Lama Zopa Rinpoche News

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

From August 9-14, Thubten Norbu Ling in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, hosted Lama Zopa Rinpoche for a series of teachings, jenangs, and an initiation. Spiritual program coordinator Bonnie Povolny shared news about the visit:

The initial session on August 9 began with a two-hour teaching prior to a White Manjushri jenang. His comments peppered with laughter, Lama Zopa greeted the audience saying, “Thank you very much! … For some, the first time to meet, and some, we met in the past. Some long time ago and some recent. Lama Yeshe says, ‘When you meet friends, a benefit to not being dead is to meet again.’ So like here, we meet again. ‘Again’ is two things: first one is that we met in a past life, so ‘again.’ The second one, [we’ve met] many times in this life, ‘again.’  ‘Again’ has two different meanings.” He continued by reminding us that we may have met in many different sentient forms: animals, insects, humans, ants, pigs, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and enemies.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Max Mathews, Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

Prior to the Vajrasattva jenang on August 10, Lama Zopa fielded a question about the title of his book, How to Enjoy Death, emphasizing in a joyful way that death is something we all will experience, should not fear, and that we have absolutely no idea when it will occur.

On August 11, the day when Lama Zopa was not teaching, the group met for a recitation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra, dedicated to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life.

The schedule was rearranged to accommodate an extended teaching on August 12 in which Lama Zopa Rinpoche helped us to develop a more clear view of reality. There was an emphasis on the problems caused by the belief in the inherent “I” and how even one person can cause long-term, worldwide problems. Both the preparation for and the initiation into the Great Medicine Buddha were conducted the following day.

The teachings were dedicated to Lama Zopa’s long life, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life, and to a successful capital campaign for a new center for Thubten Norbu Ling.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche met for lunch with the board of Thubten Norbu Ling on August 14 to further discuss the capital campaign for a new center. Afterward, he returned to bless the center and give a transmission, the lung of Chanting the Names of Manjushri. Later in the afternoon, he met with and blessed the volunteers.

All of us at Thubten Norbu Ling feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be in the presence of and receive teachings from Lama Zopa. His teachings and presence in Santa Fe opened the hearts and minds of so many people. May his health be strong and his life be long for the benefit of all sentient beings!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Geshe Sherab, and Don Handrick, who are the resident geshe and resident teacher, respectively, at Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

Watch video recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Thubten Norbu Ling:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-Santa-Fe-USA-2017/

Read more about the teachings, educational programs, and events at Thubten Norbu Ling:
http://www.tnlsf.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.

Rinpoche meeting local dignitaries at Root Institute. Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

While he was in Bodhgaya, India, in January this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche invited some influential people onto the roof of the FPMT center, Root Institute, for a small party. Included were actor Richard Gere as well as a number of local politicians and dignitaries.

During the event, Rinpoche spoke briefly about why he wants to build statues of Maitreya Buddha. The statues, he said, help people develop a good heart. That good heart in turn will help create peace and happiness in the world. 

Listen to Rinpoche discuss the role of Maitreya Buddha statues in creating a peaceful and happy world on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/AYVk1VrRsek

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat, August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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, Kadampa Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, US, August 2017. Photo via Twitter, (@LamaZopa).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, where he taught on August 19 at Kadampa Center. Then he traveled to Black Mountain where the month-long Light of the Path 2017 retreat commenced on the evening of August 20. This retreat is the fifth in a series of teaching retreats led by Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.

FPMT is live video streaming Rinpoche’s teachings at the retreat in several languages. Find links to all the live video streams here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

The first full day of teachings, Monday, August 21, coincides with the total solar eclipse that is crossing the United States. The retreat venue lies just outside the path of totality. Rinpoche has given advice on practices to do on eclipse days as they are merit multiplying days and can be done wherever you are in the world.

The Light of the Path retreat ends on September 17. Similar to past years, recordings and unedited transcripts from the retreat as well as Rinpoche’s teachings from other events are available on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page.

Students are also encouraged to explore the Living in the Path education program, created by FPMT Education Services. Based on Rinpoche’s teachings at the Light of the Path retreats, Living in the Path is an ever-growing collection of Rinpoche’s heart advice and lamrim teachings.

Rinpoche Available Now:
https://fpmt.org/RinpocheNow

Living in the Path:
https://fpmt.org/education/programs/living-in-the-path/

Eclipse day practices:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/practices-during-the-upcoming-solar-eclipse/

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 blesses a cat in Russia. May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.

Wherever he goes, Lama Zopa Rinpoche tries to find time to offer blessings not just to humans but also to animals. For example, in July, in New Mexico, Rinpoche blessed wild horses. In June, in California, Rinpoche blessed the Pacific Ocean and all the beings it in. In Russia, in May, Rinpoche made time to bless hundreds of pets of all kinds, including cats that had been brought from a shelter. In Nepal in April 2017, he blessed goats. And the list goes on.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Cham Tse Ling gompa with small dog in attendance. Hong Kong, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

When he stays at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) in Washington State, United States, Lama Zopa Rinpoche takes many measures to benefit the living beings—animals, insects, snakes, birds, and fish—who share the land and water there. Resident Sangha and visitors do the same on a regular basis even when Rinpoche is not present. Methods include the recitation of mantras, sutras, and prayers, as well as offering blessed food and other activities.

Many of these ways to bless small creatures are described by Ven. Tharchin, a resident of BAPL, in a 25-minute YouTube video on FPMT’s YouTube channel (see below).

According to Rinpoche in his book Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death, sentient beings can experience purification of their karma and avoid the lower realms in the future as a result of such practices. Rinpoche says: “When the Buddha gave teachings to 500 swans in a field, in their next life they were born as human beings. They became monks and all became arya beings, able to achieve the cessation of suffering and the true path. So the result is unbelievable, just by hearing Dharma words.”

Rinpoche and Sangha blessing a lake and all the beings in it in Washington State, US, October 2016

Watch Ven. Tharchin, a resident of Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, explain the many measures that are taken there to benefit living beings:
https://youtu.be/aqORZkZoAqQ

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#animals

For more about FPMT’s activities to benefit animals see:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/

Get Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death as an e-book or in a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberating-Animals-eBook_p_2334.html

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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.

Statue of Lama Tsongkhapa at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s home in California, US, 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

When training in the graduated path to enlightenment (lamrim), Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasizes that bodhichitta is most important. 

In the video clip below, recorded during the Light of the Path 2016 retreat, Rinpoche notes that although bodhichitta as a topic appears quite late in the lamrim, in fact students should have a bodhichitta motivation for all their activities from the beginning. Even learning or meditating on the initial stages of the path, like guru devotion, should be done with a bodhichitta motivation, and so should all of every Dharma student’s daily activities. “You have to know that,” says Rinpoche.

That bodhichitta motivation is how students move toward enlightenment, Rinpoche explains, and how everything they do becomes a cause for freeing sentient beings from samsara. Rinpoche stresses that those teaching and studying lamrim need to make bodhichitta the emphasis at all times.

Watch Rinpoche teach about the need to emphasize bodhichitta:
https://youtu.be/FrCgwcegKlE

Watch more video from the 2016 Light of the Path Retreat and find links to translations, MP3s, and the complete transcript:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path 2017 retreat, August 20-September 17: 
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

See more videos of teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Rinpoche Available Now: 
https://fpmt.org/rinpochenow/

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 makes offerings to the holy objects at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery,
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, May 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Want to benefit others?

In the short video below, Lama Zopa Rinpoche talks about how to benefit others extensively, how to collect great merit, and how to reach full enlightenment. The video is an excerpt from his teachings at the 2016 Light of the Path retreat.

“Life is not long, life is short. We live with the wrong concept of permanence … That concept is cheating you,” says Rinpoche.

“How do we benefit others extensively?” he then asks. He answers, “Stop thinking and worrying about ‘When can I be happy?'” He adds that believing in the real “I” leads to anger, and understanding that it is merely labelled by mind puts a stop to reasons for anger and unhappiness.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on “How to Practice Skillfully and Collect Extensive Merits”:
https://youtu.be/ahVvZKNTQGg

Watch more video from the 2016 Light of the Path Retreat and find links to translations, MP3s, and the complete transcript:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Registration for the Light of the Path 2017 retreat closes this coming Friday, August 4. You can register for the retreat at https://www.blueridgeassembly.org/light-path-retreat/. Learn more about the retreat at: https://kadampa-center.org/light-path-retreat-2017/.  

Light of the Path 2017 will be live webcast at: https://www.youtube.com/c/fpmtinc/live/. See more videos of teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Rinpoche Available Now: https://fpmt.org/rinpochenow/.

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.

Statue portraying the Buddha during his years as an ascetic, taken during Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Will renunciation bring us happiness or just more suffering?

Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed this question in his book How to Practice Dharma: Teachings on the Eight Worldly Dharmas.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised that “any action done free from the three poisonous minds of greed, hatred, and ignorance is the cause of happiness … We don’t have to wait until our future lives to experience this happiness. As soon as we stop the dissatisfied mind, immediately—immediately—there is the result, happiness.”

“At first we might be nervous about letting go of desire,” he explained, “because it’s normal for us to equate desire with happiness. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. As soon as we let go of desire, we achieve inner peace, satisfaction, and happiness. We become independent. Before we were dictated to, controlled by desire, but now we have achieved real independence, real freedom.”

A statue of Milarepa at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

Citing the example of Milarepa, Rinpoche added, “Living without food, clothing, and reputation didn’t cause him any problems because of his Dharma practice. He achieved all the higher realizations and then enlightenment in that one lifetime all due to the power of his pure Dharma, renouncing suffering, renouncing this life. His mind was happier than that of the king.”

Rinpoche concluded by saying, “It is completely wrong to think that Dharma only brings happiness in future lifetimes but not in this one. Dharma brings peace and happiness to the mind the very moment we practice and live in the Dharma. We feel its effects immediately.”

Flowers at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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 offering a mandala, Washington State, US, October 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

What is the most important thing to remember when doing mandala offerings?

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that, “Many high lamas have made comments on [the mandala offering]. The main purpose is to create merit, so it’s important that your visualization is good quality and most extensive. Otherwise, there is not much reason to do it. Lama Tsongkhapa explained mandala offerings in the Lamrim Chenmo. The key thing regarding mandala offerings is to visualize clearly and as much as possible. The essence is clear and plenty, to create merit.”

A photo of His Holiness the Dalai Lama offering a mandala, taken at the home of Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, US, 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

If we visualize well, what happens?

Rinpoche said, “All the enjoyments in all the realms is the result. … [You should] visualize offerings on every atom (like Samantabhadra) and then from each of those atoms, beams are emitted and carry mandala offerings that fill the sky and become numberless. Everything you visualize should be big, huge!”

Rinpoche concluded,”I heard that one lama takes more than an hour to visualize the mandala. This is a great lama. … The more you can visualize, the more merit you create!”

Offering a mandala at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

Find the complete teaching here:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/mandala-offerings

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 shopping in New York City, US, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Can shopping go along with Dharma?  

In 2009, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave some advice on how to make shopping a virtuous activity.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping in New York City, US, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche said, “When you do shopping, watch and prepare your motivation. When you are in the shop, either do it to fulfill the wishes of the guru or to benefit and serve other sentient beings. The ultimate purpose is to fulfill the guru’s advice. So, you buy these things to survive so as to fulfill the wishes of the guru or benefit sentient beings. This way it becomes an antidote to attachment, becomes a virtuous activity, Dharma, and collects extensive merit.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping for stuffed toys in New York City, US, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Find the original teaching here:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/restaurants-and-shopping

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 talks with a visitor, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche talked in 2008 about our good fortune: being able to choose happiness. What is the source of this good fortune? Teachings on how to create the causes of happiness.

“What people believe in the world, the more common people, those who don’t have the Dharma,” he explained, “is that the cause of happiness is external: the five sense objects and external things together. But achieving that doesn’t mean they always achieve happiness, it doesn’t mean that. Only if the cause of happiness is there, then they will experience happiness. Therefore, they have a totally wrong belief, a totally wrong understanding of the cause of happiness … The actual cause of happiness is our own mind, the positive mind and positive actions.”

He went on to say that, “People who understand the cause of freedom have freedom in everyday life. For us, this time we have met the Buddhadharma and we understand, so we have freedom. By knowing karma and the mind, how happiness and suffering both have to come from the mind, we are able to stop creating suffering … and to achieve happiness.”

He added,“If we understand karma, we have freedom … We have freedom every day. No matter what activities we do with our body, speech, and mind, they become the cause of enlightenment, they become the cause to achieve the happiness of future lives and then the cause to achieve liberation from samsara and the cause to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.”

First day of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, May 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche concluded by saying, “Once we have understood karma, we have full freedom in our life. Whatever happiness we want to achieve is in our hands. So, we are unbelievably fortunate. We must realize how fortunate we are, how unbelievably fortunate, how unimaginably fortunate, having this wisdom, this Dharma wisdom. We are unbelievably, unbelievably fortunate. For most human beings in the world, it’s not like that.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche looking at the 8,000 Verse Prajnaparamita in the gompa at Guru Rinpoche’s place of holy speech, Jangsarbu lhakhang, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Read the entire teaching here:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/lectures-18-19-pilgrimage-and-power-holy-objects

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.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama being offered a mandala by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Jangchup Lamrim teachings, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, India, December 2015. Photo by Rio Helmi/JCLRC.

On July 6, the 82nd birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is being celebrated around the world by Tibetans and Western students of the Dharma. As the spiritual guide for six million Tibetans, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s guru, as a recipient of the Noble Peace Prize, and as a promoter of each individual’s universal responsibility toward humankind and the environment, His Holiness serves as a living symbol for world peace.

A collection of long life prayers composed by His Holiness’s late tutors His Holiness Ling Rinpoche and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche is available for students to recite on this special day. Below is a short extract:

O our gurus, and your line of lamas, for whom we have the deepest gratitude,
You who are the repository of the three: secret powers of body, speech, and mind of innumerable buddhas,
Who manifest in a miraculous way to each devotee according to his capacity,
To you, who are the wish-fulfilling gems, the source of all virtues and good qualities,
We offer our prayers with intense devotion
That our protector of the great land of snows,
Tenzin Gyatso, upholder of the Dharma, the great ocean,
May live for a hundred eons.
Pour on him your blessings
That his aspirations may be fulfilled. …

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a devoted student of His Holiness and service to His Holiness is an important aim of FPMT. For over twenty years, FPMT International Office has taken responsibility to help offer a long life puja to His Holiness every year on behalf of the entire organization. Long life pujas, in addition to maintaining harmony between students and following our teachers’ advice, is an important means for accumulating the merit needed for our precious gurus to stay in the world for a long time.

We wish His Holiness’s a very happy and healthy birthday. May all His Holiness’s holy wishes come into fruition immediately and may he remain and teach us for a very long time!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang, Dharamsala, India, March 2015. Photo by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

A variety of devotional images of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are available through the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Cards-Posters_c_529.html

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 receive FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Deepthy Chandrashekhar, FPMT India national coordinator, Bangalore, India, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The Buddha guides us, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, through the guru, and the guru is like a magnifying glass through which we receive the Buddha’s blessings. In the video below, Lama Zopa Rinpoche talks about the importance of the guru. 

And how should we serve the guru? Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed the question in his book The Heart of the Path.

First comes “devot[ing] ourselves correctly to the virtuous friend with thought,” said Rinpoche, “and we then naturally devote ourselves correctly with action … Correct devotion to the guru with action comes easily as a result of correct devotion with thought.” That means, he explained, “seeing the guru as Buddha.”

Referring to serving the guru directly and working in Dharma centers, he commented, “Doing any work that our guru has advised us to do has great benefit, making our life highly meaningful.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s attendants Ven. Tendar, Ven. Sangpo, and Ven. Sherab in the kitchen at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

He added, “Even if we’re not doing the actual work of teaching Dharma, by working in a Dharma center we are providing the conditions for many other people to practice the holy teachings and follow the infallible path to enlightenment. If we frequently think about this in our everyday life, our mind will be very happy.”

Board of FPMT Taiwan meeting with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

And referring to other activities, Rinpoche said, “We should constantly remember our guru in our heart and do our work for him. This itself is guru yoga practice. All the work we do from morning until night then becomes Dharma practice. It is also enjoyable and each day we are happy!”

With young helpers, Ven. Holly Ansett livestreams Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery, Mongolia, May 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The short video below is an excerpt from Rinpoche’s teachings at the 2016 Light of the Path retreat.

Watch the video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussing the importance of the guru on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Dv21rTAgWiQ

Read the full teaching on serving the guru in chapter 15 of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s book The Heart of the Path, available at the Foundation Store:
Hard copy: https://shop.fpmt.org/Heart-of-the-Path–Hard-Copy_p_814.html
Ebook: https://shop.fpmt.org/Heart-of-the-Path-eBook_p_2360.html

The complete teachings from the 2016 Light of the Path retreat can be found here, including links to the transcript, MP3s, and translations:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

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