Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Andy Melnic.

In the past, a student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche killed his parents during a psychotic episode. Rinpoche gave him practice advice then and later the student wrote back, “These days, I do practice as you advised me to: Vajrasattva practice, prostrations to the 35 Buddhas, listening to the Sanghata Sutra, reading the Diamond Cutter Sutra. I also do Tara and the two mantras plus one hour and thirty minutes of meditation on the cushion. For the 35 Buddhas, I don’t do prostrations because of physical problems; I only do the recitation with my hands folded. Is that good enough? Also, I’m asking if I can practice tantra now or not.”

My most dear, most kind, most precious one,

One very good thing is that when you put your hands together to prostrate, visualize your body huge like a mountain range and think that you are prostrating with many bodies from all ten directions to the lam-rim merit field which has the 35 Buddhas there. Or, just to the 35 Buddhas. Or, even just to Buddha, but, the numberless direct and indirect lineage lamas; the numberless deities of four classes of tantra; the thousand buddhas of this fortunate eon; the bodhisattvas; the 16 Arhats and so forth; the dakas and dakinis and Dharma protectors are all in the Buddha whose essence is the guru. One is many and many are one. Then, visualize bodies filling all the Earth prostrating from all directions, huge bodies like a mountain range. If you have received the initiation of 1000-Armed Chenrezig, you can visualize that, if not, then just your ordinary body. If you visualize like that, you get the same merit as having done that many prostrations with that many bodies. This is specific advice from Lama Tsongkhapa – the way to collect the most extensive merit.

Regarding your question on tantra, any of the lower tantra initiations are OK. That’s very good. And I want to say billion, trillion, zillion times thanks now that you have no fear and your mind is developed and you are making your life most beneficial – especially most beneficial for your parents – not only to be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering, but also to achieve the peerless happiness of enlightenment. It is so good that you are inspiring others and also inspiring your psychiatrist to learn meditation. I wish that all the people in the world who create negative karma like this would change and make their lives better, more meaningful for those people who get killed.

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 looking around the De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre land with ex-director Kimball Cuddihy and present director Will Abram, Kangaroo Island, Australia, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has arrived in Australia, starting his tour of the country with a visit to De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre on Kangaroo Island where he consecrated the Enlightenment Stupa and Padmasambhava statue there. Rinpoche will continue his tour teaching at Buddha House in Adelaide, Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, and Kusang Yeshe Retreat Centre in Katoomba.

These teachings will be webcast LIVE on FPMT’s Livestream page:

• May 30: Teaching on “Making the Most of your Life,” Buddha House, schedule to start at 7 p.m. Australian Central Standard Time (ACST)
• May 31: motivation for Medicine Buddha initiation (tentative), Buddha House, schedule to start at 7 p.m. ACST
• 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
• June 21: Long life puja, Vajrayana Institute, morning

Recordings of Rinpoche’s recent teachings in New Zealand are available as part of Rinpoche Available Now.

Higher quality recordings of all the teachings from Australia (including those from Kusang Yeshe Retreat Centre where livestreaming is impossible) will be made available at a later date on Rinpoche Available Now.

See Rinpoche’s Schedule for more details on upcoming teachings.

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, MAITRI Charitable Project, Bodhgaya, India, February 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

”We have achieved a lot in Dharma education and study,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in March 2015 while visiting Root Institute in India. “Now we have to put effort in attaining the path. I don’t mean just doing three-year retreat and counting a certain number of mantras, but attainment of the path through the lam-rim. Realizations don’t have to come from being in formal retreat. One can achieve them while working and studying with meditation on the lam-rim. One can be doing business and studying and meditating on the lam-rim. You can have a family and job and be meditating on the lam-rim. The main thing now is attainment.”

Scribed by Ven. Roger Kunsang. 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, Chandrakirti Centre, Nelson, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

On May 16, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared this from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chandrakirti Centre on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: Our self-cherishing mind is a dictator, like a guru we serve constantly.

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 Chandrakirti Centre can be watched now on FPMT’s Livestream page. 

For continuing updates and news from Kopan Monastery and other FPMT centers and projects in Nepal affected by the earthquake, please visit our “Updates from Nepal after the Earthquake” page: 
https://fpmt.org/nepal-earthquake/

To learn more and offer support to the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund visit: 
https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/

For “Prayers and Practice for Earthquake in Nepal,” see: 
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/prayers-and-practices-for-earthquake-in-nepal/

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

Incense puja at Mount Taranaki in New Zealand, May 2015. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been wanting to do puja here for some years as is a special place. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“So, why do we take refuge?,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked during a 2013 refuge ceremony at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. “To be free from pervasive compounding suffering, from where the suffering of pain and the suffering of change arises – to be totally free from that, forever.

“To be able to help sentient beings, we have to be free from suffering. For example, if we are drowning in mud, how can we help others? If we are drowning in water, how can we help others? If we have no arms, how can we save others? To free ourselves from this suffering is not to achieve blissful peace for ourselves, but to help other sentient beings. The most important thing is to be able to help other sentient beings. We need to be free from suffering to do this.

“Just to be free from the lower realms, we don’t need to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We don’t need these three. Even if we just remember a monk or nun – somebody we have devotion to – when we die, we will never get reborn in the lower realms at the time of death. Even if we remember one Sangha to whom we feel devotion, or if we think of the Heart Sutra, for example, or some mantra or prayer that we remember, we will never get reborn in lower realms.

“But to be free from samsara – from the pervasive compounding suffering – we need to take refuge. We need to take refuge in Buddha who revealed the path, who revealed the teaching, and the actual refuge. Buddha is like the doctor and Dharma is like the medicine. The actual refuge is Dharma, like the medicine for sickness. Then, the Sangha is like the nurse. The Sangha becomes an example, helping us actualize refuge, Dharma, within our heart. That is Sangha. We need all three to have refuge, to be free from the pervasive compounding suffering from where true suffering arises. Until we are free from this, we suffer in samsara constantly, endlessly, from beginningless rebirth. We can’t help sentient beings perfectly; we cannot help others perfectly without mistakes.”

Excerpted from “The Real Refuge” section of “Seeing How the I Exists” (http://bit.ly/seeing-how-the-i-exists) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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 with Geshe Thubten Wangchen and Geshe Jampa Tharchin at Chandrakirti Centre for the consecration of a Guru Rinpoche statue, Nelson, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“The wisdom realizing emptiness gives us the possibility to escape from problems forever,” said Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a 1990 teaching in Florence, Italy. “Achieving this ultimate happiness mainly depends on this realization. As I mentioned before, only the wisdom realizing emptiness can directly eradicate the ignorance which is the root of the whole samsaric suffering.Therefore, we should feel extremely fortunate and attempt to learn more, to listen, reflect and meditate more. As much as possible, in our everyday life we should attempt to meditate on emptiness even for a minute or a few seconds, especially once we have heard teachings that reveal the unmistaken view and we have some basic understanding of what ultimate nature means. Realizing emptiness gives us the opportunity to be free from the whole of samsara and all suffering.

“So, we should not waste time, we should not waste the opportunity. We must meditate as often as possible, even for a few seconds. We must meditate. Not meditating on emptiness, or not even remembering it for even one day is a great loss. Meditating on emptiness itself becomes great purification. For example, when it comes to purification methods in tantra and sutra, reading the Prajñaparamita teachings is one of the methods. Meditating on emptiness is one of the most powerful purifications.

“Even if you are doing Vajrasattva meditation, you are still advised to remember emptiness. The Vajrasattva recitation-purification becomes very powerful by remembering emptiness. Making offerings to these scriptures or copying them and meditating on them, are all regarded as very powerful purification practices. Anyway, you should not waste the opportunity, especially if you have studied these teachings and have some basic understanding of them. Even rising doubts about emptiness has a great effect – it shatters samsara into pieces.”

Excerpted from “Meditation on Emptiness and Tong-len (Taking and Giving)” (http://bit.ly/meditation-on-emptiness-and-tong-len) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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 with Geshe Thubten Wangchen from Dorje Chang Institute blessing water with students to pour from the boat into the strait between the north and south islands of New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche returns to New Zealand’s North Island to continue his teaching tour. Rinpoche’s teachings in Auckland at Dorje Chang Institute will be webcast LIVE on FPMT’s Livestream page:

• May 22: Teaching on How to Have a Happy, Meaningful Life, schedule to start at 7 p.m. New Zealand time
• May 23: Teaching on How to Have a Happy, Meaningful Life, scheduled 4 – 7 p.m. New Zealand time
• May 25: A Chat about Death, approximately 3 – 5 p.m. New Zealand time

Recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings at Mahamudra Centre and Chandrakirti Centre can be watched now on Livestream.

Higher quality recordings will be made available at a later date on Rinpoche Available Now.

See Rinpoche’s Schedule for more details on upcoming teachings.

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, Geshe Wangchen and Geshe Tharchin blessing the large Buddha statue at Chandrakirti Centre, Nelson, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“First, the I from beginningless rebirths – the way the I is perceived by us, it appears to us as truly existent, existing from its own side,” taught Lama Zopa Rinpoche at a refuge ceremony at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore in March 2013. “The real I appears like that. The real I is not in the head, not in the legs, not in the toes, not in the head, not in the brain, not in the nose, not in the ears, not in the fingers. The real I is not in the toes, not in the legs, not in the stomach, and not in the kaka. You are not living in the kaka. The real I is not living in your throat; it’s not in the beating heart. What else is there? The real I is not in the lungs. We can’t find it; we can’t find any details; we can’t find it in any detailed place. When we check, the real I is not anywhere. Normally we think it is here, we point here [to the chest]. Happy or sad, we point here. Or if somebody says: “Are you telling me? Me!” We always point there.

“When we don’t examine, when we are not aware, it is like that. We are following the wrong concept, ignorance, holding I, action, object, everything, as truly existent, in particular, somewhere in the chest, somewhere there. But when we look for it; when we check in the heart, liver, lungs, the real I is nowhere to be found.

“For this real I to be happy, we do all kinds of things. If we have power, we make wars and kill millions, millions, millions of people. This has happened already, many times in this world. That is in a big way. Then in a small way, we kill the enemy to get happiness for this I, for the real I. But when we look for it, if we go through an x-ray or we are in the hospital and our body is cut open, we cannot find it. But believing it is there, we kill many millions of people in the world, or we kill just one person, the enemy. Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, telling lies, all the alcohol – all this is to get happiness for this real I, which is not there. From the hair down to the toes, it cannot be found at all.

“In daily life, the hallucination is there, somewhere there, in the chest, one hundred percent, no question. No question, we believe it one hundred percent. Then we do everything for that, to get happiness for that – even negative karma, anything, telling lies, cheating. Our whole life is spent like that, to get happiness for this I. Even in business, we cheat others to get happiness for this I. If somebody criticizes us or blames us, then we make a court case and we put them in prison. We spend so much money on court cases, to put others in prison, we do anything we can to the person we don’t like or who harms us.

“Can you imagine, how we use our whole life is like that, to get happiness for the real I which we can’t find there? This real I is not there. We can’t find it anywhere. Life is like that, a hallucination, a total hallucination. It is very interesting to really check the life.”

Excerpted from “Seeing How the I Exists” (http://bit.ly/seeing-how-the-i-exists) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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.

Video of Rinpoche’s teachings from New Zealand, both live and recorded, can be found on FPMT’s Livestream page. 

To learn more and offer support to FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund, which will be used for immediate relief and rebuilding, visit:
https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/

For “Prayers and Practice for Earthquake in Nepal,” see:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/prayers-and-practices-for-earthquake-in-nepal/

For continuing updates and news from Kopan Monastery and other FPMT centers and projects in Nepal affected by the earthquake, please visit our “Updates from Nepal after the Earthquake” page:
https://fpmt.org/nepal-earthquake/