Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ladakhi Lama, the attendant of the previous great Khunu Lama Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, March 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The Buddha’s teaching on the four noble truths are essential to our understanding and practice of Buddhism. Lama Zopa Rinpoche provides clear instruction on this fundamental teaching in his new book The Four Noble Truths: A Guide to Everyday Life, just published by Wisdom Publications.

Here we share a short extract from a longer excerpt published on Wisdom’s blog. In the excerpt, Rinpoche discusses actualizing bodhichitta and offers examples of twentieth century Tibetan masters, including the following. 

… The late Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche, a learned and pure practitioner of bodhichitta, was tutored by the great Buddhist masters in Tibet on philosophy and other types of knowledge. During the early days of Tibetans arriving in India after the Chinese takeover of their country, Khunu Lama Rinpoche lived like a yogi, dwelling with the Hindu sadhus in Varanasi along the Ganges River. One day, clothed like a sadhu—wrapped up in plain cloth and looking unwashed—Rinpoche went to a local Tibetan monastery to ask for a small room. The monks there did not recognize Rinpoche and said no room was available. Rinpoche slept outside on the bare ground, the way the beggars did.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was visiting that place at the time and knew what was happening, so he went directly to where Khunu Lama Rinpoche was and requested teachings and commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara. Word quickly spread that a great bodhisattva was living there, and soon long lines of people gathered seeking advice from Rinpoche.

Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche was able to recite by heart passages from any root text of the Buddha’s teachings and any of the commentaries. His mind was so robust and totally clear it was most amazing. His holy mind was like the entire Buddhist library.

I once went alone to Rinpoche to request a commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara. Rinpoche declined on that occasion but gave me the complete oral transmission of that text. Rinpoche then told me to translate the Bodhicaryavatara, even though he knew others had already translated it. “You translate,” Rinpoche said to me, advising me that before translating one must know the language and the subject well. I have not yet done the translation, but hope to do so sometime in the future.

I once attended teachings by Rinpoche that went on for a whole day with no break. Rinpoche then approached the wisdom chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara, an unbelievably precious teaching for one who seeks freedom from samsara. However, the minute Rinpoche started teachings on that chapter, I fell asleep. Until that moment I was wide awake. But when Rinpoche began the commentary, sleep overcame me. Some unbelievably bad and heavy negative karma from my past life must have caused that. Imagine—at the wisdom teaching that will bring liberation, I fell asleep!

After the teaching, Rinpoche gave some kambu, which are apricots in a bottle, that I think were from Ladakh. As he gave me the apricots, he said, “Subdue their minds.” I think that that was the last advice I received from Rinpoche. “You have the responsibility to subdue their minds.”

I have not yet subdued my own mind, so I do not know how to subdue the minds of others. But I try to offer advice when I am asked to give teachings. …

Read the entire excerpt from The Four Noble Truths by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Yeo Puay Huei, on Wisdom Publications blog:
https://wisdomexperience.org/blog/201806/exchanging-self-others

The Four Noble Truths is available for purchase from the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Four-Noble-Truths-_p_3107.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing prayers with Geshe Sopa Rinpoche a month before Geshe Sopa passed into clear light meditation, Deer Park Buddhist Center, Wisconsin, US, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A student in severe pain wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche seeking advice. Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained how to experience the pain for all sentient beings.

It’s very good to think that you are not the only one in pain. My sister has so much pain in her knee all the time, for many years. Also, generally in the world numberless people have so much pain in the hips or in the knees. Geshe Sopa Rinpoche took the aspect of having pain in the knee, but he had an operation and one leg got better, but the other leg was still painful. Geshe-la took that aspect.

There are many people in the world who have pain, not only you, so it’s very good to think this way:

Through my experience of this pain, may all mother sentient beings—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings—be free immediately from all disease and spirit harm, including hip and knee pain. May they be free from the cause of the pain, delusion, and karma, and not only that, may they all achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible.

In this way dedicate your pain to all sentient beings.

Recite this like a prayer or a mantra, just like reciting OM MANI PADME HUM or any mantra. This is the best practice to purify all your defilements and negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths, and not only that, to also collect the most extensive merits.

Dedicate to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings. In this way you collect the most extensive merits and this causes you to achieve enlightenment, so you are very fortunate, unbelievably lucky.

This advice is from one great yogi called Choje Götsangpa. This is his practice and advice.

This advice, “Experience the Pain for Others,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in May 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/experience-pain-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.

Vens. Michael Lobsang Yeshe and Thubten Lhundrup offering tsog to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent these words of encouragement and advice in a handwritten card to the monks at Nalanda Monastery.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Sonam Yeshe and Pik Pin Goh from Malaysia, Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Bendigo, Australia, April 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent over two months visiting Australia earlier this year. We’ve created a new photo gallery sharing images from the time he spent at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Atisha Centre, and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery in Victoria; Buddha House in South Australia; Chag-tong Chen-tong Centre in Tasmania; and Chenrezig Institute in Queensland.

Rinpoche spent six weeks leading the Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at the Great Stupa, giving more than sixty teachings. Video recordings of these teachings are available, as well as teachings from Chag-tong Chen-Tong Centre and Chenrezig Institute on FPMT.org’s “Rinpoche Available Now” page. In addition to video recordings, unedited transcripts and audio files from the teachings are also made available on this page.

See new photos from Rinpoche’s visit to Australia:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/australia-april-may-2018/

Find video recordings and unedited transcripts from 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 with elephants, Bendigo, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent the following advice to a student who had slowly drifted apart from his son until there was no contact between them. The student had also lost two partners to cancer.

It is very good if you keep a lot of the eight auspicious signs. Keep different kinds—cloth, thangkas or wooden ones—all together or separate. Also there are many images of the four harmonious brothers, so you can try to get different kinds and have them around.

Offering elephant at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, November 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Yes, it is karma, that is the basic thing. The eight auspicious signs and the four harmonious brothers are for protection from harm and for success.

Do your practice well. Abandon negative karma as much as possible and practice good karma. Especially transform your mind from ego, from self-cherishing, to cherishing others and if possible into bodhichitta.

This advice, “Father and Son Estranged,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in June 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/father-and-son-estranged

A wall hanging of the eight auspicious signs is available from the FPMT Foundation store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Wall-Hanging–Auspicious-Symbols-_p_2055.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche walking to Dra Karpo temple, the holy site of Guru Rinpoche’s body in Pharo, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A student was taking time off after serving at a center for ten years and was planning to do a walking retreat for several months. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered this advice:

Yes, doing 200,000 Vajrasattva mantras as you walk is very good. You can do this as if you are making pilgrimage, and at the same time you can do a sort of retreat, like Vajrasattva, while you are walking. Also you can do things like refuge or reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and so forth.

Many years ago, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave Chenrezig initiation and the commitment was 600,000 recitations of OM MANI PADME HUM. I met a very learned, expert monk in philosophy who had taken the initiation. He was making pilgrimage in Nepal and at the same time reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, the commitment he had received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He did this while he was travelling. Of course he was very busy at his monastery, reading texts, teaching and educating others, and learning himself. So he did the commitment immediately like this, with pilgrimage in Nepal.

Family, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

It’s incredible to use the time like this. It’s so profitable and meaningful, instead of complaining, “I can’t get it done. I don’t have time, blah, blah,” but at the same time having so much time for gossiping and many other things, like eating, drinkingand so forth.

Also during the walk or pilgrimage or while travelling, you can, for example, do lamrim meditation. It’s not always necessary to be in a room, sitting on a cushion and closing your eyes. You don’t always need to do that.

Dzongdrakha, place of Guru Rinpoche’s mind, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

You can follow the lamrim outline on guru devotion for however many months you are travelling. Meditate on guru devotion by following the outline, to develop from your side the realization that sees the guru as all the buddhas—one guru as all the buddhas and one buddha as all the gurus—until you are able to realize this from your side, without effort, stable.

Whenever you have this stable realization for weeks, months and years, for your whole life, then come all the realizations up to omniscience, including the three principal aspects of the path (the foundation) and tantra (the two stages) up to the omniscient mind. Then you can even achieve enlightenment in one life. You can achieve enlightenment quickly, in a brief lifetime of this degenerate time, like Gyalwa Ensapa, Chökyi Dorje, Milarepa and many others.

This advice, “Retreat While Walking or Traveling,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in May 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/retreat-while-walking-or-travelling

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, Ven. Lobsang Konchok, and Ven. Thubten Tendar cooking dinner for a few students from Buddha House, Adelaide, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In July 2016 Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent the following advice to a cook at a Dharma center:

The essence of the Mahayana teaching is to let go of the I and to cherish others who are numberless. Even by cherishing one sentient being, that brings enlightenment to you. That means you are able to free all sentient beings from the oceans of suffering and bring them to the peerless happiness, buddhahood—the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations.

That is why even if one insect falls in the water, to arise compassion and help that insect is so important. Or if an animal, such as an ant, is attacked by another animal, to help rescue it with compassion. Also to help even one person with problems, with suffering, for example, to help rescue someone or to help someone who is suicidal, to help them not to be suicidal.

It is said in the Chenrezig sutra Well-Condensed Dharma, that you don’t need to follow many Dharmas, only one, which is compassion. If you have compassion then the whole Buddhadharma comes, which means in your heart, all the understanding of the words and all the realizations. The conclusion is that if there is compassion you can achieve enlightenment. Without compassion, no enlightenment.

Ven. Sangpo making the chili for the potato pancakes, Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Markus Igel.

Relating to cooking, it is very important. As you know, cooking gives so much happiness to sentient beings. What I have heard from Kopan is that the food is very good and even if people don’t like the meditation course, they stay.

So that helps them and even if they do not understand the teachings or the meditations, they stay, and it leaves a positive imprint in their mind. Besides that, they achieve everlasting happiness, nirvana. This is one example related to the Kopan courses in Nepal or the Tushita courses in Dharamsala.

I like to make food for people because it pleases their mind very much. When you know how to make different food delicious, one of the greatest benefits is that you can invite your gurus and make food for them. They enjoy it and you collect the greatest merit and this becomes the greatest purification.

That means especially by pleasing the guru it becomes a quick way to achieve enlightenment. So many negative karmas get purified on the way. By making delicious food, you make the guru happy.

Ven. Lobsang Sherab making potato pancakes, Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Markus Igel.

Before you made the food offering you would be reborn in the hells but by offering food and pleasing the guru you will be reborn in the pure land, or at least have a perfect human body, meet Dharma and actualize the path, and then achieve enlightenment.

This benefit is not only relating to food, it’s anything that pleases the guru. Previously you would have been reborn in the lower realms, but if you please the guru you will be reborn in the pure realm, or become a human, become a monk. It changes from second to second, your whole karma changes your rebirth.

This is something you must keep in your heart and not forget. This is the way to make your life most meaningful.

This advice, “Cooking as Dharma Practice,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in April 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/cooking-dharma-practice

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 blessing a dog at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pisa, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

A student wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, asking if he should give his brother a large sum of money as requested to help a girl sold into prostitution. In his response Rinpoche advised the student to think of this payment as a past karmic debt and gave the following teaching on karma:

You should know that karma is definite, which means it definitely brings the result. From virtue the result is definitely happiness, and from nonvirtue the result is definitely suffering.

A suffering result now comes from non-virtue, if the non-virtue is not completely purified and if it hasn’t met the conditions that make it extinct. Similarly with virtue, [the result is happiness] if it’s not destroyed by heresy, anger and so forth.

The second outline of karma is that it is expandable. You have to know that by making charity just one time you will experience the result for many lifetimes, for many eons. This is what you have to really know, to recognize. Happiness is not just received one time from virtue and then it is finished. This is what many people may think, but it’s not correct. We experience the result for eons. We have to experience the result, happiness, for eons. Similarly, we experience suffering as a result of non-virtue. It’s not just one time that we experience it and it’s finished; we have to experience it for eons.

We have to understand that if the karma is not created then the result never happens. If the karma is created then the resultant suffering or happiness—whether great or small—never gets lost, even if it was created billions, zillions, trillions of years ago. We still have to experience the result of negative karma from billions, zillions, trillions of years ago, not just from this past life.

People wonder why in the beginning they have a beautiful body and then suddenly it becomes defective, or they have a lot of mental and physical suffering. So much unimaginable suffering happens, which could be from karma created numberless eons ago. People are very surprised, and they think, “Oh, I haven’t done bad things in this life, so why am I experiencing this now?” Most people think it is just [experienced in] one life. Maybe some people think of karma created from past lives, but most don’t think it can be karma created billions or zillions of eons ago, numberless eons ago. Most people don’t think like that.

In the Tengyur—the commentaries of the great pandits from Nalanda on the Buddha’s teachings in the Kangyur—the Buddha said:

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).

After hearing that there is the great result, who wouldn’t want to collect merit?

There is also a quote similar to this in the Arya Sanghata Sutra by the Buddha.

This advice, “Think of the Kindness of Sentient Beings,” is from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book,” published in May 2018 on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/think-kindness-sentient-beings

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 enjoying lunch before a flight with Sangha members Ven. Lobsang Sherab, Ven. Topgye, Geshe Lhundup Tsundu, Ven. Thubten Tendar, and Ven. Holly Ansett, Delhi, India, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In a short video clip from a teaching given at the 2016 Light of the Path retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the benefits of living in vows.

Rinpoche teaches that taking vows is so powerful that it’s mentioned that right after taking vows, before they have degenerated, any prayers you make are fulfilled.

Whether one is a novice monk or nun with thirty-six vows, a fully ordained monk with 253 vows, a fully ordained nun, or a lay person holding vows such as the eight Mahayana precepts, Rinpoche emphasizes the importance of living in your vows: “For you it is unbelievable, unbelievable! Then for numberless sentient beings, if you dedicate with bodhichitta for sentient beings, wow, wow, wow!”

By keeping a larger number of vows, your prayers are even more powerful. Rinpoche explains that this is why people living in Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar ask monasteries and nunneries to do prayers and pujas for people who have died, are sick, and are experiencing difficulties in business and so forth. Rinpoche notes that people also ask the Tibetan monasteries and nunneries. 

“You see the difference, living in vows, which are such powerful objects,” Rinpoche says. “You understand the point. Then all these, it is unbelievable, so beneficial for sentient beings—even prayers and pujas, whatever you do—they are so powerful for sentient beings.”

“First you take the precepts, and as you take more and more precepts, you become more and more powerful for sentient beings. For sentient beings you are like Dzambala, bringing wealth and all the prayers for sentient beings. This happens because you are living in pure vows, taking higher ordination.”

“Because your prayers and pujas are so powerful, when sentient beings make offerings they collect so much merit. So it helps so much. It is so easy to have success for others, like Dzambala bringing success, wealth, and so forth.”

Rinpoche teaches that having a precious human rebirth, and especially if you are a member of the Sangha, then you must realize it is incredible and unbelievable how much you can benefit sentient being: “You should rejoice! You should enjoy your life! You should rejoice in your life all the time!”

By realizing the benefits, Rinpoche says, there is no room in your heart or mind for depression for even an hour or a minute; you are only full of joy.

Watch “Living in Vows Makes Your Life So Precious” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/77QB_qjCDPQ

The quotes from Lama Zopa Rinpoche have been edited and are based on the unedited transcript of the 2016 Light of the Path retreat, which you can find here with video recordings of the complete teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Find and watch video from all of Rinpoche’s recent teachings events, including from Chan Tong Chen Tong Centre in Tasmania and the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia:
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 with the media team members Alexis, Tione, Ven. Rinchen, and Harald, Light of the Path retreat, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In this short video clip from a teaching given at the 2016 Light of the Path retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche urges us to liberate ourselves from samsara. Rinpoche instructs us that when our husband or wife meets somebody and has a relationship with that person, we have to remember the six shortcomings of samsara.

“There is nothing definite in samsara; the friend, enemy, stranger changes. In the morning they are a friend, in the evening an enemy, in the afternoon a friend, in the evening an enemy, today a friend, tomorrow an enemy, a friend this week, next week an enemy, this month a friend, next month enemy, this year friend, next year friend,” Rinpoche says.

Our relationship with that person also changes from life to life, and it has been like this from beginningless rebirths. Rinpoche says, “In beginningless samsara you have been friends, enemies, and strangers numberless times. You see, that is the nature of samsara.”

Rinpoche continues, “If you yourself are free from samsara then you don’t have to be attached. If you don’t have to be attached, then you don’t have to be angry. You are unattached. You don’t need it at all. You are totally free.”

Rinpoche then explains where we made our mistake. “Because you didn’t actualize the four noble truths, the true cause of suffering, true cessation, and the true path; because of that mistake, you are still in samsara; and torture yourself all the time,” he says. “I have to say it that way, otherwise it is just words, the lamrim is just words. It is really talking about life, so you need to practice.”

He recommends starting with renunciation and not thinking that the other person is torturing us: “No, think that it is your own problem because in the past life you didn’t actualize the path. In this life you didn’t actualize the path.”

Next, practice bodhichitta. “That sentient being is totally controlled by attachment. It is the same as being possessed by a spirit. You need to help them. As you meditate on kindness while walking, it is so important to help, to practice kindness.”

Then, reflect on emptiness. Rinpoche says, “All the rest is hallucination. There can be great peace when you think of hallucination. We don’t have to speak of tantra; just lamrim is amazing.”

Watch “The Six Shortcomings of Samsara” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/t6J73iyuTxw

The quotes from Lama Zopa Rinpoche have been edited and are based on the unedited transcript of the 2016 Light of the Path retreat, which you can find here with video recordings of the complete teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/light-of-the-path-teachings-2016/

Find and watch video from all of Rinpoche’s recent teachings events, including from Chan Tong Chen Tong Centre in Tasmania and the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia:
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.