receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Podcasts
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 14: By Pleasing the Guru, We Collect Unimaginable Merit, Purify Negative Karma, and Achieve Realizations
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 16, 2018, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
What enables us to quickly achieve enlightenment, Rinpoche explains, is correctly following the guru, the virtuous friend. For example, if for one thousand eons we made charity of our limbs and dedicated our merit, we would collect this much merit in one second by following the guru’s advice and fulfilling the guru’s wishes. We are unbelievably fortunate to have this opportunity. It is the quickest way to be free from samsara, where we have been suffering since beginningless rebirths. In addition, pleasing the guru purifies heavy negative karma in one second! Rinpoche says that when we experience hardships while following the guru’s advice, we purify the negative karma to wander in the lower realms for ten million eons. Instead, we experience it as a small suffering in this life or even in a dream. By receiving the blessings of the guru in our heart, realizations can happen quickly, like a seed receiving water so it can grow.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 13: Cherishing Others Opens the Door to Happiness
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave November 10, 2018, at Nagarjuna C E T Madrid, Spain.
The door to all suffering comes from the self-cherishing thought, only thinking of our own happiness, Rinpoche warns. This not only harms us, but also harms numberless sentient beings now, has harmed them in the past from beginningless rebirths, and will harm them in the future. Conversely, cherishing others, changing our mind into bodhicitta, opens the door to all happiness up to enlightenment. The purpose of life is to benefit others, not to use them for our own pleasure. A selfish mind brings many problems, so we must let go of the I and cherish others. Rinpoche emphasizes that by cherishing even one sentient being, we can achieve enlightenment.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 12: Believing in a Real I Creates the Root of Samsara
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave April 11, 2018, at the Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia.
There is no such thing as a “real I,” and subsequently, it is not possible for anything to be a “real mine,” Rinpoche says. In the first second, our mind merely imputes I on our aggregates. Then, in the next second, this I appears back to us as one hundred percent true, and we believe it. We trust that something is there from its own side. This becomes the basis for many delusions to arise and creates the root of samsara. For this reason, we need to collect much merit and continually purify negative karma. However, the most powerful thing we can do is to correctly follow the guru and thereby receive the blessings of the guru in our heart.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 11: Because We Can’t Stand Suffering for Ourself or Others, We Must Take Refuge
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 16, 2017, at the Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, US.
Whether we understand the qualities of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha or not, if we open our hearts to them and rely on them, we will have an unmistaken refuge—like catching hold of a rope when we are about to fall into a fire. When we come to understand how Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha free us from samsara and bring us to enlightenment, our faith will become more and more stable. Rinpoche explains that refuge begins by considering our own situation until we can’t stand being in samsara for even a second more. Next we can think of how numberless other sentient beings have also been experiencing the sufferings of samsara from beginningless rebirths. Like us, they don’t like suffering but create the cause for suffering, without end, day and night. Thinking of this helps us generate compassion for ourselves and others who are numberless. Because we can’t stand this situation for ourselves or others, we must rely on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha strongly, from our bones, with all our heart.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 10: The Guru Appearing in Ordinary Form Is Most Kind to Us
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave April 6, 2018, at the Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia.
Our gurus appear to us according to our impure karma, in an ordinary aspect, showing mistakes and having delusions. Because of this ordinary aspect, we are able to see the guru, communicate with the guru, and receive teachings and advice. Without their manifesting in this ordinary aspect we would remain lost in samsara, like a small child abandoned in a desert. We could not become free from the lower realms, from samsara, and from the lower nirvana, nor could we achieve the great nirvana of enlightenment. Because every second that our guru appears to us in an ordinary aspect is most unbelievably kind and precious, we should cherish our guru as more precious than the numberless buddhas.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 9: A Long Life Should Be Used to Benefit Others
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave September 22, 2019, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
The purpose of taking a long-life initiation is not to gain more time for creating negative karma through harming ourselves and other sentient beings. Rather, the purpose is to pacify life obstacles and to use the resulting long life to collect virtue, to abandon the causes of suffering, and to purify the negative karma already collected. Most importantly a long life should be used to benefit others. We have taken this human body to free others from suffering and cause them happiness. By cherishing others, they give us enlightenment. On the other hand, by following the self-cherishing thought, we won’t succeed even in accomplishing the works of this life. To fulfill the purpose of our life, we need to have a good heart. That will make us happy, and then we can make others happy.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 8: From Birth to Death We Believe in the Hallucination Projected by Ignorance
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave June 30, 2019, at Ganden Buddhist Centre, Latvia.
What would it be like to experience the world without the hallucination of true existence being projected onto everything? We need to become a buddha for this to happen, Rinpoche explains. Right now the gross negative imprints left by ignorance from beginningless rebirths decorate whatever appears to us—form, sound, smell, taste, tangible object—making it appear real, but it is actually a total hallucination. In reality, it is merely imputed by the mind. From birth to death everything that appears to us is a total hallucination, like watching a movie produced by our karma and then believing everything, including the I, is real. All of the problems of life arise on the basis of this hallucination. Our ignorance creates suffering, this is why we need to eliminate it. A buddha does not have this. Practicing mindfulness of emptiness in daily life is the most important awareness. After one realizes emptiness, all that has been appearing as real, including the I, is understood to not have even an atom of true existence.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 7: The Real Enemy Is Our Self-Cherishing Thought
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave December 10, 2017, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
All of our failures, problems, illnesses, and suffering from beginningless rebirths come from cherishing ourselves, Rinpoche warns. If we want happiness, we must start cherishing others. If someone harms us, instead of blaming them, direct the anger toward the real enemy—self-cherishing. This way, there is no anger toward others, no external enemy for us to harm and kill, and we can put the blame where it belongs, our own mind. This is like shooting a long-range missile exactly on target, causing the enemy (the self-cherishing thought) to burst into a thousand pieces. Less anger means more happiness, more peace. Cherishing others is the root cause of happiness for ourselves and others, all the way up to enlightenment.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 6: Disrespecting the Virtuous Friend Brings Eons of Suffering, Devotion to the Virtuous Friend Brings Enlightenment
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave April 6, 2018, at the Great Stupa Of Universal Compassion, Australia.
What is the “virtuous friend?” Rinpoche explains that the virtuous friend is all the holy actions of all the buddhas. These manifest in our own guru, therefore, to disrespect our guru—with anger, heresy, complaints, negative thoughts, and so forth—is to disrespect every single buddha. There is no suffering result heavier than this. Likewise, belittling our guru causes us to suffer for eons. On the other hand, without a guru, we cannot receive the blessings of the buddhas. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are embodied in the guru to whom we go for refuge. By pleasing our guru, we please all the buddhas. The more we correctly follow our virtuous friend with strong devotion, the fewer obstacles we will encounter and the more quickly we will achieve enlightenment.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes will be released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 5: The Real Meaning of Practicing Dharma Is to Renounce This Life
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave October 21, 2018, at Nagarjuna C E T Madrid, Spain.
What does it mean to practice Dharma? Renouncing this life, Rinpoche says. Anger, ignorance, pride, relationship issues—all of these problems come from attachment to this life. Practicing Dharma means renouncing this attachment like throwing out poison because of all the harm it can cause us. People who don’t understand might think, “I’m giving up my happiness if I give up attachment. Giving up attachment is worse than being in prison.” However, what actually happens is we are giving up the root of all our problems in order to experience much happiness. Dharma practice is not just reading texts, reciting mantras, meditating, circumambulating, doing retreat, or living in a monastery—we have to renounce our attachment to the pleasures of this life. If we don’t understand this, nothing we do will become Dharma.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 4: Any Activity Can Be a Mindfulness Meditation on Emptiness
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave on August 12, 2017, at Thubten Norbu Ling Center, United States.
Whatever we are doing, even while at the beach or the supermarket, we can engage in one of three mindfulness meditations on emptiness, Rinpoche suggests. For example, we can be mindful that everything we are experiencing is a total hallucination, like a dream in which things appear but are not there. Or we can be mindful that everything that appears to us as real is totally empty of existing from its own side. Or we can be mindful that everything exists in mere name and is merely labeled by the mind. In this way, there is nothing to cling to or get angry at. We suffer so much and so many delusions arise on the basis of believing that the hallucination we experience is real. By realizing that everything is empty, we destroy our delusions.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.
There is a new episode of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast. You can listen to the new episode on our website or find it in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.” New episodes are released every other Monday.
Click to play this episode on FPMT.org or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app
Episode 3: Every Single Thing Comes from Your Mind
In this week’s episode we listen to a teaching that Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave May 10, 2018, at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia.
Hell, enlightenment, samsara, nirvana, and what is true and false—all come from our mind. Whatever we see and hear, whatever we touch and smell, if someone likes us or is angry with us, whether we experience anything as good or bad from birth to death—all of this started with our mind. It came from our karma, the mental factor intention, Rinpoche says. On top of that, our mind imputes good and bad, and the next second there is the appearance of good or bad, and then we believe it is real good or bad. This is why Buddha said, “The mind is the creator.” Normally people think that everything they experience came from outside, from others, and has nothing to do with the mind, and so anger and attachment arise creating karma over and over. This is a total hallucination. What we experience as good or bad is our interpretation, from our mind.
Listen to the podcast now on our website or search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” in your podcast app.
Learn more about our podcasts, including the ongoing Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings podcast, by visiting our Podcasts page: fpmt.org/media/podcasts/. You will be able to find new episodes of the Essential Extracts podcast on FPMT.org when they are released.
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.