Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Sangpo at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Calling the Guru from Afar” begins:

LA MA KHYEN
Lama, think of me.
LA MA KHYEN
Lama, think of me.
LA MA KHYEN
Lama, think of me.

SANG GYÄ KÜN GYI YE SHE DE CHHEN CHHÖ KUR RO CHIG
The wisdom of great bliss of all buddhas, one taste with the 
dharmakaya, 
DE NYI DRIN CHÄN LA MA KÜN GYI RANG ZHIN THAR THUG
Is itself the ultimate nature of all kind lamas.
LA MA CHHÖ KYI KU LA NYING NÄ SÖL WA DEB SO
I beseech you, Lama, dharmakaya,
DI CHHI BAR DO KÜN TU DRÄL ME JE SU ZUNG SHIG
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future 
lives, and the bardo. …

FPMT Education Services offers an audio version of Lama Zopa Rinpoche chanting the long version of this profound and moving prayer. Education Services also makes available the prayer as a downloadable PDF booklet: “Calling the Guru from Afar and Practicing Guru Devotion with the Nine Attitudes.”

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 Vens. Sherab and Sangpo at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, April 2014. Photo Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“I would say that compared to others, our lives have been most fortunate,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in his book Bodhisattva Attitude: How to Dedicate Your Life to Others. ”First of all, many of us have heard the heart of the Buddhadharma, the very essence of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha, the very precious teaching on the stages of the path to enlightenment (lam-rim) many times. We have even heard this from His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself, who is the real living Chenrezig, the Compassion Buddha manifested in the human form of a monk – the aspect that can most perfectly guide us. Just that alone is most amazing and inexpressible. It is the most unbelievable, rare, fortunate and precious thing that could have happened to us this life.

“Then we have met many other great teachers and unbelievably qualified virtuous friends who preserve the whole entire Buddhadharma – the Lesser Vehicle, Mahayana Paramitayana and Mahayana Tantrayana teachings. Particularly, many of us older students have met and received teachings and initiations from Lama Yeshe, who was kinder than all the numberless past, present and future buddhas and whose holy name is extremely rare and difficult to express.

“So really, if we look at what has happened to us so far in this life, it is most amazing to have met many qualified virtuous friends who can reveal the complete path to enlightenment from their own experience. Can you imagine how most unbelievably fortunate our lives have been?”

You can read more from the chapter “The Teachings: Everything Depends on Your Attitude” from the book Bodhisattva Attitude: How to Dedicate Your Life to Others by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. 

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 with Vens. Sangpo and Sherab doing prayers for the future retreat center Land of Joy, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“A retreat place is not for gaining power like black magic, it’s not for a honeymoon or holiday. Also it is not a place in which to be spaced out,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised in 2007.

“The whole purpose of a retreat place is to subdue the mind and to actualize the lam-rim up to enlightenment. It is a place for a holiday from negative karma, a holiday from the three poisonous minds and the self-cherishing thought, a holiday from the self-grasping of the person and phenomena, a holiday from the wrong concepts: non-devotional thought towards the guru up to the subtle dual view of white, increasing, attainment.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the 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 during his visit to the UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Guru devotion is the quickest way to collect the most extensive merit, the means to achieve enlightenment,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche once told a group of students at Kopan Monastery. “Of course, the main thing is having the right motivation, bodhicitta, but having a pure mind of guru devotion, with no negative mind arising toward the guru – which is very heavy negative karma – is also very important.

“A negative attitude, such as a thought of giving up respect, even just thinking, ‘What is the use of this teaching?’ creates negative karma; one breaks the samaya vows. A kind of pollution comes, and whatever you offer becomes negative and can invite sickness or obstacles. So, I think, the most important thing is keeping samaya, not doing any wrong thing, not letting heresy arise, having negative thoughts, or losing faith. Lost faith is very heavy. Also, it is important not to break the root pratimoksha vows.

“So much emphasis is placed on guru devotion because, with very strong guru devotion, there is no hardship in following the guru’s advice; it becomes so easy to follow any advice given. …”

You can read more from this teaching on “Guru Devotion” on the page “Advice on Guru Devotion,” part of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice book.”

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

“Bodhichitta is thinking to benefit all sentient beings, to free them from suffering and to bring them to full enlightenment, therefore we have to achieve enlightenment, therefore we do this practice, this action, so in this way all the time we are dedicating for other sentient beings. So this child you are taking care of is one of the sentient beings,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who was concerned about her Dharma practice after having a child. “We always dedicate our practice for the most precious sentient beings, from whom all our happiness comes – all our happiness from beginningless rebirth up to now, even this small happiness, comfort, even if we are feeling hot but then serenely the wind blows on our head and we feel cool, so even including that, or if we are thirsty and we find water to drink.

“All the future happiness, not only samsaric happiness, pleasure, but ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, full enlightenment, peerless happiness, the state of omniscient mind; so all of that we receive from numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts and numberless animals – that means from numberless fish in the ocean, even the large ones, the whales, then also the smallest ones that we can’t see with our eyes, but only with a microscope; every single ant, every single bird, every single butterfly, every single cockroach – they are numberless in each realm, not just in one universe but there are numberless universes, so each universe has numberless [beings]. We receive all our past, present and future happiness from numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings. All the past, present and future happiness we receive from every single sentient being.

“That includes your child. So all your past, present and future happiness, everything comes from this child. Therefore the child, your baby, is the most precious, most kind, most wish-fulfilling one to you, and as well as that, every single other sentient being – every insect in the house and outside in the forests, on the ground, in the water, and flying in the sky. Therefore, the best Dharma is to cherish the sentient beings and to serve them, to free them from suffering and bring them to happiness. …”

You can read the complete advice ”Taking Care of Your Child with Compassion,” a new addition to “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

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 Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“In reality, even if we believe that we will live for a long time, that we have so many years to live – like 100 years or more, and maybe after 100 years, we expect another hundred years (I’m joking) – in reality, there is nobody who has lived who has not died,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to the mother of a student, who was worried about death. “Even this big earth has to perish after another great eon. Since every person who is born in this world is under the control of karma and delusion, there is nobody, nobody, since human beings started until now, who has lived without death. There is nobody.

“Buddha has no death, because there is no cause of death. The cause of death is not outside but inside –karma and delusions. Buddha removed this inconceivable eons ago, because he purified the delusions and even the subtle obscurations which interrupt the omniscient mind, so it is impossible for the Buddha to experience death. There is no old age, no sickness, no death for him at all, but he showed holy deeds, passing away in the sorrowless state. If Buddha did not show death, then we would not appreciate his teachings and we would become very lazy. Buddha showed death to destroy the wrong concept of permanence of our lives, which are impermanent, and also to show us that we need to practice Dharma, because of suffering and the cause of suffering. …”

You can read the entire letter “The Cause of Death” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

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 in England, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In February 1990, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a series of teachings as part of the Third Enlightened Experience Celebration, which took place in Bodhgaya, India. His discourse was based on the 15th-century text Opening the Door of Dharma. During the teachings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche described how he came across the text in his late twenties and what it meant to him:

“In 1974, while I was staying in the cave of the previous Lawudo Lama in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal, I decided to check through all the texts that had belonged to him. They were mostly Nyingma texts relating to the practices of various deities, but there was one text that is a fundamental practice of all four Tibetan sects. The text I found was Opening the Door of Dharma: The Initial Stage of Training the Mind in the Graduated Path to Enlightenment.

“A collection of the advice of many Kadampa geshes, Opening the Door of Dharma is by Lodrö Gyaltsen, a disciple of both Lama Tsongkhapa and Khedrub Rinpoche, one of Lama Tsongkhapa’s two spiritual sons. This text describes the initial stage of thought transformation, or mind training – in other words, the first thing to practice if you want to practice Dharma.

“Only when I read this text did I come to know what the practice of Dharma really means. During all the years of my life up until then I had not known. Practicing Dharma is usually regarded as reading scriptures, studying, memorizing, debating, saying prayers, performing rituals, and so forth. It was only when I read this text that I found out how to practice Dharma. I was very shocked that all my past actions had not been Dharma. When I checked back, all those past years of memorizing and saying prayers were not Dharma. From all those years, nothing was Dharma. …”

Rinpoche’s discourse on Opening the Door of Dharma can be read in the book The Door to Satisfaction, edited by Vens. Ailsa Cameraon and Robina Courtain and published by Wisdom Publications. A PDF of the “Foreward” by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpche, “Editor’s Preface” and “Prologue” is available from Wisdom online. The “Prologue” includes Rinpoche’s account of his education, meeting Lama Yeshe and returning to Lawudo as well as the significance of his discovery of Opening the Door of Dharma. 

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.

Peace in the World:  Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice to help bring peace to Israel and Palestine.

Extensive Advice on Practices to Dispel Fire:  Last month, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice regarding the wildfires that were burning in Washington State, US, close to a number of students’ homes. We’ve combined that advice with advice which Rinpoche gave in 2007 so you have a complete set of Rinpoche’s advice on practices to do in case of fire.

FPMT Mission Statement: Lama Zopa Rinpoche wished to update the FPMT Mission Statement in order to make it clear that FPMT’s mission of preserving the Mahayana tradition includes listening to correct teachings of the Buddha, then reflecting, meditating on, practicing and actualizing those teachings – and then with that experience, spreading the teachings to sentient beings.  The FPMT Inc Board has now finalized the edits, so we are delighted to share the updated FPMT Mission Statement.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the new Amitabha Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“It is not good to leave statues or stupas completely empty. To leave a statue empty is like offering nothing to the buddhas and can create obstacles,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects.”

“Therefore, it is important to put something inside of the statue, even as little as a few mantras and some incense. This is also true when offering statues to your teachers, there should always be something placed inside of them for auspiciousness. If you need to wait a while until your statue/stupa can be properly filled and consecrated, then roll up a copy of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, or the five powerful mantras and place them inside the statue with some incense for the time being. …”

You can read more in FPMT Education Services’ “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects.” Also visit Education Services’ page on “Holy Objects” for more advice and resources.

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 after shopping for flowers for offering with Vens. Sherab and Sangpo, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“In the lam-rim, or graduated path to enlightenment, the first meditation outline is the root of the path: how to devote to the virtuous friend. Why is guru devotion the root of the path to enlightenment? Enlightenment is like a ripe fruit, the path to enlightenment is like the trunk of a tree, and guru devotion is like the root of the tree. From the root of guru devotion, the trunk of the path grows in our mind and bears the fruit of enlightenment. Whether or not we can start to develop the path to enlightenment in our mind in this life is determined by our practice of guru devotion,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in The Heart of the Path.

“Proper devotion to the guru, or virtuous friend, is the root of all success, from success in this life up to enlightenment, just as the trunk, branches, leaves and fruit of a tree depend upon its root. Or we can think that guru devotion is like the fuel in a car or a plane, without which the vehicle cannot take us where we want to go. Without guru devotion, nothing happens – no realizations, no liberation, no enlightenment – just as without the root of a tree there can be no trunk, branches, leaves, or fruit. Everything, up to enlightenment, depends on guru devotion.

“Guru devotion is the root not only of ultimate success, achieving full enlightenment and bringing sentient beings to the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment, but also of temporary success and happiness. This practice is the foundation of the development of the whole path to enlightenment, as well as the foundation of all happiness. Since everything comes from the practice of guru devotion, it is called the root of the path. …”

You can read more in this excerpt from “Why Do We Need a Guru?,” the first chapter of the book The Heart of the Path: Seeing the Guru as Buddha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“The Medicine Buddha encompasses all the buddhas. This means that when we practice the seven-limb prayer and make offerings with the seven limbs, we receive the same merit as we would if we had made offerings to all the buddhas. Similarly, when we recite the mantra of Medicine Buddha, we collect unbelievable merit just as when we offer the seven-limb practice to Medicine Buddha,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in “The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Practice.”

“To recite the Medicine Buddha mantra brings inconceivable merit. Manjushri requested the eight tathagatas (Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the seven Medicine Buddhas) to reveal a special mantra that would make the prayers they (the eight tathagatas) made in the past (prayers to be able to actualize the happiness of sentient beings by attaining the path to enlightenment and pacifying various problems, to be able to see all the buddhas, and for all wishes to be quickly realized) to quickly come to pass, especially for those sentient beings born in the time of the five degenerations who have small merit and who are possessed and overwhelmed by various diseases and spirit harms.

“During that time, all the eight tathagatas, in one voice, taught the Medicine Buddha mantra. Therefore, if you recite the mantra every day, the buddhas and bodhisattvas will always pay attention to you, and they will guide you. Vajrapani, owner of the secrets, and the four guardians will always protect and guide you. All your negative karmas will be pacified, and you will never be born in the three lower realms. Even just hearing a recitation of the names of the eight tathagatas pacifies all diseases and spirit harms – even spirit harms that arise as a condition of disease – and all your wishes are fulfilled. …”

From the FPMT Education Services’ booklet “The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Practice” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. For more on Medicine Buddha, see “Medicine Buddha Practice for Sickness and Poor Health.”

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 shopping for flowers for offerings, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“People get excited about strange things. I recently saw a group of men kicking a ball into a big net between two sticks and hundreds of thousands of people were cheering and throwing their hands up in the air, while millions watched on television. Everybody was totally out of control with excitement. In fact, their faces were so distorted I couldn’t tell whether they were very happy or in great pain. This World Cup seems extremely important to many people, but it also brings misery and jealousy, as well as anger and hatred when your country beats my country,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in the first chapter of The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment.

“On the other hand, a real cause for excitement and happiness is simply having this human body. If we could truly understand even a tiny part of its value, we would have a million times more reason for jumping in the air and shouting for joy the way those soccer fans do. Every day – every second – we should have a huge feeling of joy in our hearts that we have this precious possession that gives us the opportunity to do whatever we want. With it, we can achieve anything we want, to benefit ourselves and to benefit others.

“In sports and in worldly activities, people are always chasing the best and trying to be first in whatever they do. But winning at the Olympics, climbing Mount Everest, whatever people consider to be a great achievement, is really nothing. We have all done this kind of thing innumerable times, in past lives if not in this one, and it certainly hasn’t made us any happier.

“In fact, in our countless previous lives we have enjoyed every kind of pleasure innumerable times. We have achieved states we can’t even imagine. There is no new pleasure or experience that we have never had. We have been born in god realms where there is no overt suffering at all. We have achieved great powers of concentration, a concentration so profound that, as the great master Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains in his commentary on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment, even a big drum beating right next to our ear could not disturb us. And we have even attained high psychic powers such as clairvoyance and the ability to fly. None of this is new. Such things seem special only because we don’t understand reincarnation and therefore don’t realize that in our beginningless previous lives we have done it all over and over again. …”

You can read more of this excerpt from “What is Dharma?” the first chapter of The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

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