Study & Practice News

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“In reality, even if we believe that we will live for a long time, that we have so many years to live – like 100 years or more, and maybe after 100 years, we expect another hundred years (I’m joking) – in reality, there is nobody who has lived who has not died,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to the mother of a student, who was worried about death. “Even this big earth has to perish after another great eon. Since every person who is born in this world is under the control of karma and delusion, there is nobody, nobody, since human beings started until now, who has lived without death. There is nobody.

“Buddha has no death, because there is no cause of death. The cause of death is not outside but inside –karma and delusions. Buddha removed this inconceivable eons ago, because he purified the delusions and even the subtle obscurations which interrupt the omniscient mind, so it is impossible for the Buddha to experience death. There is no old age, no sickness, no death for him at all, but he showed holy deeds, passing away in the sorrowless state. If Buddha did not show death, then we would not appreciate his teachings and we would become very lazy. Buddha showed death to destroy the wrong concept of permanence of our lives, which are impermanent, and also to show us that we need to practice Dharma, because of suffering and the cause of suffering. …”

You can read the entire letter “The Cause of Death” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in England, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In February 1990, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a series of teachings as part of the Third Enlightened Experience Celebration, which took place in Bodhgaya, India. His discourse was based on the 15th-century text Opening the Door of Dharma. During the teachings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche described how he came across the text in his late twenties and what it meant to him:

“In 1974, while I was staying in the cave of the previous Lawudo Lama in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal, I decided to check through all the texts that had belonged to him. They were mostly Nyingma texts relating to the practices of various deities, but there was one text that is a fundamental practice of all four Tibetan sects. The text I found was Opening the Door of Dharma: The Initial Stage of Training the Mind in the Graduated Path to Enlightenment.

“A collection of the advice of many Kadampa geshes, Opening the Door of Dharma is by Lodrö Gyaltsen, a disciple of both Lama Tsongkhapa and Khedrub Rinpoche, one of Lama Tsongkhapa’s two spiritual sons. This text describes the initial stage of thought transformation, or mind training – in other words, the first thing to practice if you want to practice Dharma.

“Only when I read this text did I come to know what the practice of Dharma really means. During all the years of my life up until then I had not known. Practicing Dharma is usually regarded as reading scriptures, studying, memorizing, debating, saying prayers, performing rituals, and so forth. It was only when I read this text that I found out how to practice Dharma. I was very shocked that all my past actions had not been Dharma. When I checked back, all those past years of memorizing and saying prayers were not Dharma. From all those years, nothing was Dharma. …”

Rinpoche’s discourse on Opening the Door of Dharma can be read in the book The Door to Satisfaction, edited by Vens. Ailsa Cameraon and Robina Courtain and published by Wisdom Publications. A PDF of the “Foreward” by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpche, “Editor’s Preface” and “Prologue” is available from Wisdom online. The “Prologue” includes Rinpoche’s account of his education, meeting Lama Yeshe and returning to Lawudo as well as the significance of his discovery of Opening the Door of Dharma. 

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 the Light of the Path Retreat, May 2014, North Carolina, USA.

In this new collection of studio recordings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche chants several deities’ mantras at different speeds, allowing students to become familiar with Rinpoche’s pronunciation and also Rinpoche’s preferred tunes. This collection of MP3 recordings include:

• Green Tara mantra
• Maitreya mantras
• Chenrezig’s Mani mantra fast and slow
• Manjushri mantra with and without the mala recitation of DHI’s at the end
• Medicine Buddha long and short mantras
• Shakyamuni Buddha mantra fast and slow

This collection is available for purchase from the Foundation Store.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the new Amitabha Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“It is not good to leave statues or stupas completely empty. To leave a statue empty is like offering nothing to the buddhas and can create obstacles,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects.”

“Therefore, it is important to put something inside of the statue, even as little as a few mantras and some incense. This is also true when offering statues to your teachers, there should always be something placed inside of them for auspiciousness. If you need to wait a while until your statue/stupa can be properly filled and consecrated, then roll up a copy of the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras, or the five powerful mantras and place them inside the statue with some incense for the time being. …”

You can read more in FPMT Education Services’ “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects.” Also visit Education Services’ page on “Holy Objects” for more advice and resources.

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 after shopping for flowers for offering with Vens. Sherab and Sangpo, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“In the lam-rim, or graduated path to enlightenment, the first meditation outline is the root of the path: how to devote to the virtuous friend. Why is guru devotion the root of the path to enlightenment? Enlightenment is like a ripe fruit, the path to enlightenment is like the trunk of a tree, and guru devotion is like the root of the tree. From the root of guru devotion, the trunk of the path grows in our mind and bears the fruit of enlightenment. Whether or not we can start to develop the path to enlightenment in our mind in this life is determined by our practice of guru devotion,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in The Heart of the Path.

“Proper devotion to the guru, or virtuous friend, is the root of all success, from success in this life up to enlightenment, just as the trunk, branches, leaves and fruit of a tree depend upon its root. Or we can think that guru devotion is like the fuel in a car or a plane, without which the vehicle cannot take us where we want to go. Without guru devotion, nothing happens – no realizations, no liberation, no enlightenment – just as without the root of a tree there can be no trunk, branches, leaves, or fruit. Everything, up to enlightenment, depends on guru devotion.

“Guru devotion is the root not only of ultimate success, achieving full enlightenment and bringing sentient beings to the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment, but also of temporary success and happiness. This practice is the foundation of the development of the whole path to enlightenment, as well as the foundation of all happiness. Since everything comes from the practice of guru devotion, it is called the root of the path. …”

You can read more in this excerpt from “Why Do We Need a Guru?,” the first chapter of the book The Heart of the Path: Seeing the Guru as Buddha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping for flowers for offerings, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“People get excited about strange things. I recently saw a group of men kicking a ball into a big net between two sticks and hundreds of thousands of people were cheering and throwing their hands up in the air, while millions watched on television. Everybody was totally out of control with excitement. In fact, their faces were so distorted I couldn’t tell whether they were very happy or in great pain. This World Cup seems extremely important to many people, but it also brings misery and jealousy, as well as anger and hatred when your country beats my country,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in the first chapter of The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment.

“On the other hand, a real cause for excitement and happiness is simply having this human body. If we could truly understand even a tiny part of its value, we would have a million times more reason for jumping in the air and shouting for joy the way those soccer fans do. Every day – every second – we should have a huge feeling of joy in our hearts that we have this precious possession that gives us the opportunity to do whatever we want. With it, we can achieve anything we want, to benefit ourselves and to benefit others.

“In sports and in worldly activities, people are always chasing the best and trying to be first in whatever they do. But winning at the Olympics, climbing Mount Everest, whatever people consider to be a great achievement, is really nothing. We have all done this kind of thing innumerable times, in past lives if not in this one, and it certainly hasn’t made us any happier.

“In fact, in our countless previous lives we have enjoyed every kind of pleasure innumerable times. We have achieved states we can’t even imagine. There is no new pleasure or experience that we have never had. We have been born in god realms where there is no overt suffering at all. We have achieved great powers of concentration, a concentration so profound that, as the great master Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explains in his commentary on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment, even a big drum beating right next to our ear could not disturb us. And we have even attained high psychic powers such as clairvoyance and the ability to fly. None of this is new. Such things seem special only because we don’t understand reincarnation and therefore don’t realize that in our beginningless previous lives we have done it all over and over again. …”

You can read more of this excerpt from “What is Dharma?” the first chapter of The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“Why retreat on the lam-rim? Because of every single teaching of Buddha, of all three vehicles, even one syllable appears as an instruction, as the practice of one person to achieve enlightenment. Not even one syllable should be left out of Buddha’s teachings. The main goal of every single word of Buddha is to tame the mind, because your heart and mind is the creator of all the suffering of samsara, including the three lower realms. So when you transform your heart, you are the creator of your happiness and peace, liberation and enlightenment,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to students of FPMT’s Basic Program.

“Why specifically lam-rim retreat? Because it has a very special presentation to subdue the mind. The cause of all suffering of all sentient beings, from where all the suffering and problems come from, now and in the future, is the mind. If you analyze throughout your life, you will see this clearly. You can also understand this from what Buddha said:

“Do not engage in any harmful actions; 
Perform only those that are good; 
Subdue your own mind — 
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

“Whatever you do, if it does not subdue the delusions, it is not Dharma.”

You can read more from “Benefits of Retreat on Lam-rim” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other advice on the “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche” 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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Light of the Path, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During the 2014 Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, Rinpoche spoke on the subject of vegetarianism. The transcript of these teachings is currently being worked on for future modules to the Living in the Path study program. Here is a lightly edited excerpt from these transcripts:

“The conclusion is that the less people eating meat, the less animals being killed and suffering. So the rest of the world never pays attention to the chickens, to the fish, never pays attention to their suffering, how much they suffer, never think of their suffering, never think due to ignorance and self-cherishing thoughts. Due to ignorance they think animals are just like plants that have no mind, completely like plants, like paper or plants. Due to heavy ignorance, due to heavy ignorance, wow, wow, wow, the human beings on the earth never think that animals want happiness and don’t want suffering just like human beings.”

Further Reading

• We Cannot Live Without Harming Others by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• On Becoming Vegan: When Vegetarian Is Not Enough by Nick Ribush
• Vegetarianism: A Healthy Debate  by Venerables Sangye Khadro and Robina Courtin
• Nine Questions About Vegetarianism  by Geshe Thubten Soepa

For more on this topic, also see Mandala’s archive stories on vegetarianism and veganism.

A statue of Amitabha Buddha carved from the highest quality marble and newly situated at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A nun wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche with questions about practice and expressing her concern at not being able to find time to study and do her practice commitments while she was working at a Dharma center. Here’s part of Rinpoche’s response:

“… The whole essence to making decisions in life is to analyze according to the benefits. What brings you to enlightenment quicker? What brings more benefit to other sentient beings? Don’t get caught up in the words: ‘These are commitments,’ ‘these are preliminary practices,’ or ‘I don’t get time to do this because I have to work for the center.’ Don’t get caught in these labels. You should put your life, and so your main effort, into whatever is most beneficial for sentient beings, what brings enlightenment quickly. That means you can only judge the benefit by thinking of the lam-rim. Without the lam-rim, there is no way to judge what is most beneficial for sentient beings or most beneficial for bringing you to enlightenment quickly.

“Two important things in the lam-rim are bodhichitta and guru devotion. In my view, from what I hear and see in the texts, everything depends first on the practice of guru devotion. So, it seems your decision should be on that basis, because that is the root of the path to enlightenment. As you know, by meditating on the eight advantages of devoting to the guru and disadvantages of not devoting correctly to the guru, making mistakes, from that you can understand the beginning of the path to enlightenment. What the lam-rim and the lineage lamas emphasize is following the guru’s advice. This is what the texts say is the very first thing to think of when making a decision. They say this is the most important thing. Then, do other things on that basis.

“It all depends on what is more beneficial for others. The first thing to think of in particular is fulfilling the wishes or following the advice that’s given by the guru. Otherwise, you may think you are missing out on some practice or study because you are doing a lot of work at the center. If you forget to think of the guru’s advice first, and try to do something that you feel you are missing out on, you can do it, but you may not get much result. …”

You can read the entire post “Time for Practice” on the page of advice “Balancing Dharma Work with Wordly Work,” part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book compiled by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Whatever we are doing, in our everyday life or our Dharma practice – listening, reflecting and meditating – our basic motivation, our attitude, has to be compassion,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught during the 24th Kopan Course in 1991. This teaching is featured in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s June 2014 E-letter. “Here we’re not just talking about partial compassion, compassion toward somebody who loves us or a friend – except when that friend has a problem – but compassion to strangers and enemies as well. Compassion toward all sentient beings should be the motivation for why we study the Dharma, why we do anything. That should be our motivation as much as possible for every action we do every twenty-four hours.

“Compassion is so important in order to achieve peerless happiness, full enlightenment, for the sake of all sentient beings. Even without talking about enlightenment, just concerning our day-to-day happiness, there’s the need for compassion. Happiness in our daily life depends on compassion; peace in our daily life depends on compassion, on us having compassion toward others and others having compassion toward us. Generally speaking, happiness depends on each other.

“Why does each of us need to generate compassion? First of all, what other sentient beings want is happiness; what they do not want is problems, suffering. And that is dependent on conditions, on whether we have compassion or not for them, whether we stop actions that disturb them, that give them harm, and whether we do actions that benefit them. Without compassion, with the ego, the self-centered mind, the self-cherishing thought, out of that mind we do actions that harm them. So others’ peace, others’ happiness is also dependent on our own attitude, our own actions. That’s why we all need to develop compassion. …”

You can read the entire teaching “Why We All Need to Develop Compassion” and sign-up to receive the monthly E-letter from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by visiting the Archive’s website at https://www.lamayeshe.com. 

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 and Sangha making prayers in front of new Amitabha Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered new advice this week to bring peace to Israel and Palestine:

“1. [The] Golden Light Sutra – this is the best one to read at this time; this brings healing for the whole area,” Rinpoche’s advice begins. “It helps to not be controlled or have the country taken over by another, it gives power to the leader. I checked and it is more powerful to have the Sutra of Golden Light recited by the monks in the monastery, it is more effective. So sponsor Gaden Lachi (Gaden Shartse and Jangtse together) to read the Golden Light Sutra. Request the monks to deeply dedicate for Israel and Palestine to have peace. …” You can find the complete “Advice Regarding the Israel and Palestine Situation” as a PDF.

FPMT Education Services has created a page for the Sutra of Golden Light, which contains advice on the benefits of the sutra, links to PDF downloads of the sutra in 14 languages, and audio MP3s of an oral transmission of the sutra by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche.

In the advice, Rinpoche suggests recitation of the White Umbrella Deity (Sitatapatra) praise. FPMT Education Services makes available “A Praise and Repelling Practice of Sitatapatra” and “The Supreme Accomplishment of Sitatapatra” as PDFs.

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 in Washington state, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While staying near Madison, Wisconsin, US, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice for the wildfires that were burning in Washington State, close to a number of students’ homes. Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon, scribed this advice for students eager to help:

1. Lama Zopa Rinpoche said that it is best to visualize the Lama Chöpa merit field and a great stream of nectar coming from the merit field and putting out the fires and especially helping the insects and animals who are suffering and perishing in the fire. This is best done in the context of doing the whole Lama Chöpa, if you have time.

Showers of nectar pour down purifying the negative karma of the suffering sentient beings, those who are suffering from the fire, and in general, the six realms sentient beings who are suffering, as well as those who have been harmed or destroyed in the fire. Also, the nectar is pouring down and changing the karma and the minds of the nagas, dergye (harmful spirits) and landlord beings, changing their negative minds, in order to not harm anymore.

It’s very important that one has one-pointed refuge in the merit field while doing this practice and one recites the mig-me mantras while doing this visualization.

2. Doing protector prayers is very good, especially tea offering to dergye as they control the elements, so it is important to appease them. But you can’t just offer tea and do nothing with the mind; you have to generate great bliss and emptiness.

3. If possible, do the extensive Medicine Buddha practice by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama.

When doing these practices, it is important to do them with good concentration and the motivation of bodhichitta.

Colophon: Scribed by Ven. Roger Kunsang, Madison, Wisconsin, US, July 2014. Lightly edited by Mandala.

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.