Lama Zopa Rinpoche News

Medicine Buddha. Photo courtesy of FPMT Education Services.

There is starvation in Nigeria, and people are dying.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently checked on what is best to be done in Nigeria, where so many people are dying of hunger. It seems that this is due in part to extremists preventing food and aid from reaching people in need. According to Save the Children, up to half of all children under five are acutely malnourished in some areas of north-east Nigeria, where it is feared 200 children could die every day.

While Rinpoche considered making a donation to help the starving people, he then did a divination to check what was best. The result? Students of Rinpoche who are concerned about Nigeria should do the extensive Medicine Buddha puja, making strong prayers to Medicine Buddha for those affected to be free of hunger and oppression.

Get the e-book or a print copy of the puja recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, called The Wish-Granting Sovereign, from the Foundation Store : 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Medicine-Buddha–The-Wish-Granting-Sovereign-PDF_p_1901.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 enjoying a vegetarian lunch with Ven. Thupten Wongmo, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, October 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

How can we save animals?

Ven. Thupten Wongmo, a nun who lives at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), is a vegetarian because of what Lama Zopa Rinpoche told her many years ago: “It’s best to avoid eating meat out of compassion. Before eating the meat, think of where it came from, through cutting an animal’s neck, against its will, and how much suffering the animal experienced. After thinking about that, you can’t eat the meat! Meat may be nice for the person eating it, but not for the animal who suffered so much and didn’t die naturally. You can say prayers for the animal that was killed, but if you eat the meat, you are still playing a small part in the death of the animal. If everyone stopped eating meat, then no more animals would be killed for that purpose.”  

Rinpoche prefers to avoid eating meat and has often spoken in favor of vegetarianism. Ven. Wongmo reports that some time ago Rinpoche said that she could one day cook him “some rice.” Finally, in October 2016, she mustered up her courage—not being a confident cook—and prepared him a vegetarian lunch. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche says prayers, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Wongmo.

After enjoying the meatless meal, Rinpoche took another action to save animals: he kindly blessed “her mouse”—one of hundreds she has captured at BAPL and one of countless animals, birds, fish, and insects that have been been blessed there by the recitation of mantras, sutras, and prayers, as well as other activities. The mouse, which was inside a large plastic container with food, water, and a soft cloth, was able to listen while Rinpoche recited at length various mantras, including the Chenrezig mantra, the Medicine Buddha mantra, the short Namgyalma mantra, the Lotus Pinnacle mantra, and others, as well as various prayers. Ven. Wongmo also played Recitations for Animals and Sanghata Sutra CDs for the mouse, as she does for all the mice she catches.

All of these are among the many, many actions that are taken at BAPL by Rinpoche when he is present and by the Sangha and visitors on a regular basis to help animals, birds, fish, and insects. These include Ven. Wongmo’s mice and a recent visitor—a snake Rinpoche named Jangsem (Tibetan for “Bodhichitta”).

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on YouTube as he recites prayers to benefit Jangsem the snake and all other sentient beings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-WoBgM6eg

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

Read more about FPMT’s activities to encourage vegetarianism on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/vegetarianism/

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.

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 traveling by air, 2016

The holiday season has arrived and with it the prospect of traveling, whether to go home or away, to spend time with family and friends.

The following advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes what to do before traveling in order to have a safe and successful trip:

Instructions to Accomplish All Success Wherever You Go

At the beginning, when you enter the road to depart, remember and prostrate to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas who are in the ten directions, particularly those buddhas and bodhisattvas in the direction (you are going).

Then make strong requests for the success of all your wishes and then recite seven times:

NAMO BUDDHAYA / NAMO DHARMAYA / MAMA SARWA ARTHA SITAYE SVAHA (7X)

This will accomplish all your works exactly according to your wishes without obstacles.

The next practice is done particularly in the case where you have to do something on a wrong date, wrong star, or wrong time. This practice pacifies the shortcomings of time, date, star and so forth, and to accomplish success. Remember the buddhas and bodhisattvas who are in the direction where you are going. Put the palms together and recite:

I prostrate to the Three Rare Sublime Ones (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha).

I prostrate to the Tathagata, Enemy-Destroyer, the Owner of the Date, Star, Moment.

TADYATHA NAGA DRE NAGAPATI SARWA TITI MUHURTATI NAGA DRA NAMA SADUNTE NI BAWENTU SVAHA (3X)

Recite this three times, then all your works will succeed.

Advice translated by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at Deer Park in Madison, Wisconsin on July 24, 1999. Scribed by Diana Finnegan. Source of text unknown.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on YouTube walk through the Singapore airport unassisted on the way to the USA from Bhutan, June 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF7JE7dg2vk

Find more advice for traveling at Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/travel-and-immigration

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 the long life puja he was offered on the last day of Kopan Monastery’s November course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The 2016 one-month “November course” at Kopan Monastery came to an end in early December with a birthday celebration and a long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

Cake being offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche by November course participants while young monks sing ”Happy Birthday,” Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebration was a fun and auspicious occasion. While cutting cake, Rinpoche explained how to think while doing this, that the knife is cutting all the delusions and self-cherishing. With every cake presented to him, Rinpoche did extensive offering prayers. Kopan’s young monks sang “Happy Birthday” to him as well, and put cheerful displays and messages wishing him a happy birthday around the monastery. It was Rinpoche’s 72nd Tibetan birthday (71st Western birthday).

Offering tsog at the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the last day of the Kopan November course. The five dakinis are also shown. Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On the last day of the course, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered a long life puja with the five dakinis on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. The purpose of the long life puja is for students to purify the mistakes that occur in relation to their teacher, and to create the causes and conditions to continue to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time. Lama Zopa Rinpoche also mentions regularly that offering long life pujas is a cause for one’s own long life. 

After the puja, which was attended by 1,000 people, a picnic was offered for everyone, and lama dances and Sherpa dances were offered to Rinpoche. As is traditional, Rinpoche was presented a money offering at the end of the puja and Rinpoche chose to offer this toward the Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche watches a lama dance at the picnic after his long life puja, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the final days of the course, Rinpoche offered refuge to November course participants who sought it, gave a long life initiation to Rowaling people at Rowaling Gompa in Bouddhanath, just outside Kathmandu, and made light offerings at Bouddhanath Stupa, which had recently been reconsecrated after being damaged in Nepal’s April 2015 earthquake. He also gave course participants a special short teaching on 14th-15th century Tibetan yogi and iron bridge maker Thangtong Gyalpo, showing them a relic related to him.

FPMT Education Services offers a number of long life prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT.org, all of which can be used in personal practice. Rinpoche has suggested that “Bestowing Supreme Immortality” is particularly effective as it was composed by Rinpoche’s root guru, His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche.

Light offerings around stupas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Read more about Kopan Monastery and its courses and activities:
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/

Donations to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Long Life Puja Fund, which sponsors this yearly long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, are welcome.

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.

Rizong Rinpoche (beside a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) giving a White Tara empowerment at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, November 22, 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In November 2016, Rizong Rinpoche, recently retired as the 102nd Ganden Tripa (spiritual head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism), blessed Kopan Monastery and Nunnery with his presence over several days.

Rizong Rinpoche came to Nepal for the consecration of Boudhanath Stupa, which had been badly damaged in last year’s earthquake and is now restored. The consecration took place November 18-20 and prayers were done in all four of Tibetan traditions, with Rizong Rinpoche leading the Gelug contingent.

Rinpoche remained at Kopan for several other events: meeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jhado Rinpoche, and the young reincarnation of Kopan’s beloved former abbot, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, whose name is Tenzin Rigsel Rinpoche; giving a White Tara empowerment; and being offered a long life puja. He also spent time, alongside Lama Zopa Rinpoche and others, observing debates among the Kopan nuns, two of whom recently completed geshema degrees.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading Rizong Rinpoche into the gompa of Kopan Nunnery where he gave a White Tara empowerment and was offered a long life puja, November 22, 2016, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The White Tara empowerment given by Rizong Rinpoche was attended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jhado Rinpoche, and Kopan’s current abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, as well as Kopan monks and nuns and hundreds of Tibetans.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Rizong Rinpoche enjoy a conversation, Nepal, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Read more about Kopan Monastery and its courses and activities:
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/

Read more about Kopan Nunnery and its two geshemas:
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/about-kopan/nunnery
https://fpmt.org/fpmt-community-news/news-around-the-world/two-kopan-nuns-take-final-exam-for-geshema-degree/

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 preparing to give his first teaching at this year’s November course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 26, 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was greeted with great excitement when he arrived at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in November. His first day of teaching there was November 26. “The teachings have been incredible,” reported Ven. Holly Ansett two days later. “Rinpoche has been teaching mainly on emptiness. His words have been extremely profound and moving, and have stimulated a lot of lively debate during group discussions.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting with Jhado Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In addition to teaching, Rinpoche has been meeting with various other luminaries of Tibetan Buddhism, including Rizong Rinpoche, recently retired from his position as the 102nd Ganden Tripa (spiritual head of Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism); Khensur Jhado Tulku Rinpoche, former abbot of Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, the personal monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama; and the reincarnation of the beloved former abbot of Kopan, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup. The young boy, Tenzin Rigsel Rinpoche, was recognized last May.  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Tenzin Rigsel, for the first time, Kopan Monastery, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche also gave an impromptu teaching on the benefits of the Namgyalma mantra one evening when he went out for a walk and met up with a number of the course participants—one of those unique and special happenings that take place amid the magic of Kopan!

Going to the stupa one evening, Lama Zopa Rinpoche bumped into a few people and and gave an impromptu teaching, Kopan Monastery, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

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 preparing to go out on the water to bless Omak Lake, Washington, US, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

In the autumn of this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed several lakes located near Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), in Washington State, USA. Omak Lake was one of them. Tremendously beautiful, it has stunning hills rising up behind its light blue water, and is a holy site for Native Americans.

Rinpoche asked for a raft in order to go out on the lakes, and blessed beings in a variety of ways, such as:

• Special flags that he designed for the raft. The flags have mantras written in Tibetan on one side, and on the other side, they have an explanation of their purpose. Several different mantras appear, including OM MANI PADME HUM and the mantra that blesses “just by seeing,” OM HANU PHASHA BHARA HE YE SVAHA. The mantras are blown out over the lake from the raft.
• On the top of the poles holding the flags Rinpoche put small wooden tops. Inside them are the long Namgyalma mantra and Ushnisha mantra. These turn and send mantras out into the world.
• Rinpoche had Namgyalma mantras printed on paper and laminated in plastic, so that the mantras float on the water, blessing all the beings below them. On one side of the paper is the Namgyalma mantra in Tibetan; this is placed face down in the water. The other side has a message explaining what the mantra is, so if people find the mantras floating or washed up, they don’t throw them away. 

Back side of floating Namgyalma card

• Rinpoche has a mantra wheel that has millions of mantras on microfilm. Even just the shadow from this mantra wheel is said to bring benefits. Rinpoche held the mantra wheel over the lake as the boat moved along.
• Rinpoche has a Padmasambhava relic from Mount Kailash, in Tibet. This is inside a small stupa, which he held above the lake to bless the sentient beings in the water.

Ven. Holly Ansett holding relic of Padmasambhava from Mount Kailash, Washington, US, November 2016

• While out on the lake, Rinpoche did extensive prayers, reciting them into a loudspeaker. Recordings of mantras were also played. The raft also had underwater speakers, so the fish and other lake beings could hear the mantras and prayers.
• Rinpoche oversaw the making of special blessed food that included crushed mani pills, tsampa, and water blessed by many mantras and also by a crystal with Padmasambhava mantras etched on it, so that all the sentient beings who ate the food would be blessed and purified.
• Rinpoche also blessed beings by placing the glass etched with Padmasambhava mantras at the side of the lake, where the water touches the mantras, but the mantras can’t be walked on or swum over by animals, which might create negative karma. This way the water gets blessed and then blesses the beings in it.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche on YouTube as he chants blessings to the lake-bound beings from the raft:
https://youtu.be/o5UQMcj1H6k

Rinpoche asked the Sangha, in his absence, to keep going out on the lakes near BAPL on monthly blessing trips in order to continue to benefit all of the fish and other living beings. Despite the cold weather in Washington State, the Sangha have already been out on the water! 

Sangha blessing lake, Washington, US, November 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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives an impromptu Dharma teaching in a coffee shop to two people who approached him, an act that demonstrated his stated wish to make every moment beneficial by teaching the Dharma, Washington State, US, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In 2007, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared what he and some FPMT students did to benefit the millions of turkeys that are killed in the US for Thanksgiving Day. Rinpoche has long been a proponent of vegetarianism and thanks anyone who works to reduce the amount of meat they eat. Rinpoche suggests two practices that are beneficial for our friends the turkeys.

“I made a divination as to what would be the most beneficial thing to do for the turkeys and found that Medicine Buddha puja came out best… Another possibility could have been for us to do prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas, reciting these buddhas’ names with prostrations, to purify the negative karma of the turkeys and all other sentient beings, including the people who killed the turkeys, but in this case it came out better to do Medicine Buddha puja.” Read the full advice here …

Thanksgiving also means expressing gratitude, and gratitude is one of the 16 Guidelines for Life that Lama Zopa Rinpoche developed based on a 7th-century text from Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo. The king’s advice was, “Do not forget those who have been kind to you, and in return, do what benefits them according to your capacity.”  

Read more about gratitude and the other human dharmas in The 16 Guidelines for Life, or get cards of the 16 Guidelines, both available from the Foundation Store.

Read more about FPMT’s activities to encourage vegetarianism on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/vegetarianism/

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

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

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 says prayers at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche did extensive practices during November 2016 at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land to benefit animals—even one small snake who inadvertently ended up “in retreat” there!

“It says in Sutra Requested by [Lodro] Gyatso, ‘Even if they explained for eons, all the numberless past, present, and future buddhas could never finish explaining the benefits of generating bodhichitta and compassion for others, saving the lives of others, and practicing Dharma,’” commented Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 2007 in Taiwan. That teaching seemed particularly apt for those living at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land when they discovered a young snake struggling to escape after getting stuck to some adhesive left on the wall of a retreat cabin.

Jangsem struggles to free himself before his rescue.

Once Rinpoche and Sangha members had freed the unhappy sentient being—apparently a harmless gopher snake—with a combination of water and mantras, Rinpoche named him “Jangsem,” Tibetan for “bodhichitta.” Rinpoche also decided to keep Jangsem in his own house for a while in the hope of improving his future rebirths. Thus the small snake entered into retreat, in a large plastic box, comfortably resting on an old towel.

While Jamgsem inhabited the box, he had the chance to absorb countless prayers and mantras both spoken directly by Rinpoche and played to him from recordings. As well, resident Sangha spent significant time circumambulating with him to ensure he received extensive imprints from holy objects. After three weeks, Rinpoche indicated he could be released with special prayers that he not harm other living beings. While his towel was left outside for him in case he felt homesick and wanted to come back, Jangsem chose to return to the wild. He was accompanied by many prayers from Rinpoche and Sangha members, particularly that he would eventually find a precious human rebirth and a genuine Mahayana guru.

Watch “Rinpoche Recites Mantras for Jangsem the Snake” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcAo454riT0

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

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

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 with balloons and a hat that he has covered with mantras and prayers, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been busy in recent weeks filling the world with mantras!

At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington State in the United States, in order to bless sentient beings on the land there and in the water nearby, Rinpoche has been wearing a mantra-covered hat; releasing balloons with mantras he has written on them; flying flags and banners covered with mantras; placing plastic-covered floating mantras in lakes; putting mantras on the roofs of bird feeders; holding microfilm containing multiple mantras above lakes and other places where creatures live; playing recordings of mantras; chanting mantras himself; and blessing the water in lakes and even a birdbath with a Padmasambhava mantra etched in glass.

The purpose of all these mantras? To bless and purify sentient beings, and ensure they have better futures. Rinpoche has explained in the past three ways of benefiting animals, fish, birds, and insects: taking them around holy objects while chanting mantras and prayers, blessing water they are in contact with, and chanting mantras loudly so they can hear them. Rinpoche and the Sangha have been doing all of these extensively at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land.

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

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

A mantra hat for students, designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, is available through the Foundation Store.

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 blessing the sentient beings in Omak Lake, Washington State, USA, September 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche recently spent some time blessing Omak Lake, near Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington State, USA. Rinpoche did extensive prayers and mantras for all the sentient beings in the lake now as well as those who will be there in future. Rinpoche had asked the Sangha earlier to make floating Namgyalma mantras: mantras written on paper and laminated with plastic so that they float above the living beings, blessing them.

Why bless a lake? In 2013, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that his goal when he blesses bodies of water is to “liberate all the animals and fish … to free them from the suffering of rebirth, old age, sickness and death, and to help them achieve total liberation from suffering and attain the state of omniscient mind, the peerless happiness!” According to Rinpoche in his book Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death, the living beings in the lake can experience purification of their karma and avoid the lower realms in the future. Rinpoche recounts the following story there:

“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. Vasubandhu (Lopön Yignyen) was reciting one text called the Abhidharmakosha and a pigeon on the roof heard this every day. When the pigeon died, Lopön Yignyen checked to see where the pigeon had been reborn. It was in a family who lived down below in the valley. He went down and saw the child … The child became a monk named Lopön Loden. He became an expert on the text which he had heard when he was a pigeon … Therefore, it’s extremely important to recite lam-rim prayers and mantras to animals.”

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

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

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 is sped to a teaching, New York City, USA, July 2016. Photo by Nan Meng.

“This is a very good meditation on emptiness,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book Kadampa Teachings, adding, “It’s simple but profound, and gives us a clear understanding.”

“When we hear or think of one year, ‘Oh, it takes one year to do that,’ whether it’s study or travel, it’s a real one year, one that exists from its own side. Now, when you analyze that one year, you find that it is labeled on the base, twelve months. ‘One year’ is imputed by your mind to the base, twelve months.

“So, what is one year? Twelve months. Twelve months is what is called ‘one year.’ When we think of the base, the twelve months, it’s not that one year becomes totally nonexistent. One year exists, but it exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind. It’s not that it becomes totally nonexistent. It’s not that there’s no one year. There is one year, but it is something unbelievably subtle. What one year is is extremely subtle … The one year that you thought of at the beginning doesn’t exist. The real one year that you thought of without thinking of the twelve months, the real one year existing from its own side, is not there. It doesn’t exist. That one doesn’t exist at all, anywhere. It’s not on the tip of your nose, nor anywhere else. I’m joking. It exists nowhere. When you think of the base, the twelve months, your understanding of one year is something totally different from what appeared to you and what you believed before. It’s not that real one at all. The one year still exists. It’s not nonexistent; it exists, but it’s empty, empty of existing from its own side. It’s empty of the year that you first thought of, that first appeared to you and in which you believed. When you think of the twelve months, the one year exists but it’s now something totally different from what you thought before, from what appeared to you and what you believed before. It’s totally different. It exists but it’s empty. It exists but it’s unified with emptiness. So, this is the Middle Way….”

Read more from Kadampa Teachings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/kadampa-teachings

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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.