Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

In October 2023 we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation.

We wanted to take the opportunity to remind students of this advice, particularly with Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles approaching when the merit of virtuous actions performed on each of these days is multiplied by 100 million.

We are pleased to share that Ganden Tri Rinpoche, head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and very close to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, will be offering the transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri on February 17, 2024 through Jamyang Buddhist Centre London and this will be available online for all with interest to join.

As a reminder, IMI has arranged continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones! Please read about how to sign up to join.

Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri Materials

The prayer is available for all to download: Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri.

 Additionally, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive also offers Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s own commentary and oral transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri which is available to all.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

An powerful prayer session was held in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree on December 31, 2023 for the swift return of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

Incredibly, 2,500 ordained Sangha participated including Ganden Tri Rinpoche,  His Eminence Ling Rinpoche,  His Eminence Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche,  Kundeling Rinpoche,  Osel Dorje Rinpoche, Lelung Tulku, Woser Rinpoche from Sera Mey Monastery, Sera Je Abbot Khenrinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsethar, Tashi Lhunpo Abbot Khenrinpoche Zeekgyab Tulku, Segyud Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Wangdu, Namgyal Abbot Khenrinpoche Thamthog Rinpoche, and Drepung Loseling Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Samten.

Ganden Tri Rinpoche at the prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

Prayers recited were Calling the Guru from Afar, Chanting the Names of Manjushri, King of Prayers, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return prayer by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ven. Roger Kunsang arranged offerings to all the 2,500 Sangha.

The magnitude and beauty of this event is captured in this short video by Ven. Tenzin Michael:

This was an incredibly important and auspicious event.  It is said that the merit created from any virtuous activity in Bodhgaya is multiplied eight times due to the blessings that have arisen from all the holy activities accomplished here by numerous holy beings. As Rinpoche has explained:

“Bodhgaya is not only the place where the Buddha showed the holy deed of achieving enlightenment under the bodhi tree but also where all the great pandits such as Nagarjuna and Asanga practised and made so many prayers. Also, many great enlightened beings and yogis from Tibet, China, Nepal and other countries came here and made so many prayers to benefit us sentient beings so there would be unbelievable, unbelievable opportunity for us to purify negative karma and accumulate merit as quickly as possible.

“That is why it is so important to come to Bodhgaya to practice; to circumambulate and make prayers under the tree. Even if you don’t know much Dharma, try to circumambulate as much as possible. It makes your life so special; there is unbelievable purification and it collects so much merit to quickly be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and achieve enlightenment.

“[The Mahabodhi Stupa] is so precious that if you don’t get to circumambulate it for even one day, it’s worse than losing skies filled with wish-granting jewels or billions of dollars.”

Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

Additionally, with great rejoicing we share that on the first day of the New Year, Kopan Geshes, Lama Gyupas and sangha offered Most Secret Hayagriva tsog in front of Rinpoche’s holy body at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 

May all of these powerful prayers be actualized without delay. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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.

We are so pleased to share that Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s newest volume from Wisdom Publications, Perseverance: The Determination of the Bodhisattva is now available!

From Wisdom Publications about this new release:

In this highly anticipated volume, the beloved teacher Lama Zopa Rinopche guides us as we dive deeply into perseverance, one of the core practices of the bodhisattvas. By interweaving his teachings with Shantideva’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things.  

… Rinpoche’s commentary is structured around the fifth and seventh chapters of the beloved Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by the eighth-century philosopher-poet Shantideva. Interweaving his teaching with Shantideva’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things.

“When we have perseverance, we will have no obstacles, which means obstacles to any happiness, especially to ultimate happiness, the freedom from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and most importantly to peerless happiness, the state of the omniscience that is enlightenment.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Learn more about this new release from Wisdom Publications and order your copy today:
wisdomexperience.org/product/perseverance

Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return at Sera Monastery Drati Khangtsen on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 7, 2023.

This year, Lama Tsongkhapa Day (Ganden Ngamchoe) fell on December 7. This special day celebrates of the anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana. A variety of prayers and practices were undertaken on this auspicious occasion and many FPMT centers and students used the opportunity to engage in prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return as well. At Kopan Monastery, extensive candle lights were offered, Kopan Lama Gyupa monks offered Guyasamaja Puja and constructed a sand mandala over three days, Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri was recited continuously for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as many other prayers, and visitors offered prayers in front of Rinpoche’s holy body. 

Sera Je Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 7, 2023. Photo courtesy of Sere Je Monastery Facebook page.

We were also very moved to receive notice of  Tibetan communities and Sangha engaging offering prayers in this way. As an example, at Sera Je Monastery Drati Khangtsen, India, as the monastery was illuminated with light offerings and with all monks in congregation, the Sangha recited prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return. 

As a reminder, we received the very precious advice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation, and all are very welcome to join this ongoing collective effort. 

We invite you to view this collection of photo galleries of some of the initial group prayers, pujas, and practices done for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Kopan Monastery; as well as monastic institutions and communities, FPMT centers, and at the sites of holy objects and gompas.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with cake offered during a birthday celebration, Kopan Monastery, December 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On December 3 we observe the birth date of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT International Office is sponsoring Lama Chopa with Tsog and recitation of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri at Kopan Monastery. 

Students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are encouraged to engage in these practices themselves, as a way to honor Rinpoche’s extremely beneficial and inspiring life, and to pray and create merit for the swift return of his reincarnation as advised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan, Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Save the date: From April 15-20, 2024, Kopan Monastery is hosting a Heart Sutra Retreat. His Eminence the 104th Ganden Tripa Rinpoche will offer commentary during the retreat; and participants will be guided to meditate on the meaning of the Heart Sutra by Ven. Steve Carlier, a long-time student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other important teachers in the Gelug tradition. 

This retreat will follow a commemoration,  on April 13, 2024, of one year since Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away.

In July 2022 Rinpoche expressed his wish to lead a Heart Sutra Retreat, so this is quite significant that this retreat is being offered within the FPMT organization, as it was one of Rinpoche’s expressed wishes. 

The Heart Sutra is the most widely known sutra of the Mahayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is part of the Prajnaparamita Sutras, which is a collection of about 40 sutras composed between 100 BCE and 500 CE. The Heart Sutra is a presentation of profound wisdom on the nature of emptiness. Reading and reciting the Heart Sutra is a powerful way to create the conditions for having a direct realization of emptiness.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that the only thing that can directly cut ignorance, which is the root of suffering and samsara, is wisdom realizing emptiness. There are many teachings on emptiness, but these teachings are found condensed in the Heart Sutra.

“Ignorance [has been] holding the false I as real from beginningless rebirths. That’s how we have been in samsara until now. Never liberated from suffering. But now there is, for example, the short one, the Heart Sutra, to cut that ignorance, that wrong concept,” Rinpoche explained before offering the oral transmission of the sutra in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015.

Just hearing the Heart Sutra, or reading it, Rinpoche explained, leaves a positive imprint to be free of samsara and to actualize the path, achieving enlightenment to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsara and bring them to enlightenment.

“If we are able to read or hear [the Heart Sutra] just one time, the positive imprint left by this definitely causes us in the near future to understand much more easily the teachings on emptiness. We will be able to understand the words and the meanings of the teachings on emptiness very easily, and we’ll be able to have realizations of emptiness easily, quickly in the future. Developing that wisdom ceases the gross and subtle defilements, the mistakes of the mind, and it makes us achieve the sorrowless state, the cessation of the suffering and its causes on our mental continuum, as well as great liberation even from the subtle mistakes of the mind, that which is full enlightenment on our own mental continuum,” Rinpoche explained.

Students can listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Heart Sutra on a digital audio album available in the FPMT Foundation Store. The downloadable album comes bundled with a digital version of the sutra in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats as well as the transcript of Rinpoche giving the oral transmission at the 2015 retreat in Mexico, from which the audio for the album was taken.

Students can find more links to Heart Sutra materials and resources below:

• The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – MP3 Download
• The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – eBook & PDF
• Watch the teaching in which Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of the Heart Sutra on video. (The oral transmission begins at 42:58.)
• FPMT Education’s Basic Program Online: Heart Sutra
• Essence Of The Heart Sutra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, eBook & PDF

Please learn more about the Heart Sutra Retreat and commemoration being offered at Kopan Monastery in April 2024. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 in Nepal, March 27, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

We are happy to share that the English translations for the swift return prayers composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other distinguished lamas with whom Rinpoche had a connection in this lifetime, including Khenzur Jhado Rinpoche, Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Tseringma, and Lelung Rinpoche, have now been updated and are available at the Foundation Store. The PDF file is available for a quick one-click download.

As a reminder, in October we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation. Please read more about this advice, download the prayers and other resources, and find information on joining continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones!  

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Manjushri painted by Peter Iseli.

In October we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation.

Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement in Kollegal, India reciting prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return.

With great rejoicing we share that the FPMT Puja Fund sponsored over 10,000 recitations of this text on Lhabab Duchen by sangha of the great monasteries (Sera Lachi, Gaden Lachi, Drepung Lachi, Gyuto Tantric College, and Gyudmed Tantric University) in India as well as by the monks and nuns of Kopan Monastery.

Additionally, as an example of some of the other activities happening around the world for Rinpoche’s swift return, Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement in Kollegal, India, arranged two days whereby all residents of the settlement recited the text continuously for two days in the community hall which was sponsored by the FPMT Social Services Fund. This settlement has a heartfelt connection to Rinpoche due to the ongoing support offered to their residents, including sponsorship of their elderly home.

Also with rejoicing we share that IMI has arranged continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones! Please read about how to sign up to join.

We encourage individuals to continue their own recitations—whether done alone, as a group, at one’s local center, or online. 

May all the prayers be actualized!

Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri Materials

As a reminder, the prayer is available for all to download Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri.

 Additionally, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive also offers Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s own commentary and oral transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri which is available to all.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

31-foot high Amoghapasha painting on Drak Karma cliff above Lawudo, Nepal.

Twenty-five years ago, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began expressing the wish for a large painting of 1,000-Armed Chenrezig to be painted on a 100-foot high cliff named Drak Karma above Lawudo in Nepal, approximately 4,200 meters above sea level (over 13,000 feet) so everyone in proximity could see it. In the last few years Rinpoche specifically said for the painting to be of Amoghapasha—an emanation of Chenrezig.

With huge rejoicing, we share that this 31-foot high by 21-foot wide (9.5 meters high by 6.4 meters wide) painting is now complete! It has been painted directly on the cliff face overseeing the whole area. Funds for this project were raised by the Thamichowa community; Anila Ngawang Samten (Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s sister) provided all the necessary materials and tools needed for painting; and Ven. Nyima Tashi, Ven. Thubten Tendar, and Pasang Dekyi helped to actualize this incredible project. 

Painting set up of the large Amoghapasha on a cliff above Lawudo.

As one can imagine, this was an incredible feat, an unbelievable task to complete. The whole project started a couple of months ago and it took ten days to get the scaffolding up to the site where the conditions were freezing and windy making the scaffolding and painting quite dangerous. The actual painting took seven days by Nepali artists, finished the day before Lhabab Duchen, and consecrated on the day of this merit-multiplying occasion. 

Please watch this incredible video of the painting as it occurred, by Ven. Tenzin Michael:

The unbelievable benefits of merely seeing the painted holy body of Amoghapasha are mentioned in the
Amoghapasha Tantra:

Close up of the exquisite painting of Amoghapasha on a cliff above Lawudo.

Merely by directly seeing the Compassionate Eye Looking Enriched One (Amoghapasha) and the Potala Mountain with the celestial mansion, you become free from the eight great hells and the eight great fears. It even liberates you from all the suffering of having committed the five heavy negative karmas without break (having killed one’s father, mother, or an arhat; having caused blood to flow from a buddha; having caused disunity among the Sangha). It completely purifies even the very heavy negative karma of having abandoned the holy Dharma, all the obscurations, and so forth. Just seeing this deity totally purifies all the negative karmas and obscurations from having criticized buddhas and bodhisattvas. Just seeing this painted holy body totally purifies even those who are to be reborn in the lowest hot hell, Inexhaustible Suffering. You collect hundreds of thousands of times more merit than Brahma and other worldly gods. You achieve the sublime merits (good luck or good karma) of all worldly beings.

Even when you die, the Compassionate Eye Looking Enriched One directly shows his face to you and frees your breath (which means frees you from lower realms). Even after death you will be born in Amitabha’s blissful realm. You become free from obscurations and are able to remember up to fifty thousand past lives. This will be your last life in samsara (you will be freed from samsaric rebirth) and your next life only goes toward the ultimate heart of enlightenment. Just by seeing this holy body one time, you collect inconceivable merit. If you continually see this holy body, there is no question of turning back from enlightenment. You achieve the peerless happiness of buddhahood with the cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all realizations.

 Rinpoche encouraged students to have an image of Amoghapasha printed as large as possible and displayed publicly due to the benefit.

Ven. Roger Kunsang joining others at the 100-foot high cliff that now is blessed with the 31-foot painting of Amoghapasha.

We are so happy to be able to accomplish this wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and pray that we may we be able to fulfill all of his holy wishes. Ven. Roger Kunsang, after visiting the finished work commented with great joy that, “Rinpoche would be so pleased” to see this completed.

In a speech from the Thamichowa community, they expressed the following:

“From the depths of our hearts, we pray that the merit accumulated from our pure thoughts to complete Rinpoche’s holy wishes and benefit sentient beings will be a cause for Rinpoche to quickly be reborn in our area recognized as the unmistaken incarnation!”

Please find practice materials, mantras, and other resources related to Amoghapasha to download from the FPMT Foundation Store. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

portrait of Lama Zopa Rinpoche taken by Ven. Lobsang Sherab in 2018.

As we all are now very aware, on April 13, 2023, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, our most precious guru and spiritual director, entered his final meditation at Kopan Monastery.

Although it is difficult to convey the extraordinariness of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s life, Ven. Robina Courtin has written a deeply moving tribute to Rinpoche’s many accomplishments, teachings, blessings, and activities.

We share it with the hopes that those who read it will be inspired to follow in Rinpoche’s footsteps, and continue to help fulfil all of Rinpoche’s wishes for the FPMT organization and the world. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya, India, January, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has offered us all the precious advice to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation.

We request all students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche to please recite this as much as you can continuously, starting now. 

In a few months’ time, His Holiness will be consulted again.

The prayer can be found here: Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri. 

We also share an audio recording of Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri. 

Letter from His Holiness’ Private Office:

As requested by the devotees of FPMT centers for observation regarding the quick return of the late Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation, the result of the observation as follows:

Please recite Names of Manjushri (Jampal Tshen Jo) continuously for now and in a few months’ time observation will be performed again. 

From His Holiness the Dalai Lama
October 18, 2023

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with some of this Dharma plushy toys, Kopan Monastery, 2020.

Introducing Rinpoche’s Dharma Plushy Toy Album!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the garden at Kopan Monastery with some Dharma plushy toys, 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang. .

Around the beginning of 2020, when all the world was experiencing lockdowns and turmoil due to the covid pandemic, students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche were relieved to receive Rinpoche’s laughter, wisdom, humor, and orientation toward Dharma in the form of a series of video teachings from his room in Kopan Monastery. These teachings came to be known as the thought transformation teaching series, and for many of us, they were truly a lifeline in an extremely uncertain time.

When the fourth video of this series was released, students noticed something interesting coming into view on Rinpoche’s couch and desk. A stuffed monkey, hippo, and elephant; as well as a wooden elephant and model yak had joined Rinpoche for his teaching. As time went on, more and more stuffed friends began appearing in Rinpoche’s room, soon with mantras, embellishments such as eyelashes and eye-liner, and profound (and often hilarious!) Dharma messages.

We are so pleased to offer you this joyful new album of Rinpoche’s plushy animals with their quotations. Please take your time and click through each of these adorable stuffed friends to reveal profound wisdom from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. More of these toys, which have been offered to students around the world, will be added as they become available so check back for new additions! 

Gallery of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Plushy Toys

History of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Toy Legacy

This wasn’t the first time Rinpoche turned toys or inanimate objects into Dharma. Rinpoche was known to offer creative and playful presentations of the Dharma including the utilization of cartoons, toys, and statues of animals. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Indonesia offering Dharma toys to students, 2010. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering Dharma toys to students at the airport, Switzerland, December 2018. Photo by Séverine Gondouin.

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

Dog with Dharma message written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Deer Park, Wisconsin, USA.

At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, in Washington State in the US, Rinpoche had many animal statues placed on the property with signs that share thoughts about practicing lamrim, or the graduated path to enlightenment.

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.”

In Wisconsin, US, at Deer Park Buddhist Center, Rinpoche created many Dharma messages for animal statues on the premises. A dog, which is dated 1998, says, “I’m talking on behalf of my family, including the frog and my small brother the turtle. We are here to explain to you that no causative phenomenon is ever born from self, from other, from both or without cause. How fortunate we are! We can all be liberated by actualizing this. Ha! Ha!” 

Rinpoche also enjoyed acquiring cute stuffed creatures and blessing them extensively with mantras before offering them to others. 

These are just a few of many examples of Rinpoche’s unique, charming, and hilarious way to reach sentient beings by bringing Dharma where one might not expect to find it! 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing a message on a stuffed monkey in 2010: “I have all sentient beings in my heart.”

A parrot with a Dharma message from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with animal statues at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with toys that he blessed with mantras which were given to some kind volunteers in Germany, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Ven. Tenzin Namdrol (also known affectionately as Ani Janne), a long-term resident of Kopan Monastery who has been offering service for many years, recalls receiving her first plushy toy from Rinpoche. “The advice was to carry it everywhere I went. I called it AH, and brought it with me to the dining room, café, gompa for puja, the bank, the visa office, korwa around Kopan, and everywhere. In retrospect, I think it was to bring a little lightness to the lockdown.” Ani Janne is one of many students who have taken delight in the whimsical nature of these Dharma toys which seem to bring a smile to the face of anyone who sees them. 

Ven.Tendar and Ven.Tenzin Namdrol with Lama Zopa Rinpoche outside, Kopan Monastery. Rinpoche was sending a message to a student with the toys that have dharma messages on, Aug 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

One of Rinpoche’s Dharma plushy toys.

 Before giving the toys away, Rinpoche would recite mantras and blow profusely on each plushy to bless it. One girl’s mother had seen the toys around Rinpoche while he was giving the thought transformation teachings on video. Rinpoche accepted her request for one, and after sending along the toy of her choice, the mother’s inability to sleep well at night disappeared. 

A collection of some of Rinpoche’s plushy Dharma toys.

Those locked down at Kopan were the next recipients. Those doing water bowls, those who worked in the café, teachers at Kopan School who had been separated from their families during covid—all received a special plushy toy from Rinpoche. When the lockdown restrictions relaxed, guests and students of Rinpoche received these toys. As those he had were offered out, new ones would arrive.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery with young monks and Dharma toys, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche offered the last group of plushy toys to the 2022 November Course participants. There were hundreds of people, and only a few toys, so Rinpoche had each person throw a dice at the end of the course, and if one dot came up, the plushy was theirs, creating a fun game for everyone. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery with some of his Dharma toys, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

 “Several times Rinpoche asked if I thought publishing the dolls pictures would make people happy,” Ven. Tenzin shares.  ‘Would people enjoy?’ he’d ask? ‘Of course,’ I replied! 

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Dharma toys.

The toys that were given away before having their pictures taken are still being tracked down, but for now, we happily offer an album-in-progress of these precious, often humorous quotes from Rinpoche:
fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/lama-zopa-rinpoches-dharma-plushy-toys

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.