s arrival at IVY:
https://youtu.be/dA6ioxd2vm4
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings from Madrid, Spain, on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/madrid_2019/
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 being led to the gompa at O.Sel.Ling Centro de Retiros by center director Anne Wenaas and Ven. Topgye, Spain, May 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote a benefactor thanking them for their support of a center and explaining a center’s benefits.
I just want to send you these cards and tell you that I highly appreciate your kindness in helping the center. The purpose of the center existing continually is to help sentient beings, and what sentient beings need most is to be free from the oceans of suffering, which is what they have been experiencing from beginningless rebirths. That means to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering—the sufferings of rebirth, old age, sickness and death, and so forth. This is the suffering of pain. Then there is the suffering of change—all the samsaric pleasures, which cannot continue.
When we achieve enlightenment, that is when Dharma happiness is completed. The nature of samsaric pleasure is suffering. The suffering of pain and the suffering of change come from the third suffering, which is pervasive compounding suffering.
To be free from these three sufferings forever, we need to cease the cause of suffering—delusion and karma. For this we can’t have an operation in the hospital, or have it taken it out by a doctor or take tablets so it goes away. We can’t do that, it’s impossible. The only method is Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings. The centers are for that. That’s why the center is teaching Dharma, providing qualified teachers, translators, a place to practice, to hear the teachings and so many things.
This is a most urgent thing for sentient beings, more urgent than anything else. Not only that, through this it brings sentient beings to buddhahood, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all realizations. Therefore, the need for the center to exist and to continue is of utmost importance for sentient beings.
By helping the center, you are helping all sentient beings, because then people come to learn Dharma at the center, and to practice bodhichitta, as they do the practice for all sentient beings, to benefit all sentient beings. That is how the center benefits numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings and numberless intermediate state beings.
From Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice “The Center is of Utmost Importance,” posted on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in December 2018:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/center-utmost-importance
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings in Madrid, Spain:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/madrid_2019/
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 prayers at Tso Pema, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised a student who wanted to help the sick and dying.
You don’t have to go [to the hospital] to help them; instead, wherever you stay, you can do the Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead. Recite a different one, or two, each day, dedicated for them, for example, the “King of Prayers,” the “Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle and End,” the “Prayer to Be Reborn in Sukhavati,” Shantideva’s “Dedication Prayer,” and so forth. You can do that for them, as well as for every sentient being of the six realms.
Also, every OM MANI PADME HUM mantra you recite, or whatever mantras you do, such as Vajrayogini, you can do for every sentient being, including those who are sick and dying. That is helpful for them. Whatever you practice normally, do for others. Try to live your life for others—for every single sentient being, including every single insect, even the tiniest animals, and every single sura and asura. Whatever you do, try to help and dedicate it to everybody. That is very good.
Sometimes going to see people who are dying, if you don’t really know what helps them, then it can be that it doesn’t help and can even disturb their mind, causing attachment. Even if they regard it as good, actually it harms them by generating attachment. In the West people think attachment is very good, but they don’t know that generating attachment to the other person in reality is not helping but is harming.
Renunciation, bodhichitta, emptiness and correctly following virtuous friend [help those who are dying]. This is just talking from the side of sutra. This helps, otherwise it’s not so good. You have to know what is helping and what is harming. You have to know that. In the West, maybe the person is your enemy, but when that person is dying and you go to see them in hospital, if that person can’t speak, they may die with anger or attachment. So it harms them; it causes them to be reborn in the lower realms. I am using this as an example.
Anyway, for the time being it doesn’t come out to help those people who are dying and in the hospitals. What comes out best is to focus on your preliminary practices, retreats, and to do prayers for those people.
From Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice “How to Help People Who Are Sick and Dying,” posted on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website in December 2018:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/how-help-people-who-are-sick-and-dying
For more advice from Rinpoche on death and dying, please visit our page “Death and Dying: Heart Practices and Advice”:
https://fpmt.org/death/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Madrid, Spain, April 2019. Photo by Alexis Roitmann.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent this letter to all the staff at an FPMT center, thanking them for working at the center.
My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
My thanks, first of all, that you have taken a human rebirth, from many lifetimes practice, praying, and dedicating to receive a human body and especially a perfect human body, and now being able to practice the Dharma and meet the Mahayana teachings. From that, any practice you do always begins with bodhichitta.
The main purpose of one’s life is to free the numberless sentient beings in each realm from the oceans of samsara suffering and to bring them to Buddhahood—the peerless happiness. So therefore one needs to achieve Buddhahood in order to be able to do the perfect works for the sentient beings, without the slightest mistake.
Any Mahayana practice that you do begins with bodhichitta, to benefit all the sentient beings in the six realms. That means any practice you do with this motivation is helping the numberless sentient beings in every realm, that means every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura, and asura in the numberless universes, so all the numberless sentient beings everyone.
The center you are at is not only helping people by giving them the opportunity to come to the center, but also by coming to the center then they find out about all the meditation subjects and the path to enlightenment.
By meeting Buddhism and finding out about meditation and the path to enlightenment, this is what helps them to purify past negative karma, to stop rebirths in the lower realms, by practicing morality, charity, and so forth. This creates the cause for higher rebirths in future lives, not even just for one lifetime. By practicing morality, keeping one precept, practicing charity, then this helps for so many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. So it’s amazing, amazing the results.
In the Arya Sanghata Sutra the Buddha says, “The benefits of making charity to sentient beings, even the size of a single strand of hair, for eighty eons the result will be unbelievable wealth.”
Therefore in everyday life, practice charity with a healthy mind. I am saying this in a Western way, for those who don’t believe in reincarnation and karma. So then I say, a healthy mind, positive mind. So to practice with a mind without attachment, this is a peaceful mind. A mind with attachment is a disturbed mind, a contaminated mind, contaminated with suffering. So practice charity with a mind without attachment. Whether it is big or small charity, it is always helping, especially if it is to those in need, giving anything. So whatever you can give, this is the most important thing and this is creating a healthy life. From charity comes wealth and success in this life and next lives.
From pure morality, this leads to good rebirth, and being able to meet Dharma and to practice Dharma. Not only that, the next thing is be to free from samsara, by practicing the three higher trainings—the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration, and the higher training of wisdom.
So now you can see by people coming to the center they learn how to be free from the oceans of samsara suffering. Not just for a few hours or a few days, but forever. Can you imagine?
So no matter how hard it is, it is so worthwhile because you are creating the cause for them to be free from death, free from suffering, free from birth, old age, and sickness, and so forth, to be free from the suffering of depression and dissatisfaction. Even the dissatisfaction of billionaires and zillionaires is worse than the suffering in the hell realms. Then there are the three kinds of suffering. There is the suffering of pain. Then, the suffering of change—which refers to all samsaric pleasures (such as the pleasures of music, surfing, jumping out of an airplane with a parachute, sex, drugs, alcohol, and so forth). All the samsara pleasures are in reality in the nature of suffering, but they appear as pleasure to begin with. This is what is called the suffering of change. Then the third suffering, the all-pervasive compounded suffering, is being under the contaminated seed of delusion and karma. So it is pervaded by karma, the seed. There is no worse suffering that the pervasive compounded suffering.
So to be free from all of this forever, this is by learning Buddhism, meditation, the three higher trainings, the five paths to liberation, and so forth. It is from this that one can know how to be free from samsara forever. Not only that, they meet the Mahayana teachings, learn bodhichitta on the basis of generating compassion to all sentient beings, practice the six paramitas, the sutra five paths and ten bhumis, and then they are able to meet the Mahayana tantra. And by practicing Mahayana tantra, they are able to achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerate time.
It is by practicing the eight Mahayana precepts, or eight pratimoksha precepts, five lay vows, or even less than five, like four, three, two, or one, even just for one day, this is what helps for five hundred lifetimes to have a human rebirth or deva rebirth and so forth.
By practicing charity it brings the success of wealth and so forth, all the enjoyments, for many hundreds of lifetimes, or even thousands of lifetimes. This can come from even just one time giving charity. This is the real cause of success in your life.
Practicing the good heart is the most important thing and the best cause of success in your life. For however many times you are born in samsara, until you achieve the ultimate wisdom directly perceiving emptiness that ceases delusion and karma, which are the causes of the oceans of suffering in samsara, practicing the good heart is the real cause of happiness. Then there is no non-virtue, only virtue. The good heart is the best way to create virtue.
“In the service of others” is written in Spanish on the backs of t-shirts created for the Lama Zopa Rinpoche event in Spain, April 2019. Photo by Alexis Roitmann.
Of course people would think that it is from education. But there are so many uneducated people in the world, in less developed countries, who are so happy, whose wishes get fulfilled, who have wealth and all their wishes succeed, but they have no education. Education can help, but it is not the main cause; it is the condition. Many times, if you have education but don’t have a good heart, then having education causes problems such as ego, pride, non-virtuous thought, the thought to harm others and to destroy the world, and so forth.
Therefore some people have high degrees and very good education, but still they cannot find jobs, or it takes a long time. Of course if the person’s mind is open then I would suggest reading the Arya Sanghata Sutra and Golden Light Sutra in order to collect unbelievable merits and the causes of success. Then also my general advice is every day to help insects, people, animals, and especially those who have problems, to help them in any way possible.
So the ultimate conclusion is to practice the good heart. This is the best Dharma. With the good heart everything happens, especially enlightenment—the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations—not only to achieve enlightenment, but to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara sufferings and to bring them to enlightenment.
So this is what you are doing and what the center does. All of you who are helping the center and working at the center, you are helping every sentient being, every animal, every ant in the differing universes, every mosquito, all the different kinds of fish, every slug, every mouse, every maggot, and every tiny flea.
Thank you very much. Please enjoy life with the good heart. That is the best way to enjoy the life. With a good heart, this causes inner happiness that goes up to enlightenment.
Thank you very much, see you soon.
With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa
Colophon: Scribed by Holly Ansett, Taos, New Mexico, US, June 2017. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, March 2019.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live from Madrid, Spain, April 26-29:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Find recordings of recent Lama Zopa Rinpoche teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
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 water to put in the lake and benefit all beings there, Madrid, Spain, April 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
A student wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche about how she and her brothers and sisters responded to the murder of their father and grandmother. Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote back to the student and then requested that his letter and an edited version of the student’s original letter be shared online so that all could read them. Here is Rinpoche’s letter:
My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter explaining your experience. Since you are a lawyer, what you would do normally, and what other people in the world would do normally, is only think of this lifetime, especially if someone had killed your father. That kind of harm is a huge and difficult one to bear.
Most people don’t think about karma, reincarnation, and so forth, and that all problems come from the mind, come from I. They don’t know that. Or even if they know intellectually, they don’t practice that. So they would put that person, whom they called “enemy,” in prison or they would kill that person, harm them back, or even do worse if they can. That is normally what people think and do in the world.
Then for a long time you were checking your experience and you realized that it is the result; you experienced the result of what you did in the past to others. The person who killed your father and grandmother were badly treated and harmed by you in the past.
Then you helped your brothers and sisters be harmonious and decide to help, instead of take revenge. This is the greatest practice. This is what Buddha said to do when somebody harms. This is what Buddha and what holy beings do in the world, and what bodhisattvas do. Somebody harmed you, worldly people say “an enemy,” but instead of harming back, you only benefit. This is what holy beings, bodhisattvas do, like that. Your actions follow that. This is the actual practice.
You made numberless gurus—His Holiness the Dalai Lama, all the gurus, all the buddhas, numberless bodhisattvas—most happy. You and your brothers and sisters made them most happy, pleased them the most. It is the best.
With my two hands together at my heart, I am thanking you a billion, zillion times from my heart to you and to your brothers and sisters. Please tell them I am thanking them. You pleased most His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Buddha of Compassion, and then numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas.
The great bodhisattva Shantideva said in The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life:
My karma persuaded them,
Therefore, I received this harm.
Because of that, didn’t I make the person fall in the hole of the hell?
What it is saying is first why you received this harm. For example, relating to your life story, because you treated a person that way in a past life, the result happened: you received harm, and your father and grandmother were killed. By that action that happened, now the person who harmed is in the human realm, but soon that will end. That person will leave the human realm. And due to that negative karma, they will get born in the hole of the hell. Then suffer in the hell realms for an unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable length of time, suffer the heaviest suffering.
So that is not only practicing patience, but developing compassion, by thinking that the person who harmed you, which was due to your negative karma, now has to be born in hell and suffer for an unbelievable length of time. All that started originally from you; you harmed this person. This is a way to develop compassion—thinking about what obliged the person to do to harm, to engage in negative karma, to harm you. So please tell this to your sisters and brothers.
So in essence in Buddhism, first thinking only of your happiness, you see that to not receive harm from others, you don’t harm others. If you don’t harm others, then you don’t receive harm from others. If you benefit others, then as a result others benefit you, bring happiness to you. So that is only thinking of cherishing yourself, thinking only of you. So now thinking of numberless sentient beings, you stop harming others, then they don’t receive harm. The numberless sentient beings you benefit, they receive happiness. So this is incredible Mahayana Buddhism. This is the great vehicle, without talking about tantra. This is the basic practice of Mahayana Buddhism.
Similarly, the Tibetan people want to fight, like in the normal world, fight back at Mainland China, but His Holiness the Dalai Lama advised them to not fight. Without fighting the truth will win. He is talking only peace, in terms of dealing with Mainland China, only dealing in peace. If you fight, what happens is a similar story as you mentioned. Then you are creating the negative karma to receive harm from others, again and again. Then there is no end to suffering in samsara, no end, not only no beginning, but no end.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama advised that only by being peaceful, only by truth, will they win peace. It is so important this advice. This way you don’t receive harm back from others. You aren’t attacked by others. You don’t experience war. You get only the result—peace and happiness. You treat others peacefully, and as a result you receive peace, others help you. That is really Dharma practice.
Please tell your brothers and sisters, that is real practice, the best Dharma practice. What your family did, that should be an example to the world, to those who have highest scientific knowledge. Your family is a good example for all those billionaires and zillionaires. It is a good example for anyone—educated, uneducated, poor, rich. This is the best example for them.
Thank you very much.
With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa
Here is the letter first sent by the student to Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
Dear Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche,
… Five days after my ordination, my grandmother and father died in the same event. I felt shocked about losing my father. Just that day in the morning, he called me and asked me if I was happy with the ordination. He was Catholic, but respectful. I replied I was very happy. Then he replied he was happy for me too. Same day at night, he died with his mother in their house.
They were poisoned by gas in their house. The gas was coming from the kitchen, and they fell asleep and died. In time, we discovered they were killed. My father’s first cousin killed them in order to steal or inherit money and keep it from my family. When we discovered that, it was a great shock. I have two brothers and two sisters. We were very angry.
I was incredibly angry, very confused. Just being ordained, I was trying my best to have a good heart and good thoughts. On the other hand, I was very angry about what happened. Out of anger I decided to go and visit the person who killed my father. I took my purse and started to walk to the car. Suddenly an image of you, Rinpoche, came into my mind. You were sitting in meditation posture with a beautiful and exquisite smile. At that moment, I started to cry so deeply and I realized what had happened. Straight away I thought, “Only because of Rinpoche’s great compassion did he ordained me.”
Then I decided to not visit the person who damaged my family. I cried and cried for a couple of days, trying to put all the experience together. I just felt that ordination was protecting my mind from seeing (I was a lawyer before) revenge, killing, cheating, and stealing. Feeling so protected by you, feeling so, so fortunate, I made the following statement: “From now on, my aim and duty is going to be to reduce my anger. When I am capable of overcoming anger, then I will help my brothers and sisters.”
During many months I did analytical meditation about anger. After one year, the anger had been reduced very much. Then I started working with my brothers and sisters to reduce their anger. One day, continuing with analytical meditation, I thought, “Maybe that was family karma.” Then I thought, “If that is the case, that means that in the past we have created the same, killing and stealing an inheritance for our own family.”
I imagined killing my own family and stealing from them, and it was so difficult to believe. Because in this life I have not killed a human being. And I had the belief that I was a good person. I continued meditating and analyzing. And then I got an insight: “I cannot experience anything that I have not created.”
So I imagined again myself with my two brothers and two sisters killing someone’s father and stealing the inheritance. Oh, Rinpoche, the biggest pain I’ve ever experienced came, thinking and understanding that in a past life I had dared to kill someone, so painful. It’s very difficult to overcome that. By thinking about it over and over, after two years I felt some peace, to understand that we were experiencing the result of actions that we had created. If we created it, we deserved the result.
Then I thought, if we created it in another lifetime, in this life the best thing to do is not to put that person in jail but to offer the inheritance to the person who killed and stole from my family. After many meetings with my brothers and sisters, we decided to give away the money and properties from the inheritance to the cousin who killed and not to put her in prison. We decided peace in death was more important than inheritance, and peace in life was more important.
This story, Rinpoche, is to voice my huge gratitude to you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so, so much Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche for saving my life and protect my mind all the time. …
Colophon: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s letter scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Nepal, March 2017. Both letters lightly edited by Laura Miller, March 2019.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live from Madrid, Spain, April 26-29:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Find more advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Tushita Meditation Centre, McLeod Ganj, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the 2018 retreat in Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice on how to prepare for retreat, captured in this excerpt and video clip:
… I escaped [Tibet] through Bhutan to Buxa [Duar in India]. For eight years I lived in Buxa. Other monks lived there for ten years then went to Bylakuppe and Mundgod. I received teachings from my gurus and took part in debating. Of course my study was like that of a little child. My study was just child’s study, so nothing much.
So after coming back to Lawudo [in Nepal], reading the text of the Kadampa geshes’ advice on how to practice Dharma [Opening the Door of Dharma: The Initial Stage of Training the Mind in the Graduated Path to Enlightenment, a collection of advice by Lodro Gyaltsen] I checked back over my life.
All those lives I checked back, which become Dharma or not, what became Dharma or not, what I did and whether it became Dharma or not. When I looked back by reading that text, nothing became Dharma. All those things I did didn’t become Dharma. I realized that nothing became Dharma.
Then because of that I was able to clean my mind like you clean the room, like you clean the house of garbage—it makes the house dirty so you clean it out. I was able to clean my mind by reading that.
Then I began the Vajrayogini retreat, my first time. So because of that, it was unbelievable, incredible, hard to believe the first day, hard to believe that if my life could be like this, my whole life could be like this. I couldn’t believe, incredible peace and happiness, peace was incredible, unbelievable, couldn’t believe the whole life could be like that. The retreat became really very pure because of having read that text and cleaned out the garbage of the mind.
So the garbage is the eight worldly dharmas. This is an idea for you, if you want to do retreat, the best thing is to read this text. I gave teachings in Bodhgaya so there is book, what is it called?
Student: The Door to Satisfaction.
Rinpoche: It is not completely translated from the Tibetan text, most has been, but not completely translated. So to read that before doing retreat, my experience is to clean your mind first then you begin tantra retreat, then it becomes clean, very pure. Then you taste the Dharma, your mind becomes Dharma. …
Watch more of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on “Why to Abandon the Eight Worldly Dharmas, How to Prepare for Retreat”:
https://youtu.be/uJzPi45Rc-U
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, April 8, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, February 2019.
Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
Rinpoche teaches in Spain, April 26-29, then leads a Vajrayogini retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini in France, beginning May 10. Public teachings from these events will be streamed live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
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.
From left, Ven. Roger Kunsang, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and Khadro-la making offerings to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life puja, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Every year, Ven. Roger Kunsang checks whether any practices need to be done to contribute to FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life.
This year, Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Dronme) advised that a Sixteen Arhat Long Life Puja, with additional recitations of Tendrel Topa, would be beneficial.
Long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On Saturday, April 6, the recommended long life puja was offered at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Khadro-la attended the puja as did Dagri Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Kopan’s abbot who returned from Singapore to lead the puja. In addition to the Kopan community, many students from FPMT centers worldwide were also in attendance.
Long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Khadro-la, Khen Rinpoche, and Ven. Roger jointly offered Rinpoche a Vajrayogini statue in request for Rinpoche’s long life on behalf of the FPMT organization.
Watch a fifteen-minute video created by Kopan Monastery School of the April 6, 2019, long life puja:
https://www.facebook.com/KopanMonasterySchool/videos/2016747651749647/
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, Saviese, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice regarding merit multiplying days such as the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen. The next merit multiplying day is Saka Dawa on June 17, 2019.
On the day of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s turning the Wheel of Dharma, if you do one prostration while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas, it becomes equal to having done 100 million prostrations while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas. If you recite one Vajrasattva mantra, it becomes the same as having done the Vajrasattva mantra 100 million times. If you recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra (Vajra Cutter Sutra) one time, it becomes the same as having recited the Diamond Cutter Sutra 100 million times—so that much purification and you collect that many merits to quickly be free from samsara, and if the practices are done with bodhichitta, then to quickly achieve enlightenment.
Reading the Golden Light Sutra (Sutra of Golden Light), besides the personal benefits that creates, also brings so much peace in the world, for the Buddhadharma to last a long time, which means more sentient beings being able to meet the Dharma and to achieve enlightenment. Then, also reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra, which brings success, including enlightenment. Each recitation becomes 100 million recitations—so please tell your parents and friends this.
This is the best way to help your parents and this really helps your parents. You can tell others this also and their friends. This really helps the world, to make a better world.
Please read my notes well. Don’t rush. Think about each word.
Also on these days, you can do tonglen—taking others sufferings and giving away one’s own happiness—then, also rejoicing. You can meditate on dependent arising (meaning, emptiness only) and develop bodhichitta. Of course, you can do self-initiation during this very special time according to the time in India.
If you want to know which lama and which text mentioned this, it was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s and His Eminence Sakya Trizin’s guru—Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche. Rinpoche referred to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching Dulwa Lung (‘dul ba lung) as saying that the number the merit multiplies by is 100 million. It is a great advantage to practice during these times; like for myself, who is the most extremely laziest person in this world.
Another very important practice to do on these days is taking the eight Mahayana precepts for one day until the next day at sunrise. That doesn’t mean necessarily until sunrise Indian time. It means sunrise at the place where you are; up until dawn, when the sun rises in your part of the world.
In case there are difficulties to keeping all eight precepts, perhaps due to work, for example, you can take the rest of the vows well. Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is so beneficial for world peace, for crops to grow well, to receive timely rains—all this is needed to make the world better. Then, there are incredible benefits for yourself. This is explained in the book of the eight Mahayana precepts. This is so important for your own life to be better and to make the world better, to bring benefit.
Written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, August 2017, United States. Edited by Michael D. Jolliffe for publication on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a presentation on the activities of FPMT, Dharamsala, India, August 2018. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Earlier this week His Holiness the Dalai Lama was admitted to hospital in New Delhi, India, suffering from what seems to be a chest infection.
Tenzin Osel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT co-founder Lama Yeshe, sent a message to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT co-founder and spiritual director, asking if prayers or pujas could be done by all the FPMT centers for His Holiness, with some suggested practices.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche checked and is advising all FPMT centers, projects, and services to please make tsog offerings, requesting for His Holiness’s long life and for His Holiness to be free of the present illness, and also to make tsog offerings to purify our own degenerated vows and samaya, and to hook realizations.
In addition, Rinpoche advises to please liberate animals.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dharamsala, India, August 2018. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Find Rinpoche’s advice Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death here:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/pdf/liberating_animals_c5.pdf
The FPMT Foundation Store also offers the Animal Liberation Tools:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Animal-Liberation-Tools-PDF_p_3166.html
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.