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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing all the beings in a lake in Washington State, US, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has just published The Path to Ultimate Happiness, a new ebook of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course.
In this book, Rinpoche discusses our potential to bring benefit and happiness, including full enlightenment, to all sentient beings. Rinpoche explains the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment, teaches extensively on emptiness and the good heart, and gives commentaries on sur practice, the Offering Cloud Mantra, and other prayers and practices.
The Path to Ultimate Happiness conveys the spontaneous and intimate quality of Rinpoche’s teaching style and includes many anecdotes from his own experiences. Here’s a short excerpt:
The teachings about karma are very, very important. If you remember this in your daily life you will become very careful, not only avoiding negativities, not harming others, but also being kind, generous and gentle to them. You are able to practice this because you see its importance. You are able to abandon the negative karmas that cause you to receive harm from sentient beings for hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.
Conversely, when you do one act of kindness for a sentient being, you will receive help from that sentient being for hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. From your one act of kindness you receive the benefit from that sentient being for hundreds, thousands of lifetimes. Therefore, if you want to be happy, if you don’t want to receive harm from others, you need to practice the good heart, you need to be kind to others, not only to your friends but even to your enemies and strangers. Practicing kindness, you receive the result—happiness, enjoyment—from that sentient being for many hundreds, thousands of lifetimes.
The conclusion is that every day of your life, day and night, practice kindness to others, thus causing others to have happiness. That is essential; it’s the cause of your own happiness, not only in this life but in thousands of future lifetimes.
If you want your wishes to succeed all the time, you should make others’ wishes succeed. Causing others’ wishes to succeed is the cause of success of your wishes every day of your life. As much as you are able to do that, the result will be that in this life and all the future lives, all the time your wishes will succeed. Without any effort, without any worry or fear, whatever wish you have will just happen, exactly like that, including achieving enlightenment. Practicing kindness, as much as you can, you should fulfill the wishes of others. From one act of kindness your wishes are fulfilled for hundreds of thousands of lifetimes.
As His Holiness the Dalai Lama always says, if you want to live your life with a selfish attitude it’s better to live it by being intelligently selfish. By helping others, being kind to others, the result is that you will get happiness. From one act of fulfilling one wish of a sentient being, your wishes will succeed for hundreds of lifetimes, thousands of lifetimes. This is being intelligently selfish, thinking of how to get all your wishes fulfilled. This is correct but the main reason for helping others is still for your own happiness.
For bodhisattvas there is never a thought for their own happiness. It doesn’t arise even for a second. There is always the thought of cherishing others, of seeking happiness for the other sentient beings: the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings and the numberless gods and demigods. Only practicing kindness, fulfilling others’ wishes for happiness, thinking of others’ happiness, the bodhisattvas’ attitude is very pure. This is what we should all try to practice in our daily life.
Excerpted from The Path to Ultimate Happiness, teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course in 2009 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, lightly edited by Gordon McDougall and Sandra Smith.
To order the new ebook The Path to Ultimate Happiness, visit:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/path-ultimate-happiness-ebook
An ebook series that presents teachings from the 24th Kopan course in 1991 is also available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. For more:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/kopan-course-no-24-1991-ebook-series
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 during Lama Chopa at Kopan Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Every year the month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal draws more than two hundred students from around the world. And every year the November Course, as it’s called, fills up quickly. Many students starting planning to attend the transformative program months, if not years, in advance.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche first taught the month-long lamrim course in 1971. Rinpoche continues to offer teachings at the course almost every year. Last year Rinpoche spoke to students about the significance of attending the course and how it helps one deal with individual and societal problems. The following is a short excerpt from that teaching:
Coming to Kopan Monastery—attending one of the meditation courses—is to pacify the negative mind that brings all the problems, global problems. Coming here is to pacify that. You understand the point? It is most important.
So you are coming here to learn meditation. What you are learning, that is the most important thing in the world, the most important thing in your life.
That helps not only this life, it helps not only the next life, it helps hundreds and thousands, millions, it goes on, the benefit goes on and on. It goes on to enlightenment.
Ultimately it goes on to enlightenment. Your coming here to do meditation—listening and meditating—all this goes up to enlightenment for numberless sentient beings.
You achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings—for every ant you see in the road, in the gompa, every bird, every dog and cat, people, every sentient being—to benefit everyone, to free them from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to buddhahood, peerless happiness, buddhahood.
So your coming here, learning lamrim meditation, meditating to actualize, is so the mind, the child mind, is transformed into a mind that cherishes others, like the Buddha did. …
Watch the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this excerpt is taken:
https://youtu.be/r2fmyis25pw
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, December 8, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.
Find out more about the November Course and other opportunities to learn and meditate at Kopan Monastery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses
Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
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.
Association of Himalayan Buddhists of South Australia (AHIMBSA) and Lyndy Abram at Buddha House, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
Lyndy Abram, center director of Buddha House, an FPMT center located in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, shares about the center’s friendship with the Himalayan Buddhist community of South Australia.
Last September we received a request from the Association of Himalayan Buddhists of South Australia (AHIMBSA) for a blessing from our then-resident teacher, Geshe Konchog Kyab. About forty people of all ages came to Buddha House for the visit. They were very excited to meet with a lama. I decided to follow up with the AHIMBSA representatives to see what we could do to help them.
It turned out there are 3,500 Himalayan refugees living in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. They have been coming here since 2008, and it is a growing community. They told us that they had lived most of their lives in refugee camps in Nepal and had previously been in Bhutan. They told stories of torture and having been in solitary confinement, chained, for years. Some of the people who directly experienced this were at the meeting. They told us they had not had access to any Buddhist teachings due to the circumstances of being a refugee.
The Board of Buddha House agreed we should partner with their community, offering teachings for the adults and the children, and whenever a visiting teacher comes to involve them in the visit.
Our friendship with them is growing. A large number of AHIMBSA members came to Buddha House in May 2018 for the opening of our new location, where they met Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Some of the children sang a national song as part of the ceremony.
Bahadur Gurung, AHIMBSA chairman, and Jogen, translator, having afternoon tea with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
Rinpoche had afternoon tea with Bahadur Gurung, AHIMBSA’s chairman, and Jogen, translator, and they shared their stories with him. Rinpoche said to them it is much better for you to practice Dharma here than it was in Nepal, because in the refugee camps you did not have access to Dharma teachings.
Buddha House wants to ensure we help AHIMBSA as much as possible. We are so fortunate to have the Dharma, as well as the freedom to practice, attend teachings, and spend time with the Dharma community. Meeting them and hearing their stories has helped us understand our good fortune.
AHIMBSA youth and Buddha House Dharma Kids Club greet Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha House, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
They would particularly like help with the children, which we are able to do through providing a Dharma club. Ven. Dondrub and myself go to a hall AHIMBSA hires monthly. I run a Dharma club for kids class then Ven. Dondrub gives a Dharma talk to the adults. Since many community members do not speak English, they provide a Nepali translator for him.
AHIMBSA really wants help with their young adults. I asked Geshe Tenzin Zopa, who has met with them twice now for teachings and blessings, what they might do. He suggested doing activities teenagers want to do—outings, camps—and then introduce Dharma topics in a setting they feel comfortable in.
AHIMBSA youth performance at AHIMBSA’s second anniversary celebration, Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury, South Australia, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
In July 2018 AHIMBSA celebrated its second anniversary by throwing a celebration held at the Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury. They invited Buddha House representatives to a joyous day of entertainment, and to honor the lives of their elders. Three women in their nineties were given certificates of honor and were covered in blessing scarves and shawls by the local members of parliament.
They honored people from organizations who help their community which included myself, representing Buddha House. The children were given blessing strings and mantra cards which were a gift from Rinpoche.
Lyndy Abram with AHIMBSA youth at AHIMBSA’s second anniversary celebration, Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury, South Australia, July 2018. Photo by Janne Graham.
The young people performed cultural, Bollywood, and modern-style dances. There were also music performances, and a meal and chai were given to the more than 1,000 people in attendance. It was a wonderful day.
We are so fortunate to have met with this vibrant, happy community we can now call our friends.
For more information about Buddha House visit their website:
http://buddhahouse.org
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha arranging flower offerings for the Amitabha Buddha statue, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Before traveling to India at the end of August and then Singapore in September, Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent nearly three months in the United States. Rinpoche stayed for two months at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) in a remote part of Washington State.
A Just By Seeing Mantra that Rinpoche had made into a sign at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
During Rinpoche’s time at BAPL, the decorations on the throne of the large Amitabha Buddha statue were completed. Rinpoche and Sangha made extensive flower offerings. Rinpoche also had many signs made for animal statues on the land.
While in Washington State, Rinpoche visited Pamtingpa Center, in Tonasket, Washington. Rinpoche and Sangha also took a boat out onto a lake to bless all the sentient beings in the water.
Blessing the sentient beings in the lake, Washington, US, July 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In August, Rinpoche visited Maitripa College and FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon, for a week. Then Rinpoche spent a week in Boston, Massachusetts, giving teachings and initiations at Kurukulla Center.
Rinpoche then flew to California for a brief visit to his home, Kachoe Dechen Ling, in Aptos, and for annual medical checkups.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and H.E. Ling Rinpoche, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
While in Aptos, Rinpoche invited H.E. Ling Rinpoche, who was on a West Coast tour, to stay one night at Kachoe Dechen Ling. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave H.E. Ling Rinpoche a tour of the holy objects and showed H.E. Ling Rinpoche the collection of precious relics there. Dinner was offered to H.E. Ling Rinpoche and after dinner both Rinpoches did protector prayers together.
H.E. Ling Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche looking at a relic, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On another day, Rinpoche invited Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, the resident geshe at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco, for lunch. Rinpoche also visited the nearby Land of Medicine Buddha to check on the progress of the stupa being built. More than fifty students saw Rinpoche off at the airport for his flight to India.
Rinpoche and Denice Macy, former director of Land of Medicine Buddha, in front of stupa being built at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
See a NEW photo album with more photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s three months in the United States:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/united-states-june-august-2018/
Links and information to watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Kurukulla Center, and Maitripa College:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s care for animals is well known. What’s perhaps less well known is Rinpoche’s creative whimsy with animal statues and the signs he has created for them.
At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, in a remote part of Washington State in the US, Rinpoche has many animal statues placed on the property with signs that share thoughts about practicing lamrim, or the graduated path to enlightenment.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A parrot on a fence says, “I have been waiting to see you from beginningless rebirths and I never have. That means I won’t see you again, because there is nothing to see.”
Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Two ducks in rainboots have two signs that say the following:
“Why don’t you practice wisdom? Look at everything as empty, as they are empty in reality. Then you can liberate all sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.”
“Why don’t you practice bodhichitta? To not only enlighten yourself, but enlighten all sentient beings.”
A dog, decorated with butterflies, says, “I want to achieve enlightenment quicker than you. Because I am offering myself to every single sentient being, for their enlightenment.”
“I want to announce to all the sentient beings, whether I want to be living in this tree or to be out, to be free from this. It is in my hands. So like this, it is the same for you people, whether you want to be in samsara or to be free from samsara. To be in samsara means experiencing the oceans of samsaric suffering or to be free from that forever, not just for seven days’ vacation, not like that. So it is totally in your hands. It is up to you, what you do with your mind, how you use your mind. Thank you very much.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with animal statutes at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Kurukulla Center, and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Kurukulla Center staff and volunteers, and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and Wisdom Publications staff, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“There are no words to adequately describe the immense feelings of blessings, love, and bliss that everyone experienced in the presence of our beloved teacher Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche,” Margaret Anderberg, a fundraising volunteer at Kurukulla Center, in Medford, Massachusetts, US, wrote about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to the FPMT-affiliate center in August 2018.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kurukulla Center, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On August 18-20, Rinpoche offered helpful and poignant teachings as well as Red Tara and Varjasattva jenangs to about three hundred people in a beautifully arranged large tent, which was set up for the event in Kurukulla Center’s stupa garden.
Students traveled to the teaching event from far and wide—from New York to Florida, as well as from Canada and many other countries.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche presenting Kurukulla Center director Sean Gonzalez with a thank you gift, Kurukulla Center, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“One visiting student from out-of-state came to me at the reception table and expressed his gratitude for Kurukulla Center providing this incredible opportunity for him to receive teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in person,” Margaret wrote. The visiting student told Margaret, “I have been a student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for years and I could not afford to travel to India or Singapore to attend his teachings. This is so incredible. Thank you so much!”
Margaret also wrote that “Sean Gonzalez, Kurukulla Center director, received a similar message from visiting Sangha members, thanking us for not charging for the teachings and thus making the Dharma accessible to them.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Wisdom Publications staff, Kurukulla Center, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the events, Daniel Aitken, the new director of Wisdom Publications, in nearby Somerville, Massachusetts, offered Lama Zopa Rinpoche copies of Wisdom’s books, including Rinpoche’s new book The Four Noble Truths: A Guide to Everyday Life and the forthcoming Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature by Lama Yeshe. Wisdom staff also recorded a podcast with Rinpoche in the center’s gompa.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s Nick Ribush and Wendy Cook, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, based in Lincoln, Massachusetts, also had an opportunity to make a special offering to Rinpoche. David Zinn, LYWA’s digital imaging specialist, made a beautiful little photo album containing twenty of the more than 1,550 photographs from the Archive’s upcoming Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, which he and director Nick Ribush offered to Rinpoche.
“We at Kurukulla Center are immensely grateful for our tremendous supporters and volunteers,” Margaret wrote, “all of whom helped create the causes and conditions for this wonderful event to happen, helping the Buddhadharma to flourish, and bringing greater peace and happiness to many sentient beings worldwide.”
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Kurukulla Center, Maitripa College, and Amitabha Buddhist Centre:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
For more information about Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, visit their website:
http://www.kurukulla.org/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche after arriving in Singapore, September 2018. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s Facebook page.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has arrived in Singapore for teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre. A throng of students from Amitabha Buddhist Centre welcomed Rinpoche at the airport with khatas and flowers.
Rinpoche will be in Singapore for three weeks of events. On Thursday, September 13, Rinpoche offers the gold crown to the center’s incredible Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue.
On September 15-16, 22-23, and 29, Rinpoche will give commentary on Lama Chopa (Guru Puja) practice. On September 19, Rinpoche will give a teaching on mind training, and on September 26, Rinpoche will confer the Amitabha Obtaining the Pure Land initiation. Teachings that are unrestricted will be video streamed live. Students can sign up to receive notification when the live stream begins.
Rinpoche traveled to Singapore from Dharamsala, India, where Rinpoch visited Tushita Meditation Centre.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche being welcomed by Amitabha Buddhist Centre at the airport, Singapore, September 2018. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s Facebook page.
Details on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre:
http://www.fpmtabc.org/2018/event/lzrvisit.php
Links and information to watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Kurukulla Center and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kurukulla Center, Medford, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered thanks to all the FPMT centers, projects, services, and students who did practices requested by Rinpoche to benefit Tibet and for the success of fulfilling all of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wishes.
I felt that we need to help, as we are His Holiness’ disciples.
Of course, “guru”—that means all our happiness, past, present, and future up to enlightenment, came from the guru: His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Every single pleasure, happiness, came from His Holiness. His Holiness has guided us from beginningless rebirths, now, and in the future. Can you imagine the kindness of the guru? The kindness of the guru is like the limitless sky.
I felt to help Tibet, so I suggested these prayers:
- The Mantra Promised by Tara
- The Four Mandala Offerings to Tara
I want to say a billion, zillion, numberless thanks, really from my heart, to everybody who did the prayers to help His Holiness, to help Tibet to receive soon freedom. So thank you very, very much. Thank you so much.
This is the most extensive way to collect merit and the most powerful purification—fulfilling the guru’s wishes.
It is said by Sakya Pandita, “For a thousand eons, you make charity of your heads and your legs to other sentient beings. Then even the merits, you dedicate for sentient beings.” You do like that for a thousand eons. “But all those merits you collect in one second when you fulfill the guru’s wishes and the guru’s advice.”
You collect all those merits in one second. The guru’s path, if you fulfill all those, one-thousand-eon merits you collect in one second. When you fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice, this is also what happens.
Then also it is said in tantra, Kadam Tigle, “As fire burns wood and in one second it becomes ashes, like that the glorified guru if you are able to please, if you please the guru, the heavy negative karma gets burned by that. By following the guru, by pleasing the guru, it is burned in one second.”
It gets purified in one second. The heavy negative karma collected from past lives and now gets purified in one second. Oh, it is so powerful, this happens.
I think that’s all. Thank you very much.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offering Thanks:
https://youtu.be/DPiIR8NN6fQ
Rinpoche made the request in June 2018 that 50,000 recitations of the Mantra Promised by the Arya Mother Liberator Herself and 500 Four Mandala Offering to Tara pujas be done by July 12.
FPMT centers, projects, services, and students completed 340,941 mantra recitations and 7,298 Four Mandala Offering to Tara pujas!
Rinpoche recorded the video message of thanks on August 20, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts, US.
Watch teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Kurukulla Center and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Students and staff from Maitripa College and FPMT International Office greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche upon his arrival at their shared building, Portland, Oregon, US, August 11, 2018. Photos by Mandala staff.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an oral transmission of the 8000 verse Prajnaparamitra Sutra over the weekend of August 11-12 at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, US. More than 200 students attended the event, including fifteen ordained Sangha members as well as students from other US and international centers and several FPMT center directors and spiritual program coordinators.
Video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings at Maitripa are available online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/maitripa-college-portland-2018/
It had been more than four years since Lama Zopa Rinpoche last visited Portland, Oregon, to give teachings. Maitripa College president Yangsi Rinpoche oversaw the details of the well organized event. Volunteers took good care of event attendees. On the second day of teachings, all ordained Sangha were offered a special dinner.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, US, August 2018
On Monday, August 13, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had lunch at FPMT International Office, which is located in the same building as Maitripa College. Rinpoche gave International Office staff members signed copies of “The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment)” and discussed the practice’s benefits.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche talking to FPMT International Office staff about “The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment),” Portland, Oregon, US, August 2018
On August 15, His Holiness the Sakya Trichen Ngawang Kunga, who was also in Portland, visited Maitripa College. At the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, His Holiness offered an oral transmission of a short Chenrezig practice associated with Thangtong Gyalpo in the Maitripa gompa. Then His Holiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Yangsi Rinpoche had dinner together in the International Office board room.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making mandala offering to His Holiness Sakya Trichen while Yangsi Rinpoche looks on, Maitripa College, Portland, OR, August 2018
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches next at Kurukulla Center in Massachusetts, US, August 18-20. Rinpoche is scheduled to teach on the Seven-Point Mind Training and will give Red Tara and Vajrasattva initiations. The teachings will be livestreamed. Please check the Kurukulla Center calendar for teaching times.
Find links to watch Rinpoche teach live here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Find out more about Kurukulla Center and Rinpoche’s teachings August 18-20:
http://www.kurukulla.org/
For more on Maitripa College:
http://www.maitripa.org/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Yangsi Rinpoche and Ven. Sangpo visiting a park in Portland, Oregon, US, 2014. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, US, on Saturday and Sunday, August 11-12. Rinpoche is scheduled to give an oral transmission of the 8000 verse Prajnaparamita Sutra on Saturday and a Medicine Buddha jenang on Sunday.
The transmission and preliminary teachings will be streamed live, beginning Saturday at 4 p.m. local time (UTC-7).
Find links to watch Rinpoche teach here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Portland, Oregon, US, 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
The following weekend, Rinpoche will teach at Kurukulla Center in Boston, Massachusetts, Friday, August 17-Sunday, August 19.
Rinpoche is scheduled to teach on the Seven-Point Mind Training and will give Red Tara and Vajrasattva initiations.
Friday’s teaching, which will be livestreamed, will begin at 7 p.m. local time (UTC-4). Teachings on Saturday and Sunday are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
Video recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings from Portland and Boston will be available to view at any time on the Rinpoche Available Now page on FPMT.org, where you can also find video recordings of all of Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
Learn more about Maitripa College and Rinpoche’s teachings August 11-12:
https://maitripa.org/
Find out more about Kurukulla Center and Rinpoche’s teachings August 17-19:
http://www.kurukulla.org/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ladakhi Lama, the attendant of the previous great Khunu Lama Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Buddha’s teaching on the four noble truths are essential to our understanding and practice of Buddhism. Lama Zopa Rinpoche provides clear instruction on this fundamental teaching in his new book The Four Noble Truths: A Guide to Everyday Life, just published by Wisdom Publications.
Here we share a short extract from a longer excerpt published on Wisdom’s blog. In the excerpt, Rinpoche discusses actualizing bodhichitta and offers examples of twentieth century Tibetan masters, including the following.
… The late Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche, a learned and pure practitioner of bodhichitta, was tutored by the great Buddhist masters in Tibet on philosophy and other types of knowledge. During the early days of Tibetans arriving in India after the Chinese takeover of their country, Khunu Lama Rinpoche lived like a yogi, dwelling with the Hindu sadhus in Varanasi along the Ganges River. One day, clothed like a sadhu—wrapped up in plain cloth and looking unwashed—Rinpoche went to a local Tibetan monastery to ask for a small room. The monks there did not recognize Rinpoche and said no room was available. Rinpoche slept outside on the bare ground, the way the beggars did.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was visiting that place at the time and knew what was happening, so he went directly to where Khunu Lama Rinpoche was and requested teachings and commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara. Word quickly spread that a great bodhisattva was living there, and soon long lines of people gathered seeking advice from Rinpoche.
Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche was able to recite by heart passages from any root text of the Buddha’s teachings and any of the commentaries. His mind was so robust and totally clear it was most amazing. His holy mind was like the entire Buddhist library.
I once went alone to Rinpoche to request a commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara. Rinpoche declined on that occasion but gave me the complete oral transmission of that text. Rinpoche then told me to translate the Bodhicaryavatara, even though he knew others had already translated it. “You translate,” Rinpoche said to me, advising me that before translating one must know the language and the subject well. I have not yet done the translation, but hope to do so sometime in the future.
I once attended teachings by Rinpoche that went on for a whole day with no break. Rinpoche then approached the wisdom chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara, an unbelievably precious teaching for one who seeks freedom from samsara. However, the minute Rinpoche started teachings on that chapter, I fell asleep. Until that moment I was wide awake. But when Rinpoche began the commentary, sleep overcame me. Some unbelievably bad and heavy negative karma from my past life must have caused that. Imagine—at the wisdom teaching that will bring liberation, I fell asleep!
After the teaching, Rinpoche gave some kambu, which are apricots in a bottle, that I think were from Ladakh. As he gave me the apricots, he said, “Subdue their minds.” I think that that was the last advice I received from Rinpoche. “You have the responsibility to subdue their minds.”
I have not yet subdued my own mind, so I do not know how to subdue the minds of others. But I try to offer advice when I am asked to give teachings. …
Read the entire excerpt from The Four Noble Truths by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Yeo Puay Huei, on Wisdom Publications blog:
https://wisdomexperience.org/blog/201806/exchanging-self-others
The Four Noble Truths is available for purchase from the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Four-Noble-Truths-_p_3107.html
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 doing prayers with Geshe Sopa Rinpoche a month before Geshe Sopa passed into clear light meditation, Deer Park Buddhist Center, Wisconsin, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A student in severe pain wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche seeking advice. Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained how to experience the pain for all sentient beings.
It’s very good to think that you are not the only one in pain. My sister has so much pain in her knee all the time, for many years. Also, generally in the world numberless people have so much pain in the hips or in the knees. Geshe Sopa Rinpoche took the aspect of having pain in the knee, but he had an operation and one leg got better, but the other leg was still painful. Geshe-la took that aspect.
There are many people in the world who have pain, not only you, so it’s very good to think this way:
Through my experience of this pain, may all mother sentient beings—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings—be free immediately from all disease and spirit harm, including hip and knee pain. May they be free from the cause of the pain, delusion, and karma, and not only that, may they all achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible.
In this way dedicate your pain to all sentient beings.
Recite this like a prayer or a mantra, just like reciting OM MANI PADME HUM or any mantra. This is the best practice to purify all your defilements and negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths, and not only that, to also collect the most extensive merits.
Dedicate to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings. In this way you collect the most extensive merits and this causes you to achieve enlightenment, so you are very fortunate, unbelievably lucky.
This advice is from one great yogi called Choje Götsangpa. This is his practice and advice.
This advice, “Experience the Pain for Others,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in May 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/experience-pain-others
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.