Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“When you are working outside and see a beautiful flower that pleases you, that is your karmic view,” said Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 16th Kopan course in 1983. “That view comes from your own mind, from virtuous thoughts. Anything which is disagreeable and disturbing to you is the result of bad thoughts in the past – negative karma. Whenever you experience sense objects – good smells, bad smells, when eating food, when looking around at views, practice awareness. When you see people or animals: when you see one person it makes you happy, another makes you unhappy. If one person is helping you, think, ‘This is the result of my good karma, of having the right attitude.’ If somebody makes you unhappy, think, ‘This is the result of my negative karma, the bad thoughts.’ It is so obvious, so clear, how liking or not liking, seeing something as nice or not nice, is dependent on your mind. When some people look at a particular person, they find him so nice, beautiful, good and so on; at the same time when others look at him they find him completely ugly, not worth being attached to! They see the one person in different ways.

“Let’s say you’re in prison and somebody unknown helps you get free. You see that person afterwards but you don’t see him as kind, you don’t have a warm feeling; but when you hear that he is the one that helped when you had troubles, suddenly you see him in a different way. You see him as having a warm beauty, as kind. For your mind, the person becomes nearer. Similarly, when a person is disturbing you, you see him as ugly, very bad, negative, black; but if you think of his kindness in destroying your selfish attitude, your bad thoughts, the view changes. He becomes closer and you feel warmth and kindness from the heart. Now you can see how it’s dependent on the mind. When you change your way of thinking, you will see things in a different way. With one way of thinking you see in one way, with another way of thinking you see in a different way. Some people see one place as very beautiful and like it, some see it as very ugly and undesirable.

“Like this, practice awareness of karma when you walk outside. When pleasure turns into suffering think that is the result of wrong attitudes, of negative karma. Also, you can maybe do meditations on all your past lives. Sometimes you had a good life, sometimes a horrible, terrifying, suffocating life, wanting to kill yourself. Then think, ‘All this came from the wrong attitude in my own mind.’

“We should use this awareness for something, for progressing the mind. We should use this awareness for more happiness, to decrease suffering, to lessen confusion. So, make the decision frequently, ‘This is the result of right attitudes. Therefore, what I should do from now on is renounce the non-virtuous mind as much as possible and practice the right attitude, a good heart, as much as possible.'”

Excerpted from the transcripts of Lecture 3 of the 16th Kopan course (http://bit.ly/16th-kopan-course) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. 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 spent time blessing the chickens at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

“When Lama Zopa Rinpoche was traveling from Gaya airport to Root Institute on the day of his arrival in early February 2015, he noticed the roadside shops that sell live chickens,” said long-time student Ven. Sarah Thresher. “The chickens are crammed into small wire cages and sold to customers by the weight, either alive, or beheaded and ready to be eaten. Rinpoche immediately expressed his wish to liberate the chickens and gave instructions for a large coop to be built so they could wander around freely, but still be prevented from eating other creatures. While the coop was being constructed, Rinpoche wrote out by hand the Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghaspasha mantra (FPMT Education Services’ makes available a brief commentary on the mantra by Geshe Ngawang Dakpa; a pre-printed version with a short commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche is available through the Foundation Store) to be photocopied and pasted inside, covering the entire ceiling. The Namgyälma mantra was also included so that the birds would constantly purify their negative karma day and night. Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghaspasha mantra – OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT – is usually hung over doorways and purifies eight trillion eons of negative karma by passing under it. By placing the Namgyälma mantra in a high place or in a room, it also purifies and blesses the people, animals or insects in that area, liberating them from the lower realms. Rinpoche has spoken extensively the Namgyälma mantra’s benefits.

“Over the course of the two months spent at Root, Rinpoche liberated 62 chickens and blessed all the animals – goats, cows, chickens, dogs, etc. – at Root and nearby MAITRI Charitable Trust by reciting prayers and mantras. Not just the chicken coop, but also the cow shed ceiling were covered with Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha and Namgyälma mantras – such an easy way to benefit animals!”

Mantras line the roof of the chicken coop at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Benefiting animals in any way possible is a priority for FPMT and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the organization. Both the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund and the Animal Liberation Fund support animal liberation activities around the world.

FPMT Education Services makes a variety of mantra-related resources available 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.

The previous Lawudo Lama’s stupa, a short walk from Lawudo Gompa, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“How can you recover completely from the heavy disease of the disturbing, unsubdued mind, which has been there from beginningless previous lifetimes?” Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked during the 12th Kopan course in 1979. “How can you recover within one month, within seven days or several years? For an ordinary, chronic disease like cancer and T.B. – which the person wasn’t born with – even for those diseases, the person should have treatment for many years, has to be very careful and should have powerful and long treatment.

“To completely make non-existent the disease of the disturbed, unsubdued mind, which has been there from beginningless previous lifetimes, which has no beginning, the treatment, listening to the holy Dharma and practicing the holy Dharma, of course, is extremely worthwhile. It is necessary to have powerful treatment, the powerful Dharma practice, even if it takes hundreds of lifetimes or a hundred eons. Even it if takes that much to take treatment, to completely make non-existent the heavy disease of the delusions, of course, it is extremely important. It is extremely important and it is worthwhile, even though it takes a hundred lifetimes, a hundred eons, which is nothing.

“Even if it takes a hundred eons to completely eradicate, to completely recover from the disease of the delusions and to be free from samsara, even though it takes a hundred eons, that still is very quick, very short if you think how many eons one has been sick with the delusions of the disturbed, unsubdued mind.”

Excerpted from the transcripts of Section Three of the 12th Kopan course (http://bit.ly/12th-kopan-course) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. 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 designed this altar that surrounds a support pillar in his room at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

“When Rinpoche’s room at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, was expanded, a support pillar was left exposed in the middle of the room,” said long-time student Ven. Sarah Thresher, who has been sharing news of Rinpoche’s activities in Bodhgaya. “Rinpoche promptly designed a special altar with levels surrounding all four sides of the pillar that could hold many holy objects and be circumambulated every time anyone walks around the room.

“The finished altar also has the eight auspicious signs all around, offering bowls on each side and cupboards to store incense and other items. Each of the small metal Buddhas is filled with many mantras and blessed. On Rinpoche’s instructions, holes were drilled into the bottom of each golden stupa for the four dharmakaya relic mantras to be inserted. Rinpoche particularly wanted the Stainless Beam mantra [Zung of the Exalted Completely Pure Stainless Light] to be put inside the small stupas since the benefits are so great. The idea is that people can carry these stupas with them as they circumambulate.”

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 talking about the previous Lawudo Lama in his meditation cave, Lawudo, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On April 4, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared via Twitter that FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche was boarding a helicopter bound for Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Centre, located in the mountainous Solu Khumbu region of Nepal. Lawudo is where Rinpoche’s previous incarnation Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe meditated for 20 years, and it is also near to where Rinpoche was born.

Rinpoche’s visit is big news as his last trip to Lawudo was in June 2008. Not only is Rinpoche’s presence there very important to the Sherpa people in the area, Rinpoche is returning to an essential location in FPMT’s history. “Lawudo is the heart where FPMT started,” Rinpoche has said. Online, you can read the story of Rinpoche’s 1998 visit, “The Lawudo Lama Returns,” and other Mandala stories on Lawudo. 

In addition to blog posts on FPMT.org, photos of Rinpoche from his visit to Lawudo are being shared over social media and many can be seen by visiting Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Facebook page. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche boarding the helicopter for Lawudo, Nepal, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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, Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, India, March 2105. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During the 25th Kopan course in 1992 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a concise explanation of dependent arising, the way in which things exist:

Lama Tsongkhapa says, “By seeing the meaning of the dependent arising, emptiness, it stops the root of all the samsaric beings’ sufferings, ignorance, concept of true existence.” Whatever exists – hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, I, action, object, everything – whatever exists, all these are dependent arising. By depending on the base, the mind which labels and the label, depending on these things, then the I exists, the action exists, the object exists, hell exists, enlightenment exists, samsara exists, nirvana exists, impermanent phenomena, permanent phenomena, all these things exist. All these things exist. So, depending on these three – base, mind, label – depending on these things then it exists. Depending on these things, all these things exist or arise.

Excerpted from the transcripts of the 25th Kopan course (http://bit.ly/25th-kopan-course) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Lightly 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 in front of the Nagarjuna statue at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 2015.

While staying at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained a verse from Lama Chöpa that he had written out to be put in front of the large Nagarjuna statue at the center. The verse Rinpoche wrote out is as follows:

Samsara and Nirvana lack even an atom of inherent existence
And cause and effect and dependent arising are infallible
I seek your blessings to discern the meaning of Nagarjuna’s thought —
That these two are mutually complementary and not contradictory.*

WATCH: Video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaking on a verse from Lama Chöpa

FPMT Education Services has created many resources to enrich your practice of Lama Chöpa, including a new webpage with videos of Rinpoche chanting the tunes. You can also read Rinpoche’s commentary on this important practice.

*Lama Chöpa verse 108, published by FPMT Education Services, 2013

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 arriving at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 1, 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

After spending several months in India, FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche returned to Kopan Monastery in Nepal on April 1. A few days later, Rinpoche traveled to Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Centre in the mountainous Solu Khumbu region of Nepal. Lawudo is where Rinpoche’s previous incarnation Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe meditated. 

In May, Rinpoche begins a teaching tour that spans New Zealand, Australia, Russia, the Netherlands and Latin America. For details on teachings events with Rinpoche, visit Rinpoche’s schedule page on FPMT.org. 

Rinpoche arriving at Kopan Monastery, April 1, 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

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.

Students of Maitreya School listening to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In March 2015, Lama Zopa Rinpoche dictated this letter to the students of Maitreya School, Root Institute’s free school benefiting local impoverished children in Bodhgaya, India. Rinpoche wrote the letter after the school master explained that the main problem the children faced was parents drinking and fighting. Rinpoche asked that this letter be translated into Hindi, framed, put on the wall, and read and explained often to the students.

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

I understand the so-much suffering and problems at home: parents that drink so much alcohol without control and then fight all the time. That makes you all so sad. It can be also very, very scary. And it is not just one time, two times, three times; it is often. It might be like that for you.

Their problem is not only that they don’t have external, outside-world, general-world education, but that they don’t have inner education. The Sanskrit word for this is “Dharma.” And not just understanding Dharma, but practice and attainment, especially the attainments of patience, contentment, compassion and so forth. They do not have these qualities. They didn’t get to achieve these qualities and that’s because they never learned, because nobody explained.

We can see with the eyes their life problems – so much suffering and no happiness. This is a very good example for us. As you are young, you have to grow up in a positive way, not a negative way. It is so much suffering for them, but for you, seeing their life – the unbelievable suffering, fear and chaos – is great education. For you, it is great inspiration not to live your life like them. If you live life like them, soon you will grow up and will have to have a family; you will have children and so your life will be unbelievable suffering – fighting like them and drinking alcohol. Having a family is supposed to be a happiness, but with life so uncontrolled, there’s much fighting, sadness, fear, and so many other negative things. There are even things couples don’t have to fight about, but because of drinking, even if there is not so much reason to fight, they find small reasons to fight about and harm each other. All this happens every day. Not only you the wife or you the husband suffer, but it also bring so much suffering to your family, your children. Your life will become like this or worse.

Students circumambulating the stupa at Maitreya School, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Therefore, your life is in your hands; it’s up to your mind. If you develop compassion for others and wisdom, especially Dharma wisdom – inner wisdom, inner education – then as much as you develop those, you will have so much happiness. Even though your parents suffered so much, you will grow up with so much happiness. When you have a family and children, you will all have so much happiness. You won’t bring suffering to your family. By developing compassion to others and wisdom, this inner wisdom, you will bring so much happiness to yourself, your husband, your wife, your children. Then, your children will become a great example to their children. They will know what brings suffering, so they will not bring suffering to their children; they will bring happiness. Each generation becomes a great example of how to bring peace and happiness.

I want Maitreya School to help to bring peace and happiness, to bring wisdom light to life, not bring darkness, but to bring the sun – wisdom light – and as a result, bring peace and happiness. That is my real aim for the school. It is not just school. Even in the Western world there are kindergartens, colleges, universities where you can learn so many things, but the mind never changes. The mind, which produces happiness and suffering, never changes; and the mind is used only to produce suffering, not to produce happiness. That happens because developing compassion, the good heart and wisdom is limited.

Even though you are children, it is so important to practice kindness day and night, not to harm others, and on top of that, to benefit others. Even if you can’t benefit, at least pray and dedicate your merits for others to have happiness, harmony and the success of their wishes according to Dharma. This way, nothing becomes negative karma, negative action, but instead it becomes the cause of peerless happiness, total cessation of obscurations, and the completion of realizations.

Try, beginning in childhood, to practice the good heart, to be kind to others – and not only to people, but even to insects and animals. This way, you become a good human being by not harming others and only bringing greater and greater peace and happiness not only to yourself, but also to your family, society, country, and world. And you bring the same to the six types of living beings – hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras – and intermediate state beings. Not only do you bring temporary happiness, but you bring ultimate happiness, like the sun shining. Show respect; treat others like yourself or more important than yourself. Of course, you need compassion and wisdom, otherwise, even if others have eyes, you make them blind – in other words, you cause suffering to others.

Thank you very much, with much love and prayer.

My sincere advice is to pray to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is Buddha in an ordinary human form that appears to us. Pray from the heart that your parents have peace, harmony, and no more fighting. Pray that they get Dharma happiness, the peerless happiness, cessation of obscurations, and the completion of all the realizations. Even praying sincerely to His Holiness can help. Don’t just pray only one time, no, pray every day. You need to pray all the time.

Transcribed by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Root Institute, 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 making a request to His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the Jangchup Lamrim teachings, South India, December 2014. Photo by Bill Kane.

In early 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated this special quote from the Stainless Sky Sutra into English:

“Ananda, the Tathagatas do not appear to the sentient beings, but the virtuous friend completely appears and reveals the Dharma and plants the seed of liberation; because of that, cherish the virtuous friend as more special than the Tathagatas.”

Scribed by Ven. Sarah Thresher, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 19, 2014.

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 at the Mahabodhi Stupa in Bodhgaya, India, February 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“March 27 was Rinpoche’s final night in Bodhgaya and so we went to the stupa to offer robes to the Buddha at the Mahabodhi Stupa,” said Ven. Sarah Thresher, who has been sharing news about Lama Zopa Rinpoche beneficial activities in Bodhgaya over the last two months. “After offering flowers, incense and music and circumambulating the stupa once, Rinpoche went to the inner shrine to make prayers in front of the main Buddha image. Robes were offered along with five-color silk khatas and bowls filled with food.

“The stupa was already closed by the time we left the shrine (it closes at 9 p.m.) but instead of walking to the exit as we usually do, Rinpoche very deliberately walked to the Bodhi tree and sat down to pray, instructing the Westerners to read the dedication prayer from the Chöd in English and then chant the Tibetan, while the monks read the prayer of the path of Guhyasamaja. No sooner did we start the prayers than a strange mist-like vapor seemed to fall from the tree, which gradually turned into a very delicate rain.

“Rinpoche has been in Bodhgaya for two months now and tonight was the culmination of a constant stream of prayers, practices, teachings and blessings. A week ago, a Nyingma meditator commented to me how important it was that Rinpoche was in Bodhgaya: ‘This is one of the holiest places in the world,’ he said, ‘the blessings and presence of high lamas like Rinpoche keep it that way.’

“After finishing the prayers we left the stupa and Rinpoche once again patiently, respectfully and generously made charity to each of the beggars. Before getting into the car to leave, Rinpoche mentioned the ‘nectar that fell from the Bodhi tree’ as the final prayers were being made was ‘a good sign’ and ‘auspicious.'”

Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, India, February 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

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 teaching at Sujata, where Buddha practiced austerities for six years, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“Many former pandits and yogis from India, Nepal and Tibet, so many, achieved full enlightenment within some years by practicing and integrating their life with this practice, the Guru Puja (Lama Chöpa),” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said during the 25th Kopan course in 1992. “In this teaching it is mentioned, ‘Please grant me blessings to be able to hold the banner of liberation by avoiding the thought, the mind seeing samsara, which is like unbearable prison, as a beautiful, joyful, pleasant, happy park by keeping the treasure, the three higher trainings and the the arya beings’ wealth.’

“First, if it is described a little, just briefly, avoid the mind seeing samsara, which is like unbearable prison, as a pleasure park. The city is not samsara, the mountains are not samsara, the farm, fields are not samsara, cars are not samsara. So, what is samsara? Samsara is this consciousness, this mind which experiences so much suffering – this is samsara. This body which experiences so many problems – this is samsara. Now, the association of this body and mind, this which is the container of all the problems, which feels hunger, thirst, hot and cold, which experiences all these problems – this is what is called samsara, which in English means ‘circling.'”

Excerpted from the transcripts of the 25th Kopan course (http://bit.ly/25th-kopan-course) made available by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Lightly 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.