Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Richard Gere and members of New York’s Sherpa community after long life initiation, Queens, NY, August 30, 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On Sunday, August 30, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a Most Secret Hayagriva long life initiation for New York‘s Sherpa community. The event was organized by Ogmin Jangchub Sishu Tsogpa, the association of former Kopan Monastery monks and nuns living in New York, and held in the building owned by the United Sherpa Association in Queens. American actor Richard Gere also attended the event, which was the day before his birthday. He was offered cake and thanks by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche thanking actor Richard Gere, Queens, New York, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

During Rinpoche’s August visit to New York, he had quite a few visits with the former monks and nuns of Kopan living in New York. There was a large picnic with the Kopan community and other Tibetans and Sherpas in a park on Long Island mid-month. After the picnic, Rinpoche gave Dharma advice. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving Dharma advice during a picnic, Long Island, NY, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Rinpoche also had dinner with a group of former Kopan monks and nuns at a restaurant in Queens. The group gathers about once a month for a social dinner and to offer each other support and discuss things like helping those back in Nepal who were affected by the devastating earthquake. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at dinner with former Kopan monks and nuns, Queens, New York. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a Yellow Cab in New York City, US, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Wherever Rinpoche goes in New York City, there are always ex-Kopan monks in yellow cabs to take Rinpoche there,” shared Ven. Roger Kunsang, assistant to Rinpoche and CEO of FPMT. This is because many of the former monks living in New York drive cabs and Ven. Roger knows who to call to have one of them pick up Rinpoche.

Rinpoche also gave teachings and participated in other activities organized by Shantideva Meditation Center, the FPMT center in New York. We’ll have more on those events in the days to come.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at picnic with former Kopan monastery monks and nuns and other Tibetans and Sherpas living in New York, August 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 during teaching event at Tibet House with Ven. Sangpo Sherpa and Jennifer Kim, director of Shantideva Mediation Center, New York, NY, August 2015. Photo by Edward Sczudlo.

“We can also use the lightning analogy to explain emptiness in a very simple way,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment, part of the FPMT Lineage Series from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. “Imagine we are walking on a road, unable to see anything. When it’s completely dark we don’t label anything because we can’t see anything. Then there is a flash of lightning. In the brief flash we see a tree and another person on the road. The two bases appear because of the sudden light and we label them ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘ugly,’ this and that. Even during this short period attachment and aversion arise. As soon as there’s the appearance of the base, we label it.

“… We waste the precious time we have assigning positive and negative attributes to people and things they don’t in reality have, as so we set up patterns that feed our delusions and make our life miserable. Our ‘real’ friends, our ‘real’ enemies, the ‘real’ places we love and hate, the ‘real’ things we love and hate to do, when we die they will all disappear in a flash, the help and harm they gave us no longer there. Only the delusions we held onto concerning those objects remain as negative imprints on our mental consciousness to determine our next rebirth. So how pointless it is to cling to these delusions while we are alive. They seem so real now, while lit by the lightning flash, but they will be gone in an instant.”

Find The Perfect Human Rebirth: Freedom and Richness on the Path to Enlightenment on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/perfect-human-rebirth

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 chatting with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche during oral transmissions, New Jersey, US, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche traveled at the end of July 2015 to New York City, where he is spending the month of August. The primary reason for Rinpoche’s visit to New York was to receive oral transmissions from Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a highly respected Gelug master and the founder of the Tibet Center in New York City. 

Over the years, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has received transmission from Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, who is 93 years old, most happening in India. But this time, Lama Zopa Rinpoche received oral transmissions over a period of three weeks, meeting with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche on most days for about three hours either in New York or New Jersey. During the first week of transmissions Khyongla Rato Rinpoche would come to the apartment where Lama Zopa Rinpoche was staying in the city. The following weeks, Lama Zopa Rinpoche would travel to New Jersey, where Khyongla Rato Rinpoche lives, to receive the transmissions.

According to Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, while frail, is still able to move around and is quite sharp. “He’s very low-key and humble. He also has his own peculiar sense of humor,” Ven. Roger shared. “There was quite a lot of joking between Khyongla Rato Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the visits.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche and Ven. Losang Sherab, New Jersey, US, August 2015. Photo by Nicholas Vreeland.

After the first week, Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland — who is the first Western abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India, which is Rato Monastery — arrived from Singapore where he had been assisting with His Eminence Ling Rinpoche’s visit. Khen Rinpoche, who is a devoted, long-time student of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, also received the oral transmissions. [See Mandala‘s “The ‘Monk with a Camera’: An Interview with Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland,” for more.] 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches at the Tibet House in New York City on Thursday, August 27, and Friday, August 28, at 7 p.m. The teachings on “Opening the Door to Liberation” are organized by Shantideva Meditation Center. For details, visit their website. 

Rinpoche is also giving a long life initiation of Most Secret Hayagriva at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 30, at 41 – 01 75th Street, Elmhurst, New York. The event is organized by Ogmin Jangchub Sishu Tsogpa, the association of Kopan’s ex-monks and nuns in New York.

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 FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche after guru puja organized by Shantideva Meditation Center, New York, New York, US, August 2015. Photo by Edward Sczudlo.

“Since we want only happiness and no suffering, it is extremely important for us to practice Dharma,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in “In Search of a Meaningful Life” in Teachings from Tibet, an updated and reprinted collection of lineage master teachings from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“Dharma is not chanting, doing rituals or wearing uniforms; it’s developing the mind, the inner factor. We have many different inner factors: negative ones, such as the unsubdued mind, ignorance, delusions and so forth; and positive ones, such as love, compassion, wisdom and the like. Dharma practice is the destruction of our negative mental factors and the cultivation of our positive ones.

“Linguistically, the word ‘dharma’ means ‘existent phenomenon,’ but when we say ‘the practice of Dharma’ or ‘holy Dharma,’ it means that which protects us from suffering. That is the meaning of the holy Dharma; that is the Dharma we should practice.”

Find Teachings from Tibet on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/teachings-tibet

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 Tibet House, New York, New York, US, August 2015. Photo by Edward Sczudlo.

“The conclusion is that we can’t say past and future lives don’t exist just because we can’t remember them,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in Creating the Causes of Happiness, the second volume in a Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive series drawn from the 24th Kopan course in 1991. “We can’t say they don’t exist. It’s possible that past and future lives exist. It can be possible. It can be possible. Even if it’s not a hundred percent sure, it can be possible. Therefore, it’s wiser to make preparations for the next life, it’s better, it’s wiser, before it gets too late. I’m not talking about lunch!

“What was I saying?

“Before we regret it and have to actually experience the result, the suffering, before out life ends, it’s wise to make preparations for the happiness of future lives. It’s wise to make preparations for liberation, for the cessation of the whole, entire suffering and its causes. It’s even wiser to achieve full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.”

Find Creating the Causes of Happiness on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/creating-the-causes-of-happiness.

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.

Screenshot from “Respect Other Religions, But Analyze Animal Sacrifice”

“Of course, we should respect all the religions, all the major religions in the world,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in a new video on FPMT’s YouTube channel. “People don’t have the karma and are unable to be Christian, unable to be Muslim, unable to be Buddhist – they don’t have merit, they don’t have the karma. People find happiness in whichever religion they follow. Not everybody is Christian, not everybody is Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. They get happiness from other religions. So, we must respect others. That’s so important. But, animal sacrifice should be checked and analyzed. …”

Watch “Respect Other Religions, But Analyze Animal Sacrifice” on YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzyfFFZL6Lk

You can watch more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT’s YouTube page: http://bit.ly/fpmt-youtube

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.

Medicine Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, May 2015

Wildfires are burning out of control in many parts of the United States’ Pacific Northwest, including several large fires in Okanogan County, Washington, where both Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) and Pamtingpa Center are located. Sangha were evacuated from Buddha Amitabha Pure Land on Wednesday night, August 19. Members of Pamtingpa Center and other FPMT friends in Tonasket, Washington, were evacuated on Thursday night, August 20.

For anyone in fire danger now or in the future, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised Sangha at BAPL on Wednesday to “visualize His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the merit field, sending oceans of water where there are fires. The water also releases all beings from the lower realms.” The emphasis was on lots of strong, heavy water. This can be done while reciting the Migtsema prayer (the “Five-Line Prayer to Lama Tsongkhapa”) or Medicine Buddha mantras.

Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who is currently in New York, advised early this week for the Heart Mantra of Arya Vairochana and the image of the White Umbrella Deity (Dukka) to be posted facing outward on the boundaries of Buddha Amitabha Pure Land. This was done by Sangha before being evacuated. Rinpoche also advised Sangha to recite the White Umbrella Deity prayer and the Heart Sutra several times a day. Buddha Amitabha Pure Land is where Rinpoche’s retreat house is located and is also the future site for committed long-term meditation retreatants to attain lam-rim realizations as advised by Rinpoche.

Last year when wildfires were burning in Washington State, Rinpoche gave additional advice on wildfires. Rinpoche has given extensive advice on practices for different natural disasters, including practices for dispelling fire. This advice is always available on Rinpoche’s advice page on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/#disasters

Additional advice from Rinpoche on this topic is also available on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/natural-disasters

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.

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

“We also went to see quite a number of old folks’ homes. Also recently in Australia. The first one was in America, I think, in Madison, [Wisconsin.] I was extremely surprised to see those young girls working in old folks’ homes, how they really took such good care,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche remembers in Cutting the Root of Samsara, the third volume in a Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive series drawn from the 24th Kopan course in 1991. “It seemed like it was not just a job to them; they worked with such kindness and sympathy. I was very impressed with that. Even though the old people couldn’t eat solid food, just things like bananas, and they had to be fed by mouth and things like that, these girls showed a lot of patience. I was very impressed by those young girls. I don’t think they had met Dharma.

“It seems there are different mental and physical states. One quite old lady seemed like wood, like a big log of wood lying down on the bed. She couldn’t move. That was very interesting. For somebody who has studied the lam-rim, the whole teachings on the graduated path to enlightenment, I think visiting such a place all day long itself becomes a meditation. If we do the work by looking at it with the understanding of the teachings, with the wisdom of the teachings, I think everything, the whole day, what we see while we’re serving becomes an incredible teaching.

Daisies at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.

“All day long what we see is the nature of samsara, which is only suffering. It also shows impermanence and becomes the cause of developing compassion. Developing compassion is the cause that makes it possible to have the realization of bodhichitta, and that makes it possible to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.

“Even if we don’t know the lam-rim, the complete teachings of the graduated path to enlightenment, if we want to develop compassion, to develop a good heart, then I think doing such work, that service, with that motivation is excellent.”

Find Cutting the Root of Samsara on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://bit.ly/cutting-the-root-of-samsara

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.

Screenshot from “What to Think When Others Harm You”

“The usual [way of thinking] is that you can harm anybody in the world who you don’t like. You kill, you do every bad thing to others who you don’t like. But, nobody can harm you!” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in a new video on FPMT’s YouTube channel. “You see, that’s the self-cherishing thought – it’s a dictatorship. You can kill anyone you don’t like, but ‘no one can harm me.’ It’s totally unreasonable, not logical; it’s just the dictatorship of the self-cherishing thought. If you are educated, how can you agree with that? If you’re an educated person, if you’re not crazy, how can you agree with that? You can harm anybody, but no one can harm you? This is just falling into self-cherishing. This is all logic; it’s just the self-cherishing thought.

“So in the Bodhisattvacharyavatara it says it’s deserved. Because I harmed that being before, that’s why, now, they harmed me this time. So, I deserve it. … If I didn’t harm other sentient beings in the past, I wouldn’t receive this harm now. …”

Watch “What to Think When Others Harm You” on YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpgeOPm_40w

You can watch more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT’s YouTube page: http://bit.ly/fpmt-youtube

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.

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

Wildfires, typhoons, earthquakes and other natural disasters can affect FPMT students, centers, projects and services around the world. And Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given advice on practices for different natural disasters. This advice is always available on Rinpoche’s advice page on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/#disasters

Additional advice from Rinpoche on this topic is also available on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/natural-disasters

The FPMT Foundation Store stocks many protection items that can offer benefit in threatening times. The new Vairochana Mantra Card, for example, protects from harm from “weapons, fire, water, poisons, substances mixed with poisons, black magic; one cannot be harmed by kings, thieves, robbers, and so forth.” Rinpoche has said, “Wherever this mantra is written and left, people do not receive sicknesses, harm and contagious diseases and will achieve the concentration called stainless light.”

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.

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, New York, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Nicholas Vreeland. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been receiving oral transmissions from Khyongla Rinpoche.

“Bodhichitta is what makes life most beneficial for oneself and meaningful for every single sentient being that exists, because every single one is suffering and needs help,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said to a student who asked, “What is the best and quickest way to generate bodhichitta?” Rinpoche’s extensive answer to the question continues:

“Bodhichitta makes your life most beneficial for every single other being, who are countless. Not only is it what makes your life beneficial, but when you are practicing bodhichitta, this fulfills the wishes of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, because their only wish is the happiness of sentient beings. Buddhas actualize the path, collecting extensive merit of wisdom and of virtue, and purify the defilements, and then they achieve enlightenment in order to be able to perform perfect works, without any error, liberating all sentient beings, without any exception, and bringing them to highest happiness.

“This is the objective of their life, and their only concern is the happiness of others. Their aim is only that. Their concern is sentient beings obscured in suffering. What they cherish is nobody except sentient beings. The thought of seeking happiness for themselves doesn’t arise for even one second after having realizations of bodhichitta. Bodhisattvas, while they have bodhichitta, are like that. Of course, sometimes it is possible for some new bodhisattvas’ realizations to degenerate. Whereas for us, though the thought of cherishing others may arise, it is very rare. Even though it may arise, it does so only very occasionally. It is still not complete. It can still be very weak. The thought of cherishing the ‘I’ is still stronger than the thought of cherishing others. Buddhas also achieve enlightenment only for the benefit of sentient beings. They cherish no one else except sentient beings; they work only for sentient beings.

“When we practice compassion in our daily lives, when we perform actions with the thought of cherishing others, whether it is a small service or a big service, at that time we are fulfilling the wishes of countless buddhas and bodhisattvas. Therefore, practicing bodhichitta, serving others, and cherishing others is the best offering to numberless bodhisattvas and to all the buddhas. It is the best offering. This is what pleases them the most. So, now the purpose of our life is to free countless other sentient beings and bring them to happiness. Since that is the purpose of our life, to do that perfectly, to be a perfect guide, we need full enlightenment, in essence, to have omniscient mind and complete, perfect power to reveal the path to bring sentient beings to enlightenment by liberating them from suffering, and for this we need to complete the mind training in compassion. That is it in essence. …”

Rinpoche’s complete response to the question “What is the best and quickest way to generate bodhichitta?” can be read in the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive under the post “Generating Bodhicitta”: https://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=588

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 FPMT News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche being greeted at the airport by Sherpas living in New York, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

When Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived in the United States in late July, he was received with a big Sherpa welcome. About two dozen Sherpas greeted Rinpoche at the airport with khatas, offerings and tea, even bringing a puja table. New York City reportedly has the largest settlement of Sherpa people outside of Nepal and India, numbering 2,500. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving an oral transmission of the Vajra Cutter Sutra to Sherpas in New York City, US, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

During the New York visit, Rinpoche has already given an oral transmission of the Vajra Cutter Sutra to a gathering of Sherpas and has also done Chöd practice. 

On August 30, Rinpoche will give the long life initiation of Most Secret Hayagriva at 10 a.m. at 41 – 01 75th Street, Elmhurst, New York 11373. The initiation is being organized by the Kopan Sherpa Association in New York.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing Chöd practice with Sherpas in New York City, US, August 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche’s other teachings in New York, organized by Shantideva Center, are on August 21, 27 and 28 at Tibet House. And there will be a Guru Puja with Rinpoche on August 25 at Jewel Heart Center.

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 Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.