receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Study & Practice News
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving advice to the cooks of Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s most recent visit to Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India, Rinpoche gave the following advice to the Tushita cooks:
I have been hearing from people that the food at Tushita is fantastic. Generally, they tell me they are very happy with the place and especially the food. I was amazed to hear this and particularly that you have been able to improve the flavor and quality of the food without using onions, garlic or other black foods. Of course, the initial reason why people come to Tushita is not the food, but for the teachings and meditations; they are a little bored with the lives they have and are looking for something new. However, the conditions at Tushita –and especially the food – are a very important support for the teachings and meditations. Sometimes in the past, for example, when I would teach on impermanence, the hells and the eight worldly dharmas, people would get scared and leave, but if the food was good, they would stay. That’s one way to keep them!
So I’ve been thinking for many days to come to the kitchen and explain a short meditation to the cooks. There is a short morning motivation I have put together with a direct meditation on the graduated path to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. (Most of the time in English we use the expression “fully enlightened” but in Tibetan it is sang gye; sang means that all the obscurations, gross and subtle have been purified, and gye that all the realizations have been fully developed and there is nothing more to achieve. “Fully enlightened” has a different meaning; it’s better to say “fully omniscient mind.”) [This meditation is] followed by some verses explaining how precious and kind sentient beings are.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with one of the Tushita cooks, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Every single sentient being is most precious, dear and wishfulfilling – fulfilling all your wishes for the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment. Every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, insect, ant, mosquito, bird, goat, human being, sura and asura does this. That is because all our beginningless past lives’ happiness, present happiness and future happiness comes from good karma and that good karma comes from your mind, from mental intention. Buddha’s enlightened activity is of two types: one comes from Buddha’s holy mind and one from your mind. Buddhas come from bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas come from bodhichitta and bodhichitta comes from great compassion. Great compassion comes from every single obscured suffering sentient being. There is no way to generate great compassion without depending on every single suffering sentient being. Therefore, there is no bodhichitta, no bodhisattva, no Buddha and no way to create good karma, the cause of happiness, without them. In other words, every single happiness and comfort comes from sentient beings, even a cool breeze or a drink of water when you are thirsty. Without sentient beings there is no way to experience happiness in this life, future lives, liberation or enlightenment. All our happiness comes from every single sentient being.
For example, all my happiness comes from every one of you and from all the rest of the sentient beings; every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura and asura. All my past, present and future happiness comes from everyone because Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in whom I take refuge and with whom I purify every single negative karma and achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment come from everyone. That is why sentient beings are most kind, dear, precious and wishfulfilling.
Sentient beings are more precious than a wishfulfilling jewel because you can’t practice morality, purify negative karma and achieve a higher rebirth with a wishfulfilling jewel. Nor can you practice the three higher trainings and achieve the ultimate happiness of liberation or generate great compassion and achieve enlightenment with a wishgranting jewel, but you can with sentient beings. If you pray to a wishgranting jewel you can get a house, car, swimming pool and so on, but not higher rebirths, liberation and enlightenment. That’s why sentient beings are most unbelievably precious. Which one is more precious – skies of wishgranting jewels or sentient beings? Sentient beings are more precious!
Therefore, dedicating your life to others and helping them is the best, most exciting thing you can do. Serving them in any way you can and giving them whatever help you can give is what brings the most happiness. For example, helping an old man carrying a very heavy load or giving your seat to somebody in a bus, train or car. Doing whatever it is that sentient beings need, whether big or small, is the most satisfying, exciting thing you can do.
That’s why making delicious food and offering it to the people who come here is a really great opportunity. Wow, wow, wow, wow. It is a way of offering comfort and happiness to sentient beings who are most wishfulfilling. That’s what brings the most happiness and excitement. It’s the real Dharma. Dharma is something that protects your life, protects you from suffering and guides you to happiness….
There is a great deal to rejoice in that you have this very precious opportunity to offer food to sentient beings who are most precious, dear, kind and wishfulfilling.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la with Tushita Meditation Centre cooks, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Practicing bodhichitta mindfulness in the kitchen
Here are some ways to think while you are preparing and cooking the food:
When you are cutting anything, for example onions, think,
I am cutting the root of all sentient beings’ suffering which comes from ignorance and the self-cherishing thought, with the knife of the wisdom realizing emptiness (shunyata) and bodhichitta.
When you are washing pots and so on think,
I am washing away all the obscurations and negative karmas from all sentient beings’ minds.
You can think that you are washing away your own obscurations and negative karmas but most important is to think you are washing away those of all sentient beings. And you can think the water is nectar coming from Vajrasattva, the Guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. There is always a lot of washing up to do in the kitchen and you can use the opportunity to purify all sentient beings’ obscurations. It’s very good if you can sincerely think this way because all the washing up becomes Dharma practice purifying your negative karma and defilements and collecting merits. In India even the beggars keep their pots very clean!
When you are sweeping the floor think that the broom is the whole path to enlightenment, especially wisdom and bodhichitta, and that the dust is all sentient beings’ obscurations.
I am sweeping away the dust of all sentient beings’ obscurations with the broom of the path to enlightenment and especially wisdom and bodhichitta.
If you sincerely think this while you are cleaning it becomes real Dharma practice that benefits all sentient beings. In the lam-rim it says to think that you are abandoning the dust of the three poisonous minds – anger, attachment and ignorance – which are the gross obscurations and also the stains of the three poisonous minds, the subtle obscurations.
When you are kneading dough so that it can be made into any shape think,
I am taming all sentient beings’ minds by softening them with my two hands of the wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta.
When you are making momos or shapale – rolling out pastry and filling it with cheese, potato and vegetables – think,
I am filling all sentient beings’ minds with the realizations of the path from guru devotion up to enlightenment so that they can actualize all the qualities of a buddha.
When you are cooking soup or other food you can think that the fire is the Six Yogas’ tummo fire that causes the kundalini to melt. Do the same meditation that is used to bless the inner offering in highest yoga tantra. Or you can think that the fire is the wisdom realizing emptiness and the uncooked food is the unsubdued mind. By cooking the food all the gross and even the subtle delusions are purified and all the realizations of Buddha are achieved.
These are some ways of thinking as you are working in the kitchen. You can think in a similar way with other kitchen activities.
Typed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 17, 2013.
Mandala brings you news of FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Nyung nä Merit Field. Painted by Peter Iseli.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor 1,000 nung nä retreats. About this retreat practice Rinpoche commented, “Nyung näs take such a short time, but bring strong purification. So many eons can be purified in this life; it makes it so easy to have attainments.”
Nyung nä practice is an intensive 2-day purification retreat that includes fasting, precepts, prostrations, prayers, mantra recitation, and offerings. Nyung nä is a practice based on the deity, 1,000 armed Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, and is extremely powerful for healing illness, purifying negative karma, and opening the heart to compassion.
Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) in France recently hosted a series of 108 nyung näs, with Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsoring those doing the full 108. Three people completed 108 nyung näs each. Institut Vajra Yogini is hosting another round of 108 nyung näs: November 15, 2013 to June 19, 2014. For more information, please contact IVY.
From August 9-12th, 2013, Maitripa College is hosting a nyung nä retreat, led by Merry Colony, who has personally completed over 108 of these powerful retreats herself.
You can read commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about this powerful practice courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
FPMT Education Services has published a Nyung Nä practice manual with everything you need to complete this retreat. It can be purchased on the FPMT Foundation Store.
FPMT is made up of an international community of students of all ages and levels. In this photo, Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Programme 6 students review with Tibetan conversation partners, Dharamsala, India, June 2013. Photo courtesy of Drolkar McCallum.
The Education Scholarship and Development Fund provides the funding needed to create FPMT Education Services’ comprehensive educational programs and helps financially support students in study programs around the world who are on track to become FPMT Dharma teachers, meditators, and practitioners.
Please consider donating any amount to support this critical work.
Yangsi Rinpoche and students, 2009. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
During the April 2011 Rinjung Gyatsa initiations in Bendigo, Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche commented that he really likes the way Yangsi Rinpoche’s Maitripa College chants the Heart Sutra in English. Please enjoy a recording of Yangsi Rinpoche and students of Maitripa College reciting this important Sutra together.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
While staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal earlier this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an oral transmission of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lekshe Nyingpo (Essence of True Eloquence). Here’s an edited extract from Rinpoche’s teaching before a transmission given in April 2013:
Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that all the suffering in the world comes from ignorance; therefore the root of suffering is not outside. No matter how much scientific knowledge and education worldly people have they still believe the cause of suffering to be outside; but that’s wrong. The cause of suffering is in the mind and that’s why it is the mind that has to change. Changing the mind is more important than trying to change what’s outside; changing outside never finishes. Change has to come from the mind. It has to come from your mind.
The hell, hungry ghost and animal realms come from your mind, from your negative, impure mind and wrong way of thinking every moment and every day. While enlightenment, the fully awakened omniscient mind, liberation from samsara, and day-to-day happiness come from your mind and from the correct way of thinking, from positive thoughts. This is how everything comes from the mind.
For example, when you have problems in daily life, if you practice patience, compassion, thought transformation, bodhichitta, emptiness and so on, then at that time there are no more problems. In that hour and that minute when you change your mind and think differently the problems are gone. But when you don’t change your mind and keep thinking the old way, as people in the world generally do, believing that the root of suffering is outside even though they have so much scientific knowledge, well then the suffering never finishes. There is no end to suffering.
Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that all the sufferings come from ignorance, but this is not just something stated by Lama Tsongkhapa; the more you learn Dharma and check scientifically, the more you discover and realize that this is true.
Excerpted from a teaching before a Lekshe Nyingpo lung at Kopan Monastery on April 13, 2013. Transcribed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.
The Supreme Gift of Immortal Life; The Way to Perform the Thousand Offerings in relation to the Ritual of the Self and Front Generation of the Noble Ushnishavijaya was translated from the Tibetan by Ven. Tenzin Gyurme the Tibetan using the text published by Sherig Parkhang. It is appropriate for those who have received a jenang of Ushnivijaya/Namgyalma, based upon a great initiation into the action class of tantra.
This practice is available as a non-reflowable PDF which can be used with electronic devices such as Kindle or iPad. However, PDF formatting is fixed and is not open like e-publication files especially made for these devices. It is also available in booklet letter and A4 formats.
Over the years, Mandala has explored the issue of vegetarianism and the question of whether or not to eat meat. But with a growing awareness of issues of animal cruelty and environmental concerns connected to the production of dairy products and eggs, many FPMT students have taken up the practice of veganism, including Nicholas Ribush, director of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. In this issue’s online edition, Nick explains his motivations for his decision in “On Becoming a Vegan.”
At the 2009 CPMT meeting in France, Nick asked Rinpoche about veganism, to which Rinpoche gives an expansive and motivational response.
Nick Ribush: Rinpoche, how do you feel about FPMT promoting a policy of not only vegetarianism, but also veganism, because of the cruelty to animals inherent in the production of dairy products and so forth?
Lama Zopa Rinpoche: The reality is that we cannot live without harming others. There’s no way we can survive without others being harmed, killed. We can’t survive for even a day without causing suffering to others.
This is how life is in samsara and that’s why the ultimate answer is to get out of samsara, to be liberated from it. Only when you free yourself from samsara by actualizing the remedy, the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, which directly terminates the delusions, the disturbing thought obscurations, and the negative imprints, the seeds of delusion, will you no longer have to reincarnate, no longer have to go through the cycle of death and rebirth, experiencing all the sufferings of the six realms, one after the other.
It’s only when you’re liberated from samsara that others don’t have to suffer for your happiness, only then that others don’t have to be harmed or killed in order for you to survive. Therefore, actualizing the path is of the utmost urgency; that’s the emergency …
Read the full teaching as part of Mandala‘s July-September 2013 online content …
FPMT Education Services is pleased to announce three new resources for students who have received initiation into the practice of Gyälwa Gyatso.
Tsog of the Great Compassionate One Gyälwa Gyatso is a tsog offering practice written by Lama Yeshe in 1983 at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, at the request of his Western students who had obtained the Gyalwa Gyatso empowerment. Available in eBook, booklet letter and A4 formats.
Requesting and Dedication Prayers of Chenrezig Gyälwa Gyatso, by Gung-thang Konchog Tanpai Dronme and Changkya Rolpai Dorje, is a collection of prayers meant to be read in conjunction with the sadhanas of Gyalwa Gyatso. For those with the initiation of GyälwaGyatso, who wish to strengthen their practice, this collection is essential. Available in eBook, booklet letter and A4 formats.
A Short Daily Practice of GyälwaGyatso, written by Gung-thang Konchog Tanpai Dronme, was originally rendered into English by Ven. George Churinoff and the residents of Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, on the auspicious occasion of the Gyälwa Gyatso empowerment by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, October 1982. Originally published in 1999, a newly updated 2013 edition is now available. Available in eBook, booklet letter and A4 formats.
Long Life Puja at Kopan Monastery, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.In April we received an update from Ven. Roger Kunsang concerning new advice received for prayers and practices students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche should engage in fo Rinpoche’s health.
One of the practices recommended is the recitation of the Sutra of Golden Light. Recitation of this sutra is being organized at some of the great monasteries, but you can also participate by reciting this precious sutra and dedicating to Rinpoche’s long and stable life.
You can send your number of recitations to Claire Isitt at the end of each month, and all prayers and practices will be offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
The worship of the Seven Medicine Buddhas is a spiritual method to alleviate sickness, poverty, conflict and all the other miseries that inevitably afflict beings living in the world. Despite the almost miraculous recent advances in medicine and other technologies, the basic realities of human existence are as true today as they were 2,500 years ago, when the Buddha recommended that we face up to them.
This puja (the longest of all the Medicine Buddha pujas) was translated at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Professor John Newman.
We are happy to now make this puja available as a PDF download for your Kindle, iPad or other digital device.
Saka Dawa takes place this year on Friday/Saturday, May 24/25.
Please keep in mind: According to Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.
I thought you might like a reminder of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended practices for this special day. You can find Rinpoche’s advice on this topic collected here (on Rinpoche’s Advice page, under Buddha Multiplying Days), and a calendar of all the holy days here.
Special thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for preparing the Tibetan Calendar.
If you decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on this special day, you might like to report your recitations using the facility on the FPMT website – which you can find on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page. You can also find many other sutra texts available for free download on the FPMT Education Services’ Sutras page.
New Products Available at the FPMT Foundation Store!
- Long Life Lama Chopa with Request to the Dakinis eBook—Please note, this is one of the current recommended practices for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health.
- Sixteen Arhats Puja available as eBook as well as booklet letter and A4 formats.
- The Yoga of the Three Purifications of Shri Chakrasamvara available as eBook as well as booklet letter and A4 formats.
- We have updated a short Medicine Buddha Sadhana.