Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing local Tibetans at the site of a new community hall for Tibetans Rinpoche has sponsored, South India, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

“We just cannot be sure which will come first, tomorrow or our next life,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in July 2014 at Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London. “Because of that it is unbelievably worthwhile to work for the next life, to attend to the next life by accumulating merit to not be reborn in the lower realms. Then, if we were to die tomorrow, our work would have been done. And even if we do not die tomorrow, our work has still been done.

“This is what Lama Tsongkhapa said in Lamrim Chenmo: by practicing Dharma with the thought that we might die today, if we do die we have made the preparation, and if we don’t die then we have further opportunities to collect more merit. Therefore, thinking, ‘I’m going to die today’ and working for future lives, practicing Dharma to benefit our future lives, is most worthwhile. 

“One way that the Kadampa geshes defined Dharma was that it is something that benefits future lives; something that brings happiness in future lives. If what we are practicing does not do that, it is not Dharma. Another way they defined it was that if any action of our body, speech and mind becomes an antidote to delusion, it is Dharma; if it does not become an antidote to delusion, it is not Dharma. This is how the Kadampa geshes differentiated between what is Dharma and what is not.”

Find the full excerpt as part of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s November 2015 enewsletter: https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-149-november-2015

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, South India, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On December 13, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on Twitter this photo of Lama Zopa Rinpoche “enjoying coconut juice on the way back from teachings in Gyurme Tantic College.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is currently at Osel Labrang at Sera Monastery in South India. Rinpoche will be attending His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Jangchup Lamrim Teachings from December 20 through January 1 at near-by Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. This special set of lam-rim teachings is organized by His Eminence the 7th Ling Rinpoche, whose predecessor was His Holiness’ senior tutor and one of Rinpoche’s gurus.

The Jangchup Lamrim Teachings will include a long life puja to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. You are welcome to make a contribution to FPMT’s official offering: https://fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/long-life-puja/

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“As I mentioned already one morning during one of the morning motivations, even heavy diseases like cancer and AIDS, all those heavy problems, become much more beneficial than a powerful retreat of many hundreds of thousands of Vajrasattva mantras, those luxury, comfortable retreats with ego,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma, the fourth volume in a Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive series drawn from the 24th Kopan course in 1991. 

“… If we are experiencing the problem on behalf of even one sentient being, it becomes incredible purification. It purifies many eons, many lifetimes, so many lifetimes’ negative karma. The stronger compassion we feel for even one sentient being, that itself becomes like tantra, very quick – in that sense it’s like tantra – not so much by the sense of those particular tantric meditations, like the extremely subtle clear light and illusory body – not in the nature of those paths, but in the sense of, like the tantra path, it’s a quick path. In a short time we purify an unimaginable amount of obscurations and accumulate an unbelievable, extensive amount of merit.”

Find Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/cherishing-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.

Very large Guru Rinpoche thangka at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, December 4, 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the monks and nuns of Kopan organized a spur-of-the-moment event, which included the display of a gigantic Guru Rinpoche thangka; 100,000 tsog offerings; and a puja and cham (ritual dance) of wrathful Guru Rinpoche. Lama Zopa Rinpoche invited Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, a long-time friend and a well-known Nyingma lama, to serve as ritual master for the event.

Despite not having time to send invitations, the puja and cham were very well attended. Word of mouth brought hundreds of Tibetans, Sherpas and Nepalis from the Kathmandu area to the event. Hundreds of Kopan’s monks and nuns attended as well. The energy at the event was very strong and moving.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche (center) with Kontsak Rinpoche (left) and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi (right), Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, December 4, 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche said this puja was extremely important for Nepal at this time. The country is facing incredible hardship due to an Indian blockade that is stopping fuel, medicines and some food from entering the country in combination with winter’s arrival and the continued recovery from the April earthquake.

Rinpoche had been at Kopan Monastery to teach at the Kopan course. The very large Guru Rinpoche thangka had just arrived in Kathmandu and Rinpoche unexpectedly decided to do the special puja. The thangka was hung at the nunnery, which was the only place that has enough room. Rinpoche was very pleased with the thangka, which is 75 feet (23 meters) high and 87 feet (27 meters) wide, and was sponsored by the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.

The puja was dedicated to remove all the obstacles in Nepal as well as stop all the conflicts in the world, especially in the Middle East. 

Thousands of Kopan monks and nuns as well as local Sherpas, Tibetans and Nepalis attended the event, Kathmandu, Nepal, December 4, 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 teaching during the Kopan course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Developing the mind in the path to enlightenment, finding faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, in reincarnation and karma – even to have some faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, even to have some faith in reincarnation and karma, is a kind of realization. Comparatively, even to have some faith is a kind of realization,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma, the fourth volume in a Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive series drawn from the 24th Kopan course in 1991. 

“It’s not easy. It takes time, and you need a lot of purification. You need to purify the obstacles. It depends on how many obstacles there are from the side of each sentient being, so it takes time.

“As I mentioned just before, I’m not sure about the Buddhadharma, but you can practice Dharma. I’m not sure about Buddhadharma, but you can practice Dharma. With this positive attitude of universal responsibility, which is the meaning of the life, it’s still practicing Dharma. If you can live life with this attitude, then so much of the work in that one day becomes Dharma, the cause of happiness.”

Find Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/cherishing-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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Kopan Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Whether you have time for practice or meditation or not, or to do prayers, mainly depends on your interest,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma, the fourth volume in a Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive series drawn from the 24th Kopan course in 1991. “If your interest is more in parties or watching TV and other things like this, there’s a lot of time for those things. You find a lot of time for sleeping, for talking, for gossiping and things like this but you can’t find time to recite even one mala of a mantra or do one meditation on the lam-rim. It’s basically a question of which one you have more interest in.

“It’s not that time is truly existent. It’s not that it’s coming from the side of time. It’s a question of interest. It’s a question of how important you feel it is to help other sentient beings, with bodhichitta. It depends on how much you feel renunciation, renouncing the suffering of samsara, is important or how much you feel the meditations on impermanence and death, the lower realms and so on, are important. It depends on that.”

Find Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/cherishing-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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche cutting the cake offered for his 70th birthday at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, December 3, 2015

All of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery’s monks and nuns offered Lama Zopa Rinpoche a cake and sang “Happy Birthday” to Rinpoche. Originally, they wanted to come up and offer a khata to Rinpoche, but Rinpoche said instead that he would go to Kopan Nunnery and offer an oral transmission to them. There, he offered an oral transmission of “Calling the Guru from Afar” and the “Four Mindfulnesses.”

Celebration of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 70th birthday, Kopan Nunnery, December 3, 2015

The small monks also sang “Happy Birthday.” Rinpoche cut the cake, saying the knife was like a wisdom sword cutting ignorance. Rinpoche did extensive offering practice. Then all the Kopan monks and nuns were offered a piece of cake. All of the Kopan November course students also offered Rinpoche a birthday cake, but they could not have any as they all had taken precepts.

Rinpoche arriving at Kopan Nunnery for the birthday celebration, Nepal, December 3, 2015

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at official FPMT long life puja, Kopan Monastery, December 2, 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On December 2, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on Twitter this photo of Lama Zopa Rinpoche receiving the official FPMT long life puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. In the photo, specially selected dancers representing the five-colored dakinis petition the lama to remain and teach for the benefit of all. 

An elaborate display of devotion towards a spiritual guide, comprising heartfelt prayers and praises, and a procession of symbolic offerings, the long life puja is one of the most moving ceremonies in Tibetan Buddhism. 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.

Rinpoche is scheduled to be in Kopan Monastery until December 5.

You can support long life pujas for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche by making an offering to the Long Life Puja Fund.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On December 1, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on Twitter two new photos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, where he is teaching during the annual month-long November course.

In the photo above, Rinpoche is “explaining the story of Bodha and Swayambhu stupas and their amazing, unbelievable benefits!”

Students from around the world have come to hear Rinpoche and receive his guidance, including several people from Spain, who offered Rinpoche a Basque-style beret and requested him to come and teach there soon.

Rinpoche is scheduled to be in Kopan Monastery until December 14.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Basque-style beret with Spanish students, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On November 25, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on Twitter this photo of Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery “checking some of the collection of relics destined for the heart of the Maitreya statues in India.”

The statues are part of the two Maitreya Projects in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar, India.

Rinpoche has advised that all touring collections of relics that were once part of the 15-year-old Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour should be placed on permanent display for the benefit of pilgrims while the statues are under construction.

While at Kopan Monastery, Rinpoche will give teachings during the annual Kopan November course.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting with senior monks and nuns after arriving at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this advice about karma in a letter to a student, recently published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA). He emphasized the importance of living in pure morality and of understanding the suffering of this life. 

I would just like to inform you of a most important subject. When we die, the mind continues and the body separates. The consciousness continues or migrates in two ways. There is not a third way.

If the virtue collected is strong, the result is rebirth as a human or as one of the worldly gods, or rebirth in the pure land of a buddha, which has everything that is incredible, incredible and most beautiful. There we receive teachings from the Buddha and we see the Buddha. There, it is zillions and trillions of times more beautiful than the beach that people find beautiful in the world. It’s amazing, incredible. Once we are born there, for example, in Amitabha’s pure realm, we are never again born in hell, or in the hungry ghost or animal realms. In some pure realms we become a buddha, having complete cessation and all realizations, peerless happiness. That’s the most perfect, peerless happiness. If we’re really looking for happiness and wish to cause numberless beings to achieve this peerless happiness with higher wisdom, we can achieve this.

The other way is if negative karma is stronger, we are born in the lower realms, the evil-gone realms. If there is the cause, then we are born in hell or as a hungry ghost or an animal. It is called “evil-gone” because “evil” is the cause and “gone” is the result. If we are born in the lower realms, the suffering is most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. That result and why it is such a heavy result is because of karma, which is a Sanskrit word. The cause is a heavy negative action. For example, to give an idea, even if all the human beings’ fire is put together, a tiny fire spark of hell is 66 times hotter. Compared to one fire spark of hell, all the human fire put together is like an air conditioner, or a snowflake.

What is called karma in Sanskrit, is translated as action in Tibetan. … If we practice Dharma, that is how we can purify all those past lives’ karma, thus we don’t have to experience the result. Without Dharma it is not purified. Similarly, as a human, if we have met Dharma, our negativity can be purified. If not, then we cannot purify. … 

Continue to read Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s explanation “Karma and Its Results,” part of the LYWA’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/karma-and-its-results

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, Vajrapani Institute, California, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“[T]he whole thing about whether (service to others) becomes a burden or whether it becomes a pleasure for you, it depends on your attitude,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught at a May 2003 teaching at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. “Whether it becomes a burden or becomes pleasure, joy, to do this depends on your motivation. If you have taken it as a burden, with the motivation of self-centered mind, then there is nothing to enjoy in the life. With that motivation, with that kind of attitude everything becomes a burden in your mind; your mind doesn’t feel enjoyment, everything becomes suffering. Everything becomes problem. Nothing to enjoy in the life.

“But with the other motivation ‘I am here to serve others,’ in everyday life having that attitude, ‘I’m the servant for all sentient beings, all the people at the center, wherever, in the family or office, whatever, for all the people, all the rest of sentient beings, to cause them happiness.’ The loving kindness, compassion attitude, universal responsibility – the attitude which I mentioned before, so with this positive mind cherishing others, with this bodhisattvas’ view, then so much joy, and the more responsibility you have, you can see that you are beneficial. You can see you are meaningful, you see yourself as beneficial to others, you see yourself as useful for others. You see yourself, your life as a need for others. The more you take responsibility or the more you have responsibility then you see that you’re more needed by others. So you see you are more useful to others. Then there is so much in which to rejoice. So much to rejoice in.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues in “Rejoice in Your Efforts,” from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/rejoice-your-efforts

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s homepage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.