receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the oral transmission of the Sutra of Golden Light, Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre, Delhi, India, March 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said about the Sutra of Golden Light, “This text is very precious; it brings peace and happiness and is very powerful to stop violence. By hearing this text, one’s karma is purified.” Rinpoche made a personal vow to propagate the Sutra of Golden Light and give oral transmissions of it in many parts of the world. Having the sutra recited as much as possible was also one of Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. Rinpoche has said, “I would like to make this request with my two palms together, to please recite the Sutra of Golden Light for world peace as much as you can.”
At this time, with the world in trouble in many ways, actions taken toward world peace are desperately needed.
Please visit our webpage dedicated to the recitation of the Sutra of Golden Light where you will find many resources and links, including:
- PDFs of the sutra in fifteen different languages
- Audio and video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering an oral transmission of the sutra
- Advice from Rinpoche on the benefits of reciting the sutra
- Instructions on how to dedicate your recitations and how to report them
- Stories from students about experiences reciting the sutra
“The holy Sutra of Golden Light is extremely powerful and fulfills all one’s wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection, the protection of your country, and the world. Also, it has great healing power for living beings in the area in which you are reciting.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche
A year ago, IMI Sangha asked Rinpoche for advice on prayers and practices they could do in response to the difficult situation in the Ukraine. You can read all of this advice here: fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoches-recent-advice-for-generating-peace-in-the-world
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a series of teachings in January-February 2017 at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, with great emphasis on lojong (thought transformation). This entire video series is available to you!
Rinpoche gave a full commentary on the Seven Point Mind Training by Kadampa Geshe Chekhawa in the February 5, 2017 video, and this teaching was condensed and turned into a course on the Online Learning Center: Living in the Path, Lojong, “Transforming Kaka into Gold.”
Root Institute, Bodhgaya, February 2017. Excerpted from a video recording.
Other topics discussed in this series includes:
- Dzambhala and purification practice
- How to properly offer service
- Dangers of the self-cherishing thought
- The importance of patience
- The downfalls of anger
- How to practice the generation of bodhicitta
We invite you to peruse the summaries of these videos and find topics of interest to you, or simply watch each video in order to benefit from the entire series: fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lzr-in-root-institute-january-2017
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with some of this Dharma plushy toys, Kopan Monastery, 2020.
Introducing Rinpoche’s Dharma Plushy Toy Album!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the garden at Kopan Monastery with some Dharma plushy toys, 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang. .
Around the beginning of 2020, when all the world was experiencing lockdowns and turmoil due to the covid pandemic, students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche were relieved to receive Rinpoche’s laughter, wisdom, humor, and orientation toward Dharma in the form of a series of video teachings from his room in Kopan Monastery. These teachings came to be known as the thought transformation teaching series, and for many of us, they were truly a lifeline in an extremely uncertain time.
When the fourth video of this series was released, students noticed something interesting coming into view on Rinpoche’s couch and desk. A stuffed monkey, hippo, and elephant; as well as a wooden elephant and model yak had joined Rinpoche for his teaching. As time went on, more and more stuffed friends began appearing in Rinpoche’s room, soon with mantras, embellishments such as eyelashes and eye-liner, and profound (and often hilarious!) Dharma messages.
We are so pleased to offer you this joyful new album of Rinpoche’s plushy animals with their quotations. Please take your time and click through each of these adorable stuffed friends to reveal profound wisdom from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. More of these toys, which have been offered to students around the world, will be added as they become available so check back for new additions!
Gallery of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Plushy Toys
History of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Toy Legacy
This wasn’t the first time Rinpoche turned toys or inanimate objects into Dharma. Rinpoche was known to offer creative and playful presentations of the Dharma including the utilization of cartoons, toys, and statues of animals.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Indonesia offering Dharma toys to students, 2010. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering Dharma toys to students at the airport, Switzerland, December 2018. Photo by Séverine Gondouin.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping for stuffed toys in New York City, US, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Dog with Dharma message written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Deer Park, Wisconsin, USA.
At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, in Washington State in the US, Rinpoche had many animal statues placed on the property with signs that share thoughts about practicing lamrim, or the graduated path to enlightenment.
A parrot on a fence says, “I have been waiting to see you from beginningless rebirths and I never have. That means I won’t see you again, because there is nothing to see.”
In Wisconsin, US, at Deer Park Buddhist Center, Rinpoche created many Dharma messages for animal statues on the premises. A dog, which is dated 1998, says, “I’m talking on behalf of my family, including the frog and my small brother the turtle. We are here to explain to you that no causative phenomenon is ever born from self, from other, from both or without cause. How fortunate we are! We can all be liberated by actualizing this. Ha! Ha!”
Rinpoche also enjoyed acquiring cute stuffed creatures and blessing them extensively with mantras before offering them to others.
These are just a few of many examples of Rinpoche’s unique, charming, and hilarious way to reach sentient beings by bringing Dharma where one might not expect to find it!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing a message on a stuffed monkey in 2010: “I have all sentient beings in my heart.”
A parrot with a Dharma message from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with animal statues at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with toys that he blessed with mantras which were given to some kind volunteers in Germany, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Ven. Tenzin Namdrol (also known affectionately as Ani Janne), a long-term resident of Kopan Monastery who has been offering service for many years, recalls receiving her first plushy toy from Rinpoche. “The advice was to carry it everywhere I went. I called it AH, and brought it with me to the dining room, café, gompa for puja, the bank, the visa office, korwa around Kopan, and everywhere. In retrospect, I think it was to bring a little lightness to the lockdown.” Ani Janne is one of many students who have taken delight in the whimsical nature of these Dharma toys which seem to bring a smile to the face of anyone who sees them.
Ven.Tendar and Ven.Tenzin Namdrol with Lama Zopa Rinpoche outside, Kopan Monastery. Rinpoche was sending a message to a student with the toys that have dharma messages on, Aug 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
One of Rinpoche’s Dharma plushy toys.
Before giving the toys away, Rinpoche would recite mantras and blow profusely on each plushy to bless it. One girl’s mother had seen the toys around Rinpoche while he was giving the thought transformation teachings on video. Rinpoche accepted her request for one, and after sending along the toy of her choice, the mother’s inability to sleep well at night disappeared.
A collection of some of Rinpoche’s plushy Dharma toys.
Those locked down at Kopan were the next recipients. Those doing water bowls, those who worked in the café, teachers at Kopan School who had been separated from their families during covid—all received a special plushy toy from Rinpoche. When the lockdown restrictions relaxed, guests and students of Rinpoche received these toys. As those he had were offered out, new ones would arrive.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery with young monks and Dharma toys, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Rinpoche offered the last group of plushy toys to the 2022 November Course participants. There were hundreds of people, and only a few toys, so Rinpoche had each person throw a dice at the end of the course, and if one dot came up, the plushy was theirs, creating a fun game for everyone.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery with some of his Dharma toys, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Several times Rinpoche asked if I thought publishing the dolls pictures would make people happy,” Ven. Tenzin shares. ‘Would people enjoy?’ he’d ask? ‘Of course,’ I replied!
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Dharma toys.
The toys that were given away before having their pictures taken are still being tracked down, but for now, we happily offer an album-in-progress of these precious, often humorous quotes from Rinpoche:
fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/lama-zopa-rinpoches-dharma-plushy-toys
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Germany, December 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.
Our time to practice Dharma is fleeting and we don’t know when we will die. Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly encouraged us to think about impermanence and death so we don’t procrastinate doing our Dharma practice.
Although death is definite, the time of our death is uncertain. We are unbelievably fortunate to still be alive today. So many people died last night, but we are still alive. Although we can die at anytime, we can remember that we could die today or, at most, we could die tomorrow. In this way, we can use every moment we have left to practice Dharma.
“At the time of death nothing can benefit us other than Dharma,” Rinpoche has explained. The family and friends that we love can’t come with us, nor can our wealth or possessions—not even our precious body that we cherish so much. We can’t carry even one atom with us. It is only our Dharma practice that can benefit us at the time of death, nothing else.
Remembering death and impermanence encourages us to practice right now. There is no time to waste. We don’t think about death to develop a fear of dying—we do it to encourage ourselves to practice Dharma without delay, to not put it off until we get old.
“Among all the things to remember, the best is remembering impermanence-death. It reminds you to practice Dharma. Not just to practice Dharma in this life, but to practice Dharma—since when death will occur is not definite,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised.
We have many practices and resources available for the death and dying of ourselves and our loved ones (and pets!).
All are welcome to explore all that is available, collected and compiled over time on advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
fpmt.org/death
Please explore recent teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on death and impermanence:
fpmt.org/tag/death-and-dying
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The Verses for the Eight Auspicious Noble Ones, or Tashi Gyepa in Tibetan, is one of Je Mipham’s most well-known compositions and is recited daily by practitioners from a variety of different traditions. The verses are directly based on the Mangalashtaka Sutra or Eight Auspicious Noble Ones Sutra. In these verses one pays homage to the Three Jewels, eight sugatas, the eight great bodhisattvas, the eight offering goddesses, and the eight worldly guardians. The text also describes the hand implements or offerings held by each of the eight bodhisattvas, goddesses and guardians.
The text invokes the auspiciousness of all these figures, and as mentioned by Je Mipham at the end of the text, its recitation, if done daily or especially before commencing new activities or projects, has inconceivable benefits. It removes obstacles, creates favorable circumstances, and allows one to accomplish all of one’s desires.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended reciting this prayer every morning for “the success of the center and your own success, the success of the FPMT organization, and for the actualization of the holy wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”
Rinpoche offered the oral transmission of this text in March 2020 from Kopan Monastery and all are welcome to watch the video and follow along in a full transcript.
You can download this text for free from the FPMT Foundation Store:
shop.fpmt.org/Verses-for-the-Eight-Noble-Auspicious-Ones-PDF_p_3541.html
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, April 9, 2023.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered teachings and advice to a group of Vajrasattva retreaters at Kopan Monastery on April 7, 8, and 9, 2023. In his final teaching from this series, Rinpoche discussed how to develop one’s mind in Dharma, the necessity of practicing the lamrim, and concludes offering the oral transmission of The Essential Nectar. This was one of the last teaching events Rinpoche offered before showing the aspect of passing away on April 13, 2023.
In order to develop one’s mind in Dharma, Rinpoche advised:
“The conclusion is that we need to learn Dharma; we need to learn, reflect, meditate, and actualize the path. The whole point is to actualize the path. It’s not about just being an expert, like a professor; it’s not about knowing the words of sutra and tantra, blah, blah, blah, like snow falling, or like hailstones. It is not just that; it is about practice. Whether you know a lot about Dharma, an average amount, or only a little, you must practice; you must subdue your mind.
“So, how do you begin to practice Dharma? By meditating on impermanence and death. How do you subdue your mind? By meditating on the impermanence and death. That’s how you start. Once you have that, everything happens; everything then comes in your mind. There’s no separation between your mind and Dharma. In this way your mind itself becomes Dharma.”
The one answer is to practice lamrim, Rinpoche explained:
“If you want to make your life really fruitful, really meaningful, the one answer is to practice lamrim. Otherwise, your life is spent in hallucination. There are many different levels of hallucination. Your life is spent in distraction, with attachment and anger, but especially with attachment. Like that, your life is spent in distraction, in hallucination. …
“Even if you’re working, even if you have to do a job to make money, your motivation should be to benefit sentient beings, to serve sentient beings. Do you understand? You should be humble and respectful with your body, speech, and mind. You should be kind to everyone, even those who criticize or harm you. You should be humble, kind, polite, and serve others with your body and speech. It makes people so happy when you speak politely to them. With holy objects, you have a mind of devotion, but with sentient beings, you should have compassion.”
Rinpoche continues, and concludes, the oral transmission of The Essential Nectar, starting at 1:27:52 of this video.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
- Find links to resources to support your Vajrasattva practice in the Foundation Store.
Teachings offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the 2022 Vajrasattva retreatants at Kopan Monastery:
Read a letter from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
For more video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche please visit:
fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, April 8, 2023.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered teachings and advice to a group of Vajrasattva retreaters at Kopan Monastery on April 7, 8, and 9, 2023. In his second teaching from this series, Rinpoche discussed the benefits of purification practice, the necessity of pleasing and receiving the blessings of the guru, the importance of meditating on death and impermanence, and continues offering the oral transmission of The Essential Nectar. This was one of the last teaching events Rinpoche offered before showing the aspect of passing away on April 13, 2023.
Mediation on impermanence and death is the most important mediation, Rinpoche stressed:
“You have to be careful with this life, This life has to be the best! You have to live the best, to do everything the best, because a human life is received just about one time. In a human life, you don’t know what will happen. You might think, ‘Oh, I will live for many, many years,’ but your life can be stopped at any time. You can’t say whether it will last even today. You can’t say whether you can still be a human being tomorrow or not. There are many people who will die tonight. Tomorrow morning, when it’s time to wake up, their body is a dead body.
“This will happen to many people tonight. It’s not sure whether you will be in that group. So many people alive today will be dead this year, this month, this week, tomorrow, or even tonight. It’s not sure—you can be dead at any time. I mean, you go to the bathroom, but it’s not sure you can come back. You can go to the kitchen to eat food, but it’s not sure you can come back. You can go to sleep, but it’s not sure you can wake up. It’s like this with everything. Everything. You can’t really tell. Death can happen in any moment. This is the reality. If you check, this is the reality. Impermanence and death can happen at any time. In Buddhism, meditation on impermanence is most important. Meditation on impermanence and death is what makes you begin to practice Dharma, to continue to practice Dharma and achieve realizations of the path, and to complete your Dharma practice. You have to keep this in mind.”
Ignorance doesn’t help death, Rinpoche explained:
“Because most people haven’t met Dharma, they’re ignorant. They try not to think about death, try to block it out, but that doesn’t help. When death comes, the first suffering is separating from the family. People have so much attachment to “my family, my wife.” Second is “my possessions.” Third is “my body,” which has been cherished most, more than all the sentient beings. The first thing is this. They try to ignore death, but that doesn’t help. You have unbelievable suffering.
“They don’t believe in a next life, then the next life comes. Even though, intellectually, they don’t believe in reincarnation, some people intuitively feel that some bad, heavy thing is going to happen after this life. There are people who naturally feel this. There are such people—I’ve met them. Even though, intellectually, you think there’s no reincarnation, but you naturally feel that something very bad is going to happen to you.
“So, when you think of next lives, it’s another world. Since you lived your life with a selfish mind, everything is negative. All your life you harm others, and harm to others means harm to yourself. Your whole life you harm others with your body, speech, and mind—cheating others, killing others—to get happiness and power for you and for your family. If you become the prime minister or president, the whole population becomes upset with you, because you have not looked after their happiness, and everybody protests.”
While continuing to offer the oral transmission of The Essential Nectar (starting at 54:40 in this video), which Rinpoche started the day prior, he stopped to discuss the importance of imprints:
“Imprints are very, very important. If we always think negative things in our life, our mind gets used to those negative things, and negative imprints are left on our mind all the time. What is advertised in the West by businesses in order to make money develops attachment, self-cherishing thought, and so forth. They are advertising objects of attachment. In the West, what is advertised is all the objects to which we’re most attached. They try to advertise in the best way and that’s what people buy. However, watching that and thinking of that leaves negative imprints on the mind. And so much negative imprint affects this life, and then life to life. The negative imprints that are left affect this life, then life to life for eons and eons. That is the wrong effect not the right effect. …
“You have to know how important positive imprints are in making preparation in the mind for enlightenment, for omniscience. They are so important. This mind, which is formless, colorless, shapeless, but able to perceive objects, can create hell, can create samsara, can create nirvana, can create enlightenment. This mind has that potential, negative and positive.”
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
- Find links to resources to support your Vajrasattva practice in the Foundation Store.
Teachings offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the 2022 Vajrasattva retreatants at Kopan Monastery:
Read a letter from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
For more video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche please visit:
fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, April 7, 2023.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered teachings and advice to a group of Vajrasattva retreaters at Kopan Monastery on April 7, 8, and 9, 2023. In his first teaching from this series, Rinpoche overviewed some of the many benefits of purification practice. This was one of the last teaching events Rinpoche offered before showing the aspect of passing away on April 13, 2023.
Addressing the retreatants Rinpoche said:
“There are so many problems in the world—what should we do? Doing Vajrasattva practice is the answer; doing purification is the answer. You are purifying negative karma, from where all the sufferings came. Purification is the answer to war, famine, disease, and the dangers from fire, water, earth, and air. That is the answer. So, you’re doing the right thing; you’re doing the most important thing. I want to say that. So many people ask, “What can I do?” You didn’t make any mistake. This time you made the best decision. I want to say that.”
We are our own guide, and our own enemy, Rinpoche explained:
“When your mind becomes pure, when your mind becomes holy Dharma, at that time you become the guide to yourself. Whenever your mind becomes non-Dharma, non-virtue, you then become the enemy to yourself. When your mind is in anger, you are the enemy to yourself; you destroy yourself. When you’re ignorance, when you’re attachment, clinging to this life, you are the enemy to yourself; you destroy yourself. When your mind becomes self-cherishing thought, you then destroy your enlightenment. It not only hinders you to achieve happiness for yourself, but it hinders you to benefit others, the numberless sentient beings. So, when your mind becomes self-cherishing thought, you become the enemy to yourself.
“When you are without ignorance, anger, and attachment, your mind then becomes Dharma, When your mind becomes bodhichitta, the good heart wishing to help others, to benefit others, at that time you become the guide to yourself.
“When you see the reality that samsara and samsaric happiness is suffering, you then have renunciation. With that renounced mind, with that satisfaction and contentment, you then become the guide to yourself.
“When your mind becomes attachment, seeking samsaric perfections, you then become the enemy to yourself.
“When your mind becomes bodhicitta, you then create the cause to achieve enlightenment and to enlighten all sentient beings. At that time you become the best guide to yourself.”
Without doing Vajrasattva practice, negative karma multiplies day by day, Rinpoche warned:
“Without reciting the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra at all, any negative karma you have done with your body, speech, or mind multiplies day by day. On the second day it becomes double, on the third day it multiples by four times. It increases and increases in this way. If you don’t recite the Vajrasattva mantra at all, that one negative karma you collected with your body, speech, or mind, by increasing day by day, becoming like a mountain when you die. …
“By multiplying, one atom increases to become like a mountain; like that, one negative karma becomes like a mountain when you die. Then, in one day, you create so many negative karmas with your body, speech, and mind, and each one becomes like a mountain. Can you imagine? Then, for eons and eons, you wander in the lower realms and suffer for all that. It’s almost like it’s not possible for you to be born as a human being or in the deva realm, and no way for you to meet Dharma. Therefore, you understand how important doing Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices is. If you do 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras, even if you broke a pratimoksha vow or tantric root vow, it totally purifies it.”
Pleasing the guru is the best purification, and the best way to collect merit, Rinpoche advised:
“The best way to collect the greatest merit and to perform the greatest purification is by pleasing the guru. Not just any guru in the world—the guru from whom you have received teachings and whom you regard as your guru. To please that guru, by fulfilling their wishes and following their advice, is the most important thing for you to achieve enlightenment in the quickest away. That is the essence.
“Vajrasattva practice is so important. I want to thank very, very much everyone who is sacrificing your precious time, your precious human life, but especially the Vajrasattva people. You are doing it not only for your happiness, but for the happiness of all sentient beings.”
Rinpoche began offering the oral transmission of The Essential Nectar at 1:17:00 in this video.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.
- Find links to resources to support your Vajrasattva practice in the Foundation Store.
Teachings offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the 2022 Vajrasattva retreatants at Kopan Monastery:
Read a letter from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
For more video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche please visit:
fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Australia, June 2006. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s care for animals is legendary, and he used every opportunity to bless and benefit sentient beings of all shapes and sizes, wherever he traveled. In this 9 minute video of Rinpoche offering an animal blessing in Australia in 2006, we can enjoy a short teaching from Rinpoche about the benefits of offering Dharma imprints to animals, with so many fortunate (and adorable!) furry and feathered creatures present. We can also take comfort in Rinpoche’s infectious laughter and the joy of such a gathering, made even more so by the uplifting song, “How Great it Would Be” by George Galt playing in the background.
You can read a recent collection of the extensive advice that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered about benefiting animals:
fpmt.org/edu-news/wish-fulfillment-for-all-animals
Please also visit our webpage, Benefiting Animals: Practices and Advice, which contains many resources for those wishing to benefit animals in the most extensive ways possible:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/benefiting-animals-practices-and-advice
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In this short yet powerful advice, Why the Guru Shows the Aspect of Making Mistakes, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed some of the key points of the practice of guru devotion, focusing on the concept of tshul, “showing the aspect”: because buddhas need to manifest in ordinary forms to teach us their behavior can appear unenlightened or mistaken. In other words, they “show the aspect” of making mistakes for our sake.
About this advice, Rinpoche said: “This is my gift, a more important, more precious gift than the whole sky filled with gold, diamonds, and wish-fulfilling jewels.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche elucidates the topic of guru devotion extensively in The Heart of the Path: Seeing the Guru as Buddha which was drawn from nearly fifty teachings given over three decades and includes commentary on the traditional guru devotion teachings found in the lam-rim, practical advice on guru devotion, and inspiring stories of past guru-disciple relationships, as well as extensive commentary on the practice of guru yoga.
“Without guru devotion, nothing happens-no realizations, no liberation, no enlightenment-just as without the root of a tree there can be no trunk, branches, leaves or fruit. Everything, up to enlightenment, depends on guru devotion.”
https://shop.fpmt.org/Heart-of-the-Path-eBook-PDF_p_2360.html
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/heart-path
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with mantra cowboy hat blessing the sentient beings in a lake in Washington, USA with mantras, blessed food, sutra recitation, visualization, and prayers, August 2019. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
We are so fortunate that Lama Zopa Rinpoche left us with many opportunities to benefit from his teachings and advice. In this short impromptu video clip from 2009, Rinpoche shares a meditation on emptiness on top of a rock in Washington state, USA. The day before, a student had offered Rinpoche a cowboy hat, which Rinpoche wore as the sun set and moon rose.
We have archived many short videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche which are very inspiring, moving, and sometimes very humorous, available here: fpmt.org/media/streaming/videos-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Dharamsala, 2012. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Over the years, while traveling continuously with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and Rinpoche’s long-time attendant, would share stories of what it was like to be on the road with Rinpoche, and to witness and participate in Rinpoche’s enlightened activity. These stories offer a glimpse into how Rinpoche used all of the circumstances in daily life, including the time traveling, to practice Dharma and serve others. In 2012, Ven. Roger shared this story from the road in Dharamsala, India:
It’s very dark. There is a strong storm with blasting winds and the road is narrow with room for only one vehicle at a time. The road is on the edge of a cliff at least a 1,000-foot [305-meter] drop on one side – it makes you dizzy looking over the edge. The road is in bad condition: sometimes just gravel and rock, with too many holes really jarring the car. There is a truck coming the other way heading straight for us blasting its horn. (Indian trucks are big and heavy and often held together by wood! They are actually huge pieces of scrap metal on wheels with tires that have no tread or very little.) I have nowhere to go (it’s me driving) and I can’t figure how to avoid this oncoming scrap metal heap on wheels that moves like a crab. The roads are so narrow so when an oncoming vehicle appears, you have to find quickly where the road is a little wider so you can pass each other, otherwise you get stuck and someone has to reverse up. And even then it could be a long way and then you might find another car behind you and he is blasting his horn and the car behind him is blasting away on his horn. Actually, Indian drivers drive with one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn, and it is very acceptable. Anyway, I manage very luckily to find a place where we can pass and we continue in complete darkness. The journey is 12 hours so you really have to be alert all the time, like really alert!
Everyone has the right-of-way on the roads which is confusing, everyone thinks they own the road which also goes for pedestrians, cows, dogs and donkeys … earlier in the day we came across a guy on the phone rolling with his feet a large gas bottle down the middle of the road, the gas bottle picked up speed and he lost control which didn’t seem to be a problem for him as he continued talking on the phone as the gas bottle picked up more speed and headed straight for us! We swerved and all was fine as it is with Indian roads as there are no rules so no one is doing anything wrong so all is OK … I like it with no rules, but can’t handle the overtaking on blind curves, which is common. (I thought it appropriate to have no full stops when describing the roads here.)
Manikaran. Photo by John Hill. Creative Commons (Wikipedia)
Later that night we came across two trucks that just had had a head-on crash. There was no room to pass each other, so I guess they couldn’t get around each other so they decided to go through each other. It is very messy. Trying to get past this mess and not disappear over the edge of the cliff created some anxious moments. This is the drive to Manikaran from Dharamsala, where Rinpoche went for treatment in the hot springs.
It was a nice relaxing time with plenty of time to go to the hot springs, a holy place of Guru Nanak of the Sikh tradition. Still, Rinpoche’s focus seemed to be on others and we never had enough time to actually go to the hot springs apart from slipping in one short session here and there. Rinpoche instead focused on the local Tibetan community about four hours’ drive away (yes, on the worst roads ever). The community (near Manali) is where Song Rinpoche’s mother lived before coming to the US. A few years before Rinpoche had sponsored the main statues on the altar of the small gompa there. Rinpoche visited the place a couple of times and wants to have eight monks there and a proper small monastery, so Rinpoche made a proposal to the community to sponsor and set it up. Another time we visited this beautiful and amazing Kagyü temple not far away. Rinpoche was interested in the art and architecture. Then 12 hours back to Dharamsala again via the Tibetan community in Manali.
Now we are packed and ready to leave for Dehradun, about 10 hours’ drive from here. We should leave now but Rinpoche is still teaching (in the gompa of Tushita). We were supposed to leave yesterday, but didn’t. I already forgot why. Now waiting … hopefully, Rinpoche will finish soon. I’m so keen to get back on the Indian roads with no rules. No rules does make it easy.
Practices for Auspicious Travel
All are welcome to download various practices which Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recommended for clearing obstacles while engaged in travel, here are a few of these recommended practices:
- An Extremely Abbreviated Version of The Exalted Sutra ”Completely Dispelling the Darkness of the Ten Directions”
- Dharani Which Accomplishes All Aims
- A Ritual to Perform When Undertaking Activities on Inauspicious Days
- Tea Offering to the Eight Classes (De gyä) in the Protector Prayers
- Noble Stack of Auspiciousness
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.