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Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Tso Pema, India, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recorded a 20-minute video Losar greeting for the students and supporters of the FPMT organization during his visit to Tso Pema (Rewalsar) in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where Rinpoche stayed for a few weeks in January and February.
“My dear students and all my dear brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers – everybody – thank you very much,” Rinpoche says in the video message. “For the Monkey Year, for this new year, I’m offering from my heart greetings and a billion, zillion, trillion, skies of offerings to everybody. Please, everybody, enjoy bliss – meaningful happiness – in the new year. …”
Watch “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Message, Losar 2016” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/riwytpShUlY
In the video, Rinpoche sits between two snow lion statues on the roof of the building where he completed some personal retreat. Rinpoche purchased the statues from a Tibetan artist’s shop in Tso Pema and is offering them to Tushita Meditation Centre in McLeod Ganj, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the west and north by car. “I thought I’d send the snow lions to Tushita on my behalf and they can lead meditation and talk about the mind to Westerns and Indians,” Rinpoche said jokingly about the statues.
During his trip to Tso Pema, Rinpoche also visited the sacred sites there associated with Padmasambhava as well as received rare oral transmissions on monastic discipline.
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 visited the 110-foot Padmasambhava statue at Tso Pema, Himachal Pradesh, India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently spent several weeks at Tso Pema (Lotus Lake, also known as Rewalsar) in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Rinpoche went to Tso Pema to receive rare oral transmissions on vinaya (monastic discipline) from the abbot of Zigar Monastery, a Kagyü monastery in Tso Pema. Rinpoche also spent time doing personal retreat and circumambulating the lake.
Tso Pema is closely associated with the 8th-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche. According to the story, Padmasambhava angered the king of the area by teaching Dharma to his daughter. The king had Padmasambhava burned alive in a pyre that created great clouds of smoke. But after several days, a lake appeared in the same spot and Padmasambhava was sitting in the middle of the lake on a lotus and the king came to see the error of his ways.
There are many holy sites in the area, which Rinpoche visited, including the cave where Padmasambhava meditated, Zangdok Palri Palace Monastery, and the 110-foot (34-meter) tall Padmasambhava statue overlooking the lake.
Tso Pema, Himachal Pradesh, India, January 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 with a copy of his new book ‘How to Enjoy Death,’ Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, December 2015
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s much anticipated book How to Enjoy Death: Preparing to Meet Life’s Final Challenge without Fear is now available through the FPMT Foundation Store. The beautifully printed book is a practical guide for students on how to best help loved ones and themselves during the death process.
“We Buddhists all know about death and impermanence, but when death comes into our lives we often panic and don’t know what to do to help,” said Ven. Robina Courtin, who edited the book. “Rinpoche lays out all the instructions so clearly, one step at a time, for how to help our loved ones: what to do in the months and weeks before death, what to do in the hours before death, at the time the breath stops, and in the three days as well as the 49 days after death, including transforming our loved one’s ashes into a holy object.”
In addition to Rinpoche’s advice, How to Enjoy Death includes the mantras, prayers and practices to be said and done, making it a valuable resource.
“The essential point of all these practices is not just to help our loved ones die well, but to help them get a good rebirth – everything is geared to that,” Ven. Robina stressed. “As Rinpoche says, ‘Helping our loved ones at the time of death is the best service we can offer them, our greatest gift. Why? Because death is the most important time of life: it’s at death that the next rebirth is determined.’”
Find links to many resources for time of death on FPMT.org/death.
The FPMT Foundation Store distributes Dharma materials around the world and supports the work of FPMT International Office. All proceeds from this shop are used to further the charitable mission of FPMT, Inc. Visit https://shop.fpmt.org.
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 near Lawudo Retreat Centre, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Many problems arise when our motivation is the selfish mind, concentrated in our heart,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in The Power of Compassion, a 2006 Malaysia teaching now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “The main achievement is our own happiness, not others. When we do that, then there’s carelessness to others, no concern to others. Then those other people who are doing work for us become dissatisfied, they become unhappy. They don’t get treated well, they don’t get respect, then they become unhappy and they leave, or they create trouble for us. The other workers in the company or business create problems, they give harm to us, so things like that.
“Because of our selfish mind, then our actions are unkind and others become unhappy. Then we get problems, trouble. This effect is the consequence of the selfish mind. We receive the problem, but it is originally coming from our selfish mind. It becomes a circle, like that.
“Like this, the problem increases more and more. Then after some time there are court cases and people are suing each other, then you lose all the money and all these things. There are debts and all this, then the problems get built up in the life, like that. So that’s one explanation.
“Even if you become a millionaire or a billionaire, because of the selfish mind, the strong desire wanting more, better things – you want more, you want to be more rich than other wealthy people in the world – there is no ending. You engage in illegal things and many other things, then after some time, other people find out. Then all the people in the company use that to sue you. They become unhappy and sue you back. Your life ends up with a bad reputation in the world, in the newspaper, on TV. Even after you become a millionaire or a billionaire, you end up with a bad reputation and end up with life in prison.
“All these are shortcomings of the ego. This is a reality [recognized by] any religion, it doesn’t matter whichever religion it is. This is reality. Everybody can understand that.”
Find the complete The Power of Compassion on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/power-compassion
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 at the Mahabodhi Stupa in Bodhgaya making offerings, February 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
In 2014, while Lama Zopa Rinpoche was celebrating Losar at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, he gave an inspiring teaching during a long life puja being offered to him. Ven. Sarah Thresher shared this report:
“… Following the tsog offering, Rinpoche took the microphone and began teaching. First he explained how important are these 15 days of Losar – the days that commemorate Buddha displaying miracles to subdue the Tirthika teachers – because at this time merit multiplies many 100 millions of times. Rinpoche commented that for ‘lazy’ people like himself, it was an opportunity to make up for all the lost time of the rest of the year when no practice was done.
“Rinpoche then continued with a beautiful talk about the qualities of Lama Yeshe and the importance of the guru. He quoted Padampa Sangye who advised, ‘Cherish the Guru more than the Buddha and realizations will come in this lifetime.’ Rinpoche described some of the obvious qualities of Lama Yeshe – his always-loving aspect that attracted everyone to him, his humility, his wisdom – and explained that Lama was known by all to be a great scholar. Rinpoche then mentioned that Lama Yeshe was also a great yogi who had the tantric realizations of clear light and illusory body but that he hid these profound practices by meditating while lying down during his regular afternoon ‘nap.’ Rinpoche said that whatever benefit the FPMT had been able to offer and however much we ourselves had been able to learn and practice, it was all due to Lama Yeshe’s kindness because it was Lama who set up the organization. …”
For more of Rinpoche’s advice for how to celebrate Losar and the 15 Days of Miracles, see a recent blog post by FPMT Education Services:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/please-offer-lama-chopa-with-tsog-on-losar-in-honor-of-lama-yeshe/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Blue Mountains, Australia, June 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recently said that in order to purify our karma students can do the following practices dedicated for the health and long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
- “Prayer to Guru Rinpoche to Clear Away Obstacles on the Path” (“Barche Lamsel”): the long or the short version
As many people have already been doing and continue to do the long Kshitigarbha mantra to pacify earthquakes, they can also dedicate this practice to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life.
His Holiness is currently resting after receiving treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. He will resume his teaching schedule in March 2016.
On February 4, His Holiness recorded a video message for Losar, Tibetan New Year. His Holiness speaks to Tibetans in Tibet and in exile as well as friends and supporters worldwide from Rochester, Minnesota, US. His Holiness speaks in Tibetan with English subtitles.
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 in Brazil, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“The whole life, busy with attachment and anger, is like an elephant caught in a quagmire. It cannot get out, it is completely caught in a quagmire of mud,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in 2013 at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in The Path to Total Freedom, now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “Life is like that, we are completely caught in the quagmire of attachment and anger, like a hallucination.
“Therefore, if we are really practicing Dharma, we can cut attachment and be totally free. As much Dharma as we practice, the less attachment is possible. Even though problems, worries and fears are not completely cut off, they become much less in our life. Therefore, there is much peace in our heart; there is great peace, because we are living our life in Dharma without attachment. Even when death comes, any time, we die in great peace. We have no worries, nothing.
“Before developing bodhichitta, we have to have preliminary renunciation of samsara. Before renunciation of samsara in the next life, we need renunciation to this life. The mind has to be living in Dharma, otherwise we can’t have bodhichitta. Without renunciation, we can’t have bodhichitta. We can’t jump ahead, thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t have renunciation, but I will jump.’
“Many people do meditation, but they don’t like renunciation. The more we meditate, the more we learn Dharma, the more we see our suffering, samsaric suffering, then it’s so easy to generate compassion for others, who have been suffering since beginningless rebirth just like us. The more we see our own suffering, the easier it is to develop compassion for others. It is so much easier to develop bodhichitta, so much easier to enter the Mahayana path, so much easier to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, so much easier to enlighten sentient beings.”
Find the complete The Path to Total Freedom on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/path-total-freedom
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 Richard, the father of long-time FPMT student Pam Cayton, California, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang. Rinpoche and students were on the beach to bless all of the beings in the ocean.
“A good parenting plan comes from having a healthy, positive motivation for bringing up your children, one that is based on a good heart rather than on attachment. If you have a good heart and a good attitude toward life, and consequently try to do positive things to help others in your daily life, it will have a strong impact on your children,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Joyful Parents, Successful Children, a new publication from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“It will be of great benefit to them and they will grow up with a healthy mind—a positive, pure Dharma mind. With this type of mind, they won’t harm themselves, nor will they harm other sentient beings: their families, neighbors, fellow countrymen and the people of the world, not to mention animals. Not only that, their healthy minds will also make it possible for them to bring peace and happiness to others.
“Children learn from their parents, so if they see you trying to benefit others, they will receive a positive message from your example. Then, when your children have their own children, they will pass on that same education by also living their lives with a good heart and helping others. Your children will be an example for their own children, that is, for your grandchildren. Like this, parents can help to transmit from generation to generation the importance of a good heart, of not causing harm to others and of doing as many positive actions as possible. If you do this, the result will not only be an enjoyable family life for you and your children, but it will also bring much happiness and peace to the sentient beings of this world, life after life. Therefore, your role as a parent is extremely important and entails a truly big responsibility.”
Find the complete Joyful Parents, Successful Children on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joyful-parents-successful-children
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 turning the large prayer wheel at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2015. Photo by Bill Kane.
“Who helps us to develop this incredible, priceless quality within us, this patience, this compassion, this priceless quality within us? Who helps us to develop this, to generate this, and to give peace and happiness to all living beings?” Lama Zopa Rinpoche asks in The Power of Compassion, a 2006 Malaysia teaching now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “It is this person who has anger toward us, who abuses us, who harms us.
“This person gives us the opportunity and helps us to generate this priceless quality in the mind, thus we can offer all this peace and happiness to numberless other living beings from life to life.
“Therefore this person is so precious, unbelievably precious. There are no words to thank him for that, no words to thank him. He is precious.
“Without talking about the life after this, just in this life we can offer so much peace and happiness with patience and compassion, to our family and the country and whole world. We can bring so much peace and happiness. We can bring that to them. That’s unbelievable. That’s accomplishing our purpose in life. That’s the real meaning of life, it makes the life so worthwhile.
“That’s by the kindness of this person who has anger to us, who harms us. Because of this person’s anger and the action of harming us, this gives us the opportunity to train our mind, to practice patience and compassion. So we’re able to offer so much peace and happiness to the world, to numberless living beings, and we see this as so kind, so precious.
“We can see that even for nonbelievers – without believing in reincarnation or karma or the life after this – we can see the kindness of that person.”
Find the complete The Power of Compassion on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/power-compassion
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 a Dutch student’s 17-year-old dog, the Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“In order to develop compassion for all living beings, we need to understand all the sufferings of all the different beings in samsara, their different types of sufferings,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in “Not One Single Difficulty to Work for Other Sentient Beings” published in Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s January 2016 e-letter. “So we have to meditate that it is all in the nature of suffering. Then we can develop compassion for every living being. Otherwise our compassion is very limited.
“Our compassion is limited if it’s only for poor people, only for sick people, only for human beings who are dying. Therefore we need to learn the different types of sufferings. We need to meditate on that and then we feel it is unbearable for ourselves to experience those sufferings. When that happens to us, then we feel compassion for others.
“For example, when we have AIDS, then we will feel compassion for other people who have AIDS. We feel that is so unbearable. People who have AIDS, they feel it is so unbearable that other people have AIDS. That’s because they have AIDS and they don’t want to experience that, they know about the life with AIDS.
“That’s why in the stages of the path, first we have to have the realization, renunciation of samsara. Then we see the unbearable suffering of others. Then there, compassion arises. After that, great compassion, feeling how unbearable other sentient beings’ suffering is, and taking responsibility on ourselves, that we want to free them from all the suffering. That’s how compassion arises.
“That leads to bodhichitta, taking responsibility, thinking, ‘I will do it by myself alone. I will free the sentient beings from all the suffering and causes, and bring them to ultimate happiness. Not just temporary, but ultimate happiness, especially the highest, the ultimate happiness, enlightenment. Therefore I need to be enlightened.’ The bodhichitta arises like that.”
You can read Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s January 2016 e-letter to find more teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-151-january-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 during long life initiation, Lawudo Retreat Centre, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In early April 2015, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Lawudo, near Mount Everest in Nepal’s Solu Khumbu region. During the visit, Rinpoche was able to spend time with the Sherpas who live there. On April 21, 2015, Rinpoche gave the Amitabha long life initiation, which was attended by hundreds of Sherpas. Long-time student Bill Kane recorded video of the traditional dances and singing offered before the initiation.
Watch the Video: Lama Zopa Rinpoche | Ancient Sherpa Dances | April 2015
The Solu Khumbu region of Nepal is home to the Sherpa people, Lawudo Retreat Centre and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whose previous incarnation Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe meditated in a cave at Lawudo for 20 years. Rinpoche’s previous visit to Lawudo was in 2008.
Rinpoche spent three weeks in Lawudo in April 2015, leaving the area on the day before the devastating April 25 earthquake. Many buildings at Lawudo Retreat Centre were damaged. FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund offered emergency aid to the people in the upper Solu Khumbu region and is supporting the rebuilding and repairs at the center.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lawudo, Nepal, April 2015. 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, Moscow, Russia, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“Since Buddhist should give even the animals in their care a special life, there is no question that they should do this for their children,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Joyful Parents, Successful Children, a new publication from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“However, while I know of some Buddhist parents who try to set an example for their children and explain the Dharma to them, I know many others who do not. Instead they let their children do whatever they want. This is a pity because when children are young, before they grow up and leave home, there are so many opportunities to help them collect merit and to give them an education that will plant the seeds of enlightenment in their minds.
“Of course, there is no guarantee that you will success in helping your children because, as I mentioned before, children have their own karma that they bring with them from past lives. Some children will turn out well, and as teenagers, will be disciplined, compassionate and content. Others, because of the influence of the world and their friends, will become distant from the Dharma and will have a totally different life from what their parents hoped for them.
“While your children are young, to not use the opportunity to plant the seeds of good habits would be very unfortunate. By saying this, I am not implying that you should force your children to adopt your lifestyle. Rather, I just want to emphasize that it is important to help them abandon the cause of suffering and create the causes of happiness – not only this life’s happiness but also the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment. If they learn some Dharma practices, recite some mantras and so on when they are young, even if they don’t continue with these when they get older, all the merit they collected earlier on will still cause them to meet and practice the Dharma in future lives and will bring them.”
Find the complete Joyful Parents, Successful Children on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joyful-parents-successful-children
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.