Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During a teaching at the recent November Course at Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “This life is so, so, so precious. Your death is definite; it can come at any moment.”

Rinpoche has taught many times on the importance of remembering death. Here’s an excerpt from a teaching given at Nalanda Monastery in France in 1995 and published in Mandala May-June 1997:

“Reflecting on impermanence and death in itself is not really a big deal, but thinking about it because of what follows after the death is important. If there is negative karma, then there are the lower realms of unimaginable sufferings, and this is something that can be stopped immediately.

“We cannot be liberated from samsara within this hour, today, this week or even this year, but we can purify negative karma now, this hour today, and therefore stop being reborn in the lower realms if we die now, this hour, today. This is possible.

“By remembering impermanence and death, karma and the lower realms of suffering, the mind is persuaded to use the solution of Dharma practice. Immediately the mind prepares for death. Immediately it purifies the heavy negative karmas that cause one to remain in the lower realms, where there are unimaginable sufferings and no possibility to practice Dharma.

“Whenever there are problems in our lives it is always good to remember the lower realms of suffering. We can’t stand the problems we have now, but the lower realms of suffering are a zillion, zillion, zillion times greater, like the sky. If we put together all the energy of fire, no matter how hot, it is cool compared to one tiny fire spark of hell. All the energy of this human world’s fire put together is cool compared to one tiny fire spark of the hell realm. Like this, it’s always good to make a comparison. …”

Read the entire teaching “Remembering Death” from Mandala May-June 1997.

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

In late November 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and like most other years, he gave teachings to students attending the month-long lam-rim course, known as the November Course. [Kopan offers several different course and retreats for lay students and non-Tibetan monastics year round.] The November courses have been taking place at Kopan for more than 40 years. Many of FPMT’s senior students first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche after walking up the Kopan hill for the month-long retreat.

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has collected and transcribed Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at these courses and they are available to anyone interested in learning about lam-rim. 

Here’s a short excerpt of Rinpoche teaching during the 1979 Kopan Course, Lecture 35:

As the great bodhisattva Shantideva said in the teachings of the Bodhicaryavatara, “If one did not give harm to others, nobody would give harm to oneself. In previous times, I caused harm, I harmed beings like me. Therefore, it is worthwhile for me to receive the harm given by other sentient beings.”

What the great bodhisattva Shantideva is saying is that if one hasn’t accumulated negative karma of giving harm to others in the first place, no other sentient being would give harm in this life to oneself. There’s no cause that obliges them to give harm to oneself, there’s no cause. The reason I receive harm is because I harmed others in the past. That karma has obliged them to harm me. I have created a cause – giving harm to others – so the result is receiving harm myself. Therefore, Shantideva is saying, it is worthwhile for me to receive harm from other sentient beings. Shantideva explained this logically, the whole evolution, why we receive harm from other sentient beings. As he explained, instead of rejecting the harm that other beings give us, accept it. It’s worthwhile to receive it. Think, “It is good; he’s harming me but that is very good, because I harmed him similarly like this in the past. I should have it, I should receive it.”

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 during the November course at Kopan Monastery, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche made the point while teaching a the Kopan Monastery November course, “We can spend hours in meditation, but we don’t take care of karma! That is not correct meditation.”

Rinpoche offered these observations on karma in 2000, which you can find on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:

“In some ways, you can say even just looking at flowers is an expression of your mind. In your view, you see so many different plants, leaves, and flowers of incredible designs and shapes, each having its own beauty. Anything that is beautiful, that you enjoy, that you find nice, comes from your good karma; it is a production of good karma, an expression of your mind, your positive thoughts. It is like the reflection of your face in a mirror. If your face has many pimples or cuts, or your nose is missing, that’s what you see in the mirror. A clean, beautiful face reflects a clean, beautiful image. Another example is taking a picture: you put the imprint of people or a country on the negative roll of film using the camera, then after the roll is developed, the image appears from the paper as photos, a movie, a TV image, or a slide show. In our lives, everything that appears to us – an enemy or a friend – is like that.

“Ugly, beautiful, indifferent, everything that appears is exactly like that – coming from our mind, a creation of our mind. We should understand, like looking at the flowers, that how a person thinks about you, talks to you, or behaves towards you, pleasantly or unpleasantly, liking you or not liking you, having pleasant or unpleasant feelings towards you – all comes from your mind and is a production or reflection of your negative or positive thoughts. They are productions or creations of karma.” 

From the page, “Understanding Karma” in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”

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 offering a Dharmachakra at Boudhanath, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“After 8 p.m., most people have finished circumambulating the stupa at Boudha,” Ven. Roger Kunsang shared. ”This is when Rinpoche often starts.” 

After circumambulating the Boudha Stupa seven times earlier this week, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered three Dharmachakras to the stupa in three different directions late at night, with many prayers to benefit sentient beings. 

In 2013, Rinpoche wrote a letter to a student who had done 1,000 circumambulations of the stupa at Boudha:

Thank you very, very much for your kind letter. A billion, zillion, trillion, numberless thanks from my heart and bones that you circumambulated Boudha Stupa 1,000 times. This is unbelievable, unbelievable. I wish I could do that. Dagri Rinpoche tries to circumambulate when he goes to Nepal, even to the extent of getting wounds on his feet, until blood comes.

The monk who is the leader of pujas at Kopan Monastery, his mother lives at Boudha and circumambulates the stupa 100 times each day. Of course she is reciting mantras and going around the stupa with a mind having renounced this life, so that is the purest Dharma. Then you die with no problems; you die with the greatest happiness in the life.

Boudhanath Stupa at night, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

For more on practices relating to stupas, visit FPMT Education Services’ stupa resource page. Additional advice from Rinpoche on stupas can be found on 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 doing korwa at Boudhanath, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly circumambulates Boudha Stupa while he is in residence at Kopan Monastery. Rinpoche arrived at Kopan in late November to participate in the annual November course. Ven. Roger Kunsang shared about this photo, “Rinpoche did seven korwa into the evening and then offered three Dharmachakras to the stupa in three different directions.”

Ven. Sarah Thresher told a story in Mandala July-September 2009 about how Lama Atisha and the Kadampa geshes used to circumambulate stupas. She wrote:

Dromtönpa once asked Lama Atisha,”Why don’t you relax? Why not practice virtue sitting? Why do this common practice of circumambulation?” Lama Atisha replied, “You don’t understand. When I circumambulate I accumulate all three virtuous actions of body, speech and mind. When I sit there’s only one. In terms of merit, there is no greater practice than circumambulation!”

FPMT Education Services has created a PDF booklet of Rinpoche’s advice on circumambulation, including mantras to recite, that is available as a free PDF download through the FPMT Foundation Store.

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 some of the senior Kopan monks, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche had his first birthday celebration at 69 years old at Kopan Monastery in December. ”Kopan monks wanted to create merit  so they decided to celebrate Rinpoche’s birthday,” shared Ven. Roger Kunsang. ”[In the photo] here many of the older monks are with Rinpoche and also Kopan Abbot Geshe Chonyi. Rinpoche from his own side thought it was unnecessary to celebrate.”

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 Rinpche with Garrey Foulkes in the recently completed art studio at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, September 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“… Every time you look at holy objects – pictures of the Buddha, statues, scriptures, stupas – they plant the seed of liberation and enlightenment in your mental continuum. So every time you look at them they purify your mind. They plant the seed of enlightenment, which includes all the causes to achieve enlightenment,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in “Why Holy Objects Are Precious and Wish-fulfilling.”

“How? When you look at them they plant a seed or positive imprint on your mental continuum so that later when you meet Buddhadharma, either in this life or in future lives, you are able to understand the words and the meaning of the teachings. From that, you are able to practice the meaning of the Dharma you have understood, which causes you to cease the gross and subtle defilements by actualizing the path and then your mental continuum becomes omniscient mind. This is what is meant when we say that by seeing holy objects it plants the seed of enlightenment on the mind – it contains the whole path from guru devotion and the three principals up to the two stages of tantra and enlightenment. Seeing holy objects makes us actualize all of this as a result. This is the effect we get from seeing them and this is how they cause us to achieve enlightenment. …”

You can read the complete advice “Why Holy Objects Are Precious and Wish-fulfilling” as a PDF found with other advice from Rinpoche on holy objects 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 at the annual November course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Each living being is so precious. If you really see living beings as precious, there will be no wars or problems! What pleases the buddhas most is benefiting others!”

Rinpoche has been teaching at the annual November course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and Rinpoche’s attendant, has been jotting down quotes to share with students everywhere.

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 the annual November course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“Lama Zopa Rinpoche: Taking care of your life is a huge question! Often we use [it] for attachment, for hurting others, for anger. We need to take care of our life with non-anger, non-greed, with non-attachment … with mindfulness on emptiness.”

Rinpoche has been teaching at the annual November course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and Rinpoche’s attendant, has been jotting down quotes to share with students everywhere.

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 arriving at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently arrived at Kopan Monastery for the November course. On December 2, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: your coming to Kopan is to learn how to create the different levels of happiness. Normal education never teaches this.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leaving long life puja, Australia, September 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

FPMT.org has recently published two new photo albums containing 83 photos as part of its regularly updated Lama Zopa Rinpoche Photo Gallery. 

Rinpoche visited Chenrezig Institute in Queensland, Australia, in early September. He helped the center celebrate its 40th anniversary. 

Then Rinpoche visited the Bendigo-area centers in Victoria, mid-September through late October. Rinpoche spent his time meeting and teaching at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. He first attended the CPMT 2014 meeting, a seven-day meeting full of talks by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, presentations and small group discussions focused on preserving the Dharma now and into the future. Afterward, Rinpoche stayed on to teach at the month-long Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat.

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 large Chenrezig thangka at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, September 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“… Having a positive attitude, such as the altruistic thought to help other sentient beings and not harm them, is the cause of success in life. Even though some people might not have much education, they have no difficulties in life; they are wealthy and have harmonious relationships, and whatever they wish for happens. The reason for this is the cause created in the past. This is the actual evolution; this is where their happiness comes from. But when we do not analyze, when we are not aware, it looks as if success came from outside and does not depend on their mind,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in a teaching from 1991 recently published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“It’s the opposite for people who are experiencing difficulties in their life. Their actions are motivated by ill will, jealousy, selfishness, dissatisfaction, desire, ignorance, anger and so forth, and their problems and difficulties result from that. Even though this is the actual evolution, when we do not understand or are not aware of karma, of action and result, it appears as if success and difficulties come from outside. We may have heard of karma and sometimes talk about it or meditate on it, but we are not aware of it in our everyday life.

“Happiness and success in life depends on transforming the mind, on making the mind better. Through that our actions become better; it depends on developing a positive attitude. Our mental continuum has all the potential to be completely transformed into the right path; we can completely purify all the negative imprints left on our mental continuum by our negative actions, which produce the problems in our life. Transforming our mind makes it impossible to experience the action and the resultant problems. Our mental continuum has all this potential.

“Therefore, meditation is extremely important in our life. It is the most important method for obtaining happiness in our everyday life. If we think more broadly, meditation brings not only temporary happiness but especially ultimate happiness, the peerless happiness of full enlightenment – when this mental continuum is completely pure, free of every single mistake, even the subtle imprints, the obscurations, and has completed all the qualities, all the realizations. Then we are able to bring everyone else to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment by freeing them from all their problems and obscurations, from their disturbing thoughts and even the imprints left on the mind. We have a fully knowing mind, having completed training the mind in compassion and having the perfect power to guide everyone according to the level of their mind. …”

You can read the complete teaching “Transforming the Mind in Everyday Life” 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.