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Lama Zopa Rinpoche praying at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, November 11, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“[Late Sunday night] Lama Zopa Rinpoche did many prayers for all those who have died in the Philippines, Vietnam and also Somalia (Vajrasattva, Ksitigarbha and later planning to do the Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead) as well as for all those still suffering and all beings,” shared Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT.
For on what to do for the dying and those who have died, visit FPMT’s page ”Essential Practices for the Time of Death.”
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 with recently consecrated statues, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, October 23, 2013. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa: You don’t have to feel alone. There are numberless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas always with you. They understand you with compassion.
– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on September 7, 2013
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 homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Maitripa College professor Jim Blumenthal, who also teaches philosophy at Oregon State University, has first-hand knowledge about environmental activism and engaged Buddhism. He wrote about his time as a Greenpeace activist for Mandala magazine. Jim wrote:
I was already a Buddhist during my environmental activist days. I saw environmental activism as Dharma activity. After all, the Buddhist notion of dependent-origination, the idea that all phenomena arise in dependence on an interwoven web of causes and conditions resonates quite well with the basic tenets of deep ecology. When we harm one living being, we – directly or indirectly – harm all living beings. As a Buddhist practicing in the Mahayana tradition, had I not committed to care and work for the well-being of all living beings? Is that not the responsibility that one training to become a bodhisattva accepts?
You can read the entire article “Confessions of a Buddhist Environmental Activist” from Mandala October-November 2006 in Mandala’s online archive.
If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Foundation level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche circumambulating the stupa in the backyard of Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, November 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“The stupa in the backyard of Kachoe Dechen Ling, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s home in California, was built for Rinpoche’s dog – called ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ – to circumambulate,” shared Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s long-time assistant. “Rinpoche was very skillful to not mention it was the for the dog until the stupa was finished.”
You can read Rinpoche’s advice on circumambulation, featured in Mandala July-September 2009, to learn more about this powerful practice for accumulating merit and purifying negativities.
Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s homepage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.
Geshe Kelsang Wangmo at Kadampa Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, US, October 26, 2013. Photo by David Strevel.
Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, who became the world’s first female geshe in April 2011, nears completion of her US teaching tour, which includes several FPMT centers.
Geshe Kelsang Wangmo speaking in New York, NY, US, October 2013. Photo courtesy of Shantideva Meditation Center’s Facebook page.
On October 16, Shantideva Meditation Center, in New York City, co-sponsored with Tibet House US a talk with Geshe Wangmo on scriptural presentations of the Buddhist understanding of reality.
Geshe Wangmo then traveled to North Carolina to meet the enthusiastic students at Kadampa Center in Raleigh. Over three days in late October, she explained the purpose of debate in Tibetan Buddhism and her journey to become the first female geshe. On October 28, she left students with advice on how to establish their own daily practice, drawing from the materials in FPMT’s Discovering Buddhism courses.
Next, Geshe Wangmo traveled to Northern California for a three-day visit to Land of Medicine Buddha (November 1-3) to talk about the sixteen aspects of the four noble truth. She visited Vajrapani Institute on November 6 and gave a public talk on how her intensive studies transformed her personally.
Geshe Wangmo returns to the East Coast and will meet with Guhyasamaja Buddhist Center students in Virginia on November 8-10. She will give a public talk and weekend retreat on the four noble truths and how they are “relevant to contemporary life and how we can use them to define a balanced, realistic sense of happiness.”
Geshe Kelsang Wangmo with (from left) Vajrapani Institute director Fabienne Pradelle, Land of Medicine Buddha director Denice Macy and Geshe Wangmo’s mother, LMB, California, US, October 2013. Photo courtesy of LMB’s Facebook page.
In co-sponsorship with Jewel Heart Center in New York City, Shantideva Meditation Center welcomes Geshe Wangmo back for the tour’s concluding event, an explanation of the Heart Sutra in relation to emptiness and the two truths.
In Mandala’s exclusive October-December 2012 interview with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo – “The Joy of Study: An Interview with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo” – Geshe Wangmo shares how she became a geshe, the obstacles she overcame, and the benefits of rigorous study.
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 doing prayers, sitting on the floor in his room at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, November 2, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Lama Zopa: you can study Dharma a long time but if you don’t give up attachment you’re not practicing Dharma … Cause of happiness.”
– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on September 7, 2013
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 homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
By Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
To love oneself is not contradictory to what Mahayana Buddhism teaches. The Mahayana teachings are not saying one should not love oneself. Renouncing oneself and cherishing others is not contradictory to loving yourself. In fact, practicing the Mahayana teaching, bodhichitta, is the best way to love yourself, to take care of yourself.
Whatever we do with our body, speech, and mind is for happiness. Even the activities of the tiniest insects, like the ants we see running around and keeping so busy, are also to achieve happiness. By looking at ourselves and at other living beings, we can see that it is the same: whatever we do is to achieve happiness.
A “problem” is what we do not want to experience and “happiness” is what we want to achieve. With this mind we can stop the problems, stop all the undesirable experiences, and with this mind we can achieve every happiness. Why is this? Because problems and happiness do not come from outside. The creator of problems and happiness is oneself in past lives. Therefore, with this mind all our problems can be stopped and we can achieve temporal day-to-day happiness and ultimate happiness, full enlightenment. …
From Mandala April-May 2006
Lama Yeshe: “You’re a fish swimming through water.” Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder.
If you recognize non-duality, you’ll have no fear. All fear and insecurity comes from not being realistic, from the wrong conception that holds fearful objects as concrete self-entities. A story from the life of Tibet’s great yogi, Jetsun Milarepa, illustrates this point.
Once Milarepa left his cave to collect wood, and when he returned, he saw a terrifying face with big eyes glaring at him. It blew his mind. But he looked carefully at the face and meditated on it as illusory, and later wrote a song about this experience. By removing the conception that identified that horrible image as a concrete self-entity, it disappeared. This is not a fairy tale; this is a meditator’s experience.
People scare themselves with thoughts of ghosts and demons. It is all superstition, the wrong conception believing in a self-entity There’s no such thing. But when you have a superstitious belief, for some reason it manifests. So you say, “It’s real. I saw it.” What you you saw is important? That’s completely ridiculous. What you see is absolutely unimportant. You need to know that. People in the West set incredible store by what they see; they really do believe that seeing is believing, that what they see is real. This basic misconception also engenders a kind of pride: “I saw that he is this, therefore, he is this.” “I saw” makes your ego proud. This is a completely wrong conception.
From Mandala February-March 2006
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing mantras, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, October 21, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed the mantras to go into some statues “just after lunch – night time, 7:30 p.m.,” said Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT. “Dinner’s around midnight or after.”
Vens. Tsering, Sangpo and Sherab with Rinpoche, Kachoe Dechen Ling, October 21, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Vens. Tsering, Sangpo and Sherab rolled the mantras for the statues offered during a long life puja and set up the consecration ceremony with Rinpoche.
More information, photos 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, Land of Medicine Buddha, California, September 21, 2013. Photo by Chris Majors.
“Lama Zopa: when I am requesting someone to help a Dharma project, I am not only aiming to benefit the receivers but also the donors as well.”
– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on October 13, 2013
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 homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Organizers of the Jangchup Lamrim teaching series with His Holiness the Dalai Lama have been offering daily lam-rim quotes drawn from their critical editions of the 18 Jangchup Lamrim commentaries.
For October 30:
At the time of death everything but the teaching is useless. No matter how great the affection that my circle of loved ones has for me, I cannot take a single one of them with me. No matter how large a collection of lovely belongings I have, I cannot bring the tiniest portion of it with me. I must even be separated from the very flesh and bones I was born with. Therefore what purpose does attachment to the good things of this life serve? The Lord of Death is sure to come but it is unsure when that will occur. Since I run the risk of dying this very day, truly I must do something to prepare for death. By way of preparation, may I practice the teaching purely, free of attachment to any of this life’s excellence!
From The Easy Path – Stages of the Path to Enlightenment by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen
As translated in: The Easy Path to Travel to Omniscience: A Practical Exposition of the Stages of the Path which is included in The Pearl Garland: An Anthology of Lamrims, translated from the Tibetan under Venerable Dagpo Rinpoche’s guidance by Rosemary Patton, Editions Guepele (France), 2012.
His Eminence the 7th Yongzin Ling Rinpoche. Photo courtesy of HE Ling Rinpoche’s Facebook page.
His Eminence the 7th Yongzin Ling Rinpoche is the main organizer of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings, which began in late 2012 and will continue at Sera Monastic University in South India, starting on December 25.
H.E. Ling Rinpoche also has a new, official Facebook page. His Eminence was born in 1985 and is the recognized reincarnation of the 6th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche, who was His Holiness’ main teacher and spiritual adviser.
Prior to the beginning of the first series of Jangchub Lamrim teachings, H.E. Ling Rinpoche was seriously injured in an auto collision that took the life of another monk. He has been recovering from his injuries and plans to attend the second series teachings.
For more information on the ongoing Jangchub Lamrim teachings and to sign up to receive lam-rim quotes and news, visit jangchuplamrim.org.
With more than 160 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Vens. Tsering, Namgyal, Sangpo, Sherab and Roger guiding the large Namgyälma mantra board through the waves while a dolphin swims by in the background, California, October 26, 2013. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
When Lama Zopa Rinpoche stays at Kachoe Dechen Ling, his home in Aptos, California, Rinpoche regularly goes to the ocean to do prayers and practices to benefit the ocean and all sentient beings living in it. Rinpoche and Sangha take a specially made board with the Namgyälma mantra on it and submerge it in the water so its blessings are spread throughout the ocean. Often the mantra board is lowered on ropes into the water from a pier. It has also been pulled along by a boat.
Rinpoche on the beach doing prayers and mantras for blessing the ocean while Sangha move the mantra boards through the waves, California, October 26, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Most recently, however, Sangha took two mantra boards directly into the frigid cold waters of the Pacific Ocean while Rinpoche said prayers and mantras on the beach. One of the mantra boards taken out is new and very large.
Namgyälma mantra boards in action in the Pacific Ocean, October 26, 2013. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
During the recent long life puja for Rinpoche at Land of Medicine Buddha, Rinpoche was offered a 5-by-7-foot (1.5-by-2.1-meter) Namgyälma mantra board. The board was designed by Peter Griffin, a sculptor in the UK, and made from resin and fiberglass cast from a mold. Pam Cayton organized the creation of the large mantra board.
The huge Namgyälma mantra board being presented to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja, Land of Medicine Buddha, September 29, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The older and smaller mantra board, also designed by Peter Griffin, measures 3-by-4-foot (0.9-by-1.2-meter) and is quite heavy.
Older mantra board
“The Namgyälma mantra is extremely powerful,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches. “[It] is the main mantra to purify and liberate beings from the lower realms, purify negative karma, and help those who are dying or have died by chanting it in their ear or placing it on their body.”
Rinpoche’s advice continues:
“For instance, if this mantra is placed on a mountain, the entire mountain becomes blessed and any people, animals or insects who touch or climb the mountain are purified of negative karma and liberated from the lower realms. If you hang this mantra as a banner, then even the shadow from the banner purifies the negative karma of anyone who comes in contact with it. Similarly, if this mantra is hung in your home, everyone in the house, not only people, but all of the animals and insects, will be purified of their negative karma and liberated from the lower realms. And it is excellent to have this mantra on your car, on the inside roof, on the passenger side visor, or on the outside of the car. This way, every time someone enters your car they are blessed by the power of this mantra. Also, any animal that touches the car, is killed in an accident, or is run over by the car, including extremely tiny insects that you can’t see, they are completely purified.”
The FPMT Foundation Store offers many protection items with the Namgyälma mantra including cards, decals and amulets.
Vens. Sangpo and Holly with smaller mantra board, California, October 26, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“By having this mantra on the car, or house window, then even the shadow will bless sentient beings. The dust, wind, water and rain that touches it with the Namgyälma mantra becomes blessed so that any person or animal or insect who comes in contact with the dust, wind, water or rain becomes purified,” Rinpoche said.
“I suggest that you give copies of this mantra sticker to other people in your community and explain the benefits of it. We need to print more Namgyälma stickers, many different sizes for others to use in the car, home, motorbike, bicycle, etc.”
You can read more about “The Benefits of Namgyälma Mantra” in an article from Mandala August-September 2008.
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.