Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the beach blessing all sentient beings in the water, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“… Do at least one lam-rim prayer every day, such as the ‘Foundation of All Good Qualities,’ ‘Calling the Guru from Afar’ (long version), the ‘Three Principles of the Path,’ etc.,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised an ex-monk who had stopped practicing and wrote Rinpoche wanting guidance. “You can change it each day, like having a different appetite for the lam-rim, so you don’t get bored. This is a very, very essential thing. However many million other preliminary practices you do, reciting at least one lam-rim prayer a day is the most important thing. Lam-rim is what makes one’s life meaningful; it is the path to enlightenment. So, reciting a lam-rim prayer is a direct meditation on the lam-rim. Just reading a lam-rim prayer, mindfully, relating it to your own life, is a direct meditation. Lam-rim is the essence. It has the whole path to enlightenment in it. So, reading mindfully becomes a direct meditation on the whole path, and it leaves positive imprints of the whole path to enlightenment on your mind, just within those few minutes.

“This is much more meaningful than reciting 100 million mantras. It is even more meaningful than seeing Buddha, because just seeing or even meeting Buddha directly doesn’t mean you will become enlightened, because you have to have the realizations. Meditating on the lam-rim ceases the defilements and gradually you will have the realizations.

“This direct meditation, going through the lam-rim prayer, is the most important thing in your daily life, in order to achieve enlightenment, so that then you are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara’s sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. Each time you meditate on the lam-rim by reciting even one lam-rim prayer, it brings you one more day closer to enlightenment, and to enlightening all sentient beings. …”

Read more of Rinpoche’s advice on “Restarting Daily Practice” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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 reciting the names of the 35 Confession Buddhas during the long life puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Lama Atisha explained why reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas has so much power,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, speaking on purification practices during the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in 2003. “In the past, when the Thirty-five Buddhas were bodhisattvas, they made many prayers to be able to benefit sentient beings, to easily purify our defilements and negative karma. When they achieved enlightenment, they achieved the Buddha’s ten qualities or powers, one of which is the power of prayer. So, their names have the power of all those past prayers. That is why, when sentient beings recite their names, they have so much power to purify defilements and eons of negative karma. Every single quality the Thirty-five Buddhas attained was in order to benefit sentient beings, there was no other reason or motivation for it, so we should use this advantage. …”

Visit Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive online to read the complete teaching “Thirty-five Buddhas Confession and Purification Practice.” The FPMT Foundation Store offers materials for the practice of prostration to the Thirty-five Buddhas.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Richard Gere, Mundgod, India, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The Jangchup Lamrim teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Gaden Monastery have concluded. More than 25,000 people, including 2000 foreigners from 43 countries, attended the week-long teaching event in South India. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was among the many high lamas, rinpoches and geshes in attendance. On Christmas Day, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had lunch with American actor Richard Gere, who was also attending the teachings.

You can find daily summaries and video and audio links of the teachings on JangchupLamrim.org. His Holiness’ website DalaiLama.com also has daily summaries of the teachings and His Holiness’ activities.

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 visiting a park in Leeds, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“… Everybody wants happiness and does not want problems or suffering. I think that if you want to be happy, it’s very important to know how to enjoy life. If you know how to enjoy life, whether you are a prime minister or a porter, a millionaire or a beggar, you will find happiness in every situation. If you know how to live your life and you understand the methods to apply, you can make your life happy,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in the featured teaching of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s November 2014 E-letter.   

“Your mind, or mental continuum, has all the potential to apply methods that can make your life really happy, peaceful, and satisfying, but this depends on your actions in everyday life. Whether you are a prime minister or a porter, a millionaire or a beggar, whether you live alone or live in a city with many people, whatever the situation, if you know how to live life, there’s always a way to make your life happy and to find satisfaction and peace.

“It all depends on your daily activities — on what you do and how you think. The main thing is your attitude in life. Everything depends on your own mind. If you create one concept, you will find problems in your life. With another concept, the correct way of thinking, there will be no problems in your life; the problems won’t exist. You won’t find any problems in your life. So, everything depends on your own mind. Problems come from your own mind and happiness also has to come from your own mind. It is not that problems come from your mind and happiness comes from outside. Both come from your own mind. …”

You can read the entire teaching “Happiness Depends on Transforming the Mind” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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 with Phuntsok Rinpoche after the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While at Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche met with Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the recognized reincarnation of the great master Geshe Lama Konchog, who passed away in 2001. Phuntsok Rinpoche was born in Tsum valley in Nepal in 2002 and was enthroned in 2006. You can read a letter by Geshe Tenzin Zopa about finding Geshe Lama Konchog’s tulku. The story of the search for Phuntsok Rinpoche is also told in the documentary film “Unmistaken Child.”

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 teaching at the November Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

FPMT International Office is happy to share a newly organized collection of video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teaching events. FPMT International Office is committed to making Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at large events available live as they are happening to students anywhere in the world and to sharing the archive video from those teachings, allowing student to view unedited video footage as well as read extensive unedited transcripts and enjoy other valuable resources the moment they are available.

Today, students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche can access his teaching from the Kopan November Course, which took place in Nepal Novemeber 29 – December 7, 2014; the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat held at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia in September and October; and the extensive Light of the Path 2014 teachings completed in North Carolina, USA in May. 

FPMT International Office is the administrative headquarters for the FPMT, an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha, and based on that experience, spread the Dharma to sentient beings. Your support allows us to continue our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“… If you really know how to think, if you really know Buddhism, then you can make Christianity much deeper, with your own view and your own understanding. You will even have a much better understanding, the deeper you understand Buddhism,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who had become Christian.

“When His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave the Kalachakra initiation in Dharamsala the first time, he said that Jesus Christ is a bodhisattva.

“As His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, all religions that have conduct and views as their main instruction are telling people to have a good heart and love and compassion for the living beings. That is the main focus, and it is the same for many religions. So the conclusion is the same, to generate loving kindness and compassion to others, to not harm and to benefit others. It’s the same in Buddhism and the other major religions. …”

You can read Rinpoche’s entire letter “Compassion for All Living Beings” at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of a Christmas-themed gingerbread monastery, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT International Office wish you warm Season’s Greetings! 

We invite you to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s special seasonal message and photo in the December FPMT International Office e-news.

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 after first day of Jangchup Lamrim, India, December 23, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

After the first day of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings on December 23 at Gaden Monastery in South India, Ven. Roger Kunsang, assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, tweeted the photo above and an explanation:

Straight after the teachings of His Holiness, Rinpoche explaining the benefits of the mantras to students.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares updates from the Jangchup Lamrim and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

Updates, photos, news and links to live and archived video of His Holiness teaching can be found by visiting the Jangchup Lamrim website. You can also find out about the Jangchup Lamrim on Facebook.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ladakh, India, July 2014. Photo by Olivier Adam.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived at Ganden Jangtse Monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka, India, on December 22 for the Jangchup Lamrim. FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche is also in Mundgod and attending the teachings with His Holiness, which begin December 23. 

This is the third year for the Jangchup Lamrim. The series of teachings on the 18 lam-rim commentaries was requested by His Eminence Ling Rinpoche. The teaching, which go through December 29, are being webcast live. 

For more information as well as updates, photos and video of the teachings, visit the Jangchup Lamrim website. Also visit DalaiLama.com for news, photos and updates on the activities of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Exhibit Hall, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Steve Alberts.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in December as part of the Kopan Monastery November course. On December 7, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: When you experience the real I that ignorance has been focusing on, disappears, then no one can cheat you.

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.)

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.

“I tell people that the FPMT organization is here to help. I think it is so fortunate that we, the FPMT, are able to provide help at the time of death, because death is really a most difficult, most hard time. So the benefits provided by the organization to help at that time are so good. It’s very good to do, it helps people in the world very much, and especially students. In the world, especially in Western countries, I don’t think there are other organizations who put together all the ways to help with death, to help people who are dying.

Of course those who have realizations, who have good heart, they don’t go to the lower realms, they have happy mind, they know where they’re going. But for most people there’s only suffering.

If you are able to help the person dying, not only to save the person from the lower realms, but also help the rest of the living family, it’s big, it makes them so happy. Wow! Somebody able to help.”

Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s comments about FPMT’s Prayers for the Dead service, made while Rinpoche was visiting FPMT International Office, Portland, USA, in April 2014

Read the full advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at night in front of his work table at Kopan Monastery, which has so many statues … another altar! Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in December as part of the Kopan Monastery November course. On December 7, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: The mind is empty of a real mind. This is because the mind exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind. This is buddha nature.

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.)

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.