Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a horse at Aquila Nera sanctuary, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Wherever Lama Zopa Rinpoche travels, he takes time to bless animals. Zarina Osmonalieva, a devoted student of Rinpoche, has put together a short video of Rinpoche doing animal blessings around the world, including in Russia, India, Nepal, the US, and many other places.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing animals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4lgj-FvZE

You can read more stories about Rinpoche blessing animals or sign up to receive FPMT News, which has frequent stories of animal blessings, in your email daily.

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. Read about it here:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#animal
and: https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/

Get Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death as an e-book or in a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberating-Animals-eBook_p_2334.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 teaching at Kopan Course, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The 2017 Kopan Course, taking place at Kopan Monastery in Nepal now through December 14, is the fiftieth lamrim course offered at the monastery. More than two hundred new and seasoned students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche attend the course. This is an incredible achievement and milestone for the FPMT organization to consistently offer this month-long course every year.

For the first time in the history of this course—Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s precious lamrim teachings are now being streamed on video live! All are welcome to watch these teachings, which take place at approximately 3:30 p.m. local Nepal time (GMT+5:45). Due to various factors, the start time for the teachings is flexible. Additionally, the internet connection in Nepal is not always stable. However, the media team there is doing the best they can to broadcast these incredible teachings live to students around the world. Recorded video of Rinpoche’s teachings from Kopan are also available.

On Tuesday, December 5, Rinpoche taught beautifully on why the Kopan Course is so important to attend.

“The reason to come to Kopan is to pacify the negative mind that brings all the sufferings. What you are doing, learning and meditating, is the most important thing in your life. A billion, zillion, trillion thanks to you for coming here to do the course—coming here to discover this Dharma, to discover what is unknown before, that you didn’t know how to live life. You were born a human being, but didn’t know how to live your life,” Rinpoche said.

“So it is really of the utmost importance, you coming here to learn not just meditation but lamrim, lamrim meditation. … Only then, you can understand how to live life, how in the past how you live, and how you should live now, in a positive way to benefit not only yourself but all the numberless beings. So I want to say, your coming to Kopan to do meditation course, oh, this is the best! If you want to help the world, to bring peace, your coming here is the best. Your coming here to do the meditation course, to learn, that is the best. You have to bring peace in the world by your mind, by your good heart. You yourself have to have a good heart to bring perfect peace and happiness in the world. That is the best.”

Watch the video recording of this teaching on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tDVHE4mTwo

Livestream of these teachings can be found here when available and the livestream with transcript overlay is available here. Please read how to be notified when a live teaching starts so you don’t miss any opportunity. Italian-speaking students are also invited to enjoy the teachings translated into Italian.

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.

Watch Rinpoche teach live and information on how to be notified when a teaching starts:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

Video recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teachings from around the world can be found here:
http://FPMT.org/RinpocheNow

Kopan Monastery celebrates Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, Nepal, December 3, 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

All of Kopan wished Lama Zopa Rinpoche a happy birthday on Sunday, December 3. Monks, nuns, and international students attending the annual November course all celebrated the auspicious occasion in a joyous gathering outside Kopan’s main gompa.

Many offerings were made to Rinpoche: mandala offerings, young monks singing praises to Rinpoche, and a beautiful cake decorated with fresh fruit. Also, Sherpas came and offered a dance. This year marks Rinpoche’s 73rd Tibetan birthday (72nd Western birthday). Rinpoche said it was a “very hippy birthday.” 

A body, speech, and mind mandala offering for Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, December 3, 2017. Photo courtesy of Kopan Monastery School on Facebook.

Rinpoche’s birthday was celebrated in many places around the world. Root Institute in Bodhgaya sent the message: “Celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday at the Bodhgaya Mahabodhi Stupa, dedicating the recitation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra and other prayers for His long, healthy, and stable life. We also celebrated with brownies at our community lunch!!!” Tara Children’s Project, which is a project of Root, sent a video of the children singing “Happy Birthday” and thanked Rinpoche for his kindness and compassion, and requested he come visit their school soon.

Young monks singing for Rinpoche’s birthday, Kopan Monastery, December 3, 2017. Photo courtesy of Kopan Monastery School on Facebook.

Rinpoche recently arrived at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. He will give teachings during the 50th November course, which runs through December 14 this year. The month-long Kopan lamrim course began in the early 1970s and each year is attended by more than two hundred students from around the world. There will be a long life puja offered to Rinpoche on behalf of the entire FPMT organization on December 14.

Rinpoche traveled to Kopan from India after giving a Most Secret Hayagriva transmission at Sera Je Monastery and a Golden Light Sutra transmission in Delhi. 

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe in Geneva, Switzerland, 1983. Photo by Ueli Minder, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“The happiness we desire, the suffering we do not want, the happiness we try to get, the suffering we try to eliminate all come from the mind—not from somebody else’s mind but from our own,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in a multimedia teaching “Finding Peace in Everyday Life,” published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in October.

Rinpoche continues, “For example, how does the everyday, unwanted suffering that we try to prevent come from our own mind? It arises because our mind is not under our control; we’re under the control of our mind, which in turn is under the control of our disturbing thoughts. This is the mistake we make. We allow our mind to be controlled by the inner enemy; we offer the victory to the disturbing thoughts, we always give liberation to the disturbing thoughts—ignorance, dissatisfaction, anger, and selfishness. Instead of defeating and trying to get freedom from them, we give them complete freedom and take defeat upon ourselves. That’s the whole problem. That’s it. That’s our everyday life.”

The Archive’s multimedia teachings include text, video, archive photos, and links to additional resources.

“Finding Peace in Everyday Life” is a teaching given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Geneva, Swizterland, in 1983 and was originally published in the Archive’s free book Life, Death and After Death. Find the entire multimedia teaching at:
http://multimedia.lamayeshe.com/finding-peace-in-everyday-life

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) at one of the holiest places in Bhutan, Kyichu Lhakhang, doing Guru Puja with tsog offering, Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Speaking on the importance of Guru Puja, also known as Lama Chöpa, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recounted the words of the great enlightened being Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo:

“If you are able to do the practice of Guru Puja in your daily life, it contains all the important points of sutra and tantra. It is a complete practice, and it shows the palm [which means the heart] of the instruction of the ear-lineage of Ganden [the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition].”

Rinpoche added, “Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo usually emphasizes that even if one can’t do much else in daily life, Guru Puja is the essential practice. … This practice of Guru Puja is very profound, with many extra benefits, and is very quick to bring enlightenment. The lamrim prayer, the prayer of the steps of the path to enlightenment, Guru Puja has lamrim and also lojong, or thought transformation. Generally, the whole of the lamrim, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, is thought transformation. If your mind is not transformed into the path, how can you have realizations of the path? There’s no way, without transforming your mind. All the lamrim realizations—guru devotion, perfect human rebirth (its usefulness and the difficulty of finding it again), impermanence and death and so forth—are lojong, thought transformation. … The lamrim prayer in Guru Puja contains all the profound, vital points of the complete path of sutra and tantra.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche presides over Guru Puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo also mentions that when we do this practice we should think of the meaning of the words and meditate, not just recite the words blah, blah, blah, like an express train. As much as possible we should reflect on the profound meanings. Doing this definitely leaves an extraordinary imprint of the complete pure path to enlightenment. …

“As Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo says, ‘One hundred waters are contained in Guru Puja.’ He probably means that just as all the many streams from the snow mountains and other places go into the ocean, all the important practices of sutra and tantra are condensed here in Guru Puja. If you do this practice every day, you don’t miss anything.

“Since this is the very heart of the scriptures of the manifestation of the Joyful One, the blessing is unequaled by any other practice. So, it has great importance.”

Guru Puja with tsog on Maitreya land, offered by Kopan monks and nuns, as well as Kopan monks from Sera, Sangha from Tsum, and Western students. Khadro-la also attended. Bodhgaya, India, January, 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this teaching at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, US, 2001. It appears in Teachings at the Medicine Buddha Retreat and in Commentary on Lama Chöpa Jorchö. 

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.

Tara statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, US, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche described the benefit of keeping holy objects in your house during a teaching in Taiwan in 2007. “In your own house, there are many buddha pictures, deities, photos, and statues. Having so many is great. Every day when you open your eyes, when you see all these holy objects, it purifies you.“

Room with Chenrezig statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

Rinpoche gave additional details, saying, “It purifies your defilements. It makes you see ten million buddhas in the near future and receive teachings from them. Then, you actualize the path, achieve liberation, and enlightenment. It plants the seed of enlightenment, all the realizations. It’s unbelievable what it does. Just when you open your eyes and see the holy statues, stupas, and scriptures—however many you have in the different rooms of your house—has unbelievable benefit. What it does for you, your family, all the people who are living in the house, is unbelievable.”

Room lined with holy objects at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

Rinpoche added, “What incredible purification and unbelievable merit you collect! Numberless great merits just by merely seeing the holy object—a painting of Buddha, or statue, or thangka, small or big. By one small photo or thangka, there are so many merits collected. In one thangka or in one picture of a thangka, there are so many, many hundreds.”

Rinpoche concluded by saying, “Anyway, by seeing one painting of Buddha, drawing of Buddha, you create great, numberless great merits—just by merely seeing ….”

Photographs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, US, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

Read the full teaching here:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/how-collect-more-merit-prostrations

You can support the creation of holy objects through the Holy Objects Fund, a charitable project of FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/holy-objects-fund/

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 being offered tsog during a Medicine Buddha initiation organized by Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelugzentrum, Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice to a student who wrote to him about experiencing many obstacles and low self-esteem. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice, given in February 2017:

… It’s very important to understand that death can happen any time—any year, any month, any week, any day, even on the same day, even in the next hour, even in the next minute—to ourselves and our parents, because this is the nature of impermanence. This is happening in the world every day. So many old people are dying, young people are dying, middle-aged people are dying, those in the womb are dying, every day. So far the fact that it hasn’t happened to us is unbelievable. We are very lucky, unbelievably lucky. Why? Because even though we have been creating a lot of negative karma, we now have the opportunity by meeting Dharma to purify and to change our life.

For example, Milarepa created a lot of negative karma but was able to purify that. In his early years Milarepa’s family, his uncle and aunt, treated him very badly and took everything, so Milarepa’s mother sent him to learn black magic. Then he did black magic on the day of the wedding, where thirty-six people were dancing and enjoying themselves and drinking, and under the house there were more than thirty-six animals, horses. The whole house collapsed, and all the people and animals died.

Milarepa felt bad and he went to seek his guru, Marpa, with nothing. He asked Marpa to give Dharma advice and he offered his body, speech, and mind. He asked for shelter and food. Marpa didn’t give him teachings and instead asked him to build a nine-story tower by himself. Marpa asked him to do it alone without any help, without one single person helping, only himself. Then he had to tear it down again, because Marpa asked him to, and he had to put all the stones back. Then Marpa asked him to build it again.

Milarepa did it three times in total. This was purification, to purify all his past bad karma. Then Marpa’s secret mother—who according to ordinary people is his wife—pushed Marpa to give teachings. Marpa was an enlightened being, not an ordinary being, so he manifested a mandala and gave an initiation, then he sent Milarepa to the mountains to do retreat. By following exactly what Marpa advised, Milarepa achieved enlightenment quickly in one brief lifetime of degenerate time.

By meeting Dharma, by purifying and collecting merit, we can create the causes to not be born in lower realms, to be born in the pure land, and to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, for ourselves and our parents. Therefore it’s meaningful to live long. If we didn’t meet Dharma, having a long life means we will just create negative karma and be born in the lower realms and then experience suffering for many eons.

Read the complete advice “Low Self-Esteem,” posted in August 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/low-self-esteem-0

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Aquila Nera horse sanctuary, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche went to a horse sanctuary one day during his stay at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia, a village in the Tuscan region of Italy. The sanctuary, called Aquila Nera, rescues race horse from being put to death and offers them a safe place to live out their lives. 

When Rinpoche visited in late-October, twenty-five horses were living there. Rinpoche visited because he very much wanted to bless the horses. Aquila Nera’s director, Davide Bassi, is a kind of horse whisperer and has a very sympathetic relationship with the sanctuary horses. During Rinpoche’s visit, Davide, using a few quiet words, called the horses to come. They rushed over and encircled Rinpoche.

Rinpoche reciting to the horses at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

With piqued ears, the horses listened attentively as Rinpoche recited mantras and texts such as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path and the Heart Sutra. After about a half hour, the horses began to drift away. They were also all blessed with a Padmasambhava relic and Rinpoche’s mantra wheel.

Rinpoche reciting to the horses at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by PIero Sirianni.

“It was very special day,” said Ven. Holly Ansett, who witnessed the interaction between the horses and Rinpoche. “I was quite moved by it.” 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a horse at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During Rinpoche’s visit to Pomaia in 2014, he went to the sanctuary to bless the horses and offered money for a small stupa that was placed in the sanctuary so that the horses could go around it. They do equine therapy at the sanctuary, and now the horses and therapy clients regularly walk around the stupa.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Davide Bassi and the people who care for the horses at Aquila Nera, Pomaia, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

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.

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. The Animal Liberation Fund supports this work.

Read more stories about Rinpoche’s efforts to benefit animals:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/.

Geshe Tenphel and Lama Zopa Rinpoche touring the grounds at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

The 100 Million Mani Mantra retreat in Italy with Lama Zopa Rinpoche concluded with a long life puja offered to Rinpoche. Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) organized the month-long retreat, where about 200 people participated in the entire retreat with hundreds more attending parts of the retreat. Sixty-eight million mani mantras were recited by participants.

Every day retreatants did Lama Chöpa practice in the morning. Then they did three sessions of Chenrezig sadhana. Rinpoche usually came and taught during the evening session and did the sadhana practice. Extensive bath offerings were done in front of the large Chenrezig statues. Throughout the retreat, Rinpoche gave clear and inspiring teachings covering many topics including, Lama Chöpa, bodhichitta, emptiness, and guru devotion. Video recordings of all of Rinpoche’s teachings are available on FPMT.org.

Vens. Jamyang, Namdrol, and Sarah Thresher doing the extensive bath offering, ILTK, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Many hard-working volunteers ensured that everything at the retreat went very well and that the needs of the large group were met. Participants walked to the village for meals where there was a large tent set up as a dining hall and kitchen. Ven. Charles from Institut Vajra Yogini in France came especially to volunteer as a cook for the retreat. 

Ven. Charles working in the kitchen, ILTK, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

During the retreat, Rinpoche met with and offered personal advice to many students, from many different centers, including groups from Nalanda Monastery in France and Aryatara Institut in Germany. He also met with students of the Basic Program and the Masters Program at ILTK. Three FPMT Foundation Service Seminar facilitators gave Rinpoche a short presentation about the training and received advice from him about it. Rinpoche also took time to offer blessings to children and pets.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a dog during the retreat at ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

Rinpoche’s days were full of activities, including an animal blessing by the water and blessing horses at a nearby sanctuary. He also visited the mother of Massimo Corona, whose family offered the building that is the center. She still lives on the property. Rinpoche had lunch with the center’s resident geshes one day and did sojong with fifty-five Sangha who were in attendance.

One day Rinpoche toured all the buildings and grounds of Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa. He visited the center’s gompas, classrooms, offices, the library, and kitchen. He visited Chiara Luce Edizioni, where they publish Dharma in Italian. Rinpoche also saw the studio where they make stupas, run by STUPA Onlus, which offered stupas to the retreat participants.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visits STUPA Onlus, ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During the beautiful long life puja on November 3, the teaching tent was packed to capacity. The energy for the puja was very strong, with heavy rain falling at auspicious times, and the sun coming out at the very end of the puja.

On the weekend following the retreat’s conclusion, Rinpoche offered two more days of initiations at ILTK. He then made short visits to Centro Terra di Unificazione Ewam in Florence and Centro Muni Gyana in Sicily. 

Rinpoche travels to Sera Je Monastery in South India next to give the Most Secret Hayagriva transmission, November 15-20. He then goes to Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre in New Delhi to continue the Golden Light Sutra transmission, November 25-26.

See dozens of new photos from Rinpoche’s time at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/italy-october-november-2017/

Video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings at ILTK are available here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/100-million-mani-mantra-retreat-2017/

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing rabbits at Osel Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A student who had tried to commit suicide several times and was very depressed wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche about being mistreated as a child and that her only friends are animals. Rinpoche responded to her with a long letter in September 2016 with stories about his own family and advice on karma and reincarnation, and he advised some ways of benefiting animals, such as charity for ants and animal liberation. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice to her:

In general, we have no idea of our father and mother. We lived nine months in our mother’s womb and then came out, and also our father, those who took care of us, we only remember a little, then the rest someone told us, like telling us, “This is your mother and this is your father.” It is usually up to what people say, then we believe what people say. Please don’t worry at all about these points, whether he is actually your father or not.

Please come to know that the Buddha, the Omniscient One, has so much compassion for you, for me, and for all sentient beings, like a hundred thousand times more than a mother has for her only cherished child. The Buddha has said that all sentient beings have been our own father and our own mother.

Even this life’s mother, it is not the first time she has been our mother. This life’s mother has been our mother numberless times from beginningless rebirth. This life’s father, it is not the first time he has been our father. He has been our father numberless times from beginningless rebirths. Not only as a human being but as many different living beings, such as those who get reborn from the womb, all the different kinds of animals, pretas (hungry ghosts) and many living beings. Like that he has been our father. Even when we were born in the animal realm, he was our father. Also all other sentient beings have been our mother and father numberless times.

Buddha said that he has been our father numberless times from beginningless samsaric rebirths. Everyone has been our father from beginningless samsaric rebirths—every animal in the ocean, large like a mountain and so small that we can’t see it with our own eyes but only through a machine. All the fish, turtles, sharks, all the numberless beings in the ocean have all been our own mother numberless times from beginningless rebirths, as well as being our own father. Every human being has been our mother numberless times, as well as being our father numberless times.

Like that they have also been our own brother and sister numberless times. They have also been extremely kind to us. By being our own father, mother, sister or brother, they have also supported us, given us food and saved us from harm and from death. They have supported us.

In addition there are numberless universes, not only this world, but numberless universes and numberless realms. That means numberless worldly gods, numberless human beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, all those beings in the different universes, of which there are numberless universes, they have all been our mother and father numberless times and we have been their mother and father numberless times. …

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing dogs and other animals as part of an animal blessing day, organized by Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.

When we are born from the womb, we have to have a mother, however, we have been born in all different ways and other sentient beings have all been our mother numberless times and have been kind to us numberless times.

Therefore, please enjoy your life and be happy; this is what the kind Omniscient One, the Compassion Buddha, explained. Through meditation, remembering the kindness of all beings and thinking about beginningless rebirths, you can realize this more and more, and you can remember hundreds and thousands of your past lives more and more. Then more and more you can realize how sentient beings have been your mother numberless times and have been kind to you.

I like you very much, also when you said you love animals; you said animals are like your life. I am smiling when I say this. It makes me very happy.

You see many people in the world do not know that even the animals have been their mother, father, brother and sister numberless times. They don’t know this and also they don’t understand karma and they don’t know about reincarnation, so they keep snakes, lizards and so forth as pets, and then they feed those animals with other animals like worms, crickets and live mice. That is mainly about one’s own attachment—not love, but attachment to just one type of animal. They have other animals like worms and so on to feed alive to their pet, but they don’t think that the other animals or insects also want happiness and don’t want suffering and don’t want to die. They don’t think of that and only think of the animals that they keep as pets. It is only those animals that they have attachment for. However, we must not be partial and we must have compassion for all beings, loving kindness for all, not just for one type of animal or just one person. That is not loving kindness or compassion; that is attachment.

Read the complete advice “You Are a Beautiful Human Being,” posted in July 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/you-are-beautiful-human-being

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Geshe Tenzin Tenphel and students touring the grounds at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa as Rinpoche said he wanted to see everything, ILTK, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche regularly offers specific practice advice to students who write him. Rinpoche gave this advice about preliminaries and lamrim meditation to a student who had asked for life practices. The following is an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice, given in October 2016:

What makes your life most meaningful is the lamrim. I suggest the main text for you to use is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. If you haven’t studied this text already, then study it from beginning to end, reading through it four times. That itself is lamrim meditation if you read it slowly and relate it to your own life.

As you read, if there’s anything you don’t understand, you can mark the text—not with black ink, but with orange or yellow color. Mark it respectfully, thinking this is the holy Dharma, which has two aspects—one aspect is the realizations and one aspect is the text, the letters, which explain the realizations.

Holy Dharma has two realizations, in case of realizing the absolute Dharma—the cessation of all the obscurations, the sufferings, and the true path to that, which leads to the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. These two are ultimate Dharma.

When you mark the text, you have to think that you are offering color with respect, like offering to a statue. Otherwise if you are just marking the text with a black line on top of the letter, it creates the negative karma to be born in hell, such as the second hell, called the Black Line Hell. Therefore, it’s important when you mark the text not to do it in a disrespectful manner.

The other thing is that you can buy a notebook and write nicely in that anything you don’t understand. Then you can meet with a geshe or elder student who has studied the lamrim well and you can ask the questions. In this way, you can learn. Or you can telephone and get the answers from someone who has studied the lamrim very well.

Study Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand four times and after that go through the lamrim outline using Liberation as a basis. Cycle through the lamrim outline completely three times.

After that, try to achieve the realization of correctly following the virtuous friend with thought and action, on the basis of the outline in the lamrim. Every day, more or less meditate on that. The time depends on yourself. Do this until you achieve the effortless realization of correctly following the virtuous friend.

After that, do the meditation on the graduated path of the lower capable being, up to karma. Particularly [focus] on the perfect human rebirth. Try to get the realization that your perfect human body is much more precious than skies filled with wish-granting jewels, so you realize the importance.

Even if we have skies filled with wish-granting jewels, that alone can’t help us to be free from the lower realms. That alone can’t help us to be free from samsara, free from lower nirvana, and we can’t achieve buddhahood from wish-granting jewels. With this perfect human body, even if we don’t have a tiny piece of a wish-granting jewel, we can achieve all of this up to enlightenment.

Read the complete advice “The Quickest Way to Achieve Enlightenment” posted in September 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/quickest-way-achieve-enlightenment

Find more from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on lamrim study and practice on FPMT Education Service’s lamrim resources page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/lam-rim/

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing marine animals in the Marina Cala de’ Medici, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

On October 8, 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed marine wildlife at the Marina Cala de’ Medici on the Ligurian Sea in Italy.

Joining Rinpoche aboard MV Brigitte Bardot, a trimaran belonging to the conservation organization Sea Shepherd, were the crew and a number of animal welfare workers, including Angelo Vaira, the well-known Italian founder of ThinkDog, a positive training dog school. Also participating were members of the Lega Italiana Protezione Uccell (LIPU), the Italian League for Bird Protection. Given Rinpoche’s dedication to caring for animals, there was a natural connection between all involved. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche pouring blessed water from the deck of the Brigitte Bardot into the Marina Cala de’ Medici, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

Hundreds of people attended the event, which saw the release of seagulls from a LIPU rescue center and Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing all the sea animals and birds with prayers and mantras. Rinpoche also blessed the pets that students had brought to the marina.

On the dock, Ven. Drachom, who has liberated millions of sentient being in Singapore, helped arrange a table with a stupa, texts, and other holy objects for blessings. There, Rinpoche shared advice on how to bless animals and the benefits of mantras.

While on the boat, Rinpoche explained the blessings that he was doing, which included blessing a large jug of water that was then poured into the sea. At Rinpoche’s request, protections, such as the Namgyälma mantra, were attached to the boat. 

Many visitors used this opportunity to board the boat, which set a world record in 1998 as the fastest motored vessel to circumnavigate the globe. The vessel bears the name of French actress and model Brigitte Bardot, who became a well-known animal rights activist and whom Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson took on an anti-sealing trip in 1977. The vessel was used in 2010 to campaign against Japanese whaling operations in the Antarctic Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The event at the marina was organized by Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, the FPMT center in Pomaia, Italy, where Rinpoche is currently guiding a month-long retreat.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Marina Cala de’ Medici, Italy, October 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Read about events, retreats, and classes at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa.

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