Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with balloons and a hat that he has covered with mantras and prayers, Washington State, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been busy in recent weeks filling the world with mantras!

At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington State in the United States, in order to bless sentient beings on the land there and in the water nearby, Rinpoche has been wearing a mantra-covered hat; releasing balloons with mantras he has written on them; flying flags and banners covered with mantras; placing plastic-covered floating mantras in lakes; putting mantras on the roofs of bird feeders; holding microfilm containing multiple mantras above lakes and other places where creatures live; playing recordings of mantras; chanting mantras himself; and blessing the water in lakes and even a birdbath with a Padmasambhava mantra etched in glass.

The purpose of all these mantras? To bless and purify sentient beings, and ensure they have better futures. Rinpoche has explained in the past three ways of benefiting animals, fish, birds, and insects: taking them around holy objects while chanting mantras and prayers, blessing water they are in contact with, and chanting mantras loudly so they can hear them. Rinpoche and the Sangha have been doing all of these extensively at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land.

Read more about FPMT’s activities to benefit animals on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/.

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#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.

A mantra hat for students, designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, is available through the Foundation Store.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the sentient beings in Omak Lake, Washington State, USA, September 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche recently spent some time blessing Omak Lake, near Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington State, USA. Rinpoche did extensive prayers and mantras for all the sentient beings in the lake now as well as those who will be there in future. Rinpoche had asked the Sangha earlier to make floating Namgyalma mantras: mantras written on paper and laminated with plastic so that they float above the living beings, blessing them.

Why bless a lake? In 2013, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that his goal when he blesses bodies of water is to “liberate all the animals and fish … to free them from the suffering of rebirth, old age, sickness and death, and to help them achieve total liberation from suffering and attain the state of omniscient mind, the peerless happiness!” According to Rinpoche in his book Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death, the living beings in the lake can experience purification of their karma and avoid the lower realms in the future. Rinpoche recounts the following story there:

“When the Buddha gave teachings to 500 swans in a field, in their next life they were born as human beings. They became monks and all became arya beings, able to achieve the cessation of suffering and the true path. So the result is unbelievable, just by hearing Dharma words. Vasubandhu (Lopön Yignyen) was reciting one text called the Abhidharmakosha and a pigeon on the roof heard this every day. When the pigeon died, Lopön Yignyen checked to see where the pigeon had been reborn. It was in a family who lived down below in the valley. He went down and saw the child … The child became a monk named Lopön Loden. He became an expert on the text which he had heard when he was a pigeon … Therefore, it’s extremely important to recite lam-rim prayers and mantras to animals.”

Read more about FPMT’s activities to benefit animals on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/animals/.

Benefiting animals is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#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 is sped to a teaching, New York City, USA, July 2016. Photo by Nan Meng.

“This is a very good meditation on emptiness,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book Kadampa Teachings, adding, “It’s simple but profound, and gives us a clear understanding.”

“When we hear or think of one year, ‘Oh, it takes one year to do that,’ whether it’s study or travel, it’s a real one year, one that exists from its own side. Now, when you analyze that one year, you find that it is labeled on the base, twelve months. ‘One year’ is imputed by your mind to the base, twelve months.

“So, what is one year? Twelve months. Twelve months is what is called ‘one year.’ When we think of the base, the twelve months, it’s not that one year becomes totally nonexistent. One year exists, but it exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind. It’s not that it becomes totally nonexistent. It’s not that there’s no one year. There is one year, but it is something unbelievably subtle. What one year is is extremely subtle … The one year that you thought of at the beginning doesn’t exist. The real one year that you thought of without thinking of the twelve months, the real one year existing from its own side, is not there. It doesn’t exist. That one doesn’t exist at all, anywhere. It’s not on the tip of your nose, nor anywhere else. I’m joking. It exists nowhere. When you think of the base, the twelve months, your understanding of one year is something totally different from what appeared to you and what you believed before. It’s not that real one at all. The one year still exists. It’s not nonexistent; it exists, but it’s empty, empty of existing from its own side. It’s empty of the year that you first thought of, that first appeared to you and in which you believed. When you think of the twelve months, the one year exists but it’s now something totally different from what you thought before, from what appeared to you and what you believed before. It’s totally different. It exists but it’s empty. It exists but it’s unified with emptiness. So, this is the Middle Way….”

Read more from Kadampa Teachings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/kadampa-teachings

Get the e-book or a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Kadampa-Teachings–Hard-Copy_p_1283.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.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching in Strasbourg, France, September 2016. Photo by Olivier Adam.

With organizational help from numerous FPMT volunteers, the city of Strasbourg, France, hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lama on September 17 and 18, 2016. His Holiness taught from Nagarjuna’s Commentary on Bodhichitta, conferred an Avalokiteshvara initiation, and gave a public talk entitled “Ethics Beyond Religion.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has called offering service to His Holiness the Dalai Lama “the quickest and most vast way of benefiting sentient beings.” It is the first of Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT. 

Ten Buddhist centers representing the four Tibetan Buddhist schools were involved in this visit by His Holiness, François Lecointre, director of Institut Vajra Yogini, reported, including three French FPMT centers: Institut Vajra Yogini, Nalanda Monastery, and Centre Kalachakra. He explained that in the early 1990s, at His Holiness’s behest, Buddhist centers in France created the Fédération du Bouddhisme Tibétain, so there is never just one center organizing a visit. “Whoever wants to join can,” said François. “It is a way to develop links and harmony among centers. And that FPMT centers help to organize teachings by His Holiness strengthens our link to him and preserves the lineage. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said clearly many times that our number one priority as an organization is to serve His Holiness by all means possible. So it is great to be involved in organizing his events.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching in Strasbourg, France, September 2016. Photo by Olivier Adam.

FPMT volunteers were involved in reception, seating, security, ticketing, as well as other tasks. “The expertise of FPMT people in webcasts was also a great asset,” reported François, adding that “a record 1.2 million people listened to His Holiness’s public talk on the webcast. For each of the 8,000 people listening in the hall, 150 people were listening in their homes.” The multi-language webcast set-up had been tested earlier at the Light of the Path retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the US, he said.

Read more about His Holiness’s visit to Strasbourg in Mandala magazine’s latest online feature “Strasbourg, France Hosts His Holiness the Dalai Lama”:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/in-depth-stories/strasbourg-france-hosts-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama/

Additional details about the Strasbourg visit and webcasts of the teachings are available at www.dalailama-strasbourg2016.com and on the website of the Fédération du Bouddhisme Tibétain at http://www.fbt-asso.org.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche enjoying lunch with Khandro-la in Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Discovering the suffering nature of samsara makes you very happy to restrain yourself from engaging in negative karma, in unrighteous actions,” declares Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book Kadampa Teachings, adding, “The more you meditate, the more you discover that samsara and samsaric pleasures are only suffering in nature … Your wish to achieve liberation then becomes stronger.

“You then take vows, either lay vows such as the eight precepts or five lay vows or ordination as a monk or nun, with thirty-six or 253 vows. You are very happy to take vows, and you are also very happy to live in those vows. You don’t feel as if you living in a prison. The more analytical meditation you do, the more you discover the suffering nature of samsara and samsaric pleasures, especially the ones to which you are strongly attracted. The more you see that they are suffering, the more aversion to them you have and the stronger your wish to be free from them and achieve liberation. The very basic means to achieve liberation, to be free from this suffering, is by living in vows, either lay vows or the vows of a monk or nun. You are then very happy to do this, because you know that this is the path that protects you. This is your fundamental protection, protecting you from delusions, from negative karma and from all the sufferings of samsara. The stronger your thought to achieve liberation, the happier your mind is when you’re living in vows. It’s not that anybody is forcing you; it comes from your own heart. It’s as if you are suddenly being released after being in prison for a long time.”

Read more from Kadampa Teachings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/kadampa-teachings

Get the e-book or a print copy from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Kadampa-Teachings–Hard-Copy_p_1283.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 the “Just by Seeing” mantra he has written out, Washington, USA, October 2016.

“Merely seeing this mantra purifies 100,000 eons of negative karma,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche, adding, “This is said by Buddha in the sutra Pagpa Chu Lung Rolpai Do.”

Called the Pagpa Chu Lung Rolpai Do mantra or the “Just by Seeing” mantra, one is purified by merely seeing it in Tibetan says Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who in the above photo is holding up a copy he has recently written out himself while on retreat in Washington State.

The “Just by Seeing” mantra is spoken OM HANU PHASHA BHARA HE YE SVAHA and is reproduced again here in easier-to-read Tibetan:

Mantras, meaning “mind protection,” are Sanskrit syllables that are usually recited in conjunction with the practice of a particular meditational deity and embody the qualities of the deity with whom they are associated. They bring benefit to all who see, touch, hear, or speak them. Some mantras are so powerful that they are said to be able to benefit others even when no virtuous motivation is present.

The Just by Seeing / Pagpa Chu Lung Rolpai Do mantra is available on the FPMT.org mantras page.

This mantra is also found on the Precious Mantra Hat designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and available through the Foundation Store.

For advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the benefits of particular mantras, or how to engage with mantras to eliminate or reduce obstacles, please visit FPMT.org for Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Tso Pema, India, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“We are completely hallucinating,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in his latest book, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats.

He continues: “This is the real situation we are faced with. It is a big mistake—the biggest mistake—that we make, to see things as existing from their own side, existing by themselves, as truly existing. To use ordinary language, things appear real to us, real from there. This ignorance is a hallucination; it decorates an object. I find this a very interesting way of describing it. This is how it happens. Past ignorance has left an imprint on the mind and that negative imprint decorates, projects, the hallucination, making the I appear as real. Whatever the object of the mind is—the I, the action, the object, form, sound, smell, taste, tangible object—the whole thing appears to us as real. There is a real car, a real road, a real sky, a real shop, real ice cream, real money … In the real gompa there are real flowers, real thangkas, real statues. Everything is real … We have no idea that it is only a hallucination …

“Everything is totally empty. It’s like a dream, like an illusion. If we are able to meditate this way, looking at all this like a dream, an illusion, a mirage—all the different examples—then it becomes very interesting. There is nothing to become attached to because it is not real.”

Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings

Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.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 blesses a waiter in a restaurant in Thailand, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.

“Every single sentient being … is our wish-granting jewel,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in his latest book, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats. He adds, “This is the purpose of our life, to live for them, for their happiness, to serve them.”

“Maybe you are working in an old folks’ home or something and you take care of one old person,” Rinpoche continues. “You should think … that you are so fortunate to be able to use your body, speech, and mind, your limbs, to serve this one sentient being. Remembering that all your past lives’ happiness, your present happiness and your future happiness all come from this person, you should see him or her as most kind, most precious, most dear. Then you serve that person in whatever way you can. If there is something you are unable to do, what to do? We are all limited in power, but whatever you are able to do, offer that service from your heart … offer your body, speech, and mind. That is the best Dharma, the best meditation. Then you will be happy. The more you appreciate how precious serving another being is, the more you enjoy it. It doesn’t have to be a guru you are serving. Your mind will be so happy to serve, whatever you can do. This applies to even the small things in your daily life: offering your seat to somebody on the bus, helping somebody carry a heavy load or, as my guru Kyabje Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche often mentioned, rescuing a drowning insect. Try to do whatever you can to help, according to your capacity, whether it’s big or small.”

Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings

Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.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 visiting New York City, US, August 2016

A student served as secretary to an FPMT center for many years. Lama Zopa Rinpoche sent his thanks:

My very dear student,

Billions, zillion, trillion times numberless thanks to you for working with your body, speech, and mind in the center for fifteen years.

The purpose of the center’s existence is for the teachings of Buddha. And the teachings of Buddha are for the happiness of sentient beings—to free them from oceans of samsaric suffering, from the six realms, to bring them to peerless happiness, the complete cessation of obscurations and complete realization. You should recognize your service is like limitless skies of benefit. What you are working for are the teachings of Buddha—the Lesser Vehicle teachings, the Greater Vehicle teachings, sutra and tantra, the path of the Buddhadharma—that benefit sentient beings: numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals; numberless sentient beings in the ocean and in the mountains; some we can’t see with our eyes; some we have to see through a machine; some that live in the ground; tiny insects walking in the grass, running everywhere in the grass; beings in the bushes and in the sky. You are benefiting every mosquito, every ant, every tick, every maggot, and so forth; numberless human beings; numberless suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings. And there are numberless universes, not only this one. You are benefiting all those different sentient beings.

In the morning when you come to work, think this: “I am going to work for all sentient beings, to free them from oceans of samsaric suffering and to bring them to peerless happiness.” That’s the motivation for all day long for body, speech, and mind—it doesn’t matter what you do. Of course, because you have received teaching from little me, Mickey Mouse, we have the connection of Dharma and the relationship of guru and disciple.

It is said in the root Kalachakra tantra that even if in all past, present, and future eons, at all times, you make offerings to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, even saving ten million creatures’ lives from being killed, you won’t achieve enlightenment in this life. But, by pleasing with devotion a guru who has an ocean of knowledge, then you can achieve common and sublime realizations, including enlightenment, in this life. That’s what you are doing!

Another quotation from the tantra of Yeshe Gyatso (“Ocean of Tantra Wisdom”) says that the person who is wise in activities and service to the guru, that fortunate being has a more meaningful life than having done prostration to the ten directions’ buddhas (that means numberless buddhas), for 10 million eons and 600 thousand eons. If one fulfills all the advice given by the guru, then all one’s wishes get fulfilled, and one achieves unfathomable limitless merit and good luck.

Sakya Pandita, one of the five great Sakya lamas, from where the Sakya lineage comes, said that even the merit collected from thousands of eons of making charity to others with your head, legs, and hands, even the merit collected from that, is not as much as the merit collected in one second on the path of the guru, which means fulfilling the guru’s wishes, following the guru’s instructions, and giving service to the guru. Each second you do that you are able to collect extensive merit. What you would have collected over thousands of eons, here, you collect in one second. That means every year, every month, week, day, hour, minute, and second that you are doing things for me, following my wishes and advice, you are not only collecting that much merit and good luck, you free yourself quickly from oceans of samsaric suffering. Every second you become closer to enlightenment, to buddhahood. This is such a quick way to achieve enlightenment. You should remember this every day with the work of your body, speech, and mind. Therefore, every day and every night, you should enjoy your life and how you’re making your life most great. Remember this especially when you are going to die.

The extremely learned actualized holy being Mig Pemba said that if one thinks the Buddha is in front of oneself, the Buddha abides in front of oneself, and the Buddha always blesses the mind of oneself and liberates it from all the mistakes—not only suffering and negative karma, but all the delusions and obscurations. That means for the disciple who thinks the guru is Buddha, then Buddha is always in front of that person, and the benefit that person receives is total cessation of all obscurations and total and complete realization.

Nagarjuna, like a second Buddha, spread the Buddha’s teachings. He abandoned all the offerings to Buddha, but attended perfectly and made offering perfectly to the guru. Service with one’s body, speech, and mind, fulfilling the wishes and advice of the guru, this is how to make the most of one’s life. I don’t know how many years, months, weeks, hours, minutes, seconds you have, but life is very short. And you are making the best use of it, not only for yourself, but for all sentient beings. So I’m truly expressing my heart to you.

Thank you very much again a billion, zillion times. I heard from Geshe-la how you worked so perfectly and successfully. You can enjoy this up to enlightenment and even after enlightenment. When you see an insect, you should think what benefit you are giving it.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Transcribed by Ven. Thubten Osel, May 2016. Edited by Mandala for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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 visits with some Sherpa pilgrims, Tsopema, India, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Cherish sentient beings first; put enlightenment second,” says Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book The Joy of Compassion, available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive online as well as in print and digital formats.

“Why do I say put enlightenment second?” he asks. “Of course, enlightenment is extremely important because without it you cannot work perfectly for sentient beings. You cannot be a perfect guide … But what should be the first thing in your heart, in your life, the goal of your life? Sentient beings. At present, who is the most precious person in your life, in your heart? It’s yourself or, if not yourself, then your greatest object of attachment. I don’t think you hold your object of anger most precious. It’s your object of attachment; that particular person. So that’s how you should hold sentient beings, feel them to be most precious. No matter how much you help the person to whom you are most attached, no matter how kind you are to that person, all you want is for that person to be happy. If that person receives help, achieves happiness, you’re satisfied. That’s your goal; you don’t want anything in return. You don’t need that person to respect you, to praise you or to do something good for you in return; you don’t have any such expectation. Your attitude is such that you are simply satisfied by that person’s receiving happiness or help. What do you call it—unconditional love? … Then, enlightenment is the method.”

Read more from The Joy of Compassion on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/joy-compassion

Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-Joy-of-Compassion-eBook_p_2364.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 prepares for a party in Singapore, February 2016

“You can collect a huge amount of merit even in your own home by having a party,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs in his latest book, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings, newly available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in print and digital formats.

“Whenever you throw a party for your family or friends,” he explains, “if you can also invite your enemy, that is the best party! That is something that worldly people don’t do. Worldly people usually harm the enemy, insulting him, shooting him and things like that. If you are a Dharma practitioner, you can invite your enemy and offer him apple pie or momos or whatever. At a party, if you think of each guest as your guru or His Holiness the Dalai Lama when you offer them food and drink, you are making offerings to your guru or His Holiness. In that way you collect the greatest merit and make the most powerful purification … So, by imagining all the guests at your party as your guru, as His Holiness, that is your Dharma practice, your guru devotion practice … It is such a quick way to achieve enlightenment.”

Read more from Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/sun-devotion-stream-blessings

Get the book from the Foundation Store and support FPMT International Office: 
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sun-of-Devotion-Stream-of-Blessings_p_2690.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.

Amitabha Buddha during the celebration at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, October 2016. Photos by Ven. Losang Sherab.

On Saturday, October 1, the second Amitabha Buddha Festival was held at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in rural Washington State, US. About 60 people, which included neighbors, local students and guests from out-of-town, attended the celebration, which began at 9 a.m. and lasted until 5 p.m. The festival was envisioned by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to honor the large Amitabha Buddha statue and the retreat land that surrounds it and featured dance offerings and a community lunch. The 13-foot (4-meter) tall Amitabha Buddha statue is made of highest-quality white marble from Vietnam and weighs 16 tons (14,790 kilograms). It took over two years for the sculpting to be completed and was invited onto the land in late-June 2016.

Sherpas from Seattle and Portland perform a traditional dance

About 25 Sherpas traveled from the Seattle and Portland areas to do one of the dance offerings in traditional dress and to help offer lunch, which was sponsored by Rinpoche. They were impressed by the land and the two large statues there and thought it beautiful. Students from nearby Pamtingpa Center in Tonasket, offered a Tara dance and a local Native American offered a song. (A dance offering by local Native Americans had been planned, but had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.) The dances were performed facing the statue as well as the extensive offerings. 

Rinpoche and festival attendees watch the Tara dance offering

Rinpoche created the text for the celebration, basing it on Lama Tsongkhapa’s text for the Monlam celebration. The text includes an extensive bath offering, prayers to the 35 Buddhas of Confession, and an extensive offering practice, similar to one done during a long life puja. For each offering, Rinpoche held up the item being offered and recited the text in Tibetan. Ven. René Fuesi then read the meaning of the offering in English. This year Rinpoche composed two new verses about cars and airplanes that were added to the text:

Offering Trucks, Cars, Trains and Other Vehicles
Due to the merits of having offered these vehicles
May ourselves and all transmigratory beings
Realize the basis of the two truths.
(The truth for the absolute wisdom and the truth for the all obscuring mind)
And by completing the path method possessed by wisdom and wisdom possessed by method
Cross from beyond the oceans of samsaric suffering and
May the unified holy body and mind of Buddha be achieved.

Offering Airplanes
Due to the method of having offered these airplanes
And especially by the blessings of the Virtuous Friend,
The essence of embodiment of numberless Buddhas.
May ourselves and all transmigratory beings actualize the unification
Of holy body and holy mind of no more learning
In the brief lifetime of degenerated time.

When Rinpoche completes the celebration text, he has indicated that it can be used for other big festival days at FPMT centers around the world.

Items offered during the extensive offerings part of the celebration

Resident Sangha and students from Pamtingpa Center took care of the arrangements for the celebration, which included collecting the offerings, building platforms, bringing chairs and carpets, putting up brocades, and sewing intricate umbrellas for the Amitabha Buddha and Medicine Buddha statues on the property and for the large Tara thangka that was also displayed during the festival.

The Sangha at Rinpoche’s house at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land were up all night finishing the preparations. The festival was scheduled at the last minute but came together beautifully and Rinpoche seemed pleased. He has said that he would like it to happen annually. The first Amitabha Buddha Festival took place in 2014. The festival didn’t happen last year due to devastating wildfires there.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche watches the Sherpa dance offering

Supporting the creation of holy objects is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vasts visions for FPMT.

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