Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Amitabha Buddha Statue with flower offerings, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, October 2016

A student wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche in October 2016 to ask what to do when finding dead insects. Rinpoche responded from Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington State, taking the opportunity not only to give advice but to describe in detail how he and Sangha members work to benefit insects, birds, and other small animals there.

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

Thank you for your kind email. With respect to dead insects, the main thing you can do to benefit them is to recite the mantra of Compassion Buddha (OM MANI PADME HUM), Stainless Pinnacle mantra, Stainless Lotus Pinnacle mantra, the short Namgyalma mantra, and the Five Powerful Deities mantras.

After reciting a few times—or it can be fifteen times, twenty times, or one mala of each mantra, whatever you can—blow over the dead body of the insect to purify its negative karma and obscurations collected since beginningless rebirths. Then, visualize that it generates into the deity of the mantra you recited.

OM MANI PADME HUM, the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion, written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 2004

Of course to begin with, first generate a bodhichitta motivation to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to full enlightenment, especially these insects, these dead animals, who are my mother sentient beings, from whom I have received all my happiness, and not only today’s happiness, but next life’s happiness and ultimate happiness—enlightenment. It is received from each of them and they have all been my mother and kind to me since beginningless time.

After the mantra recitation and blowing on the insects and visualizing them as the deity, then dedicate: “Due to all the merit created in the three times by me, by sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may bodhichitta be generated in the hearts of all the six realm sentient beings, then the sentient beings in this world, particularly the students of FPMT and benefactors. May everyone who sees me, touches me, remembers me, thinks about me, talks to me, hears my voice, sees me or my photo, dreams of me, helps me or harms me, dislikes me or likes me, praises me or criticizes me, including my friends and family, never ever be reborn in the lower realms. May they be reborn in a pure land, where they will be enlightened or receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru who reveals the unmistaken path to enlightenment. And, by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend, may they achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“Due to all the merit created in the three times by me, by sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may each animal or insect be reborn in a pure land where it can be enlightened, or at least have a perfect human rebirth and meet the pure Mahayana teachings and a perfect guru who reveals the unmistaken path to enlightenment. And, by pleasing most the holy mind of the guru, may it achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“Due to all the merit created in the three times by me, by sentient beings and numberless buddhas, who do not exist from their own side, may the I, which does not exist from its own side, achieve buddhahood—peerless happiness, which does not exist from its own side, which is empty—and then lead all sentient beings, who do not exist from their own side, to that buddhahood, which does not exist from its own side, by myself alone, who does not exist from its own side.”

For any prayer, sadhana, or mantras that you do in your daily life, as commitments or practices, you can keep a bottle of water next to you. After each recitation, blow into the bottle of water. When you see a living or dead insect or animal, you can sprinkle the blessed water on it. A monk in Washington has been doing this every day. When he does his prayers, after each mala of mantras, he blows in a bottle of water and mixes this water with tsampa (roasted flour), sugar, butter, and blessed pills (mani pills) from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which are crushed very well. All this is mixed as a dry fine powder. Then, he goes to about twenty different ants’ nests around the retreat land and he does the practice of charity to ants by sprinkling this mixture on the ants’ nests while reciting mantras, in this way benefiting the ants. After one week all the tsampa has been eaten by the ants. This practice started a few years ago when I found two ants’ nests on the retreat land in Washington and I did this practice for them. Now it is being done every week.

During animal liberation practice, animals, like worms, are carried around holy objects to help them create merit, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, US, 2015

In addition to this, every week worms are bought. These are worms that otherwise would be used as bait for fishing. The mantra water is also sprinkled on them and then they are taken around many holy objects, mantras are recited, and then they are released into the garden. Each week about 1,300 worms are liberated like this. [Read about the Animal Liberation Fund.]

In the past we collected all the dead insects around the house, dead moths and bugs, and we even asked the neighbors to also collect all their dead insects and to give them to us. We put all the dead insects on a cloth above a bucket and then poured the mantra water over the insects (so they would stay on the cloth as the water drained through it, blessing their bodies). Also, we would recite different mantras: the Compassion Buddha mantra (OM MANI PADME HUM), the Stainless Pinnacle mantra, the Stainless Lotus Pinnacle mantra, the short Namgyalma mantra, and the Five Powerful Deities mantras. You can do the Vajrayogini mantra if you are practicing that. Normally, it is the Five Powerful Deity mantras—these mantras are extremely powerful—and also the Mitrugpa mantra. However, the main one is Compassion Buddha mantra, the mantra of Chenrezig.

So, do the purification like that. You can collect the dead animals and when you have quite a lot collected, you can do this, blessing them with the mantra water that you have already created from the mantras that you recite every day. As you pour, the water purifies all their negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirths. At the end, think that they are purified and all become the deity. After that you can put the blessed dead insects in the ocean or river, but you can’t throw them in the garbage after you have visualized them as the deity. Or, you can put them in the nighttime soup! I’m joking.

Any insects we find in the house, dead or alive, we use the animal liberation catchers to pick them up. As the insect goes inside the little box, because there are Namgyalma mantras on the tops, as the insect goes under that, however long they are there, they are always getting purified. On each of the small boxes are mantras that bless the insect while it is inside and also words, what to think and what the animals are saying, etc. The box also has other mantras on it so that when the insect goes under these mantras, 100,000 eons of negative karma are purified.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche circumambulating the stupa at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, November, 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

If an insect is still alive in the container, you can also take it around a stupa. Stupas have the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras. Usually they are written on gold on the life tree, as well as rolled around it. The stupas in FPMT have many, many of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras inside.

If a stupa has even just one copy of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras in it, or even just a single mantra, every atom of the stupa has great power, and insects that land on the stupa will be purified. If they even brush against the stupa, their negative karma will be purified. When rain comes down and touches the stupa, if that rain touches any insect on the ground or anywhere else, it purifies the insects. Even wind that has touched the stupa blesses any living being that it touches. After wind has touched the stupa, any human being or animal touched by that wind is purified. And any dust that touches the stupa purifies human beings or animals who touch it.

There are incredible benefits of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras [read The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras and Their Benefits]. One of the mantras is the Secret Relic mantra. Even if there is only one of these mantras in a stupa, if you go around that stupa just one time, it purifies all your negative karma completely, even the heavy negative karma to be reborn in the eight hot hells, which are 1) Being Alive Again and Again, 2) Black Line, 3) Gathered and Crushed, 4) Crying, 5) Great Crying, 6) Hot, 7) Extremely Hot, and then 8) the Unbearable Inexhaustible Hot Hell, where if you are born there, it is for one intermediate eon. Even if this world becomes empty, but your karma is not finished, you are reborn in other universes’ inexhaustible hell realms. This continues until your karma finishes.

But by going around the stupa one time, it completely purifies all that, and you don’t have to be reborn in the eight hot hell realms. Not only that, your life continually, without break, will go toward enlightenment. And not returning to the lower realms also will help you to be born in a pure land.

There are so many incredible, unbelievable, unbelievable benefits, just from this one mantra. Here I am just talking about the essence of just one mantra, but there is also one mantra called Ornaments of Enlightenment. If you put even one of those mantras inside a stupa, you collect the same merit as having built 100,000 stupas. This is just the very basic essence of this mantra’s benefits, which are so vast. This mantra also purifies the negative karma of having killed one’s father or mother, killed an arhat, caused blood to flow from a buddha, or created disunity among the Sangha: those very heavy negative karmas that, if you have created them, you will have to experience the karma without a break. All these negative karmas get purified.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche circumambulates rooftop veranda altar, Taiwan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

It is so, so, so unbelievable, the karma of circumambulating a stupa or statue that has the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras inside. These are just some of the benefits of some of the mantras, but there are far more benefits that also come from other mantras: the Stainless Lotus Pinnacle mantra, Stainless Pinnacle mantra, Stainless Beam mantra, and the Ornament of Enlightenment mantra. One of the benefits of the Ornament of Enlightenment mantra is that by putting this mantra inside a stupa, you get the same merit as having built 100,000 stupas.

These are the unbelievable, unbelievable benefits that you are giving to animals and insects by taking them around a stupa that has the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras inside. And, along the way, you also get unbelievable benefits!

If you have a stupa in your home, when guests come over to visit you, you can also take them around the stupa, if that is practical. Or if you offer them a drink, as you do so you can carry the drink around the stupa. They will follow you and in this way circumambulate. Or, while you are conversing, you can be walking around the stupa. This is a way to create an opportunity for those who don’t believe in stupas to circumambulate them.

Of course, as I have already mentioned, any live insects you find in the house, you can put in a container and take around the stupa, like ants, bugs, moths, etc. And however many holy objects that are in the stupa, for example, if there are one billion holy objects in it, then if you have a bag with 1,000 crickets in it (sometimes you can get this from a pet store as they feed these to other animals), by taking the bag around the stupa, you help to create the cause of enlightenment one billion times.

So I just wanted to mention some ways you can help sentient beings. There are so many ways and it is so incredibly enjoyable. If you can, from time to time buy bait worms from the market. Buy whatever you can get, even two or three boxes, and then take them around a stupa, bless them with mantra water, and then release them in your garden.

Here in Washington, since we have to go to the shops regularly, I thought that each time we went shopping we could buy a box of worms. Then I could take them around our altars that have so many tsa-tsas, texts, statues, etc. Last time we went shopping, I did this. I bought ten boxes and I carried them around the holy objects, and then the monks here took them around as well.

Bird feeder at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land with mantra painted on its roof to bless all the birds who go under it to eat, Washington State, 2014. Photo by Ven. Kunsang.

I also wanted to mention some other ways we are trying to help the animals in Washington, just to give you an idea. Here in Washington we have a birdbath. One of the monks here puts water in it that has been blessed by the Padmasambhava mantra. By drinking that water, birds create the cause to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. It is a very blessed mantra. We do this by putting the mantra that is on glass inside a jug of water, then that water is poured from the jug into the birdbath. We don’t put the mantra inside the birdbath so that the birds don’t sit on top of it and create negative karma; instead, we put the mantra in a jug, fill it with water, and pour from the jug. In addition, we add water that has already been blessed by mantras as I mentioned above. In this way, when the birds drink or bathe, the water benefits them and helps them to quickly achieve enlightenment.

In addition to the blessed water, the monk adds to the birdbath very finely powdered mani pills that have been blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and thousands of monks. These pills are crushed and mixed with the water for the birds. In addition, we have a speaker by the birdbath and bird feeder. The speaker plays 24 hours a day the Golden Light Sutra, Sanghata Sutra, and Vajra Cutter Sutra, as well as different mantras, so that when the birds come, they hear these being recited and this purifies their minds and plants the seeds of enlightenment.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Aryasanghata Sutra, New York, USA, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Actually, the birds and animals who get to hear these sutras are more fortunate than even billionaires and millionaires in this world who do not have the fortune to hear these sutras. When the birds drink the water, they are so fortunate, because it purifies them in many ways. This not only stops their thirst, it purifies the minds and negative karma of all those who bathe in the water or eat the seeds in the bird feeder. It purifies so much negative karma. So even the water given to the birds benefits them. On the bird feeder we have put mantras on the roof: the Namgyalma mantra and also the mantras that by seeing and by going under them 100,000 eons of negative karma are purified. Also, they hear the recitation of the sutras and powerful mantras day and night while they eat the seeds. In addition, feeding the birds stops them from having to eat insects and create negative karma that way. [Read “How to Benefit the Bodies and Minds of Birds [Video].”]

The other day we went to a large lake and put in the same Padmasambhava mantra. We had it printed on tin and we stuck the tin mantra on plastic so we could place it standing up on the side of the lake in the water, so that animals don’t swim over the top and also so that the mantra is not on the bottom of the lake. We also put Namgyalma mantras into the water. They are laminated and then put inside hard plastic, so they float and are kept dry and the mantra protected. The mantra floats, so we put a few on the surface of the lake. Unless people find them and throw them away, they should bring benefit for a long time. Having the Namgyalma mantra in the water blesses all the fish and other sentient beings. It purifies their negative karma and if they die, they get born in a higher realm and hopefully they meet the Dharma. We are hoping to put more of these mantras in different lakes in the surrounding area. [Read “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Blesses Lake-Bound Beings.”]

So these practices are different ways you can benefit sentient beings, including insects. This is what makes your life most beneficial, most happy, most meaningful, not only for you but for all sentient beings.

Thank you very, very much for your kindness. So your whole life, up to enlightenment, benefits by relying on Chenrezig and pleasing Chenrezig, this is so important, it’s very good. Thank you.

Of course, as you must do everything, please do whatever you do with strong bodhichitta. Recite each and every mantra for every sentient being, for ALL sentient beings, to purify them from the oceans of suffering and to bring them to Chenrezig’s enlightenment quickly.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Transcribed by Ven. Holly Ansett. Edited by Mandala for publication on FPMT.org.

Watch on YouTube as Ven. Tharchin explains one way residents at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land try to prevent harm to living beings, in this case by protecting the ants that cross the road:
https://youtu.be/ZAMwkAQSDlI

To learn more about some of the mantras Lama Zopa Rinpoche mentions, please read Essential Mantras for Holy Objects, available as a PDF:
https://fpmt.org/wp- content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/pdf/essentialmantrasholyobjectsbkltjune07lttr.pdf

Read about the benefits of the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion, OM MANI PADME HUM:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/lama-zopa-rinpoche/the-benefits-of-chanting-om-mani-padme-hum/

Read more about FPMT’s activities to benefit animals at:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/.

Get Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death as an e-book or in a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberating-Animals-eBook_p_2334.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.

Lama Zopa Rinoche enjoying himself at a restaurant, Washington State, USA, September 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Should we be happy?  

In a letter to a student, Lama Zopa Rinpoche once wrote,” I think the most important thing is that you’re happy …  I’m talking about the happiness that you can develop from life to life, up to enlightenment. This happiness can be completed; it is so meaningful. Whatever you do in the world, this is the essence. This happiness is Dharma.”

In his book The Heart of the Path: Seeing the Guru as Buddha, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains one reason to be happy: that we have genuine teachers to guide us. “Even though we may not recognize it, all our happiness comes from our gurus. Every single good thing—past, present, and future—comes from our gurus. There is no doubt that the more we learn and practice Dharma, the more we develop our compassion and our wisdom and the more we are able to benefit other sentient beings. We are able to bring deeper and deeper benefit to others. All this comes from the kindness of the guru.”  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche wearing his mantra hat and joking with Sangha at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

He adds, “In this life, we can not only achieve any happiness we want—the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment—but we can achieve all of these three great meanings in each second. For example, if even without bodhichitta motivation we circumambulate or make offerings or prostrate to a statue, stupa, or scripture of Buddha, just through the power of the holy object we create the cause of enlightenment and, by the way, liberation from samsara and all the happiness of future lives. All this comes about through the kindness of the guru.”

“Without our gurus,” Rinpoche concludes, “there is no way that we could even leave an imprint on our mind by hearing the words of Dharma let alone meditate on the path to enlightenment or attain realizations. Not everyone has this chance—in fact, only a very small number do … Even though we might not now be able to attain realizations, sooner or later, because of the imprints, we will be able to have complete understanding of the words and their meaning and be able to actualize the path. Through this, we will then achieve enlightenment.” Isn’t that a reason to be happy?

A happy new year of joy and rejoicing to all!

Sangha jumping for joy at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Get the e-book or a print copy of The Heart of the Path: Seeing the Guru as Buddha from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Heart-of-the-Path-eBook_p_2360.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the new abbot of Sera Je Monastery, Khen Rinpoche.

A long life puja will be offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on behalf of Sera Je Monastery as requested by Abbot Khen Rinpoche, on the Maitreya Project land in Bodhgaya on January 2, 2017 starting in the afternoon.

You can watch a beautiful video of the 2012 long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered in Bodhgaya by Sera Je Monastery:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLbfQjE4rRU

Those in Bodhgaya are welcome to attend this long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Maitreya Project land. And those unable to attend, please rejoice in the auspicious occasion to ceremoniously gather, pray, and request Rinpoche to live among us for a very long time. 

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 recites mantras to bless a skeleton, New York, USA, August 2016

When he visited New York this past summer, Lama Zopa Rinpoche encountered a skeleton. To benefit the person whose the skeleton it had been, he offered blessings and mantras (see video below). The skeleton, he pointed out, should remind everyone of the inescapability of impermanence and death.

“It’s not certain which will come first—tomorrow or the next life,” Rinpoche says in his book Kadampa Teachings, quoting from Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, explaining that, “rather than working for tomorrow, it is better to work for the next life.” He adds, “Tomorrow is uncertain, but our next life will definitely happen, and it could happen at any time. Therefore, we should work for the happiness of that future life. This is why it’s so important to practice Dharma.”

“You can’t just relax, saying ‘I’m not going to die today,’” he comments, quoting again from A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. “You can’t sign a guarantee that you’re not going to die today. You can’t really see what is going to happen to you, not even in the next hour or the next minute. It’s totally dark. Since you can’t see what’s going to happen, how could you guarantee that you’re not going to die today? The thought that you’re going to live for a long time continues even to the day of your death … It’s not true, and it cheats you.”

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting mantras to the skeleton on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/y1hKN9VioaQ

Read more from Kadampa Teachings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/kadampa-teachings

Get the e-book or a print copy of Kadampa Teachings from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Kadampa-Teachings–Hard-Copy_p_1283.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during a picnic in the park, New York, USA, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While he was in New York this past summer, Lama Zopa Rinpoche took a few minutes to explain the six-syllable mantra AH AAH SHA SA MA HA.

In an informal conversation, Rinpoche held up a card on which he had written this mantra in Tibetan. The front of the card has a cat picture and reads, “I’m the incarnation of all your cats who have died—that’s why OM MANI PADME HUM comes from my mouth!” Rinpoche reads this and then the AH AAH SHA SA MA HA mantra he has inscribed below it, then the inside of the card in which he has written, “It’s all over Solu Khumbu carved on the rocks and it’s called the ‘six syllables of clairvoyance.’ And if you see this mantra, after fifteen days, the heavy negative karmas get purified, so it has a very profound meaning.”

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche explain the six-syllable mantra of clairvoyance on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/o11zaq5Q1VY

The six-syllable mantra, which has also been called the mantra that “just by seeing you become enlightened,” is explained as having the potential to liberate those born in the lower realms and to bless and purify the environment. Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises the following: “Put this mantra in your house where people can see it—in the dining room or kitchen, inside or outside. You can also put it by the road or on signposts. Just by seeing this mantra, sentient beings move closer to enlightenment and their negative karma is purified, even without their knowledge.”

The mantra of the six syllables of clairvoyance, written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche asked for this sign to be displayed indoors and outdoors to leave imprints on the beings that see it. Washington State, USA, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Read more about this mantra on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/new-mantra-and-its-benefits

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.

Medicine Buddha. Photo courtesy of FPMT Education Services.

There is starvation in Nigeria, and people are dying.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently checked on what is best to be done in Nigeria, where so many people are dying of hunger. It seems that this is due in part to extremists preventing food and aid from reaching people in need. According to Save the Children, up to half of all children under five are acutely malnourished in some areas of north-east Nigeria, where it is feared 200 children could die every day.

While Rinpoche considered making a donation to help the starving people, he then did a divination to check what was best. The result? Students of Rinpoche who are concerned about Nigeria should do the extensive Medicine Buddha puja, making strong prayers to Medicine Buddha for those affected to be free of hunger and oppression.

Get the e-book or a print copy of the puja recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, called The Wish-Granting Sovereign, from the Foundation Store : 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Medicine-Buddha–The-Wish-Granting-Sovereign-PDF_p_1901.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche enjoying a vegetarian lunch with Ven. Thupten Wongmo, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, October 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

How can we save animals?

Ven. Thupten Wongmo, a nun who lives at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), is a vegetarian because of what Lama Zopa Rinpoche told her many years ago: “It’s best to avoid eating meat out of compassion. Before eating the meat, think of where it came from, through cutting an animal’s neck, against its will, and how much suffering the animal experienced. After thinking about that, you can’t eat the meat! Meat may be nice for the person eating it, but not for the animal who suffered so much and didn’t die naturally. You can say prayers for the animal that was killed, but if you eat the meat, you are still playing a small part in the death of the animal. If everyone stopped eating meat, then no more animals would be killed for that purpose.”  

Rinpoche prefers to avoid eating meat and has often spoken in favor of vegetarianism. Ven. Wongmo reports that some time ago Rinpoche said that she could one day cook him “some rice.” Finally, in October 2016, she mustered up her courage—not being a confident cook—and prepared him a vegetarian lunch. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche says prayers, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Wongmo.

After enjoying the meatless meal, Rinpoche took another action to save animals: he kindly blessed “her mouse”—one of hundreds she has captured at BAPL and one of countless animals, birds, fish, and insects that have been been blessed there by the recitation of mantras, sutras, and prayers, as well as other activities. The mouse, which was inside a large plastic container with food, water, and a soft cloth, was able to listen while Rinpoche recited at length various mantras, including the Chenrezig mantra, the Medicine Buddha mantra, the short Namgyalma mantra, the Lotus Pinnacle mantra, and others, as well as various prayers. Ven. Wongmo also played Recitations for Animals and Sanghata Sutra CDs for the mouse, as she does for all the mice she catches.

All of these are among the many, many actions that are taken at BAPL by Rinpoche when he is present and by the Sangha and visitors on a regular basis to help animals, birds, fish, and insects. These include Ven. Wongmo’s mice and a recent visitor—a snake Rinpoche named Jangsem (Tibetan for “Bodhichitta”).

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on YouTube as he recites prayers to benefit Jangsem the snake and all other sentient beings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-WoBgM6eg

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#animals

Read more about FPMT’s activities to encourage vegetarianism on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/vegetarianism/

For more about FPMT’s activities to benefit animals see:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/

Get Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death as an e-book or in a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberating-Animals-eBook_p_2334.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche traveling by air, 2016

The holiday season has arrived and with it the prospect of traveling, whether to go home or away, to spend time with family and friends.

The following advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes what to do before traveling in order to have a safe and successful trip:

Instructions to Accomplish All Success Wherever You Go

At the beginning, when you enter the road to depart, remember and prostrate to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas who are in the ten directions, particularly those buddhas and bodhisattvas in the direction (you are going).

Then make strong requests for the success of all your wishes and then recite seven times:

NAMO BUDDHAYA / NAMO DHARMAYA / MAMA SARWA ARTHA SITAYE SVAHA (7X)

This will accomplish all your works exactly according to your wishes without obstacles.

The next practice is done particularly in the case where you have to do something on a wrong date, wrong star, or wrong time. This practice pacifies the shortcomings of time, date, star and so forth, and to accomplish success. Remember the buddhas and bodhisattvas who are in the direction where you are going. Put the palms together and recite:

I prostrate to the Three Rare Sublime Ones (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha).

I prostrate to the Tathagata, Enemy-Destroyer, the Owner of the Date, Star, Moment.

TADYATHA NAGA DRE NAGAPATI SARWA TITI MUHURTATI NAGA DRA NAMA SADUNTE NI BAWENTU SVAHA (3X)

Recite this three times, then all your works will succeed.

Advice translated by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at Deer Park in Madison, Wisconsin on July 24, 1999. Scribed by Diana Finnegan. Source of text unknown.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on YouTube walk through the Singapore airport unassisted on the way to the USA from Bhutan, June 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF7JE7dg2vk

Find more advice for traveling at Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/travel-and-immigration

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 during the long life puja he was offered on the last day of Kopan Monastery’s November course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The 2016 one-month “November course” at Kopan Monastery came to an end in early December with a birthday celebration and a long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

Cake being offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche by November course participants while young monks sing ”Happy Birthday,” Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebration was a fun and auspicious occasion. While cutting cake, Rinpoche explained how to think while doing this, that the knife is cutting all the delusions and self-cherishing. With every cake presented to him, Rinpoche did extensive offering prayers. Kopan’s young monks sang “Happy Birthday” to him as well, and put cheerful displays and messages wishing him a happy birthday around the monastery. It was Rinpoche’s 72nd Tibetan birthday (71st Western birthday).

Offering tsog at the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the last day of the Kopan November course. The five dakinis are also shown. Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On the last day of the course, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered a long life puja with the five dakinis on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. The purpose of the long life puja is for students to purify the mistakes that occur in relation to their teacher, and to create the causes and conditions to continue to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time. Lama Zopa Rinpoche also mentions regularly that offering long life pujas is a cause for one’s own long life. 

After the puja, which was attended by 1,000 people, a picnic was offered for everyone, and lama dances and Sherpa dances were offered to Rinpoche. As is traditional, Rinpoche was presented a money offering at the end of the puja and Rinpoche chose to offer this toward the Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche watches a lama dance at the picnic after his long life puja, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the final days of the course, Rinpoche offered refuge to November course participants who sought it, gave a long life initiation to Rowaling people at Rowaling Gompa in Bouddhanath, just outside Kathmandu, and made light offerings at Bouddhanath Stupa, which had recently been reconsecrated after being damaged in Nepal’s April 2015 earthquake. He also gave course participants a special short teaching on 14th-15th century Tibetan yogi and iron bridge maker Thangtong Gyalpo, showing them a relic related to him.

FPMT Education Services offers a number of long life prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT.org, all of which can be used in personal practice. Rinpoche has suggested that “Bestowing Supreme Immortality” is particularly effective as it was composed by Rinpoche’s root guru, His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche.

Light offerings around stupas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Read more about Kopan Monastery and its courses and activities:
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/

Donations to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Long Life Puja Fund, which sponsors this yearly long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, are welcome.

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.

Rizong Rinpoche (beside a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) giving a White Tara empowerment at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, November 22, 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In November 2016, Rizong Rinpoche, recently retired as the 102nd Ganden Tripa (spiritual head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism), blessed Kopan Monastery and Nunnery with his presence over several days.

Rizong Rinpoche came to Nepal for the consecration of Boudhanath Stupa, which had been badly damaged in last year’s earthquake and is now restored. The consecration took place November 18-20 and prayers were done in all four of Tibetan traditions, with Rizong Rinpoche leading the Gelug contingent.

Rinpoche remained at Kopan for several other events: meeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jhado Rinpoche, and the young reincarnation of Kopan’s beloved former abbot, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, whose name is Tenzin Rigsel Rinpoche; giving a White Tara empowerment; and being offered a long life puja. He also spent time, alongside Lama Zopa Rinpoche and others, observing debates among the Kopan nuns, two of whom recently completed geshema degrees.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading Rizong Rinpoche into the gompa of Kopan Nunnery where he gave a White Tara empowerment and was offered a long life puja, November 22, 2016, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The White Tara empowerment given by Rizong Rinpoche was attended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jhado Rinpoche, and Kopan’s current abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, as well as Kopan monks and nuns and hundreds of Tibetans.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Rizong Rinpoche enjoy a conversation, Nepal, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Read more about Kopan Monastery and its courses and activities:
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/

Read more about Kopan Nunnery and its two geshemas:
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/about-kopan/nunnery
https://fpmt.org/fpmt-community-news/news-around-the-world/two-kopan-nuns-take-final-exam-for-geshema-degree/

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 preparing to give his first teaching at this year’s November course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 26, 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was greeted with great excitement when he arrived at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in November. His first day of teaching there was November 26. “The teachings have been incredible,” reported Ven. Holly Ansett two days later. “Rinpoche has been teaching mainly on emptiness. His words have been extremely profound and moving, and have stimulated a lot of lively debate during group discussions.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting with Jhado Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In addition to teaching, Rinpoche has been meeting with various other luminaries of Tibetan Buddhism, including Rizong Rinpoche, recently retired from his position as the 102nd Ganden Tripa (spiritual head of Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism); Khensur Jhado Tulku Rinpoche, former abbot of Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, the personal monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama; and the reincarnation of the beloved former abbot of Kopan, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup. The young boy, Tenzin Rigsel Rinpoche, was recognized last May.  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Tenzin Rigsel, for the first time, Kopan Monastery, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche also gave an impromptu teaching on the benefits of the Namgyalma mantra one evening when he went out for a walk and met up with a number of the course participants—one of those unique and special happenings that take place amid the magic of Kopan!

Going to the stupa one evening, Lama Zopa Rinpoche bumped into a few people and and gave an impromptu teaching, Kopan Monastery, November 2016. 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 preparing to go out on the water to bless Omak Lake, Washington, US, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

In the autumn of this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed several lakes located near Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), in Washington State, USA. Omak Lake was one of them. Tremendously beautiful, it has stunning hills rising up behind its light blue water, and is a holy site for Native Americans.

Rinpoche asked for a raft in order to go out on the lakes, and blessed beings in a variety of ways, such as:

• Special flags that he designed for the raft. The flags have mantras written in Tibetan on one side, and on the other side, they have an explanation of their purpose. Several different mantras appear, including OM MANI PADME HUM and the mantra that blesses “just by seeing,” OM HANU PHASHA BHARA HE YE SVAHA. The mantras are blown out over the lake from the raft.
• On the top of the poles holding the flags Rinpoche put small wooden tops. Inside them are the long Namgyalma mantra and Ushnisha mantra. These turn and send mantras out into the world.
• Rinpoche had Namgyalma mantras printed on paper and laminated in plastic, so that the mantras float on the water, blessing all the beings below them. On one side of the paper is the Namgyalma mantra in Tibetan; this is placed face down in the water. The other side has a message explaining what the mantra is, so if people find the mantras floating or washed up, they don’t throw them away. 

Back side of floating Namgyalma card

• Rinpoche has a mantra wheel that has millions of mantras on microfilm. Even just the shadow from this mantra wheel is said to bring benefits. Rinpoche held the mantra wheel over the lake as the boat moved along.
• Rinpoche has a Padmasambhava relic from Mount Kailash, in Tibet. This is inside a small stupa, which he held above the lake to bless the sentient beings in the water.

Ven. Holly Ansett holding relic of Padmasambhava from Mount Kailash, Washington, US, November 2016

• While out on the lake, Rinpoche did extensive prayers, reciting them into a loudspeaker. Recordings of mantras were also played. The raft also had underwater speakers, so the fish and other lake beings could hear the mantras and prayers.
• Rinpoche oversaw the making of special blessed food that included crushed mani pills, tsampa, and water blessed by many mantras and also by a crystal with Padmasambhava mantras etched on it, so that all the sentient beings who ate the food would be blessed and purified.
• Rinpoche also blessed beings by placing the glass etched with Padmasambhava mantras at the side of the lake, where the water touches the mantras, but the mantras can’t be walked on or swum over by animals, which might create negative karma. This way the water gets blessed and then blesses the beings in it.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on YouTube as he chants blessings to the lake-bound beings from the raft:
https://youtu.be/o5UQMcj1H6k

Rinpoche asked the Sangha, in his absence, to keep going out on the lakes near BAPL on monthly blessing trips in order to continue to benefit all of the fish and other living beings. Despite the cold weather in Washington State, the Sangha have already been out on the water! 

Sangha blessing lake, Washington, US, November 2016

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.