FPMT News & Media

Podcasts

FPMT International Office produces two podcasts: Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast, which shares Rinpoche’s indispensable wisdom in a concise audio format, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings Podcast, which features the unedited audio from recent teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. To learn more, see below.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings Podcast

 

Each episode of the Full-length Teachings Podcast is a largely unedited recording of a teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Below you can find two teaching series—the first was Rinpoche’s Thought Transformation teaching series, given by Rinpoche from his room at Kopan Monastery during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.  The second series is a collection of Rinpoche’s teachings from a 2004 Mahamudra retreat held at Buddha House in Australia, which is being published throughout 2025. Learn more about these series below.

Ghanden Lha Gyäma Retreat at Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa, 2004

About the 2004 Ghanden Lha Gyama Retreat Series

From September 3 through September 30, 2004, Lama Zopa Rinpoche covered many topics during the Ganden Lha Gyama retreat (Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga) with 44 teaching sessions at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy. Topics included all lamrim topics, namely emptiness, karma, and compassion.
New episodes of this series will be released every week, and, with forty-four teachings, the episode releases will continue through the remainder of 2026.

Video of these teachings is also available on our Rinpoche Available Now page.

Mahamudra Retreat at Buddha House, Australia, 2004

About the 2004 Mahamudra Retreat Series

From April 10 to May 10, 2004, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extensive teachings during the Mahamudra Retreat at Buddha House, Australia. While the retreat focused on Mahamudra, Rinpoche also taught on a wide range of lamrim topics. 

New episodes of this series will be released every week, and as there are fifty teachings in this series, the episode releases will continue through the entirety of 2025.

Video of these teachings is also available on our Rinpoche Available Now page.

Thought Transformation Series

About the Thought Transformation Series

sample podcast episode image with text and Rinpoche's smiling faceWhile staying at Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 lockdown, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is recording video teachings on thought transformation (lojong). In these teachings, Rinpoche urges us to use these difficult times to develop our Dharma practice.

While offering advice, oral transmissions, and instruction on practice, Rinpoche emphasizes the opportunities available to us to transform our minds using the Buddha’s teachings. By looking at the pandemic with Dharma in our minds, our daily practice of bodhicitta and wisdom can be quickly developed so that we can be most beneficial. 

You can read an in-depth summary of Rinpoche’s thought transformation teachings given in 2020 in the Mandala 2021 article “The Time to Practice Is Now.”

Please note: If you have questions on how to listen to podcasts through an app, a search of the internet offers many resources to help you.

How to Listen

We are making this podcast series available only through popular podcasting apps and platforms, such as Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Cast, and so forth. To find the show in the podcast app, search for the series title “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-length Teachings.” For the Italian version of this podcast, search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoce insegnamenti completi.” 

For those using an RSS reader app or browser (other than Safari), the RSS feed link is feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/lama-zopa-rinpoche-full-length/

 

 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast

 

The Essential Extracts Podcast, which launched in May 2022, captures the essence of Rinpoche’s teachings. The episodes are excerpts from longer teachings that Rinpoche has offered in videos, retreats and other teaching events. Each fifteen to thirty-minute episode focuses on a single topic, many covering lamrim topics that are often emphasized by Rinpoche. 

The lamrim is a textual tradition that organizes Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings into a complete step-by-step path to enlightenment. For more on lamrim and resources to support your lamrim practice, please see our lamrim page.

We have also published a collection of Essential Extract videos, many of which have been shared in Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche blogs. 

How to Listen

The Essential Extracts Podcast is available through popular podcasting apps and platforms, such as Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Cast, and so forth. To find the show in a podcast app, search for the series title “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts.”  

You may also listen to the episodes on our website by visiting our Essential Extracts Podcast Episodes page.

For those using an RSS reader app, the RSS feed link is feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/lama-zopa-rinpoche-essence/.