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Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a group photo from the Fourth Meditation Course, Kopan Monastery, spring, 1973. Photo courtesy LYWA Collection.
Kopan Monastery’s yearly month-long lamrim course, known affectionately as the November Course, will be held from November 8 through December 8, 2024 in Nepal. Registration for this course is open and there are still spots available!
Lama Yeshe and Rinpoche at the 11th Kopan Meditation Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1978. Photo by Murray Wright, courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
In 2017, Rinpoche told the attendees of the famous Kopan November Course, “So it is really of the utmost importance, you coming here to learn not just meditation but lamrim, lamrim meditation. … Only then, you can understand how to live life, how in the past how you live, and how you should live now, in a positive way to benefit not only yourself but all the numberless beings. So I want to say, your coming to Kopan to do meditation course, oh, this is the best! If you want to help the world, to bring peace, your coming here is the best. Your coming here to do the meditation course, to learn, that is the best. You have to bring peace in the world by your mind, by your good heart. You yourself have to have a good heart to bring perfect peace and happiness in the world. That is the best. … Coming to a Kopan Course is the most important education of your life.”
The first course was offered in 1971 with a dozen of students in attendance, and over the years, an average of 200 spiritual seekers from diverse backgrounds have received the immense blessings of this legendary course. Many of FPMT’s senior students first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche after walking up the beautiful and holy Kopan hill for the month-long retreat. This historic course is responsible for the lamas’ teachings spreading throughout the West as these students established FPMT centers around the world.
The course still follows the exact same structure set up by the lamas. This year, one of FPMT’s first Western students, Tubten Pende (aka Jim Dougherty), will be leading the course. Since 1972, Pende has been offering service in so many ways to FPMT.
2024 Kopan November Course teacher, Tubten Pende.
“Tubten Pende is one of FPMT’s most senior teachers,” says Merry Colony, former director of FPMT Education Services. “As a monk Pende studied with Khensur Jampa Tegchok at both Manjushri Institute and Nalanda Monastery for many years. Pende was instrumental in getting the FPMT Masters Program off the ground and headed up FPMT’s Education Department in the 1990s. Later he was one of the FPMT senior teachers invited to help formulate the Discovering Buddhism program. Since its inception, Pende has been involved with the program, first as a teacher of module 12, the Wisdom of Emptiness, and later as an elder for the DB online forum and assessor for DB certificate students. Pende has always stood out as an exceptional teacher of all topics, but most especially emptiness, having the very sharp analytical mind necessary for delving deeply into this profound topic. Pende’s presentations are always exceptionally clear and to the point.”
This will be Pende’s third time teaching the course; he also taught in 1985 and 1994. Attending this course is an incredibly precious opportunity, and receiving these teachings from Tubten Pende is a true blessing.
For more information on this year’s course and to register, please visit Kopan Monastery’s website: https://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses/november-course
You can watch videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching the 2022 November Course and download a full transcript of the entire event.
Please read the story about how the Kopan courses began.
Here’s a taste of the teachings given at Kopan Courses starting from the earliest days.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.