Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Tso Pema, India, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in Tso Pema, a place of pilgrimage in Himachal Pradesh, India, on January 21, coming from Bodhgaya.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche receiving oral transmissions at Zigar Monastery, Tso Pema, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche traveled to the holy site associated with the 8th-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche, to receive oral transmissions from Khenpo Thinle Dorjee, the abbot of Zigar Monastery, a Kagyu monastery. The transmissions included various texts, such as Milarepa’s life story. At the conclusion of the oral transmissions, Rinpoche offered a long-life praise that he composed and other long-life items to the khenpo. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khenpo Thinle Dorjee, Tso Pema, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The story of Padmasambhava’s association with Tso Pema, also known as Rewalsar, is that Padmasambhava angered the king of the area by teaching Dharma to his daughter, Mandarava. The king had Padmasambhava burned alive in a pyre that created great clouds of smoke.

But after several days, a lake appeared in the same spot and Padmasambhava was sitting in the middle of the lake on a lotus and the king came to see the error of his ways. “Tso Pema” is Tibetan for “Lotus Lake.”

During his two-week visit, Rinpoche also spent time circumambulating the lake. On a tsog day, Rinpoche did Vajrayogini self-initiation until 4 a.m. And on another day, he did Trukchuma (Kalarupa) puja for several sick people and all who need it until 2 a.m.

Near the end of Rinpoche’s stay in Tso Pema, he went up to a sacred cave where Padmasambhava meditated and offered tsog.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche making tsog offerings in the Guru Rinpoche cave above Tso Pema, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

A very large 123-foot (37.5-meter) tall Padmasambhava statue, completed in 2011 and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2012, overlooks the lake.

Tso Pema, Himachal Pradesh, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

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 shopping for flower offerings, Singapore, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent this letter to a family with whom he stayed. The letter contains advice on how to make this precious human life meaningful, suggesting a dedication for the worms and insects who are harmed when growing, picking, or offering flowers, and for any calves who are harmed in the production of milk for tea. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s letter:

I wanted to mention one thing. These days I have added in my prayers for the worms and insects harmed by growing, picking, and offering flowers. So many worms die or are killed for the flowers. Often where I go there are flowers in my room, therefore after lunch, if I do purification of pollutions received, I also normally try to do dedication, especially for the calves, because I drink so much tea. I dedicate like this:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may all the calves who suffered so much, or who have died for this milk—the mothers and babies who are separated, with so much suffering and worrying—may they never be reborn in the lower realms and may they immediately be reborn in a pure land where they can get enlightened. May they receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings and meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend, may they achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

These days I also include the worms that have died. I guess worms died for the flowers. I should also dedicate for the people who killed the animals, so I also started to dedicate for the people.

Anyway, of course, flowers are very beautiful. Of course when people own flowers, it’s not so easy, and they have to indirectly kill worms and insects for the flowers to grow.

For this enjoyment we can also collect so many causes of happiness, all the happiness, as I have mentioned, and especially the happiness of enlightenment, by offering these beautiful flowers to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. All this is received by the kindness of sentient beings, the animals that died for this, the human beings who worked so hard.

Calves at Lawudo Gompa, Nepal, January 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

What I wanted to say is this, if there are a lot of animals and worms that die, then I think it’s better not to dig for the plants in the garden. If you want flowers, you can buy them from the flower shop. You can put flowers there in pots, so you don’t have to dig.

Anyway, in case some worms get killed or something, maybe you can offer candles to the Buddha for those worms and dedicate like this:

I dedicate all the past, present and future merits collected by me, and all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, for that worm to never ever get reborn in the lower realms and to have a higher rebirth, and to generate bodhichitta and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

At least do something like that, to pray for that worm, in case one gets killed.

Regarding flowers, maybe buy flowers which are in a pot from the garden shop. You can buy them and make offerings with them, and it is easy.

From the advice “How to Make This Life Most Beneficial,” given in October 2017 and published in December 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/how-make-life-most-beneficial

More information, photos, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche talking with a person begging on the street after making an offering, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.

When making charity to people who are begging, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches, first think of bodhichitta. In a short video clip recorded during the 2017 Light of the Path retreat, Rinpoche explains that one should think, “The purpose of my life is to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara and bring them to peerless happiness, buddhahood. Therefore, I must achieve state of omniscience. Therefore, I must make charity.”

“Then, think that all the past, present, and future happiness up to enlightenment came from that sentient beings. Think of the kindness,” Rinpoche says.

“Then after that, think of the three-times happiness you receive from this beggar, who is most precious, most kind, most dear, most wish-fulfilling. Trying to think like that is good.”

When making the offering, Rinpoche says, “I try to remember to make the offerings respectfully, with two hands. I offer to them like this, with the two hands.”

“Then when you offer, if possible, seal the offering with emptiness,” Rinpoche explains. “[Think that] I and the action of giving and to whom you are giving are empty. They do not exist from their own sides as they appear to you. Looking at emptiness, ultimate reality, you offer.”

So when charity is offered not only with bodhichitta but with emptiness, Rinpoche explains, “it becomes the remedy to samsara. Your charity becomes the remedy to samsara.”

“Then, you see, it becomes most pleasing. It becomes the best offering,” Rinpoche concludes.
“It becomes the offering to all the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—numberless Buddha, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha.”

Watch Rinpoche teach on “How to Think When Making Charity to Beggars”:
https://youtu.be/_9d-ok1xows

Quoted text based on the unedited transcript for the 2017 Light for the Path retreat, which you can find here with video recordings of the complete teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2017/

Find more video clips from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F6A5E3C2873F2EA

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Tenzin Jamyang, a young Kopan monk now studying at Sera Je Monastery, at the entrance to Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent a letter to a student who was experiencing a lot of obstacles, as well as fear, unhappiness, and worry. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice given in January 2016:

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

I heard about your difficulties. As you know, all these difficulties do not exist from their own side, even though they appear like that to our hallucinated mind. The difficulty appears to exist from its own side, to exist by itself. It appears real, using ordinary language.

Basically, what you believe is difficult is just your mind thinking, your mind merely labeling, “This is difficult.” Your mind is merely labeling that it is difficult and that’s how it came into existence. When the difficulty appeared to you, even though it is merely imputed, it appears totally opposite, as though it never came from the mind and it was never merely labeled by the mind. That is totally a hallucination.

For example, we are living our whole life in a hallucination, so like that, everything—including the I, form, sounds, smell, tangible objects; everything that appears to our senses, to our hallucinated mind—appears as real, as if something is existing from there. However, it doesn’t appear real unless our mind merely imputes it first. Everything that appears real is not true, it is a total hallucination. It is a totally hallucinated real I, a totally hallucinated real action and a totally hallucinated real object.

While everything—I, action, object—is totally empty of existing from its own side, it exists in mere name. Everything—I, action, object—exists in mere name; it is merely labeled by the valid mind, on the valid base.

What we think is difficult, in a complicated way, is all made up by our own concepts, and is to do with our own concepts.

Let me say something, what the great bodhisattva Shantideva has advised:

Whatever befalls me,
I shall not disturb my mental joy;
For having been made unhappy, I shall not accomplish what I wish,
And my virtues will decline.
  — [Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 6, v. 9]

There are so many problems in the West; also in the East, but especially in the West. If there is a way for the problem to be fixed or mended, what is there to dislike about it? If there is a method then do it, and if there is no method and no way to fix it, then why dislike it? If there is a way to fix the problem, then do it, and if there isn’t, then no need to be worried. It just makes us mentally sick and it also causes physical sickness. As it increases more, it brings more problems.

Why be unhappy about something
If it can be remedied?
And what is the use of being unhappy about something
If it cannot be remedied?
  — [Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 6, v. 10]

Please think about this. It is what Shantideva advised and this is my advice to you. When you think this way, it will bring happiness to your life. …

Read the complete advice “Remedy for Obstacles, Fear and Worry,” posted in January 2018 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/remedy-obstacles-fear-and-worry

More information, photos, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche turning the prayer wheel at Root Institute, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

How you see something depends on past karma as well as on how you label it, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in a short video clip recorded during the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy in October 2017. 

“Even if it is an unpleasant object, even if it is problem, in a relationship or whatever, the way you view it is the way you label it—positive label or negative label,” Rinpoche teaches. “You make a positive label by thinking of the benefits of the problem.”

“When you don’t think of the benefits,” Rinpoche continues, “then you just carry on putting on a negative label. Then you suffer like this; you torture yourself like this.”

“Therefore, you see that Dharma practice, meditation, is soooooooooooooooo important!” Rinpoche concludes. “If you know Dharma, if you practice Dharma, meditation, then you completely transform [problems] into happiness! So you enjoy your life, especially your life every day, every hour, minute. With bodhichitta, you make beneficial your life to numberless sentient beings!”

Watch “Change How You Experience Karma with Mind Training”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTPSieECQTk

Quoted text based on the unedited transcript of the 100 Million Mani Mantra retreat in Italy, which you can find here with video recordings of the complete teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/

Find more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F6A5E3C2873F2EA

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 Eminence Ling Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting Root Institute and its projects, Maitreya School and Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Care Clinic, India, January 12, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s stay at Root Institute, he was joined there by many important lamas. On January 12-13, His Eminence Ling Rinpoche visited Root Institute and gave teachings, which were attended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many Sangha members and lay students.

While at Root, Ling Rinpoche also visited Maitreya School, where he gave a short talk. The students recited “Praises to the Twenty-One Taras” in Sanskrit as an offering. He then visited Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Care Clinic, another project of Root Institute, and spoke to the staff and doctors there.

Ling Rinpoche at Maitreya School giving a talk with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Principal Pema Tsering, Bodhgaya, India, January 12, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Maitreya students chanting for Ling Rinpoche, Bodhgaya, India, January 12, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During Ling Rinpoche’s visit to Root, he praised Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s activities and spoke about how kind he was for helping the children with education and helping sick people with the health clinic. Ling Rinpoche commented on how clear the vision for Root Institute has been and on how much has been accomplished.

Teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama resumed on January 14. Then on the following day, Root Institute celebrated its thirtieth anniversary after His Holiness’s teaching for the day.

Ling Rinpoche speaking during the thirtieth anniversary celebration at Root Institute, India, January 2015, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Ling Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la, Dagri Rinpoche, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche’s reincarnation, Geshe Sengye’s reincarnation, Richard Gere, and many others attended the joyous event.

Ven. Tenzin Paldron, the center director of Root, gave a short speech to the gathered crowd. Ling Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and others also spoke briefly about the center. Lama Zopa Rinpoche thanked everyone who had made it possible, including the sweepers and the secretary of the center. Then they all watched a seventeen-minute video of Root Institute’s history.

Hollywood actor Richard Gere speaking at Root Institute’s thirtieth anniversary celebration, India, January 15, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On January 17, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered the Sixteen Arhats puja for the long life of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. Since Khyongla Rato Rinpoche is a teacher of many lamas, the offering was attended by a number of high lamas, abbots, and former abbots.

The Sixteen Arhats puja offered for the long life of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Root Institute, January 17, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering body, speech, and mind mandala to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Root Institute, India, January 17, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In between all of these activities, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had non-stop meetings with many lamas and geshes. Also during his time in Bodhgaya, Rinpoche made several visits to the Mahabodhi Stupa, which marks the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

At the stupa, Rinpoche would recite the mantras for circumambulation and then lead people around the stupa, explaining the mantras and what to think while circumambulating. Rinpoche also made many flower offerings to the stupa with extensive offering prayers.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.

Learn more about Root Institute at http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme) at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, on January 3, traveling from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. The day after arriving, Rinpoche invited Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme) to Root Institute for lunch.

When Rinpoche meets his gurus, he always makes auspicious offerings, requesting for their long lives. Rinpoche did this for Khadro-la and also recited the Sixteen Arhat prayers.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a khata to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 4, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

After lunch, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche arrived at Root to visit Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Rinpoche made offerings and requests for Khyongla Rato Rinpoche’s long life. They had tea together with Khadro-la.

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la, and Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland having tea at Root Institute, Bodhagya, India, January 4, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche traveled to Bodhgaya for the teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which began on January 5. More than 50,000 attended the first day of a three-day teaching intended especially for Indian Buddhists.

At the start of the first two days, students from Maitreya School, a project of Root Institute, recited the Heart Sutra from memory in Sanskrit for His Holiness and all in attendance.

Students from Maitreya School with their principal, Pema Tsering, chanting the Heart Sutra for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Bodhgaya, India, January 5, 2018. Photo by Lobsang Tsering, courtesy of DalaiLama.com.

“The students recited it with their eyes closed and their hands in the mudra of prostration, like they’re meditating on it. It’s quite moving. A lot of the students are girls,” said Ven. Holly Ansett, who was at the teachings.

“It’s amazing to think about how far they’ve come; these little Bihari girls who would normally not have an education, and here they are representing their school and reciting in front of His Holiness. And His Holiness is so affectionate towards them, and so pleased when this happens. He spent time to offer a khata to everyone, shake their hands, and take a photo.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama explaining the text on the first day of his teachings at the Kalachakra Maidan in Bodhgaya, Bihar, India on January 5, 2018. Photo by Lobsang Tsering, courtesy DalaiLama.com.

After the Maitreya students’ recitation, His Holiness emphasized for all “that Buddhism originated in India, not in China or Tibet, and that masters of Nalanda like Nagarjuna were Indian too. Therefore, His Holiness said, it was propitious that the main disciples today were Indian. For more than 2000 years Buddhism has spread across Asia, so it would be appropriate if the Nalanda Tradition that has been kept alive in Tibet were to be re-established today in India,” DalaiLama.com reported.

On the third day of the teachings, the students recited “Praises to the Seventeen Masters of Nalanda” in Sanskrit. [See Mandala July-September 2012 for “The Seventeen Pandits of Nalanda Monastery”.]

“This prompted His Holiness to reflect what magnificent scholars [the Nalanda masters] were and how important it was that the Buddha established his teachings on the basis of reason and logic. How wonderful it is that these various masters’ writings are still available to us. We can read and study them, use them as our text books, and we can pass on what they had to say to others,” DalaiLama.com wrote.

Long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 11, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On January 11, a special long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche based on White Tara was offered by Khadro-la at Root Institute. The day before the puja, some of the Kopan monks who were in Bodhgaya worked with Ven. Thupten Khadro, Root’s spiritual program coordinator, Ven. Tsenla, and many others to fill the small gompa with beautiful flower offerings, intricate decorations, and tormas.

Khadro-la offering long life nectar during the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 11, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The puja, which Khadro-la arranged and said should emphasize meditation and practice, was attended by many lamas, including Dagri Rinpoche, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, Kesang Rinpoche, Oser Rinpoche, and others.

During the puja, Khadro-la made many of the offerings, including making the first mandala offering. Ven. Roger Kunsang offered the second on behalf of the whole FPMT organization. The puja began at 6 a.m. and concluded nearly five hours later.

The long life puja was described as being very strong, powerful, and precious. Afterwards, Rinpoche offered a delicious lunch on the roof of Root Institute to those who attended.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Learn more about Root Institute at http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/.

The reincarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi during the 100,000 tsog offerings to Guru Rinpoche, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In December, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling in Nepal hosted a 100,000 tsog offerings for Guru Rinpoche in front of the gigantic Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) thangka. Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the special puja, known as a “Guru bumtsog,” along with the young incarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche, a great master in the Nyingma tradition, who is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.

The reincarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Also in attendance were Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan Monastery and its sister nunnery Khachoe Ghakyil Ling; Losang Namgyal Rinpoche, a Kopan monk who is also a high lama for the Tamang people of Nepal; and Rigsel Rinpoche, the young incarnation of the past Kopan abbot Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup. About a thousand ordained Sangha were there as well as many lay students.

The gigantic Guru Rinpoche thangka displayed at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

This is the third year that the enormous thangka has been displayed at the nunnery with a Guru bumtsog. The thangka, which is 75 feet (23 meters) high and 87 feet (27 meters) wide, hung from a large scaffolding and depicts in stitched appliqué the Padmasambhava merit field in the center. On one side are the eight aspects of Padmasambhava and the other displays Padmasambhava’s pure land. 

Through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, Rinpoche commissioned the thangka in 2011. It took two years to create and was completed in 2013. His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessed the thangka in late 2013, when it was displayed at Sera Je Monastery during the Jangchub Lamrim teachings.

Khatas being offered after the Guru bumtsog in front of giant Guru Rinpoche thangka, with Rigsel Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nepal, Decmeber 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is for centers to have large thangkas and organize festival days around their display. This year’s Guru bumtsog went very well and Rinpoche was very pleased with the event.

At the end of the 100,000 tsog offering puja at Kopan Nunnery, the incarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and also Rigsel Rinpoche, Ven. Sangpo and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

See new photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent visit to Nepal:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/nepal-december-2017/

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 Sera Je Monastery, India, November 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“Even when you wash, you purify not only yourself but sentient beings. Not only are your obscurations purified, but all sentient beings’ obscurations are purified. For example, the first time washing with water, the disturbing thought obscurations are purified. Then, by putting soap, then washing the subtle obscurations, shedrib, of all sentient beings, not only yours, all sentient beings are purified,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in this video clip, recorded during the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy in October 2017.

“So you can think the same thing when you clean with soap the teeth. First purify the nyondrib, disturbing thought obscurations, yours and all sentient beings. Then second, put the toothpaste and washing, then subtle obscurations purified, not only yours and all sentient beings as well, like that. …

“There is no business in the world that can compete with bodhichitta benefits. So with the motivation of bodhichitta any action you do, then always increases and causes enlightenment. And after enlightenment what you can do is amazing, amazing, amazing. …”

Watch the entire teaching on “How to Think When Washing or Brushing Your Teeth”:
https://youtu.be/7o8_-TmHW2g

Watch complete teachings—with translations in French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as English transcripts—from the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/

Find more video clips from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F6A5E3C2873F2EA

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche (Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup’s incarnation) a khata, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“Cherishing the I is opening the door for all the problems, all the obstacles, all the undesirable things; and cherishing others is the source of all the happiness, opening the door for all the happiness for oneself. As I mentioned before, moment to moment, day to day, moment to moment, peace and happiness, when we generate this thought, when we transform our mind into this bodhichitta, then up to enlightenment, we achieve all the happiness from this. And from our bodhichitta numberless sentient beings receive happiness. All the happiness is received from our bodhichitta,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in a teaching just published in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive December 2017 E-letter.

“So now, we put it this way. If we generated bodhichitta, if we changed our mind, our attitude, like Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did, like Maitreya Buddha did, if we changed our mind like them, then we would have been enlightened already. Then the numberless sentient beings who are dependent on us to receive teachings or to be guided, who are dependent on us—the numberless sentient beings who are dependent on us to receive guidance—they would have been enlightened already. The numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, suras and asura beings who are suffering unimaginably now, they would have been enlightened already. But because we did not change our attitude; we kept the ego, the self-cherishing thought in our heart; we followed that and never changed; therefore these numberless sentient beings of each realm are still suffering unimaginably.

“Guru Shakyamuni, Maitreya Buddha and so forth, changed their attitude inconceivable eons ago and already enlightened numberless sentient beings. Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, they enlighten numberless sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, we can’t wait, we can’t stand it, we can’t wait, it’s so unbearable, we can’t wait. How urgent it is, because there are numberless other beings who are suffering, who are dependent on us to receive guidance.

“We can understand by the example of how many sentient beings there are who are dependent on us to receive guidance. For example, in this life after we met the Dharma, then how many—many of us can use that example—how many people have met Dharma by our talking to them, only then they met Dharma. Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, only after they met us and heard teachings about meditation, then they got inspired and they continued to learn and follow the path, so how many people that happened for. That is an example, so there are numberless other sentient beings who are dependent on us to receive guidance in order to achieve enlightenment. Therefore, we need to generate bodhichitta without delaying even for a second.

“And then, we need to let go of the I and cherish sentient beings. We need to generate bodhichitta. We can’t wait, we can’t delay, it’s unbearable to delay even for a second, a minute or a second.” …

You can read the complete teaching, which was given during a retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini in France in 2003, in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive December 2017 E-Letter:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-174-december-2017

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and crew of the MV Brigitte Bardot, a trimaran belonging to the conservation organization Sea Shepherd. Rinpoche blessed marine animals from the boat’s deck, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsand Sherab.

When discussing global problems, Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasizes how we must identify the mind as the source of our problems. From an article in the new issue of Mandala, Rinpoche and other Buddhist teachers explain the only way to address our collective challenges is through the transformation of our minds. 

“It’s called ‘natural disaster,’ but it’s not natural. It comes from the mind,” Rinpoche told representatives of the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom in an interview in Bodhgaya, India, in December 2011.

“It comes from the minds of people, the minds of the beings who are living in this world. Whatever they experience, good or bad, comes from their minds. Their good experiences come from their good minds, good hearts. The bad experiences come from their bad minds, bad hearts. It’s so simple. It’s not natural. In other words, it comes from lendre. ‘Le‘ is the ‘action,’ ‘dre‘ is ‘result.’ Action, effect, action, effect. Effect comes through the action. After the action, then there’s the effect. Good and bad depend on whether the action is bad or good.”

What Rinpoche and others Buddhist teachers, like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, consistently point out is that in order to address the world’s difficulties, from the Buddhist perspective, we must look first at our own individual minds. An understanding of how our minds work is critical to taking correct action to create the causes and conditions for resolving global problems. This understanding of the mind is revealed through studying and reflecting on the teachings of the Buddha and through the guidance of qualified teachers. 

You can read online the entire article “Changing the Mind, Changing the World: The Mind, Karma, and Global Change,” from Mandala January-June 2018:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-for-2018/january-june/changing-the-mind-changing-the-world-the-mind-karma-and-global-change/

Watch complete teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche from around the world:
https://fpmt.org/RinpocheNow

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering charity to ants, New Mexico, 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Even one small act of charity leads to happiness and success in future lives, and eventually it leads to enlightenment, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in a video clip from the 2016 Light of the Path retreat. “You have to know that. Keep it in your mind,” Rinpoche says. “Keep it in your heart; write it down.”

Because karma is expandable, Rinpoche explains, even if you do something small or simple, such as helping an insect or offering an old person a seat, that positive act will result in success over hundreds, thousands, of life times. Rinpoche also emphasizes how karma never gets lost. So the results of your positive actions will definitely be experienced. Rinpoche points out how necessary merit, positive karma, is for success and for achieving ultimate happiness and liberation.

Watch the video “Without Merit Nothing Works”: 
https://youtu.be/7VjbLKQG0Po

The nature of samsara is impermanence and the suffering that comes with it, Rinpoche teaches in this video clip. Relationships are changing. The best friend becomes an enemy. Because of attachment you are suffering so much. Why? Because you did not realize the Four Noble Truths in the last life. If you are actualizing the path, then you are free from the ocean of samsara. If you follow delusions and karma, if you follow attachment, then you torture yourself. Therefore, Rinpoche explains, you have to help others, who are in the same situation. This is why it’s so important to meditate on kindness and bodhichitta.

Watch more video from the 2016 Light of the Path Retreat and find links to translations, MP3s, and the complete transcript:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Watch complete teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche from around the world:
https://fpmt.org/RinpocheNow

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.