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Lama Zopa Rinpoche with participants in the Mexican retreat, Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Drolkar McCallum.
Karla Ambrosio, national coordinator of FPMT Mexico, shares this report after Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent retreat to the country in September 2015. The retreat was called “Essential Nectar” and took place at Casa de Ejercicios Espirituales de Puente Grande, a Jesuit retreat center just outside of Guadalajara:
The root text for the retreat was the poem written by Yeshe Tsöndru, a 19th-century Gelug lama from Sera Me Monastery. During the eight-day retreat, Rinpoche taught lam-rim, showing how we might see life’s great value and, by taking up the profound practice based on bodhichitta and emptiness, make it most beneficial.
As Rinpoche did in his last visit in 2008, the retreat began with detailed teachings on the nature of reality and continued with the three aspects of the path and heart advice on guru devotion. During the retreat, Rinpoche emphasized the importance of purification, collecting merit and develop a good heart.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arriving at the beginning of a teaching session during the lam-rim retreat in Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
About 300 people attended the retreat and around 20 people took refuge with Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the last evening. FPMT Mexico hosted and organized the retreat with Centro Khamlungpa, which offered heartfelt service through 30 volunteers. Most remarkable is the great organization job done by Dunia Cárcamo and Ramón Lara from Centro Khamlungpa, as well as Ven. Paloma Alba, whose great experience and service as FPMT Latin America regional coordinator is priceless.
The event was especially meaningful because of the diversity of the attendees: new Dharma students from different Tibetan Buddhist traditions and schools within Mexico; FPMT center directors, study group coordinators, SPCs, board members and students from all over the country; visitors from North and Latin America; Sangha members – and even three babies still in the womb!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the teaching throne during the lam-rim retreat, Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Some of the elder students expressed several times that the retreat had been one of the best, mostly because of the warm feeling of the Mexican people and the truly heartfelt service offered by the volunteers. Such an amazing opportunity for rejoicing!
The news about His Eminence Choden Rinpoche manifesting the appearance of passing away was an incredible teaching on impermanence, correct guru devotion and pure view. Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasized the importance of the tsog offering as a way of purifying negative karma created in relation to the guru. Rinpoche said Lama Chöpa tsog is especially powerful if it can be performed on the same day as the guru’s passing away.
Karuna Cayton, Jhampa Shaneman and Jacie Keeley sharing stories, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Nancy Torres.
Long-time students Karuna Cayton, Jhampa Shaneman and Jacie Keeley also shared some of their stories about studying and working with Lama Yeshe.
During the retreat, FPMT Mexico offered the translation of Rinpoche’s 2008 lam-rim teachings – Tu mente crea tu realidad. The book was edited by Alejandra Almada and Ven. Paloma, and published by Ediciones Dharma. Those precious teachings are also available in English at Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
FPMT Mexico centers and study groups had a meeting with Rinpoche at the end of the retreat. After more that eight years of a great learning process, the Mexican mandala offered Rinpoche a constitution for a legal civil association. Rinpoche shared some advice with the directors, coordinators and SPCs, who committed to offer service with bodhichitta.
FPMT Mexico comprises four centers (Khamlungpa in Guadalajara, Bengungyal in Aguascalientes, Rinchen Zangpo in Torreón, Yeshe Gyaltsen in Cozumel) and five study groups (Padmasambhava in Durango, Vajrapani in Huatulco, Khedrup Sangye Yeshe in Morelia, Chekawa in Uruapan and Thubten Kunkyab in Mexico City). New groups will be formalized in Salamanca and Veracruz, and some upcoming groups will be developed in Puebla, Puerto Vallarta and San Luis Potosí.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the directors and SPCs of the four FPMT centers and five FPMT study groups of Mexico, and also Ven. Paloma Alba from Spain, Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Video recordings of Rinpoche teaching at the “Essence of Nectar” retreat will be made available as soon as possible on FPMT.org’s “Rinpoche Available Now” page.
Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.