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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on top of Kopan Hill, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We recently shared news that Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s newest volume from Wisdom Publications, Perseverance: The Determination of the Bodhisattva is available.
Today we offer you a chapter from this book made available from Wisdom titled “Overcoming Laziness.” In this transformative chapter, Rinpoche offers invaluable insights and practical guidance on how to overcome laziness, which he explains is the greatest obstacle to happiness.
The Three Types of Laziness
Laziness, the antithesis of perseverance, is the devil that most interferes with transforming the mind and, therefore, it is the greatest obstacle to happiness. There are three types of laziness:
1. The laziness of procrastination
2. The laziness of being attached to worldly affairs
3. The laziness of discouragement
Of this Shantideva says,
7.2b And what are the adversaries of fortitude?
They are indolence, a fondness for evil, and despondency and self-deprecation.
The first laziness, the laziness of procrastination or indolence, blocks our energy for Dharma practice and causes us to waste time with distractions. This kind of laziness comes about as a result of lacking the understanding of the nature of samsara, the cause of suffering, and the evolution of karma. The second type, being attached to worldly affairs, is the worst form of laziness, the laziness that draws us to engage in negative actions of greed, ignorance, and hatred—actions that are the opposite of Dharma practice. The third type of laziness, discouragement or despondency, causes us to not do positive things with the excuse that we are unable to do them. This is the mind that thinks, “It’s beyond my capabilities.” The less lazy we are, the fewer hindrances to meditation we will experience.
Spending all day and all night working for samsaric comforts is considered laziness from the Dharma point of view. Because we don’t remember our past sufferings or know those that lie ahead, we work hard for ignorance and greed; we are lazy in that way.
Milarepa said that by having generated impermanence, he was able to conquer “the devil, laziness,” and then whatever action he did became the Dharma. Highly realized beings, such as Lama Tsongkhapa, are utterly without laziness. Without talking about all the other unimaginable great actions they do, because of their bodhichitta, even just breathing becomes great work for other sentient beings.
Continue reading Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s full chapter on “Overcoming Laziness.”
Learn more about Perseverance: The Determination of the Bodhisattva from Wisdom Publications and order your copy today:
wisdomexperience.org/product/perseverance
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche talking about the previous Lawudo Lama in his meditation cave, Lawudo, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In a talk given to a few students in the Lawudo cave in 2015, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared details of his early life. The Lawudo cave is the location where Rinpoche, in his past life as the Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe, spent the last 30 years of his life in intensive meditation retreat. Rinpoche also shares some information about this holy cave.
We invite you to watch this joyful and intimate video, filmed by Bill Kane:
As a reminder, the anniversary of Rinpoche showing the aspect of passing away is approaching on April 13. You can find resources for observing this special date, and learn more about the commemoration activities being offered at Kopan Monastery during this time.
You can read a moving eulogy of Rinpoche’s life, which also shares details of his early life and connection to Lawudo.
The Lawudo Lama by Jamyang Wangmo tells the story the Lawudo Lama Kunzang Yeshe as well as offers a detailed description of the religious and cultural history of the Mount Everest region, where Lawudo is situated.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the 4 Kadampa Deities Retreat, Institut Vajra Yogini, France, 2003. Photo by Ven. Kunsang Thubten.
Recently we shared the addition to our Rinpoche Available Now page of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2003 twenty-three part teachings from a Four Kadampa Deities Retreat offered at Institut Vajra Yogini, France. The retreat focused on the four Kadampa deities, however, Rinpoche taught on a broad range of lamrim topics.
Today we wanted to bring to your attention teaching #5 in this series, “Enlightenment through Compassion.”
In this teaching, Rinpoche began by discussing the importance of helping young people and expresses a sense of urgency for Universal Education as a method that can bring peace to individuals and the world, regardless of their religious background. By fostering compassion, wisdom, and good conduct, individuals can bring peace not only to themselves and their families but also to their countries, the world, and all sentient beings.
Rinpoche discussed the power of generating compassion toward even a single sentient being by sharing the story of Getsul Tsembulwa, a disciple of the great yogi Nakpo Chopawa, encountering a woman with leprosy who needed help crossing a river. This story shows how compassion toward even one sentient being can lead to enlightenment. The stronger the compassion, the quicker the path to enlightenment becomes. By giving up one’s life and sacrificing for the welfare of another, heavy negative karma is purified, allowing one to see the true nature of the deity. Generating compassion toward even one sentient being can make that being the most kind and precious person in one’s life. Generating compassion leads to bodhichitta, which is the root of the Mahayana path of enlightenment. Once enlightened, one can liberate countless sentient beings from samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment, thus continuously benefiting others.
Rinpoche stressed that it is important to practice holy Dharma throughout life, as death is certain and only holy Dharma can guide one at that crucial moment. Rinpoche advises keeping the mind in the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment, and engaging in virtuous actions aligned with the teachings. By doing so, every aspect of life becomes meaningful and contributes to one’s progress toward liberation and enlightenment.
At the end of Rinpoche’s talk, he delves into meditation on emptiness.
We invite you to watch this full video and engage with a lightly edited version of this teaching which is available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
As a reminder, this entire retreat is now available for students to explore as they wish.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Sangha offering prayers in front of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy body, April 21, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
April 13, 2024 marks the one-year anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche showing the aspect of passing away.
We want to remind students about a text translated by Rinpoche, Advice for the Anniversary of the Guru’s Passing Away which is a short text that explains the importance of making offerings on the anniversary of the passing away of one’s guru. It sets out the benefits of making offerings, how to make the offerings with six remembrances, and how to offer and dedicate the roots of virtue collected.
As Rinpoche explains in the foreword of this text, “Making offerings on the death anniversary of a guru is an incredible practice in that it brings about the greatest purification of negative karma and collects the most extensive merit.”
There are six benefits of making offerings on the anniversary of your guru’s passing away. The Hundred Clear Realizations of the Glorious One from Narthang offers the great Kadampa geshe Sharawa’s citation from Guhyasamaja and Vairochana’s Net of Magical Illusion:
- You complete your guru’s holy wishes.
- You purify the negative karmas and obscurations collected in dependence on the guru.
- You achieve extensive merits.
- In future lives, you meet gurus.
- You become an object to be subdued by gurus.
- You quickly cease your samsara.
On March 10, 2021, Rinpoche gave commentary on these points during a teaching from Kopan Monastery, and you can read that commentary starting on page 13 of this full transcript.
A commemoration will occur at Kopan Monastery on April 13. Following the commemoration, Kopan is also hosting a Heart Sutra Retreat (April 15-20). His Eminence the 104th Ganden Tripa Rinpoche will offer commentary during the retreat and Ven. Steve Carlier will lead meditations. There are still spots available for this retreat, and you can contact Kopan Monastery for more information. We will share more details about this commemoration closer to the date.
Another auspicious opportunity relating to Lama Zopa Rinpoche we’d like to remind about is the Lawudo Pilgrimage happening from April 25-May 9. This is a pilgrimage for students of Rinpoche honoring him as the Lawudo Lama by visiting the main holy places of the area with prayers and practices for Rinpoche’s swift return. There are still spots available in this pilgrimage as well.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during the Four Kadampa Deities Reteat, Institut Vajra Yogini, France, 2003.
From April 18 to May 11, 2003 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extensive teachings (twenty-three videos!) during the Four Kadampa Deities Retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini, France. The retreat focused on the four Kadampa deities, however, Rinpoche teaches on a broad range of lamrim topics. Each of the videos on YouTube includes summaries of the main topics discussed by Rinpoche.
We are so pleased to announce today that this entire retreat is now available on our Rinpoche Available Now page!
As we work to process all of the legacy videos of Rinpoche’s teachings, we rejoice that this is the first major retreat finished! We have many more videos coming up and we hope students will take full advantage of connecting with Rinpoche’s previously unavailable videos in this way.
The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive previously published the contents of this retreat as well, and you are welcome to read the lightly edited teachings there. You can also find a full transcript of this event for download.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Livestream of the prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return with the stupa and bodhi tree lit up and changing color in the distance. Photo by Tukba Akil.
We share this moving account from Ven. Sarah Thresher about the prayers offered for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return during the Fifteen Days of Miracles in Bodhgaya, India.
It’s common to hear chanting at the great place of enlightenment in Bodhgaya; groups travel thousands of miles to pray together at the stupa in Pali and Tibetan. It’s far less common to hear prayers chanted in English—and it certainly turns heads when that happens and is noticed by the many pilgrims from around the world.
It wasn’t till the second or third day of our fifteen days of prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return at the place of enlightenment during the miracle days that I realized this simple fact: coming together and chanting prayers together in English was itself a powerful way to repay the kindness of our precious spiritual guide Lama Zopa Rinpoche. There we were sitting together under the bodhi tree, three nuns—English, Chinese and Indian—along with a small but dedicated team of students from around the world praying together in English—the very language Rinpoche had used to teach us and lead us in prayers and practices; the language Rinpoche had learned from a young age in order to spread the Buddha’s teachings in this world. That simple act was proof of Rinpoche’s unfathomable kindness and achievement and greatness.
Group photo on the final evening of prayers—Chotrul Duchen. Photo by Pratyaksh Sehrawat.
Prayers underneath the bodhi tree at the seat of enlightenment. Photo by Tukba Akil.
All the Buddha merit increasing days are special at Root Institute because it’s a time when many offerings and prayers are made for the incredibly kind sponsors of the Festival of Lights and Merits (FLAM) and of Rinpoche’s projects in Bodhgaya. But this year it was decided to add a special prayer session every evening at the stupa with a selection of prayers either recommended by Rinpoche for the merit increasing days or advised by His Holiness and other holy beings to be recited for Rinpoche’s swift return. We were fortunate to get permission from the Temple management to reserve a place and to livestream the prayers for all fifteen days. We chose to sit under the bodhi tree right next to the only ancient Manjushri image in the stupa precincts—though some days we sat back amongst the smaller stupas so that people could see the stupa and bodhi tree spectacularly lit up and changing color as the prayer session unfolded.
A procession of students led by Rinpoche offering bowls of fruit to the main image of Shakyamuni Buddha in the temple. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Two nights it rained but we still showed up. Two nights we added extensive offerings of bowls of fruit in procession to the Buddha image following the prayers—something Ven. Roger sponsored as he mentioned it was what Rinpoche liked to do. On the penultimate evening, a monk came up towards the end of the prayers and asked if he could offer a khata to Rinpoche—many people would pay respect, show approval and request blessing when they saw Rinpoche’s photo. We of course happily agreed, only to find out that it was actually H.E. Avikrita Vajra Sakya who had sent the monk to ask and he along with his entourage then approached to offer khatas to Rinpoche’s photo. “That’s Manjushri offering to Rinpoche,” I said, feeling very moved by the gesture. It was as though the Buddhas themselves were acknowledging the prayers and heartfelt longing of us disciples for the return of our precious Lama and offering comfort.
Ven. Dekyong from Singapore, Ven. Sarah from England and Ven. Anshu from India who led the prayers. Photo by Nick Redmond.
Ven. Sarah Thresher is an English nun who graduated in 1982 and met the Dharma in Kopan shortly afterwards—taking refuge with Lama Thubten Yeshe. She worked many years as an editor for Wisdom Publications and Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and has also taught at centers around the world. She ordained with His Holiness Dalai Lama in 1986. For the past five years she has been living in different locations in Nepal.
Please read about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice for reciting Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering advice to the students in Mongolia, September 2013. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang
Lama Zopa Rinpoche received thousands of letters every year from people seeking guidance on a variety of issues. In 2013 Rinpoche dictated a letter about the three types of suffering to a student’s mother who was worried about death.
“In reality, even if we believe that we will live for a long time, that we have so many years to live – like 100 years or more, and maybe after 100 years, we expect another hundred years (I’m joking) – in reality, there is nobody who has lived who has not died,” Rinpoche wrote.
“Even this big earth has to perish after another great eon. Since every person who is born in this world is under the control of karma and delusion, there is nobody, nobody, since human beings started until now, who has lived without death. There is nobody.
“Buddha has no death, because there is no cause of death. The cause of death is not outside but inside –karma and delusions. Buddha removed this inconceivable eons ago, because he purified the delusions and even the subtle obscurations which interrupt the omniscient mind, so it is impossible for the Buddha to experience death. There is no old age, no sickness, no death for him at all, but he showed holy deeds, passing away in the sorrowless state. If Buddha did not show death, then we would not appreciate his teachings and we would become very lazy. Buddha showed death to destroy the wrong concept of permanence of our lives, which are impermanent, and also to show us that we need to practice Dharma, because of suffering and the cause of suffering. …”
You can read the entire letter “The Cause of Death” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.
FPMT.org makes available many practices and resources available for the death and dying of ourselves and our loved ones (and pets!). All are welcome to explore all that is available, collected and compiled over time according to the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
fpmt.org/death
Please explore more recent teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on death and impermanence:
fpmt.org/tag/death-and-dying
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
In October 2023 we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation.
We wanted to take the opportunity to remind students of this advice, particularly with Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles approaching when the merit of virtuous actions performed on each of these days is multiplied by 100 million.
We are pleased to share that Ganden Tri Rinpoche, head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and very close to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, will be offering the transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri on February 17, 2024 through Jamyang Buddhist Centre London and this will be available online for all with interest to join.
As a reminder, IMI has arranged continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones! Please read about how to sign up to join.
Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri Materials
The prayer is available for all to download: Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri.
Additionally, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive also offers Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s own commentary and oral transmission of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri which is available to all.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
In The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas (2020), Lama Zopa Rinpoche walks us through the six perfections, which are a key Mahayana Buddhist teaching.
Today we share an excerpt from Rinpoche’s teaching on the perfection of charity from this book, available from Wisdom Publications:
Keeping our mind pure—free from pride, miserliness, and so forth—is very difficult for ordinary people like us. If we could give simply, without all these disturbing thoughts clouding our giving, our generosity would be perfect and attaining another perfect human rebirth would be easy. But this is a struggle for most of us. That is why we must always check our motivation and be diligent in observing our karma.
The villagers of Solu Khumbu, where I was born, have a very good custom to protect themselves and others. Because they are incredibly poor, theft is always a problem. Things are often stolen: cooking pots, money—even potatoes. In many villages the people bury pots of their precious potatoes outside to keep them safe, but thieves can generally guess where the pots are buried, and they dig them up. Also, sometimes people borrow things and don’t return them, no matter how much the owner complains and shouts.
In such cases of theft, the villagers often go to a monastery and ask the lama there to say prayers and dedicate the merit of the prayer to the thief, totally offering them that thing. Whether or not this becomes a virtuous act does not depend on the lama but on the mind of the victim. If the person can renounce the stolen object completely and offer it to the thief with compassion, then it is virtuous. The owner needs the object, but the thief also needs it, and so by renouncing it and offering it to the thief with compassion, the dedication becomes a virtuous action.
If somebody stole a hundred dollars from us and we cannot do the practice of dedication—if we cannot take the loss upon ourselves and offer the victory to that sentient being; if we still cling to that hundred dollars—how can we perfect the practice of charity? Even without considering how kind that sentient being has been, how precious they are, we should rejoice that they needed something and now they have it. Like us, they want happiness and do not want suffering—in that way they are completely equal to us—so why can’t they have that hundred dollars? If we were to find a hundred dollars, how happy we would be. If we were to find a thousand dollars or a million dollars, we would be so surprised and excited. We would clap our hands with joy. So why can’t we do the same thing for this sentient being who has come across a hundred dollars?
Excerpted from Chapter 1, The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, Wisdom Publications, 2020.
Explore more teachings on the six perfections from Lama Zopa Rinpoche including other excerpts from this book.
Learn more about The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas, including order information, on Wisdom Publication’s website:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-six-perfections/
The Six Perfections is also available as an e-book from the Foundation Store.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the garden at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In a 2022 letter to an FPMT center director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the perfect epitome of patience, offered an unmissable teaching on why patience is critically important, and how to protect and cultivate it through applying conscientious effort. Explaining the value of patience, Rinpoche said it protects our hard-won merits, which are necessary for our liberation from samsara but which are easily destroyed through our acts of anger and heresy.
Rinpoche then advised on how best to dedicate our merits so as to protect them. Rinpoche’s letter also offers guidance on six ways to train the mind in patience: by seeing the “enemy” as the guru and as positive support, by realizing that the “enemy” has no freedom to act differently, by developing compassion, and by remembering karma and the emptiness of phenomena.
We offered a short edited version of this advice in our 2022 Annual Review, and now we are very happy to share this entire advice available as a PDF download.
Please explore other teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the topic of patience.
You can read other advice that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered students on the topic of patience and anger.
Order Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s book, Patience: A Guide to Shantideva’s Sixth Chapter from Wisdom Publications.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945–2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Andrea Husnik.
In late September 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelugzentrum in Vienna, Austria. This was Rinpoche’s first official stay in Austria and his first visit to the FPMT center.
Following the 2017 Light of the Path retreat, and a long flight from North Carolina, US, to Austria, Rinpoche rested for a number of days with the Igel family at their home in Vienna. During his stay, Rinpoche was offered an apple strudel, which the mother of the family had made. The dish was so good that Rinpoche asked if he could be shown how to make the dessert.
Rinpoche gave a motivation before cooking, speaking about making cooking part of the path to enlightenment. This was followed by a demonstration and the actual instructions on how to make Austrian apple strudel (recipe available here) with Rinpoche also joining in to make it.
From the archives we are sharing an extremely joyful video showing such a precious aspect of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s ability to connect so genuinely with others, and also Rinpoche reminding us how to turn ordinary daily activities (like cooking or offering food) into Dharma activities.
In 2013 Rinpoche also offered some advice to the cooks of Tushita Mediation Centre on how to remember bodhichitta when when preparing and cooking food. This is timeless advice which we can all use to actualize the path to enlightenment, as cooking and preparing food for ourselves and others is a daily necessity.
When you are cutting anything, for example onions, think,
I am cutting the root of all sentient beings’ suffering which comes from ignorance and the self-cherishing thought, with the knife of the wisdom realizing emptiness (shunyata) and bodhichitta.
When you are washing pots and so on think,
I am washing away all the obscurations and negative karmas from all sentient beings’ minds.
You can think that you are washing away your own obscurations and negative karmas but most important is to think you are washing away those of all sentient beings. And you can think the water is nectar coming from Vajrasattva, the Guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. There is always a lot of washing up to do in the kitchen and you can use the opportunity to purify all sentient beings’ obscurations. It’s very good if you can sincerely think this way because all the washing up becomes Dharma practice purifying your negative karma and defilements and collecting merits. In India even the beggars keep their pots very clean!
When you are sweeping the floor think that the broom is the whole path to enlightenment, especially wisdom and bodhichitta, and that the dust is all sentient beings’ obscurations.
I am sweeping away the dust of all sentient beings’ obscurations with the broom of the path to enlightenment and especially wisdom and bodhichitta.
If you sincerely think this while you are cleaning it becomes real Dharma practice that benefits all sentient beings. In the lamrim it says to think that you are abandoning the dust of the three poisonous minds—anger, attachment, and ignorance—which are the gross obscurations and also the stains of the three poisonous minds, the subtle obscurations.
When you are kneading dough so that it can be made into any shape think,
I am taming all sentient beings’ minds by softening them with my two hands of the wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta.
When you are making momos or shapale—rolling out pastry and filling it with cheese, potato, and vegetables—think,
I am filling all sentient beings’ minds with the realizations of the path from guru devotion up to enlightenment so that they can actualize all the qualities of a buddha.
When you are cooking soup or other food you can think that the fire is the Six Yogas’ tummo fire that causes the kundalini to melt. Do the same meditation that is used to bless the inner offering in highest yoga tantra. Or you can think that the fire is the wisdom realizing emptiness and the uncooked food is the unsubdued mind. By cooking the food all the gross and even the subtle delusions are purified and all the realizations of Buddha are achieved.
These are some ways of thinking as you are working in the kitchen. You can think in a similar way with other kitchen activities.
This advice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche was typed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 17, 2013.
Related Practice Materials
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945–2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
An powerful prayer session was held in Bodhgaya, India, under the Bodhi tree on December 31, 2023 for the swift return of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Incredibly, 2,500 ordained Sangha participated including Ganden Tri Rinpoche, His Eminence Ling Rinpoche, His Eminence Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, Kundeling Rinpoche, Osel Dorje Rinpoche, Lelung Tulku, Woser Rinpoche from Sera Mey Monastery, Sera Je Abbot Khenrinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsethar, Tashi Lhunpo Abbot Khenrinpoche Zeekgyab Tulku, Segyud Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Wangdu, Namgyal Abbot Khenrinpoche Thamthog Rinpoche, and Drepung Loseling Abbot Khenrinpoche Lobsang Samten.
Ganden Tri Rinpoche at the prayer session for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Prayers recited were Calling the Guru from Afar, Chanting the Names of Manjushri, King of Prayers, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return prayer by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ven. Roger Kunsang arranged offerings to all the 2,500 Sangha.
The magnitude and beauty of this event is captured in this short video by Ven. Tenzin Michael:
This was an incredibly important and auspicious event. It is said that the merit created from any virtuous activity in Bodhgaya is multiplied eight times due to the blessings that have arisen from all the holy activities accomplished here by numerous holy beings. As Rinpoche has explained:
“Bodhgaya is not only the place where the Buddha showed the holy deed of achieving enlightenment under the bodhi tree but also where all the great pandits such as Nagarjuna and Asanga practised and made so many prayers. Also, many great enlightened beings and yogis from Tibet, China, Nepal and other countries came here and made so many prayers to benefit us sentient beings so there would be unbelievable, unbelievable opportunity for us to purify negative karma and accumulate merit as quickly as possible.
“That is why it is so important to come to Bodhgaya to practice; to circumambulate and make prayers under the tree. Even if you don’t know much Dharma, try to circumambulate as much as possible. It makes your life so special; there is unbelievable purification and it collects so much merit to quickly be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and achieve enlightenment.
“[The Mahabodhi Stupa] is so precious that if you don’t get to circumambulate it for even one day, it’s worse than losing skies filled with wish-granting jewels or billions of dollars.”
Altar of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, December 31, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.
Additionally, with great rejoicing we share that on the first day of the New Year, Kopan Geshes, Lama Gyupas and sangha offered Most Secret Hayagriva tsog in front of Rinpoche’s holy body at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
May all of these powerful prayers be actualized without delay.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.