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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Altar for 21 Taras, Kachoe Dechen Ling, November 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“This was once the dining room table until Lama Zopa Rinpoche thought it would be more beneficial for it to become an altar for the 21 Taras!” said Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant, referring to one of the many altars at Kachoe Dechen Ling.
Red Tara at FPMT International Office, Portland, Oregon, US, June 2012. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
A short Tara practice composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche has just been posted on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Rinpoche’s commentary “Tara the Liberator” is also available. You can download “Praises to Twenty-One Taras” as a free PDF from fpmt.org. In addition, FPMT Education Services recently published a free commentary on the “Praise to the Twenty-One Taras” by Ven. Geshe Dawö.
Rinpoche was in residence at Kachoe Dechen Ling in Aptos, California, from mid-September to mid-November. Rinpoche is currently at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and will travel to Sera Monastic University in South India in December. Visit “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Schedule” for details.
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 being led by the Kopan disciplinarian as Rinpoche is greeted by Kopan monks, Nepal, November 22, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Rinpoche arrived at Kopan Monastery in Nepal on November 22. Rinpoche visited the Kopan nunnery, Kachoe Ghakyil Ling, first. The nuns greeted Rinpoche, who went into the gompa at the nunnery to make prostrations. Then he went up Kopan hill, where he was greeted by a long line of monks and more than 200 Westerners, who are currently attending the Kopan November course.
The young monks are among the first to greet Rinpoche upon his return to Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 22, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Without wasting a minute, [Rinpoche] walked straight into the gompa and started to give a talk to the November course people,” said Ven. Roger, Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT.
Rinpoche talks to participants of the November course at Kopan Monastery, November 22, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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.
Rinpoche blowing the conch during the Lama Chöpa puja on a tsog day at Kachoe Dechen Ling. (Rinpoche is doing the tsog according to Indian time.), Aptos, California, US, November 12, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lhabab Duchen, also known as Buddha’s Descent from Tushita, is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar and takes place this year on Sunday, November 24.
As a Buddha Multiplying Day, karmic results of actions on this day are multiplied one hundred million times. This amazing result is sourced by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
You can find Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended practices for this special day here (on Rinpoche’s Advice page, under Buddha Multiplying Days), and a calendar of all the holy days here.
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 and Pacific Ocean, Aptos, California, November 13, 2013. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
You have to remember buddha nature. In the emptiness of your heart, remember you have buddha nature. Delusions are not permanent, they are not part of you, they are temporary. You can be free from delusions and negative karma. Like a mirror covered by dust, you can clean it. The more you clean it, the clearer the reflection becomes. Your mind becomes clearer the more the delusions are purified.
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the letter “Depression, Karma and Delusions,” posted on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” April 2011
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 doing animal liberation practice at Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, November 17, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly does animal liberation practice. At Kachoe Dechen Ling, Rinpoche’s home in California, animal liberation practice is done on a weekly basis even when Rinpoche is not there.
Rinpoche has given the following advice on how to benefit animals:
I started this particular tradition of liberating animals. The way we practice animal liberation causes the person who liberates them to have a long life, but that alone doesn’t ultimately help the animals, so the best thing to do is to circumambulate the animals around holy objects and bless them with mantras and prayers. You can carry animals around a table in the middle of a room with many holy objects on it, like tsa-tsas, pictures of buddhas, and texts.
If there are 1,000 statues and holy objects on a table, then if you take the animals and insects around the table once, it creates 1,000 causes to achieve enlightenment, liberation from samsara, a good rebirth, and happiness in future lives. Each time you carry or lead the animals around the table it creates that many causes for their happiness and long lives. So, if you carry a billion insects around holy objects, you are offering enlightenment each time you circumambulate to that many sentient beings. This is really fantastic, the most amazing benefit that you can offer to other beings. …
You can read the complete advice and more on practices for benefiting animals on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book.”
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 and OM MANI PADME HUM mantra at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, November 16, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, while in the garden at Kachoe Dechen Ling, said, “Everywhere you look, you are reminded of Dharma … not samsara.”
Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s homepage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche after a trip to the local garden shop directing where the flowers go and creating beautiful offerings to all the gurus, buddhas and bodhisattvas and holy beings! Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, November 17, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
[When] you go shopping, watch your motivation, prepare your motivation. When you are in the shop either fulfill the wishes of the guru or shop to benefit and serve other sentient beings. Think that the ultimate purpose is to fulfill the guru’s advice. So you buy these things to survive and to fulfill the wishes of the guru or benefit sentient beings. In this way shopping becomes the antidote to attachment, becomes virtuous activity, Dharma, and you collect extensive merit.
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the advice “Making Ordinary Life Actions Meaningful,” 2007
More advice can be found on the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.”
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 turning the prayer wheel he advised be built. Photo by Thubten Jangchub.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered US$3,321 to a small Tibetan settlement in the hills of Kulli Manali, India, for repairs to their gompa’s roof. This Tibetan settlement is where Zong Rinpoche’s mother lived previously.
This is the second offering from the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund to this settlement, Rinpoche also offered US$5,000 towards statues for the gompa and advised for a prayer wheel to be built (both pictured).
Please rejoice in this offering!
If you would like to contribute to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, any amount is welcome.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering to the statues sponsored. Photo by Thubten Jangchub.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on wharf near Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, September 2013. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche as he blesses all the sentient beings in the ocean. While Rinpoche has been staying in California, he frequently goes with Sangha and Namgyälma mantra boards to a wharf near Kachoe Dechen Ling or to the beach. The mantra boards are placed in the water and Rinpoche chants mantras, says prayers and pours blessed water into the ocean.
You can watch more videos of Rinpoche blessing all sentient beings in the ocean on the “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Video” 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.
One of the altars at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, November 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“… All the suffering of samsara comes from the mind. Happiness, liberation and enlightenment come from the mind. Suffering comes from the unsubdued mind. Liberation and enlightenment come from the subdued mind, therefore, subduing the mind is essential. So what Buddha said is just an example, manifesting numberless forms naturally without effort – as impure forms to sentient beings who have an impure mind, and as pure forms to sentient beings with a pure mind,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a new student in a letter recently posted to Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book.”
The letter continues:
“In Buddhism, especially in Mahayana Buddhism, guru devotion is the root of the path to enlightenment. The Buddha’s 84,000 teachings have three levels. There are the Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) teachings for the lower capable being. For those with greater intelligence and capacity, Buddha revealed the Mahayana Paramitayana teachings. Then for those with higher intelligence, merit or capacity, Buddha taught Mahayana Secret Mantra – Vajrayana.
“In Hinayana, we don’t look at the guru as a buddha, but we respect the guru as if he is a buddha and we obey the guru, the abbot who grants ordination and gives teachings. In Mahayana Paramitayana, we look at the guru as a buddha, having no mistakes but only qualities. In tantra, on that basis – seeing the guru as a buddha – we look at the guru in the pure form of a buddha, we look at the essence as a buddha.
“Obedience is most important, otherwise we cannot achieve realizations; we cannot achieve enlightenment. …”
You can read the entire letter on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.
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.
A few of the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.
Since 2009 the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund has sponsored a small nunnery, Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, located in a remote area of Nepal, to undertake annual 100 million mani retreats. In 2012 the fund started to sponsor two 100 million mani retreats. US$5,956 (600,000 Nepali rupees) was just granted for the sponsorship of the second retreat.
In addition to sponsoring the actual retreat and offering food to all the nuns in retreat, the fund also sponsors one Geshe Lobsang Gyaltsen to stay at the nunnery and give ongoing lam-rim teachings to the nuns.
Recently, eight new nuns joined the nunnery. During the retreat the nuns make strong prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche; FPMT centers, projects and services; all FPMT students, staff and volunteers; and also for all who contribute to the sponsorship of the 100 million mani retreats.
Please rejoice!
If you would like to contribute to the sponsorship of these retreats, which not only benefit the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery but also the entire FPMT organization, you may donate any amount:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Tenzin Ösel Hita, Santa Cruz, California, November 3, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In early November, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Tenzin Ösel Hita ate at a vegan restaurant in Santa Cruz, California, where they discussed the menu. According to Rinpoche’s assistant Ven. Roger, Rinpoche is creating his own cook book.
Rinpoche has been strongly encouraging students to become vegetarian. In a letter published in the FPMT Annual Review 2011, Rinpoche reflected:
When I was in the hospital [after manifesting a stroke in April 2011], I saw a program about animals that were sold to be killed in Indonesia and other countries for live export … It didn’t show how they were killed, but it showed one cow that was on the platform, with the head tied, being pulled down to be killed. The cow didn’t want to go and the man was pulling it. I thought, ‘I don’t have power to stop all this killing, but what I can do is to try to inspire people to become vegetarian.’
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.
For more on this topic, see Mandala’s archive stories on vegetarianism and veganism.