Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with canine friend, Adelaide, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During a teaching in Florence, Italy, in 1990, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught on tong-len and other topics. Here’s an excerpt from this teaching, recently published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“… Everyone wants happiness and does not want suffering. It is for this reason that some people spend their life doing retreat or studying the path, or going to school and then university to get a degree in order to find a job and have a comfortable, happy life without any problems. These things are done with the aim to have a happy life with wealth, power, reputation and so forth. Looking for happiness, you may sit in meditation in your house at certain times each day. However, when there is a problem in our life  we have to apply the real meditation, the real Dharma, the real spiritual practice. When we have a problem, that is the time we really have to use meditation. The purpose of doing all these things, sitting in meditation every day, is to help us when we meet difficulties in our life. It benefits us at that time.

“Now, problems don’t come from outside, but from your own mind. From your own side you have looked at the situation as a problem, so it appears to you as a problem. First you look at the situation as a problem, so it then appears to be a problem. How does this happen? You look at the situation as a problem by labeling it, ‘This is a problem.’ When you interpret the situation as a problem and then label it as such, your life situation appears to be a problem. Because you see it as difficult, it appears to be difficult. That is how the problem comes from your own mind. There is no external problem. You made up the problem.

“When you have a problem, for example, some disease, think of all the other people with much greater problems than you, with more serious diseases. By thinking of others with greater problems, you don’t feel so much depression and fear. You feel happier because you don’t have such a heavy disease as those others. Even if you are poor and cannot afford a luxurious, comfortable life, think of those who have a much harder life, who are dying of starvation. You then feel very fortunate that you don’t have such great problems. When you compare your situation with the problems of others like this, you feel happier. When you look only at your present problem, you think it is so great. Even though it is actually a small problem, you make it big. You think, ‘This is unbearable!’ and make it huge. In this way it makes you depressed, more and more unhappy, with more worry and fear. You can see that with an unskillful way of thinking there is unhappiness; with a skillful way of thinking, there is immediate happiness. So, your own mind creates the happiness; your own mind stops the worry, depression and so forth. With your own mind you can do that. …”

You can find the teaching “Taking the Suffering of Others” at:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=1055&chid=2599#sthash.L3atZABj.dpuf

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Geshe Samten, the resident teacher at Vajrayana Institute, Sydney, Australia, June 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who had written to him about having hypothyroidism and a food addiction and needing to loss weight.

“… If you want to benefit other sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to peerless happiness and omniscient mind, then you have to reveal Dharma to them. So you need to learn Dharma and practice Dharma, and for that you need a long life and to be healthy, so don’t eat sugar. You know it is harming your health, so why do you eat sugar? That’s ridiculous. If possible, abandon sugar for awhile. If not, then at least cut it down to a very small amount. Make the amount of sugar very, very small or don’t eat it for some years.

“Then about meat, I would like to say, please reduce eating meat, as it does so much harm to others and even to one’s own body. This is not just belief, it’s now even accepted scientifically. If you can avoid meat, it’s so good. Wow, wow, wow! All the buddhas and bodhisattvas will be so happy with you, just as a mother loves her beloved child, cherishing her child so much. When her child does something good that makes the mother so unbelievable happy.

“So if possible, abandon meat or cut down eating meat. The conclusion is that if less people eat meat, that means more animals won’t suffer from being killed. That’s the benefit, so please think about this. Don’t think about the pleasure of eating [meat] without thinking about reincarnation, karma and the lower realms. Instead of just thinking about the pleasure of eating meat, think about the suffering of the animals when they are being killed, and think of yourself being at the butcher’s place, about to be killed. How does that feel? If you’re about to be killed, like the animals, how does that feel? Do you like that?

“So if you really think Dharma is to not harm sentient beings, then don’t eat meat, or at least eat very little. Not eating meat is OK. So many young people in the West don’t eat meat and are still healthy; they can supplement their diet with other things.  So many people [are vegetarian] now, young and old, and its increasing more and more. …”

In Rinpoche’s letter he also gave advice on taking tsog offerings and purification practices that can be done. You can read Rinpoche’s complete advice on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/a-healthy-diet

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 and a cute canine friend, Adelaide, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

On May 31, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared this from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Buddha House in Adelaide, Australia, on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: The main thing for resolving problems is to stop thinking they come from outside, they come from inside … wrong way of thinking.

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.)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Buddha House and at several other Australian FPMT centers can be watched now on FPMT’s Livestream page.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at a Minh Dang Quang Temple, a Vietnamese temple in Sydney Western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, June 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote this letter to a student who had just become a nun:

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

Thank you for your kind email, I am sorry for the long delay.

You becoming a nun is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable … thank you a billion, zillion times. Thank you very much. Try to know the vows and live in the vows – that is the foundation for all the path to enlightenment. That is the basis for the bodhisattva vows and the bodhisattva vows are the foundation for the tantric vows. The bodhisattva vows are to achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings, to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. The tantric vows are to achieve full enlightenment as quickly as possible, even in one lifetime in degenerate times, and so you can enjoy life. This is the way to make life most happy and beneficial for all sentient beings.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Edited by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama being greeted by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia, June 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been invited to attend the long life puja (tenshuk) for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in honor of His Holiness’ 80th birthday in Dharamsala, India, on June 21. The long life ceremony has been organized by the Gelug Tenshuk and Gratitude Celebration Organizing Committee with the Tibetan Government in Exlie and the Tibetan Do-med Association. 

As part of the Gratitude Celebration, the first ever international Gelug conference will follow the long life ceremony on June 23-24. The conference will be attended by the Gaden Tri Rinpoche, Jangtse Chöje Rinpoche, Sharpa Chöje Rinpoche, Samdhong Rinpoche, and present and former abbots of all the major Gelug monasteries and nunneries, as well as many other great masters, lamas, dignitaries and representatives from Gelug centers, nunneries and monasteries. 

As a result of Lama Zopa Rinpoche traveling to India, the following changes have been made to his Australia tour schedule:

• Rinpoche’s teachings at Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre on June 17-18 have been cancelled;
• The June 19 teaching on Karma has been rescheduled to June 14, 10 a.m.-noon at Minh Dang Quang Temple;
• The long life puja at Vajrayana Institute on June 21 has been cancelled.

Rinpoche’s teachings at Vajrayana Institute June 13-15 are unchanged and will be webcast live.

After Dharamsala, Rinpoche will resume his teaching tour in Russia with the scheduled public talk “How to Find Peace” on June 30 at Ganden Tendar Ling in Moscow.

For details, see Rinpoche’s schedule.

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 Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with attendants and FPMT Australia students in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, June 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, Australia, June 13-15 will be webcast LIVE on FPMT’s Livestream page:

• June 13: Teaching on “How to Apply Dharma in Daily Life,” Vajrayana Institute, scheduled 7 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)
• June 14: Teaching on “The Joy of Compassion,” Vajrayana Institute, scheduled 7 p.m. AEST
• June 15: motivation for White Mahakala initiation (tentative), Vajrayana Institute, scheduled 7 p.m. AEST

This past week, Rinpoche has been in the Blue Mountains, outside of Sydney, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama just concluded five days of teachings.

Higher quality recordings of all the teachings from Australia will be made available at a later date on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page. Recordings of Rinpoche’s May 2015 teachings in New Zealand are now available.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lama Chopa Tsog offering in Buddha House, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A student wrote that she had cancer that was removed, but the surgeon said it had spread. The doctor advised getting chemotherapy. The student requested advice from Rinpoche on what she should do. 

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

Sorry for the long delay. I checked your question and chemotherapy is very good. When you have treatment, every time when you take medicine, think that the purpose is to be able to benefit numberless sentient beings. This is what you should think even during normal times, whenever you do treatment or take medicine. That makes it – all the expenses – worthwhile.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 2015. Edited by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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, De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During a 1991 talk in Adelaide, Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche responded to a question about low self-esteem with a teaching on the nature of the mind. Here’s a short excerpt from this talk, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:

“… What is the mind? It is nothing other than what is merely imputed by the mind, by the thought. In other words, because of the reason that the base – this formless phenomenon that is clear and perceives objects – exists, mind is merely labeled by the thought, and believed in. Because of this, thought makes up the idea, the concept, the label, ‘mind,’ and then believes in what is merely imputed by thought. Therefore, what the mind is, is extremely subtle. It does not exist in the way it normally appears to us. In reality, the mind that exists does not exist in the way that it normally appears to us, in the way we normally apprehend it, as a real mind existing from its own side, an inherently existent mind. It is not that. 

“This formless phenomenon whose nature is clear and able to perceive objects, this is the base. Depending on this base, mind is labeled, so ‘mind’ is the label and that phenomenon is the base to be labeled. Therefore, the base and the label ‘mind’ have to be different; they cannot be one thing. There is no way that the base to be labeled and the label can be one. If this particular formless phenomenon that is clear and able to perceive objects were the label ‘mind,’ there would be no point in labeling mind. Why would you label ‘mind’? There is no reason to label ‘mind’ on the mind. This would become endless. You would label ‘mind’ on the mind, then you would have to label ‘mind’ on that mind, then again you would have to label ‘mind’ on that mind. It would become endless. There is no purpose in doing this.

“Generally, you apply a label to something that is not that. There is some purpose in doing this. For example, when you see your mother among a group of your relatives – your brother, sister, father, aunt, uncle, and so forth – what is the reason that makes you create the label ‘mother’? First you have to think about this. A reason comes in your mind before you make up the label ‘mother.’ Some reason makes you choose this particular label. …”

Read the entire teaching from Rinpoche at:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/ultimate-nature-mind

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 Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Dhundrup and Dale, the architect, going over the plans for a group retreat facility at Detong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangaroo Island, Australia.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this translation of a Tibetan text on how to build a retreat house, published in November 2013 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: 

As requested by Pungsang, Buddha states how to make a meditation room:

On that land, dig the earth and purify the place. If the house depends on heat and warmth, put a mud wall around it. The door of the meditation house should face east, north or west, but never south. If there is downstairs and upstairs, at least one door should not face south. Put a window towards the south or the east.

A dedicated meditation room is auspicious for a good retreat and helps the mind remain undisturbed, as outer and inner conditions are dependent arisings. Having a dedicated room qualifies the place as suitable for abiding in the retreat. If it is not possible to find all the conditions, at least arrange what is most comfortable for the yogi to do retreat.

The second chapter of the Guhyasamaja Tantra states that in all the directions of the earth, in places of great isolation that are adorned with flowers and fruits; in the isolation of the mountain, all realizations will be achieved.

You can find more advice on retreat in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website (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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing preparation for Medicine Buddha jenang, Buddha House, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“The seven Medicine Buddhas, attainers of bliss, strongly prayed for the temporal and ultimate happiness of yourself and all sentient beings. They vowed that their prayers would be actualized during these degenerate times when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. As the buddhas’ holy speech is irrevocable, you can wholly trust in their power to quickly grant blessings to help all sentient beings in these degenerate times,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in “The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Mantra and Practice,” a free PDF created by FPMT Education Services. “If you pray to Guru Medicine Buddha, you will quickly accomplish all that you wish. Just hearing the holy name of Guru Medicine Buddha and the sound of his mantra closes the door to rebirth in the suffering lower realms. It is written in the scriptures that you should not have a two-pointed mind (doubt) with regard to these benefits. …”

“Therefore, at the time of death, it is excellent to recite both Tathagata Medicine Buddha’s holy name and his mantra in the ear of the dying person. It is extremely beneficial to recite the mantra and blow it upon meat that you are eating, or even on old bones or the dead bodies of animals or humans. This action purifies the karmic obscurations of those sentient beings. It can cause someone who has been reborn in the suffering lower realms to immediately pass away and be reborn in a pure realm or amongst happy transmigrators. At the very least, it will shorten the duration of their suffering in the lower realms. It is excellent if this is done with bodhichitta, renouncing self and cherishing others.

“Also, by reciting this mantra, you will greatly enhance the power of the medicine that you are taking or giving to others. …”

You can read the complete advice in the short booklet “The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Mantra and Practice,” a free PDF of FPMT Education Services.

FPMT Education Services has created many resources pages to help FPMT students learn more on these topics, including ones for “Mantras” and “Death and Dying: Heart Advice and Practices.”

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.

1000-Armed Chenrezig, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California,November 2014. Photo by Chris Majors.

A student wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a serious confession: “My forefathers have done very heinous sins, which is the major cause of suffering in our family now. My grandma’s father and his friends a long, long time ago killed a monk by forcibly driving him to jump into a river, where he drowned. That monk was passing our village to go back to Tibet after pilgrimage, but my grandma’s father and his friends stopped him on his way and took all his belongings and killed him. I am very ashamed to tell this story, but I have faith that I can stop all this suffering with the help of Rinpoche’s advice ….”

You need to do 10 x 100,000 [i.e., 1 million] OM MANI PADME HUMs urgently, not just to purify your negative karma, but also the negative karma of those who killed the monk and the whole family. Recite OM MANI PADME HUM without a distracted mind. Visualize 1000-Armed Chenrezig, huge like a mountain and radiating light. From Chenrezig beams of compassion are sent out to those family members who killed the monk, to yourself and to all your family. That’s the main thing. Then at the end of each mala, think that the beams purified all sentient beings: the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless humans, numberless suras and asuras. They all become Chenrezig, including your family members. As you recite OM MANI PADME HUM, mainly concentrate on your family: beams are continually emitted from Chenrezig, purifying them, and then at the end of each mala, think all sentient beings are purified and become Chenrezig. Then again, do purification; continue like that.

And if you can build one statue of 1000-Armed Chenrezig, the size should be 32 inches (80 cm), for the monk, those who killed the monk, the rest of the family and all sentient beings.

My mother used to do 50,000 mantras a day but when she was close to dying, one year before she died, she said she couldn’t do that much. Because she recited all those OM MANI PADME HUM mantras, she had more compassion than me, even though she couldn’t read even one letter because she didn’t know the Tibetan alphabet.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Edited by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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 teaching on lojong in Auckland, New Zealand, at an event organized by Dorje Chang Institute, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“There’s a big difference between those who have met Dharma and those who have not met Dharma,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in a teaching in the just published Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive May E-letter. “By having met Dharma, you are full of inspiration. It’s a question of thinking, a question of meditating. Life is full of hope. Rather than feeling very down and hopeless, you feel your life is full of inspiration.

“Even if you are experiencing very heavy karma – you are missing limbs or something like that – even if in your mind you want to do something else but due to karma you don’t have the freedom to do it now, even if your life is not what you want, even if there is such a big problem, think, ‘This is temporary. What is happening to me won’t last forever. This is a causative phenomenon; it happened in dependence upon cause and conditions. This difficulty in my life happened due to cause and conditions, and due to another cause and conditions it will go away.’

“No matter how heavy the karma in your life is, no matter how much heavy karma you have created;  even if you have created some negative action that means you will be born in the hells for many billions of eons – according to their time, not human time, which is an incredible length of time – don’t just be sad about it. Just being sad about any problem or mistake that happens in your life is of no use. Remember your buddha nature, which is pure, which is not oneness with the mistakes. Remember that, and that you have all the potential, all the hope to develop your mind. Remember that you can be better, and then attempt the method to be better. …” 

Read this month’s E-letter and the complete teaching online at: http://bit.ly/may-2015-e-letter

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.