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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In a 2022 letter to an FPMT center director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the perfect epitome of patience, offered an unmissable teaching on why patience is critically important, and how to protect and cultivate it through applying conscientious effort. Explaining the value of patience, Rinpoche said it protects our hard-won merits, which are necessary for our liberation from samsara but which are easily destroyed through our acts of anger and heresy.
Rinpoche then advised on how best to dedicate our merits so as to protect them. Rinpoche’s letter also offers guidance on six ways to train the mind in patience: by seeing the “enemy” as the guru and as positive support, by realizing that the “enemy” has no freedom to act differently, by developing compassion, and by remembering karma and the emptiness of phenomena.
We offered a short edited version of this advice in our 2022 Annual Review, and now we are very happy to share this entire advice available as a PDF download.
Please explore other teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the topic of patience.
You can read other advice that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered students on the topic of patience and anger.
Order Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s book, Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter from Wisdom Publications.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945–2023) was 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 Ven. Roger Kunsang in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Andrea Husnik.
In late September 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelugzentrum in Vienna, Austria. This was Rinpoche’s first official stay in Austria and his first visit to the FPMT center.
Following the 2017 Light of the Path retreat, and a long flight from North Carolina, US, to Austria, Rinpoche rested for a number of days with the Igel family at their home in Vienna. During his stay, Rinpoche was offered an apple strudel, which the mother of the family had made. The dish was so good that Rinpoche asked if he could be shown how to make the dessert.
Rinpoche gave a motivation before cooking, speaking about making cooking part of the path to enlightenment. This was followed by a demonstration and the actual instructions on how to make Austrian apple strudel (recipe available here) with Rinpoche also joining in to make it.
From the archives we are sharing an extremely joyful video showing such a precious aspect of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s ability to connect so genuinely with others, and also Rinpoche reminding us how to turn ordinary daily activities (like cooking or offering food) into Dharma activities.
In 2013 Rinpoche also offered some advice to the cooks of Tushita Mediation Centre on how to remember bodhichitta when when preparing and cooking food. This is timeless advice which we can all use to actualize the path to enlightenment, as cooking and preparing food for ourselves and others is a daily necessity.
When you are cutting anything, for example onions, think,
I am cutting the root of all sentient beings’ suffering which comes from ignorance and the self-cherishing thought, with the knife of the wisdom realizing emptiness (shunyata) and bodhichitta.
When you are washing pots and so on think,
I am washing away all the obscurations and negative karmas from all sentient beings’ minds.
You can think that you are washing away your own obscurations and negative karmas but most important is to think you are washing away those of all sentient beings. And you can think the water is nectar coming from Vajrasattva, the Guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. There is always a lot of washing up to do in the kitchen and you can use the opportunity to purify all sentient beings’ obscurations. It’s very good if you can sincerely think this way because all the washing up becomes Dharma practice purifying your negative karma and defilements and collecting merits. In India even the beggars keep their pots very clean!
When you are sweeping the floor think that the broom is the whole path to enlightenment, especially wisdom and bodhichitta, and that the dust is all sentient beings’ obscurations.
I am sweeping away the dust of all sentient beings’ obscurations with the broom of the path to enlightenment and especially wisdom and bodhichitta.
If you sincerely think this while you are cleaning it becomes real Dharma practice that benefits all sentient beings. In the lamrim it says to think that you are abandoning the dust of the three poisonous minds—anger, attachment, and ignorance—which are the gross obscurations and also the stains of the three poisonous minds, the subtle obscurations.
When you are kneading dough so that it can be made into any shape think,
I am taming all sentient beings’ minds by softening them with my two hands of the wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta.
When you are making momos or shapale—rolling out pastry and filling it with cheese, potato, and vegetables—think,
I am filling all sentient beings’ minds with the realizations of the path from guru devotion up to enlightenment so that they can actualize all the qualities of a buddha.
When you are cooking soup or other food you can think that the fire is the Six Yogas’ tummo fire that causes the kundalini to melt. Do the same meditation that is used to bless the inner offering in highest yoga tantra. Or you can think that the fire is the wisdom realizing emptiness and the uncooked food is the unsubdued mind. By cooking the food all the gross and even the subtle delusions are purified and all the realizations of Buddha are achieved.
These are some ways of thinking as you are working in the kitchen. You can think in a similar way with other kitchen activities.
This advice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche was typed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 17, 2013.
Related Practice Materials
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945–2023) was 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.
Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
An powerful prayer session was held in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree on December 31, 2023 for the swift return of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Incredibly, 2,500 ordained Sangha participated including Ganden Tri Rinpoche, His Eminence Ling Rinpoche, His Eminence Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, Kundeling Rinpoche, Osel Dorje Rinpoche, Lelung Tulku, Woser Rinpoche from Sera Mey Monastery, Sera Je Abbot Khenrinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsethar, Tashi Lhunpo Abbot Khenrinpoche Zeekgyab Tulku, Segyud Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Wangdu, Namgyal Abbot Khenrinpoche Thamthog Rinpoche, and Drepung Loseling Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Samten.
Ganden Tri Rinpoche at the prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Prayers recited were Calling the Guru from Afar, Chanting the Names of Manjushri, King of Prayers, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return prayer by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ven. Roger Kunsang arranged offerings to all the 2,500 Sangha.
The magnitude and beauty of this event is captured in this short video by Ven. Tenzin Michael:
This was an incredibly important and auspicious event. It is said that the merit created from any virtuous activity in Bodhgaya is multiplied eight times due to the blessings that have arisen from all the holy activities accomplished here by numerous holy beings. As Rinpoche has explained:
“Bodhgaya is not only the place where the Buddha showed the holy deed of achieving enlightenment under the bodhi tree but also where all the great pandits such as Nagarjuna and Asanga practised and made so many prayers. Also, many great enlightened beings and yogis from Tibet, China, Nepal and other countries came here and made so many prayers to benefit us sentient beings so there would be unbelievable, unbelievable opportunity for us to purify negative karma and accumulate merit as quickly as possible.
“That is why it is so important to come to Bodhgaya to practice; to circumambulate and make prayers under the tree. Even if you don’t know much Dharma, try to circumambulate as much as possible. It makes your life so special; there is unbelievable purification and it collects so much merit to quickly be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and achieve enlightenment.
“[The Mahabodhi Stupa] is so precious that if you don’t get to circumambulate it for even one day, it’s worse than losing skies filled with wish-granting jewels or billions of dollars.”
Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Additionally, with great rejoicing we share that on the first day of the New Year, Kopan Geshes, Lama Gyupas and sangha offered Most Secret Hayagriva tsog in front of Rinpoche’s holy body at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
May all of these powerful prayers be actualized without delay.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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.
From Wisdom Publications about this new release:
In this highly anticipated volume, the beloved teacher Lama Zopa Rinopche guides us as we dive deeply into perseverance, one of the core practices of the bodhisattvas. By interweaving his teachings with Shantideva’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things.
… Rinpoche’s commentary is structured around the fifth and seventh chapters of the beloved Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by the eighth-century philosopher-poet Shantideva. Interweaving his teaching with Shantideva’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things.
“When we have perseverance, we will have no obstacles, which means obstacles to any happiness, especially to ultimate happiness, the freedom from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and most importantly to peerless happiness, the state of the omniscience that is enlightenment.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Learn more about this new release from Wisdom Publications and order your copy today:
wisdomexperience.org/product/perseverance
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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.
Vajrasattva.
With the new year approaching, many of us are reflecting on the past year— rejoicing in the blessings we received, and also assessing mistakes we have made in relation to ourselves and others. Fortunately, we have methods at our disposal to help us purify negative karma we have created. We can utilize these practices daily, and also as a way to enter the new year with a renewed sense of resolve to be the best versions of ourselves, so we can be of most benefit to others.
“Of course by purifying negative karma collected since beginningless rebirth and by collecting extensive merits, this allows you to have realizations on the path to enlightenment and for your mind to change,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche once explained to a student. “There is always hope the mind can change, even to achieve enlightenment, so you can achieve a higher rebirth, ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and enlightenment.”
Rinpoche offered four teachings at Kopan Monastery on April 7, 8, and 9 before leaving for Tsum Valley on April 10. As we now all know, Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away on April 13, and as such, these teachings are particularly precious as they are the last organized and recorded teachings Rinpoche offered in this life. Three of these teachings were to students attending the 2023 Vajrasattva retreat at Kopan during this time. Rinpoche also gave the White Tara Practice Oral Transmission and Visualization to Glen H. Mullin and a group of his students. You can access all of these teachings and transcripts to the teachings.
In his first teaching from this series on April 7, Rinpoche overviewed some of the many benefits of purification practice. Addressing the retreatants Rinpoche said:
“There are so many problems in the world—what should we do? Doing Vajrasattva practice is the answer; doing purification is the answer. You are purifying negative karma, from where all the sufferings came. Purification is the answer to war, famine, disease, and the dangers from fire, water, earth, and air. That is the answer.”
During one teaching to the 2022 Vajrasattva retreatants at Kopan, Rinpoche discusses the Four Opponent Powers practice, which is essential to Vajrasattva practice (starting at 1:12:14 in the video):
- The Power of Reliance
- The Power of Reflecting on the Shortcomings of Negative Karma (the Power of Regret)
- The Power of Always Engaging in the Remedy
- The Power of Not Committing the Negative Karma (Faults) Again
Rinpoche also discussed the meanings of both the long and short Vajrasattva mantras and offers instruction for the visualizations and meditations to be done when reciting the mantras (starting at 1:24:48 in the same video).
By practicing Vajrasattva, we can purify the five heavy negative karmas without break which cause us to be reborn in hell; and we can achieve the general and sublime realizations, Rinpoche explained to Vajrasattva retreatants in 2022. This is why Rinpoche stressed that Vajrasattva practice is so important.
Explore Rinpoche’s three teachings on Vajrasattva from 2023: April 2023 Teachings at Kopan Monastery
Explore Rinpoche’s four teachings on Vajrasattva from 2022: Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery.
Read more in “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/benefits-vajrasattva-practice
You can find resources to support your Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices on the Practices for Purification page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/purification/
Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return at Sera Monastery Drati Khangtsen on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 7, 2023.
This year, Lama Tsongkhapa Day (Ganden Ngamchoe) fell on December 7. This special day celebrates of the anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana. A variety of prayers and practices were undertaken on this auspicious occasion and many FPMT centers and students used the opportunity to engage in prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return as well. At Kopan Monastery, extensive candle lights were offered, Kopan Lama Gyupa monks offered Guyasamaja Puja and constructed a sand mandala over three days, Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri was recited continuously for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as many other prayers, and visitors offered prayers in front of Rinpoche’s holy body.
Sera Je Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 7, 2023. Photo courtesy of Sere Je Monastery Facebook page.
We were also very moved to receive notice of Tibetan communities and Sangha engaging offering prayers in this way. As an example, at Sera Je Monastery Drati Khangtsen, India, as the monastery was illuminated with light offerings and with all monks in congregation, the Sangha recited prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return.
As a reminder, we received the very precious advice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation, and all are very welcome to join this ongoing collective effort.
We invite you to view this collection of photo galleries of some of the initial group prayers, pujas, and practices done for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Kopan Monastery; as well as monastic institutions and communities, FPMT centers, and at the sites of holy objects and gompas.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 cake offered during a birthday celebration, Kopan Monastery, December 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On December 3 we observe the birth date of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT International Office is sponsoring Lama Chopa with Tsog and recitation of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri at Kopan Monastery.
Students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are encouraged to engage in these practices themselves, as a way to honor Rinpoche’s extremely beneficial and inspiring life, and to pray and create merit for the swift return of his reincarnation as advised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was 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 Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan, Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Save the date: From April 15-20, 2024, Kopan Monastery is hosting a Heart Sutra Retreat. His Eminence the 104th Ganden Tripa Rinpoche will offer commentary during the retreat; and participants will be guided to meditate on the meaning of the Heart Sutra by Ven. Steve Carlier, a long-time student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other important teachers in the Gelug tradition.
This retreat will follow a commemoration, on April 13, 2024, of one year since Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away.
In July 2022 Rinpoche expressed his wish to lead a Heart Sutra Retreat, so this is quite significant that this retreat is being offered within the FPMT organization, as it was one of Rinpoche’s expressed wishes.
The Heart Sutra is the most widely known sutra of the Mahayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is part of the Prajnaparamita Sutras, which is a collection of about 40 sutras composed between 100 BCE and 500 CE. The Heart Sutra is a presentation of profound wisdom on the nature of emptiness. Reading and reciting the Heart Sutra is a powerful way to create the conditions for having a direct realization of emptiness.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that the only thing that can directly cut ignorance, which is the root of suffering and samsara, is wisdom realizing emptiness. There are many teachings on emptiness, but these teachings are found condensed in the Heart Sutra.
“Ignorance [has been] holding the false I as real from beginningless rebirths. That’s how we have been in samsara until now. Never liberated from suffering. But now there is, for example, the short one, the Heart Sutra, to cut that ignorance, that wrong concept,” Rinpoche explained before offering the oral transmission of the sutra in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015.
Just hearing the Heart Sutra, or reading it, Rinpoche explained, leaves a positive imprint to be free of samsara and to actualize the path, achieving enlightenment to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsara and bring them to enlightenment.
“If we are able to read or hear [the Heart Sutra] just one time, the positive imprint left by this definitely causes us in the near future to understand much more easily the teachings on emptiness. We will be able to understand the words and the meanings of the teachings on emptiness very easily, and we’ll be able to have realizations of emptiness easily, quickly in the future. Developing that wisdom ceases the gross and subtle defilements, the mistakes of the mind, and it makes us achieve the sorrowless state, the cessation of the suffering and its causes on our mental continuum, as well as great liberation even from the subtle mistakes of the mind, that which is full enlightenment on our own mental continuum,” Rinpoche explained.
Students can listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Heart Sutra on a digital audio album available in the FPMT Foundation Store. The downloadable album comes bundled with a digital version of the sutra in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats as well as the transcript of Rinpoche giving the oral transmission at the 2015 retreat in Mexico, from which the audio for the album was taken.
Students can find more links to Heart Sutra materials and resources below:
- The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – MP3 Download
- The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – eBook & PDF
- Watch the teaching in which Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of the Heart Sutra on video. (The oral transmission begins at 42:58.)
- FPMT Education’s Basic Program Online: Heart Sutra
- Essence Of The Heart Sutra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, eBook & PDF
Please learn more about the Heart Sutra Retreat and commemoration being offered at Kopan Monastery in April 2024.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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, Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
In this short and intimate teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which was recorded over lunch at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, in July 2015, Rinpoche explains the incredible merit that is collected by offering to the guru.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered countless profound teachings on guru devotion, many of which are available here:
fpmt.org/tag/guru-devotion/
In the book, The Heart of the Path, Rinpoche explains the importance of the spiritual teacher and advises how to train the mind in guru devotion, the root of the path to enlightenment.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 Nepal, March 27, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We are happy to share that the English translations for the swift return prayers composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other distinguished lamas with whom Rinpoche had a connection in this lifetime, including Khenzur Jhado Rinpoche, Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Tseringma, and Lelung Rinpoche, have now been updated and are available at the Foundation Store. The PDF file is available for a quick one-click download.
As a reminder, in October we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation. Please read more about this advice, download the prayers and other resources, and find information on joining continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones!
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Turkeys at a farm.
Every year in the United States, tens of millions of turkeys are killed for the holiday of Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday, November 23, 2023. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice in a 2018 teaching to help benefit the turkeys killed, and how we can think during the holiday. Rinpoche explained that these practices can be applied beyond the Thanksgiving holiday, “These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten.”
In “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”, Rinpoche explains,
“If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again. … If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.”
In this teaching Rinpoche provides detailed instructions on practices to purify negative karma, such as Vajrasattva, taking the eight Mahayana precepts, reciting sutras, engaging in nyung ne fasting retreats, generating love and compassion through the practice of tonglen and the Four Immeasureables, practicing Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha puja and specific mantras. Rinpoche also offers a special dedication to purify any negative karma that could cause future rebirth as a turkey.
Of course, Rinpoche also has given extensive advice for benefiting animals in general, such as ocean animals, bugs, saving animals from the danger of death, and has outlined mantras and their benefits that are beneficial for animals.
For links to practice materials in these detailed instructions, we invite you to read “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”. Included on the page is an additional short teaching from Rinpoche which we include below:
Further Commentary and Advice for Thanksgiving from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
I don’t think the general population of America accepts clairvoyance, but if it did, people would understand where all the sufferings, such as depression, come from. The way people normally think—for example, what causes depression—is very limited. They only think about things that are to do with this life. If they had clairvoyance they could see much deeper; they could see things such as past and future lives. People normally think of only this life, not past and future lives.
In the past, many of the turkeys that Americans are eating were Americans who in the past had killed turkeys. Often it could even be a past family member that they are now eating.
There’s a sutra story about Buddha’s disciple Shariputra, who excelled in wisdom. Once when he was on his alms round he looked into a family’s house and saw that the father, who used to catch fish in his backyard pond, had died and been reborn as a fish in that pond. The mother, his wife, who had been very attached to the home, had also died and been reborn as the family dog. And the son’s enemy, who had been very attached to the son’s wife, had died and been reborn as their child. The son was holding the child, his former enemy, eating the fish, his late father, and beating the dog, his late mother, while it chewed on fish bones. Shariputra then observed, “The son is eating his father’s flesh, beating his mother with a stick, and cuddling his enemy on his lap—samsaric existence makes me laugh.”
If we have animals we have to remember this story and take care of them well. It is very important to understand the benefits of taking care of our pets and other animals by giving them food and drink. Think that you are making charity and don’t just do it out of attachment, thinking that you love the shape of the animals or something, doing everything simply for your own happiness. It’s the same with looking after your children. You create a child with attachment, for your own happiness, thinking how your life would be unbelievably happy if you had a child. Then you take care of the child, but it is for your own happiness.
It is also important to recognize and remember your animals’ most unbelievable kindness, how they have been kind to you in three ways, and then with that awareness give them food and drink. First recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and then blow over the food and drink to bless it. If you have mani pills, it’s good to crush them and put them into the food and drink, or even add blessed water. You don’t have to get blessed water from a lama; you can make it yourself. Whether or not you have daily commitments, recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and other mantras, such as OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ, the Mitrugpa mantra and so forth, and then blow on the water. You can recite however many repetitions of each mantra you want, like seven, ten, fifteen, or more, blow on the animal’s food or water and make prayers as well. Similarly, you can keep a bottle of water nearby and when you’ve done your commitments you can blow on the water and then use that to put on the food and water that you give to the animals.
Then make this dedication prayer:
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.
Finally, please remember the unbelievable benefits of making charity of food to the animals. As the Buddha said, “Anybody who makes charity well during the period my teachings exist will receive great enjoyments for 80,000 eons, even if the material that person offers is merely the size of a hair. That person will be free from pain and disease, will enjoy great happiness, will be enriched with all manner of desirable things, and will eventually achieve the result: peerless cessation and complete enlightenment.”
This advice has been extracted from the page “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving,” which shares a teaching and advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Switzerland in 2018. Scribed by Holly Ansett. Edited by Nicholas Ribush, November 2020.
For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras. You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 at Kopan Monastery, April 8, 2023.
On April 8, 2023, five days before showing the aspect of passing away, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a White Tara oral transmission and visualization at Kopan Monastery to Glen H. Mullin and a group of his students.
This was one of Rinpoche’s last recorded teachings in this life and offers timeless advice on benefiting and cherishing others.
“Whatever service you can offer others, whatever help you can bring, even a small benefit offered to an insect, this is fulfilling the bodhisattvas’ and buddhas’ wishes,” Rinpoche explains in this teaching.
“And any harm you do, if you kill an insect or ant under your feet and don’t care, even though you’re learning philosophy, sutra and tantra, you don’t care about their life. Any harm, even a small harm, is a harm to all the bodhisattvas and buddhas. You must know that. Oh, and a small benefit is the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. It makes them most happy. …”
“So my answer is that if you want happiness, you must help others. If you don’t want to suffer, you don’t harm others. Stop. If you want happiness, you cause happiness to others.”
Rinpoche begins the White Tara oral transmission at 36:27 of the video
- Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
- Download the White Tara practice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered three other teachings at Kopan Monastery between April 7-9 before leaving for Tsum Valley on April 10.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was 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.
For more video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche please visit:
fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche