receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Thangtong Gyalpo
We recently shared a new video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in which Rinpoche shares his advice for practices concerning protection and healing from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as well as oral transmissions of the Vajra Armor mantra and four other recommended prayers.
FPMT Education Services is pleased to share a draft transcript of this advice. All are welcome to download this to your device or read online.
For more detailed advice on the practices recommended by Rinpoche, please visit the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Coronavirus.”
Additional resources for this difficult time, including Dharma study-from-home opportunities, can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
There is a new video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on his advice for practices for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Rinpoche recorded this video in March 2020 at Kopan Monastery in Nepal.
The new video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche begins with a teaching and motivation for doing the practices. Then Rinpoche gives additional advice along with the oral transmission of a mantra and four prayers.
Watching this video attentively can qualify as having received the oral transmission of the following mantra and prayers, if viewed with the intention of receiving the oral transmission from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Watch video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19):
https://youtu.be/O7oTHLEQn6Y
In this video Rinpoche gives the following oral transmission:
- Vajra Armor mantra (this mantra is recommended in “Advice to Protect Yourself and Others from the Coronavirus” from Rinpoche.)
- Swift Fulfillment of Wishes in Dependence on the Great Jetsun Tsongkhapa
- The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: The Blessed Prayer Known as “Liberating Sakya from Disease” (This prayer is recommended in “Advice to Protect Yourself and Others from the Coronavirus” from Rinpoche.)
- The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: Words of Truth Pacifying the Danger of Weapons
- The Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: A Request to Pacify the Fear of Famine
Read the transcript of this video.
For more detailed advice on the practices recommended by Rinpoche, please visit the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Coronavirus.”
Additional resources for this difficult time, including Dharma study-from-home opportunities, 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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In these challenging and anxious times, FPMT International Office offers our prayers and best wishes to all who are navigating uncertainty and change during the coronavirus pandemic.
We have created a page of resources and advice related to this crisis in order to make it as easy as possible for you to find recommended practices, prayers, online study and practice resources, and news about Lama Zopa Rinpoche and from around the FPMT organization.
This page will be updated as new advice and news become available and should be consulted as an up-to-date resource for Dharma practice during the time of this pandemic.
Find advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dharma study materials, and other updates on “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic” page on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-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 doing incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Losang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and ordained Sangha offered a Padmasambhava incense puja at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Watch a Short Video of the Incense Puja at Kopan Monastery:
https://youtu.be/5-hPIH5xAlI
Advice from Rinpoche on Coronavirus
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered the following advice to protect from harm by the novel coronavirus:
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offers Advice to Protect from the Coronavirus
- Additional Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Protect from the Coronavirus
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Losang Sherab.
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.
Find links to recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings from Nepal, Russia, Singapore, Latvia, France, and more:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2019. Photo by Neal Patrick.
The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas is a new book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In it, Rinpoche walks us through the six perfections, a key Mahayana Buddhist training. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s teaching on the perfection of wisdom:
Everything, even subtle things, should appear merely labeled by the mind, but that doesn’t happen for us sentient beings. Whatever we experience is colored by this wrong view of inherent existence. From the object to be refuted according to the lower schools all the way to that asserted by Svatantrika and finally by Prasangika, we need to recognize these different degrees of subtlety of wrong view.
Things do exist, but they exist because they are empty. That is why the I exists; why phenomena exist; why birth, aging, and death exist; why suffering and the cessation of suffering exist. All these exist in mere name. For ordinary people like us, however, everything that is false in life appears true. Whether something exists or is a fantasy, we believe it to be 100 percent true. On the other hand, ultimate reality, which does exist, appears to us as nonexistent.
Cover of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book
A verse in the Vajra Cutter Sutra says:
A star, a defective view, the butter lamp flame,
an illusion, a dew drop, or a water bubble,
a dream, lightning, a cloud—
see all causative phenomena like this.
Each of these similes is a pointed reminder that we cannot trust the appearance of things.
Learn more about The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, including order information, on Wisdom Publication’s website:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-six-perfections/
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, Russia, October 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Due to the risk from the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, has been postponed. Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s other teaching events in Australia in March and April 2020 have also been postponed.
The postponement of the retreat is the result of observations by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) on the implications of the coronavirus.
In these observations it was repeatedly noted that:
- The coronavirus is moving fast.
- The coronavirus is easily transferred.
- There is at present no cure for the virus.
- There is a danger for the group to gather at this time at the retreat.
We regret that this postponement will cause financial and logistical difficulties for many people. The organizers of the retreat at the Great Stupa have already reached out to those who have booked for the retreat.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has indicated that the retreat, and other teaching events in Australia, will be rescheduled as soon as the risk from coronavirus is under control, and as soon as a suitable alternative time can be found in Rinpoche’s teaching schedule.
We know that many other centers are affected by the spread of coronavirus and encourage you to continue to take all sensible precautions to help ensure the safety of those using FPMT centers, projects, services, and study groups.
Advice from Rinpoche on Coronavirus
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered the following advice to protect from harm by the novel coronavirus:
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offers Advice to Protect from the Coronavirus, posted January 25, 2020
- Additional Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Protect from the Coronavirus, posted January 28, 2020
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 and Kopan abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi doing Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On Monday, March 2, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, joined by the monks and nuns of Kopan Monastery, did a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong puja to remove the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as well as to remove all obstacles for the year and to bring success to the entire FPMT organization and its projects, and to all sentient beings.
Hayagriva is the wrathful manifestation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. The puja done by Rinpoche and the Kopan Sangha is regarded as very powerful and can be performed to remove large obstacles (such as heavy illness), to repair damage to commitments, and to increase merits.
Rinpoche has given advice and additional advice on practices to be done to protect from the coronavirus.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Sangha of Kopan Monastery doing Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Find Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on the coronavirus (COVID-19) and other illnesses on Rinpoche’s advice page under the category “sickness”:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/
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 Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas is a new book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In it, Rinpoche offers instruction on the six perfections, a key Mahayana Buddhist teaching. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s “Introduction”:
The Sanskrit for perfection is paramita, which literally means “gone beyond.” The perfections are the practices of bodhisattvas, holy beings who have completely renounced the self; they have transcended selfish concerns and cherish only others.
Each perfection is perfect, flawless. Each arises from bodhichitta and is supported by the other perfections, including the wisdom of emptiness. Because of that, a bodhisattva generates infinite merit every moment, whether outwardly engaged in working for others or not. A bodhisattva’s bodhichitta never stops. Even sleeping, there is no self-cherishing; even in a coma, infinite merit is still created.
Cover of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book
The six perfections are as follows:
- Charity (dana)
- Morality (shila)
- Patience (kshanti)
- Perseverance (virya)
- Concentration (dhyana)
- Wisdom (prajna)
The first perfection is the perfection of charity. Its nature is the virtuous thought of giving. With that thought we perform the three types of charity: giving material objects, giving fearlessness, and giving the Dharma. These encompass all our actions of body, speech, and mind, such as giving material objects, protecting from fear, and giving the Dharma.
The second perfection is the perfection of morality, of which there are three types: refraining from nonvirtue, gathering virtuous deeds, and working for others. The first, refraining from nonvirtue, is abstaining from actions that harm sentient beings. The second, gathering virtuous deeds, means completely giving up the thought of seeking happiness for the self, including seeking self-liberation. The third, working for others, means just that—protecting sentient beings from harm as well as helping them in any way we can.
Then there is the perfection of patience. The nature of patience is keeping the mind in virtue whenever we encounter disturbance and harm. (We could endure these with a nonvirtuous mind as well, which is why the distinction is made.) There are three types of patience: not retaliating when harmed, accepting suffering, and having certainty about the Dharma. Accepting suffering means our mind remains calm and undisturbed whenever we receive harm from either sentient beings or nonliving things. Having certainty about the Dharma means always abiding in the wish to continuously practice the Dharma no matter what the circumstance.
The perfection of perseverance means being happy to practice virtue—specifically, being happy to practice each of the perfections—and doing work for all sentient beings. This includes virtuous actions of the body and speech, such as doing prostrations and reciting mantras.
With the fifth perfection, concentration, through both analytical meditation and single-pointed concentration we constantly reflect on the meaning of the teachings and put them into practice. For instance, when we do a shamatha, or calm-abiding meditation, using Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha is the object of meditation; if we are meditating on bodhichitta, the mind of enlightenment, when we place our mind single-pointedly on bodhichitta, that is the object of meditation.
The last perfection is the perfection of wisdom, of which there are two types. One type realizes the conventional (or all-obscuring) truth, which includes the nature of impermanence or the law of cause and effect. The other type realizes the ultimate truth, the emptiness of all phenomena. Generally, the perfection of wisdom refers to realizing emptiness.
Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, edited by Gordon McDougall and published by Wisdom Publications.
Learn more about the book, including information on ordering, on Wisdom Publication’s website:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-six-perfections/
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.
Cover of Big Love: The Live and Teachings of Lama Yeshe
The Tibetan New Year, Losar, falls on February 24 this year. For FPMT students, this day has additional significance as it commemorates the anniversary of the parinirvana of Lama Yeshe, who co-founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
As part of Rinpoche’s advice on how to celebrate Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Rinpoche recommends that centers host events to introduce new students to Lama Yeshe. These events might include students who knew Lama Yeshe sharing their favorite stories, watching videos of Lama teaching, or reading stories about Lama.
In that spirit, we’re sharing this update from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
After nearly thirty years in the making, Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, will soon be here! Big Love, the official, authorized biography of Lama Yeshe, contains personal stories of the lamas and the students who learned, lived, and traveled with them, as well as more than 1,500 photos dating back to the 1960s. You can pre-order Big Love now!
The book tells the story of Lama Yeshe, how he met Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and how they created the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), one of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist organizations. It begins in Tibet, where Lama was born, and moves to the refugee camp in Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India, where Rinpoche became his student. The story continues to other parts of India and Nepal, and finally to the entire world.
Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the steps of Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1970. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
The author, Adele Hulse, one of Lama Yeshe’s earliest students, highlights his special connection with early Dharma seekers and skillfully weaves their intimate stories with details of where Lama went, the teachings he gave, and the centers he inspired. It brings to life how special he was and how he connected with people from all over the world and all walks of life.
If you knew Lama, as Lama Yeshe was fondly called by his students, you will be reminded of his wisdom and charisma; if you did not, this is the perfect introduction.
Watch a promotional video for Big Love here:
https://youtu.be/Z4hH9_066NY
The official launch of this magnificent work will be on March 24, during the retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia. Osel Hita is planning to attend, together with the author, Adele Hulse, and the publisher, Nick Ribush.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive expects copies of Big Love to be available by the end of March 2020. Pre-order is open now and will remain open through February 27. For more information or to place an order go to: www.LamaYeshe.com/BigLove.
After pre-order closes, the Archive will be accepting orders again once the books arrive from the printer. FPMT center bookstores are eligible for a 50% discount, and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive encourages you to pre-order now, as you may be able to take advantage of lower shipping rates. Email us at info@LamaYeshe.com.
Read “A Monumental Accomplishment: The Making of Big Love” and “1941–58: Living a Monastic Life,” an excerpt from Big Love, both published in Mandala July-December 2019.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund recently issued a grant for US$100,000 to Jamyang Buddhist Center in London, UK, for much needed repairs to the center and a new heating system. As the center is now forty-one years old, repairs and upkeep is a necessity.
The new Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds building. Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor.
Also issued from the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund was a grant for US$100,000 to Jamyang Buddhist Center Leeds, UK, for their new 33,000 square-foot center. The new center will have a cafe, book store, meditation hall, and library. Community groups and charities will also be able to rent office and warehouse space at the center. This is a wonderful expansion for this twenty-three year old center.
Please rejoice that both of these centers have offered decades of service to the UK and will continue to thrive and benefit their communities (and all who visit) for many years to come.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. All the offerings from the fund are used toward the creation of holy objects and extensive offerings around the world; sponsoring young tulkus, high lamas and Sangha in India, Nepal, Tibet and the West; supporting FPMT centers, projects and services; sponsoring Dharma retreats and events; funding animal liberations and blessings, and many other worthy projects.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently offered advice on practices to do to protect from the coronavirus. As part of the advice, Rinpoche recommended a specific puja be done. The puja has now been arranged at Sera Je Monastery in India. It has also been arranged to be done in Tibet.
Rinpoche now offers this additional advice to protect from the coronavirus:
Rinpoche says that in addition to his earlier advice people should also recite “The Prayer Liberating Sakya from Disease” ( PDF, Audio). The prayer comes from the great yogi Thangtong Gyalpo (1385–1464) and is for healing from disease.
While doing this prayer, students should look at an image of Thangtong Gyalpo. (The image of Thangtong Gyalpo below is from a thangka in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s house.)
Rinpoche added, “the previous mantras are to protect yourself and others, but this prayer from Thangtong Gyalpo is to heal the disease in China and for it not to spread out to other countries. So it is to protect the country. And anyone in the world can recite this prayer.”
Thangtong Gyalpo
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s earlier advice to protect from the coronavirus is here:
https://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-offers-advice-to-protect-from-the-coronavirus/
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 was asked what can be done for the outbreak of the coronavirus. UPDATE: Rinpoche has offered additional advice.
Rinpoche advised the arrangement of a wrathful fire puja offered by Jhado Rinpoche in South India at Sera Je Monastery. [This was done. Also a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong was offered at Kopan Monastery and at Sera Je Monastery, and a number of other pujas were arranged in India and Nepal.]
Individual students can do the following mantra recitation practice:
As a motivation before reciting the two mantras, Rinpoche said it’s best if people can do The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) with Additional Practices, which is the daily morning practice Rinpoche has put together. That is best. But if that is too much, then do the lamrim motivation, which is just The Method without additional practices. [In other words, do the recitation on pages 7–14 of the booklet and stop at the Additional Practices, which begin with the “Blessing the Speech” section.] So at least do that part as a motivation before reciting the mantras.
- Recite Vajra Armor mantra, which is a famous mantra for healing. You can do the entire Vajra Armor Protection Wheel if you want. Otherwise, just do the mantra:
HŪṂ VAJRA PHAṬ* / OṂ PADMAŚHAVARI PHAṬ / NÄN PAR SHIG / NĀGANAN / TADYATHĀ / SARVAVIRITA / HANA HANA / VAJRENA RAKṢHA RAKṢHA SVĀHĀ
*Lama Zopa Rinpoche often gives the oral transmission of the mantra with the additional syllables “HŪṂ VAJRA PHAṬ,” as was taught by Trulshik Rinpoche. These syllables are recited with each recitation of the mantra. There are other lineages of the mantra that do not contain these syllables.
After you finish reciting the mantra, hold your hand in front of your mouth and blow the air up, so it goes into your nostrils.
Vajra Armor
- Then also recite Black Manjushri mantra. The Meditation-Recitation of Black Manjushri is also good to do if you want. Otherwise, just do the mantra:
OṂ TRA SÖ / CHHU SÖ / DUR TA SÖ / DUR MI SÖ / NYING GO LA CHHÖ / KHA LA JAḤ KAṂ ŚHAṂ TRAṂ / BÄ PHAṬ SVĀHĀ
Black Manjushri
Then at the end, do dedication prayers:
JANG CHHUB SEM CHHOG RIN PO CHHE
May the precious supreme bodhichitta
MA KYE PA NAM KYE GYUR CHIG
Not yet born arise.
KYE PA NYAM PA ME PA YI
May that arisen not decline,
GONG NÄ GONG DU PHEL WAR SHOG
But increase more and more.
GE WA DI YI NYUR DU DAG
Due to this virtue, may I quickly
LA MA SANG GYÄ DRUB GYUR NÄ
Become a Guru-Buddha,
DRO WA CHIG KYANG MA LÜ PA
And lead all transmigratory beings,
DE YI SA LA GÖ PAR SHOG
Without exception, to that state.
Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me, the numberless buddhas, and the numberless sentient beings, may all wars, sickness, famine, torture, poverty, and economic problems in the world, and all dangers of earth, water, fire, and wind, be pacified immediately, and may perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s hearts and lives. May the Buddhadharma last for a long time, and may the sentient beings in this world meet the Buddhadharma and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by the numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, which are completely empty of existing from their own side, may I, who am completely empty of existing from my own side, achieve the state of full enlightenment, which is completely empty of existing from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are completely empty of existing from their own side, to that state, which is completely empty of existing from its own side, by myself alone, who is completely empty of existing from my own side.
Scribe: Ven. Holly Ansett, January 23, 2020.
Links to the practices in this advice can be found here:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/
Additional advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for protection from coronavirus:
https://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/additional-advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-to-protect-from-the-coronavirus/
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.