Lama Zopa Rinpoche News

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Sangpo Sherpa liberating goats, Maratika Caves, Nepal, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In late February, Lama Zopa Rinpoche liberated three goats at Maratika, Nepal, site of the famed Maratika Caves associated with Padmasambhava and long life. In a new video on FPMT’s YouTube channel, Rinpoche leads an extensive motivation for the animal liberation before blessing the goats by chanting various mantras, reciting beneficial prayers, and tying blessed red cloth around their necks. Rinpoche ends the practice with several dedication prayers.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly preforms animal liberations, that is, saving animals in threat of being killed and exposing them to Dharma to benefit their future lives. Rinpoche has taught that in addition to helping the animals, “the person who liberates animals, or whoever wants to dedicate the merit to those with life obstacles, this practice helps them to obtain long life.”

Benefiting animals is part of Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT, which includes ongoing animal liberations offered by Sangha and students dedicated to the long life of others and sustained by the Animal Liberation Fund.

Watch “Animal Liberation for Three Goats at Maratika Cave” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/A48PHOa2hI0

You can watch more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT.org: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/videos-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

For longer videos of Rinpoche teaching, visit: http://bit.ly/rinpoche-available-now

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Rinchen Jangsem Ling Retreat Centre, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Bill Kane.

On April 8, Lama Zopa Rinpoche traveled from Kuala Lumpur, where he taught at Losang Dragpa Centre, to Rinchen Jangsem Ling Retreat Centre (RJL), arriving in the early evening. The beautiful, rural center is located in the middle of a palm plantation and sits on the top of a large hill, with a panoramic view of the area.

Statues on the altar at Rinchen Jangsem Ling, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Bill Kane.

When Rinpoche arrived there, a number of people from the local village who regularly go to RJL or support it greeted Rinpoche in the center’s large gompa. Rinpoche spontaneously gave an hour-long teaching on emptiness and then offered gifts to all there. 

The next day, the Great Medicine Buddha initiation was scheduled to start, beginning with a welcoming ceremony in the early afternoon attended by local dignitaries, sponsors, students and supporters. Rinpoche spoke about the importance of having a Dharma center.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche touring the grounds around the gompa at Rinchen Jangsem Ling, which include beautiful, white marble statues, like the Namthose statue pictured here, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

That evening, instead of the Great Medicine Buddha initiation, Rinpoche gave a teaching. Over the following two days Rinpoche gave the initiation each evening. About 200 people took the initiation and about 150 of them remained for the April 12-19 retreat, staying in the small village of Triang nearby. Buses were arranged throughout the day to bring the retreatants up and down the hill.

This was the first time RJL hosted such an extensive and large retreat. They started preparing months before to make sure there would be adequate water and facilities for guests. The local villagers cooked food for everyone, and the whole retreat went very smoothly. All the participants were very well taken care of, especially the ordained Sangha.

During the retreat Rinpoche gave the oral transmission of the extensive 35 Buddha practice and requested that this practice be done at the beginning of each session of the retreat. Each day Rinpoche taught for a number of hours, giving inspiring teachings and constantly reminding the retreatants of the real purpose of retreat. He also gave an exceptional teaching on how to meditate on emptiness. On the last day, everyone did Dorje Khadro fire puja to conclude the retreat.

Students during the Great Medicine Buddha initiation, Rinchen Jangsem Ling, April 2016. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Selina Foong, director of Rinchen Jangsem Ling, touring the retreat center grounds, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Kuan Yin and White Dzambala statues at Rinchen Jangsem Ling, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche also gave a teaching on karma to about 150 people at a home for the elderly in Triang. In the past Rinpoche had sponsored a large marble Medicine Buddha statue for the elderly home, and while visiting, Rinpoche offered US$5,000 to support the home.

Rinpoche giving a teaching to about 150 people at a home for the elderly, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The statue of Medicine Buddha that Lama Zopa Rinpoche had sponsored for the elderly home during an early visit, Malaysia, April 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 (seated) with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Peter Griffin and Ven. Losang Sherab, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang. Rinpoche is looking at the recently completed Chenrezig statue, created by Peter and Denise Griffin.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a photo of Chenrezig to a waitress he met at a restaurant in Darjeeling, India. Later, he sent her this advice, recently published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, which includes an explanation of the visualization, the numberless benefits of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and how to dedicate the merits. Here’s a short excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice:

“[Recite] OM MANI PADME HUM with bodhichitta, the precious thought of enlightenment, to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to the peerless happiness, the state of omniscient mind, and then for oneself to achieve the peerless happiness, the state of omniscient mind. This is the precious thought called bodhichitta. If you recite OM MANI PADME HUM with that motivation then no question there is far greater merit, unbelievable, most unbelievable. It is so great. If it was materialized the merit would be greater than the sky, even if you recite the mantra only one time with bodhichitta.

“You can see that this makes it a quick way to actualize the path to buddhahood, the state of omniscient mind and particular to develop compassion for the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings. Then to generate bodhichitta, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering, to free everybody and bring them to the peerless happiness, the total elimination of obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

“I gave you a picture of Chenrezig, but please don’t think it’s just a picture. Think it is the actual living Chenrezig, huge as a snow mountain or like Mount Everest. Think it is actually living, the formation of light, not just material but the actual living compassion of numberless buddhas. This is the manifestation of numberless buddhas’ omniscient mind – the perfect understanding and perfect power to be able to do perfect works for all the sentient beings, including you. …”

You can read this advice in its entirety and find more advice from Rinpoche, in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/lama-zopa-rinpoches-online-advice-book

More information, photos 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 Losang Dragpa Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On the last day of March, Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived at 1:30 a.m. at Losang Dragpa Centre (LDC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after driving from Penang, where he had given teachings and initiations organized by Chokyi Gyaltsen Center. There were a few people in the LDC gompa when Rinpoche arrived and the first thing Rinpoche did there was extensively offer divine cloth (khatas) to all the main holy objects (of which there are many) in the gompa.

The next day, Rinpoche began teachings for the Chittamani Tara initiation at LDC, which went April 1-3. Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and abbot of Kopan Monastery; Geshe Deyang, resident teacher at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center; and Geshe Tsungdu, resident teacher at LDC attended. Each night Rinpoche went until after midnight.

Between the teachings, Rinpoche filled up his “free days” with many holy activities, extensive pujas and outings. Rinpoche also spoke at Kasih Hospice and blessed the hospice’s new building, which serves as a headquarters for the hospice volunteers and is where they receive training. Kasih Hospice is a successful FPMT service, helping about 150 people transition into death in their own homes.

During the hospice visit, LDC center director and president of Kasih Hospice Goh Pik Pin explained how the idea of starting the hospice came from Rinpoche and did a presentation on their work. 

Rinpoche giving a talk at Kasih Hospice, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche gave a talk and general advice while he was at Kasih Hospice, which you can watch on FPMT’s Livestream page. In order to help Tibetan Buddhism flourish in Malaysia, Rinpoche recommended reciting “The Prayer that Spontaneously Fulfills All Wishes” (“Sampa Lhundrup”). Rinpoche also gave advice on practices to do to help the Malaysian economy.

On another outing, Rinpoche took the 40 Sangha attending the Kuala Lumpur events out for tea and cake. Then they walked around eCurve, a giant mall not far from LDC. Rinpoche explained a meditation on emptiness, on how to look at everything as a dream, a hallucination. Then Rinpoche took the Sangha out to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant

Beginning in the morning of April 6, Rinpoche offered a White Tara initiation. The center offered lunch to the hundreds of people who attended, and the event was webcast live. (You can watch the motivation before the initiation here.)

Rinpoche facing the garden inside the LDC gompa with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Geshe Tsungdu, Sangha and students doing a ritual for purification, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The next day Rinpoche did a special ritual for purification for the center, country and all beings. The following day Rinpoche led an extensive offering practice that included offering actual flowers (potted orchids and wreaths) to each of the 17 Pandit statues in the garden at LDC. 

The center’s staff and volunteers took incredible care of the 40 ordained Sangha who were there from around the world, offering breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and arranging places to stay, rides to the teachings and sightseeing on days off.

On Friday, April 8, Rinpoche left from LDC to go to Rinchen Jangsem Ling Retreat Centre in Triang where he gave a Great Medicine Buddha initiation, April 9-11, and led a Medicine Buddha retreat, April 12-19.

Rinpoche with Geshe Tsungdu and Losang Dragpa Centre’s exco and volunteers, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche having lunch with (from right) Tenzin Osel Hita, Chung Han and his wife, and Gomo Tulku, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Video from Rinpoche’s teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center, Losang Dragpa Centre and Kasih Hospice in Malaysia are now available at:
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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at a rented venue in Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab. Chokyi Gyaltsen Center organized the Penang teachings and arranged the incredible altar behind Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching tour of Southeast Asia continues in Malaysia. In mid-March Rinpoche arrived at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center (CGC) in Penang after a 10-hour drive from Singapore. Rinpoche went straight into the center’s gompa and did an hour of extensively offering divine cloth (khata) to each of the holy objects there.

“Rinpoche really, really, really likes Chokyi Gyaltsen Center’s gompa,” Ven. Holly Ansett, who is traveling with Rinpoche, told Mandala. “It has incredible statues – all magnificent and arranged so neatly and beautiful with extensive offerings. The art of all the statues is all exceptional and the holy objects in the gompa are all sort of pulsating with these colored incredible lights.”

Rinpoche at Hayagriva tsog kong puja at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center in Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Two days after Rinpoche arrived, Rinpoche asked Geshe Deyang, who is the resident geshe at CGC, to arrange a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong, an extensive offering puja that is 10-12 hours long. Geshe Deyang is an expert in Hayagriva ritual and has done a lot of Hayagriva practice. He was one of the monks who for many years was part of the Hayagriva monks at Sera Je Monastery who do this puja once a month for FPMT. 

The Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong requires hundreds of tormas. Fortunately, Geshe Deyang had already prepared them to be ready if Rinpoche made the request for the puja. The puja went all day until after dinner, attended by Rinpoche and about 30-40 ordained Sangha. “It is an extremely powerful puja,” Ven. Holly shared. “Very elaborate. Rinpoche was extremely pleased for it to have happened.”

Rinpoche teaching on the Three Principles of the Path, Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The weekend of March 19-20, Rinpoche gave a public teaching on the “Three Principles of the Path,” which was attended by over 400 people. The center had advertised the teaching in the local Chinese newspaper, which brought in many new people. They rented a large venue and installed an elaborate altar with many extensive offerings. 

“Geshe Deyang managed all the altars and set up, and took great care that everything was perfect, elaborate and beautiful,” Ven. Holly said. “All the center members worked incredibly hard to create this event, and you could really feel it.”

The center took good care of the 45 ordained Sangha from around the world in attendance. They had a chef cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for them. The center also arranged places for Sangha to stay, rides to the teachings and sightseeing on days off.

The 21 Tara altar at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center, Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

After the public teachings, Rinpoche gave the Most Secret Hayagriva initiation to about 250 people over a few days. Geshe Deyang took care of all the elaborate tormas. Tenzin Ösel Hita and Gomo Tulku came to take the initiation, which was extremely precious. Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi from Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Geshe Tsungdu from Losang Dragpa Centre and Geshe Tenzin Zopa were also there. Each day of the initiation stretched late into the night. The last day of the initiation ended at 4 a.m. at which time Geshe Deyang and the center staff and volunteers had to pack up everything in the the rented venue – the altar, extensive offerings and so forth – working until 7:30 a.m.

While in Penang, Rinpoche also did an extensive Medicine Buddha puja that took all day.

99-foot (30.2-meter) tall Kuan Yin statue, Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

View from Kuan Yin statue pavilion, Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The day Rinpoche departed from Penang for Kuala Kumpur, Rinpoche stopped to see the 99-foot (30.2-meter) tall bronze Kuan Yin statue at the Kek Lok Si Temple. Rinpoche did prostrations and practices in front of the statue until dark and then went to a restaurant to have dinner with many of the center staff and volunteers, about 40 people. Rinpoche and the entourage left at 10 p.m. to drive to Kuala Lumpur.

CGC director Daniel,  Jaya, representing Rinchen Jangsem Ling, and Pik Pin, director of Losang Dragpa Centre, requesting Rinpoche to come back to Malaysia again, Penang, March 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 and Tenzin Ösel Hita at long life puja at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, March 13, 2016. Rinpoche is offering Ösel a gift of a crystal Buddha statue.

A message from Ven. Roger Kunsang, assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the CEO of FPMT, Inc.:

Dear Friends,

The special long life puja offered to Rinpoche in Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore went very well. I think this was due to so many people making the effort to come, and so many making the effort to participate in some way in the puja. ABC staff and students made such an excellent effort in organizing and hosting the event.

Some of the highlights:

As you know it was Khadro-la’s (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme’s) advice for Rinpoche’s health and long life that we were following. Khadro-la wanted to come to Singapore to attend but couldn’t come as His Holiness was returning to Dharamsala from America, and she needed to be there. We informed Khadro-la the day before the puja that it was happening, and Khadro-la sent a prayer for Rinpoche’s long life that spontaneously came to her. Khadro-la asked that Ven. Holly read it to Rinpoche in the puja.

All 171 FPMT centers, services, projects and offices were represented in the long life puja. In a long line with gifts, their representatives slowly approached Rinpoche, requesting long life. At the head of this line was a life-size long life statue of Amitayus. Offering it on behalf of the FPMT Board, International Office and the entire FPMT was Tenzin Ösel Hita, Karuna Cayton, Massimo Corona and Ven. Holly.

Tenzin Ösel read out a heartfelt praise and request to Rinpoche that he himself composed. 

Paula de Wijs read out the heartfelt praise on behalf of the entire organization, compiled by Ven. Robina Courtin on the basis of many submissions from the FPMT family.

Rinpoche commented that he was very pleased and moved at the number of students who attended from all around the world.

The puja lasted eleven and a half hours! It was a very big warm family event! THANK YOU everyone!

After the puja, over the next day Rinpoche went through every single card, letter and gift that had been offered. At one stage the whole room was filled with offerings that Rinpoche then started to give away. All of the offerings Rinpoche dedicated to: water turning prayer wheels in Namche Bazaar, Nepal; Ngari Khamtsen; Dhakpo Khamtsen; Osel Labrang; an elevator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Sera Lachi; H.E. Ling Rinpoche’s geshe examination; Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund; Holy Objects Fund; Social Services Fund; Lhungtok Choekhorling Buddhist Monastery; Lawudo Retreat Center for the building of the Lotus Light Palace of Guru Rinpoche temple.

Thank you also to all who participated in the tsog offerings dedicated for Rinpoche’s health and long life.

roger

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, Singapore, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“It’s also mentioned in the Meeting of Father and Son Sutra that compared with the merit of practicing the five paramitas – patience, charity, morality, perseverance and concentration – for ten eons, listening to teachings on emptiness collects much greater merit,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in “Teachings on the Heart Sutra,” an excerpt of a March 2000 teaching now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“It is unbelievable to practice the paramita of morality for ten eons or even for one lifetime, even for one year, to live in pure morality. To practice the paramita of morality is so difficult. To live in pure morality, the paramita of morality, not just in one life but even for one year it’s very difficult. By examining our own mind, by looking at the world, at others, by even examining our own mind, it’s very difficult.

“Now here, practicing all five paramitas for ten eons, if we just think of how hard that is and of course also how much merit we collect, no question, there is so much merit, inconceivable merit, just with each practice – charity, morality, patience, perseverance and concentration – with each one, we collect inconceivable merit, no question. But when we compare practicing these paths for ten eons, that itself is unbelievable, inconceivable merit that we collect, but if we compare just listening, just hearing, just listening [snaps fingers] to teachings on emptiness, this collects far greater merit than those previous ones, practicing the five paramitas for ten eons.”

Read more from “Teachings on the Heart Sutra” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/teachings-heart-sutra

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 teaching at Losang Dragpa Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“It is said that even rising a doubt about emptiness, even rising a doubt, even that breaks samsara in pieces,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in “Teachings on the Heart Sutra,” an excerpt of a March 2000 teaching now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“It’s so powerful, unbelievably powerful, even rising doubt, when you do analysis into emptiness thinking that this may be empty but not completely. Thinking maybe this is empty, so even arising a doubt like this, even not completely thinking it’s empty, not generating full faith that it’s completely empty but even thinking that maybe it’s empty. Even rising this thought, this doubt in the emptiness, even that breaks our suffering realm, the samsara, the circling one, circling from this life to the next life, then circling from that life to the next life. This circling, this samsara, this container of all these life problems and foundation of the next life problems, this samsara that we have now, the container of all the problems of this life and the foundation of all the future life problems.

“Even rising a doubt like this is so powerful that it breaks our samsara into pieces. Even the rising doubt in emptiness harms our samsara. It harms the root of samsara, the ignorance, even just thinking, without full faith that it is empty, but thinking that it may be empty.”

Read more from “Teachings on the Heart Sutra” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/teachings-heart-sutra

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 leading extensive Medicine Buddha puja during lunar eclipse at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center in Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On March 25, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page this brief teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Lama Zopa; Merely thinking of helping someone! … Is far, far, far greater, infinitely greater, than making offering to buddhas!

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

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 at long life puja, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

A student asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche for advice after having a mastectomy and experiencing great physical difficultly while on chemotherapy.

My very dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling student,

Please recite the Vajra Cutter Sutra a few times. Also, I will do some prayers and recitations for you now.

Also, please recite Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s name mantra. If you have a thangka or statue, think that Buddha is actually there. Buddha sends nectar with much loving kindness and it purifies you completely. All your disease and spirit harm and where all sickness comes from – delusions and karma – gets purified totally. What has been collected from beginningless rebirths gets completely purified. Recite the name mantra and think this very strongly.

Also, think strongly about the quotations from the Kadampa Geshes, such as the quotation that the bad conditions one is experiencing now are like one’s virtuous friends. Look at it that way, think of it that way.

Then, the next one is “This suffering is a manifestation of emptiness.” Meditate on emptiness. “The ‘I’ is not truly existent” – that is the meditation.

The next meditation is “It is a dependent arising.” (Mainly think about subtle dependent arising, the Prasangika-Madhyamaka view.). So this means: “What is ‘I’ is nothing, except for what is merely labeled – what exists in mere name – by the valid mind on the merely labeled aggregates.”

You can do other meditations on emptiness that are effective for you. Spend a little bit of time on each point. Meditate on how the “I” exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind on the valid base – the aggregates – that is also merely labeled by the mind. Meditate on that.

Then, experience this cancer that exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind.

Nothing exists from its own side. No cancer exists from its own side. The object also – the cancer itself – exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind. “What I believe as real cancer does not exist at all from its own side; it’s totally empty from its own side.” Meditate on that.

The other thing is to do tong-len. You have probably already received teachings and advice on this, so you can use the Lama Chöpa verse [v. 95] or Nagarjuna’s verse or other different ways.

This is the best meditation to purify from where cancer comes, from the obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and to collect more than skies of merits. Each time when you take the suffering of others and the causes with compassion and with loving kindness, and then give away one’s body, possessions, three times’ merit and all the results up to enlightenment, you collect more than skies of merit. Numberless times! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! That’s very, very good. It makes you achieve enlightenment in the quickest way; it makes you able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings quicker. It means that it’ll be much faster for you to bring sentient beings to full enlightenment: sangye, the cessation of all the obscurations and the completion of all the realizations.

If you can come to India, there is geshe who used to live in Dharamsala called Geshe Tobgye. He is very old and he used to heal many people of cancer by giving mantras. In the meantime, do this practice.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, India, January 2016. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at a teaching organized by Chokyi Gyaltsen Center, Panang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has arrived in Malaysia and over the weekend taught at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center in Penang on the “Three Principles of the Path.” Through April 19, Rinpoche will teach and give initiations at the three FPMT centers in Malaysia, including Losang Dragpa Centre in Kuala Lumpur and Rinchen Jangsem Ling Retreat Centre in Triang. 

Unfortunately, there will be no livestreaming video of the teachings with Rinpoche in Malaysia. (The teachings from Singapore, however, are available on FPMT’s Livestream page for Singapore.)

Rinpoche travels to Hong Kong after Malaysia to give teachings organized by Mahayana Buddhist Association (Cham Tse Ling) beginning on April 28. These teachings are expected to be livestreamed.

To receive updates on the video livestreaming of Rinpoche’s teachings, visit FPMT’s Livestream page and click the green “Follow” button in the upper right hand corner:
http://livestream.com/FPMT

More information about Rinpoche’s teaching schedule can be found here:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/schedule/

More information, photos 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 and Khadro-la making prayers at Boudhanath, Nepal, February 2016

A student in prison wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche to ask Rinpoche to be his guru.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

Thank you very much for your kind letter. I accept. I am not qualified, but I accept to do what I can.

Please find enclosed the practice that is my advice to do every day. Also, I am sending you some past advice I have given to people in prison, maybe you have read this already.

The way to think is that being in prison can be like being in retreat. People live outside of prison, with all the opportunities and having freedom, but they often don’t practice Dharma. You should think that even though you don’t have freedom, it can be like being in retreat. Being in prison gives you time to meditate on the path to enlightenment; to do purification practices, to purify past negative karma collected since beginningless time; to collect extensive merit; and to meditate on the lam-rim – the graduated path to enlightenment – such as renunciation, the sufferings of samsara, the six realm sufferings, bodhichitta, emptiness and so forth. It gives you time to understand that we have to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and to do that we must purify our defilements, which are the causes of suffering, which have caused one to be in prison. Also, we need to collect extensive merit and actualize the path. To do that, we need to meditate on the lam-rim and to have experiences of the lam-rim, such as the six realm sufferings, especially the sufferings of the lower realms and so forth.

The idea is to spend your time in prison practicing Dharma; then there will be great success as it becomes a place of retreat and gives you the opportunity to have mental freedom for yourself. In this way, there is not just the happiness of this life, but the happiness of future lives and liberation and enlightenment.

The main thing is to have peace of mind wherever you practice Dharma and to achieve happiness now and in future lives for oneself and for the numberless sentient beings. This is not just temporary happiness, but ultimate happiness – liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings in the six realms, ultimate freedom. And not only that, but the peerless happiness, the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. You will be able to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and, not only that, bring them to full enlightenment, the peerless happiness.

This is the purpose of being in prison, the ultimate purpose of one’s life in prison. You should know this. It gives yourself, by your mind, total freedom – freedom to achieve enlightenment.

If you can get some Dharma books to study (maybe you can ask Liberation Prison Project if they can send them to you) such as books on the lam-rim, lojong, The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, a commentary on the Heart Sutra, a commentary on the “Eight Verses of Mind Training” and on the “Seven-Point Mind Training” and so forth – read and study these books. [Note: These specific links are offered by the editors.]

The main thing is for you to not see all this – not having freedom – as an obstacle. You should think that you have the best freedom to free yourself and all beings from samsara by practicing the path. This is the BEST OPPORTUNITY!

Please try to think this way.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, United States, November 2015. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

Liberation Prison Project (LPP) is an FPMT international project dedicated to supporting students in prison who wish to study Dharma. Find more Mandala archive stories about LPP online. 

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.