Lama Zopa Rinpoche with many of his stuffed Dharma animal friends, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19, Rinpoche has brought many “friends” to the teachings. More than twenty-five stuffed animals with profound words of wisdom written on their bodies have joined Rinpoche on the teaching couch at various times, and Rinpoche has delighted in sharing their messages with us. Rinpoche also introduced many of them at his birthday celebration at Kopan Monastery.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche Introduce Dharma Stuffed Animal ‘Friends’ at Birthday Celebration:
https://youtu.be/FMaxgbPKxjU

Messages on Stuffed, Plush Dharma Toys

At Rinpoche’s request, we’ve collected the messages, which were composed by Rinpoche, and written on the stuffed, plush animals and toys. Rinpoche wanted these messages from his stuffed Dharma friends shared with students. We’re including some photos of these friends, too, which you are welcome to share.

Brown hat girl with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Brown hat girl: I am enlightening all the people with coronavirus. If my girlfriend is happy then I will ask her to enlighten me. Ha! Ha! Ha!

White bear: Everybody loves from the heart but I try to love from the brain or from the tip of my nose. Ha! Ha! Ha! He! He! He!

Cat: I’m the happiest person in the world because I know how to achieve satisfaction by renouncing the painful mind of desire.

Penguin with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Penguin: Wow! I have over-happiness. Should I share only some with the people who are dying for happiness?

Cat: I have the greatest satisfaction in the world … and do you want some?

Cat: Because sentient beings don’t love me, so that’s why I love them most.

“Shrimp Cat” with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Shrimp cat: I’ve eaten numberless shrimp from beginningless rebirths. Not only that, all sentient beings. Now I cherish them most because happiness from beginningless rebirths, now, even in future, including enlightenment, is received from them. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha came from their kindness. That’s why they’re the most precious, kind. I’ve taken full responsibility to enlighten them.

Crocodile: I have eaten all sentient beings numberless times from beginningless rebirths. So now I’ve completely dedicated my body, speech, and mind to every most kind, most precious sentient being. So this makes me so happy now.

Dolphin: The world people are suffering so much with self-cherishing mind and the root of samsara—ignorance, the three poisonous minds and so forth, full of hallucination with all the wrong concepts. I don’t have those things because I found the right path which purifies that. I have the most incredible peace and I don’t harm anybody. I feel a little bit shy because I have too much happiness, more than others. I stay quiet myself.

Whale with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Whale: Even though I don’t have a physical eye, I can see all phenomena of the past, present, and future directly!

Buffalo: Now I see there is no real I. Educated people in the world and six-realm sentient beings believe there is real I. Oceans of samsaric suffering arises from that. Therefore I am shocked. Now, what are you going to do with your life?

Panda: Do you know who is you?

Bear: There is not one sentient being whom I can’t love.

Kiwi: What is my name?

Banana with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Banana: All the sentient beings love me, even the tiniest fly, wa! Because I am a banana.

Lizard: I am a lizard. I have the most satisfaction—more than a trillion-dollar human being.

Pig with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Pig: I’m the most happy one in the world because my pig body has the most delicious meat. I want to offer the most delicious momos to all the sentient beings.

Cat: I’m the most famous cat in the world. My name is OM AH HUM and I can cure all the viruses of every sentient being—but not diarrhea and farts!

Rabbit: I know so many animals like to eat rabbit, besides human beings. I want them all to blisss out by giving myself to them.

Avocado with Dharma message, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Avocado: I’m an avocado. All beings love me and I have a big heart. I want to give myself to every sentient being and let them to bliss out and be enlightened! Ha! Ha!

Doll: I love all the sentient beings.

Bulldog: I am called a dog by human beings but I have a much better mind than most human beings. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Husky: I’m a dog from Canada. I eat everything except two-wing airplanes and four-leg tables. Ha! Ha!

Sloth: King, queen, president, or bug—don’t disturb me! I’m in deep meditation, just about to be enlightened for sentient beings. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Cat: I’m the most beautiful cat in the world, but people don’t love me. So I practice compassion for them. Ha! Ha!

Rabbit: I get angry but I try to practice patience. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

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/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching going over the first vital point of the four vital points of analysis as presented in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Phabongkha Rinpoche. The first point of this analytical meditation on emptiness is recognizing the object to be refuted, the gag ja in Tibetan. 

Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary offers a quote from Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara:

Without recognizing the thing that is imputed,
You cannot realize it’s non-existence.

Rinpoche then explains that it is like trying to hit a target with an arrow. Without seeing the target, you cannot aim the arrow at the target. In other words, you need to recognize exactly what is to be negated—what you are imputing as existing, but which doesn’t truly exist—in order to see that it doesn’t exist by its own nature, that it doesn’t exist from its own side.

The commentary continues saying that just hearing an explaination of the self to be negated isn’t enough. You have to ascertain that self, the object to be refuted, through your own raw experience; you have to recognize it for yourself.

If you don’t recognize the object to be refuted, you could fall into nihilism, thinking nothing exists at all. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a long discussion of this danger, raising the questions: If we believe nothing exists, how do we get and cook food? How do we go to the toilet? How do we even discriminate between what is a toilet and what is not? What is food and what is not? We might start eating the kaka from the toilet if nothing exists! Some people without the merit to understand the teachings spend their whole life meditating on nihilism.

Rinpoche then discusses the three ways of holding the I and offers commentary on each:

1. The way the I is held by those who have realized the right view;
2. The way the I is held by ordinary beings whose mental continuum is not affected by tenets; and
3. The way the I is held by those whose mind is hallucinated.

Rinpoche also explains that you need to differentiate between the two ways in which the I appears:

1. The way in which the I appears to exist from its own side by its own nature, and
2. The way in which the I appears.

The way the I appears to innate I-grasping becomes clear when you are praised or criticized, Rinpoche explains. For example, when you are falsely accused of stealing, the thought “I” that arises solidly and can’t tolerate the accusation is the way in which the object to be refuted appears. This is the appearance of the gag ja, the nonexistent, or false, I.

Rinpoche then introduces two new Dharma stuffed animals who have the following messages:

Rabbit: “I get angry but I try to practice patience. Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Cat: “I am the most beautiful cat in the world but people don’t love me so I practice compassion for them. Ha! Ha! Ha!”

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Please note, Lama Zopa Rinpoche will be taking a break of several weeks from offering these video teachings.

All of Rinpoche’s video teachings from this series, along with videos in translation, can be found on the page Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. (You also can find links to the video teachings, transcripts, and the materials mentioned in them on the page Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and Practice Advice.)

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The First Vital Point Is Recognizing the Object to Be Refuted”:
https://youtu.be/aJd8lxrOekg

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from 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/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

The cover photo for Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison by Lama Zopa Rinpoche; Rinpoche is enjoying the flower offerings at the Jewel, Singapore, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison is a new book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who serves as the spiritual director of the Liberation Prison Project, asked Ven. Robina Courtin, who ran the project until 2009, to compile the more than one hundered letters he had written over the years in response to people in prison who’d contacted him. She edited Rinpoche’s spiritual advice into a narrative that covers all points of the path to enlightenment. 

About the book: “Direct and uncompromising, Rinpoche makes it crystal clear that being in prison is a perfect opportunity for developing the radical approach, perfected by all great Tibetan practitioners, of transforming despair and hopelessness into happiness and liberation.

“The extent of the heartfelt compassion and love that Rinpoche offers the people who write to him is incredible. He empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others.

“This advice is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us.”

Here’s a short excerpt from Chapter 1:

Prison Is Not the Real Prison

Living one’s life under the control of ignorance is actually the heaviest prison—and everyone is living in it.

The inner prison

People who are not in prison think that only people like you are in prison, but they have no idea about all the prisons they themselves are in. Ordinary people, those who are not practicing Dharma—including people from the courts, the police, kings, and presidents—are actually living in prison. People who are free to travel around, going wherever they want, doing whatever they like, or billionaires who think they have everything, all the desire objects, are all living in prison. Your external prison, the building you live in, is nothing in comparison with their inner prisons! It is very important to look at other sentient beings in this world and see how much they are suffering. They are the real prisoners. There are so many examples of this, people who are suffering so much, their inner life is so miserable, they are crying and unhappy. Wealthy people, for example, having so many things but still not having found satisfaction, can be more unhappy than people who have very little. Even if they’re billionaires, trillionaires, zillionaires, living in a house made of diamonds, with billons of cars, swimming pools, millions of servants—they are not happy. Some years ago, the most successful person of the year was on the cover of Time magazine—successful in making money, that is. After he became rich he couldn’t even go outside, because he was so scared that people would kidnap him. So he stayed inside his whole life, which means it was exactly like living in prison, mentally living in prison, and mentally suffering even more than a person in prison. So much suffering!

The prison of wrong concepts

In fact, we are all in these inner prisons. We are trapped in the prison of wrong concepts: believing that impermanent phenomena are permanent; believing that samsaric temporal pleasure is happiness; believing that the body, which is only a container of dirty things, is clean. There are so many wrong concepts and views, and these prisons are from time without beginning.

The prison of attachment

We are living in the most harmful prison, the prison of attachment, of desire. Normally we live just for this life’s happiness. We look at samsara as if it’s a beautiful park, but in reality it is suffering. When we live with attachment—doing the things that attachment wants twenty-four hours a day, always working for attachment, always clinging to this life—all our actions become negative karma, the cause of samsara. Attachment traps us like a fly trapped in the hot wax of a burning candle. It overtakes us like a giant tidal wave. The result is so many problems, one after the other. Our heart is filled with misery. There is no peace. There is only confusion and dissatisfaction. 

The prison of anger

And when we don’t succeed in getting what our attachment wants, anger arises and we harm other sentient beings, thus destroying the causes of our happiness, our merit and good karma. Our mind is wild, not only now but since beginningless rebirths. We are wild, out of control, like a mad elephant.

The prison of self-cherishing

We live in the prison of self-cherishing, living our life with self-cherishing thought. We feel this self is the most important one, more precious than others, the most precious one among all sentient beings. Perhaps we think that we are the most important one even among all the holy beings, the buddhas and bodhisattvas! When we follow the self- cherishing thought, whatever we do, all the actions of our body, speech, and mind, become an obstacle to achieving happiness and, eventually, enlightenment, and an obstacle to liberating numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and leading them to enlightenment. …

For more on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison and to read the complete first chapter:
EnjoyLifeLiberatedFromTheInnerPrison.com

Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison has been published as a fundraiser for Liberation Prison Project by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and sponsored by The Bodhichitta Trust. For the past twenty-five years the Liberation Prison Project has been a lifeline for people in prison worldwide, who turned to it for Buddhist books and spiritual advice in an effort to find meaning in life when everything else was lost.

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.

Kopan monks making light offerings on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 10, 2020, Kopan Monastery. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Tsongkhapa Day, or Ganden Ngamchoe, is a celebration of the anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana. It is celebrated on the 25th day of the 10th month of the Tibetan calendar. This year, Lama Tsongkhapa Day fell on December 10.

Lama Tsongkhapa Day light offerings at Kopan Monastery, December 10, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 10, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Kopan Monastery offered a variety of auspicious activities on this occasion. We are pleased to share this short video of some of the events of the day, including a Heruka Lama Chopa in the morning, the Kopan Lama Gyupas taking Guhyasamaja self initiation, and a clip of Lama Zopa Rinpoche sharing this about light offerings: “Light offering is very important, in particular, by making light offerings you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and develop Dharma wisdom. Any light offering can dispel darkness, it doesn’t have to be just a butter lamp. You can offer electric lights and even the sun.”

The video ends with many monks making light offerings in the dark while circumambulating the stupas on the Kopan grounds.
https://youtu.be/YT0cwI9PEoA

Please join us in rejoicing in all of the powerful and merit-making activities offered around the world in celebration of Lama Tsongkhapa.

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/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us that the “self-cherishing thought” is what creates all of our suffering, including, since beginningless time, the oceans of animal suffering, the oceans of preta being suffering, the oceans of sura being suffering, the oceans of asura being suffering, and all the different problems and suffering of this life, including obstacles, physical and mental sufferings, and sicknesses. All of this is created by the self-cherishing thought. It not only causes your suffering but has also caused so much suffering for others.

Because of the self-cherishing thought, you have not had any realizations at all; the mind remains like an empty pot. The most frightening mind is the mind that holds the self-cherishing I as real. This is the real enemy. The I that you cherish most is not there at all, not even the slightest atom. Giving up the I and cherishing others is the solution to your suffering.

With bodhichitta—the ultimate good heart cherishing others—you can say goodbye to all the things that destroy your life. You can also say goodbye to doctors and psychologists because you have total peace and happiness of body and mind.

Everything that appears to you is created by your ignorance. Rinpoche shares and discusses this quote from the Fifth Dalai Lama:

Due to the hallucinated appearance of the thick darkness of ignorance,
The way your body and mind appear to you is like a variegated, coiled rope.
With the fear of a poisonous snake due to thinking “I,”
You experience the fear of the three [types of] suffering.

Rinpoche then has a humorous discussion about the difference between snakes, snacks, and snake snacks!

Following on the theme of discussing snakes, Rinpoche then explains the karmic results of killing snakes:

1. The complete negative karma of killing a snake has the ripened-aspect result of rebirth in hell, in the lower realms.
2. The possessed result is that even when good karma ripens and you are reborn as a human being, you still suffer and have many problems in life, including dangers of death, because of killing a snake. You live in places where there are a lot of contagious diseases, obstacles to your health, and so forth. 
3. There is experiencing the result similar to the cause. This is when others kill you as the result of the past karma of killing the snake.
4. There is creating the result similar to the cause. As a result of the past negative karma of killing a snake, even if it was just once, you want to kill again. You created a habit for killing. Then when you kill again, the negative karma created has the four suffering results again. So it goes on and on, on and on. It makes endless suffering of samsara.

If you don’t meet the Dharma, you won’t change your karma, and it goes on forever. By killing that one snake, your samsaric suffering becomes endless. This is why practicing morality, even keeping just the precept not to kill, is so important. If you are smart, you must practice Dharma.

Going back to the quote by the Fifth Dalai Lama, Rinpoche explains the scenario where it is dusk and there is a piece of rope: the way it is curled and due to the lack of light, it appears as a snake. First you label it “snake” with your mind. Then the appearance of a snake comes and you believe this and think, “Oh, there’s a snake!” Then you are afraid and think it will bite you. So much fear. But your mind totally created it. There is nothing there. There is not even one atom of a snake. Not an atom of snake is there. It was produced by your mind.

We need to practice seeing what appears to us as real as actually being created by our ignorance. When something appears—be it a snake or a self-cherishing I—it appears to you as not merely labeled by the mind, even though just a second ago it was merely labeled by your mind. You don’t realize that, you forget that, so it appears real. Due to the negative imprints collected on the mind, on the continuity of consciousness, the merely labeled I is decorated on that, so it appears real. However, real is made by your mind, made by ignorance. The whole world that appears real is created by ignorance. It is good to remember this as a mindfulness practice on ignorance.

The three types of suffering arise from the concept of holding the I to be true. Meditating on emptiness in your daily life leaves imprints that allow you to realize emptiness more quickly. If you realize emptiness, then you can enlighten others and free them from samsara. Then, with the support of bodhichitta, developing the wisdom of emptiness with bodhichitta, and developing bodhichitta with the support of wisdom, you achieve enlightenment for sentient beings!

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Everything That Appears to You Is Created by Your Ignorance”:
https://youtu.be/edwCsEeeDTU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from 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/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, October 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching by explaining that reciting Togme Sangpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva cuts loong (wind imbalance). Rinpoche explains that it is incredibly effective for the mind and it would be nice to memorize it as it is short. Then, even when one is walking around, it can be recited and if you are experiencing loong, this will cut it.

Rinpoche also advises that if you do have loong, meditating on emptiness also will cut it. If you don’t meditate on emptiness, no matter how much you know, even if you are an expert on the words from Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka teachings, if you don’t meditate and don’t practice the loong increases, especially if there is a strong self-cherishing thought and you are holding the I as real. From that, all the 84,000 delusions arise.

The real I that you believe in is not there at all. What appears as real and  what you believe in—the aggregates—are not there, they exist only in mere name. Because you have been habituated since beginningless rebirths with the concept holding the I as truly existent, you have been drunk with this hallucination since beginningless rebirths. You have tortured and cheated yourself all of that time, and because of that you suffer in samsara.

You believe suffering and happiness come from outside but they come from your own mind. Even virtue does not come from outside, it comes from the mind. This includes the virus. We think it came from the outside, but it also came from our mind. Those who have not created the negative karma to get it, never will. Not everyone will get the virus and not everyone will suffer in the same way from it. Some have so much unbelievable pain and some people have no symptoms at all. It is karma.

Rinpoche then shares verse 24 of Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva:

The various problems, like the death of a son [any child] in a dream,
Are hallucinated appearances. By holding them as true, you suffer.
Therefore, whenever you encounter inharmonious conditions,
To look at them as hallucinations is the practice of a bodhisattva.

Rinpoche explains that this is a very good meditation, especially when you encounter problems. Otherwise, you are always looking for outside methods to help with your problems. In fact, everything is a hallucination, like the appearances of a dream. After you wake up from a dream, nothing happened, and while you are having the dream, if you recognize it is a dream, there is nothing there. Everything is like that; however, we think everything is real. Whatever appears as real in the world, we follow that. Someone who realizes emptiness sees everything as a hallucination. It merely appears, but they don’t believe it; there is no holding on to it.

So many problems—depression, relationships, life in prison—you think everything is real. Actually, not one atom exists in reality. You deceive yourself and suffer due to this hallucinated appearance. You should continuously practice awareness that all of your problems and everything you are doing is a hallucination. If you cultivate the mindfulness that whatever you are doing is like a dream, your whole life becomes a birthday party! Mindful meditation on emptiness is a bomb destroying all the delusions.

Rinpoche shares verse 135 from Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way:

Like the body is covered by the body sense,
All the delusions are covered by ignorance.
Therefore, all the delusions are stopped
By destroying ignorance.

With the realization of bodhichitta, whatever you do, even breathing or using the toilet, is to bring numberless others to enlightenment. When you don’t have the realization, you have to put so much effort into everything you do in order to do it with bodhichitta. For example, when you open a door to go inside a room, you should think, “I am bringing the sentient beings into the door of liberation, enlightenment.” You can think things like that for each action. And then, when you realize bodhichitta, everything you do is for others. 

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “With Mindfulness of Emptiness, Your Whole Life Becomes a Birthday Party“:
https://youtu.be/s2KpFrLpvJU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva by Togme Sangpo
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from 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/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebration at Kopan Monastery, December 3, 2020. Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khadro-la and Serkong Dorje Chang seated on either side of him. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Students and friends around the world celebrated Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s seventy-fifth birthday on December 3, 2020, while Rinpoche was at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, where a day of traditional and auspicious activities were offered. Khadro-la spent the day on the premises for all of the festivities and the afternoon was attended by Luboom Rinpoche and Serkong Dorje Chang. 

We are delighted to offer you some precious video footage from the birthday celebration. 

Watch Rinpoche in the video “How to Cut a Birthday Cake with Bodhichitta Mind”:
https://youtu.be/q3PpsFvDdCs

Kopan monks drew this on the chalkboard. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

At the beginning of this video, Rinpoche explains that he doesn’t view his birthday as precious or hang onto it strongly. In fact, almost all of his life was spent without celebrating a birthday at all until the date of his birth was uncovered by a biographer. Rinpoche explains, the best way to think is “Whatever day, whatever hour—I make my life meaningful with renunciation and especially with bodhichitta—then, that’s my birthday!” During those times, your mind is very happy, and not superficial, hallucinated samsara happiness, concerned with only the pleasures of this life, but happiness in your heart. “The past is finished,” Rinpoche says. “You can’t go back in time, but what you can do is purify negative karma. And now, on your birthday, from now and in the future, especially this year, you can think, ‘I will use myself in a beneficial way for sentient beings as much as possible, for a year, month, day, week, every hour, every minute—as much as possible.’ Then that makes sense.” Otherwise it’s just an empty celebration or even negative karma.

As Rinpoche cuts the birthday cake, he says to think that the knife is wisdom directly perceiving emptiness and the cake is the ego. Or, the knife is bodhichitta and the cake is the self-cherishing thought. Rinpoche explains that the wrong concept holding the I as real while it is existing only in mere name labeled by the mind—this is the root of oceans of suffering we experience in hell, as hungry ghosts, as animals, as human beings, as suras, and as asuras. You visualize the cake as that, and then, with your “wisdom sword”—you cut!

Next, we hear Rinpoche’s long life prayer composed by Khadro-la and sung by Bhutanese singers Nidup Dorji and Lhamo Drugpa.

Following Rinpoche’s long life prayer, Rinpoche introduces the crowd to some stuffed animals, which have important Dharma messages written on them. Rinpoche reads out these messages.

Photo of Dharma pig by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Pig: “I am the most happy one in the world, because my pig body has the most delicious meat and I want to offer the most delicious momos to all the sentient beings!”

Whale: “Even though I don’t have a physical ‘eye’ but I can see all phenomena of the past, present, and future, directly!” 

Rabbit: “I know so many animals like to eat rabbit meat beside human beings. I want them all to bliss out by giving myself to them.”

Then, the video shows a drama and traditional dances offered by the Kopan monks.

Watch a video with scenes from the Sixteen Arhats Puja at Kopan Monastery:
https://youtu.be/l3gMrzkthKM

The next video shows various aspects of the Sixteen Arhats Puja, which was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche as part of the birthday celebrations on December 3.

The benefits of making offerings and prayers to the Sixteen Arhats are:

1. All the Victorious Ones (Buddhas) are pleased.
2. Anyone who correctly practices it will have no obstacles.
3. One will be able to abide in pure morality.
4. It increases one’s scriptural understanding and realization.
5. One will have perfect inner and outer conditions to practice Dharma.
6. One will not be overwhelmed by untimely death and will have a long life.
7. The community of Sangha will be increased.
8. The study and practice of the Tripitaka (Three Baskets) will increase.

Please join us in rejoicing in all of these virtuous activities done in honor of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, making this day most special and meaningful due to it being in service to others as Rinpoche advises. 

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/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching discussing the Dashain festival in Nepal, when tens of thousands of animals are ritually slaughtered. Rinpoche explains that the people who participate in this do not understand karma and experiencing the result similar to the cause in the human realm, which is that you get killed. Then, when reborn as an animal you get killed. If you killed one sentient being, you will be killed five hundred times. There is also creating the result similar to the cause. If you don’t confess the past negative karma that was created due to having killed and if you don’t promise not to do it again, you create the result continuously with no end.

Rinpoche began reading, and also asked the 330 nuns at Kopan Nunnery to read, One Hundred Thousand Names of Buddha for the animals killed during this festival and also for the forty million turkeys killed in the United States for the Thanksgiving holiday. They read it for all the animals—to purify their negative karma and for them not be reborn in the lower realms but to be born as human beings and to be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or at least meet the Mahayana teachings, meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru, and, by pleasing the guru, achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Rinpoche then engages in discussion and debate with Ven. Tenzin Gache on three subjects. We encourage you to look at the transcript of the teaching and follow along in the video to gain the full benefit of the subject matter covered in these discussions:

• Can killing be a virtuous action? Can killing be Dharma? (08:05 in video)
• Is doing tonglen for your own happiness lojong? (19:48 in video)
• Why do the Buddhas not help sentient beings without being requested to do so? (28:12 in video)

Before continuing the oral transmission of the Sutra of Great Liberation, Rinpoche offers commentary on the benefits of the sutra (40:15 in video). Anyone who even hears the name Sutra of Great Liberation collects more merit than filling up a billion universes with wish-granting jewels and offering them to sentient beings. By reading the sutra you collect more merit than filling up numberless universes with wish-granting jewels and offering them to sentient beings, and you are never ever reborn in the lower realms due to reading or even holding this sutra. And anyone who hears this sutra or keeps this sutra will achieve enlightenment. Wherever this sutra exists in the world, a buddha resides there.

Just by hearing the name Great Sutra of Liberation one can say goodbye to depression. Millions of people in the West suffer from depression because they don’t understand the meaning and purpose of life. Many can’t even get out of bed or go out at all, due to being so depressed. Not only hearing this sutra but reading it is so beneficial for a depressed mind.

Rinpoche explains that he has asked Ven. Lekden at Sera Je Monastery to translate this important sutra so that many people can read it in English. Rinpoche advises, if you can read Tibetan, it would be good to buy a copy of Sutra of Great Liberation, carry it with you, and read it from time to time.

Rinpoche offers the oral transmission of several pages of the sutra (1:00:37 in the video) for the animals killed in Nepal, the forty million turkeys killed in the United States, and for seventeen million minks killed in Denmark. (Rinpoche mentions the minks in his debate about “Can killing be a virtuous action?”) 

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Even by Hearing the Title of ‘Sutra of Great Liberation,’ You Say Goodbye to Depression”:
https://youtu.be/YGJhzUrH6bU

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from 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/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in the garden at Kopan Monastery, November 19, 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche with his giant birthday cake, which everyone enjoyed.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday is celebrated on December 3. Rinpoche is at Kopan Monastery where he has been for most of the year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Celebrations for Rinpoche’s birthday began at 5:30 a.m. at Kopan with the offering of the Sixteen Arhats Puja. Rinpoche attended and Khadro-la joined the puja and the whole day celebrations. During the puja the body, speech, and mind mandala was offered by Venerable Roger Kunsang on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. What followed was a day of activities including traditional Tibetan dances and dharma sketches, and a large birthday cake offered for all in attendance to enjoy. 

During the celebration, Rinpoche took time to explain that there are many ways to make one’s birthday most meaningful including Vajrasattva tsok or Medicine Buddha practice. Otherwise, it’s just a distraction and negative karma following attachment. You can invite your friends to do practice together, whatever is possible, even reciting OM MANI PADME HUM together with the strong thought of impermanence and bodhichitta. One can also think of the knife cutting the cake as cutting one’s ego. This makes even serving the delicious cake so meaningful! This way, you are not just wasting time.

Kopan Monstery monks looking on during Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebration.

Please enjoy this short video of the young Kopan monks singing happy birthday to Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://youtu.be/qpsLg3u-g5I

As Rinpoche is continually stressing: The purpose of life is to benefit sentient beings and not harm them. Rinpoche’s entire life has been an example of this: tirelessly benefiting others from the smallest and most vulnerable among us including insects or animals killed for meat or human pleasure; to the most feared and misunderstood including pretas, nagas, hell beings, and the most deluded and dangerous human beings among us. As Rinpoche explains: Every single happiness you have experienced since beginningless rebirths comes from them, including every ant you see on the road, mosquito flying around, person you don’t like, person who hates you—yes, even your enemy—every happiness comes from them. Numberless buddhas, Dharma, Sangha—they all came from every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura and asura, every bug that bites you. So who you take refuge in—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—they came from every sentient being, so every sentient being is so precious and so kind.

In 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared a video message from Switzerland on his birthday offering advice on how to best see one’s birthday and the practices that can be done that become the causes for total and complete enlightenment for oneself and for all sentient beings.
https://youtu.be/ajT7srFuHw8

We look forward to sharing more details and photos from Rinpoche’s birthday celebration at Kopan Monastery.

Please join the entire FPMT community and students around the world in offering sincere prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long and healthy life, so that he may continue to show us by his perfect example how to live life to the best of our ability in order to be of most benefit and the least harm to others. You can download Long Life Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

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/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during an online teaching, holding a stuffed toy with a Dharma message written on it, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching explaining that not only Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha come from every sentient being, but every holy object does as well. There are numberless holy objects, and they all come from sentient beings. We receive unbelievable merit by just seeing a holy object such as a stupa, statue, or scripture. Any by putting our hands together and making offerings to a holy object, we collect numberless, greater merits than by just seeing it. Making offerings to a painting or statue of Buddha is the same as making offerings to Buddha himself.

All the merit we receive comes from all sentient beings—every insect, every ant, mosquito, hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura being, asura being—every single sentient being. They are the most precious for you. The happiness that comes from money is nothing compared to the happiness that comes from sentient beings. Because of this, every happiness you experience, you offer to even the tiniest insect. Doing every activity in the service of other sentient beings is so important. Then, your life is so happy. You live your life and die without regret.

Even if your mind is not Dharma, every single action you do with your body—whether circumambulating, prostrating, making offerings, and so forth—toward a holy object becomes a cause for enlightenment.

Rinpoche then offers commentary, along with discussion with Ven. Tenzin Gache, on some verses from “Hymns of the Seventh Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Kalsang Gyatso” in the context of recognizing the gag ja (object to be refuted) through the Madyamaka Prasangika point of view.  We encourage you to watch this section on the video and follow along in the transcript provided. (This section begins at 35:16 in video, page 8 in the transcript.)

Rinpoche then explains, again, that you enter the path pleasing the buddhas when the I that you have been holding as so precious since beginningless rebirths, causing suffering, disappears. When you have the experience that there is no I existing from its own side, you have to go through the fear that arises. You may think you are falling into nihilism and believing that no I exists at all. But if you follow the lamrim’s analysis of the four vital points, starting with recognizing the object to be refuted, then you won’t fall into nihilism. So you have to cross that fear, like you have to cross a big river or the ocean. You cross it and then you are where you need to be. You have to go through this experience. Whether you are falling into nihilism or not depends on whether you started your meditation on emptiness by correctly recognizing the object to be refuted. The more you meditate and see that the I does not exist from its own side, the more you see that the I exists in mere name and vice versa.

Rinpoche concludes the teaching saying that there is a creator of virtue and nonvirtue—the I that exists in mere name. And the action of creating virtue and nonvirtue exists in mere name. And the result—happiness and suffering—you experience in mere name. Similarly, you experience the suffering of samsara in mere name. You experience nirvana in mere name. You experience the hell realm in mere name. You experience enlightenment in mere name.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “When the Real I Is Totally Gone, You Have Entered the Path Pleasing the Buddhas“:
https://youtu.be/6sOWsiJKx4Y

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from 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/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche walking during a puja break at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins this teaching reminding us that the real meaning of life is to not harm and to only benefit the numberless sentient beings. The best way to benefit them is to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment by yourself alone. But to do that, you need to achieve the state of omniscience. To achieve that, you need to actualize the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment. Therefore, with this motivation, you listen to the teachings.

Rinpoche then continues to debate with Ven. Tenzin Gache in a lively, humorous, and illuminating exchange! We highly encourage students to watch this video to receive the benefits of the entire discussion.

Subjects debated between Rinpoche and Ven. Gache throughout this teaching include:

• What makes a table a table?
• What makes a house a house?
• If a table or house is broken, is it still a table or house?
• Is a broken table a table as long as it can support something?
• Is it a house if it doesn’t have a door, a roof, or a certain number of walls?
• Can a chair or sentient being be a table?
• Does whether something is a table or not depend on individual concept?
• Since the parts of a chariot are not a chariot, nor are the pieces assembled together a chariot, how can the parts of a table be a table?

Rinpoche then continues translating and teaching on Phabongkha Rinpoche’s commentary on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, beginning with a discussion on how things come into existence. For a thing to exist, Rinpoche explains, it must have a valid base and a valid mind labeling it.

If the existence of something can be harmed by another conventional valid mind, it does not exist. As an example, Phabongkha Rinpoche uses a pile of stones in the distance that someone mistakes for a person. Although the person believes it is a human being, if another person who has actually ascertained it to be a pile of stones says, “That is a pile of stones,” the previous apprehension of the pile of stones as a human being will completely fade away. This is a sign that it was not a valid base to be labeled a human being.

Then, using the example of a “rabbit with horns,” Phabongkha Rinpoche shows that in addition to a conventional valid mind labeling something, a valid base must exist for that thing to exist. Because there is no valid base for a rabbit with horns, a rabbit with horns does not exist.

Because things exist in dependence on the collection of their parts, they do not exist from their own side. As an example, Rinpoche explains that if an American president existed from their own side, they wouldn’t need to depend on the collection of parts that form a valid base to be labeled “president.” But in actuality, in order for a person to be president, they must be a valid base, in the sense of possessing the qualities that make them worthy of being a leader and then getting the most votes [in the US from the electoral college]. Only then can they be labeled “American president.”

Further, the I does not exist from the side of the body and mind. There is just the appearance of I that comes about by being merely imputed by sound and concept on the collection of parts that is the valid base to be labeled—one’s own mind.

Phabongkha Rinpoche then shows us how all phenomena come into existence in the same way, which is to say they all come into existence when they are labeled by name and concept. For example, when a house is built with three identical empty rooms, at first the rooms do not exist as the bedroom, kitchen, and so forth. Only after the owner of the house labels them “bedroom,” “kitchen,” and so forth, do we think, “This is the bedroom,” and it comes into existence. Hence, it is not enough for the base to be labeled—the collection of three rooms—to exist. For the bedroom and other rooms to come into existence they need to be labeled by name and concept.

Like the bedroom as an example, any phenomenon whatsoever is the labeled phenomenon, not the base to be labeled. Likewise, the conventional I is also merely labeled by concept. However, to us the I appears to exist from its own side as the one experiencing happiness, suffering, and so forth. The mind that holds the I to exist from its own side is the innate true grasping or the innate view of the perishable collection. The I that is held to exist from its own side is the self that is the object to be refuted.

Phabongkha Rinpoche then provides a useful summary of the points he has made, saying: (1) things are imputed by concept; (2) they necessarily depend on a base to be labeled and that which labels; (3) they arise in dependence on other conditions; (4) they do not exist from their own side.

Following this Rinpoche discusses the I that is the conceived object, which is the object to be refuted. This is the I that is not merely imputed in dependence on the body and mind, and instead exists from its own side on the body and mind. Likewise, when we mistake a coiled rope for a snake at dusk, the conceived object that is held to exist as it appears is the object to be refuted. Therefore, we need to be sure to refute the I that exists from its own side, not the conventionally appearing I nor the I that appears to exist from its own side.

When the I that exists from its own side without depending on the body and mind becomes nonexistent for you, you have found the Madhyamaka Prasangika’s view and the path that pleases the buddhas.

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “What Makes a Table a Table?“:
https://youtu.be/knfevmdH1WE

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• For more from Rinpoche on the object to be refuted, please see Recognizing the False I
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from 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/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with flower offering at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. We’ve added a new photo album for the months July through October 2020 with more than eighty photos of day to day life at Kopan Monastery and Nunnery.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Thubten Tendar walking around Kopan Monastery (with new gift), Boudhanath, Nepal, August 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.

The photos feature Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the monks and nuns of Kopan. Highlights include the fire puja for purification and healing that Rinpoche did with Khadro-la and other high lamas, a special long life puja for Rinpoche, Kopan’s annual consecration ceremony, and many other teachings, pujas, and daily activities. 

See more photos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/

The stupa garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2020. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.

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

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.