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Lama Zopa Rinpoche being offered tsog by Ven. Chantal, director of International Mahayana Institute, during Light of the Path retreat, May 2014. Photo by Kalleen Mortensen.
The Media Team for the Light of the Path retreat has been doing tireless work on the ground in North Carolina, making the best of some challenging technical issues and streaming Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings live over the internet.
For the rest of the retreat, which concludes on May 18, Rinpoche’s teachings will be streamed live in English and Spanish. Each day a live webcast will be done for the 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. EDT sessions – to date Rinpoche has usually come to some of the 4 p.m. sessions and most of the 7:30 p.m. sessions.
A delayed live webcast of Rinpoche’s teachings translated into French is also available. Webcasts of Rinpoche’s earlier teachings during the retreat are available also in English, Spanish and French.
Light of the Path Media Team members Antoine Janssen and Harald Weicharrt, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thuben Kunsang.
Rinpoche has been teaching regularly during the two-week retreat that began on Sunday, May 4, 2014, in North Carolina, US. Kadampa Center in Raleigh, organized the retreat, which is being attended by more than 250 people.
All Light of the Path retreat resources from 2009, 2010 and 2014 are available on the Online Learning Center.
The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
More information, photos, schedule and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing circumambulation, Raleigh, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
After arriving in Raleigh, North Carolina, Rinpoche was very happy to find 48 buddhas to circumambulate in the house where he was staying. Rinpoche taught at Kadampa Center in Raleigh on May 3 and then continued on to teach at the two-week Light of the Path retreat in western North Carolina.
You can watch video from the retreat, including live streaming of teachings as they happen, on the Light of the Path webcast page! Visit the page now to see when the next live webcast is scheduled.
The family who hosted Rinpoche has made 800 of these beautiful statues. They have only 200 left to go for their commitment of 1,000. They cast the statues using an example Rinpoche gave them, which had also been used at Nalanda Monastery in France for a similar project.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche looking at digital photos with Alison Murdoch, Tim McNeill, Stephen Meyer, Paula de Wijs-Koolkin and Karuna Cayton at FPMT International Office, Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Do you want to see where Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been? Visit the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Photo Gallery! With more than 100 albums and thousands of photos going back to 2001, this extensive collection of photos of Rinpoche’s beneficial activities spans the globe.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche before boarding a flight to United States, Taipei, Taiwan, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
New albums include Rinpoche’s recent visits to FPMT International Office and Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, US; Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington state, US; Jinsiu Farlin in Taipei, Taiwan; Choe Khur Sum Ling in Bangalore, India; Sarnath and Bodhgaya, India; and Sera Monastery in South India.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on Vulture’s Peak, India, March 2014. Photo by Andy Melnic.
Remember to check the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Photo Gallery every few months as new photo albums are added as Rinpoche continues his tireless travels to benefit all beings everywhere.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche while teaching at Light of the Path retreat as seen via webcast
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Light of the Path retreat are being streamed live in English, Spanish and French!
Rinpoche is expected to teach one or two times each day during the two-week retreat that began on Sunday, May 4, 2014, in North Carolina, US. The schedule of teachings will be shared as it becomes available.
The details of the three live webcasts:
- English on FPMT Livestream page: https://new.livestream.com/FPMT/lop2014
- Spanish on alternative FPMT Livestream page: https://new.livestream.com/fpmtinc/lop2014ES
- French on justreality Livestream page: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/1581856/events/2974873?cat=event&query
Video recordings of the teachings will be made available as soon as possible.
More information, photos, schedule and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Khadro-la, August 2011. Photo by Philippe Garric.
Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme first appeared to the international FPMT community through “Interview with a Dakini.” She’s since become known through the assistance she has been offering Lama Zopa Rinpoche since he manifested a stroke in 2011 and also through serving as an oracle at the Kalachakra initiation given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya, India, in January 2012. Here she talks about integrating lam-rim into daily life.
“In ordinary life, gaining wealth, food and shelter brings some pleasure at a physical level but not at a mental level. The worst suffering is mental suffering. Therefore, we have no choice but to learn how to transform such suffering. To do this, one needs to transform the mind. Wealth, rank and position can never handle or deal with mental suffering. Even having a large number of friends or guardians does not help because when faced with mental suffering, nothing can help except for mind-training.”
From Mandala October-December 2009.
Mandala brings you news and advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in northcentral Washington, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Beginning on Sunday, May 4, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Light of the Path retreat will be webcast live for students around the world to watch. The teaching on Sunday is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. PDT, 11:30 p.m. UTC; Monday, May 5, 5:00 a.m. IST, 9:30 a.m. AEST). Video recordings of the teachings will be made available as quickly as possible in English, Spanish and French.
The Light of the Path Retreat 2014, hosted by Kadampa Center in North Carolina, US, is the third of a five-year series of teaching retreats led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. The first two retreats took place in 2009 and 2010 and many resources and materials have been developed from these precious teachings:
- All teachings from the 2009 and 2010 Light of the Path retreats are freely available in the resources area of the FPMT Online Learning Center.
- MP3 audio and MP4 video files are available for download in the Light of the Path Retreat Materials 2009, 2010 and 2014 course. This course also contains the root text and other information associated with the retreat, including reviews, guided meditations, and the complete transcript of the retreat.
- The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
For updates on the live webcast schedule and news on the video recordings, please see the FPMT website and the FPMT Facebook page.
More information, photos, schedule and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explaining the benefits of the Namgyälma mantra at the FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Mandala.
While visiting the FPMT International Office, Lama Zopa Rinpoche carefully explained the benefits of carrying the powerful Namgyälma mantra and having it on one’s car and home. Rinpoche offered Namgyälma amulets and decals to staff. Rinpoche explained that if you are carrying a paper version of the mantra on your body, you need to protect it in plastic. He then explained how to use it in this video.
The FPMT Foundation Store carries many items with the Namgyälma mantra, including cards and decals.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
By Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez, Jr.; Reviewed by Michael Ium
As the academic field of Buddhist Studies becomes more divergent, the criticism has been made that the field has become overly fragmented, that scholars in Buddhist Studies have become specialists to the point that they are unable to have meaningful conversations with their colleagues within the field, let alone outside of it. Representing the culmination of over 12 years of effort, and containing primary entries in six Buddhist languages, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez, Jr. is a masterful resource which will help bridge linguistic and cultural divides in the field by assisting scholars and students from a variety of traditions to cross-reference Buddhist terms and concepts across cultures, and gain understandings of Buddhist terms in insightful and efficient ways.
Described as an “encyclopedic dictionary,” rather than merely providing the definitions of terms, this dictionary describes the broader meaning and significance of each term. As an illustrative example of the breadth of each entry, let us take the entry for “dharma”: in Pali it is “dhamma,” in Tibetan “chos,” in Chinese “fa,” in Japanese “hō,” in Korean “pŏp.” Historically, the entry describes the usage of the term in the Vedic literature, by Hindus, and by Buddhists. Semantically, the term can mean “doctrine,” but it can also refer to “phenomenon,” “characteristic,” or be combined with other words, as in “dharmadhātu” or “dharmapāla.” Finally, as in the Abhidharma literature, there are lists of dharmas, such as the “one hundred dharmas of the Yogācāra school” conveniently located in an aptly titled appendix at the end of the book titled “List of Lists”!
As any serious student of Buddhism knows, Buddhists are fond of making lists. What is essential in understanding Buddhist thought is knowing both the individual meanings of each term, and then knowing how these terms and lists fit together. By providing definitions, contexts, and the broader significance of each term, Buswell and Lopez have created a resource that can answer simple questions about definitions and contexts quickly, and then point one in the right direction for how to answer questions of broader significance. As further resources, the book also includes maps of important Buddhist sites in Asia, chronicles of Asian historical periods, a timeline of Buddhism from the 6th century BCE until the 20th century CE, and an extensive appendix cross-referencing terms from Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese into their Sanskrit forms.
The authors note at the end of their preface: “After some discussion, we decided to forgo listing the 84,000 afflictions and their 84,000 antidotes.” Other than this small omission, with more than 5,000 main entries, and over a million words, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism is a wondrous resource that will become indispensable to both scholars and serious students of Buddhism. Drawing upon their decades of work in the field, Buswell, Lopez, and their colleagues and students at UCLA and the University of Michigan have created a resource that is a monumental contribution to the field of Buddhist Studies.
Published by Princeton University Press
Hardcover US$65.00
http://press.princeton.edu
Illustration by Rhea Stihler
“On my last day of work in Australia, before flying to Nepal to become ordained, in accordance with hospital tradition I went to the local pub with my fellow doctors for a farewell drink,” remembered Thubten Gyatso in the March-May 2003 issue of Mandala. ”There I was, the prospective Buddhist monk, sitting at a table with a cigar in my mouth, a jug of beer in front of me, and my arms around two young lady doctors. Echoing my own doubts about whether it was possible to live the rest of my life alone, one of them asked, ‘But won’t you miss the cuddles?’
“‘I don’t know,’ I replied, ‘but I think it’s worth trying.’
“Loneliness was no stranger to me. A few years earlier, I had left my love in Australia and gone to England for post-graduate study in medicine, and, let’s face it, for adventure. I found it all: adventure, friends, interesting work and study, but when her letters arrived and memories invaded my mind, swinging London became the loneliest place in the world. I yearned for her to be with me and share my happiness. …”
From Mandala March-May 2003
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussing with Ven. Lobsang Norbu Shastra, a Sanskrit scholar at Sarnath University, the meaning and pronunciation of certain mantras, Sarnath, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s devotion manifests in a natural curiosity to learn mantras in the original Sanskrit when possible and appropriate. Rinpoche later uses what he learns to bless people and animals that he comes across, such when once Rinpoche met a small bird in a garden store:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Ven. Robina Courtin, Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, US, March 2014. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
During March 14-16, Maitripa College welcomed special guest teacher Ven. Robina Courtin. Over the weekend, Ven. Robina taught on karma and emptiness to a devoted and enthusiastic crowd. Student and lead volunteer Anita Bermont sent Mandala this reflection from the event:
The word “reflection” has taken on new meaning since becoming a student at Maitripa College. We write reflection papers and reflective questions based on our readings for each class. These reflections allow for deep integration of what was studied, help set clear motivation, as well as reveal where obstacles may have been elusive.
Reflecting on Venerable Robina’s visit this year brings the added dimension of having served as lead volunteer. Little could I have known the impact this would have had on how the teacher and teachings would be received. The content of her teachings this visit was entitled ”Understanding Karma: A Perfect Example of Dependent Arising to Prove Emptiness.” She spoke strongly to how delusions exaggerate the aspects of the object, to include both positive and negative aspects. Surely, I was suffering from just this very thing!
Students listen to Ven. Robina Courtin’s teachings, Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, US, March 2014. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
I had quite the large construction project built up in my mind as to how specifically Ven. Robina was going to want things to go over the weekend. I showed up in complete surrender to her wishes. What I had not expected was her simple faith and trust that the volunteers knew what would be best for this situation and her complete surrender to our wishes. We met somewhere in the middle, in a place best described as mutual care and respect. With the excellent support of her attendants, everyone was able to enjoy a weekend full of rich teachings, much laughter and the deepening of community.
Maitripa College offers regular public programs and degree programs for students at the graduate level.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Yangsi Rinpoche (left) and Ven. Sangpo visiting Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
“Great compassion is generated by depending on the kindness of this person who is suffering and deluded – this person who we call the enemy.
“… This person who we call “enemy” is the most important thing in our life and we should do anything that we can to help this person. If the person is carrying a heavy load, then we can share the load. We can help to carry some of the load so the person doesn’t suffer, or we can carry the whole load or make it lighter. Even something small, like offering our seat to this person in the car, becomes so important.
“Even a small amount of help or some small benefit is most important for us and it gives us great joy. If we can offer some small comfort to that person, it gives us incredible joy, because that person is the dearest and the most precious and kind in our life. So every single action that we can do to help, or any comfort that we can offer, is so precious.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from Service as a Path to Enlightenment, from FPMT Education Services
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.