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Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Australia 2014 retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Registration is now open for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, March 30-May 12, 2018! This six-week retreat is the third in series of retreats given in Australia by Rinpoche.
“This retreat came about because the late Khunu Lama Rinpoche requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to translate Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life),” explained Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT. “Khunu Lama Rinpoche made this request after he gave Lama Zopa Rinpoche the commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s request. So Lama Zopa Rinpoche is teaching the Bodhicaryavatara at the same time as translating it. (A small team led by Ven. Ailsa Cameron is carefully noting Rinpoche’s translation as he teaches.)
“Then Lama Zopa Rinpoche was requested by Ven. Gyatso (director of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery in Bendigo) to give the Rinjung Gyatsa set of initiations, which is quite rare. Rinpoche commented that it is common in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to organize initiations into ‘sets.’ Also that different deities have different purposes and benefits, and that once you receive the permission to practice that deity, you have more potential to help others and are also helping to preserve Buddhism.
“Lama Zopa Rinpoche has combined both into one retreat. The first installment of this retreat was in April 2011 and the second installment took place in September-October 2014.”
Rinpoche teaching at the Australia 2014 retreat. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
You can register for the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat 2018 at the Great Stupa and find additional information on the retreat website:
http://lamazoparetreat2018.org.au/
An early-bird discount is offered on registration before October 31, 2017.
Read about the April 2011 retreat in the Mandala story “The Retreat of a Life Time.” The September-October 2014 retreat was covered in many FPMT news blog posts, which include links to video from Rinpoche’s teachings there. You can also access video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings from the Australia 2014 retreat on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page (fpmt.org/rinpochenow/).
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE at the Light of the Path retreat August 20-September 17, 2017:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
It’s not too late to join Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 100 Million Mani Retreat at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy: October 4-November 5, 2017. Find out more at:
https://www.iltk.org/en/lama-zopa-rinpoche-2017/
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.