Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan, Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Save the date: From April 15-20, 2024, Kopan Monastery is hosting a Heart Sutra Retreat. His Eminence the 104th Ganden Tripa Rinpoche will offer commentary during the retreat; and participants will be guided to meditate on the meaning of the Heart Sutra by Ven. Steve Carlier, a long-time student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other important teachers in the Gelug tradition. 

This retreat will follow a commemoration,  on April 13, 2024, of one year since Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away.

In July 2022 Rinpoche expressed his wish to lead a Heart Sutra Retreat, so this is quite significant that this retreat is being offered within the FPMT organization, as it was one of Rinpoche’s expressed wishes. 

The Heart Sutra is the most widely known sutra of the Mahayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is part of the Prajnaparamita Sutras, which is a collection of about 40 sutras composed between 100 BCE and 500 CE. The Heart Sutra is a presentation of profound wisdom on the nature of emptiness. Reading and reciting the Heart Sutra is a powerful way to create the conditions for having a direct realization of emptiness.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that the only thing that can directly cut ignorance, which is the root of suffering and samsara, is wisdom realizing emptiness. There are many teachings on emptiness, but these teachings are found condensed in the Heart Sutra.

“Ignorance [has been] holding the false I as real from beginningless rebirths. That’s how we have been in samsara until now. Never liberated from suffering. But now there is, for example, the short one, the Heart Sutra, to cut that ignorance, that wrong concept,” Rinpoche explained before offering the oral transmission of the sutra in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015.

Just hearing the Heart Sutra, or reading it, Rinpoche explained, leaves a positive imprint to be free of samsara and to actualize the path, achieving enlightenment to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsara and bring them to enlightenment.

“If we are able to read or hear [the Heart Sutra] just one time, the positive imprint left by this definitely causes us in the near future to understand much more easily the teachings on emptiness. We will be able to understand the words and the meanings of the teachings on emptiness very easily, and we’ll be able to have realizations of emptiness easily, quickly in the future. Developing that wisdom ceases the gross and subtle defilements, the mistakes of the mind, and it makes us achieve the sorrowless state, the cessation of the suffering and its causes on our mental continuum, as well as great liberation even from the subtle mistakes of the mind, that which is full enlightenment on our own mental continuum,” Rinpoche explained.

Students can listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Heart Sutra on a digital audio album available in the FPMT Foundation Store. The downloadable album comes bundled with a digital version of the sutra in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats as well as the transcript of Rinpoche giving the oral transmission at the 2015 retreat in Mexico, from which the audio for the album was taken.

Students can find more links to Heart Sutra materials and resources below:

• The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – MP3 Download
• The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra – eBook & PDF
• Watch the teaching in which Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of the Heart Sutra on video. (The oral transmission begins at 42:58.)
• FPMT Education’s Basic Program Online: Heart Sutra
• Essence Of The Heart Sutra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, eBook & PDF

Please learn more about the Heart Sutra Retreat and commemoration being offered at Kopan Monastery in April 2024. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

In this short and intimate teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which was recorded over lunch at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, in July 2015, Rinpoche explains the incredible merit that is collected by offering to the guru. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered countless profound teachings on guru devotion, many of which are available here:
fpmt.org/tag/guru-devotion/

In the book, The Heart of the Path, Rinpoche explains the importance of the spiritual teacher and advises how to train the mind in guru devotion, the root of the path to enlightenment.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Nepal, March 27, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

We are happy to share that the English translations for the swift return prayers composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other distinguished lamas with whom Rinpoche had a connection in this lifetime, including Khenzur Jhado Rinpoche, Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Tseringma, and Lelung Rinpoche, have now been updated and are available at the Foundation Store. The PDF file is available for a quick one-click download.

As a reminder, in October we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation. Please read more about this advice, download the prayers and other resources, and find information on joining continual recitations of this text for Rinpoche’s swift return by students around the world in all the various time zones!  

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Turkeys at a farm.

Every year in the United States, tens of millions of turkeys are killed for the holiday of Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday, November 23, 2023. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice in a 2018 teaching to help benefit the turkeys killed, and how we can think during the holiday. Rinpoche explained that these practices can be applied beyond the Thanksgiving holiday, “These are simple methods, but they have unbelievably profound benefits, like the sky. You can also do more or different practices as well. These are just suggestions. You can also do these practices at Christmas or on other occasions where turkeys and so many other animals are sacrificed and eaten.”

In “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”, Rinpoche explains,

“If you are Buddhist, or just someone who does not want to suffer now or in endless future lives as well, having to experience unbelievably suffering, you need to purify your past negative karma and stop creating any more so that you will not be reborn as a turkey over and over again. … If you do have to eat turkey because of some family obligation, then at least do some mantras and prayers to benefit the turkeys, such as the four immeasurables with tonglen. Otherwise, if you just enjoy eating turkey together with the rest of the Americans who are not Buddhist, who do not know Dharma, who have not generated compassion for the turkeys, you create much negative karma.”

In this teaching Rinpoche provides detailed instructions on practices to purify negative karma, such as Vajrasattva, taking the eight Mahayana precepts, reciting sutras, engaging in nyung ne fasting retreats, generating love and compassion through the practice of tonglen and the Four Immeasureables, practicing Chenrezig, Medicine Buddha puja and specific mantras. Rinpoche also offers a special dedication to purify any negative karma that could cause future rebirth as a turkey.

Of course, Rinpoche also has given extensive advice for benefiting animals in general, such as ocean animals, bugs, saving animals from the danger of death, and has outlined mantras and their benefits that are beneficial for animals.

For links to practice materials in these detailed instructions, we invite you to read “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving”. Included on the page is an additional short teaching from Rinpoche which we include below:

Further Commentary and Advice for Thanksgiving from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

I don’t think the general population of America accepts clairvoyance, but if it did, people would understand where all the sufferings, such as depression, come from. The way people normally think—for example, what causes depression—is very limited. They only think about things that are to do with this life. If they had clairvoyance they could see much deeper; they could see things such as past and future lives. People normally think of only this life, not past and future lives.

In the past, many of the turkeys that Americans are eating were Americans who in the past had killed turkeys. Often it could even be a past family member that they are now eating.

There’s a sutra story about Buddha’s disciple Shariputra, who excelled in wisdom. Once when he was on his alms round he looked into a family’s house and saw that the father, who used to catch fish in his backyard pond, had died and been reborn as a fish in that pond. The mother, his wife, who had been very attached to the home, had also died and been reborn as the family dog. And the son’s enemy, who had been very attached to the son’s wife, had died and been reborn as their child. The son was holding the child, his former enemy, eating the fish, his late father, and beating the dog, his late mother, while it chewed on fish bones. Shariputra then observed, “The son is eating his father’s flesh, beating his mother with a stick, and cuddling his enemy on his lap—samsaric existence makes me laugh.”

If we have animals we have to remember this story and take care of them well. It is very important to understand the benefits of taking care of our pets and other animals by giving them food and drink. Think that you are making charity and don’t just do it out of attachment, thinking that you love the shape of the animals or something, doing everything simply for your own happiness. It’s the same with looking after your children. You create a child with attachment, for your own happiness, thinking how your life would be unbelievably happy if you had a child. Then you take care of the child, but it is for your own happiness.

It is also important to recognize and remember your animals’ most unbelievable kindness, how they have been kind to you in three ways, and then with that awareness give them food and drink. First recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and then blow over the food and drink to bless it. If you have mani pills, it’s good to crush them and put them into the food and drink, or even add blessed water. You don’t have to get blessed water from a lama; you can make it yourself. Whether or not you have daily commitments, recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ and other mantras, such as OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ, the Mitrugpa mantra and so forth, and then blow on the water. You can recite however many repetitions of each mantra you want, like seven, ten, fifteen, or more, blow on the animal’s food or water and make prayers as well. Similarly, you can keep a bottle of water nearby and when you’ve done your commitments you can blow on the water and then use that to put on the food and water that you give to the animals.

Then make this dedication prayer:

Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may all these animals (you can also include your family members, especially your father and mother) never ever get reborn back into the lower realms but be reborn in a pure land where they can achieve enlightenment, or, if not, at least receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings, and a perfectly qualified guru revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment, and by pleasing the holy mind of the virtuous friend may they attain enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Finally, please remember the unbelievable benefits of making charity of food to the animals. As the Buddha said, “Anybody who makes charity well during the period my teachings exist will receive great enjoyments for 80,000 eons, even if the material that person offers is merely the size of a hair. That person will be free from pain and disease, will enjoy great happiness, will be enriched with all manner of desirable things, and will eventually achieve the result: peerless cessation and complete enlightenment.”

This advice has been extracted from the page “Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving,” which shares a teaching and advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Switzerland in 2018. Scribed by Holly Ansett. Edited by Nicholas Ribush, November 2020.

For more mantras and resources for mantra recitation, visit FPMT Education Services’ page on mantras. You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, April 8, 2023.

On April 8, 2023, five days before showing the aspect of passing away, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a White Tara oral transmission and visualization at Kopan Monastery to Glen H. Mullin and a group of his students.

This was one of Rinpoche’s last recorded teachings in this life and offers timeless advice on benefiting and cherishing others.

“Whatever service you can offer others, whatever help you can bring, even a small benefit offered to an insect, this is fulfilling the bodhisattvas’ and buddhas’ wishes,” Rinpoche explains in this teaching. 

“And any harm you do, if you kill an insect or ant under your feet and don’t care, even though you’re learning philosophy, sutra and tantra, you don’t care about their life. Any harm, even a small harm, is a harm to all the bodhisattvas and buddhas. You must know that. Oh, and a small benefit is the best offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. It makes them most happy. …”

“So my answer is that if you want happiness, you must help others. If you don’t want to suffer, you don’t harm others. Stop. If you want happiness, you cause happiness to others.”

Rinpoche begins the White Tara oral transmission at 36:27 of the video

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Download the White Tara practice 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered three other teachings at Kopan Monastery between April 7-9 before leaving for Tsum Valley on April 10.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

For more video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche please visit:
fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche dictating a response letter to a student asking for practice advice.

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s highest priorities was providing guidance to students’ requests for advice on daily and lifetime practices. We are so happy to let you know we have created a new page that is based on Rinpoche’s essential daily practice and lifetime practice advice.

This is his essential advice and by following this advice, students can feel confident they are following and practicing according to Rinpoche’s heart advice.

“Rejoice! This is a happy thing, to get these practices, to benefit every sentient being, to free every sentient being from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and to bring them to enlightenment. So for that reason this advice is for you to achieve enlightenment.”  – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

When Rinpoche gave life advice he gave a brief overview of the practice:

“Please find my advice for your practice, what you should focus on for your life. One practice to do every day is the morning motivation, How to Make My Lives Wish-fulfilling, along with blessing the speech and daily mantras.

“It is very important to meditate every day on the lamrim and to recite a lamrim prayer every day, such as The Foundation of all Good Qualities or The Three Principal Aspects of the Path. Read it slowly while thinking about the meaning. Lamrim is what you need to actualize, no matter how long it takes. Please put all your effort there. “Probably you are doing Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga every day. If so, this is excellent. If not, now you can start. Before the guru absorbs into you, stop and meditate on whatever section of the lamrim you are up to.

“One meditation that you must try to do every day is on the topic of guru devotion. If you sometimes miss doing it, that’s okay but then continue the next day. There is no question of a certain length of time for the meditation; it is up to you. Do whatever fits your schedule. Then do whatever lamrim topic you are on. Do it every day, slowly going through each of the subjects. Whatever meditation you did in the morning, keep it in mind during the day so that your mind remains in the lamrim all day long.”

These are the additional practices that one can do everyday:

• Prostrations by reciting the Thirty-Five Buddhas’ names in the morning.
• Recite the Vajrasattva mantra at night.
• Recite Medicine Buddha mantra.
• Practice Chenrezig and recite the mantra.
• Recite the Golden Light Sutra for world peace.

“Please practice as much as you can,” Rinpoche advised us. “Life is not long and the nature of this life is that it is impermanent; death can happen at any time. Impermanence is the foundation of Buddha’s teachings, and was the last advice Buddha gave by showing the aspect of passing away.

We hope this page will be useful for everyone who wants to know what is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s essential heart advice on what to practice in your daily life and in one’s whole life:
fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/lama-zopa-rinpoche-life-practice-advice

“Please try to meditate on the lamrim based on guru yoga. On this basis, you will get all the realizations and have the most success in your life. It is important to try to achieve all the realizations in order to actualize enlightenment in order to liberate the numberless sentient beings from samsara and bring them to enlightenment. That’s the real project or the real goal of your life.”

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. 

Manjushri painted by Peter Iseli.

In October we shared the very precious advice we received from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recite Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri continuously for a few months, for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s reincarnation.

Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement in Kollegal, India reciting prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return.

With great rejoicing we share that the FPMT Puja Fund sponsored over 10,000 recitations of this text on Lhabab Duchen by sangha of the great monasteries (Sera Lachi, Gaden Lachi, Drepung Lachi, Gyuto Tantric College, and Gyudmed Tantric University) in India as well as by the monks and nuns of Kopan Monastery.

Additionally, as an example of some of the other activities happening around the world for Rinpoche’s swift return, Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement in Kollegal, India, arranged two days whereby all residents of the settlement recited the text continuously for two days in the community hall which was sponsored by the FPMT Social Services Fund. This settlement has a heartfelt connection to Rinpoche due to the ongoing support offered to their residents, including sponsorship of their elderly home.

Also with rejoicing we share that 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.

We encourage individuals to continue their own recitations—whether done alone, as a group, at one’s local center, or online. 

May all the prayers be actualized!

Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri Materials

As a reminder, 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.

Consecration of the Victory Stupa built for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lawudo, Nepal, November 4, 2023. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Lhabab Duchen, one of the four great holy days of the Buddhist calendar, took place this year on November 4 and meritorious activities took place around the world.

At Lawudo Gompa, Nepal, an incredible day of auspicious activities occurred and we share details of these events for great rejoicing.

Ven. Roger Kunsang offering body, speech, and mind mandala to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy tooth relic in the Lawudo gompa, Lhabab Duchen, November 4, 2023. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

In the morning, fifty-five monks and nuns as well as the three main lamas in the valley—Thame Rinpoche, Charok Lama, and Kyarok Lama—along with locals and foreign guests gathered in the main gompa (with many lay people outside) to welcome a 15-inch gold stupa containing the most precious tooth relic from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy body, which arrived with a procession from the blessed mountain cave. Ven. Roger Kunsang carried the relic led by the three lamas and accompanied by monks playing gyaling. Rinpoche’s relic arriving to Lawudo was an unbelievably auspicious event to occur on Lhabab Duchen.

Ven. Roger, Sangay (Rinpoche’s brother), and Anila Ngawang Samten (Rinpoche’s sister) each offered a body, speech, and mind mandala to Rinpoche’s holy relic.

Ven. Roger made a brief speech thanking everyone for coming and saying that there was no need to talk much about Rinpoche because everyone present knew that he was a great ascetic lama, completely selfless, who had made an enormous contribution and been very influential in spreading and preserving the Buddha’s teaching all around the world. Then he made offering to all the sangha and especially thanked Anila Ngawang Samten and Sangay and those who helped at Lawudo along with the artists who had completed the amazing 31-foot Amoghapasha painting on Drak Karma Cliff.

Ven. Roger Kunsang making offerings in the Lawudo gompa, Lhabab Duchen, November 4, 2023. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Next was an elaborate tsog puja led by the three lamas and Thame monks.

Tsog puja in the Lawudo gompa on Lhabab Duchen. November 4, 2023. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

After lunch, the incredibly special holy objects were consecrated.

The Victory Stupa built for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lawudo. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

15-inch gold stupa containing Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy tooth relic. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael.

31-foot Amoghapasha painting on Drak Karma Cliff, Lawudo.

First, the Victory Stupa organized by Anila Ngawang Samten with the help of others for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s swift return was consecrated by all three lamas.

Then, the consecration of Rinpoche’s holy tooth relic which resides in a 15-inch gold stupa.

Next, the Lawudo Lama Stupa, which was recently renovated, was consecrated by Charok Lama and monks.

At the same time, Kyarok Lama and younger monks consecrated the Amoghapasha painting on the cliff.

This magnificent painting was the expressed wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and is a truly remarkable achievement involving great risk and also great effort by many. To be completed in time for Lhabab Duchen, is simply remarkable.

Consecration of the new Victory Stupa for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lawudo, November 4, 2023. Thame Lama, Charok Lama, and Kyarok Lama join
the Thame monks. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Michael

Once the consecrations were complete, all of the lamas and monks returned to the gompa for prayers and dedications.

Following this, the local community offered mandala to Rinpoche’s throne and expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the entire FPMT organization for the contribution of aid offered during the earthquake of 2015 when many houses and ancient holy sites were damaged and destroyed.

Lhabab Duchen puja inside Lawudo gompa with Sangay Sherpa and Anila Ngawang Samten. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

The day’s activities concluded with Anila Ngawang Samten thanking those in attendance and Ven. Roger making offerings on behalf of the FPMT organization to those who had been helping actualize these unbelievably precious projects.

Please rejoice that these unimaginably auspicious activities were completed on Lhabab Duchen, such a powerful and holy day for these these unimaginably auspicious activities.

View from the Lawudo Lama’s cave, looking toward Thamserku. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

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.

31-foot high Amoghapasha painting on Drak Karma cliff above Lawudo, Nepal.

Twenty-five years ago, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began expressing the wish for a large painting of 1,000-Armed Chenrezig to be painted on a 100-foot high cliff named Drak Karma above Lawudo in Nepal, approximately 4,200 meters above sea level (over 13,000 feet) so everyone in proximity could see it. In the last few years Rinpoche specifically said for the painting to be of Amoghapasha—an emanation of Chenrezig.

With huge rejoicing, we share that this 31-foot high by 21-foot wide (9.5 meters high by 6.4 meters wide) painting is now complete! It has been painted directly on the cliff face overseeing the whole area. Funds for this project were raised by the Thamichowa community; Anila Ngawang Samten (Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s sister) provided all the necessary materials and tools needed for painting; and Ven. Nyima Tashi, Ven. Thubten Tendar, and Pasang Dekyi helped to actualize this incredible project. 

Painting set up of the large Amoghapasha on a cliff above Lawudo.

As one can imagine, this was an incredible feat, an unbelievable task to complete. The whole project started a couple of months ago and it took ten days to get the scaffolding up to the site where the conditions were freezing and windy making the scaffolding and painting quite dangerous. The actual painting took seven days by Nepali artists, finished the day before Lhabab Duchen, and consecrated on the day of this merit-multiplying occasion. 

Please watch this incredible video of the painting as it occurred, by Ven. Tenzin Michael:

The unbelievable benefits of merely seeing the painted holy body of Amoghapasha are mentioned in the
Amoghapasha Tantra:

Close up of the exquisite painting of Amoghapasha on a cliff above Lawudo.

Merely by directly seeing the Compassionate Eye Looking Enriched One (Amoghapasha) and the Potala Mountain with the celestial mansion, you become free from the eight great hells and the eight great fears. It even liberates you from all the suffering of having committed the five heavy negative karmas without break (having killed one’s father, mother, or an arhat; having caused blood to flow from a buddha; having caused disunity among the Sangha). It completely purifies even the very heavy negative karma of having abandoned the holy Dharma, all the obscurations, and so forth. Just seeing this deity totally purifies all the negative karmas and obscurations from having criticized buddhas and bodhisattvas. Just seeing this painted holy body totally purifies even those who are to be reborn in the lowest hot hell, Inexhaustible Suffering. You collect hundreds of thousands of times more merit than Brahma and other worldly gods. You achieve the sublime merits (good luck or good karma) of all worldly beings.

Even when you die, the Compassionate Eye Looking Enriched One directly shows his face to you and frees your breath (which means frees you from lower realms). Even after death you will be born in Amitabha’s blissful realm. You become free from obscurations and are able to remember up to fifty thousand past lives. This will be your last life in samsara (you will be freed from samsaric rebirth) and your next life only goes toward the ultimate heart of enlightenment. Just by seeing this holy body one time, you collect inconceivable merit. If you continually see this holy body, there is no question of turning back from enlightenment. You achieve the peerless happiness of buddhahood with the cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all realizations.

 Rinpoche encouraged students to have an image of Amoghapasha printed as large as possible and displayed publicly due to the benefit.

Ven. Roger Kunsang joining others at the 100-foot high cliff that now is blessed with the 31-foot painting of Amoghapasha.

We are so happy to be able to accomplish this wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and pray that we may we be able to fulfill all of his holy wishes. Ven. Roger Kunsang, after visiting the finished work commented with great joy that, “Rinpoche would be so pleased” to see this completed.

In a speech from the Thamichowa community, they expressed the following:

“From the depths of our hearts, we pray that the merit accumulated from our pure thoughts to complete Rinpoche’s holy wishes and benefit sentient beings will be a cause for Rinpoche to quickly be reborn in our area recognized as the unmistaken incarnation!”

Please find practice materials, mantras, and other resources related to Amoghapasha to download from the FPMT Foundation Store. 

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.

portrait of Lama Zopa Rinpoche taken by Ven. Lobsang Sherab in 2018.

As we all are now very aware, on April 13, 2023, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, our most precious guru and spiritual director, entered his final meditation at Kopan Monastery.

Although it is difficult to convey the extraordinariness of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s life, Ven. Robina Courtin has written a deeply moving tribute to Rinpoche’s many accomplishments, teachings, blessings, and activities.

We share it with the hopes that those who read it will be inspired to follow in Rinpoche’s footsteps, and continue to help fulfil all of Rinpoche’s wishes for the FPMT organization and the world. 

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, June 2005. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In June 2005 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a three hour long interview to Christina Lundberg on the benefits of Universal Education. In 1983 Lama Thubten Yeshe began formulating the idea of Universal Education. “The world needs a new system of education because the old one is too dated for the intelligent people of today and produces a great deal of conflict and dissatisfaction in the present generation. […] We have to get rid of people’s old concepts and give them a new imagination; a new, broad way of looking at themselves and the world. That’s what I mean by ‘universal.’” 

“Everything comes from the mind and to transform the mind from negative (from where all the suffering comes), into positive (from where all the happiness comes), is not only for your happiness but for all other living beings’ happiness,” Rinpoche says in this interview. In addition to providing instructive advice for the advancement of Universal Education,  which is now carried forth by The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW), Rinpoche also shares a plethora of practical advice for students who wish to cultivate the good heart—an attitude of loving-kindness and compassion.

We are so happy to share this interview in three one-hour parts.

Please note that a live translation of the subtitles included in these videos is available in any language offered by Google. Just click on the settings icon on the video and choose “subtitles” then “auto-translate” and your preferred language.

Over the course of this interview, Rinpoche advised that the best way to take care of one’s mind is through an attitude of loving-kindness and compassion toward others in daily life. Rinpoche emphasized the importance of practicing: patience, tolerance, rejoicing, contentment, forgiveness, and apologizing. “Any religions advise these,” Rinpoche explained. “And they are universal because everybody needs to practice like this.”

FDCW was founded to fulfil this vision of Universal Education by creating programs, resources and training based on universal values and how to develop compassion and wisdom. In October FDCW organized a two-day online conference called Growing Compassionate Hearts Conference. Educators from around the world shared their methods and experience of how they encourage inner values, compassion and mindfulness in our children and young people.

Each session was carefully curated to inspire ways to navigate the complexities and joys of teaching children about compassion, empathy, and the importance of universal human values. Each session included a practical exercise that can be shared with young people. Re-framing negative behaviors, the importance of teacher modeling values, inner garden guided meditation, mandala explanation of interconnection and sense of belonging, 7 Steps for Transformation, Peace Corner, children teaching values to parents, 7 colors rainbow guided meditation, tuning in to children before teaching, inquiry-based methods of teaching, inclusivity, neurodiversity, listening skills and holding boundaries were some of the topics covered by our speakers.

If you weren’t able to attend or would like to revisit any part of the conference, recordings of each session are available on YouTube as well as on the FDCW website

For more video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche please visit:
fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche

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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered extensive precious advice on how to start each day with the best motivation to be of most benefit to others and ourselves. 

In this collection of prayers and advice, Morning Prayers and Motivation, Rinpoche places particular emphasis on the importance of taking refuge in His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the guru embodying the Three Jewels; and of cherishing every mother sentient being as they are the source of our temporal and ultimate happiness. Rinpoche’s advice includes every living being, “… from the smallest sentient being that can be seen only with a microscope to the largest, who lives in the ocean and is as big as a mountain, all sentient beings are extremely kind, most beloved, most precious—they are the bestowers of all happiness for my mind.” 

A more extensive set of similar reflections and prayers complied by Rinpoche is published under the title, How to Make My Lives Wish-Fulfilling: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness. It has a companion piece in The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) with Additional Practices: A Commentary.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Through comprehensive study programs and practice materials, FPMT Education Services nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.