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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a Dutch student’s 17-year-old dog, the Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“In order to develop compassion for all living beings, we need to understand all the sufferings of all the different beings in samsara, their different types of sufferings,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in “Not One Single Difficulty to Work for Other Sentient Beings” published in Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s January 2016 e-letter. “So we have to meditate that it is all in the nature of suffering. Then we can develop compassion for every living being. Otherwise our compassion is very limited.
“Our compassion is limited if it’s only for poor people, only for sick people, only for human beings who are dying. Therefore we need to learn the different types of sufferings. We need to meditate on that and then we feel it is unbearable for ourselves to experience those sufferings. When that happens to us, then we feel compassion for others.
“For example, when we have AIDS, then we will feel compassion for other people who have AIDS. We feel that is so unbearable. People who have AIDS, they feel it is so unbearable that other people have AIDS. That’s because they have AIDS and they don’t want to experience that, they know about the life with AIDS.
“That’s why in the stages of the path, first we have to have the realization, renunciation of samsara. Then we see the unbearable suffering of others. Then there, compassion arises. After that, great compassion, feeling how unbearable other sentient beings’ suffering is, and taking responsibility on ourselves, that we want to free them from all the suffering. That’s how compassion arises.
“That leads to bodhichitta, taking responsibility, thinking, ‘I will do it by myself alone. I will free the sentient beings from all the suffering and causes, and bring them to ultimate happiness. Not just temporary, but ultimate happiness, especially the highest, the ultimate happiness, enlightenment. Therefore I need to be enlightened.’ The bodhichitta arises like that.”
You can read Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s January 2016 e-letter to find more teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-151-january-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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life initiation, Lawudo Retreat Centre, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In early April 2015, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Lawudo, near Mount Everest in Nepal’s Solu Khumbu region. During the visit, Rinpoche was able to spend time with the Sherpas who live there. On April 21, 2015, Rinpoche gave the Amitabha long life initiation, which was attended by hundreds of Sherpas. Long-time student Bill Kane recorded video of the traditional dances and singing offered before the initiation.
Watch the Video: Lama Zopa Rinpoche | Ancient Sherpa Dances | April 2015
The Solu Khumbu region of Nepal is home to the Sherpa people, Lawudo Retreat Centre and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whose previous incarnation Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe meditated in a cave at Lawudo for 20 years. Rinpoche’s previous visit to Lawudo was in 2008.
Rinpoche spent three weeks in Lawudo in April 2015, leaving the area on the day before the devastating April 25 earthquake. Many buildings at Lawudo Retreat Centre were damaged. FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund offered emergency aid to the people in the upper Solu Khumbu region and is supporting the rebuilding and repairs at the center.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lawudo, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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, Moscow, Russia, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“Since Buddhist should give even the animals in their care a special life, there is no question that they should do this for their children,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Joyful Parents, Successful Children, a new publication from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“However, while I know of some Buddhist parents who try to set an example for their children and explain the Dharma to them, I know many others who do not. Instead they let their children do whatever they want. This is a pity because when children are young, before they grow up and leave home, there are so many opportunities to help them collect merit and to give them an education that will plant the seeds of enlightenment in their minds.
“Of course, there is no guarantee that you will success in helping your children because, as I mentioned before, children have their own karma that they bring with them from past lives. Some children will turn out well, and as teenagers, will be disciplined, compassionate and content. Others, because of the influence of the world and their friends, will become distant from the Dharma and will have a totally different life from what their parents hoped for them.
“While your children are young, to not use the opportunity to plant the seeds of good habits would be very unfortunate. By saying this, I am not implying that you should force your children to adopt your lifestyle. Rather, I just want to emphasize that it is important to help them abandon the cause of suffering and create the causes of happiness – not only this life’s happiness but also the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment. If they learn some Dharma practices, recite some mantras and so on when they are young, even if they don’t continue with these when they get older, all the merit they collected earlier on will still cause them to meet and practice the Dharma in future lives and will bring them.”
Find the complete Joyful Parents, Successful Children on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joyful-parents-successful-children
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 offered to him at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
UPDATE: The FPMT Education Services’ booklet How to Offer a 1,000 Tsog Offerings is now available to help complete this advice.
Ven. Roger Kunsang is the assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and CEO of FPMT Inc. He shares this message with the entire FPMT community:
Dear Friends,
In talking with Rinpoche recently it has become more clear regarding the importance of this long life puja we are having in Singapore at Amitabha Buddhist Centre on March 13. Rinpoche has been quite subtle, but has indicated that there are obstacles for himself this year. Rinpoche also said recently that one of the main things that will help is this long life puja in Singapore with all the FPMT centers and students participating, and prior to the puja, the 100,000 tsog offerings – this was advised by Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme).
Please try to be at the long life puja or participate at a distance wherever you are.
We have to continue to create the karma for Rinpoche to be with us for a long time and to purify our karma for Rinpoche not to be here. It is in our hands.
FPMT – so many students around the world – have done so much to benefit others under Rinpoche’s patient and compassionate guidance, as well as under Lama Yeshe’s compassionate guidance. We need Rinpoche to live a very long and healthy life so we can continue to benefit sentient beings as much as possible.
Sincerely,
roger
Here are the details on the long life puja in Singapore:
The official long life puja on behalf of the entire FPMT will be offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore on Sunday, March 13 as part of Rinpoche’s teaching event there. The puja will start at 9 a.m. Singapore time (GMT+8).
During the long life puja Rinpoche will be requested to give teachings on lojong (thought transformation). These teachings and the long life puja will be webcast live on FPMT’s Livestream page so that all can participate live or by video later.
How You Can Participate:
Help your local center to offer prayers and practices for the health and long life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a long life puja and by performing 100,000 tsog offerings with Lama Chöpa.
Donations to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Long Life Puja Fund 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. For more, visit FPMT.org, where you can also find more information for FPMT centers, projects, services and study groups.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“[Y]ou should make sure that being together with someone becomes a cause of enlightenment by keeping in mind the motivation of bodhichitta,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Joyful Parents, Successful Children, a new publication from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“You can use your relationship to practice morality by, for example, observing the five lay vow of abstaining from killing, stealing, adultery, lying and mind-altering substances. Likewise, having a partner provides an opportunity for you to practice the other five perfections of giving, patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom. If you can do this, they will give you enlightenment just like your children.
“You can also think about your partner in exactly the same way as your children, ‘I have received every happiness experienced throughout beginningless lives from this person.’ Just that kindness is unimaginable, but on top of that, you also receive all your future happiness from them. In addition, you also receive liberation from every suffering, which is much more precious, from them. Then, you also receive enlightenment, which is even more precious, from that person. Thinking in this way, the conclusion is that your partner is the most precious, most dear and most kind person in your entire life.”
Find the complete Joyful Parents, Successful Children on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joyful-parents-successful-children
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping for flower offerings at a plant nursery, California, US, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
When Rinpoche was at his home in California in October and part of November last year, he created a new flower offering card. Rinpoche then had the card made into a 3-foot (1-meter) tall sign, so that when you first enter the extensive gardens around Rinpoche’s house you read it.
This is what the card says:
Every single flower here is offered to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, on behalf of every single sentient being in each realm, numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals in the numberless universes, every single fish in the ocean size as large as a mountain and ones who are so small that you can only see through a machine, numberless pitiful ants, numberless pitiful mosquitos, numberless pitiful maggots, slugs, tiny crabs at the beach and so forth, every animal, numberless human beings in different universes, numberless suras and asuras to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and the causes and to achieve peerless happiness, the cessation of all the obstacles and completion of all the realizations.
This means every single flower is every sentient being’s offering and this is similar with the water offerings, it is offered from every sentient being and is every sentient being’s water offering.
Thank you very much.
Rinpoche said the card could be made available to others and it could be placed where there are many flower and water offerings. (Rinpoche’s home has an incredible number of water and flower offerings.)
You can find the flower offering card in the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Flower-Offering-Card–PDF_p_2550.html
The flower offering card in the garden at Khachoe Dechen Ling, California, US, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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, Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“As a parent, you should also teach your children that when someone harms, disrespects or even abuses them, the best response is forgiveness. Forgiveness is extremely important – it opens the hearts of both those who forgive and those who are forgiven,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Joyful Parents, Successful Children, a new publication from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“Rather than holding a grudge, if children are able to forgive others, there will be peace in their hearts, as well as in the hearts of those who harm them. Without learning forgiveness, the meaning of their lives and the purpose of their being born human – to bring peace to themselves, to their families and to other people in the world – will be lost.
“Also, if instead of forgiving those who harm them your children return the harm, not only will the person who harmed them want to harm them back, so too will that person’s family and friends. And due to that negative karma of retaliating, in the future, your children will be harmed and even killed for five hundred lifetimes by that same person in different forms. In this way, the suffering will go on and on without end. On the other hand, by forgiving those who harm them, your children won’t harm others, nor will you, the other members of your family and your friends. Therefore, so many people will be saved from creating negative karma.
“I once saw an interview on television with a woman in the United States whose young daughter had been kidnapped, raped and killed by a man. Even though she wasn’t a Buddhist, she said that she didn’t want to kill the man and instead forgave him. This amazing ability to forgive him came from her incredibly good heart. Another man who had been shot six times also said, when interviewed, that he didn’t want to kill the man who had shot him. He didn’t even want that man to go to prison! He too didn’t seem to be a Buddhist but he had a very good heart and was very kind. Because of their good hearts, these two people were able to experience so much mental peace and happiness in this very life. You should try to be like them and also teach your children how to be like them.”
Find the complete Joyful Parents, Successful Children on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joyful-parents-successful-children
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.
Message from Ven Roger Kunsang, assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and CEO of FPMT Inc :
“Dear Friends,
This year seems especially important for all Rinpoche’s students to come together in some way to offer practice and prayers for Rinpoche’s long and healthy life. When I asked Khadro-la for her observation, Khadro-la answered with a deep concern and wish that all the students in all the centers, projects and services come together in some way and offer a long life puja to Rinpoche, as well as perform 100,000 tsog offerings.
Khadro-la went on to explain how very important it is for Rinpoche to be present in this world for a long time, teaching and benefiting sentient beings in many different ways. Khadro-la talked about Rinpoche’s many special qualities, impressing how fortunate we are to have Rinpoche with us, guiding us in so many ways.
Please everyone join the Long Life Puja, participate in whatever way you can.”
The Official Long Life Puja on behalf of the entire FPMT will be offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore on Sunday, March 13th (as part of Rinpoche’s teaching event there). The puja will start at 9am Singapore time.
During the long life puja Rinpoche will be requested to give teachings on lojong (thought transformation). These teachings and the long life puja will be livestreamed so that all can participate live (or by video later).
How You Can Participate:
Help your center to offer prayers and practices for the health and long life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a long life puja, and by performing 100,000 tsog offerings with Lama Chopa.
Donations to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Long Life Puja Fund are welcome.
More Information for FPMT Centers, Projects, Services and Study Groups
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme), South India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in his cave at Lawudo, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In early April 2015, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Lawudo, near Mount Everest in Nepal’s Solu Khumbu region, which was the home of his previous incarnation known as the Lawudo Lama. During the visit, Rinpoche taught in the meditation cave of the Lawudo Lama. Long-time student Bill Kane recorded Rinpoche in his cave and has posted the video on YouTube. Rinpoche, who was born not far from Lawudo, talks about his early days.
Watch the video: “Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Autobiography in the Lawudo Cave”:
https://youtu.be/xphlJ0iQBzk
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 at a restaurant near Sera Monastery, India, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
While eating lunch on Monday, January 11, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was looking at Ven. Roger Kunsang’s mobile phone when a notification arrived with the news that English musician David Bowie had died. So Rinpoche read the news notification and proceeded to do prayers for David Bowie in the restaurant.
The pop star, who was 69 when he died, had had early contact with Tibetan Buddhism in London in the 1960s. Chime Rinpoche has shared a video remembrance of Bowie coming to meet him.
In addition, Rinpoche recently found out that American student Bob Brintz, who had ALS, had passed away several months earlier. When Bob first contacted Rinpoche, he was paralyzed and unable to speak because of his illness and communicated by blinking. Bob, however, still took refuge and bodhisattvas vows with Rinpoche over Skype. Bob wrote about his Dharma practice in the Mandala article “I Will Be Paralyzed and Happy.”
Rinpoche wanted both of these stories to be shared in a blog.
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 Lama Chöpa puja at Kopan House, Sera Monastery, India, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote a student who was requesting Rinpoche as her guru:
“Begin your day with bodhichitta to make the life most meaningful and beneficial for sentient beings, thus transforming your life from iron into gold, not only with Dharma but with bodhichitta motivation.”
From “Request to Be a Guru and Life Practices,” published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/request-be-guru-and-life-practices
Rinpoche has created the practice, formerly called Daily Meditation, to help students begin their day with bodhichitta:
https://shop.fpmt.org/How-to-Make-My-Lives-Wish-Fulfilling-The-Method-to-Transform-a-Suffering-Life-into-Happiness-eBook-PDF_p_3539.html
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 making offerings to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche after receiving oral transmissions from him, Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“… In Buddhism whatever suffering you experience is all temporary. It’s not forever,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in the advice “Purifying the Karma of Harming Others,” published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “Of course, in Christianity, if you are born in hell it is forever. However, in Buddhism, the mind is not oneness with delusion but is only temporarily obscured by delusion, therefore all the suffering and all the causes of suffering, the delusions, can be ceased. When the delusions are ceased then all the karma, which comes from delusion, is ceased. That’s how you receive everlasting happiness, the blissful state of peace for yourself, and not only that, by ceasing the subtle obscurations, you achieve sang gyä, or ‘buddhahood’ in Sanskrit, the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. To do this you have to actualize the right path.
“It’s like when you are sick. You have to take the right medicine to recover and not just anything that is called medicine. In the same way, to cease the causes of suffering – delusions and karma, the obscurations – you have to actualize the right path and not just anything that is called spiritual. For that, you have to first engage in listening to a qualified teacher, then reflection and meditation practice in order to actualize the meaning of the path in your heart. …”
You can read the complete advice “Purifying the Karma of Harming Others,” in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book, on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/purifying-karma-harming-others
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.