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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at ease in New York City, US, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“I think the most important thing is that you’re happy. Not just in the Western way, feeling happy with excitement and attachment, but inner happiness,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in May 2015. “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; it is happiness which can be continued and developed.”
You can read more from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on inner happiness and making life meaningful on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (https://www.lamayeshe.com/).
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. Visit https://fpmt.org/.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, US, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“As explained by the fully enlightened being, Shakyamuni Buddha, from his own experience, by meditating on the reality or ultimate nature of the I, the five aggregates, the twelve doors of the senses, the eighteen elements and other phenomena, and actualizing the wisdom understanding the very nature of these things, this is the main weapon, like an atomic bomb, to destroy the very root of all problems,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in Florence, Italy, in 1990, as published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“Without the wisdom directly realizing the ultimate nature or emptiness of the I, aggregates and all the rest of the phenomena, there is no way to eliminate the root of all our problems. There is no way to eliminate the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death, or the worry and fear of meeting undesirable objects and separating from desirable ones. The root of all these difficulties we go through in our life cannot be eliminated without wisdom. No matter what other realizations we have, whether of tantra or even bodhichitta, until we are able to actualize the wisdom realizing the ultimate nature of the I and so forth, the root of the whole problem cannot be eliminated. Only by having this wisdom can we eliminate the root of the entire samsaric suffering.
“Without achieving this wisdom realizing emptiness, no matter what other realization we have, there is no way we can end the suffering of samsara, no way to reach the end of the entire problem, which means no way to achieve liberation. Once we achieve liberation, it is impossible to experience suffering again. The root of the entire problem is the ignorance not knowing the ultimate nature of the I and aggregates. No other realization can directly eradicate this ignorance – only wisdom. Therefore, listening, reflecting and meditating on the ultimate nature of everything is the most important thing.
“To think about emptiness for even one second is very fortunate. Going beyond hallucination and touching the ultimate nature for even one second is great purification. So many heavy negative karmas are purified just by that. A sutra mentions that even questioning whether there is such a thing as emptiness or not shatters samsara into pieces. This expresses how powerful meditation on the ultimate nature of things is.
“The teachings also say that simply generating the wish to experience the Middle Way view of emptiness purifies many heavy negative karmas, such as the ten non-virtues and even the five uninterrupted negative karmas, which are the heaviest among all the negative actions. The five are killing your present-life father or mother, causing blood to flow from a tathagata or a buddha, killing an arhat, and causing disunity among the Sangha. These negative karmas are called ‘uninterrupted’ because immediately after death one is born in hell, without any other rebirth intervening. So, even this very heavy negative karma can be purified by generating the wish to understand the ultimate nature or shunyata. …”
You can read the entire teaching “Actualizing the Wisdom Realizing Emptiness” at this link: https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/meditation-emptiness-and-tong-len-taking-and-giving.
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 and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings in Colombia during September 18-20 will be webcast live.
On Friday, September 18, Rinpoche gives a public talk on “Pacifying Inner and External Chaos” in Bogotá, Colombia. The talk is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. local time (UTC-5).
On September 19-20, Rinpoche will give teachings during a weekend lam-rim retreat. Teachings are scheduled for 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. local time.
You can watch Rinpoche teach in Colombia on FPMT’s Livestream page:
https://livestream.com/FPMT/COL2015
Centro Yamantaka, the FPMT center organizing these events, made special arrangements to have high-speed internet at the retreat location so that the teachings can be webcast live and watched by students internationally.
For updates on teaching times and to watch the live webcast, visit the above link. You can also sign up for webcast updates from Livestream by clicking the the green “Follow” button on the Livestream page.
After the event, high quality video recordings of the teachings will be made available as quickly as possible on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page.
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 arriving at the retreat in Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“What differentiates Buddhism from other religions is COMPASSION for every single sentient being.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche from “Compassion is of the Upmost Need”
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 and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Screenshot from “Smoking Harms Your Virtuous Thoughts”
“Even when people died and someone asked Panchen Losang Chokyi to do phowa, he asked whether the person had smoked or not,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche mentions in a new video on FPMT’s YouTube channel. “If the person had smoked, then he didn’t do phowa; phowa doesn’t work. But if the person wasn’t smoking, then phowa works.
“… Anyway, it is not good, it harms like that, you or anybody. When you’re depressed, then you smoke, even if you are not smoking when you’re happy. But some people do that when they are overly happy, excited, then they smoke. Or if somebody is depressed, then they smoke. They put one cigarette there, one cigarette there, one cigarette there, then double, double down below, so one box is finished within one hour, I’m not sure, four boxes in a day or something.
“So I’m just telling you this: if you want to develop virtuous thoughts, positive thoughts, virtuous thoughts, and then finish negative thoughts, which cause suffering to you and to the world, to the sentient beings, which cause suffering to sentient beings, to the numberless sentient beings, and especially if you want to get help at death time, then don’t smoke. Otherwise if you get depressed, you are depressed, then you smoke; you do everything because you are depressed. That is the way to find pleasure, the way you think, but that is a very limited way to kind of look for pleasure.”
Watch “Smoking Harms Your Virtuous Thoughts” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3YgDu7lko
You can watch more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT’s YouTube page: http://bit.ly/fpmt-youtube
For longer videos of Rinpoche teaching, visit: http://bit.ly/rinpoche-available-now
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 blessing an injured hummingbird, which after a little while flew away, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On September 13, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page this brief teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
Lama Zopa; the king of delusions, thinking our false “I” is real! We need to practice the good heart for happiness.
You can find teachings and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on happiness and a meaningful life by visiting the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
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 with Ven. Sangpo Sherpa; Jennifer Kim, director of Shantideva Meditation Center; and two students at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City after doing prayers for all those who died during the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, New York, US, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
From visiting and doing prayers at the memorial for the victims of the September 11 attacks, to teaching at Tibet House, to receiving rare oral transmissions, to spending time with the former monks and nuns of Kopan, to engaging in many other beneficial activities, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had a full month in August 2015 when he visited New York City. Jennifer Kim, director of Shantideva Meditation Center in New York, wrote Mandala about Rinpoche’s recent visit.
With immense kindness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered teachings to the students of Shantideva Meditation Center during the last week of August while he manifested in New York City.
During this impromptu set of teachings at Tibet House, where he was greeted by Prof. Robert Thurman, who serves as president of Tibet House, Rinpoche touched upon many aspects of the path to enlightenment. He spoke of the rarity of our precious human rebirth by comparing our existence to numberless beings consumed by immense suffering and perpetual fear, and he spoke of an opportunity to transform our lives “from kaka to gold” by practicing Dharma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Tibet House, New York, US, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Rinpoche taught, “To waste this opportunity to practice would be like to carry medicine but never take it.” He shared that our human existence is often taken for granted as if it were tissue paper; at the end of the day, we need to leave everything behind, with the consciousness departing like hair being pulled from butter.
As a remedy to this suffering state, Rinpoche spoke of the three scopes of the path, with the essence being non-harm for the lower and middling scopes, and the essence being compassion for the greater scope. Bodhichitta, he said, was more valuable than skies of wish-fulfilling jewels, and even if we had only had five minutes to live, the best thing would be to practice bodhichitta.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Prof. Robert Thurman viewing a Green Tara thangka offered by Shantideva Meditation Center to Tibet House, New York, August 2015. Photo by Edward Sczudlo.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche also spoke extensively on patience, since one is not able to benefit others if one is harming them. He taught that when receiving harm, we had created the cause to allow this to happen, like an arrow hitting a target. The more fruitful alternative than returning harm would be to generate compassion, as our negativity would be exhausted while perpetrators would be set up for extensive suffering if they did not practice purification.
Rinpoche also offered teachings about emptiness and its subtler views as a remedy to our “piles of hallucinations.” Rinpoche spoke of the immense benefits of reciting texts such as the Heart Sutra and Vajra Cutter Sutra, even to animals; if the meaning were not understood now, seeds would be planted in the mind for future realization.
Watch video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in New York City
Rinpoche also offered several transmissions, including that for the mantra of Shakyamuni Buddha, the “35 Confession Buddhas with 7 Medicine Buddhas” practice, and the “Praises to the 21 Taras.” These were in addition to a Guru Puja and prayers for the victims of 9/11, as Rinpoche had wished to make these prayers a long time ago. Rinpoche mentioned, “Prayers are very powerful!”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading students in prayer for the 9/11 tragedy at the Labyrinth, New York City, US, September 2015. Photo By Ven. Losang Sherab. Rinpoche and students recited “King of Prayers” and Lama Tsongkhapa’s “Prayer for the Beginning, Middle and End.”
Students also received the opportunity to connect with Rinpoche during a long life initiation hosted by the ex-monks and ex-nuns of Kopan Monastery, and to bid him farewell from the city.
Many students expressed their profound gratitude for these experiences. One student spoke vibrantly about Rinpoche’s laughter, while another mentioned that her question was answered during his first moments of speaking. Older students were awed by Rinpoche’s vibrant energy, especially after his stroke in 2011, and several mentioned that his prostrations before the teachings brought tears to their eyes. Now, this precious dream has finished, and we are left to plant seeds for our enlightenment and make strong prayers for Rinpoche’s quick return.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche being seen off In New York City by Shantideva Meditation Center students before his departure for Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read here, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Video of Rinpoche’s recent teachings can be found on FPMT’s “Rinpoche Available Now.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing Lama Chopa tsog during retreat in Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On the morning of September 11, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began the day leading the participants of the “Essence of Nectar” retreat in Mexico in Lama Chöpa with tsog. Ven. Steve Carlier served as umze, or chant leader, for the puja, which continued into the afternoon and evening sessions with breaks for lunch and dinner. Rinpoche made this change to the retreat schedule after receiving news that His Eminence Choden Rinpoche had manifested the appearance of passing away. Choden Rinpoche had taught at many FPMT centers over the past 15 years and many FPMT students, including students at the retreat, have receive teachings and initiations from him.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasized the importance of the tsog offering as a way of purifying negative karma created in relation to the guru. Rinpoche said Lama Chöpa tsog is especially powerful if it can be performed on the same day as the guru’s passing.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the “Essence of Nectar” retreat, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Your mind creates happiness and suffering in dependence on the way you think,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said during an earlier teaching at the “Essence of Nectar” retreat. The root text for the retreat is Essence of Nectar, a poem written by Yeshe Tsondru, a nineteenth-century Gelug lama from Sera Me Monastery. Essence of Nectar is a lam-rim, or stages on the path, text.
A view from the back of the room of Rinpoche teaching in Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
About 300 people are attending the retreat, which runs September 5-12. The event is taking place at a retreat center outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. FPMT Mexico is hosting and organizing the retreat with Khamlungpa Center, which is located in Guadalajara, doing the logistical organization.
“When you have the thought of kindness, that people are most kind, dear and precious, then naturally respect comes. Then you create no harm. The thought of anger and the jealous mind stop. Pride stops naturally,” Rinpoche taught during the evening session on September 10.
Retreat participants at the “Essence of Nectar” retreat, Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Video recordings of Rinpoche teaching at the “Essence of Nectar” retreat will be made available as soon as possible on FPMT.org’s “Rinpoche Available Now” page. You can find video and rough transcripts from Rinpoche’s recent teaching events in Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and more. For some events, video is also available with French and Spanish translation.
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 Choden Rinpoche in Taiwan, February 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered Lama Chöpa tsog early Friday morning in Mexico, where he is leading retreat, after hearing the news that His Eminence Choden Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away. Lama Zopa Rinpoche mentioned that others could do this practice themselves or at their Dharma centers, especially if they had a Dharma connection with Choden Rinpoche.
Before showing the aspect of passing away, Choden Rinpoche himself advised a collection of prayers for his students to offer at this time.
You may also read a detailed description of the event of Choden Rinpoche’s transition, provided by Ven. Tenzin Namdak, who is the primary English language contact for the Choden Rinpoche Committee at Sera Je Monastery. [Rebeca Cuan Corral provided a Spanish language translation of event of Choden Rinpoche’s transition.] You may also read a transcript of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Choden Rinpoche on August 29, 2015, translated by Ven. Tenzin Gache of Sera IMI House as Sera Je Monastery. [Rebeca Cuan Corral’s Spanish language translation of the meeting.]
See “The Life of a Hidden Meditator: Choden Rinpoche” from Mandala July 2000 to read more about Choden Rinpoche’s experiences in Tibet at Sera Monastery and in Lhasa after 1959. The complete multi-part feature “The Life of a Hidden Meditator” is available as a PDF. You can also read more recent stories about Choden Rinpoche on FPMT.org.
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 and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving long life initiation in Queens, New York, August 30, 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“[This year,] this life prepares for the happiness of our future lives, becoming useful rather than becoming a disturbance, harming our thousands and thousands of future lives,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in Creating the Causes of Happiness, the second volume in a Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive series drawn from the 24th Kopan course in 1991. “When we harm others we harm ourselves for many thousands of lives. It’s said in Nagarjuna’s teachings, Friendly Letter, that by cheating one sentient being, we ourselves are cheated for a thousand lifetimes by other sentient beings. In this way, this life becomes harmful to our many other, thousands and billions of lifetimes, becoming harmful rather than becoming beneficial and supporting, creating the cause of all those future lives’ happiness.
“So, when somebody gives us harm, to harm him back with a negative mind is completely the wrong solution, the wrong idea. To benefit him in return is the best but even if that’s not possible, at least do not harm him.”
Find Creating the Causes of Happiness on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/creating-the-causes-of-happiness.
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 the retreat in Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang via Twitter.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is currently leading the “Essence of Nectar” lam-rim retreat, which runs September 5-12 in Mexico. So far at the retreat, Rinpoche has been giving teachings on renunciation.
“Attachment to the happiness of this life is like oil stuck on paper. It’s difficult to separate from it. You create suffering by your own mind. It’s not created by someone else. Any action of body, speech and mind done with that attachment becomes a non-virtuous, negative action,” Rinpoche taught on September 7.
And also, “When you get attachment to something and then you see the nature of impermanence, you see the attachment as ugly. There is one particular smell of death — a terrible smell. If you are attached to someone’s body, think of that; then you won’t be attached.”
Khamlungpa Center is hosting the retreat, which is taking place at a retreat center about an hour’s drive from Guadalajara, Jalisco, in central western Mexico.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arriving at the airport in Guadalajara, Mexico, September 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. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing an incense puja for those who are sick on his first day in Mexico, where Rinpoche is currently leading retreat, September 6, 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Even if you owned a pile of diamonds the size of this earth, the peace you’d get from that would be minimal and could never compare with that afforded by inner development,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in “In Search of a Meaningful Life” in Teachings from Tibet, an updated and reprinted collection of lineage master teachings from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “No matter how many jewels you own, you’re still beset by mental problems such as anger, attachment and so forth. If somebody insults you, for example, you immediately get angry and start to think of ways to harm, insult or hurt that person.
“If you are a person of inner development, you react quite differently. You think, ‘How would I feel if he got angry with me, insulted me and hurt my mind? I’d be really upset and unhappy. Therefore, I shouldn’t be negative toward him. If I get angry and insult him, he’ll get terribly upset and unhappy, just as I would in the same situation. How can I do that to him?’ This is the way you should think; this is the way of inner development, the true path to peace.”
Find Teachings from Tibet on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/teachings-tibet
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.