receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche being offered tsog during a Medicine Buddha initiation organized by Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelugzentrum, Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice to a student who wrote to him about experiencing many obstacles and low self-esteem. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice, given in February 2017:
… It’s very important to understand that death can happen any time—any year, any month, any week, any day, even on the same day, even in the next hour, even in the next minute—to ourselves and our parents, because this is the nature of impermanence. This is happening in the world every day. So many old people are dying, young people are dying, middle-aged people are dying, those in the womb are dying, every day. So far the fact that it hasn’t happened to us is unbelievable. We are very lucky, unbelievably lucky. Why? Because even though we have been creating a lot of negative karma, we now have the opportunity by meeting Dharma to purify and to change our life.
For example, Milarepa created a lot of negative karma but was able to purify that. In his early years Milarepa’s family, his uncle and aunt, treated him very badly and took everything, so Milarepa’s mother sent him to learn black magic. Then he did black magic on the day of the wedding, where thirty-six people were dancing and enjoying themselves and drinking, and under the house there were more than thirty-six animals, horses. The whole house collapsed, and all the people and animals died.
Milarepa felt bad and he went to seek his guru, Marpa, with nothing. He asked Marpa to give Dharma advice and he offered his body, speech, and mind. He asked for shelter and food. Marpa didn’t give him teachings and instead asked him to build a nine-story tower by himself. Marpa asked him to do it alone without any help, without one single person helping, only himself. Then he had to tear it down again, because Marpa asked him to, and he had to put all the stones back. Then Marpa asked him to build it again.
Milarepa did it three times in total. This was purification, to purify all his past bad karma. Then Marpa’s secret mother—who according to ordinary people is his wife—pushed Marpa to give teachings. Marpa was an enlightened being, not an ordinary being, so he manifested a mandala and gave an initiation, then he sent Milarepa to the mountains to do retreat. By following exactly what Marpa advised, Milarepa achieved enlightenment quickly in one brief lifetime of degenerate time.
By meeting Dharma, by purifying and collecting merit, we can create the causes to not be born in lower realms, to be born in the pure land, and to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, for ourselves and our parents. Therefore it’s meaningful to live long. If we didn’t meet Dharma, having a long life means we will just create negative karma and be born in the lower realms and then experience suffering for many eons.
[Without having met Dharma] it is almost as if being born a human being is how to professionally create negative karma with our body, speech, and mind. It is as if being born as a human being is just for that. It’s very sad for people who didn’t meet Dharma, so we must practice mindfulness and we must know that anything can happen on any day in our life. …Read the complete advice “Low Self-Esteem,” posted in August 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/low-self-esteem-0
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 at Aquila Nera horse sanctuary, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche went to a horse sanctuary one day during his stay at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia, a village in the Tuscan region of Italy. The sanctuary, called Aquila Nera, rescues race horse from being put to death and offers them a safe place to live out their lives.
When Rinpoche visited in late-October, twenty-five horses were living there. Rinpoche visited because he very much wanted to bless the horses. Aquila Nera’s director, Davide Bassi, is a kind of horse whisperer and has a very sympathetic relationship with the sanctuary horses. During Rinpoche’s visit, Davide, using a few quiet words, called the horses to come. They rushed over and encircled Rinpoche.
Rinpoche reciting to the horses at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
With piqued ears, the horses listened attentively as Rinpoche recited mantras and texts such as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path and the Heart Sutra. After about a half hour, the horses began to drift away. They were also all blessed with a Padmasambhava relic and Rinpoche’s mantra wheel.
Rinpoche reciting to the horses at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by PIero Sirianni.
“It was very special day,” said Ven. Holly Ansett, who witnessed the interaction between the horses and Rinpoche. “I was quite moved by it.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a horse at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During Rinpoche’s visit to Pomaia in 2014, he went to the sanctuary to bless the horses and offered money for a small stupa that was placed in the sanctuary so that the horses could go around it. They do equine therapy at the sanctuary, and now the horses and therapy clients regularly walk around the stupa.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Davide Bassi and the people who care for the horses at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. 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.
Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. The Animal Liberation Fund supports this work.
Read more stories about Rinpoche’s efforts to benefit animals:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/.
Geshe Tenphel and Lama Zopa Rinpoche touring the grounds at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
The 100 Million Mani Mantra retreat in Italy with Lama Zopa Rinpoche concluded with a long life puja offered to Rinpoche. Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) organized the month-long retreat, where about 200 people participated in the entire retreat with hundreds more attending parts of the retreat. Sixty-eight million mani mantras were recited by participants.
Every day retreatants did Lama Chöpa practice in the morning. Then they did three sessions of Chenrezig sadhana. Rinpoche usually came and taught during the evening session and did the sadhana practice. Extensive bath offerings were done in front of the large Chenrezig statues. Throughout the retreat, Rinpoche gave clear and inspiring teachings covering many topics including, Lama Chöpa, bodhichitta, emptiness, and guru devotion. Video recordings of all of Rinpoche’s teachings are available on FPMT.org.
Vens. Jamyang, Namdrol, and Sarah Thresher doing the extensive bath offering, ILTK, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Many hard-working volunteers ensured that everything at the retreat went very well and that the needs of the large group were met. Participants walked to the village for meals where there was a large tent set up as a dining hall and kitchen. Ven. Charles from Institut Vajra Yogini in France came especially to volunteer as a cook for the retreat.
Ven. Charles working in the kitchen, ILTK, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
During the retreat, Rinpoche met with and offered personal advice to many students, from many different centers, including groups from Nalanda Monastery in France and Aryatara Institut in Germany. He also met with students of the Basic Program and the Masters Program at ILTK. Three FPMT Foundation Service Seminar facilitators gave Rinpoche a short presentation about the training and received advice from him about it. Rinpoche also took time to offer blessings to children and pets.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a dog during the retreat at ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
Rinpoche’s days were full of activities, including an animal blessing by the water and blessing horses at a nearby sanctuary. He also visited the mother of Massimo Corona, whose family offered the building that is the center. She still lives on the property. Rinpoche had lunch with the center’s resident geshes one day and did sojong with fifty-five Sangha who were in attendance.
One day Rinpoche toured all the buildings and grounds of Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa. He visited the center’s gompas, classrooms, offices, the library, and kitchen. He visited Chiara Luce Edizioni, where they publish Dharma in Italian. Rinpoche also saw the studio where they make stupas, run by STUPA Onlus, which offered stupas to the retreat participants.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visits STUPA Onlus, ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the beautiful long life puja on November 3, the teaching tent was packed to capacity. The energy for the puja was very strong, with heavy rain falling at auspicious times, and the sun coming out at the very end of the puja.
On the weekend following the retreat’s conclusion, Rinpoche offered two more days of initiations at ILTK. He then made short visits to Centro Terra di Unificazione Ewam in Florence and Centro Muni Gyana in Sicily.
Rinpoche travels to Sera Je Monastery in South India next to give the Most Secret Hayagriva transmission, November 15-20. He then goes to Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre in New Delhi to continue the Golden Light Sutra transmission, November 25-26.
See dozens of new photos from Rinpoche’s time at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/italy-october-november-2017/
Video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings at ILTK are available here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopdeata 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 blessing rabbits at Osel Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A student who had tried to commit suicide several times and was very depressed wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche about being mistreated as a child and that her only friends are animals. Rinpoche responded to her with a long letter in September 2016 with stories about his own family and advice on karma and reincarnation, and he advised some ways of benefiting animals, such as charity for ants and animal liberation. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice to her:
In general, we have no idea of our father and mother. We lived nine months in our mother’s womb and then came out, and also our father, those who took care of us, we only remember a little, then the rest someone told us, like telling us, “This is your mother and this is your father.” It is usually up to what people say, then we believe what people say. Please don’t worry at all about these points, whether he is actually your father or not.
Please come to know that the Buddha, the Omniscient One, has so much compassion for you, for me, and for all sentient beings, like a hundred thousand times more than a mother has for her only cherished child. The Buddha has said that all sentient beings have been our own father and our own mother.
Even this life’s mother, it is not the first time she has been our mother. This life’s mother has been our mother numberless times from beginningless rebirth. This life’s father, it is not the first time he has been our father. He has been our father numberless times from beginningless rebirths. Not only as a human being but as many different living beings, such as those who get reborn from the womb, all the different kinds of animals, pretas (hungry ghosts) and many living beings. Like that he has been our father. Even when we were born in the animal realm, he was our father. Also all other sentient beings have been our mother and father numberless times.
Buddha said that he has been our father numberless times from beginningless samsaric rebirths. Everyone has been our father from beginningless samsaric rebirths—every animal in the ocean, large like a mountain and so small that we can’t see it with our own eyes but only through a machine. All the fish, turtles, sharks, all the numberless beings in the ocean have all been our own mother numberless times from beginningless rebirths, as well as being our own father. Every human being has been our mother numberless times, as well as being our father numberless times.
Like that they have also been our own brother and sister numberless times. They have also been extremely kind to us. By being our own father, mother, sister or brother, they have also supported us, given us food and saved us from harm and from death. They have supported us.
In addition there are numberless universes, not only this world, but numberless universes and numberless realms. That means numberless worldly gods, numberless human beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, all those beings in the different universes, of which there are numberless universes, they have all been our mother and father numberless times and we have been their mother and father numberless times. …
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing dogs and other animals as part of an animal blessing day, organized by Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.
When we are born from the womb, we have to have a mother, however, we have been born in all different ways and other sentient beings have all been our mother numberless times and have been kind to us numberless times.
Therefore, please enjoy your life and be happy; this is what the kind Omniscient One, the Compassion Buddha, explained. Through meditation, remembering the kindness of all beings and thinking about beginningless rebirths, you can realize this more and more, and you can remember hundreds and thousands of your past lives more and more. Then more and more you can realize how sentient beings have been your mother numberless times and have been kind to you.
I like you very much, also when you said you love animals; you said animals are like your life. I am smiling when I say this. It makes me very happy.
You see many people in the world do not know that even the animals have been their mother, father, brother and sister numberless times. They don’t know this and also they don’t understand karma and they don’t know about reincarnation, so they keep snakes, lizards and so forth as pets, and then they feed those animals with other animals like worms, crickets and live mice. That is mainly about one’s own attachment—not love, but attachment to just one type of animal. They have other animals like worms and so on to feed alive to their pet, but they don’t think that the other animals or insects also want happiness and don’t want suffering and don’t want to die. They don’t think of that and only think of the animals that they keep as pets. It is only those animals that they have attachment for. However, we must not be partial and we must have compassion for all beings, loving kindness for all, not just for one type of animal or just one person. That is not loving kindness or compassion; that is attachment.
Read the complete advice “You Are a Beautiful Human Being,” posted in July 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/you-are-beautiful-human-being
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopdeata 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 with Geshe Tenzin Tenphel and students touring the grounds at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa as Rinpoche said he wanted to see everything, ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly offers specific practice advice to students who write him. Rinpoche gave this advice about preliminaries and lamrim meditation to a student who had asked for life practices. The following is an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice, given in October 2016:
What makes your life most meaningful is the lamrim. I suggest the main text for you to use is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. If you haven’t studied this text already, then study it from beginning to end, reading through it four times. That itself is lamrim meditation if you read it slowly and relate it to your own life.
As you read, if there’s anything you don’t understand, you can mark the text—not with black ink, but with orange or yellow color. Mark it respectfully, thinking this is the holy Dharma, which has two aspects—one aspect is the realizations and one aspect is the text, the letters, which explain the realizations.
Holy Dharma has two realizations, in case of realizing the absolute Dharma—the cessation of all the obscurations, the sufferings, and the true path to that, which leads to the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. These two are ultimate Dharma.
When you mark the text, you have to think that you are offering color with respect, like offering to a statue. Otherwise if you are just marking the text with a black line on top of the letter, it creates the negative karma to be born in hell, such as the second hell, called the Black Line Hell. Therefore, it’s important when you mark the text not to do it in a disrespectful manner.
The other thing is that you can buy a notebook and write nicely in that anything you don’t understand. Then you can meet with a geshe or elder student who has studied the lamrim well and you can ask the questions. In this way, you can learn. Or you can telephone and get the answers from someone who has studied the lamrim very well.
Study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand four times and after that go through the lamrim outline using Liberation as a basis. Cycle through the lamrim outline completely three times.
After that, try to achieve the realization of correctly following the virtuous friend with thought and action, on the basis of the outline in the lamrim. Every day, more or less meditate on that. The time depends on yourself. Do this until you achieve the effortless realization of correctly following the virtuous friend.
After that, do the meditation on the graduated path of the lower capable being, up to karma. Particularly [focus] on the perfect human rebirth. Try to get the realization that your perfect human body is much more precious than skies filled with wish-granting jewels, so you realize the importance.
Even if we have skies filled with wish-granting jewels, that alone can’t help us to be free from the lower realms. That alone can’t help us to be free from samsara, free from lower nirvana, and we can’t achieve buddhahood from wish-granting jewels. With this perfect human body, even if we don’t have a tiny piece of a wish-granting jewel, we can achieve all of this up to enlightenment.
Read the complete advice “The Quickest Way to Achieve Enlightenment” posted in September 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/quickest-way-achieve-enlightenment
Find more from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on lamrim study and practice on FPMT Education Service’s lamrim resources page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/lam-rim/
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 blessing marine animals in the Marina Cala de’ Medici, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
On October 8, 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed marine wildlife at the Marina Cala de’ Medici on the Ligurian Sea in Italy.
Joining Rinpoche aboard MV Brigitte Bardot, a trimaran belonging to the conservation organization Sea Shepherd, were the crew and a number of animal welfare workers, including Angelo Vaira, the well-known Italian founder of ThinkDog, a positive training dog school. Also participating were members of the Lega Italiana Protezione Uccell (LIPU), the Italian League for Bird Protection. Given Rinpoche’s dedication to caring for animals, there was a natural connection between all involved.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche pouring blessed water from the deck of the Brigitte Bardot into the Marina Cala de’ Medici, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
Hundreds of people attended the event, which saw the release of seagulls from a LIPU rescue center and Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing all the sea animals and birds with prayers and mantras. Rinpoche also blessed the pets that students had brought to the marina.
On the dock, Ven. Drachom, who has liberated millions of sentient being in Singapore, helped arrange a table with a stupa, texts, and other holy objects for blessings. There, Rinpoche shared advice on how to bless animals and the benefits of mantras.
While on the boat, Rinpoche explained the blessings that he was doing, which included blessing a large jug of water that was then poured into the sea. At Rinpoche’s request, protections, such as the Namgyälma mantra, were attached to the boat.
Many visitors used this opportunity to board the boat, which set a world record in 1998 as the fastest motored vessel to circumnavigate the globe. The vessel bears the name of French actress and model Brigitte Bardot, who became a well-known animal rights activist and whom Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson took on an anti-sealing trip in 1977. The vessel was used in 2010 to campaign against Japanese whaling operations in the Antarctic Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
The event at the marina was organized by Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, the FPMT center in Pomaia, Italy, where Rinpoche is currently guiding a month-long retreat.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Marina Cala de’ Medici, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Read about events, retreats, and classes at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa.
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Roger Kunsang, and Markus Igel walking to subway in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.
In late September, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelugzentrum in Vienna, Austria. This was Rinpoche’s first official stay in Austria and his first visit to the FPMT center that was started nearly thirty-three years ago. There Rinpoche gave teachings, refuge, and the Great Medicine Buddha initiation.
Center founder and current spiritual program coordinator Andrea Husnik and center director Stefan Seidler were in attendance for Rinpoche’s monumental visit. The teachings were supported by a team of hard-working volunteers—many of whom had taken a week off work—who forewent meals and sleep, and gave their all in order to deliver incredible hospitality to Rinpoche and all participants.
Following the Light of the Path retreat, and a long flight from North Carolina, United States, to Austria, Rinpoche rested for a number of days with the Igel family at their home in Vienna. During his stay, Rinpoche was offered an apple strudel, which the mother of the family had made. The dish was so good that Rinpoche asked if he could be shown how to make the dessert. During the filming of an instructional video (see below), Rinpoche offered advice on how to cook for the benefit of others.
Rinpoche took a number of walks in the city parks, taking every opportunity to bless the dogs that he passed. While using the subway on his way to a restaurant, Rinpoche saw a homeless man to whom he made offerings. Throughout his stay, while Rinpoche walked through the streets of Vienna, he recited OM MANI PADME HUM out loud, blessing and benefiting everyone that he encountered.
Watch “How to Cook Apple Strudel and Actualize the Path to Enlightenment” on YouTube
Rinpoche’s recorded teachings in Vienna, Austria, are available as a part of Rinpoche Available Now:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-vienna-tabs/
View a gallery of images from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to Austria:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/austria-vienna-september-october-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 entering the gompa tent at the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues giving teachings at the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat, which is currently taking place at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia, Italy. Around 400 people are attending, including a number of center directors and regional and national coordinators.
On October 9, the first day of teaching after Rinpoche completed giving a Great Chenrezig initiation, Rinpoche attended the early morning Lama Chöpa practice session. Under the canopy of a large tent that is serving as the teaching hall, Rinpoche offered advice on the importance and benefits of Lama Chöpa. This heart-practice, written by Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, is undertaken at the start of every day during the retreat, and Rinpoche further expanded his advice on the subject during his teaching at later sessions that day.
Rinpoche said that students are so incredibly fortunate to be able to do Lama Chöpa, to hear the words and to do the practice; Lama Chöpa has all the vital points. Rinpoche stressed that if students can integrate their lives into the practice of the lamrim, then this is the key that opens hundreds of doors of hundreds of teachings.
Watch Rinpoche Teach on Lama Chöpa
Ven. Olivier Rossi is serving as the retreat leader with Ven. Lhundup Jamyang and Paula Chichester also providing leadership during retreat sessions. The structure of the retreat is based on the nyung nä practice, which is a Chenrezig fasting retreat with which many people in attendance have a strong connection.
The surroundings of Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, which is located in Tuscany, and the current climate are beautiful and highly favorable for a comfortable retreat experience.
Speaking previously on the mani mantra Rinpoche said, “The benefits of reciting the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion are countless, as the sky has no limits. Even just one recitation of OM MANI PADME HUM purifies completely every breaking of the four root vows of individual liberation and every other negative karma.”
Find Lama Chöpa resources at the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=lama+chopa&search=
The 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy began on October 4. You can watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live on YouTube and Facebook. For links and details:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
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 teaching in front of the Chenrezig statue at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Pomaia, Italy, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice to control the wildfires in California:
Everybody should make strong prayers to Chenrezig to purify all the six-realm sentient beings—their negative karma and defilements collected since beginningless rebirths up to now—in this world and in California in particular. The fire depends on the wind. It seems that the wind there is strong and so the fire continues. Therefore, we need to make strong prayers to Chenrezig, visualizing nectar like a waterfall on the six realms, on this world, and on California in particular. Visualize that the fires are immediately stopped and the wind is controlled. Make strong prayers.
[Rinpoche instructed retreat participants to recite the long dharani of Chenrezig sixty times.]
Long Dharani of Chenrezig
NAMO RATNA TRAYĀYA / NAMA ĀRYA JÑĀNA SĀGARA VAIROCHANA VYŪHA RĀJĀYA / TATHĀGATĀYA / ARHATE / SAMYAKSAṂ BUDDHĀYA / NAMAḤ SARVA TATHĀGATEBHYAḤ / ARHATBHYAḤ SAMYAKSAṂ BUDDHEBHYAḤ / NAMA ĀRYA AVALOKITEŚHVARĀYA / BODHISATTVĀYA / MAHĀSATTVĀYA / MAHĀKĀRUṆIKĀYA / TADYATHĀ / OṂ DHARA DHARA / DHIRI DHIRI / DHURU DHURU / IṬṬE VAṬṬE / CHALE CHALE / PRACHALE PRACHALE / KUSUME / KUSUMA / VARE / ILI MILI / CHITI JVALAMAPANAYA SVĀHĀ
After reciting, think that all the people’s negative karma to be affected by the fire is totally purified. Think that all the negative karma to be burned and killed by fire is totally stopped and purified. Then, think that all the negative karma of the people who died in the fire is purified at the same time. Pray: “I request to Chenrezig that they not be reborn in the lower realms and to be born instead in the pure land of a buddha, where they can become enlightened. At the very least, may they receive a perfect human body, meet Mahayana teachings, meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this advice during the October 16, 2017, evening session of the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy. Transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Mandala.
The 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy began on October 4. You can watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live on YouTube and Facebook. For links and details:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
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 at an Indian restaurant in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Markus Igel.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice to a student who wrote to him about experiencing many obstacles and low self-esteem. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice, given in February 2017:
Regarding your question about low self-esteem, many people have low self-esteem, but it is by not thinking about karma and thinking only about worldly things, so low self-esteem is really a wrong label. It is not thinking about and understanding karma, so it’s like a wrong label. It’s a worldly mind. You think you don’t have what the country or society expects, but in reality the most important thing is Dharma. By understanding karma, you can see this. So I think low self-esteem is a wrong label; it is a more worldly way of thinking. …
The most important thing is to help any being with our body, speech, and mind, to help others, even insects, to help anybody who has any problem, to help in whatever way we can. I was saying in the teachings at Root Institute [in January 2017] that to share even an Indian rupee, even an anna [a small currency unit, worth less that a rupee] even if we only have that, we can make charity and share with those in need. In our daily life every single thing, whatever we can do to help others with our body, speech, and mind, it is very important in everyday life to help others as much as possible. In that way we create merit, unbelievable, unbelievable merit, especially if it is done with bodhichitta. That is very, very important.
Then making offering—for example, when we eat and drink—making offering to the guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. By making offering to the guru it is the highest merit and the greatest purification and therefore the quickest way to enlightenment. [This includes] anything done toward the guru, such as obtaining advice, fulfilling the guru’s holy wishes and these things. Offering to the guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—these are very powerful [objects] to create good karma, and most powerful is the guru. It says this in teachings of sutra and tantra; I’m not just making it up.
Also, taking care of our parents, not with attachment, but by thinking of them as sentient beings. So this life’s kind mother and kind father who took care of us, every single service [for them] is very powerful, good karma. We start to experience the result, happiness, in this life and then for many hundreds of thousands of lives, on and on, for lifetimes.
Read the complete advice “Low Self-Esteem,” posted in August 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/low-self-esteem-0
The 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy began on October 4! You can watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live on YouTube and Facebook. For links and details:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
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 teaching on the throne at 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat, ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) in Italy is hosting the month-long 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche that began last week. ILTK shared highlights of the first night’s teaching:
“We gather here to do the best thing in the life, to do the best thing in the the world, the best things in the life. And what we’re doing is the answer to all the problems in the world. The body, speech, and mind in the meditation of Chenrezig, the Compassion Buddha, is amazing, the most amazing thing.” With these words Lama Zopa Rinpoche began teaching at the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa.
Rinpoche talked about how we have to realize how fortunate we are that we’ve met with Mahayana Buddhism and that we shouldn’t take for granted our perfect human rebirth and meeting Mayahana Buddhism and great teachers like His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche continued that with so many problems in the world—political, environmental and so forth—we are all desperately looking for a solution. “But the solution is inside our mind,” Rinpoche said.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, with Ven. Roger Kunsang, entering the teaching venue at the 100 Million Mani Retreat, ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
He encouraged students to remember that reciting OM MANI PADME HUM is for all sentient beings and that not one being is left out, no matter now tiny. Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time with bodhichitta is fantastic, Rinpoche said.
“So it is incredible what we are doing here, that is answer for everything, answer for the world and answer for all your problems, to be free from samsara. … And not only that, to achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of all the realizations.”
Rinpoche offered the observation that we get so busy with studying, but then, when something happens, we are not prepared. Without correctly practicing, Rinpoche warned, we may be worse than someone who has never met the Dharma.
Later in the teaching Rinpoche said that we should take inspiration from Geshe Chekawa, who was happy when his body was suffering, because he was destroying his self-cherishing. Rinpoche told the retreatants that it is our choice and that problems do not exist from their own side, so that the same experience can be for us happiness or suffering. He encouraged us to cherish the one who abuses us, they are so precious and will lead us to enlightenment.
Watch the first teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s daily teachings at the 100 Million Mani Mantra Retreat in Italy are being broadcast live over Facebook and YouTube:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
You can watch recordings of previous teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche online:
https://fpmt.org/RinpocheNow/
Read advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the benefits of Chenrezig Practice:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/chenrezig-mantra-and-practice/
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 at the Light of the Path retreat, North Carolina, US, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On September 15, a long life puja was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the conclusion of the Light of the Path 2017 retreat, which was organized by Kadampa Center in North Carolina, US. During the puja, Merry Colony, a long-time student and current director of Milarepa Center, offered the following praise to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
To Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche,
From the vast sky of dharmakaya space, like a star appearing in the light of day, the most rare of fortunate events ripened when in the Himalayan village of Thame, Nepal, you appeared in this human form. Before you could even walk, you showed all the signs of being the unmistaken incarnation of the great Lawudo Lama meditator, Kunzang Yeshe. What a great auspiciousness!
As a child you thought to go to Mindroling Monastery in Tibet, but instead your uncle Ngawang Gendun brought you to the monastery of Domo Geshe Rinpoche. Thus, you ended up in Buxa after fleeing Tibet. While in Buxa, the monk Chumbi brought you to the room of Lama Thubten Yeshe and a karmic bond that would come to shine a great light on the dark land of the West was rekindled. What a great auspiciousness!
When Zina [Rachevsky] first requested Lama to teach in Bodhgaya, it was you, Supreme One, who accepted the request. Inspired by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, you taught the first five-day course, which quickly grew to become a biannual event at Kopan. Now, forty-five years later, you have given the keys to liberation and enlightenment to tens of thousands of students at Kopan alone. What a great auspiciousness!
When the world turned dark on Losar morning in 1984 and Lama Yeshe passed away, you immediately took the helm of the FPMT organization and then traveled without break for so many years, steering the fledgling group of forty centers to its current status of more than 160 centers, projects, and services. Impeccably following the advice of His Holiness, you protected the centers and students from danger, becoming the mother, father, and protector of us all. What a great auspiciousness!
As the organization grew, you invited the most highly educated of Sera geshes to teach so that students everywhere could learn the great philosophical texts, while always ensuring that practice and the heart of service remained at the core. Like this, you initiated FPMT’s Basic Program and grew the Masters Program, paving the way for a new generation of well-educated and well-integrated teachers to serve the organization. What a great auspiciousness!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a tsog puja at the Light of the Path retreat, North Carolina, US, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
To help secure the longevity of the Sera monastic education, you established the Sera Je Food Fund, enabling the monks to focus on their studies and your students to create vast skies of merit. Likewise, you have overseen the continuous growth of Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery and have rebuilt monasteries vulnerable to degeneration in Mongolia, and in Tsum and Jailsa in Nepal, which are now flourishing. What a great auspiciousness!
Your vast vision to bring holy objects to every corner of the world is without equal. Exceeding the wishes of Lama Yeshe, two great statues of Maitreya Buddha will now be built in India, while great prayer wheels, stupas, Guru Rinpoche statues, giant thangkas, and other holy objects are going up around the world. Due to Rinpoche’s limitless compassion, even the animals and those without faith can now create merit, helping to bring peace to the world and balance to the elements. What a great auspiciousness!
Due to Rinpoche’s vision of benefiting sentient beings as vast as space, the Sanghata Sutra, the Sutra of Golden Light, the Vajra Cutter Sutra, and others are now recited regularly throughout the whole world; many thousands of nyung nä retreats have been completed; and many 100 million mani retreats and so many individual lamrim and deity retreats have been done. And due to Rinpoche’s indescribable kindness and guidance, we now have everything we need to help ourselves and others at the critical time of death. What a great auspiciousness!
Your help for children, the poor, the sick, and the elderly manifests in an ever-expanding circle of schools, homes for the destitute, clinics, and an eye hospital in Tibet. For so many animals bound for slaughter, you have created safe havens. Most recently, due to your great concern for the elderly who have been left alone in your homeland, an old-age Dharma home will be built where Sherpas destitute of help can live out their lives with Dharma and in peace. What a great auspiciousness!
But greatest of all your holy deeds are the unmatched, unexcelled, and unending treasury of Dharma teachings that Rinpoche gives every moment, with every breath, and with every movement of your holy body, speech, and mind. Having crisscrossed the globe continuously for more than forty-five years, you have given teachings like no other on the heart of the path—how to correctly devote to the virtuous friend—so that we may receive the nectar blessings needed to actualize the path. You have shown us how to carry out all our practices in the most extensive way to create the most extensive merit of virtue and merit of wisdom. You have shown us how to meditate precisely on the subtle points of emptiness so that we may cut the root of our ignorance. And by your peerless faultless example, you have shown us perfectly how to take the essence from every moment of our unfathomably perfect rebirths and make our lives most beneficial for others. What an indescribable auspiciousness!
Merry Colony offering praise to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja at the Light of the Path retreat, North Carolina, US, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
And yet, despite Rinpoche’s atomic energy and passion to blast us out of samsara, we are still children often lost and confused, in need of your continual guidance and care. Guru Chenrezig, Vajradhara, hear the prayers of your disciple children. You are our sole refuge protector and savior, our light of the path. Don’t ever leave us. Until we attain your enlightened state, hold us in your compassion and guide us.
Having shown us how to open the door of Dharma, we will work diligently to give up the meaningless affairs of this life. Having opened our hearts, we will work continuously to benefit living beings. Having opened our wisdom eye, we will persevere in our analysis of how things exist. Having saved our lives, we will dedicate ourselves to becoming most quickly like you so that our every action will be suffused with bodhichitta, our every breath most meaningful for others. May our pure practice be the cause for you to stay with us forever.
Guru Chenrezig, Vajradhara, hear the prayers of your disciple children. You are our sole refuge protector and savior, our light of the path. Don’t ever leave us. Until we attain your enlightened state, hold us in your compassion and guide us. May all auspiciousness continue to ripen.
Written and read by the devoted disciple Merry Colony at the conclusion of the Light of the Path retreat in Black Mountain, North Carolina, September 15, 2017.
Participants of the Light of the Path retreat, North Carolina, US, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Losbang 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.
The 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy begins on October 4! You can watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live on YouTube and Facebook. For links and details:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/