receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Flower offering at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“… Once you have understood that wealth is like dew on the tip of a blade of grass
And that your friends, body and life are like a bubble,
Then you must engage in virtues such as making offerings to the Rare Sublime Ones while looking at them as the Guru
And extract the essence from your essenceless body and wealth. …”
– From “Verses to Inspire Offerings” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The verses are also available as a frameable card from the FPMT Foundation Store.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche departing from the Light of the Path retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time, the merit is unfathomable, even if every single drop of the Pacific Ocean is counted. The merits of reciting this mantra even just one time cannot be counted. Even if every single dust particle of the earth is counted, the merits of reciting this mantra cannot be counted; even if every single snow flake is counted, the merits of [reciting] this mantra cannot be counted; even if every single drop of rain is counted, the merits of this mantra cannot be counted. It purifies negative karma and the obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and it collects extensive merits and causes us to actualize the path to enlightenment. In particular it helps us to develop compassion towards all living beings and to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and its causes by ourselves, and bring them to full enlightenment.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, recently posted to the page “Dharma Practice is Most Important” in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Rinpoche choosing flowers for offerings, Aptos, California, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“The purpose of having this precious human body is not simply to achieve happiness for oneself, but to eliminate the suffering of all other beings and to bring them happiness as well,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in his book Transforming Problems Into Happiness, published by Wisdom Publications. “This is the purpose of each of our lives. This human body is precious because with it you have the capacity and opportunity to pursue spiritual development in order to serve other living beings.
“Everyone wants happiness; no one wants suffering. The happiness we need is not just ordinary, fleeting happiness; what we really need is ultimate happiness, the unsurpassed, unshakable happiness of enlightenment. When people go shopping, for example, they want the things that are the best, that will last the longest; in the same way, everyone wants the longest-lasting, highest happiness. According to their understanding of what level of happiness is achievable, everyone attempts to obtain whatever is, in their view, the highest happiness.
“The Buddha’s teachings, called the Dharma, tell us the highest happiness achievable is enlightenment. The only reason anyone would not want to achieve enlightenment is that they lack Dharma wisdom. Lacking Dharma wisdom means simply being unaware that there exists a happiness higher than ordinary happiness. Anyone who has encountered the Dharma and studied it sincerely knows that one can be liberated from the bondage of suffering and can experience peerless happiness, that one can put an end to all obscurations, and that one can attain all the realizations of a buddha. Of course a person who knows these things can be achieved wants to achieve them. …”
You can read more from this excerpt on Wisdom Publication’s website.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
“Every second of this human life is more precious than skies of wish-granting jewels.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
From Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s Twitter page, posted on May 16, 2014, at Light of the Path retreat. You can watch Rinpoche’s teachings at Light of the Path online.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s and Lama Yeshe’s pith sayings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Twitter page. (You can also read them on their Facebook page.)
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
“Lama Zopa: cherishing one sentient being opens the door to all happiness.”
A quotation from Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on May 17, 2014, at the Light of the Path retreat. You can watch Rinpoche’s teachings at Light of the Path online.
Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Maitripa College, Portland, OR, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently offered a series of teachings at Maitripa College in Portland, OR. These teachings were streamed live and are now available to watch at any time.
Rinpoche was very inspired by the work being done at Maitripa College, which has a strong focus on community service in addition to an impressive academic program. To help Maitripa continue this valuable work, Rinpoche offered, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, US$10,000 to the college.
Please rejoice in this offering and in the incredible work being done by Yangsi Rinpoche and his team at Maitripa College.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
“Life is like last night’s dream. Don’t hold on to it as too solid or inherently existent.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche
From Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s Twitter page, posted on May 16, 2014, at Light of the Path retreat. You can watch Rinpoche’s teachings at Light of the Path online.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s and Lama Yeshe’s pith sayings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Twitter page. (You can also read them on their Facebook page.)
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing full length prostrations at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Lama Zopa: I found a note from Lama Yeshe saying ‘the real learned wise person is one who is truly humble.’”
A quotation from Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on May 9, 2014, at the Light of the Path retreat. You can watch Rinpoche’s teachings at Light of the Path online.
Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
The Light of the Path concluded on Sunday, May 18, in North Carolina. If you were unable to attend, you can still watch recordings of teachings.
Rinpoche offered the concluding teaching for this year’s retreat during the evening session on Saturday, May 17, which you can watch here.
All Light of the Path retreat resources from 2009, 2010 and 2014 are available on the Online Learning Center.
The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
More information, photos, schedule and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Mayra Rocha Sandoval, Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA, May 2014. Photo by Sarah Brooks.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues teaching at the Light of the Path, the two-week lam-rim retreat series hosted by Kadampa Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States. Students attending the retreat, like Mayra Rocha Sandoval (right), have been rejoicing that they have been able to hear Rinpoche’s animated and energetic lam-rim teachings every day. For those not at Light of the Path, teaching sessions continue to be webcast live as well as made available as recorded video.
Mayra flew from Mexico to attend Light of the Path and holds the honorable distinction of having completed a three-year lam-rim retreat, a rare accomplishment, at Rinpoche’s request. If three years’ devotion to practice weren’t inspiring enough, Mayra completed the retreat at home, in bustling Mexico City. You can read more about her fascinating story in Mandala‘s October-December 2013 interview, now available on fpmt.org/mandala/.
The retreat concludes on Sunday, May 18. Rinpoche travels next to Italy for the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama hosted by Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa.
For more on the teachings, visit the Living in the Path course resource page, where materials from all three years of Light of the Path events are being made available.
More information, photos, schedule and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
“If it was possible, I should offer you each trillions of dollars for learning about Buddhism. This means your mind is open for real happiness, to be free from the gross suffering in the three lower realms and even not to be satisfied with the temporary happiness of the three upper realms. Most importantly, once you can meet and practice Dharma, this frees you from samsaric happiness, which is only suffering; and Dharma can give you full enlightenment, peerless happiness. Learning Dharma and practicing it is so important for yourself as well as others, countless others, as once you can achieve enlightenment, you can free countless living beings – all living beings – from the oceans of suffering. So you can see there is nothing more important than this: to learn Dharma and practice.”
Read the full advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Light of the Path, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues teaching at Light of the Path in North Carolina, US. Rinpoche’s teachings at the two-week retreat are being webcast live in English and Spanish. Due to technical issues, the webcast in French will be on a delayed stream.
Rinpoche is scheduled to teach twice each day of the retreat, which began on May 4 and runs through May 18. The scheduled teachings times are 4:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. EDT (1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. PDT; 8:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. UTC; 1:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. IST; 6:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. AEST). Video recordings of the teachings will be made available as quickly as possible in English, Spanish and French.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and retreat participants, YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
The Light of the Path Retreat 2014, hosted by Kadampa Center in North Carolina, US, is the third of a five-year series of teaching retreats led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche based on Lama Atisha’s text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. The first two retreats took place in 2009 and 2010 and many resources and materials have been developed from these precious teachings:
- All teachings from the 2009 and 2010 Light of the Path retreats are freely available in the resources area of the FPMT Online Learning Center.
- MP3 audio and MP4 video files are available for download in the Light of the Path Retreat Materials 2009, 2010 and 2014 course. This course also contains the root text and other information associated with the retreat, including reviews, guided meditations, and the complete transcript of the retreat.
- The Living in the Path online program has been created from the Light of the Path retreat teachings of 2009 and 2010. Organized into structured modules you will find this, and other, programs on the FPMT Online Learning Center.
For all the latest details on webcasts, visit the Light of the Path webcast page.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Light of the Path, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
More information, photos, schedule and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.