Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers gifts to children at FPMT’s Maitreya School, Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche cares deeply about children. Indeed, his Vast Visions include a focus on young people. What does Rinpoche say about children and youth?

Rinpoche has commented, “[FPMT should] help young people through meditation and consultation, and also help them offer volunteer service as part of their practice. This brings immediate benefit.” 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blesses a small boy who covers his mouth to show respect, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche has also explained his thoughts on raising children: “The best way to take care of children is to think of them simply as a sentient being rather than as my child. For example, when you generate bodhichitta for all sentient beings … it goes without saying that you [include] your own children … If you think in this way, you will have the same motivation to care for your children as you would any sentient being … So when you begin a practice with the motivation of bodhichitta, the thought to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings, recall that your child is one of those sentient beings and do the practice with that awareness. Similarly, when you conclude a practice with the dedication to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, remember that your child is one of those sentient beings …”

A young girl offers Lama Zopa Rinpoche a khata, Penang, Malaysia, March 2016. Photo by Bill Kane.

Rinpoche adds, “Because you, as a parent, have a particular karmic connection with and are responsible for the specific sentient beings that are your children, you should always pay special attention to the fact that your children are included among those sentient beings. By thinking in this way, you will have a totally different attitude toward your children; there will not be the slightest negative thought caused by the eight worldly concerns, and instead you will take care of them motivated by the positive thought of cherishing a sentient being.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visits with young people in New York City, USA, 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“On the other hand,” he continues, “if you allow yourself to come under the influence of the eight worldly concerns, when your children do something to please you, something that you like, you will happily take care of them. However, when they do something that is contrary to your wishes, something that upsets you or makes you angry, you may even be tempted to give them up entirely. This change in your attitude towards them happens because you are attached to your own happiness and want to avoid suffering and problems. With bodhichitta, you feel that your children are the most precious and the kindest beings in your life. If you have this attitude, you will take care of them with a healthy positive mind rather than with a negative emotional mind and the pain of attachment.

“As a parent, you can make yourself happy by thinking:

How wonderful that my life can be beneficial for even one sentient being.
How wonderful that I can take care of even one sentient being.
How wonderful that my limbs can be useful for looking after and bringing happiness to even one sentient being.

“Especially when you encounter difficulties—when your children do not listen to you, when you cannot control them and when you feel disappointed with them—it is good to rejoice in these ways.”

Children at FPMT’s Maitreya School in Bodhgaya, India, listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, January 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In 2013, Rinpoche dictated a special prayer for children to do, and gave a short commentary on it, in response to one center’s request for a prayer for children to recite:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/prayer-children

As a result of the interest Rinpoche and others take in the welfare and spiritual development of children, FPMT has various initiatives aimed at young people including Tara Redwood School, Creating Compassionate Cultures, Maitreya School, and children’s programs at some centers.

Read the complete teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on raising children with bodhichitta:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/1-raising-children-bodhicitta

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how we can teach our children the good qualities and behavior that are essential for achieving every type of happiness, both short- and long-term, in the book Joyful Parents, Successful Children. Get the ebook from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: https://shop.fpmt.org/Joyful-Parents-Successful-Children-eBook_p_2710.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 examines an instrument while visiting a home where he was offered music, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Is it good to play music?

“Music can bring so much joy and happiness to people,” said Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 2005, “especially if it’s performed with a good motivation.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche enjoys some music, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In explaining how to play music in the most beneficial way, he added, “Also, if one is able to play purely to bring joy to others then one becomes less attached to music being ‘my music’. In that way, you don’t break vows or create negative karma. Also, you can visualize when you play music that you are offering clouds of music to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions who are in essence your own root guru.”

Singer Lhamo Dukpa offers a song to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Losang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche enjoying playing the cymbals. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting Khyongla Rato Rinpoche on Chokhor Duchen to respectfully make offerings to a beloved guru, New York, USA, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

A student wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche saying that he felt no one liked him. Rinpoche responded as follows.

When you had very negative thoughts before, thinking “nobody loves me, no one cares for me etc.,” you had so much unhappiness made by your own mind. You had that very unhappy mind for a long time. You have been thinking that the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas do not love you; they don’t care for you, you are completely left out, and they let you suffer.

This way of thinking shows that you do not have renunciation of attachment, and also not an understanding of bodhichitta or emptiness.

Actually they cherish you one hundred thousand times more than the amount you love yourself. If they did not love you and cherish you, then you would not be a human being in this life. And even if you were, you would not have created all the virtues that you have, so much benefit for sentient beings would not have happened, and all this Dharma education you would not have. All of this, so much, so much, so much—you would not have.

It is important to understand the meditators, monks, nuns, and also lay people who are living in renunciation. Renunciation means to renounce attachment to this life, to future lives, to samsara. So they do not feel “nobody loves me.” They are so satisfied; they have inner peace and happiness. The stronger the renunciation, the more peace and happiness inside.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche greets Lama Monlam in Sarnath, India, January 2017. Photo by Paolo Regis.

Many people do not know this. They think that to be brought presents, flowers, and cakes makes them sooooooo happy.

But to generate the two bodhichittas, loving kindness, and compassion is not attachment. Like a mother, in just the way she cherishes her child, so the meditator cherishes numberless hell beings, preta beings, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings, and all sentient beings—and then generates the precious thought to achieve full enlightenment for all these mother sentient beings.

From this there are skies of happiness and peace.

This is very important news. This can be very helpful for many other people, be they students or just ordinary people. The sadness, feeling alone, that no one loves you, this comes from attachment to this life. That’s why they need renunciation. This is the antidote that brings inner peace and happiness. It means the mind becoming pure Dharma.

The great ascetic Tsangpa Gyare [the founder of the Drukpa lineage] who is the savior of transmigratory beings, said, “Do not lose the auspicious connection with the valid perfect one. Even if you lose auspicious connections with everyone else, so be it. But if you lose the connection with the valid perfect one, then even if all transmigratory beings become your relatives—what is the use of that?

Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) at Maitripa College, Portland, OR, US, June 2012. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.

Transcribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, USA, November 2016. Lightly edited by Mandala.

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.

A wall painting of the Buddha’s mother inside the Buddha Dordenma statue, photographed during Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to the site, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Can creating art be a Dharma practice?

Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed this in 2005. Here is what he said:

“The first thing to think about,” explained Rinpoche, “is one’s attitude. The purpose of making the painting or of creating any work of art should only be to benefit others. One should do the artwork to pacify all one’s wrong concepts and disturbing emotional thoughts. While creating, one should keep a motivation of purifying negative karma and actualizing the good heart, loving kindness, bodhichitta, and, in fact, the whole path to enlightenment. By transforming one’s attitude into Dharma, one integrates one’s art with Dharma.”

A photo of a Buddha statue with lights around it taken at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land. Photo by Chris Majors.

Rinpoche continued, “The second thing is the art itself. One should make objects that have a spiritual meaning. One can represent bodhisattvas’ life stories or the Buddha’s life story, showing how they practiced patience and perseverance for the happiness of other sentient beings. One could paint the life stories of great holy beings and present the ways they sacrificed their lives for other sentient beings by practicing renunciation, bodhichitta, and emptiness. One could show how they were always aware of karma. One could use art to show how happiness results from good actions and suffering from negative actions. [This] … is the integration of art with Dharma.”

Ani Wy painting the face of the Buddha during a visit of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Penang, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche concluded, “At the beginning of every day, one should pray like this: Due to all my past and future merits, may anyone who sees, touches, or remembers this painting (or other object) never be born in the lower realms. May all disturbing spirit harms and obscurations be purified. May they achieve enlightenment as soon as possible by actualizing the whole path and may they have joy and happiness in their hearts.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche examines a painting of Namtose at the National Museum of Bhutan, Paro, Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Find the original teaching here:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/art-and-dharma

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

Vens. Sherab and Tendar, attendants of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, make tormas for a puja Rinpoche will preside over, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

What exactly are tormas? The word is Tibetan (the Sanskrit is balingta) and refers to an offering cake used in rituals. There are various different types of tormas for different purposes.

Tormas can be ornamented in many ways, such as with discs molded from butter that represent the sun and moon. More elaborate tormas feature multiple colors. In Tibet, tormas were usually made of tsampa (roasted barley flour), but these days other edibles such as biscuits can also be used. The practice of offering tormas can be a way to accumulate merit and eliminate obstacles.

Elaborate tormas made of tsampa and butter inside the Great Buddha Dordenma, a large Shakyamuni Buddha statue in Bhutan. The photo was taken when Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the statue. Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained the origins and meaning of the word torma during teachings at Shakyamuni Center in Taiwan in February 2007.

“Tor in Tibetan is that which, when the hurricane or tornado comes, the whole city, whole town, after one hour, is totally destroyed, everywhere pieces, all the houses gone, so all the pieces are tor. Or when in a field you plant crops you throw seeds, this is called tor. Or when you give grain, when you give food to birds, you tor, but not so much that, tor is more like the hurricane destroying a city or town, after half an hour, one hour, totally, everything is scattered. Tor is like that, something scattered or destroyed. Tor is more in the sense of destroy. So torma, that which destroys.

A variety of elaborate tormas could be seen on the altar at Satsam Chorten, Bhutan, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited there, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“So one meaning of torma is destroying miserliness, your miserliness, so therefore torma are made very rich, the best and richest quality you can make. It means you spend money destroying your miserliness, making a good offering to the deity. So that’s one meaning of tor, that which destroys your miserliness, your attachment.

At Kopan Monastery, monks offer small tormas to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a long life empowerment. Larger tormas stand on the altar in the background. Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

“Then the other meaning is related also to the maha-anuttara tantric path, where the experience of transcendental wisdom, the great bliss, the voidness, is the real torma. That is the real torma … So then that tor destroys like a bomb; it destroys the root of samsara: the ignorance holding the I, the aggregates, to be truly existent. So the torma is that which destroys that …  

A monk offering a red-colored torma as tsog during lama dances at Kopan Monastery, December 2016. Photo by Laura Miller.

“Just one more word, then finish. Why do Tibetans make tormas so beautiful, with decorations and shapes, as beautiful as they can make them? It creates the cause to have beautiful bodies in future lives if you make the tormas very beautiful …”

A special torma is wrapped in straw and burned on the Day of Miracles to symbolize the destruction of all negativities, Kopan Monlam, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 15, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

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 in front of a thangka of the Buddha in a restaurant in Paro, Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a concise teaching last April at Losang Dragpa Centre in Malaysia on “the kindness of the enemy,” now available in a 20-minute video.

“What is the advice?” asked Rinpoche. “Take the loss on yourself and offer the victory to others!”

“That,” he emphasized, “is the practice of Buddhism, especially Mahayana Buddhism. That is the advice. That is what the Buddha practiced.”

Rinpoche added, “You don’t fight, peace, then practice patience, good heart, peace. In this way, what happens? It looks like you lost, like you are stupid. People in the world think you don’t know anything, you lost, you are stupid. People in the world think that … [But] in this way, offering the victory and taking the loss on yourself now, for many lifetimes, so many lifetimes, wow, wow, wow, hundreds, thousands you win, you win, all the future you win, you win, so many times, not just one time, so many times you win!”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

At the end of the talk, Rinpoche emphasized that through the practice of patience, the enemy who is angry at you “is giving you enlightenment so that you can free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsaric sufferings, not only that, you bring them to peerless happiness, cessation of all mistakes and completion of all realizations … so the kindness is wow, wow. Their anger is very needed by you … You understand? So the kindness of the enemy, wow, wow, wow!”

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche share this teaching on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DixeHnan8BE&feature=youtu.be

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 Kopan abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi share a smile while watching the performances after the enthronement of Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Kopan Monastery since late February.

Rinpoche first celebrated Tibetan New Year (Losar) at Kopan.

Palden Lhamo puja early morning on Tibetan New Year (Losar), presided over by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

He also circumambulated and made offerings at stupas in Boudhanath and Swayambu.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche making late night flower offerings at Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

As well, he presided over the enthronement of Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche (the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Kopan’s former abbot), a celebration that attracted almost a thousand visitors to Kopan, and he visited the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre in Kathmandu.

Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche at his enthronement, Kopan Monastery, March 6, 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

Rinpoche also met with His Eminence Jangtse Chöje Lobsang Tenzin Rinpoche, who came to Kopan to attend the Great Prayer Festival (Monlam Chenmo) and teach on mind training on March 14. Jangstse Chöje Rinpoche received a warm welcome when he arrived, with gyalings, cymbals, and banners, and lines of students offering khatas.

His Eminence Jangtse Chöje Rinpoche arriving at Kopan Monastery, March 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche also met with Yangsi Rinpoche, IMI Sangha, and other lamas and dignitaries.

Yangsi Rinpoche participating in the enthronement of Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

While at Kopan, Rinpoche also visited with students doing a three-month Vajrasattva retreat at the monastery, and gave them encouragement and advice.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the Vajrasattva retreatants during their three-month retreat at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On March 7, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an Amitayus long life initiation attended by Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche and his younger brother, the newly enthroned Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, among many others.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving a long life empowerment, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 7, 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

Rinpoche later attended a Lama Chöpa with tsog, where he was joined by Jangtse Chöje Rinpoche. The gompa was full for this precious opportunity for both monastic and lay students to celebrate Lama Chöpa with their revered lamas; robes and funds were offered to Sangha, and the tsog overflowed. After the puja, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a talk about the importance of circumambulation, stressing the need for setting a beneficial motivation and describing how to visualize offering rice to a stupa.

Rinpoche’s visit to Kopan was honored with a grand thank-you dinner at the Hyatt Hotel in Kathmandu, located near Boudhanath Stupa. The meal was attended by approximately 400 people, including many of the international guests who came for the enthronement of Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, senior Kopan monks and nuns, IMI Sangha, and local volunteers who helped during the three days of enthronement celebrations. Kopan’s abbot, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and Paula de Wijs-Koolkin, who first came to Kopan in 1972 and attended the November course that year, gave short speeches after dinner. (Three other people who attended the November 1972 course were also present for the enthronement celebrations—Ven. Yeshe Khadro, Luca Corona, and Marcel Bertels.)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaking to attendees at the dinner at the Hyatt. Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

After the meal, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice again on circumambulation, and close to 200 people followed him over to Boudhanath Stupa. There, Rinpoche led them in seven circumambulations around the stupa, stopping occasionally to give reminders about motivation, offer advice, and, at the end, lead a dedication. The circumambulation ended around midnight, and—tired but joyful—those present said goodnight to each other and to Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading dedications late at night after circumambulating Boudhanath Stupa with a group of students, Nepal, March 8, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

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 giving a talk at the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre, with spiritual program coordinator Holly Guy listening, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

On March 2, 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the new location of FPMT’s center in Kathmandu, Nepal, known as the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre (HBMC). HBMC was established in 1982 by Lama Yeshe and offers teachings and meditation. In recent years, teachings have been given there by Cherok Lama, who was born in 1993 in Nepal, as well as by FPMT registered teachers Ven. Robina Courtin, Ven. Joan Nicell, Jimi Neal, and others.

A year ago, HBMC was forced to move from its old location in the popular Thamel district of Kathmandu to the Naxal area due to damage caused to its building by Nepal’s massive April 2015 earthquake. The center is now located in the loft of an historic old house, one of very few of its type that survived the quake. This particular house, over 100 years old, was originally built by a Nepali king as lodging for visiting royal musicians.

During his visit, Rinpoche listened as the new spiritual program coordinator, Holly Guy, described the program the center currently offers as well as ideas for the future. Rinpoche then offered advice for the center’s further development. He also led those present, who were mostly Sangha, in “Praises to the Twenty-One Taras” for the center’s success.

The shrine at the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Joan Nicell.

Holly Guy sees much potential in HBMC’s new location. The center is above a pleasant restaurant which also offers several guest rooms. The restaurant, rumored to have excellent food, will help ensure visitors to the center can enjoy themselves over a snack or meal before or after events. The center is also now developing ways to earn income: tours and pilgrimages to holy places in the Kathmandu valley and other sites in the Himalayas.

Before the visit to HBMC, Rinpoche took the Sangha and others for lunch at the popular Yak and Yeti Hotel.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Sangha, and other students lunch at the Yak and Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu after the visit to the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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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.

Preparing for the enthronement: Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi at the beginning of the ceremony, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 6, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

Monday March 6—today—is the start of the enthronement celebrations for the reincarnation of Kopan Monastery’s beloved long-time abbot, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup. The official enthronement of Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche took place this morning (Nepal time) in the main Kopan gompa, festooned for the occasion and presided over by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other lamas.

Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup arrived at Kopan Monastery in 1973. He was “mother, father, teacher, friend” to the monks and nuns of Kopan, as well as to many Western and Asian students, and he oversaw the growth and development of the monastery and nunnery for almost forty years until his passing in 2011.

Monks from Kopan’s tantric college began the auspicious day, blowing their long horns in the early morning. Then Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Kopan’s current abbot, and others escorted the young Tenzin Rigsel Rinpoche up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s room for the hair cutting ceremony, when his name was changed to Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche. 

The hair cutting ceremony, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 6, 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Morning prayers were followed by the enthronement ceremony itself.

Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche attends morning prayers before the ceremony with, left to right, Losang Namgyal Rinpoche, Ven. Ngodrup Tsering, Ven. Thubten Kunkhen (Khensur Lama Lhundrub’s attendant), Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, March 6, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

After the ceremony, there was a long khata offering line for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, and Khen Rinpoche. Many other lamas attended the ceremony, including Yangsi Rinpoche, president of Maitripa College; Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog; Kundol Rinpoche; Cherok Lama Rinpoche; Lama Monlam; the manager of Sera Je Monastery; the manager of Tsawa Khangsten at Sera Je; and representatives from the fifteen Gelug monasteries in Kathmandu, Nepal.

About 300 invited guests are staying at Kopan Monastery and Nunnery for the event, and more than a thousand came for the ceremony. These included large groups from Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong; approximately fifteen IMI Sangha; ten FPMT center directors; and Mandala’s managing editor Laura Miller. The parents of Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, who is the younger brother of Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, came from Tsum, a remote valley area of Nepal; many Tsumpas (people from Tsum) also attended.

With so many attendees, some people had to sit in the courtyard. A group of Tsumpas sit on the left. Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 6, 2107. Photo by Laura Miller.

After the ceremony, lunch was offered to all, with Kopan’s Enlightenment Garden transformed into a beautiful dining area.

Lunch in the Enlightenment Garden, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 6, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

In the afternoon, there was an offering of songs and dances in the courtyard in front of the gompa, including performances by singers and dancers and lama dances by Kopan monks. 

Young monks dancing during the celebrations, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 6, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

The entire enthronement celebration will run for three days and include a long life initiation offered by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the arrival of His Eminence Jangtse Chöje Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin, a pilgrimage to Swayambu Stupa, and a special dinner at the Hyatt Hotel.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, who has just offered a khata, Losar celebrations, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived the night of February 25 at Kopan Monastery in Nepal to join in the Losar (Tibetan New Year) celebrations there. He had traveled from Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India, where he visited briefly. On his arrival at Kopan, monks lined up with khatas to welcome him, and he was also offered khatas by Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Kopan’s beloved Geshe Lama Konchog, who had recently arrived from Sera Je Monastery; Western Sangha members; and Western students participating in Kopan’s three-month Vajrasattva retreat.

Waiting to welcome Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 25, 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche congratulating monks from Kopan Monastery School, February 2017. Photo from Kopan Monastery School via Facebook.

On Sunday, February 26, Kopan Monastery School had its year-end ceremony and celebration, during which exam results were announced and the monks received recognition and awards for their performance during the 2016-7 school year. Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended as well as Kopan’s abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi. Rinpoche spoke to the monks, reminding them how fortunate they were to study the monastic texts and offering them encouragement to work hard on their studies.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended Lama Chöpa tsog on the morning of Losar, celebrating the beginning of the new year with all the Kopan monks and nuns. Rinpoche gave a talk to the monks and nuns in Tibetan during the puja. 

At Lama Chöpa puja, Losar celebrations, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

After the puja, khatas were offered to the rinpoches attending the puja and Kopan’s abbot. Then a big community picnic lunch followed. Tenzin Rigsel Rinpoche, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup‘s reincarnation, who will be enthroned next week at Kopan, also attended the picnic. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blesses Kopan’s monks and nuns after the picnic, Losar celebrations, February 2017, Nepal. Photo by Bijaya R. Tuladhar via Facebook.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and everyone at FPMT International Office wish all of our readers a big Losar Tashi Delek—Happy Tibetan New Year—to all!

Lama Chöpa offerings at Losar, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 2017. Photo by Laura Miller.

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.

Incense offering puja dedicated to all beings who are sick, presided over by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at his house, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was asked for advice by a student who has cancer. His brother is taking care of him, including helping him go the bathroom and cleaning him afterward. Rinpoche typed up the following advice himself to send to the student:

Tell the person who has cancer that when I was with Lama Yeshe, Lama Yeshe cooked and took care of me, and I just sat and did prayers, and wandered around the world, looking like meditating.

So on the way to Los Angeles to check in at the hospital, Lama was meant to have an operation, but they did not operate because it was too late, they said. They hired a small airplane, on the way on the plane I had to clean Lama’s holy kaka, maybe two times. That made Lama very happy. It looked to me like Lama did that just for me, so that I could purify many eons of negative karma. Maybe this is why especially Lama was happy. So this is the quick path to enlightenment.

Tell the person who is cleaning up after the student who has cancer that also Buddha practiced charity, giving his life and his eyes and limbs numberless times for three countless eons. Then he practiced pure morality, all the hardships for three countless eons, then even cut his own limbs. He practiced perseverance, concentration, and wisdom for three countless eons then completed the two merits, the merit of wisdom and of method, and then achieved the two kayas, holy body and mind. So this was all for us sentient beings to be fully free from samsara and bring to full enlightenment.

So taking care of him, cleaning his kaka and pee-pee, is like this. It is for collecting the most extensive merits and for purification, and is a quick way to achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings. So is soooooooo precious, so kind for us. Thank you.

Also know that even if he is not cherishing numberless sentient beings, just even cherishing one sentient being brings one to enlightenment. For example Aryasanga (Asanga) did not see Maitreya Buddha even after twelve years of retreat. Then he left to come down on the road and he saw a black dog totally wounded, full of maggots. Aryasanga felt soooooooooooooo much compassion for the dog that he cut flesh from his thigh—not somebody else’s thigh—to put the maggots on. Then he stretched out his tongue, closing his eyes, but his tongue did not touch the maggots on the dog. So he then opened his eyes and he saw Maitreya Buddha, he grasped Maitreya Buddha. And he said, “How come for so long I did not see you when I was in retreat?” Maitreya Buddha said, “I was always there in the cave with you.” Then he showed Aryasanga where he, Aryasanga, had spit in the cave, and actually he had spit on Maitreya Buddha’s robe!

Then Maitreya Buddha asked him, “What do you want?” Aryasanga asked for teachings, then Maitreya Buddha took him in the pure land of Tushita. One morning there is like fifty years in the human realm. Maitreya Buddha gave teachings. When Aryasanga came down he wrote five treaties of teachings, like Abhisamayalamkara and so forth. A long time afterward, Lama Atisha wrote The Lamp of Path to Enlightenment, which contains the whole path. As a result, for soooo many years up to now, so many beings have achieved full enlightenment and are free from samsara and able to free so many other beings from samsara and bring them to full enlightenment.

So what I am saying is that numberless sentient beings have achieved full enlightenment from those teachings up to now and have actualized the whole path to full enlightenment. This came from Aryasanga generating great compassion to that wounded dog.

Another story is in the commentary on Vajrayogini. Getsul Tsembulwa was the disciple of a great yogi called Nakpo Chopawa. Getsul Tsembulwa was a monk living in thirty-six vows. So first his teacher came, he was going for his last conduct (tantric conduct) in Odi close to Buxa, where I lived eight years. So there was a big river. At the river’s edge, there a was totally poor lady, full of leprosy, and pus and blood coming out of her, she was so dirty. And she was asking, “Please take me to the other side of the river.” The great yogi Nakpo Chopawa did not listen; he went straight across the river without helping her. Then his disciple Getsul Tsembulwa came and she asked him the same thing. As soon as he saw her there arose unbelievable compassion in him. He did not care at all that by touching her he might also get leprosy, or that she was a woman and therefore, as a monk, he should not touch her. He immediately carried her across the river on his back. When he was only halfway across the river, because of the compassion he generated, he had purified soooooooo much negative karma and obscurations that the lady was no longer that dirty ordinary lady, but actually Dorje Pagmo (Vajrayogini). She was Dorje Pagmo from beginning but he could not see that. Now he saw Dorje Pagmo. Then without the need to leave this body, she took him in the pure land Thakpa Khachoe. There one can definitely become enlightened.

So you see, definitely you can be enlightened by generating compassion, such as toward that lady who was unbelievably dirty and sick. There are numberless stories that show this.

So now he should think that the person who he is caring for, cleaning up, is the most precious, kindest, wish-fulfilling gem. Even it is only one person. Destroy cherishing the I, which is the source of all the suffering of oneself and the source of all other sentient beings’ sufferings.

Please take care well and think about these teachings and understand them well. Generating compassion for people who are sick with cancer etc., cleaning their kaka and pee-pee, and serving them is extremely important, even for this life, for all the wishes to succeed, and then also for hundreds of thousands and millions of lives, to have unbelievable success and to quickly actualize the path and achieve enlightenment.

Bodhisattva Thogme Zangpo said, “All suffering comes from desiring happiness for oneself. The full completed realization, the total cessation of all the obscurations, comes from the thought of benefiting others.”

Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa said, “For profit offer the victory to sentient beings. Why? Because all the collection of goodness comes from that sentient being. All the loss take on yourself, because all the harms and sufferings came from cherishing the I. Take any defeat or loss on yourself.”

Incense offering puja with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, dedicated to all beings who are sick, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Advice dated November 2016, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, WA, USA. Transcribed by Ven. Holly Ansett and edited by Mandala.

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.