receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Lama Jamyang Garpo. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang, September 2014.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, recently made a substantial offering toward the costs associated with a young Mongolian tulku, Lama Jamyang Garpo, said to be an emanation of White Manjushri, entering Sera Je Monastery.
Traditionally, on the first day that a tulku enters Sera Je Monastery, offerings and food and tea are given to all the 2,500 monks of Sere Je. This offering from the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, was put toward those costs.
Please rejoice that this auspicious offering has been made. This is an incredible opportunity for this young tulku to study at Sera Je Monastery.
Making offerings to the Sangha is a way of collecting unbelievable merit because all the Sangha are the pores of the Guru. They are all disciples of the same Guru – His Holiness the Dalai Lama. By offering to pores of the Guru one collects more merit than offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, as well as numberless statues, stupas. If you offer with the recognition that they are the Guru’s pores then that is an unbelievable way to collect merit. When you offer to many Sanghas who have the same Guru then you are making offerings to that many pores of the Guru. So this is the easiest way to collect skies of merit by offering. By offering even just one candy, flowers or even one grain of rice to a statue of Buddha or even a visualized Buddha you collect skies of merit but here it is much more powerful than offering to the three jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) as well as all the statues, stupas and scriptures existing in all directions, so no question if offering to really the same Guru’s disciple. These benefits should be understood so that when you make offerings to the Guru’s pores you think correctly. This is the best business.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Lama Jamyang Garpo. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang, September 2014.
About Lama Jamyang Garpo
Lama Jamyang Garpo’s twenty-first reincarnation, Dorjsuren Dashbaljir, was born August 24, 2005 in Asaat, Jargalant sum, Arkhangai Province, Mongolia.
On April 2, 2014, His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized Dorjsuren Dashbaljir as Lama Jamyang Garpo’s twenty-first reincarnation.
You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, the Sera Je Food Fund which supports the monks of Sera Je Monastery every day with three nutritious meals, or the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Yangsi Rinpoche, Portland, Oregon, US, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in January 9-15 at Choe Khor Sum Ling in Bangalore, India. On January 13, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page:
Lama Zopa: We have had an ordinary view from beginningless time. Even [if] Buddha appeared to us, we wouldn’t recognize. [We’d] just see [him] as ordinary.
Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Having a positive attitude, such as the altruistic thought to help other sentient beings and not harm them, is the cause of success in life,” said Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a 1991 teaching in Adelaide, Australia now available through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“Even though some people might not have much education, they have no difficulties in life; they are wealthy and have harmonious relationships, and whatever they wish for happens. The reason for this is the cause created in the past. This is the actual evolution; this is where their happiness comes from. But when we do not analyze, when we are not aware, it looks as if success came from outside and does not depend on their mind.
“It’s the opposite for people who are experiencing difficulties in their life. Their actions are motivated by ill will, jealousy, selfishness, dissatisfaction, desire, ignorance, anger and so forth, and their problems and difficulties result from that. Even though this is the actual evolution, when we do not understand or are not aware of karma, of action and result, it appears as if success and difficulties come from outside. We may have heard of karma and sometimes talk about it or meditate on it, but we are not aware of it in our everyday life.”
Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Elephant statue with mantras offering to Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Namgyal.
While Lama Zopa Rinpoche was in the Bendigo-area for the CPMT 2014 meeting and the retreat that followed, he added mantras to statues of an elephant and a kangaroo and wrote text for many signs to be placed next to those statues and others. The sign next to the elephant statue and his plush companions at right reads:
The purpose of my life is to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to the peerless state of OMNISCIENCE. Therefore I MUST ACHIEVE THE STATE OF OMNISCIENCE FOR THEM:
Anywhere with whomever I accompany
I look at myself lowest of all
And cherish others as supreme
Whether you like it or not this is my practice, sorry.
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.
Kadampa stupa at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, July 2014. Photo by Chris Majors.
“When we give a party, we usually do it with attachment clinging to this life, to our own happiness and good reputation. That attitude is one of worldly concern, or worldly desire. When we give a party with that attitude, since our motivation is non-virtuous, all our actions become non-virtuous,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said during a series of talks given in New York City in 1990. These teachings are captured in How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness, a free publication from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“How do we transform the action of giving a party into something positive? How do we make it a true cause of happiness? Again, by remembering universal responsibility: ‘I’m responsible for pacifying the sufferings of all sentient beings and bringing them happiness. For that reason, I need to develop my mind in the path, especially in compassion and altruism. To develop my mind for the benefit of sentient beings, I need to create the necessary condition of merit, or good karma. Therefore, I’m going to make charity of this food and drink to my kind mother sentient beings, from whom I receive all my past, present, and future happiness.’ Giving a party in this way becomes Dharma.
“With an attitude of universal responsibility, from morning to night our actions become Dharma. They are virtuous, or positive, the unmistaken causes of happiness. Since everything – happiness and suffering – comes from our own mind, we have great freedom to stop suffering and to find 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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the retreat in Australia, where he gave the oral transmission of Sutra of Golden Light, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
In early January, Thubten Gyatso (Adrian Feldmann), a monk and the director of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery (TSL) near Bendigo, Australia, wrote Lama Zopa Rinpoche a brief note explaining the success the monastery had with reciting the Sutra of Golden Light to help bring much needed rain to the region. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught that reading the sutra protects beings from experiencing natural disasters:
” … [I]n view of the severe drought that has been affecting our region, last week the TSL monks recited the Sutra of Golden Light with the the thought to help the farmers, birds, animals, and my flowers (mostly dead). Yesterday, we had a torrential downpour of 115 mm [4.5 inches] of rain. The large dam is completely full, and it’s going to continue raining for the next five days. Maybe we might have to recite the sutra again to stop the rain?
“We received 115 mm [4.5 inches] of rain but Bendigo airport, only 14 km [8.5 miles] away, received just 38 mm [1.5 inches].”
The regular recitation of the Sutra of Golden Light for world peace is part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions, a collection of advice and commentary that sets forth Rinpoche’s “general plan for FPMT.” FPMT Education Services has created a resource page to help you learn more about and start reciting the Sutra of Golden Light. You can receive the oral transmission of the sutra, download the sutra in 12 languages, report completed recitations, share your experiences, and ask questions about the text itself.
The path leading to Thubten Shedrup Ling from the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion near Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, September 2014. Photo by Laura Miller.
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.
Elephant statue with mantras offering to Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Namgyal.
While Lama Zopa Rinpoche was in the Bendigo-area for the CPMT 2014 meeting and the retreat that followed, he added mantras to statues of an elephant and a kangaroo and wrote text for many signs to be placed next to those statues and others. Ani Wy helped Rinpoche with the mantras on the elephant that is shared above.
The sign next to the large elephant offering flowers to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion says:
If the merit of taking Refuge has form
even these three realms (desire, form, formless)
become a small container
The treasure of the water of the great ocean cannot be
counted by the handful
Even though I am an animal Elephant,
This is my most exciting happiest life in the world
In numberless eons this is the one opportunity
to make offerings and prostrations to the holy stupa
and all the numberless
Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, stupas and scriptures.
You human beings have a better form (body)
So you really have an amazing opportunity to
Benefit sentient beings.
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 decorated artwork, Bendigo, Australia, November 2014. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Namgyal.
After Lama Zopa Rinpoche manifested a stroke in 2011, he stayed in a hospital in Bendigo, Australia. While there Rinpoche bought a painting that was part of a fundraiser for the hospital. Rinpoche returned to Bendigo in September 2014 for the CPMT 2014 meeting and the retreat that followed. He stayed at Thubten Shedrup Ling through November 2014 and while there added mantras to the painting so it is of more benefit when people see it.
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.
Blankets were offered to 30 children in a local Kushinagar orphanage by Maitreya Project Kushinagar. In December 500 blankets were offered to poor villagers.
An ambulance was offered to help very poor villagers in Kushinagar with basic medical help.
In early 2014 Lama Zopa Rinpoche, via the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, offered a donation to Maitreya Project Kushinagar to be used toward the incredible humanitarian work they are now undertaking.
Some of the money was used for a much needed ambulance that helps villagers in very poor areas of Kushinagar with basic medical help. Other funds were used to distribute mosquito nets in the Summer to villagers to protect them from malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, and was a big problem in the area during Summer months.
Mosquito nets were distributed to villagers to help with the spread of malaria.
Currently Maitreya Project Kushinagar is fundraising for a blanket drive so they can offer blankets to very poor villagers who suffer in the Winter. In December, the first 500 blankets were distributed. This past week, 30 blankets were distributed to a local orphanage which is home to children who were mostly picked up from the streets and very desperate. These children had no decent blankets to protect them from the Winter cold.
Please rejoice in this amazing humanitarian work being offered by Maitreya Project Kushinagar. You can offer directly to this beneficial work.
You can learn more about the work of Maitreya Project Kushinagar as well as other beneficial activities being supported by the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Beginning today, all posts to the many news blogs on FPMT.org are now being distributed together in one email! If you have signed up in the past to receive one of our blogs like “Lama Zopa Rinpoche News,” “FPMT News Around the World,” “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Schedule” “FPMT Charitable Project News,” “Education News,” or “Mandala Today” by email, you will now receive all posts from all of the blogs, digested into one free email per day via Mailchimp.* This streamlines our ability to keep you up to date with the many aspects of FPMT’s beneficial activities and our international community’s work to fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision.
If you would like to sign up for this free service and receive one email from FPMT most days of the week, you can do so on any of our News pages, where it says “Get FPMT News delivered by email.” If receiving a daily email from FPMT becomes too much for your inbox, you can unsubscribe at any time by scrolling to the bottom of the email and clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link.
This daily email of FPMT blogs is separate from our monthly FPMT eNewsletter, which highlights the activities and news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization and comes to you only once a month. There is also the monthly FPMT Foundation Store Newsletter, which shares news of special offers, new practice items and Dharma gifts. If you’d like to receive either of these free newsletters, you can sign up here.
*For those already receiving the email, today’s will have more stories than usual due to this change. Most days will only contain about two new posts.
FPMT communications is supported, in part, by programs like Friends of FPMT.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blesses rabbits at Osel Labrang, Bylakuppe, India, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“It’s very important not only to have human rights, caring for and supporting humans, but also to be helping animals.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “Animal Welfare,” Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Read more “Advice for Non-harming” from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.
21 Taras thangka is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide. This thangkha is being painted by artist Peter Iseli at a workshop at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund sponsored the creation of a workshop where large thangkas can be created at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is to create many large thangkas around the world.
Artist Peter Iseli with the amazing 21 Tara thangka.
The workshop is 8.5 meters (28 feet) tall. Rinpoche’s first order was a 21 Taras thangka that is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide which is being painted by artist Peter Iseli.
The first third of the giant 21 Taras thangka is now finished, the canvas has been rolled up, and Peter Iseli has already started to draw on the second third of the canvas. This giant 21 Tara thangka is going to go to Tara Institute in Australia when it is finished.
“My wish is for the big centers in FPMT to have these large thangkas.” Rinpoche explained. “This is a way to leave imprints for all these people [who see them], for enlightenment.”
Please rejoice in the amazing work of Peter Iseli manifesting incredible holy objects that can be used by all to make merit.
You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT.