Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Detailed photo of one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s altars at Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, US. Photo by Chris Majors.

“On the way to Mongolia in August 2014, Rinpoche stayed in a Seattle Washington hotel overnight in the United States,” said Ven. Holly Ansett, executive assistant to FPMT International Office’s CEO and FPMT Charitable Projects coordinator. “The first thing Rinpoche does when entering a hotel is turn all the lights on and begins extensive offering practice. In the morning, before leaving for the airport, Rinpoche left a five-dollar tip for the cleaning lady and a small note written on the hotel’s comment card:”

I had so much worldly pleasure here, so much sleep. What I did is I blessed all the light offerings in the room and I offered them to Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and I rejoiced in all the merits of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and all beings, and I did three prostrations – two I did full length and one I did half length – on the bed, because I had a stroke a few years ago. So this is what I did to make useful the money spent staying here. Thank you.

I dedicated for you to have a long life and to be healthy and for all your wishes to succeed according to the Dharma, to have an ethical mind and pure mind.

With much love and prayers 

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holy Ansett, Seattle, Washington, US, August 2014. Lightly edited for Mandala.

“Extensive Offering Practices to Accumulate the Most Extensive Merit,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s compilation of offering practices – including Lama Atisha’s “Light Offering Practice” – and commentary is available through the Foundation Store.

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 retreat in Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche came to the 4 p.m. session of the Australia retreat on Thursday, October 9, for a question and answer session led by Ven. Sarah Thresher. She asked Rinpoche about the karma of the bodhisattva captain who killed 500 people on a boat. According to Ven. Holly Ansett, “Rinpoche gave an incredible response that included the whole history of the FPMT – how it started from the Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen text that Rinpoche was reading. Rinpoche also told some incredibly personal stories about his own practice.”

You can watch the video of the teaching on FPMT’s Livestream page.

At the end of the session, Rinpoche gave refuge to a few people who were leaving the retreat.

“The processions leading Rinpoche to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion each day are becoming more and more amazing,” Ven. Holly reports. “Usually about 30-40 people lead Rinpoche slowly down to the gompa, each person holding an offering object, flowers, incense, auspicious symbols, playing ting-shas or cymbals, walking very slowly, aware of the ants and leading Rinpoche to the Great Stupa’s gompa to continue the oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra.”

Procession leading Lama Zopa Rinpoche to gompa at Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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 giving blessing to children after the long life puja, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 19, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught on bring up children during the October 8 teaching session of the ongoing retreat in Australia. You can watch the video of the teaching on FPMT’s Livestream page.

That evening in Australia was a lunar eclipse that was fully visible over the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, where the retreat is taking place. Rinpoche did intense prayers during the eclipse time from the second it started until it finished about 3 or 4 hours later.

Rinpoche sent a message to all the retreatants, reminding them that any merit created during an eclipse period is multiplied 100,000 times and that it is a very powerful time to do practice as the eclipse affects the winds in the body. Rinpoche said he checked many times and it came out for the retreatants to recite “King of Prayers” three times, “A Prayer for the Beginning, Middle, and End of Practice” by Je Tsongkhapa once and then to have one person recite the Heart Sutra slowly, pausing often so that others can strongly meditate on it.

Moon over Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 15, 2014. Photo by Andy Melnic.

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 during the public talk at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, September 20, 2014. Photo by Kunchok Gyaltsen.

When Lama Atisha went to Tibet, he was told about all the problems there, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recounted during the public teaching at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion on September 20, 2014. “Then Lama Atisha wrote a text integrating all Buddha’s teachings into a few pages,” Rinpoche said. “It is called Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment. The text was sent to India to be checked. The pandits were so surprised. At that time if a text had mistakes, they would tie it on the tail of a dog and it would be taken around the city. At that time they did like that, but they were so surprised that Lama Atisha had integrated all Buddha’s teachings in the three pages of the Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, the graduated path to enlightenment — the name started from this text — so graduated path of lower capable being, graduated path of middle capable being, and graduated path of higher capable being. So all the Buddha’s teachings are in those three, embodied in the lam-rim, the graduated path to enlightenment.

“The graduated path of lower capable being, oh, that one is to not harm others, that instruction goes: do not harm others. Then the graduated path of middle capable being, oh, that teaching is also to not harm others, mainly it is to not harm others. Now the teaching of graduated path of higher capable being is to benefit others. So lam-rim, what Lama Atisha wrote, all the Buddha’s teachings comes down to not harming others and benefiting others. The right view of Buddhism is dependent arising and the action is to not harm others. That is included in Lama Atisha’s teachings, everything is included there: to not harm others and to benefit others.”

You can watch a video of this teaching on FPMT’s Livestream page.

Quote taken from the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s public talk at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, September 20, 2014. Lightly edited by Mandala.

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 retreat in Australia at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, October 2014. Photo by Cynthia Karena.

Friday, October 3, was a tsog day and at the Australia retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the 9 a.m. session and offered tsog with all the retreat participants in the gompa of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. Three senior monks went up and made the tsog offering to Rinpoche.

Rinpoche then taught about the 10 benefits of the Offering Cloud mantra and gave a very short commentary on the Song of Spring Queen, which you can watch on video.

Ven. Robina Courtin is attending the retreat and shared on her Facebook page, “Glad to be here at Atisha Buddhist Centre Bendigo and the Great Stupa for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s retreat, along with the other 250 people. Rinpoche is scheduled to come at 4 p.m., but so far by now, the eighth day, he’s been here morning, noon, and night. Masses of instructions, and much laughter — but Rinpoche’s also so much more fierce these days! Keeps us on our toes.”

Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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 and the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During the ongoing retreat in Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been teaching in the unfinished gompa at the  Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. The Great Stupa, modeled on the stupa at Gyantse, Tibet, is one of three FPMT centers in the Bendigo, Victoria, area. (The others are Atisha Centre and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery.) 

The inspiring story of the stupa’s creation, which started as an idea drawn in the sand by Lama Yeshe, illustrates how a lama’s vision can be brought to life. Mandala April-June 2014 featured an article on the progress that has been made on the the Great Stupa in the last few years. Ian Green, who serves as director of the Great Stupa, has been the primary driving force of the project since its inception. You can read an interview with Ian Green from 2011 about how he came to be involved. Ian also talks about the Jade Buddha of Universal Peace, another large holy object that he’s helped create, which will eventually find its permanent home in the Great Stupa.

To get a sense of the scale of the Great Stupa, you can watch this short new video of the site taken in September 2014 and released this week. And you can rejoice in this amazing project!

 You can read more stories from Mandala about the Great Stupa and the Jade Buddha online.

 Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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 during retreat at Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

On Wednesday, October 1, about 40 center directors and spiritual program coordinators (SPCs) from FPMT centers, projects and services around the world led FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery  to the gompa in the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, where Rinpoche continued to give the extraordinary oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra at the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat. 

Rinpoche said that the oral transmission of the 21 Chapter Golden Light Sutra that he is giving is an incredible puja for the whole world. Rinpoche explained earlier in the week that even people watching as the video recording can take it as an oral transmission. (You can find the text of the Golden Light Sutra in 14 different languages here.) 

About 40 directors and SPC from FPMT centers, projects and services lined up to lead Rinpoche from Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery to the Great Stupa to continue the oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Everyone in the long procession held an offering — incense, one of the auspicious offerings, flowers, or playing cymbals or conchs.  “It was a very beautiful, slow procession,” Ven. Holly Ansett shared. “The procession is because in the Golden Light Sutra it actually says that however many steps you walk to invite the lama who gives the oral transmission of Golden Light Sutra, you create that many causes of enlightenment.”

In the evening session on October 1, Rinpoche gave a brief commentary on Lama Chopa. Rinpoche attended the 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. sessions on October 2. He continued his commentary on Lama Chopa in the 9 a.m. session, which you can watch online.

Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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.

Flowers falling from above on Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang following the public talk with Rinpoche, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 20, 2014. Photo by Kunchok Gyaltsen.

“Lama Zopa: The great peace and happiness comes from inside. The real enemy is inside … Attachment to worldly pleasures of this life.”

– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on October 1, 2014,
during Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and flower falling from above, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 20, 2014. Photos by Tom Truty.

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.)

Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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 with Ven. Sangpo on brick path from Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery to Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery very near the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion while leading the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat. Ven. Holly Ansett, who is at the retreat, recently reported, “A few nights ago when walking back from the stupa in the evening, one ant was mistakenly injured on the path. Rinpoche spent about 10 minutes reciting mantras and blowing on the ant. When he got back to the room, Rinpoche was visibly upset about the ant, requesting that immediately four stupas be made and dedicated for the ant. So we requested Ven. Anet, the nun at Kachoe Dechen Ling in California who makes tsa-tsas, to immediately make the stupas and fill them with the four dharmayaka relic mantras and dedicate that for the ant. Then before dinner, Rinpoche recited ‘A Prayer for the Beginning, Middle, and End of Practice’ by Je Tsongkhapa, which is a prayer to meet Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, and dedicated for the ant.

“This evening,” Ven. Holly continued, “Rinpoche called out ‘darling ant’ every time he encountered an ant on the path to indicate to others to be careful not to tread on the ant. So all the way up to the monastery, Rinpoche was yelling out ‘darling ant.’ It was extremely precious and sweet.”

Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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 Great Stupa of Universal Compassion for long life puja, Australia, September 19, 2014. Photo by Kunchok Gyaltsen.

On the second day of the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Rinpoche attended the 9 a.m. session for Lama Chöpa Jorchö. You can watch a video recording of most of the Lama Chöpa Jorchö with Rinpoche. At the end of the practice, Rinpoche gave some advice about specific tunes and what’s most essential to think when doing the Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang prayer at the end. Rinpoche also praised Ven. Tenzin Tsapel, resident teacher at Golden Light Sutra Center in Mongolia, for her beautiful chanting of the tunes as she led the puja.

Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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.

Sangha in procession leading Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, September 2014. Photo by Drolkar McCallum.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues to give the extremely rare lung (oral transmission) of the 21 chapter version of the Golden Light Sutra at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia. As part of the month-long Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat, Rinpoche is offering the lung.

Rinpoche explained that even people listening to the video streaming of the lung can take it as an oral transmission. By having received an oral transmission of the sutra, it becomes 100 times more powerful when you recite it.  (You can find the Golden Light Sutra in 14 different languages here.)

You can watch the video recordings of the oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra on FPMT’s Livestream page. (Click to watch Part 1 of the transmission, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.)

On Monday, September 29, Rinpoche was led to the Great Stupa in a procession of six Sangha members as a way of creating merit to be able to receive this incredible oral transmission. One nun walked around the gompa making billowing incense offerings throughout the transmission. There are 57 Sangha members in attendance at the retreat.

Live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the retreat in Australia can be watched on the FPMT Livestream page. Audio MP3 recordings of the retreat sessions with Rinpoche are available for download with translation into French, Italian and Spanish.

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 giving spontaneous teaching on making offerings in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, September 21, 2014. Photo by Laura Miller.

FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave his first teaching for the month-long Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat on Friday, September 26, at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion near Bendigo, Australia. About 250 people are attending the beginning of the retreat, including many long-time students and Sangha as well as FPMT center directors. 

Rinpoche began the afternoon session on Friday doing gegtor, a short puja to dispel interferences, for the retreat and also for any sentient being who needed it. Then Rinpoche said the elaborate Golden Light Sutra needed to be recited and decided to do it in the gompa (in the Great Stupa) so all present would receive the oral transmission of it.

Before giving the transmission, Rinpoche thanked FPMT International Office and especially Merry Colony, former director of FPMT Education Services, for arranging all the various translations of the sutra. (You can find the Golden Light Sutra in 14 different languages here.) Rinpoche said that creating these translations and making them available was an incredible service to the world. Rinpoche next gave a moving motivation on bodhichitta and then began the oral transmission of the elaborate Golden Light Sutra as far as the first chapter. 

A video recording of the afternoon teaching as well as live webcasts and recording of all the daily sessions with Rinpoche can be watched on the Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Australia Livestream page. 

Rinpoche also came to the evening session on Friday, leading retreatants in the protector prayers. Rinpoche explained the way to motivate before every prayer, led a cymbal offering and made strong dedications, illustrating the essence of how to think before and after every practice.

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.