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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Rio de Janiero, Brazil, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“The appearances of this life [are such that] we always think, ‘Oh I’m going to live for a long time’ always, even on the same day when you are going to have an accident, the same day you are going to have an accident or going to get sick with a heart attack or whatever,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lam-rim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lam-rim program as taught by Rinpoche
“Suddenly you are going to have a heart attack, but that same day from the morning when you get up, ‘Oh, I’m going to live for many years,’ you think like that. Even five minutes before a car accident in which you die, ‘Oh, I’m going to live for many years.’ It is cheating you, the concept of permanence.
“If you meditate on the impermanence of life, then you stop thinking you will live long and following the concept of permanence, then you see life is very short. Because of that, that makes you able to practice Dharma and complete the realizations.”
To learn more about Living in the Path and to study the lam-rim more in-depth, visit the program’s page on FPMT’s Online Learning Center: http://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5
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 in Moscow, Russia, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“One has to continue the meditation, analytical meditation and fixed meditation, on guru devotion until one has the stable realization that one is able to see the guru as all the buddhas and able to see one buddha as all the gurus that you have, those with whom you have a Dharma connection. So one buddha is all the gurus that you have and one guru is all the buddhas that exist, you are able to see that from your side,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches as part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lam-rim program as taught by Rinpoche.
To learn more about Living in the Path and to study the lam-rim more in-depth, visit the program’s page on FPMT.org: https://fpmt.org/education/programs/living-in-the-path/.
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 during a lunch at Vajrapani Institute, California, US, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“… Today, so many of our actions – eating, walking, and sleeping – became nonvirtue. Since birth, every week, month, year, not just in this life but during beginningless rebirths up to now – there are so many negative karmas that we don’t remember, which are not only blocks to achieving realizations and enlightenment but prevent us from being able to enlighten all sentient beings,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in a letter to a student published as the advice “Motivation for Dharma Practice” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“Our negative karma is harmful to all sentient beings and it also harm us, by preventing us from achieving ultimate happiness. Because our negative karma blocks realizations, we can’t achieve a good rebirth in the next life; even this life is harmed and we receive many obstacles. We must generate a very strong thought to purify them, right now, as if we have eaten poison without knowing.
“Because of that fear, without delaying even one second, we want to purify. Even just that repentance makes the karma very small; it creates powerful, perfect purification. Especially in retreat sessions, use the extensive way of looking at negative karma. Then we will want to purify everything. …”
You can read the complete advice “Motivation for Practice” in “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/motivation-dharma-practice
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 Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco, US, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“The minute you cherish others relaxes your life,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said during teachings at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco October 31-November 1, 2015. “That is the best vacation, that is the best holiday with the good heart and with bodhichitta. Even if you go to the beach, to a place that is very expensive, that costs a million dollars with a swimming pool, but mind is so much ‘my, my, my, my pleasure,’ there is no holiday; you are not giving holiday to yourself. Although externally the place is very expensive, happiness is not there; real happiness – inner happiness – is not there.”
Watch “Take a Real Holiday” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St6SPcBFQ3c
You can watch more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT.org: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/videos-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/
For longer videos of Rinpoche teaching, visit: http://bit.ly/rinpoche-available-now
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 having lunch at Vajrapani Institute with staff, members and others, California, US, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Sherab.
“People always advertise their goods as the best: ‘Mine is best!’ How do you decide what to choose? What are you going to believe? If you make the wrong choice, you will be cheated. You will obtain something of poor quality and lose out. The solution is, you should use your own wisdom, and learn to differentiate the qualities of the goods. It is similar in the case of religion,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised a Native American leader with some confusion about her tradition’s religious beliefs.
“Religion can be extremely dangerous. If you choose a mistaken path, you can be cheated for your whole life. Not only that, you are also cheated for many future lives, because you will make mistakes in this life, and how the future turns out depends on this life. Whether your future lives will be good or bad, right or wrong, depends on how you lead this life. It is extremely dangerous if you are wrong. If you are wrong, you can destroy so many future lives, and cause unfortunate rebirths and suffering in hell or animal realms. Even if you are born as a human being, you will have wrong beliefs, heresy, hallucinations, believe wrong things are right; like believing that there is no such thing as liberation, that poison is medicine, that medicine is poison, and that the right path is the wrong path and the wrong path is the right path. Then, that affects your next life. It is very dangerous, not only for yourself, but also if you lead others in wrong views. You bring so many sentient beings to suffering in the lower realms, in hell and as hungry ghosts.
“Everybody believes their religion is the best. However, it is extremely important to analyze with your own wisdom. Therefore, develop your wisdom. Buddhism is extremely beneficial. Buddhism is able to discriminate between right and wrong, not only in terms of religion, but for anything in life. If parents have Buddhist knowledge, they can judge what is right and wrong for their children. Otherwise, children engage in the causes of suffering. They get stuck in suffering and problems in this life, and also in future lives. So, it is very helpful to understand Buddhism. Even if you don’t practice it, it gives such a very clear view. When you look at other religions and can determine what is right and what is mistaken, even if you are not Buddhist, this knowledge can help a lot.
“Religion should be compassion. Anything that harms others is not good, for example, sacrificing animals. Don’t do things that harm others. If you harm others, then other sentient beings will harm you. Similarly, if you benefit others, then you will receive benefit from other sentient beings. This is the law of nature, like when you plant a seed and it grows up to be a tree with branches and fruit. You can practice another religion, but don’t harm others.
“You can teach your people about wisdom and the good heart. You can pass on your knowledge and wisdom to others, about compassion and positive attitudes that help you to do good for others. This way, they will experience so much happiness in this life and future lives as a result of their positive actions, which is good karma.
“Religion is for happiness, not suffering. What brings happiness and peace in one’s life and in the lives of others: these are the real religions.”
From “Dangers of Religion,” an advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche posted on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/dangers-religion
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 Ven. Gyalten Yanchen at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given advice to many students who have cancer and are preparing for death. Here is an excerpt from a letter title, “Prepare for Death Everyday”:
… Also, if you can, chant these verses from the Guru Puja, practice this meditation and tong-len prayer:
Tong-len: Meditation on taking and giving
LC 95: And thus, venerable, compassionate gurus,
I seek your blessings that all karmic debts, obstacles, and
sufferings of mother beings
May without exception ripen upon me right now,
And that I may give my happiness and virtue to others
And, thereby, invest all beings in bliss.
Actually, this is the best Dharma gift, the best protection from delusion, the best protection from the terrifying lower realms, where there is so much unbelievable suffering. In this meditation, you take on all the sufferings of all mother sentient beings, as well as all one’s own sufferings, on oneself, then let all sentient beings have the state of no-death, enlightenment, the cessation of all sufferings. Then, one asks for all happiness, including enlightenment, all merit, to ripen on all sentient beings.
This practice should be entered into the Olympics. If you win, then at the time of death you go to the pure land, instead of being reborn in the impure world, where we are now, or the lower realms. This would be the best Olympic game. Dying with tong-len (bodhicitta) is the best Olympic game. …
Excerpted from “Prepare for Death Everyday” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/prepare-death-every-day
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 and Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, resident geshe as Tse Chen Ling, at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“I asked [Gen Jampa Wangdu], ‘What is the quickest way to have success in the realizations of the lam-rim?’ That is the other thing I asked. He said, ‘Practicing the remedy to the self-cherishing thought,'” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lam-rim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lam-rim program as taught by Rinpoche.
You can find the tenth video in the module “Lojong: The Quickest Way to Lam-rim Realizations” on FPMT’s Online Learning Center.
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 after a trip to the plant nursery, California, US, October 2015. Ven. Roger Kunsang, who took the photo shared, “The car is completely full of flowers, even on the roof. Rinpoche was looking for large yellow flowers (calendulas) symbolizing the heart of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings.”
… Dear friends,
Once you have understood that wealth is like dew on the tip of a blade of grass
And that your friends, body and life are like a bubble,
Then you must engage in virtues such as making offerings to the Rare Sublime Ones while looking at them as the Guru
And extract the essence from your essenceless body and wealth ….
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a verse from “Verses to Inspire Offering,” which is available as a frameable card from the FPMT Foundation Store. Rinpoche suggests that this offering prayer be displayed in places where there are offerings, especially extensive offerings.
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 and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.
“Completely empty,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches at Tsen Chen Ling, California, US, October 31, 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“First, you see the ultimate truth of the table. Then, with that as a cause, as a result you see the merely labeled table. [The ultimate truth of the table] supports, helps, the existence of the table merely labeled by mind. Oh, that unification, oh, that is the Prasangika’s view of emptiness,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lam-rim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lam-rim program as taught by Rinpoche.
You can find the eighth video of this module “Meditate Until You Realize the Prasangika’s View of Emptiness” on FPMT’s Online Learning Center.
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 taking interest in the Dia de los Muertos and Halloween decorations at a garden shop in California, US, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
After concluding his Latin American teaching tour in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in late September, Lama Zopa Rinpoche made his way to the United States to spend time at his home in California and visit the many FPMT centers in the Bay Area.
On Halloween (October 31), Rinpoche begins a two-day teaching event at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco. Rinpoche will teach on the the “Wheel of Life” and bestow a Lama Tsongkhapa long-life initiation.
During November 7-8, Rinpoche’s teachings at Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek will be livestreamed, including a public talk entitled “Patience as Protection, Emptiness as Liberation” and preparatory teachings for a Vajrapani-Hayagriva-Garuda initiation.
On November 15, Rinpoche travels to Campbell for a livestreamed teaching entitled “Finding True Happiness” at Ocean of Compassion Buddhist Center.
Details about the livestreamed events will be shared on FPMT Inc.’s Livestream page:
https://livestream.com/FPMT/
High quality video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings in California, as well as from Rinpoche’s other teaching events, will be made available as quickly as possible on FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now page.
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 at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, US, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“If we raise prayer flags, they bless the elements that touch the mantras, for example, the wind. Then, animals and insects who feel this wind are purified of their negative karma, and it transfers their consciousnesses to higher realms. Also, when rain and water touches the flags, it blesses worms and other creatures in the ground and liberates them from the lower realms.”
– Lama Zopa Rinopche, from “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” page on Prayer Flags
Prayer flags near Lawudo Retreat Centre, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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 the meadow at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“The most unbelievably important thing in our life is lam-rim. The practice of the three principal aspects of the path is the most important thing. This is the most important, more important than a job, money, or anything else in our life. It is the most important thing,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lam-rim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lam-rim program as taught by Rinpoche.
You can find the first video of this module “Lam-rim Is the Most Important Thing” on FPMT’s Online Learning Center.
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.