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Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Light of the Path retreat in Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
More than 300 people are attending the 2016 Light of the Path retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, currently taking place in North Carolina, US, now in its second week. In addition, many more people are watching Rinpoche teach live in English on YouTube with simultaneous interpretation into French, Spanish and Italian. Access to the live transcript in English is now available. Audio of Mandarin interpretation is also available. (More details on the live video and live transcript below.)
Of the 300 students in attendance more than 40 are ordained Sangha. In addition, many are long-time students and center directors and spiritual program coordinators. There are students from many FPMT centers in various countries including Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. This is the fourth year of the Light of the Path retreat. The root text for the retreat is Lama Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.
Retreat organizers from Kadampa Center, located in Raleigh, a four-hour drive away, and volunteers have transformed the auditorium of a YMCA conference and retreat center into a Tibetan gompa with 21 Tara statues and an extensive altar, creating a wonderful environment for Rinpoche’s teachings.
So far, Rinpoche has yet to teach on the root text. Instead, Rinpoche has gone over the benefits of taking the eight Mahayana precepts on a number of days and gave the precepts early on so people could receive the lineage. In addition to doing precepts daily, Lama Chöpa is also being preformed daily. On one day, Rinpoche dedicated Lama Chöpa tsog to the quick return of one of Rinpoche’s gurus – Geshe Lhundup Sopa Rinpoche, who passed away two years ago.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading students in a walking meditation at the Light of the Path Retreat, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Rinpoche has also talked about the benefits of prostrations, which were covered in two sessions, and has explained two different ways to do walking meditation based on lam-rim meditations, such as walking while thinking about the incredible kindness of sentient beings. Silence is being observed from after the last teaching session in the evening until lunch on the following day.
According to Ven. Holly Ansett, the retreat has been organized extremely well by Kadampa Center. And the retreat venue, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, is very comfortable as well as being very beautiful and peaceful. Geshe Gelek, of Kadampa Center, has ensured that Rinpoche and all the retreatants are being well cared for by the team from Kadampa Center.
Ven. Holly also notes how missed Ven. Thubten Kunsang is at the retreat. For many years Ven. Kunsang, who passed away in July, was a familiar smiling face at retreats with Rinpoche, where he would record the audio of Rinpoche’s teachings and take photos. Rinpoche began this year’s retreat reminding students of impermanence and how anyone could die at any time.
The media team for the retreat has done amazing work setting up the live video streaming of the teachings and taking care of all the technical needs at the venue. Ven. Joan Nicell’s live transcription of the teachings is projected on a screen above Rinpoche and also is now viewable on FPMT’s YouTube channel.
Summary of links to video and audio options for the Light of the Path 2016 teachings:
YouTube live video stream of teachings with links to interpretation in English, Français, Español and Italiano:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FPMTinc
NEW! Live English transcription of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings (can be opened in a second window and watched along side the live teaching):
https://www.youtube.com/c/fpmtinc/live
Mandarin interpretation of teachings (audio only):
http://en.1000mikes.com/show/fpmtlopchinese_on_air
Backup Livestream video (in English) with occasional updates on schedule:
http://livestream.com/FPMT/LOP2016
Facebook Live video on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/lamazoparinpoche
Recorded video, audio and transcripts of the Light of the Path teachings will be posted here as they become available:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/
Many additional resources and materials have been developed from the previous precious retreat teachings:
- All teachings from the 2009, 2010 and 2014 are available on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
- Together with many additional resources, the Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings. Organized into structured modules, you will find this program on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.