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Lama Zopa Rinpoche reading Lama Tsongkhapa’s “Lekshe Nyingpo,” Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
While Lama Zopa Rinpoche was staying at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, he engaged in round the clock meritorious activities and offered blessings to many people and animals during the first 15 days of Tibetan New Year. Ven. Sarah Thresher recently shared news of some of Rinpoche’s beneficial activities:
This morning we completed the Tara initiation that began three days ago. Our days have been so busy. Rinpoche would come in the middle of the night to do preparation for the initiation and we would begin around 3 or 4 a.m., taking it until breakfast. These are the last few days of the Losar merit increasing days and Rinpoche has inspired us to practice continually day and night. Even working in shifts, it is impossible to keep up with the endless and effortless flow of virtue and we have all been operating on very few hours of sleep!
The past few days Rinpoche has been going to the Mahabodhi Stupa to practice during and take advantage of the merit increasing days. Rinpoche especially wanted to complete the reading of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lekshe Nyingpo, a profound text clarifying all the subtle points of the view of emptiness according to the four schools of Buddhist philosophical tenets, which he started to read last year. When he arrived in Bodhgaya, Rinpoche would go in the evenings to make offerings and circumambulate the stupa while reciting the text, but since there were still many pages left, the past two days Rinpoche has been sitting in the shade at the small stupa, where Buddha gazed unblinkingly at the Bodhi tree during the third week after enlightenment, focusing on the recitation. When he finishes, Rinpoche sits in meditation on emptiness for a while. Around us the sound of chanting and pujas from all different traditions of Buddhism harmonize as Rinpoche sits in a state of deep absorption.
Since Rinpoche arrived at Root, we have been fortunate to receive so many teachings and pieces of advice on emptiness. In fact, a series of teachings on patience focused mainly on emptiness. “The most powerful practice for patience is emptiness,” Rinpoche explained.
On Day of Miracles, March 5, Rinpoche spent four hours reciting and meditating on Lekshe Nyingpo in the morning and then returned in the evening to lead 2,000 tsog offerings. We sat under the Bodhi tree for the tsog offering and in front of us was Sogyal Rinpoche leading prayers with a group of students from Rigpa. At the end of the prayers, Sogyal Rinpoche came up to greet Rinpoche, offering a khata and remarking how beautifully Rinpoche had been chanting Calling the Guru from Afar. He asked Rinpoche to live long because Rinpoche does so many activities to benefit others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leaving the Mahabodhi Stupa complex, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
The day before Day of Miracles, we offered a simple long life offering to Rinpoche. Since there have been so many pujas over the recent days, we checked with Rinpoche which puja would be best and Rinpoche said he would like to do the long Sixteen Arhats puja, which is very powerful for preserving the Dharma as well as for the gurus’ long lives. We were fortunate that Keutsang Rinpoche happily accepted to come and present the offerings to Rinpoche. At the beginning of the puja, Rinpoche dedicated the puja to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, all his gurus, all the FPMT center directors and staff, all the students and all sentient beings who are creating virtue. Rinpoche quoted President Obama’s recent description of His Holiness as “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion” and emphasized how important it is that world leaders are able to meet and be inspired by His Holiness. The puja was quite simple but Rinpoche expressed at the end that he enjoyed it and joked that he and Keutsang Rinpoche could now go on holiday to Goa or Tahiti with all the money offerings we had made! But then Rinpoche promptly donated back all the money to Root Institute’s projects and to help build a new Maitreya statue at the institute.
Rinpoche was supposed to leave immediately after March 5, but is now delaying a few more days.
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.