Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

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.

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.