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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
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/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the sentient beings in the ocean before Auckland flight to Nelson, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
On May 15, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared this from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chandrakirti Centre on his Twitter page:
Lama Zopa: Nothing happens by itself without causes and conditions. Outside is a condition, not the principal cause. Most think outside.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Mahamudra Centre, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
On May 10, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared this from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching at Mahamudra Centre on his Twitter page:
Lama Zopa: Thought transformation is not to stop the problem. It is to use it to make it highly beneficial in the path to enlightenment.
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 Mahamudra 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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche after landing at Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island on the way to Chandrakirti Centre, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche traveled from New Zealand’s North Island to its South Island to continue his teaching tour, which is being made available as much as possible via web streaming. Video of these teachings, both live and recorded, can be found on FPMT’s Livestream page.
On May 16-17, Rinpoche teaches at Chandrakirti Centre. FPMT’s media team is hoping to be able to offer a live webcast of these teachings, but are still checking to see whether the internet bandwidth quality will be strong enough. You can sign up to receive updates on FPMT’s Livestream page (click the green “Follow” button).
Rinpoche’s teachings in Auckland at Dorje Chang Institute will be streamed live:
- May 22: Teaching on How to Have a Happy, Meaningful Life, schedule to start at 7 pm New Zealand time
- May 23: Teaching on How to Have a Happy, Meaningful Life, 4 – 7 pm New Zealand time
- May 25: A Chat about Death, approximately 3 – 5 pm New Zealand time
Rinpoche’s teachings at Mahamudra 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 of the teachings.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the sentient beings and ocean on the way to the airport from Mahamudra Centre, New Zealand, May 2015. “[We were] running late!” Ven. Roger Kunsang shares when posting the photo on his Twitter 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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing prayers at Mahamudra Centre, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A second big earthquake has hit Nepal. Ven Roger Kunsang writes from New Zealand:
“The earthquake hit near Everest and Namche [in Solu Khumbu quite close to Lawudo and Thame]. The first measured 7.4, and then there was another soon after. I have talked to Kopan and others in Nepal, and in brief, this is what we know so far in relation to FPMT:
- Kopan and Khachoe Ghakyil monks and nuns are all fine (the ones who were at the monastery and nunnery); buildings have more damage … cracks are bigger in some place, but nothing actually collapsed.
- Lawudo – Ani-la Ngawang Samten (Rinpoche’s sister) and others, no serious harm but shaken up a little. Ani-la said a lot of damage this time in Khumbu area. The main gompa at Lawudo has collapsed … the wall on the kitchen side, other damage also in other areas of Lawudo. Now the place is in a pretty bad state.
- Ganden Yiga Chozin, Pokhara – Drolkar says she and others are fine.
- Thame area … more houses collapsed, so far have not heard of serious harm or deaths.
- Other areas … Tsum, Chailsa and Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre … haven’t got updates yet.
- Kathmandu has had a lot of houses and buildings collapse … initially they are saying that there seems to be more damage than the first quake … they say many of the houses that got damaged but didn’t collapse now have collapsed.
People were just starting to get moving again … now they are really shaken up … the reality of possibly more to come is strong.”
Ven. Fran writes from Kopan Monastery:
“We are all okay, sitting in the garden and making jokes how we are now earthquake-qualified.
But it was scary again, nearly as strong as the first one. No more additional damage at Kopan, but in Kathmandu, a lot of half broken houses now completely collapsed. We could see the dust clouds rising directly after the earthquake.”
Kopan Monastery shared on Facebook:
“Lot of houses collapsed and many fresh damages occurred. Kopan monks went immediately to help at a three-story house that collapsed at Kopan, ward 13. People returned back to open places as quake occurred 8 times within a few-hour interval.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been doing prayers with students in New Zealand.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with students doing prayers after hearing about second big earthquake in Nepal, Mahamudra Centre, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
For “Prayers and Practice for Earthquake in Nepal,” see:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/prayers-and-practices-for-earthquake-in-nepal/
You can read more details of how FPMT is assisting with short-term and long-term aid to Nepal.
To offer support to the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund visit:
https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/
For continued news from Nepal, see our Updates from Nepal After the Earthquake:
https://fpmt.org/nepal-earthquake/