receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Riverside, Washington, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“Usually we have attachment to so many different things, or to having many of a similar object, e.g. a wife, husband, girlfriend or boyfriend, sexual relationships, etc. — wanting many or not being content with one. Or wanting more money; when we have one thousand dollars, wanting ten thousand dollars, then a million, then a billion, it is endless. Then, to get more, one engages in the ten non-virtues, cheats or even kills others. Then one gets into trouble and receives punishment, is sent to prison, and becomes famous for having a negative mind, a bad reputation.
“Contentment means not needing more than you have or wanting what you don’t have. You can understand it better if you think of renunciation. It is similar, bringing peace in the heart by healing the mental sickness of attachment.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from Service as a Path to Enlightenment, from FPMT Education Services
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making an offering to a beggar on the way up to Vulture’s Peak, India, March 2014. Photo by Andy Melnic.
The sheer volume of compassionate activity undertaken by Lama Zopa Rinpoche every year, day in and day out, is astounding. The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund was established to enable Rinpoche’s kindness and generosity to flourish around the world.
You can now have all news from this fund delivered to your email inbox. Subscribe here and never miss a thing!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, US, April 19, 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers a White Tara Long Life Empowerment on Tuesday, April 22, at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, US. You can watch a live video webcast of the preliminary teachings on FPMT’s Livestream page. The webcast is scheduled to beginning at 10 a.m. PDT.
The empowerment coincides with the birthday of Maitripa president Yangsi Rinpoche and caps off a weekend of many precious blessings with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
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 at Maitripa College, Oregon, US, June 2012. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
On Monday, April 21, at 7 p.m. PDT Lama Zopa Rinpoche will offer an oral transmission of the preliminary practice of Dorje Khadro at Maitripa College.
UPDATE: All public portions of the oral transmission will be webcast live on FPMT’s Livestream — this is a new link than was previously published. A recording of this teaching will be available at this link following the teachings.
In early May, Rinpoche will be teaching at the Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, US. The teachings during the retreat will be streamed live as well as made available after the event on demand.
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 at Maitripa College, Oregon, US, June 2012. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
On Saturday, April 19 at 7 p.m. PDT, Lama Zopa Rinpoche will offer a Vajrasattva initiation at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, United States. Then on Monday, April 21 at 7 p.m., Rinpoche will offer the oral transmission of the preliminary practice of Dorje Khadro. All public portions of the Vajrasattva initiation and oral transmission will be webcast live courtesy of Maitripa College.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in the United States in early April, staying at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in rural northcentral Washington State before coming south to Portland for the teachings at Maitripa.
In early May, Rinpoche will be teaching at the Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina, US. The teachings during the retreat will be streamed live as well as made available after the event on demand.
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 shopping for flowers for offerings, Washington, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“… Tong-len practice is extremely good and we collect limitless skies of merit. When we give our merit from the past, present and future, as well as our body and material things, this results in happiness from now up to enlightenment, including all happiness in this life and future lives, and liberation from samsara. There is so much to give and when we give to each sentient being, we collect limitless skies of merit so many times. Tong-len is giving our happiness to other sentient beings and experiencing all their suffering. With this incredible practice, we can achieve enlightenment quicker. When we take on the suffering of others, we collect incredible, limitless skies of merit. This is the very heart of the Mahayana teachings; the brave heart developing bodhichitta. Strong compassion serving others is the quick way to achieve enlightenment. …”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the page “The Path to Enlightenment”
in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making prayers at the great stupa in Sarnath, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Sarnath, India, in March 2014. Sarnath is the location where Buddha Shakyamuni first taught Dharma and is one of the four major Buddhist pilgrimage sites.
While at the deer park at Sarnath, Rinpoche made prayers at Dhamek Stupa.
In 2013, Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. The text, which Rinpoche would like to be used far and wide, is available from FPMT Education Services as a free booklet in several downloadable formats in English as well as in Italian.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Riverside, Washington, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“There is no question what to do to make your life meaningful. The most important thing is to practice Dharma, because everyone wants happiness and does not want suffering, even the tiniest insect does not want to suffer. In order to stop all the suffering (which is not wanted) and to cause all happiness (which is wanted) depends on abandoning the cause of suffering and practicing the cause of happiness. Therefore, there is nothing else – only Dharma.
“Therefore, you need to learn Dharma and practice Dharma. …”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the page “A Meaningful Life” in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche upon arriving in Sarnath, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A new post on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive features Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on purifying past karma. Rinpoche responds to a letter from a student diagnosed with breast cancer at length. Here’s an excerpt:
“… Even this life’s problems come from the wrong concept and wrong action. This life’s happiness also comes from the right concept, the correct way of thinking, and correct actions, pure actions. From that, inner happiness comes. So even this hour’s happiness, right now, if we think in a positive way, then we have happiness, but if we think in a negative way, then we have suffering. Even the person who got angry towards us in the past, who gave us harm in the past, who we regard as an enemy, maybe first we cherished that person and now we have renounced him. Maybe in the beginning we were attached and now totally the opposite.
“In the beginning we thought that person was the same as a holy being, a bodhisattva or buddha, or even just a good human being, then when he gets angry with us, provokes us, harms us, or even tries to kill us, we see him as an enemy. Actually we should see him as the most kind person; this person who is our enemy is our teacher of patience, for us to learn patience. Maybe we do meditation on patience, but here, this person is our practical teacher. We can do the action meditation of patience with him, so we have the opportunity to use him and to see him as most kind – kinder than someone who gives us a hundred thousand dollars. Just giving us a hundred thousand dollars, that alone doesn’t help us to be free, to have a happy death or to stop us being reincarnated in the hell realms or as a hungry ghost or animal.
“If we practice patience towards the person who is angry at us, who harms us, by thinking how extremely kind he is, then we don’t get reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal. Also the enemy actually gives us the opportunity to create the cause for good rebirth and for our next life to be born as a deva or higher. Then also that person becomes the cause to cease all of our sufferings and to achieve ultimate happiness, full enlightenment, peerless happiness for sentient beings and to be able to free the numberless sentient beings from each realm from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to omniscience, ultimate happiness and full enlightenment. …”
Read the entire letter “Purifying Past Karma” online from the Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Jinsui Farlin Center, Taipei, Taiwan, April 2014. Rinpoche was there to open the center after its very extensive renovation. Jinsui Farlin opened 23 years ago and was the first FPMT center in Taiwan. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“We so strongly, concretely believe what we see exists from its own side! And then if we can’t see it, it doesn’t exist!”
– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on April 4, 2014
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.)
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche replied to a student who had concerns about health and having given back their ordinations vows, which led to them feeling very isolated and depressed and being unable to study or practice:
“If you can study lam-rim, that should be the main teaching – just like the wandering ascetics, the monks whose only belonging is the Lamrim Chenmo. They don’t have anything else, don’t carry anything but the lam-rim, so like that. So that is the main one to study, to meditate on – the lam-rim. You have to actualize this, otherwise we will suffer. Without realizations on guru devotion, renunciation, bodhichitta, right view and particularly tantra, you will be suffering in samsara endlessly. Do you want to do that? I don’t think so.
You should know it’s not just practice for this lifetime. The practice becomes preparation for all your lives, so eons, eons, eons, all your future lives, to go to a pure land, then enlightenment, to be free from samsara, enlightenment and then to benefit all sentient beings and enlighten them. Don’t think you are alone.” …
Read the full advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the way to opening of renovated Jinsiu Farlin, Taipei, Taiwan, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Live the life for others. We work so hard for the (inherently existing) ‘I’ that when you search, can’t find! Strange isn’t it?”
– From Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page, posted on March 29, 2014
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.)
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.