Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering incense puja on Kopan Hill to mitigate the pandemic in Nepal, India, and the world; for many weeks Rinpoche offered sur, bath offering, incense puja, and tea offering for many hours each night; Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Since our last update, Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues to engage in as many beneficial activities as he can each day, including offering new videos from his Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 teaching series as well as video teachings in Tibetan. Rinpoche has remained in Nepal since March 2020, spending most of his time at Kopan Monastery. Following health precautions, Rinpoche, who has been vaccinated, has also done many meritorious activities in the Kathmandu area as well as making an auspicious visit to Maratika. Below we share a few details of Rinpoche’s activities over the past three months.

Pujas for the Benefit of All and for Rinpoche’s Long Life

In March and early April, Rinpoche offered Mahakala puja with the Lama Gyupa monks at Kopan Monastery, bath offering with the nuns Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, and Amitabha puja and strong prayers with the Kopan nuns for all who died in the tragic Taiwan train accident on April 2, 2021. 

Khadro-la offering a statue to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the second White Tara long life puja offered to Rinpoche. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On April 19, the second official long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered this year. This was a White Tara long life puja and was preceded by seven days of practices led by Khadro-la, Kopan Lama Gyupas, and senior monks and nuns.

Maratika

Rinpoche descending into the main cave of Maratika, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

At the end of April, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la, and Sangha spent time in the Maratika Cave doing prayers, including recitation of the Amitayus Long Life Sutra, for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche has explained that “Maratika is the place where Padmasambhava achieved immortal realization, the state of Buddha Amitayus, the Limitless Light Buddha.” In the main cave there is a large rock, which is the naturally appearing long-life vase of the Buddha Amitayus, from Padmasambhava’s time. According to Rinpoche, this vase is the most holy object at Maratika.

The purpose of this trip to Maratika was to offer prayers and puja to consecrate land for a future very large Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) statue in Maratika. The statue will be 36 feet (11 meters) tall and be seated on a 30-foot (9-meter) tall throne. It will have a gold face, hands, and body, and will be in the aspect of the first manifestation of the Twelve Manifestations of Padmasambhava, Gyalwey Dungdzin (Padma Gyalpo), which is Guru Rinpoche’s magnetizing form. The construction of the statue will take approximately five years and is estimated to be complete in 2026.

View from the land where the 66 ft statue of Padmasambhava will be built – Maratika, Nepal; Photographer: Roger Kunsang; 2021-04

COVID-19 Outbreak at Kopan and Rinpoche’s Compassionate Response

At the end of April, Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery—both in Nepal—experienced a COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to receiving countless prayers and dedications from the international FPMT community, many Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries also prayed for Kopan during the outbreak. Rinpoche composed a letter thanking the monasteries and nunneries for their prayers.

While Rinpoche had already been doing continual practice and offering pujas for all those affected by the pandemic, these activities became even more extensive during the outbreak at Kopan and the spikes in Nepal and India. Each day, Rinpoche offered incense puja (to purify obstacles), bath offering (a practice of visualizing or actually offering an ablution to the merit field in order to clear away obscurations and create merit), tea offering (an offering of divine nectar), and sur practice (to clear obstacles and create merit by making charity to the sentient beings of the six realms). These practices were offered in the four directions and dedicated to all beings suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, India, Brazil, and throughout the world. Khadro-la regularly offered incense pujas at her location, which is not far from Kopan, and Losang Namgyal Rinpoche joined Rinpoche in reciting Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga before offering incense puja on occasion. 

Watch Rinpoche blessing the incense for puja:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YP8jUUGj9g

Writing Out the Prajnaparamita Sutra, Offering Teachings, and Liberating Goats

In mid-May, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began to write out the Prajnaparamita in pure gold after a break of ten years! Rinpoche had been writing the 8,000 verse Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold for several years. But since 2011 when he manifested a stroke, Rinpoche hasn’t been able to write, as he felt his handwriting was not stable enough. Rinpoche has explained how important it is to write in one’s best calligraphy, due to the incredibly precious text that one is writing out. Under Rinpoche’s guidance several students have been writing out the Prajnaparamita on archival quality rainbow paper, including Ven. Tsering, who is now based at Kopan Monastery and is writing out volumes from the 12,000 verse Prajnaparamita in pure gold full-time, as well as Jane Seidlitz in US and Ven. Nina at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery. This is incredible that Rinpoche is writing out this most precious sutra again. Please let us rejoice! 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving his first thought transformation video teachings in 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

From March-May Rinpoche continued offering thought transformation teachings through ten videos, including the conclusion of the Sutra of Great Liberation oral transmission and teachings specifically offering advice for ordained Sangha. In May, Rinpoche also began giving teachings in Tibetan. These videos can be found in “FPMT Tibetan” YouTube channel.

Rinpoche blessing six new goats that were bought and saved from the butcher. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche bought six (and counting!) goats from a butcher on the side of the road in Kathmandu. These animals were liberated on behalf of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, all the Kopan monks and nuns, and for the Indian and Nepalese to be free from COVID-19. The goats were saved from death and will live the rest of their lives at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary near Kopan Monastery. 

These are just a few of the many auspicious activities Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been engaged in over the past three months in Nepal. We invite you to enjoy the new online gallery of photos, which show even more of Rinpoche’s recent activities, in which we can all rejoice:

Visit the March and April 2021 photo album:
fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/nepal-march-april-2021

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.

Watch the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/