Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Light of the Path 2016 retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In August 2016, during the Light of the Path retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised students to check carefully when meditating on emptiness.

When many people meditate on emptiness they say that nothing exists. Do you understand? Nothing exists. [When you do that] you are not meditating on emptiness. You are meditating that things don’t exist even in mere name, doesn’t exist, nothing, doesn’t exist. Sorry to say this.

I’m sure I do that a lot. I think I do that a lot if I don’t check well. I think when I meditate I do that normal mistake: even in mere name doesn’t exist, complete nihilism, emptiness meditation that is nihilism. You understand?

Remember this: when you meditate on emptiness check to see whether you are meditating on nihilism or not. Make sure. Keep it in mind. Write it down.

This is a suggestion bringing up my own mistakes. Whether it is really meditating on emptiness, whether meditating on nihilism or not, you have to check.

The Prasangika view of emptiness has to be unified with dependent arising. Dependent arising has to be unified with emptiness. That is the Prasangika view of emptiness, the right view, of renunciation, bodhichitta, and emptiness; it is the right view. …

Watch more of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on meditating on emptiness in this video clip:
https://youtu.be/NGvh-62rWh4

Colonphon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Light of the Path 2016 retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 16, 2016. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Nicole Parisi-Smith and Laura Miller, August 2018.

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at teachings organized by Gendun Drupa Center, Martigny, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.

During the 2018 retreat in Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained how to find a guru, captured in this excerpt and video clip:

As I mentioned, even if you don’t have a guru but study, at least a short teaching, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, it’s so clear. That is so important. Then you know what you have to do if you want to follow a guru, if you want to practice. Then you know what to do.

Otherwise it is like looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend. You do the same thing—you make looking for a guru like looking for boyfriend or girlfriend. You do some teachings or initiation, then if you don’t like it, you give up, you throw out—not in the garbage, you can’t do that—but it is like that. Then you do it many times like that in this life.

You’re basically following people you know, they guide you, “Go to this lama, go to that lama.” Then another lama comes along. You don’t know how to practice. You don’t try to study. You don’t know that there is something to study. It’s just a very short time. Then another lama comes, just short time, comes and goes, disappears in the sky, ha-ha. Kind of like that. …

So you must read and study. Generally, people don’t know there is something to study, that there is something to read. They don’t know that. Maybe other people don’t tell, so you don’t know. So it is like that.

If you read, then you know whether you can [have them as your guru] or not. Then you see. All the benefits you come to know and all the shortcomings if you make mistakes. You have to be careful, most careful.

Last night I mentioned that just being famous, or just because the guru has many disciples, that alone that doesn’t mean [that you should have them as your guru]. In the West and in Chinese countries, they are very attracted to that, very attracted. Immediately you follow that. Then one without reputation, without many disciples, you give up. Then one with many disciples, very famous, you follow. It is kind of like that.

Many people are like that, because they don’t understand Dharma. Also I’m not saying everyone like that you can’t trust. I’m not saying that. But that alone is not the reason that you can trust them.

Kyabje Zong Rinpoche used to say, “If they are famous, they should be famous in the monasteries,” not just in the West, but famous in the monasteries—Tibetan monasteries, large monasteries. Nyingma and Kagyu have large monasteries. Gelug has Sera, Ganden, Drepung. That many people there trust them, it should be like that.

That is what Kyabje Zong Rinpoche said. He was one lama from who I received many teachings. He was Lama Yeshe’s guru as well. Kyabe Zong Rinpoche himself, and of course many others like him, were very famous in the monasteries. And now many people have known them for many years. That you can understand.

But even in the monasteries, there are many lamas and geshes with many thousands of disciples, so learned in philosophy, still it doesn’t mean you should make a connection with them as a guru immediately to receive teachings and initiations.

Watch the complete teaching “How to Find the Guru” from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
https://youtu.be/VL5_XcvnPVI

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, April 19, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, February 2019.

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and monks doing incense puja, Kopan Monastery, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent this advice about developing a good heart to a student who had been offering healing classes at a center for twenty-five years.

As you know, caring for sentient beings, compassion for sentient beings, cherishing sentient beings, opens the door [to limitless qualities.] As it says in Lama Chöpa [LC92] by the great enlightened being Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen, and as the Buddha also said,

The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these transmigratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.

This is the best Dharma practice to help others and the best meditation, the best way to practice, the best healing. To develop the good heart and let them practice this is the best psychology, the best meditation, the best Dharma, the best everything. It is the quick way to achieve enlightenment, the quick way to free sentient beings from obscurations and bring them to full enlightenment quickly.

Below are two stories, examples of this. There are many other stories, many that I don’t know, these are just examples.

Asanga meditated in a cave for twelve years and tried to achieve Maitreya Buddha, but nothing happened. After twelve years he came down and saw a wounded dog covered in maggots on the road. He felt unbearable compassion, so he cut flesh from his thigh in order to pick up the maggots and put them on his flesh. He thought if he picked them up with his fingers he might hurt them, so he thought he must pick up each maggot with his tongue. He closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue to pick up the maggots. Suddenly in front of him was Maitreya Buddha, not the wounded dog.

Before, his mind was obscured and he only saw a wounded dog, but after generating unbelievable compassion he purified so much negative karma he had collected in the past. It was unbelievable purification, by generating compassion, and then he was able to see Maitreya Buddha. He immediately grabbed Maitreya’s robes and asked Maitreya Buddha why he had not come sooner, as he had tried to meditate for twelve years in the cave. He asked why he hadn’t seen Maitreya, and Maitreya Buddha replied, “I was there the whole time, but you could not see me. You know the place where you spat in the cave? That’s where I was.” Then Maitreya showed him the stains of spit on his robes.

The other story is about the great yogi Ngagpo Chöpawa who was going to Odi for the tantric practice of action. On the way, near the river, he saw a lady who was completely black in color, covered with leprosy and with pus coming out of her sores. She could not walk and asked him to take her across the river, but he ignored her.

After some time, his disciple Getsul Tsimbulwa came. He was not a gelong but a getsul, with thirty-six vows. The woman asked him the same thing, to take her across the river. Even though he was a monk and was not meant to touch women, he felt unbelievable compassion the minute he saw her, and immediately carried her across on his back. Because he generated unbelievable compassion for her, even though she was dirty and covered with leprosy, even without crossing the whole river, his negative karma was purified and in the middle of the river he saw her as Dorje Pagmo, an enlightened deity and she took him to the pure land of Dagpa Kachö.

Since our mind is ordinary, obscured, there are many things we see as ordinary, when they are not.

From Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice “The Advantages of Cherishing Others,” posted in January 2019 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/advantages-cherishing-others

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 offering a khata to a photo of Lama Yeshe at Losang Dragpa Centre, Malaysia, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Six weeks after Lama Yeshe’s passing in 1984, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a personal tribute to his guru, Lama Yeshe. Here’s an excerpt from “Our Heart Jewel, Our Wish-granting Gem,” first published in Wisdom, #2 1984:

For those of us who have received teachings directly from Lama Yeshe, he was incomparably kinder than all the buddhas of the three times. He took care of us like babies, not only by giving teachings. Lama was more than a mother, more than a father to us, suffering as he did in everyday life for us.

He not only looked after our present life, but our future life also. He led us, helped us make preparation for happiness in this life all the way up to enlightenment.

For all of us it is the greatest sadness that Lama has passed away. We have lost our heart jewel, our wish-granting gem. The remarkable aspect that we can see, that we can communicate with, that we can hear advice from: this has gone.

I think it must be the greatest sadness not only for us, but for many other people also, Tibetan and Western, who are not his disciples; people who have just talked to Lama, or met him briefly when he was traveling, at different times and different places all over the world. Or for those who have only read Lama’s teachings or just heard his holy words. Even those who never saw Lama but only heard his voice on a tape recorder. All these people who have felt Lama’s great warmth, his special character, his great loving kindness, his unbearable compassion; I think Lama’s passing must be a great sadness for them, too.

Lama had such great will, such incredible dedication to work for others. He planned great projects, for the benefit of others and to spread the teachings. Not only did he have the visualization of all this but he was able to actualize it; he accomplished his plans, ensured that they were done, he didn’t just imagine them.

There are many learned lamas and geshe, all bearing the name “holy being” and practicing and teaching Dharma, in the East and in the West. And of them Lama is known to be very special; his actions unbearably compassionate, so excellent. The way Lama gave teachings to Western people especially: so suitable, exactly what was needed, perfect for each individual person.

When the sun rises the darkness of the earth is dispelled. In the same way the darkness of ignorance and problems in the mind of so many sentient beings around the world have been dispelled by the sun of Lama’s teachings. Because of him these past few years, since we first met the Russian princess Zina—so much Dharma has spread to dispel the darkness of ignorance. …

Read more from Rinpoche’s tribute to Lama Yeshe:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/older/mandala-for-1984/wisdom-2-1984/our-heart-jewel-our-wish-granting-gem/

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 Wisdom, Number 2 1984. Photo of Lama Yeshe by Ueli Minder, taken in Geneva, Switzerland, 1983.

The Tibetan New Year, Losar, falls on February 5 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.

Lama Yeshe’s heart stopped beating just before dawn on Losar, March 3, 1984. He was forty-nine years old.

In 1959, Lama Yeshe fled the Chinese Communists in Tibet, going into exile in India. He survived tremendous hardship living as a refugee monk in Buxa Duar, where Lama Zopa Rinpoche became his student.

Then in 1967, the two lamas began teaching Western students, leading to the establishment and flourishing of Kopan Monastery in Nepal and the FPMT organization throughout the world.

As part of Lama Zopa 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 highlighting Wisdom, Number 2 1984. Wisdom was the precursor to Mandala magazine. Its second issue, published not long after Lama Yeshe’s death, commemorated Lama. The issue included some of the last teaching from Lama Yeshe, a report on his passing, and tributes from Tibetan geshes as well as from Western students.

These words from Lama Yeshe’s teacher Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche, who knew Lama Yeshe at Sera Je Monastery in Tibet, reflect on Lama Yeshe’s goals and achievements:

“… During these past years Lama Yeshe has done so much beneficial activity for so many people, especially in the West. In fact, these two teachers, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa, have done such a wonderful job. The result is everywhere in the West—so many centers, so many students who follow the teachings seriously.

“And because of all this activity the students have such a wonderful opportunity to meet other teachers, to receive many, many instructions and teachings. Even in Tibet we didn’t have that kind of opportunity! To have high lamas teaching all the time and giving high initiations, to have all this available is very, very rare.

“So, when I see what has happened in the past few years, it makes me really happy, and I feel such admiration for Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa and for their students. It is very difficult to follow a new religion coming from a different culture. It is not easy to accept and to follow deeply, but I see so many of you people are doing so, enthusiastically and with faith. I am really amazed when I see all this, and I rejoice and am very happy. …”

You can read the complete tribute from Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/older/mandala-for-1984/wisdom-2-1984/we-should-be-very-harmonious-and-try-to-help-each-other/

Find all the article from Wisdom, Number 2 1984:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/older/mandala-for-1984/wisdom-2-1984/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on practices for Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/ideas-and-advice-for-losar-and-the-fifteen-miracle-days-of-chotrul-duchen-2019/

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 Ven. Paldron, Root Institute, India, December 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Root Institute director Ven. Paldron shares news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent visit to Bodhgaya, India:

FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in Bodhgaya, India, just before His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings started on December 22, 2018. Our hearts almost stopped beating at Root Institute when Rinpoche and the entourage missed their connecting flight in Delhi. We were delighted when we heard that they were confirmed on the following flight. A few years back, Rinpoche, after missing a connecting flight, decided to spend time elsewhere instead of visiting Root. So we rejoiced that this time we had created the karma for Rinpoche to visit and stay with us!

The children of Maitreya School, a social service project of Root Institute, were very fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to recite the Heart Sutra twice in front of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a very august audience, including rinpoches, tulkus, and high lamas. His Holiness was happy to see the children once again and was touched by their heart-felt recitation. The students were able to offer His Holiness khatas. Rinpoche was also very pleased to see the children reciting the sutra.

Ganden Tri Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dagri Rinpoche, and many other lama doing puja, Root Institute, India. Photo by Bill Kane.

Rinpoche very kindly requested Root to host a Hayagriva puja on December 30 to which many high lamas, including Ganden Tri Rinpoche, Jhado Rinpoche, Kelsang Rinpoche, Khadro-la [Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme], and many young tulkus (reincarnate lamas), geshes and Sangha attended. During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s stay at Root Institute, Rinpoche also met individually with many of his gurus and made offerings to them, as well as met with young tulkus and other lamas.

Rinpoche also participated in the long life puja for His Holiness on December 31, organized by Namgyel Monastery and other Tibetan organizations at the Kalachakra grounds. Rinpoche was able to offer to His Holiness a beautiful Dharmachakra on behalf of the FPMT organization. Later that day, Rinpoche very kindly attended the Lama Chopa tsog puja in Root Institute’s big gompa with protector prayers and purification practices to close out 2018 and to usher in the New Year. Rinpoche did further extensive protector prayers at the start of the New Year to remove all obstacles ,often going late into the night and the early morning.

Front row: (from left) Pema Wangmo, director in training, Tushita Meditation Centre; Ven. Thubten Dekyong (Tsen-la), director, Maitreya Buddha Project, Bodhgaya; Lama Zopa Rinpoche; Ven. Tenzin Paldron, director, Root Institute; Ven. Tenzin Kunphen, spiritual program coordinator, Root Institute. 2nd row: Capucine Redon, coordinator, Tushita satellite study group in Goa; Ven. Tenzin Legtsok, director, Sera IMI House; Renuka Singh, director, Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre; Archhana Kombrabail, acting director, Tushita Meditation Centre; Ven. Tashi, meeting notetaker; Adriana Ferranti, director MAITRI Charitable Trust; Shanti Yajnik, director, Choe Khor Sum Ling. Back row: Phil Hunt, MAITRI Charitable Trust; Ven. Kabir Saxena, chairman, Maitreya Project; Deepthy Chandrasekhar, national co-coordinator, FPMT India; Drolkar Maree Court, spiritual program coordinator, Root Institute.

On the last day of the India FPMT national meeting, January 3, Rinpoche graced us with his presence, offering teachings and blessings in the small gompa. Rinpoche emphasized the importance of centers and the work they do and the necessity of working harmoniously and compassionately.

Rinpoche invited several high lamas to lunch, including Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, who spent New Year’s afternoon with us answering questions, His Eminence Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, and other high lamas. On one such occasion Ling Rinpoche made an impromptu visit to the Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Care Clinic and blessed the staff, medicines, and the clinic. We were very grateful. We were also delighted that Dagri Rinpoche taught at Root early in the year giving us a Lama Tsongkhapa and Medicine Buddha jenangs and teachings on the Heart Sutra. Lama Zopa Rinpoche invited Dagri Rinpoche to lunch on several occasions, and it was wonderful to see their joyous faces together.

Lunch offered after puja, Root Institute, India. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche made regular visits to the Mahabodhi Stupa during the evenings—doing circumambulations, reciting prayers, making extensive offerings and dedications, and also giving short teachings. Rinpoche’s offerings would include eight to ten trays of flower offerings (or about 80 small plates of flowers). Rinpoche also offered twelve monk’s begging bowls full of fresh fruit, robes, and khatas to the Buddha statue in the main temple.

Rinpoche kindly gave two public teachings aimed particularly at the Indian staff (although everyone was invited) about the necessity of a good heart and living a life in service to others and rejoicing in the opportunity to be working at a Dharma center.

Offering robes to the Buddha statue at the Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, India. Photo by Bill Kane.

In front of the Nagarjuna statue at Root on Sunday, January 13, Rinpoche gave an extensive, inspiring, and very precious teaching on emptiness and dependent arising and how by clinging to the notion of an inherently existent I—ignorance—we continually create the root of samsara and our own suffering. As long as we do this, Rinpoche reminded, we are a slave to the I and to samsara and can never experience freedom or liberation. Therefore, it is important for us to be mindful of this erroneous notion of I that we are clinging to every moment of our life reminding ourselves that this I is empty, not truly existent and seeing the unfolding of events in our life as a dream.

Rinpoche repeated this theme during a magnificent Heruka Lama Chopa offering on January 16 in the big gompa, which lasted over four hours!  During this marathon session Rinpoche did protector prayers, purification practices interspersed with teaching reminders about our motivation, guru devotion, and emptiness.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, India. Photo by Bill Kane.

A special and big thank you to our wonderful and extraordinary team of volunteers and staff for their dedicated, compassionate, creative, and inspiring service to meet all the needs of the center during this incredibly busy and blessed time period.

We are incredibly grateful to all that Rinpoche has given to all sentient beings at Root so far. We pray for Rinpoche’s long, healthy stable life and that we continue to receive Rinpoche’s teachings, blessings, and advise so that we too can become quickly enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Read more about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s recent teachings in Bodhgaya, in a new online feature story by Cynthia Karena:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/in-depth-stories/his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-teaches-in-bodhgaya/

Learn more about Root Institute by visiting their website:
https://www.rootinstitute.ngo/

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche petting Shamatha the cat who had jumped up onto Rinpoche’s throne, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, December 2018. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who had asked Rinpoche how to benefit a very sick twenty-one year old cat.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one, I heard you wanted very much to come here but you have a cat that is twenty-one years old and is very sick, so you couldn’t come. I understand, that’s very good taking care of the cat.

It’s good to recite the Maitreya Buddha mantra in the cat’s ear. That causes the cat to never be reborn in the lower realms, to have a higher rebirth, and to meet the Dharma. Also recite Medicine Buddha mantra, Chenrezig Buddha mantra, Milarepa Buddha mantra, and Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha mantra: OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT. Recite these mantras several times each day.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at an Animal Blessing Day organized by Ganden Tendar Ling with relics, circumambulation of holy objects and altar table, and more, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Also recite the Three Principal Aspects of the Path and different lamrim prayers. The most important thing is to take the cat around holy objects. If you can, make an altar on a table and put many holy objects on the table, piled up—tsa-tsas, buddha statues, pictures, and texts, then take the cat around, on the same level as the altar. Put pictures of buddhas, statues, and tsa-tsas, as many as possible, then go around that.

However many holy objects are there—one hundred or one thousand— each time the cat goes around the holy objects, it creates that many causes of enlightenment. It is good to have many tsa-tsas there and to take the cat around them as much as you can before he dies, otherwise there is nothing much you can do.

Here is a powa pill. When the cat dies, put it on his crown with butter and honey.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting mantras for a very sick elderly cat, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pisa, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

It is very kind of you to take care of this cat for twenty-one years. Perhaps the cat could also be a recent family member, for example, if your father or mother died, or sometimes it could be your wife from a past life. It could be anything.

Please continue to make your life most meaningful for every sentient being with bodhichitta. Thank you very much. I hope to see you soon.

This advice, “Practices to Benefit a Cat,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in December 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/practices-benefit-cat

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 water offering, preta offering, and offering to Dzambala near the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, April 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following teaching during the retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia in April 2018:

Whatever you do to please the guru, just there [by doing that], without even doing many hundreds of thousands of prostration, your karma changes. If you’re going to be reborn in the lower realms, in the hell realms, just in that minute [that you please the guru], [your karma] changes to being born in a pure land, perfect human rebirth. You have to know this, and practice mindfulness.

Because of the guru’s kindness, it is like this. Whether you are with the guru or whether you are far away, it doesn’t matter. Just within that minute everything changes without needing to go through all these preliminary practices. You understand? You have to pick up the point. Like my teacher Geshe Rabten, you have to keep your mind always on the one thing that brings you to enlightenment quickest, that frees you from samsara quickest. Your whole life you meditate, meditate, but it is not sure [the result].

You have to understand the most important point—the profit in your life, not talking business profit but Dharma profit, the biggest profit, Dharma practice—the quickest way to achieve enlightenment and become free from samsara. You have to know this and practice this example, whether you are close to your guru or whether you are far.

By pleasing the guru all the buddhas become pleased. By fulfilling the guru’s holy wishes and advice, every day, every hour, minute, second, living in the vow, monk or nun or lay vow, whatever, I’m just giving different examples. In this way you fulfill the guru’s holy wishes and advice. Then also pleasing the guru by doing retreat, that retreat the guru advised, then with each mantra you recite, you get closer, very quickly, you become closer to liberation. You become free from samsara. Each time as you recite what the guru advised you, you get closer to enlightenment, each time you recite the mantra.

Even this work is fulfilling the guru’s wishes, advice. So the work you do—each step you walk in order to fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice, building a monastery, shopping, or whatever—each footstep you make, you become further from samsara and closer to enlightenment, closer to being free from samsara, and closer to bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment. Teaching Dharma, talking to people, or talking to the workers, whatever, doing what the guru advised, wishes, in each second you are further and further from samsara, instead of closer you become further from samsara and closer to enlightenment, to being able to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. All that, closer and closer. Everything that is fulfilling the guru’s wishes and advice, for you the benefit is like that. …

Watch the complete teaching by Rinpoche on “The Most Essential Thing to Achieve Enlightenment”:
https://youtu.be/gbqxWtQenq4

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, April 8, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, February 2019.

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-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.

Water bowl offerings on the beautiful altar that was set up next to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s throne during the teachings organized by Gendun Drupa Center, Martigny, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote a group of sixteen retreatants who had completed 100,000 water bowl offerings together and offered their practice to Rinpoche. They asked if they could do preliminary practices in this way, doing the practices as group and counting what they had collectively done. Here’s Rinpoche’s response:

In Tibet this happened: there was a great lama in Amdo, I’ve forgotten his name, who went to the monastery to look for the text on Gyalwa Gyatso. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche advised of this. So this lama explained that in Tibet he put up a big tent and then many people made the water bowl offerings together. Then they offered them all together, so that means even though all the water bowls weren’t done by each person, the group counted them together. The lama used this technique in this way to finish them. Therefore, when you make an offering, you can offer even what has been offered by others. 

I think similarly you can do this for light offerings. For example, even though many people have worked making the butter lamps and so forth, when you offer them you can offer them all and count them all. Like the water offerings, you can count all of them together.

Also, it’s the same with tsog offerings—even if the tsog is made by different people, when you offer it you can offer all the tsog together. So if there are one hundred people and they make a billion tsog offerings, then each person offers the billion tsog offerings.

Water bowl offerings on the altar at the teachings with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Martigny, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

But for other preliminary practices it isn’t the same. For example, if one person eats delicious ice cream, the other one hundred people or a billion people, or tens of thousands of people or one hundred thousand million billion people, don’t get the benefit of that one person eating ice cream.

I don’t think so, otherwise in that case, for example, if a monk eats ice cream does everyone feel like they have also eaten ice cream? When the monk’s stomach is full, is everybody’s stomach also full? When the monk is hungry, is everybody also hungry? When the monk eats potato pancakes, does everybody in France feel like they have eaten potato pancakes? If you can do that, then it’s OK.

When the monk does Vajrasattva practice, has everybody in the world done Vajrasattva? When the monk’s stomach is full after eating potato pancakes or eating momos, are all the people’s stomachs in the whole world full? Have they received the same momos or potato pancakes? If so, then it’s OK.

Anyway, from my heart I want to thank everyone, all the sixteen people, everybody. Billions of thanks for creating the cause of enlightenment. That means the cause of enlightenment for all the numberless sentient beings. That means each water bowl is done for the numberless hell beings’ enlightenment, the numberless hungry ghosts’ enlightenment, the numberless animals’ enlightenment—every mosquito, every single ant, every maggot, every slug, every spider—for all their enlightenment. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Every water bowl has been done for the human beings in the numberless universes, and for the numberless suras and numberless asuras. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow ! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

From “Water Bowl Offerings as a Group Practice,” posted in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book in November 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/water-bowl-offerings-group-practice

For more about water bowl offering, FPMT Education Services has created “The Preliminary Practice of Altar Set-up & Water Bowl Offerings” available from the FPMT Foundation Store as an ebook and PDF:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Preliminary-Practice-of-Altar-Set-up-Water-Bowl-Offerings-eBook_p_2577.html

“The Preliminary Practice of Altar Set-up & Water Bowl Offerings” is also available as a print booklet:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Preliminary-Practice-of-Altar-Set-up-Water-Bowl-Offerings-_p_339.html

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.

Long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the conclusion of the 51st Kopan Meditation Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

November’s Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive E-letter shares the story of the first Kopan Meditation Course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal:

Zina was still eager for Lama Yeshe to teach a course, but he refused. She turned to Zopa Rinpoche. “She pestered me relentlessly,” Rinpoche recalled. “She kept on asking until I began to feel encouraged in my heart and developed a strong wish to do it. I asked Lama Yeshe what he thought. He replied, ‘Well, if you think it will be beneficial, then you do.’ So, with Lama’s blessing, I agreed,” said Zopa Rinpoche.

The first course was held in April 1971. It was springtime at Kopan, dry and breezy. The monsoon rains weren’t due to start until the end of May or early June, but the colder winter months had passed and the temperature was quite warm during the days. Zina took charge of the overall arrangements and Zopa Rinpoche taught a ten-day course based on his stamp-filled text on thought transformation. With help from Anila Ann, he managed to translate six lines on hell, two lines on the perfect human rebirth and one line on karma. These were developed into an extensive meditation on how to regard friends, enemies, and strangers with equanimity, and an explanation of the sufferings of animals and hungry ghosts. In those days, practically the only English-language lamrim book was Herbert Guenther’s translation of Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation, which was first published in 1959. “I taught mainly about the lower realms, the sufferings of hell beings and animals, ending up with the sufferings of human beings,” said Rinpoche:

In order to realize the three lower realms, we must fully see the sufferings that exist there. However, at the moment we have no power to perceive these things directly. Therefore we should try to experience those realms through our practice, using the examples shown in the teachings. In this way we can gain the power to see this suffering clearly in our minds.

Even at this moment, most beings are suffering in the three lower realms, especially in the hell realms. Their suffering has not been created by God or fixed by some other being. It is only a creation of those suffering beings’ minds, just as in a dream we may sometimes suffer in a fire, or from all kinds of fearful persons or demons fighting and frightening us. In the same way that these fearful dreams and visions are the creation of our illusive mind, so are the suffering and the realms of the naraks and so forth the creation of beings’ ignorant mind. However, the narak realms are not the same as dreams, but are karmic creations of the ignorant mind. This is similar to the way that one place can be seen differently by two different people—one may see a clean place while another person may see a dirty place. Although the object is the same, the view varies according to the level of mind, fortune, and the karma the being has created. As the mind reaches higher levels, the enjoyments and the visions change and the transcendental awareness and happiness we experience increases more and more.

Each living being’s samsara is a creation of that mind; each living being’s enlightenment is also a mental creation. In a dim room lit by a small candle with a flickering flame, a person without acute perception may see a fearful moving animal or demon, become afraid and perhaps throw something at it. This problem is only the creation of that person’s mind. The person with a calm, relaxed mind, on the other hand, will see what is actually there clearly. All experiences are created by the mind. Similarly, the suffering of the hell being is merely the creation of that suffering being’s mind. Therefore, the choice to experience suffering, to be in a suffering realm, or to be in the perfect peace of enlightenment depends upon the decision of the mind.

Around a dozen people took that course—Zengo’s students from Bodhgaya as well as Åge, Zina and Claudio Cipullo. Claudio had been down in Bodhgaya when he found himself staring fixedly at a photo of Lama Yeshe. “I decided he was calling me! That course was like an explanation of my whole life,” said Claudio. Losang Nyima acted as umdze and took care of the candles, water bowls, incense, and food offerings arranged on the altars. He also supervised all the cooking. During the course Lama Yeshe stayed down at Max’s house.

Two days before the end of the course Lama Yeshe, in the company of a Lhasa Apso, returned to Kopan and gave a couple of talks. This wonderful little dog, which actually belonged to Rinpoche, a gift from his mother, accompanied Lama nearly everywhere and was much admired by everyone at Kopan. Many strays found their way to Kopan and devoured any food they were offered, but this little dog always sat back very nobly and waited. She never fought over food or tried to get at it until everyone else had finished. Then she’d eat alone, quietly. Her name was Drolma, which is Tibetan for Tara, the female buddha of enlightened skillful activity.

Excerpted from the 1971 chapter of Big Love, by Adele Hulse, forthcoming from LYWA in 2019. You can read more from this chapter on LYWA’s website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/1971-first-kopan-meditation-course

Check out the rest of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive November 2018 E-letter, with updates from LYWA and links to new advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche plus to a video of Lama Yeshe teaching:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/e-letter-no-185-november-2018

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 at the Reithalle, hosted by Aryatara Institute, Munich, Germany, November 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

“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 wrote to a student who offered 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras to Rinpoche. “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.

“Vajrasattva practice is so important generally, and especially nowadays in the world, when there is not only global warming, but many other problems. There are so many other dangers—of war and sicknesses, cancer, and so many people whom you know are dying. There are so many sicknesses and other conditions for dying.

“This Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices are the ultimate answer, so everything in the world—what you see, every situation—tells you to practice Vajrasattva. To purify and do Vajrasattva practice is the ultimate answer, to stop the cause to be reborn in the lower realms and the immediate [result] is to have a higher rebirth, to make preparation for death and then to meet the Dharma, to meet the virtuous friend who reveals the path to enlightenment. Then to achieve ultimate happiness, to be free from samsara and to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings and to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.”

From “Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice,” posted in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/lama-zopa-rinpoches-online-advice-book

The FPMT Foundation Store offers many resources to support students in their Vajrasattva practice: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=vajrasattva&search=

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering blessed pills from Tibet and holy water from Mount Kailash to Tushita Meditation Centre’s Introduction to Buddhism August 22-31 students, Dharamsala, India, August 2018. Photo by Tushita staff.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India, from August 29-September 8, 2018. Ven. Tenzin Kunphen, spiritual program coordinator, and Maria Nobuko Corrales, assistant spiritual program coordinator share the story.

In August 2018 our Dharma wishes came true with our precious spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche coming to Tushita, kicking off the second half of the 2018 season! Rinpoche arrived at night on August 29 through a plume of incense to an array of candle light offerings and a large group of eager students ready to greet him. We were thrilled to present Rinpoche with his updated and expanded living quarters, which he described as a “wish-fulfilling room!” It was possibly the sweetest compliment Rinpoche could give us for our efforts. We beamed with happiness for his enjoyment.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching the Tushita Meditation Centre Introduction to Buddhism August 22-31 students, Dharamsala, India, August 2018. Photo by Tushita staff.

The 110 students of our Introduction to Buddhism course had the great fortune on August 31 to receive a teaching from Rinpoche after their celebratory picnic, marking the culmination of their efforts. What an auspicious way to complete their course! Rinpoche distributed blessed pills from Tibet and holy water brought from Mount Kailash to every student. Their big smiles broadcast their appreciation of this special opportunity.

The next day Rinpoche shared more blessed pills and water with our local staff and visitors before slowly circumambulating the main gompa while explaining the significance of the mantras and images painted on the outside of the hall. Rinpoche explained that just seeing the mantras (which are painted in red and gold) creates merit and reciting them creates even more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching about the four virtuous friends while standing outside of the Tushita Meditation Centre main gompa entrance, Dharamsala, India, September 2018. Photo by Tushita staff.

As Rinpoche continued on his circumambulation, he came to many of our monkey “landlords,” to whom he offered prayers and blessings. Later on we greeted the arrival of the precious Dagri Rinpoche who came to visit Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering blessings to the monkeys outside of Tushita Meditation Centre’s main gompa, Dharamsala, India, September 2018. Photo by Tushita staff.

On September 2, Rinpoche welcomed Khadro-la  (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) to Tushita for a visit. Rinpoche later demonstrated great generosity in inviting all of Tushita’s staff, volunteers, and visiting Sangha to an appreciation lunch with the precious Khadro-la. We all walked together through the monsoon forest into the village next door—Dharamkot, also known as “Little Israel”—where we enjoyed a delicious vegan buffet at a popular local restaurant. Again, grins abounded as hearts and bellies were filled, and all rejoiced in all our efforts and accomplishments.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la with Tushita Meditation Centre staff, Dharamkot, India, September 2018. Photo by Tushita staff.

We all happily attended His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s four days of public teachings at his temple  September 4-7. On September 5 we held an extraordinary Guru Puja with our guru himself, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, seated on his throne. We were again blessed with the presence of Khadro-la. The Guru Puja included a condensed long-life request for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in which both Khadro-la and Tushita offered mandalas. We earnestly pray for Rinpoche’s long, healthy life and for all of his Dharma wishes to be instantly fulfilled!

Guru Puja with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la inside of Tushita Meditation Centre’s main gompa, Dharamsala, India, September 2018. Photo by Simon Houlton.

The next two days Rinpoche provided teachings—open to everyone—and began the transmission of the Sutra of Liberation, which we hope he will continue upon his next return. We were so grateful that Rinpoche made time to offer these precious teachings to us with his schedule already so full. Once again, Rinpoche demonstrated to us his tireless efforts and devotion to benefit all beings.

On September 8 we bid Rinpoche farewell with eager hopes for a quick return to Tushita!

Sangha bidding Lama Zopa Rinpoche farewell. Tushita Meditation Centre had the special honor of hosting a total of six Thai monks as students in three courses in 2018. Some attended multiple courses as well as our special teaching events. Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, September 2018. Photo by Tushita staff.

For more 2018 highlights, see Tushita News December 2018:
http://tushita.info/news/news-december-2018/

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