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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Lama Chopa at Kopan Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Every year the month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal draws more than two hundred students from around the world. And every year the November Course, as it’s called, fills up quickly. Many students starting planning to attend the transformative program months, if not years, in advance.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche first taught the month-long lamrim course in 1971. Rinpoche continues to offer teachings at the course almost every year. Last year Rinpoche spoke to students about the significance of attending the course and how it helps one deal with individual and societal problems. The following is a short excerpt from that teaching:
Coming to Kopan Monastery—attending one of the meditation courses—is to pacify the negative mind that brings all the problems, global problems. Coming here is to pacify that. You understand the point? It is most important.
So you are coming here to learn meditation. What you are learning, that is the most important thing in the world, the most important thing in your life.
That helps not only this life, it helps not only the next life, it helps hundreds and thousands, millions, it goes on, the benefit goes on and on. It goes on to enlightenment.
Ultimately it goes on to enlightenment. Your coming here to do meditation—listening and meditating—all this goes up to enlightenment for numberless sentient beings.
You achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings—for every ant you see in the road, in the gompa, every bird, every dog and cat, people, every sentient being—to benefit everyone, to free them from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to buddhahood, peerless happiness, buddhahood.
So your coming here, learning lamrim meditation, meditating to actualize, is so the mind, the child mind, is transformed into a mind that cherishes others, like the Buddha did. …
Watch the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this excerpt is taken:
https://youtu.be/r2fmyis25pw
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, December 8, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.
Find out more about the November Course and other opportunities to learn and meditate at Kopan Monastery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses
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 Ven. Roger Kunsang with FPMT Italy coordinator Lara Gatto’s dog, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pisa, Italy, November 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice to a student who had asked Rinpoche how to purify his dog’s negative karma.
Regarding purification for yourself and your dog, take strong refuge in the Buddha and think that the Buddha sends light to yourself and your dog, and to any other animals or beings you want to think about. Think nectar comes from the Buddha and purifies the negative karma, created from beginningless time, of yourself and the dog and other beings you are thinking about.
Then recite the refuge prayer. Keep reciting the refuge prayer while visualizing the Buddha sending nectar out of his compassion and loving kindness, like sunlight, to yourself and your dog. It’s like switching the light on in a dark room; it totally purifies the negative karma created since beginningless rebirths. You can keep the dog nearby when you do this so the dog can hear you reciting the refuge prayer. This leaves an imprint on the dog’s mind and plants the seed of enlightenment.
If there is no stupa near where you live, then maybe you can go to a center that has a stupa. If you are able to go there that would be very good, then you take your dog around the holy objects, the stupas. Go around the holy objects as many times as possible with the dog. This purifies the negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths, therefore go around as many holy objects as possible with the dog.
This advice, “How to Purify a Dog’s Karma,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in September 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/how-purify-dog%E2%80%99s-karma
https://fpmt.org/education/
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.
Association of Himalayan Buddhists of South Australia (AHIMBSA) and Lyndy Abram at Buddha House, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
Lyndy Abram, center director of Buddha House, an FPMT center located in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, shares about the center’s friendship with the Himalayan Buddhist community of South Australia.
Last September we received a request from the Association of Himalayan Buddhists of South Australia (AHIMBSA) for a blessing from our then-resident teacher, Geshe Konchog Kyab. About forty people of all ages came to Buddha House for the visit. They were very excited to meet with a lama. I decided to follow up with the AHIMBSA representatives to see what we could do to help them.
It turned out there are 3,500 Himalayan refugees living in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. They have been coming here since 2008, and it is a growing community. They told us that they had lived most of their lives in refugee camps in Nepal and had previously been in Bhutan. They told stories of torture and having been in solitary confinement, chained, for years. Some of the people who directly experienced this were at the meeting. They told us they had not had access to any Buddhist teachings due to the circumstances of being a refugee.
The Board of Buddha House agreed we should partner with their community, offering teachings for the adults and the children, and whenever a visiting teacher comes to involve them in the visit.
Our friendship with them is growing. A large number of AHIMBSA members came to Buddha House in May 2018 for the opening of our new location, where they met Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Some of the children sang a national song as part of the ceremony.
Bahadur Gurung, AHIMBSA chairman, and Jogen, translator, having afternoon tea with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
Rinpoche had afternoon tea with Bahadur Gurung, AHIMBSA’s chairman, and Jogen, translator, and they shared their stories with him. Rinpoche said to them it is much better for you to practice Dharma here than it was in Nepal, because in the refugee camps you did not have access to Dharma teachings.
Buddha House wants to ensure we help AHIMBSA as much as possible. We are so fortunate to have the Dharma, as well as the freedom to practice, attend teachings, and spend time with the Dharma community. Meeting them and hearing their stories has helped us understand our good fortune.
AHIMBSA youth and Buddha House Dharma Kids Club greet Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha House, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
They would particularly like help with the children, which we are able to do through providing a Dharma club. Ven. Dondrub and myself go to a hall AHIMBSA hires monthly. I run a Dharma club for kids class then Ven. Dondrub gives a Dharma talk to the adults. Since many community members do not speak English, they provide a Nepali translator for him.
AHIMBSA really wants help with their young adults. I asked Geshe Tenzin Zopa, who has met with them twice now for teachings and blessings, what they might do. He suggested doing activities teenagers want to do—outings, camps—and then introduce Dharma topics in a setting they feel comfortable in.
AHIMBSA youth performance at AHIMBSA’s second anniversary celebration, Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury, South Australia, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.
In July 2018 AHIMBSA celebrated its second anniversary by throwing a celebration held at the Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury. They invited Buddha House representatives to a joyous day of entertainment, and to honor the lives of their elders. Three women in their nineties were given certificates of honor and were covered in blessing scarves and shawls by the local members of parliament.
They honored people from organizations who help their community which included myself, representing Buddha House. The children were given blessing strings and mantra cards which were a gift from Rinpoche.
Lyndy Abram with AHIMBSA youth at AHIMBSA’s second anniversary celebration, Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury, South Australia, July 2018. Photo by Janne Graham.
The young people performed cultural, Bollywood, and modern-style dances. There were also music performances, and a meal and chai were given to the more than 1,000 people in attendance. It was a wonderful day.
We are so fortunate to have met with this vibrant, happy community we can now call our friends.
For more information about Buddha House visit their website:
http://buddhahouse.org
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 in Chenrezig Institute gompa, Eudlo, Australia, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During a teaching at Chenrezig Institute in June 2018, Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed how we don’t know when our time of death will arrive.
So death can happen any time. You never know.
At Kopan when we were together—Lama Yeshe and Losang Nyima, Lama’s disciple from Tibet, the attendant from Buxa, and then Zina Rachevsky, the first Russian student—when we were together, I was thinking, “Who will die first?” I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking, “Who will die first?” I was thinking it as we were sitting around.
Even the Buddha wasn’t in the same aspect. He showed impermanence with the holy body.
Lama Yeshe passed away, a long time ago. Now you see only the bones, Lama’s relics. Losang Nyima is dead. Zina is dead. Lama Lhundrup—who was an excellent disciple of Lama Yeshe from Tibet, had excellent Dharma knowledge of philosophy, debate and all that, who was totally devoted to Lama, devoted to whatever Lama said, and had a stable mind, devotion—he passed away. Lama Pasang, who helped to build houses, bring food, and all that, also dead. So many already left the monastery.
Just from that you can understand. So at the moment we are in the process—I don’t know whether it is good or bad that we didn’t die yet. We are in the process, in the same process of dying. Every day we are in the same process.
Watch the video clip of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on death:
https://youtu.be/DlTsfbEce1I
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chenrezig Institute in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Claire Isitt and Laura Miller, August 2018.
Find resources and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for time of death on the page “Death and Dying: Heart Practices and Advice”:
https://fpmt.org/death/
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 Chenerzig Institute, Eudlo, Australia, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this advice during a teaching at Chenrezig Institute in June 2018.
There are so many wars. Hundreds of thousands get killed again and again. So many people get killed by bombs. Then so many people escape, then the boat is full, then sinks in the ocean. They try to run away, they can’t do anything: it is unbelievable. The people in the world are suffering.
Syria is one example. It originated from one person not understanding that all came from his mind. Not understanding that the creator is one’s own mind. Can you imagine it? Millions and millions of people killed by the one person who has power, who did not realize this.
Your mind is the creator of everything, all the suffering and all the happiness. That person didn’t realize that, thinks all is coming from outside. So that is an unbelievably important education to help the world, to help to bring peace and happiness in the world.
So therefore we need Dharma centers giving teachings. Lamrim teachings, yes, but what it is all about is compassion. Teaching compassion, to practice compassion with sentient beings. With whom you practice compassion, with whom you generate compassion is sentient beings.
That is the essence of Buddhism, the Buddha’s teachings—to generate compassion not only to human beings, but to every single hell being, hungry ghost, animal, the tiniest and the big, like whales living in the ocean, the worms living under the earth, also the tiniest flies, which when you walk in the grass they run, jump away. There are numberless universes so there are numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, asura beings. Compassion to everyone—that is the essence of Buddhism. What differentiates it from others is that. To everyone, any sentient being, to have compassion, to never give them up, to have compassion for them.
Compassion means to not harm, and on top of that, if you can, to benefit. The motivation is compassion. If you want to practice Buddhism, you understand the conduct is to not harm sentient beings. And that comes from the right view, dependent arising, subtle dependent arising, which is unified with emptiness from its own side. The conduct comes from there—to not harm and to benefit sentient beings. That is often what His Holiness says. Now you can see that teaching Buddhism, through a course, or just talking about Buddhism to somebody, to explain compassion is the most important part.
Watch a clip of the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this advice is taken:
https://youtu.be/3V84cd4Cwcc?t=9m12s
A long time ago a million children were dying from no food in Africa—so much suffering, no rain coming, no water, drought. And even when the crops were there, suddenly a flood came and they were destroyed. So I thought to help. I thought first maybe to invite some lamas, some monks, to make it rain in Africa. I thought to invite them. Then I thought our students—here there are old students, Roger and Paula. I thought maybe to send them there to make it rain.
I translated lutor, Torma Offering to the Nagas, a long time ago. I didn’t translate it, I gave it to a Tibetan boy, a young man, to translate. He was a disciple of Tara Rinpoche. He translated it, and then I lost it. Then Paula found the translation in the Vajrapani Institute office. Then as it is advised there, she went to the mountains and did the puja to the nagas to make it rain. Then the rain did come, I heard that.
So I thought to send them to make rain. I also thought to invite lamas, monks there. I would sponsor them to make rain and then they would do puja to make it rain. But if the people don’t have good karma, it won’t work. If the people don’t have good karma, it won’t rain. To receive rain, it depends on having good karma. For everything, if it is happiness you have to have good karma. If you don’t have good karma, then you have to create good karma. Then you will achieve that happiness. You will experience it. You have to work through that.
People have to create good karma. So, how to do that? I was thinking about how to do that. I thought maybe I would go there, make friends with somebody in Africa. Talk about compassion to that person, so then that person is able to understand, then he can talk to his best friends about compassion, then they practice compassion. So little by little, three, four, five, then ten, like that, gradually, you talk about compassion, then they practice compassion, helping others. It doesn’t mean only people, but any sentient being. You practice compassion, to not harm and to help. So more and more people do that, and slowly it spreads, the positive actions, creating good karma. Then you make puja, a naga puja or whatever, then the rain will come.
You need to start like that. First you lead them in how to create good karma. You have to educate them to practice compassion. You need to do that a lot in the world. That is the most important thing, the most important education, the most important meditation to make the human being better, a better human being. To not become the cause of, to not become the creator of problems and suffering for yourself. You are human being this life, so don’t become a creator of problems in the world. To not become a creator of problems to all sentient beings, to the people in the world, to yourself, to your family, practice compassion. Then you become more and more a creator of happiness, peace, for you, your family, then your country, the world, all sentient beings. I thought like that but, sorry, I myself didn’t get to go there, to start like that.
So that’s what we need: teaching Buddhism, teaching Buddhadharma, establishing a center—a place where sentient beings can come to learn Dharma, to meditate, to purify and collect merits, to have realizations, a place where sentient beings open their minds, open their closed minds. The phenomena that they don’t see, to which they are closed, they become open to see all those phenomena—reincarnation and karma, all the rest of phenomena. Sentient beings are suffering—so therefore, what is needed is teaching Dharma, even to start a study group, no matter where you are living in the world, to study.
If you know some meditation, if you know lamrim, study it a little bit. Even just two or three people, to learn, to go through the lamrim, meditate and read and discuss is so important. So more people gain compassion. You aim for that. Not just learning to feed your intelligence, but to develop compassion. Your aim should be that: for you and also for other people to develop compassion. That is so good. It is so important. The more you learn compassion, then you give less harm to others, less harm and the more benefit to others. That is your source of achieving happiness up to enlightenment. It is the source of you achieving happiness up to enlightenment, for you and every sentient being; for you, and you cause that for every sentient being. Unbelievable.
You can see now you have to think in this way, of the proper motivation to have Dharma centers. Compassion is the most important. Even a Dharma study group, even one person, even one sentient being, to open the mind, to learn Dharma, to awaken the mind, to wake up the sleeping mind, the ignorant mind, even to help one person, one sentient being, even that is so important, unbelievably important. Teaching compassion, that brings them to enlightenment. That makes them have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment, the final goal. Wow wow wow.
On the last day of the Diamond Valley course, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, with their guest the English monk Phra Kantipalo, went with students to the land that would become Chenrezig Institute for an incense puja, Eudlo, Australia, September 1974. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
For example, Chenrezig Institute has benefited numberless sentient beings since it started. Since the beginning of the course in Diamond Valley* and up to now, so many sentient beings have come to learn Dharma, have come to meditate, have come to purify the cause of suffering, and create the merits, the cause of all happiness up to enlightenment—coming to Chenrezig Institute to learn Dharma, the whole path to enlightenment.
Since the course in Diamond Valley up to now, so many sentient beings got benefit. They purified the cause of suffering, samsara and lower realms. It is amazing, amazing. So many practiced renunciation of the cause of suffering, renouncing attachment, renouncing anger, ignorance. So many, so many, so many practiced bodhichitta, even if they didn’t have the realization but did the meditation. So many created the cause to achieve nirvana, to be free, liberated from samsara. Sooooooooooooo many sentient beings starting from the Diamond Valley course up to now, so many created the cause to achieve nirvana, to be liberated from samsara.
So many sentient beings meditated on, thought about, bodhichitta. They generated bodhichitta, even if it was not the actual realization. Every time they generate bodhichitta, it becomes the cause of enlightenment. Each time they generate bodhichitta, the cause of enlightenment, they create the cause to bring enlightenment to numberless sentient beings. That includes their own families, the numberless sentient beings, numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, then numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras, numberless intermediate state beings, to bring enlightenment to them.
They created the cause of enlightenment from the Diamond Valley course up to now, wow wow wow. Just from Chenrezig Institute, so many.
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chenrezig Institute in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Claire Isitt and Laura Miller, August 2018.
*The Diamond Valley course was the first Australian teaching event by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It took place August 30–September 28, 1974, in Diamond Valley, located not far the present-day Chenrezig Institute, in southeast Queensland, Australia.
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 Sangha arranging flower offerings for the Amitabha Buddha statue, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Before traveling to India at the end of August and then Singapore in September, Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent nearly three months in the United States. Rinpoche stayed for two months at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) in a remote part of Washington State.
A Just By Seeing Mantra that Rinpoche had made into a sign at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
During Rinpoche’s time at BAPL, the decorations on the throne of the large Amitabha Buddha statue were completed. Rinpoche and Sangha made extensive flower offerings. Rinpoche also had many signs made for animal statues on the land.
While in Washington State, Rinpoche visited Pamtingpa Center, in Tonasket, Washington. Rinpoche and Sangha also took a boat out onto a lake to bless all the sentient beings in the water.
Blessing the sentient beings in the lake, Washington, US, July 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In August, Rinpoche visited Maitripa College and FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon, for a week. Then Rinpoche spent a week in Boston, Massachusetts, giving teachings and initiations at Kurukulla Center.
Rinpoche then flew to California for a brief visit to his home, Kachoe Dechen Ling, in Aptos, and for annual medical checkups.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and H.E. Ling Rinpoche, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
While in Aptos, Rinpoche invited H.E. Ling Rinpoche, who was on a West Coast tour, to stay one night at Kachoe Dechen Ling. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave H.E. Ling Rinpoche a tour of the holy objects and showed H.E. Ling Rinpoche the collection of precious relics there. Dinner was offered to H.E. Ling Rinpoche and after dinner both Rinpoches did protector prayers together.
H.E. Ling Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche looking at a relic, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On another day, Rinpoche invited Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, the resident geshe at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco, for lunch. Rinpoche also visited the nearby Land of Medicine Buddha to check on the progress of the stupa being built. More than fifty students saw Rinpoche off at the airport for his flight to India.
Rinpoche and Denice Macy, former director of Land of Medicine Buddha, in front of stupa being built at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
See a NEW photo album with more photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s three months in the United States:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/united-states-june-august-2018/
Links and information to watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Kurukulla Center, and Maitripa College:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, 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.
Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s care for animals is well known. What’s perhaps less well known is Rinpoche’s creative whimsy with animal statues and the signs he has created for them.
At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, in a remote part of Washington State in the US, Rinpoche has many animal statues placed on the property with signs that share thoughts about practicing lamrim, or the graduated path to enlightenment.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A parrot on a fence says, “I have been waiting to see you from beginningless rebirths and I never have. That means I won’t see you again, because there is nothing to see.”
Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Two ducks in rainboots have two signs that say the following:
“Why don’t you practice wisdom? Look at everything as empty, as they are empty in reality. Then you can liberate all sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.”
“Why don’t you practice bodhichitta? To not only enlighten yourself, but enlighten all sentient beings.”
A dog, decorated with butterflies, says, “I want to achieve enlightenment quicker than you. Because I am offering myself to every single sentient being, for their enlightenment.”
“I want to announce to all the sentient beings, whether I want to be living in this tree or to be out, to be free from this. It is in my hands. So like this, it is the same for you people, whether you want to be in samsara or to be free from samsara. To be in samsara means experiencing the oceans of samsaric suffering or to be free from that forever, not just for seven days’ vacation, not like that. So it is totally in your hands. It is up to you, what you do with your mind, how you use your mind. Thank you very much.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with animal statutes at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Kurukulla Center, and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, 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 with Kurukulla Center staff and volunteers, and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and Wisdom Publications staff, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“There are no words to adequately describe the immense feelings of blessings, love, and bliss that everyone experienced in the presence of our beloved teacher Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche,” Margaret Anderberg, a fundraising volunteer at Kurukulla Center, in Medford, Massachusetts, US, wrote about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to the FPMT-affiliate center in August 2018.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kurukulla Center, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On August 18-20, Rinpoche offered helpful and poignant teachings as well as Red Tara and Varjasattva jenangs to about three hundred people in a beautifully arranged large tent, which was set up for the event in Kurukulla Center’s stupa garden.
Students traveled to the teaching event from far and wide—from New York to Florida, as well as from Canada and many other countries.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche presenting Kurukulla Center director Sean Gonzalez with a thank you gift, Kurukulla Center, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“One visiting student from out-of-state came to me at the reception table and expressed his gratitude for Kurukulla Center providing this incredible opportunity for him to receive teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in person,” Margaret wrote. The visiting student told Margaret, “I have been a student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for years and I could not afford to travel to India or Singapore to attend his teachings. This is so incredible. Thank you so much!”
Margaret also wrote that “Sean Gonzalez, Kurukulla Center director, received a similar message from visiting Sangha members, thanking us for not charging for the teachings and thus making the Dharma accessible to them.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Wisdom Publications staff, Kurukulla Center, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
During the events, Daniel Aitken, the new director of Wisdom Publications, in nearby Somerville, Massachusetts, offered Lama Zopa Rinpoche copies of Wisdom’s books, including Rinpoche’s new book The Four Noble Truths: A Guide to Everyday Life and the forthcoming Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature by Lama Yeshe. Wisdom staff also recorded a podcast with Rinpoche in the center’s gompa.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s Nick Ribush and Wendy Cook, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, based in Lincoln, Massachusetts, also had an opportunity to make a special offering to Rinpoche. David Zinn, LYWA’s digital imaging specialist, made a beautiful little photo album containing twenty of the more than 1,550 photographs from the Archive’s upcoming Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, which he and director Nick Ribush offered to Rinpoche.
“We at Kurukulla Center are immensely grateful for our tremendous supporters and volunteers,” Margaret wrote, “all of whom helped create the causes and conditions for this wonderful event to happen, helping the Buddhadharma to flourish, and bringing greater peace and happiness to many sentient beings worldwide.”
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Kurukulla Center, Maitripa College, and Amitabha Buddhist Centre:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
For more information about Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, visit their website:
http://www.kurukulla.org/
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 after arriving in Singapore, September 2018. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s Facebook page.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has arrived in Singapore for teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre. A throng of students from Amitabha Buddhist Centre welcomed Rinpoche at the airport with khatas and flowers.
Rinpoche will be in Singapore for three weeks of events. On Thursday, September 13, Rinpoche offers the gold crown to the center’s incredible Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue.
On September 15-16, 22-23, and 29, Rinpoche will give commentary on Lama Chopa (Guru Puja) practice. On September 19, Rinpoche will give a teaching on mind training, and on September 26, Rinpoche will confer the Amitabha Obtaining the Pure Land initiation. Teachings that are unrestricted will be video streamed live. Students can sign up to receive notification when the live stream begins.
Rinpoche traveled to Singapore from Dharamsala, India, where Rinpoch visited Tushita Meditation Centre.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche being welcomed by Amitabha Buddhist Centre at the airport, Singapore, September 2018. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s Facebook page.
Details on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre:
http://www.fpmtabc.org/2018/event/lzrvisit.php
Links and information to watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Kurukulla Center and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, 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 having lunch at FPMT International Office, Portland, Oregon, US, August 2018. Photo by Diana Ospina.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche spoke about the FPMT organization during a teaching at Chenrezig Institute, Australia, in June 2018.
I think that although Lama Yeshe started the FPMT organization, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the head of the organization.
Now the organization is okay. Many studied the Masters Program, the Basic Program, many, many things. Now it is better. But some time before it was very easy for the organization to become a New Age shop, where you buy all kinds of things. Some people don’t check much, so it would have been very easy for the FPMT to become a New Age shop. Before, there was this danger.
Now it is safer because people have studied Buddhism very extensively, very deeply. We have forty-six resident geshes, who studied in those most famous monasteries from their youth, who practiced and did very extensive study of Dharma. So the FPMT is more stable; it is better now.
So the top is His Holiness. The one we follow is His Holiness, Chenrezig. Then it is good. Many people, many students, die as the years go by. But the top, the leader who is the top of all FPMT, is His Holiness.
That helps to prevent the FPMT from becoming a New Age shop. Otherwise there is danger. People don’t check well, so there was great danger before. With the very qualified virtuous friends, the teachers, and the study being done more and more, it is more stable, not a New Age shop.
We need to protect the organization, to make it most beneficial for sentient beings. That is very, very important.
Now I was thinking also to put effort into retreat, into actualizing the lamrim path. Not just counting the number of mantras, but retreat on lamrim, actualizing the path to enlightenment. What you studied extensively during those past years, now you actualize it.
Those who study lamrim, try to actualize in your heart rather than always keeping it in the book. While your heart is empty of Dharma, your heart is empty of realization. So not like that, with the lamrim only in the book but not in your heart.
To have bodhichitta in the heart, renunciation, right view, tantra—even to have the realizations of the sutras—even if one person, even if one or two or three have realizations, they can benefit unbelievably, like the sun rising in the world.
There is one sun in the world but when it rises, insects, people, animals can enjoy it. Like that it would help so much even if one or two people have realizations—unbelievable, unbelievable, especially bodhichitta.
Watch a video clip of the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this advice is taken:
https://youtu.be/DlTsfbEce1I?t=7m40s
Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Chenrezig Institute in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2, 2018. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Edited by Claire Isitt 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 Kurukulla Center, Medford, Massachusetts, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered thanks to all the FPMT centers, projects, services, and students who did practices requested by Rinpoche to benefit Tibet and for the success of fulfilling all of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wishes.
I felt that we need to help, as we are His Holiness’ disciples.
Of course, “guru”—that means all our happiness, past, present, and future up to enlightenment, came from the guru: His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Every single pleasure, happiness, came from His Holiness. His Holiness has guided us from beginningless rebirths, now, and in the future. Can you imagine the kindness of the guru? The kindness of the guru is like the limitless sky.
I felt to help Tibet, so I suggested these prayers:
- The Mantra Promised by Tara
- The Four Mandala Offerings to Tara
I want to say a billion, zillion, numberless thanks, really from my heart, to everybody who did the prayers to help His Holiness, to help Tibet to receive soon freedom. So thank you very, very much. Thank you so much.
This is the most extensive way to collect merit and the most powerful purification—fulfilling the guru’s wishes.
It is said by Sakya Pandita, “For a thousand eons, you make charity of your heads and your legs to other sentient beings. Then even the merits, you dedicate for sentient beings.” You do like that for a thousand eons. “But all those merits you collect in one second when you fulfill the guru’s wishes and the guru’s advice.”
You collect all those merits in one second. The guru’s path, if you fulfill all those, one-thousand-eon merits you collect in one second. When you fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice, this is also what happens.
Then also it is said in tantra, Kadam Tigle, “As fire burns wood and in one second it becomes ashes, like that the glorified guru if you are able to please, if you please the guru, the heavy negative karma gets burned by that. By following the guru, by pleasing the guru, it is burned in one second.”
It gets purified in one second. The heavy negative karma collected from past lives and now gets purified in one second. Oh, it is so powerful, this happens.
I think that’s all. Thank you very much.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche Offering Thanks:
https://youtu.be/DPiIR8NN6fQ
Rinpoche made the request in June 2018 that 50,000 recitations of the Mantra Promised by the Arya Mother Liberator Herself and 500 Four Mandala Offering to Tara pujas be done by July 12.
FPMT centers, projects, services, and students completed 340,941 mantra recitations and 7,298 Four Mandala Offering to Tara pujas!
Rinpoche recorded the video message of thanks on August 20, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts, US.
Watch teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Kurukulla Center and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
More information, photos, teaching schedule, 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 showing respect to a Hayagriva statue on the altar at Idgaa Choizinling College in Mongolia.
The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund sponsors the electricity for lotus light offerings to all the holy objects on the altar at Idgaa Choizinling College in Mongolia. The lights are offered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Among the holy objects on this altar is an incredible Hayagriva statue (pictured on the right).
Additionally, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund offers sponsorship of daily lunch for the young monks studying at Idgaa Choizinling; and has recently offered a grant to cover the cost of a complete renovation of the monastery so there are more rooms and accommodation for the monks.
Idgaa Choizinling was established in 2003 through Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling due to the kindness of many benefactors. Idgaa is strongly connected to Sera Je Monastery in India and serves as a focal point of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. Since its inception, FPMT has been offering food to the monks studying there.
The monks of Idgaa Choizinling enjoying lunch.
The annual 100 Million Mani Retreat, which is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions, is also held in the Idgaa Choizinling gompa.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, quoting the Buddha, explains:
Any sentient being who, during the period of my teachings, makes charity well
(even if the material is the size of a hair),
For 80,000 eons there will be great results of great enjoyment:
No pain, no disease, and enjoyment of happiness.
Like that, one will be enriched with the desirable things.
At the end, you can actually achieve the result: the peerless cessation and completion (enlightenment).
Please rejoice in this continuous offering of light to these incredible holy objects, the daily lunches for the young monks, the renovation of the monastery, and the annual 100 Million Mani Retreat in Mongolia.
You can learn more about the many beneficial activities of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fundor other Charitable Projects of FPMT.