Education Prayers and Practice Materials

Compendium of Precious Instructions: A Catalog of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Works

It is common knowledge that Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche had scant regard or need for sleep or rest. Twenty-four hours a day were never enough for Rinpoche to carry out his vast and unceasing array of activities to benefit sentient beings, and much of those were devoted to preserving and disseminating the Dharma. Famously, Rinpoche’s teachings could last throughout the night to daybreak, with barely a break before resuming again. The first Kopan course Rinpoche led was in November 1971, and he had started teaching before then. By the time he manifested passing away in 2023, Rinpoche had taught for more than 60 years.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore. Photo by Ven Lobsang Sherab.

But that’s not all. When not teaching before an audience, Rinpoche was imparting both personal and general advice to students and friends, or composing, compiling and translating practices and commentaries. In between, Rinpoche also drew and painted holy images, and copied the sutras in impeccable, luminous calligraphy. Thus, Rinpoche bequeathed to us a prodigious amount of invaluable teachings and artwork, preserved in his original hand, in audio and audiovisual recordings, and also in manuscripts scribed by various disciples acting as his amanuenses.

Over the years, the extent and mode of preserving Rinpoche’s works inevitably evolved. His publishers—mainly FPMT, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, and Wisdom Publications—also developed different approaches to effectively engage different audiences, varying their editorial treatment, presentation and distribution of Rinpoche’s voluminous materials. For these reasons, the vocabulary and authorial voice attributed to Rinpoche sound different in different literary publications, but the authenticity of content is unfailing. 

Here is a growing list of Rinpoche’s literary and graphic works available on paper and/ or electronically, with particular emphasis on key teachings that Rinpoche especially wanted his students to take note of and put into practice, as well as a guide on where to find the audio and video productions.

Publications

FPMT

Published as booklets and pdfs, the FPMT’s collection comprises works translated, compiled or rearranged by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, or composed by Rinpoche himself. These are mainly sadhanas, practices, dharanis, texts  and their related instructions.  Included are practices that Rinpoche extracted from historical commentaries, and his advice and explanations drawn on Tibetan source texts that we have yet to uncover. 

To make the large and expanding collection of materials more accessible and manageable, they are being catalogued and  published under two main titles:

A third, for miscellany, is titled:

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA)

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive offers teachings, discourses, and advice from Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and other great lamas, as well as photographs of them, in multiple media formats. The Archive was initiated in 1996 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who gave it its name out of reverence for his illustrious teacher. The following titles, which cover a wide range of Dharma subjects, are published for free distribution in book form and e-formats:

Kopan eBook Series

Tantra

For Monastics

Wisdom Publications

Wisdom Publications is a non-profit publishing company dedicated to making authentic Buddhist works available for the benefit of all. Wisdom publishes translations of the sutras and tantras, commentaries and teachings of past and contemporary Buddhist masters, and original works by the world’s leading Buddhist scholars.

Online Materials

Online Articles and Blog Posts: Advice, Messages, and Instructions
Highlights (Themed Collections)

Life Practice Advice

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s top priorities was to respond to students’ enquiries on daily practice and their requests for guidance on  the preliminary practices. For more than twenty-five years, Rinpoche refined this advice constantly and came to refer to it as “Life Practices.”
View the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Life Practice Advice homepage.

Thought Transformation

Starting in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began offering teachings on thought transformation (lojong). While offering advice, oral transmissions, and instruction on practice, Rinpoche emphasizes the opportunities available to us to transform our minds using the Buddha’s teachings.
View the collection of Teachings on Thought Transformation During the Time of Covid-19.

Online Advice Book

A collection of advice published online by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive taken from short talks and the thousands of letters Rinpoche wrote personally to students. Categorized by topics, with new advice added to the online book each month.

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

LYWA prepares materials for publication through various avenues including books for free distribution, ebooks on a wide range of readers, social media, multimedia, audiobooks, podcasts, videos on our YouTube channel, lightly edited transcripts and free audio on our website, and a monthly e-letter. We also support the translation of LYWA publications into more than eighteen languages.

Artworks

Cards

Many beautiful cards and posters designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche have been digitalized for easy download. They are mostly meant for display in FPMT centers, public buildings and private homes.

Gallery of Rinpoche's Artworks

A choice selection of Rinpoche’s iconic drawings of smiley faces, elegant calligraphic writing of mantras, and other inspiring artworks is available for download from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:

Mantras

Rinpoche’s beautiful calligraphy can be seen in many mantras, sometimes on cards that are also designed and/or illustrated by him. Often accompanying the mantras are advice on their particular benefits and suggestions on where to display them.

Quotation Cards

These cards feature inspiring quotations of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s words; and important and useful sayings by the great masters that Rinpoche himself had selected and translated.

Other Holy Objects Created by Rinpoche

The following are holy objects created by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to benefit sentient beings in various ways

  • Lama Tsongkhapa Prayer Flag

    Altar cards for benefitting insects – a stack of cards printed with deity images on both sides, around which you can bring insects to circumambulate before releasing them outdoors.
  • Liberation Box – renamed Liberation Tools Set
  • LIberation Cloth
  • Lama Tsong Khapa Prayer flag – a beautiful prayer flag designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.  In 2007, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended all FPMT centers, projects and services to fly this flag for auspiciousness and protection. The prayers on the flag include the Refuge Prayer, the Prayer for the Flourishing of Lama Tsongkhapa‘s Teachings, the prayer Accomplishing the Auspiciousness which includes prayers to the Five Dhyani Buddhas, Lama Tsongkhapa‘s Prayer, dedication prayers, and prayers to avert war, earthquakes, and natural disasters in this universe and especially in the places that the flag is flown.
  • Mantra Hat designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche that is covered with embroidered mantras, so that when you go out in public wearing it, you benefit others, who see the mantra, and yourself.

  • Padmasambhava Crystal – crystal glass etched with Padmasambhava mantra for blessing water

Audio

Mantras, Prayers and Practices, and Sutras

Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting and chanting:

Mantras

Prayers and Practices

Sutras

Oral Transmissions (lung)

A lung (pronounced “loong”) is the oral transmission of a text, mantra, or practice by an authorized lineage-holder. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave special permission to take the lung of these particular sacred texts online. Hence, if you consciously decide to listen to any of these recordings as an oral transmission, you would receive it as such.  
Please note that in doing this you establish a guru-disciple relationship with regard to Rinpoche. 

Sutras

  • The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra | Audio | Video
  • Sutra of Great Liberation | Audio | Videos
  • Sutra of Golden Light | Audio | Video

Mantras

Prayers and Practices

Podcasts

FPMT International Office produces two podcasts:

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive offers a monthly podcast:

Recordings from LYWA

Go to the Teaching menu on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website. Under the the “refine search” section, select “teachings with audio.” Some transcripts are accompanied by audio recordings. 

Videos and Transcripts

Full-Length Teachings (Rinpoche Available Now)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered teachings regularly at FPMT centers around the world. Many of these teachings are available as video and audio recordings together with other resources as a part of our Rinpoche Available Now (RAN) project.

Essential Extracts

Essential Extracts are focused teachings by Rinpoche, excerpted from longer teachings that Rinpoche has offered in videos and at retreats and other teaching events. The essence of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings is continuously being extracted into stand-alone short videos focused on a specific topic. Most of these video extracts are available both as “video only” and as “video with transcript” versions.

Short Video Clips

This is a collection of miscellaneous video clips of advice, talks, and short teachings given on the road by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as he travels and engages in meritorious activities around the world.

FPMT Youtube Channel

The FPMT YouTube channel contains hundreds of videos, playlists, and short video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

LYWA Youtube Channel

The LYWA YouTube channel offers archival video footage of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as well as audio of many books published by LYWA.

 

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive—an FPMT archive—publishes materials through various avenues including books for free distribution and sale, ebooks on a wide range of readers, social media, multimedia, audiobooks, podcasts, videos on our YouTube channel, lightly edited transcripts and free audio on our website, and a monthly e-letter.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.