Offering tsog during long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The six-week long Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, came to a conclusion on Saturday, May 12. Ven. Holly Ansett, executive assistant to FPMT CEO Ven. Roger Kunsang, and long-time Australian student Owen Cole shared their reports on the retreat:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Throughout the six-week Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, participants commented to each other that something special was going on, that this retreat was unique, profound, and very precious. In other words, all the conditions had come together for deep and transforming practice. 

One long-time student speaking about the retreat told Owen Cole that “the ground shifted.”

“By that they meant that even though many of the long-time students who attended the retreat had heard the information conveyed in the teachings before, this time the message penetrated deeper,” Owen wrote.

Rinpoche himself remarked at the end of the retreat that everything went well and had been extremely harmonious and peaceful.

One of the reasons for this, Rinpoche said, was that all the retreat participants did Lama Chöpa Jorcho practice for several hours every morning exactly the way that Rinpoche had instructed.

Earlier in the retreat, Rinpoche had said there was no rush in doing the practice. So for six weeks, participants, led by the beautiful voice of Ven. Thubten Dechen, chanted the tunes—slowly, melodically, and mostly in Tibetan—just as Rinpoche had indicated.

Doing it this way, Rinpoche said, “softened the mind” and created the beneficial conditions.

A giant Tara thangka painted by Peter Iseli hung in The Great Stupa during the retreat. One day Rinpoche taught on the importance of very large thangkas, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha pose for a group photo after a lunch in the Stupa Cafe offered by Rinpoche to Sangha, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During the last two weeks of the retreat, Rinpoche gave a Heruka initiation over several days. Rinpoche also gave five initiations from the Rinjung Gyatsa set of 305 initiations and a Lama Tsongkhapa long life initiation for Ven. Thubten Gyatso, a senior student and director of the nearby Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery.

Rinpoche gave an unprecedented number of teachings during the retreat, all of which were streamed live online and are now available to watch as streaming video.

Rinpoche’s experiential teachings covered lamrim topics, emphasizing correctly following the guru in thought and action, and bodhichitta.

Rinpoche’s concluding teaching for the retreat, on May 11, was on the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination—a teaching he had received from Geshe Sopa Rinpoche—and the meaning of the popular Wheel of Life image.

After the concluding teaching, a deeply felt thank you mandala was offered to Rinpoche.

Ven. Gyatso and Ian Green, director of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, spoke on behalf of the Heart of Wisdom board, which was the body responsible for organizing the retreat. They acknowledged the contributions and hard work of their fellow board members, including Ruby Karmay, director of Atisha Centre, which is located adjacent to The Great Stupa. 

Ven. Tenzin Tsapel, who coordinated the spiritual program for the retreat following all of Rinpoche’s wishes, was also thanked. The retreat coordinator, Ven. Losang Dorje, was praised for the excellent work he did organizing all of the details and offered a round of applause. Ian gave a brief summary report of the retreat’s expenses. 

Ven. Dorje then thanked all the volunteer teams—gompa, office, and grounds and maintenance— that allowed retreat participants to focus on practice without worry of other things. The transcription work of Ven. Joan Nicell and the work of the live interpreters were also acknowledged. In addition many, many others not named here were thanked.

At one point during the retreat, Rinpoche commented to Ven. Roger Kunsang that these teachings on Bodhicaryavatara and the Rinjung Gyatsa initiations are extremely important for the FPMT organization.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ian Green looking at a model of the master plan for The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion and grounds. Rinpoche and Ian met many times during the retreat to discuss sacred art for the stupa and future development. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During the afternoon of May 11, a large Saint Francis of Assisi statue was unveiled in the Peace Park on the grounds of The Great Stupa. Rinpoche and the Catholic Bishop of Sandhurst, Bishop Leslie Rogers Tomlinson, blessed the statue. 

Meanwhile retreat participants cleaned and decorated the gompa inside The Great Stupa in preparation for the following day’s long life puja for Rinpoche.

Students in the fourth week of the Bendigo Retreat who attended the 1978 November Kopan Course forty years ago. Owen Cole wrote, “In those days, many of us slept on the ground in a tent and had to take a bucket down to the local freezing Nepali spring in winter to bathe, but the Kopan courses in those days were an exhilarating experience for us all as they have been for the thousands who have attended them since.” From left, Gun Cisse (Sweden), Geoff Pullen (UK), Vicki Taylor (Sydney), Murray Wright (New Zealand), Owen Cole (Hayagriva), Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Greg Carr (Hayagriva), Margaret Bohler (Sydney). Absent Ven. Thubten Gyatso. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The retreat was attended by a cross section of FPMT students, traveling from near and far, including more than sixty-five ordained Sangha.

“Ninety students did the whole six-week retreat with almost four hundred taking part for at least part of it. There was an average of about 160 students in any week with about one-third of those from outside Australia,” Owen Cole wrote.

“Organizing the retreat involved creating a small village from nothing by setting up sixty accommodation tents as well as caravans, portable toilets and showers, a marquee (tent) dining hall, and a portable kitchen. Electricity for the kitchen came from a portable generator and with the number of people and lack of infrastructure, drinking water even had to be trucked into the site and sewage trucked out.

“The karma yoga with participants having to cooperate and get to know each other through jobs such as maintaining the altar, serving food, dish washing, cleaning toilets and showers, and ground maintenance also built a sense of community. Without this huge input of volunteer labor the retreat could not have happened.”

The Great Stupa and marquee, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim.

Tents set up for retreat participants at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Owen Cole.

The Long Life Puja

More than four hundred people attended the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Saturday, May 12, at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion.

Resident geshes from FPMT Australia centers were there, including Geshe Thubten Rapten (Thubten Shedrup Ling), Geshe Phuntsok Tsultrim (Chenrezig Institute), Geshe Ngawang Samten (Vajrayana Institute), Geshe Lobsang Doga (Tara Institue), and Geshe Ngawang Sonam (Hayagriva Centre). Geshe Jampa Tharchin, resident geshe at Chandrakirti Centre in New Zealand, was also there, as well as Geshe Tenzin Zopa, an FPMT touring geshe who attended the entire retreat.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja for him, The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 12, 2018. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim.

Students carrying in the White Tara statue offered to Rinpoche during the long life puja, The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche entered the carefully arranged gompa to gracefully falling white flower petals.

During the puja, which lasted six hours, Rinpoche was offered a White Tara statue, sculpted by Bertrand Cayla over a period of a year and painted by Sonam Sherpa and Bertrand over a period of several months at Nalanda Monastery in France. The life-sized statute was shipped to Bendigo and filled by Geshe Thubten Rapten and Ven. Gyatso.

Vens. Thubten Dechen and Gyalten Wangmo offered the long life prayer to Rinpoche composed by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la), masterfully sung to a Bhutanese tune. As they sang, it seemed as if sunlight illuminated the statue, creating an auspicious and touching moment.

Vens. Dechen and Gyalten offer long life prayer by Khadro-la to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

White Tara statue in France before being sent to Australia to be offered to Rinpoche. Photo by Bertrand Cayla.

Student strongly participated in the long life puja, singing from their hearts and receiving the blessings from Rinpoche.

After the puja, Rinpoche invited seventy-five people to lunch in a Nepali restaurant in Bendigo. Rinpoche offered the lunch as a way of showing appreciation to the people who have taken on important responsibilities at FPMT centers, including resident geshes and teachers, directors, spiritual program coordinators, board members, and so forth. It was a happy and relaxed time at the restaurant.

The next day before leaving Thubten Shedrup Ling, where he stayed during the retreat, Rinpoche led an incense puja in the garden of the monastery. Rinpoche traveled next to Adelaide, where he blesses Buddha House’s new building on May 20.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing incense puja at Thubten Shedrup Ling, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

 “It was an incredible and moving retreat,” Ven. Holly said. “It was not like anything else I’ve experienced. It was such a precious time. The conditions of prayers and effort came together for a retreat of a life time.”

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings from the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat in Australia:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-bendigo-2018/

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.