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Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice
The main gompa at Kopan Monastery, April 15, 2023.
Today we share some important updates and newly available resources. Thank you for your continued prayers, offerings of support, condolences, and kindness.
The Embalming Process
The embalming process for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy body has begun. We have a short video to share of the prayers taking place around Rinpoche’s holy body at the start of the embalming process.
Regarding the lamas helping to take care of the embalming of Rinpoche’s holy body, the “Nyingma lama” we referred to in yesterday’s update is one of Rinpoche’s teachers, Lama Ngawang Chokyung. We are exceptionally grateful for his guidance. Lama Ngawang Chokyung is very experienced in this method, and supervised the embalming of His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche. The “ex-abbot of Gyumed” that we referred to is the present abbot of Segyü Dratsang, Khen Rinpoche Losang Wangdu. We are very grateful for all his care and assistance at this time.
Swift Return Prayer by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
With great rejoicing we have received a prayer which His Holiness the Dalai Lama composed for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. This is available in English and Tibetan and has a particularly poignant colophon. For the convenience of students, we have compiled His Holiness’s prayer (starting on page 5), along with a small collection of additional prayers for Rinpoche’s swift return, composed spontaneously by other distinguished lamas with whom Rinpoche had a connection in this lifetime. It will be updated as we receive new compositions. Please download Prayer for the Swift Return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche by His Holiness the Dalai Lama with additional prayers by other distinguished lamas. This booklet is very user friendly with each prayer bookmarked and linked to from the contents page.
Prayers Offered, April 16
The following prayers are being offered today, April 16, at Kopan Monastery:
- Vajrasattva bath offering
- Thirteen Deities Yamantaka self-initiation offered by Rinpoches, Khenrinpoche, Gyumed senior monks and Kopan lama gyupas
- Extensive Medicine Buddha puja offered by general assembly of monks and nuns
- Bodhicharyavarara recitations offered by senior nuns
- All Kopan monks and nuns together with all monks of the Gelug monasteries in Nepal are gathering in the afternoon to recite prayers
- Lay devotees come in various group to make offerings and prayers
- All monks and nuns together with international students are reciting Madyamulakarika in the evening
- More pujas will continue all night
You can watch a livestream of the continued prayers and pujas at Kopan.
Tributes and Condolences
We have received many tributes to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and messages of support and condolence, including some prayers and practices offered for Rinpoche’s swift return, from lamas and monasteries around the world. You can read these on our new Tributes and Condolences page, which we’ve added to our Updates Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche page.
The monks of Sera Je Monastery gathering to offer prayers for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Photo courtesy of Sera Je Monastery.
Ongoing Practice and Dedication
Please continue trying to fulfil Rinpoche’s holy wishes, especially to practice impermanence and bodhicitta in the context of the lamrim. Fulfilling the gurus’ holy wishes is a very important part of inviting the guru to return.
May Rinpoche be reborn as quickly as possible in a place where he can be very quickly recognized and be of most benefit to sentient beings.
Big love,
Your friends at FPMT International Office
We will continue to send out updates as they become available, and these will be collected on this updates page.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 Nepal, March 27, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On April 14 at 10 p.m. Nepal time, blood came from Rinpoche’s left nostril, signaling that Rinpoche had ended his meditation.
The room was then made cold to maintain the holy body, and this morning the holy body was packed in ice.
The embalming process is the next step.
Khandro Kunga Bhuma has advised that today (April 15) is a dakini day, and that 7: 30 p.m. Nepal time today is the special time of the dakini day that fits for Rinpoche’s holy body to begin the embalming process. Khandro Kunga Bhuma will continue to take care – she is now in Nepal.
Two lamas are there who will be in charge of the embalming process, which may take several months. They are Geshe Wangdu, ex-Gyumed abbot; and a Nyingma lama (from whom Lama Zopa Rinpoche had taken transmissions), and who looked after the embalming of Trulshik Rinpoche. Ven. Roger will keep us informed about the process and timeline and we will continue to share updates on this process.
His Excellency Ling Rinpoche suggested that Rinpoche’s holy body be embalmed (rather than cremated) because Lama Zopa Rinpoche has so many students and is so widely known, as then people can come and pay their respects to Rinpoche’s holy body—it will become an object of pilgrimage at Kopan. As previously mentioned, Ven. Roger requested His Holiness the Dalai Lama to comment on this suggestion, and His Holiness advised that this is a very good way forward.
Pujas continue to go on constantly everywhere at Kopan: everyone in the monastery and nunnery is participating. The livestream of the prayers by Rinpoche’s room is continuing.
Additionally, groups are coming from other monasteries to do their own prayers in the gompa at Kopan in their own way for Rinpoche. We are making offerings to them.
Many, many monasteries are also doing pujas and prayers for Rinpoche in their own gompas. We will make offerings to them also.
Please continue trying to fulfil Rinpoche’s holy wishes, especially to practice impermanence and bodhicitta in the context of the lamrim. Fulfilling the gurus’ holy wishes is a very important part of inviting the guru to return.
We are delighted to share that we just received the swift return prayer composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in Tibetan, which is downloadable from the Updates Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche page. We will make it available in English as soon as possible.
We are also very happy to share the swift return prayer composed by Khandro Kunga Bhuma, in Tibetan and with a quick translation into English, also now downloadable from the Updates Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche page.
We rejoice in the swift return prayers kindly composed by other lamas also. We will add them to the Updates Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche page as soon as possible.
May Rinpoche be reborn as quickly as possible in a place where he can be very quickly recognized and be of most benefit to sentient beings.
Big love,
Your friends at FPMT International Office
We will continue to send out updates as they become available, and these will be collected on this update page.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 at Kopan Monastery, March 25, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab
Yesterday we shared the incredibly heart breaking news that on April 13th, Lama Zopa Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is still in the meditation stage in his room in Kopan Monastery. A short video of Rinpoche in clear light meditation is available on Youtube if you would like to view our precious guru at this time.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in clear light meditation, Kopan Monastery, April 13, 2023. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In the room next to the room where Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy body sits in meditation, Kopan monks immediately started and are continuously engaged in twenty-four hour prayers, pujas and self-initiations, and in Kopan’s main gompa prayers are being offered continually. The ongoing prayers with the monks and nuns are being livestreamed and you can connect with that now on Youtube.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama advised on the prayers and practices to be done in Kopan, and also immediately accepted to compose a swift return prayer for Rinpoche’s students.
Lelung Tulku is at Kopan and offering special prayers and puja, and Khandro Kunga Bhuma will arrive tomorrow.
The Kopan monks twenty-four hour prayers, pujas, and self-initiations have thus far included Yamantaka self-initiation, The Eight Prayers (many times), Lama Chopa (several times), recitations of Manjushri’s root text and Drang Nge Lekshe Nyingpo, and many Tara prayers.
This morning, April 14, the Kopan nuns took over and began an all day Vajrayogini self-initiation, which is done extensively. In the evening the monks will perform Guhyasamaja self-initiation, which will continue all night.
On April 15, a number of Gyudme tantric monks arrive and will be joined by Kopan monks to do extensive Five-deity Heruka Body Mandala self-initiation. This will continue every day, twenty-four hours a day, for many days.
Following advice from His Eminence Ling Rinpoche, and confirmed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s body will not be cremated, but will be embalmed. Khandro Kunga Bhuma will help to take care of this process.
We will announce information regarding the main prayer ceremony for Rinpoche once the time comes and we have specific details to share.
Khandro-la very clearly said that Rinpoche took on the obstacles for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and maybe other lamas also, but definitely Rinpoche took on obstacles of His Holiness.
Rinpoche continues in clear light meditation, which gives us a very special opportunity to connect with Rinpoche’s holy mind.
Please keep trying to fulfil Rinpoche’s holy wishes, especially to practice impermanence and bodhicitta in the context of the lamrim. Fulfilling the gurus’ holy wishes is a very important part of inviting the guru to return.
We will continue to send out updates as they become available, and these will be collected on this update page.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 arriving at Tsum Valley, Nepal, April 10, 2023. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Our precious guru is sitting in meditation at Kopan Monastery.
Rinpoche had been up in the mountains in the Tsum Valley since Monday, and had to be brought down urgently as Rinpoche was experiencing altitude sickness.
On arrival back in Kathmandu this morning, Rinpoche stopped breathing. The main doctor at Karuna Hospital tried for some time to revive Rinpoche, but that was not successful. Rinpoche entered meditation at about 9.30am Nepal time, today Thursday April 13th.
His Holiness has been informed, and is giving advice.
The lama gyupas and monks are taking turns in sessions offering Cittamani Tara with Rinpoche, as advised by His Holiness. Other pujas and prayers are being offered here in Kopan.
Khadro-la has advised that this is a most important and precious time for students. Khadro-la went on to advise that the best thing for the students to do at this time is to practice bodhicitta in particular, as well as impermanence in the context of the lamrim, and then also as much as one can to help fulfil the guru’s holy wishes.
Khadro-la insisted that we should take this opportunity to try to achieve all or some of the lamrim in our own practice. Meditating and praying to the guru to receive his blessings and guidance is very important. And to try as much as possible to complete Rinpoche’s projects and holy wishes, so already to generate that wish that we’ll be able to do that.
Please pray and dedicate for Rinpoche to be reborn as quickly as possible in a place where he can be very quickly recognized and be of most benefit to sentient beings.
Please keep trying to fulfill Rinpoche’s holy wishes, especially to practice impermanence and bodhicitta in the context of the lamrim. Fulfilling the gurus’ holy wishes is a very important part of inviting the guru to return.
As you know, Rinpoche was the embodiment of bodhicitta, and always stressed the importance of remembering impermanence, and the essential need to put the teachings into practice. This is what we can do for our precious guru now – please try to follow Rinpoche’s heart advice. We can all connect with the guru and receive the guru’s blessings in this way – NOW is a very important time for this.
Our hearts are breaking, we take all our support from Rinpoche’s teachings, and the guidance of His Holiness and our teachers, and in our FPMT family.
Big love
On behalf of Ven Roger Kunsang
FPMT International Office
We will send out updates as they become available.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with flower offering at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, August 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche will be teaching and giving an initiation in Singapore and Malaysia this year in June, July, and August! Dates are on Rinpoche’s Schedule.
At Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, Rinpoche will be continuing the Lama Chopa commentary begun some years ago. Please note: the Lama Chopa commentary is restricted to qualified persons and requires prior registration
In Losang Dragpa Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche will give lamrim teachings, and will kindly bestow the highest yoga tantra initiation of Yamantaka. Please note that this initiation is restricted to qualified persons and requires prior registration.
For further details, or to register for the program, please contact each center directly.
For more information about the ABC event in Singapore: https://fpmtabc.org/2023/event/lzr2023.php
For more information about the LDC event in Malaysia: https://fpmt-ldc.org/lama-zopa-in-malaysia
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.
We recently shared news about Wisdom Publications’ release of The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment by Panchen Losang Yeshe and translated by Szegee Toh into English. This book is the third title in the Wisdom Culture Series published by Wisdom Publications in association with FPMT.
This book contains a wonderful foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and we are sharing it here in its entirety. We hope this foreword will inspire you to read this extraordinary meditation manual in its entirety.
Foreword to The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment
By Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
What is the importance of this text, the Swift Path by Paṇchen Losang Yeshe? To talk straight, millions and millions of people have depression. Why is that? I believe that the fundamental reason is because they lack an understanding of the meaning of life. In most cases, they haven’t met the Dharma, the path to enlightenment, so they don’t know the happiness that comes from practicing it. There are also people who have met the graduated path to enlightenment, the lamrim, but because they do not really practice it, the lamrim remains on paper; it does not go into their heart. And when, due to past karma, a problem involving an attachment to the happiness of this life arises, say their wife leaves them for someone else, they cannot bear it. They may even have an intellectual understanding of the lamrim, but without having really practiced it in their heart, they cannot renounce their attachment to their wife when she leaves them, or they become consumed by distress when someone important to them dies. It feels like they are the only person in the world experiencing that kind of suffering; with attachment, it can feel like that. In this state, they are vulnerable because of their past karma, their past harmful actions, and some people may even kill themselves in their extreme state.
Suicides even happened among the residents of the refugee camp in Buxa Duar, India, where, after escaping from Tibet, I lived for eight years and studied a little bit of philosophy. During that time, there was a monk who was a puja leader. After an influential person who had helped Tibet passed away, the Tibetans in general and the monks in particular were very upset. It was perhaps after that that he took his own life at a place on the way to Pasangkar, where I went many times along with some other monks to get injections for tuberculosis. On a mountain where there had been a landslide, the puja leader hanged himself. His body was found hanging from a high branch with a rope around his neck.
Likewise, when America was fighting in Iraq, every minute of the soldiers’ lives was uncertain. They saw many acts of violence. Because of this, when the soldiers who survived returned home to see their families, their minds were totally disturbed. They couldn’t see any meaning in life. I met one of these American soldiers at my retreat cave in Lawudo, Nepal. He was a very intelligent, highly trained soldier who found out about Lawudo on the internet, and he happened to be in Lawudo while I was there. I called him to come to my cave so that I could ask him some questions. He was someone who didn’t talk much, but he told me that the American government introduced the returned soldiers to mindfulness, which comes from Buddhism, because it makes the mind peaceful. I think the idea behind it was that by not thinking about the past and future, and by keeping the mind still, people feel a little bit better.
When people don’t know the meaning of life, and don’t know the happiness that comes from practicing the Dharma, they then experience unbelievable problems and unhappiness; they become chronically depressed, unable to recover. I heard once about a man in England who had been sick with depression for twenty-five years. He had been to see many doctors, but nothing helped. However, one day, when he was working in a vegetable garden, he tried to think that he was doing it for others. By this intention to use his life to benefit others, to work for others, to serve others, he was able to change his mind, and only then did his depression go away. Like “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” “A thought to benefit others a day keeps depression away.”
What sort of Dharma should you practice? Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand says:
The Dharma you practice should be the sublime Mahayana, which leads fortunate capable beings to buddhahood. It should be the tradition of the two great charioteers, Nagarjuna and Asanga. It should be the profound instruction drawing out the essence of the thought of the glorious, unequaled Lama Atisha and the great Lama Tsongkhapa, the Dharma king of the three realms. It should set out all the vital points of the essence of the 84,000 teachings, without anything missing, as stages of practice for one person to achieve enlightenment.
Therefore, you should first make sure that the Dharma that you are going to study and practice is the main path traveled by all the buddhas of the three times—past, present, and future. The very heart of the 84,000 teachings taught by the Buddha, when condensed, is the holy Dharma that is the lamrim, the graduated path, which includes both the profound and vast stages. The five great treatises (on Prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, Abhidharma, Pramaṇa, and Vinaya) that form the core curriculum of Gelug monasteries are elaborations of this holy Dharma. If you follow this path, like the buddhas of the three times, you will also be able to achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations.
If, instead, you follow a path that the holy beings of the past did not practice, you risk reaching a very strange place. You might experience the sufferings of the lower realms and the general sufferings of saṃsara for eons, with no chance for enlightenment. Therefore, before you rush to devour the Dharma that you intend to practice, like a dog rushes to food, you should thoroughly examine it. For, as Jamgon Sakya Paṇḍita said:
However much this life goes wrong,
there is neither harm nor benefit to your next life.
But if you meet a wrong Dharma,
all your future lives will go wrong.
If something else in your life goes wrong, even if you die and your consciousness is separated from your body, your consciousness will not necessarily go to the lower realms, where you would suffer for eons and eons; you might still go to a pure land or take a higher rebirth. But if you meet and practice a wrong Dharma and follow a wrong path, this could destroy your future lives for eons upon eons because of the negative imprints and habits it creates. You would not meet the Dharma and would not meet a virtuous friend for many lifetimes; you would instead experience great suffering. Do not be like many who, in my experience, practice whatever sounds good and makes them happy right now, never examining the nature of the teachings they are going to practice and where those teachings will lead them.
The instructions that you follow should be complete, with nothing missing, and unmistaken, and you should also be able to endure hardships to practice them. Otherwise, your effort will be mostly useless, in that you will not gain realizations, such as renunciation of the attachment to this life, and you will be unable to achieve enlightenment. As Milarepa said:
Without meditating on the meaning of the instructions of the oral lineage,
even if you cling to a retreat place, you will only torture yourself.
Milarepa was a lay person who achieved enlightenment in his lifetime during these degenerate times. After his father died, his aunt and uncle mistreated his family, causing his mother to advise Milarepa to learn black magic. He did so, and later, when the aunt and uncle were hosting a wedding at their house, Milarepa caused rocks from the mountain to crash down upon the house, utterly destroying it. The wedding guests upstairs and the animals downstairs were all killed.
Seeing what he had done, Milarepa felt great sadness and went to see his black magic teacher, who suggested that if he wanted to practice the Dharma, he should go to Lama Marpa. Upon finding him, Milarepa offered his body, speech, and mind. However, Marpa did not give him teachings for many years. Instead, he advised Milarepa to build a nine-story tower by himself (without any help from coolies!). After he built the tower, Marpa had him take it down and put all the stones back where he had found them, and this whole process was repeated two more times. After the third time, Marpa’s wife insisted that Marpa now give teachings to Milarepa. From Marpa’s side, he wanted Milarepa to bear hardships for even longer so that Milarepa would become enlightened much faster. But because his wife pushed him so much, Marpa, himself an enlightened being, manifested the maṇḍala of the deity and gave Milarepa initiation and teachings. Marpa then sent Milarepa to the mountains to do retreat. Bearing much hardship, Milarepa followed his guru’s instructions exactly, while subsisting on only nettles—without even any chili or salt! As a result, Milarepa became enlightened in that very life.
Just as the source of a river is traced back to a snow mountain, the source of the Dharma that you practice should trace back to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of unmistaken teachings. Without an authentic source for the Dharma, even if you practice for a thousand years, you will not generate even one valid realization. It would be like wishing for butter by churning water. Thus the Dharma that you practice should have all three of these qualities: it should have been taught by the Buddha, the Omniscient One; it should have been examined well with quotations and logic and verified by the arya paṇḍitas of India; and it should have been actualized by yogis.
Many people in this world think that they are Buddhists when they don’t even have refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The definition of a Buddhist is someone who has taken refuge from their heart by totally relying on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, but these people don’t even recite a refuge prayer before they meditate. They don’t even have a statue of the Buddha in their house. When they meditate on emptiness, their meditation falls into either eternalism or nihilism, as it’s not the emptiness of the Middle Way. With nihilism, they think that nothing exists: there is no I, there is no action, there is no object, there is no saṃsara, there is no nirvaṇa.
One time when I was in Taiwan, I met a young man whose guru accepted only one disciple, who was him. He was trying hard to meditate, but his meditation on emptiness was contemplating that nothing exists. To tease him, I asked him, “Why do you go to the bathroom if nothing exists?” If nothing exists it means that there is no person who needs to urinate or defecate, no food or drink that was consumed, no urine or feces to expel, and no toilet in which to expel them. In the same way, there is no Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. There is no Buddha to guide you to liberation from saṃsara. There is no Dharma to practice. There is no Sangha to help you practice. It all becomes very funny. You don’t exist and nor do your parents, brothers and sisters, husband, or wife. None of them exists.
In a sutra, the Buddha instructed Arya Katyayana, saying:
Katyayana, why do most people in this world strongly cling to existence or nonexistence—that is, to eternalism or nihilism? Clinging like that, they are not free from birth, old age, sickness, death, depression, lamenting, suffering, mental unhappiness, and fighting.
In short, they cannot completely abandon the root of the oceans of suffering of saṃsara, the ignorance that holds the I and the aggregates to be truly existent. They then cannot be liberated from saṃsara. For eons upon eons, they must experience countless sufferings in the lower realms.
Therefore, if you contemplate extensively, you will see that having an opportunity to listen to, reflect on, and meditate on the complete and unmistaken teachings, which are like refined gold, of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Nagarjuna, Candrakirti, and Lama Tsongkhapa is unbelievably fortunate. It is more precious than the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels. For this reason, for your whole life—however many years, months, weeks, days, minutes, and seconds you have left to live—you should generate great happiness and rejoice in your good fortune. You are like a blind man who has found in the garbage a wish-granting jewel. If you do not meet the teachings of the graduated path to enlightenment, the heart of the whole entire Buddhadharma, which is like an ocean, you will never achieve liberation from saṃsara, and you will never achieve enlightenment. As it says in Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s Opening the Door to the Excellent Path:
This is because with renunciation, every action you do with your body, speech, or mind becomes a cause of liberation; with bodhicitta, every action you do becomes a cause of enlightenment; and with right view, every action you do becomes a remedy to saṃsara. If your actions of body, speech, and mind are not conjoined with these three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment, even if you meditate on the cakras, winds, and drops; on mahamudra, the great seal; on dzokchen, the great completion; or on the generation and completion stages of tantra, they all become a cause of saṃsara. None of them becomes the slightest cause of liberation and enlightenment.
Kadampa Geshe Phuchungwa said to Kadampa Geshe Chen Ngawa, “Which would you choose? To be expert in the five great knowledges, achieve stable concentration, have the five clairvoyances, and achieve the eight siddhis? Or, on the other hand, to have a stable understanding of Lama Atisha’s instructions, such that no one can change your mind, even though you have not exactly actualized them in your heart?”
Kadampa Geshe Chen Ngawa answered, “Master, leaving aside generating the lamrim realizations in my heart, I would choose just facing toward the lamrim, wondering what it is. I have been expert in the five great knowledges, been able to concentrate for eons without distraction, had the five clairvoyances, and achieved the eight siddhis numberless times in the past, but I have not yet passed beyond saṃsāra. If I find definite understanding of Lama Atisha’s graduated path to enlightenment, I will definitely turn away from saṃsara.”
Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand says:
When you examine it, you will find there is no holy Dharma that is more sublime than this graduated path to enlightenment. Even the profound qualities of Secret Mantra Vajrayāna depend on the graduated path to enlightenment. Without generating the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment in your mind, you cannot achieve enlightenment in one life by practicing the tantric path. I myself have indeed heard of many supposedly profound pure visions, Dharma treasures, and so forth from the past, but although there appear to be many wonderful collections of tantric activities and so forth, there do not seem to be any that are a way to bring forth experience of the three principal aspects of the path or that are an instruction that in essence has special qualities.
What is called the lamrim is not made up by Lama Tsongkhapa, Lama Atisha, and so forth. It has been transmitted from the fully enlightened Buddha alone. If you understand that, whether it has the name lamrim in the title or not, you will see that all the teachings of the Buddha are the lamrim.
And in relation to Tsongkhapa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo explained:
Lama Tsongkhapa composed the requesting prayer [to the lineage gurus of the lamrim] Opening the Door to the Supreme Path at the base of a lion-like rockface at Radreng to the north [of Lhasa]. Whenever he invoked and made requests to an image of Lama Atisha with the holy head tilted to the side, he had a vision of all the gurus of the lamrim lineage discussing Dharma with each other. In particular, for a month Lama Tsongkhapa had visions of Lama Atisha and [the Kadampa geshés] Dromtönpa, Potowa, and Sharawa. In the end, the other three absorbed into Lama Atisha, who put his hand on Lama Tsongkhapa’s crown and said, “Work for the teachings of the Buddha, and I will help you.” That means Atisha was the one who persuaded Lama Tsongkhapa to write his Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Lama Tsongkhapa then composed the Great Treatise up to and including the section on calm abiding. Later, having been persuaded by Manjushri he composed the section on great insight. Therefore, leaving aside other considerations, know that in dependence on those who persuaded Lama Tsongkhapa to write it, the Great Treatise is a treasury of blessings.
The meaning of the lamrim was elaborated on by Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, the paṇḍitas of India, and the great enlightened beings of Tibet, including Lama Tsongkhapa. Because the basis of the lamrim tradition is Lama Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo set out the elaborate life story of Lama Atisha. After that, he continued by explaining that this teaching, the graduated path to enlightenment, has four great qualities and three special qualities, making it much more special than other teachings. The explanation that follows comes from Phabongkha Rinpoche.
The first great quality is that it allows you to realize that all the teachings of the Buddha are without contradiction. If taken literally, the Lesser Vehicle, the Great Vehicle, the Vinaya, and the Secret Mantra Vehicle may appear to contradict each other, but because they are all in reality only methods for one person to achieve enlightenment, they are without contradiction. It is like a sick person who goes to the doctor with a high fever. The doctor may give one set of advice initially, but later, when the symptoms change, may advise just the opposite. Although the two sets of advice do indeed appear to be contradictory, both are necessary for the one sick person to recover. Like this, all the subjects of the graduated path are practices for one person to achieve enlightenment.
The second great quality of the lamrim is that it allows every single teaching of the Buddha to appear as an instruction for practice. If you do not meet something like this graduated path to enlightenment, then some of the teachings of the Buddha and the commentaries on them will appear as practical while others will not. Moreover, regarding the gurus who revealed the instructions for practice in this world, there is none higher than Shakyamuni Buddha, and the highest instructions for practice are the supreme teachings of the Buddha. As Maitreya’s Sublime Continuum says:
Therefore, in the world, there is no one wiser than the Buddha.
Only the Omniscient One knows every single sublime reality just as it is; others do not.
Therefore, do not mess with whatever sūtras were laid out by the Sage himself,
because that would destroy the Buddha’s teachings and harm the holy Dharma.
So, if not all of the teachings of the Buddha and their commentaries appear to you as instructions for practice, it is because you have not understood the meaning of the graduated path to enlightenment. But by understanding the meaning of the graduated path, you will know that all the great scriptures, the Buddha’s teachings and the commentaries, are included in the lamrim, and that they are to be integrated into your practice.
The third great quality of the lamrim is that it allows you to easily discern the view of the Buddha. The Buddha’s teachings and their commentaries are sublime instructions for practice. Their subject matter is the ultimate view of the Buddha. However, without depending on the guru’s instructions, such as those on the graduated path to enlightenment, you will not find the ultimate view of the Buddha by depending on those great scriptures. Even if you are able to find it, it will take a long time and you will undergo extremely great hardships to do so. By depending on this lamrim, without any hardship you will easily find the view of the Buddha that is taught in those great scriptures.
If you ask what that view of the Buddha is, Dakpo Jampal Lhundrup (1845– 1919) said it should be taken in general to be the paths of beings of the three capabilities and, in particular, the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment. That is definite. Lama Tsongkhapa clearly explained the view of the Prasangika Madhyamaka school as the ultimate view of the Buddha. In Three Principal Aspects of the Path, he said:
As long as these two understandings are seen as separate—
of appearance, unbetraying dependent relation,
and emptiness, the absence of all positions—
then you have not realized the Buddha’s intent.
This directly says that if you do not realize the right view, the Prasangika Madhyamaka view, you will not realize the view of the Buddha. It implies that if you do realize it, you will find the view of the Buddha. For example, the great scriptures are like an ocean. The view of the Buddha, such as the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment, is like a jewel in that ocean. The lamrim is like a ship. The guru who reveals it is like a captain. Even though there are jewels in the ocean, if you enter it without depending on a ship, besides not obtaining any jewels, there is the danger that you will lose your life. Similarly, without depending on the lamrim, even if you study the great scriptures, it will be difficult for you to find the view of the Buddha. But if, by depending on a guru who is like a skilled captain, you board the ship of the lamrim, you will easily find the jewel that is the ultimate view of the Buddha in the great ocean of the extensive scriptures.
The fourth great quality of the lamrim is that it allows you to naturally cease the great vice of abandoning the Dharma. If you do not find definite understanding of the previous three great qualities, you will discriminate among the teachings of the Buddha, seeing some as higher and some as lower, some as philosophy and some as practices, and so forth, and then have greater or lesser devotion to them. By maintaining such discrimination, you continuously create the very heavy karma of abandoning the holy Dharma, for which the karmic obscurations are extremely heavy. In the Sutra Gathering All Fragments, the Buddha said:
Manjushri, the karmic obscurations of abandoning the holy Dharma easily happen. Manjushri discriminating some of the teachings taught by the Buddha as good and some as bad is abandoning the holy Dharma. Whoever abandons the holy Dharma criticizes the Tathagata. They talk badly about the Sangha. If you say, “This [teaching] is right” and “This is not right,” you abandon the holy Dharma. If you say, “This is taught for bodhisattvas” and “This is taught for hearers,” you abandon the holy Dharma. If you say, “This is taught for solitary realizers,” you abandon the holy Dharma. If you say, “This is not a training for bodhisattvas,” you abandon the holy Dharma.
As the King of Meditative Stabilizations Sutra says:
The negative karma of abandoning
the holy Dharma is far greater
than that of destroying all the holy objects
of offering in this Jambudvipa.
The negative karma of abandoning
the holy Dharma is far greater
than that of killing as many arhats
as there are sand grains in the Ganges.
By understanding the lamrim, you naturally stop committing the great vice of abandoning the holy Dharma.
This lamrim also has three special qualities. First, it is complete with nothing missing. The lamrim obviously cannot include all the words of the teachings of the Buddha and their commentaries, so when it says that nothing is missing, this means that all the vital points of the meaning are condensed and presented within it, leaving nothing out. That is why Lama Tsongkhapa explained in his Song of Spiritual Experience:
Each time you explain or listen to the lamrim,
the condensed essence of all the scriptures,
you collect the benefits of explaining and listening to the holy Dharma.
So, since it condenses the extensive teachings, contemplate its meaning.
The second special quality is that it is easy to practice. Each of us has experienced the various sufferings in this saṃsara, and each of us can achieve the everlasting happiness of liberation from saṃsara and of enlightenment. The creator of all these is the mind. And there is nothing better for subduing that mind than the lamrim. Since it was mainly taught as a method for subduing the mind, it is easy to put into practice.
Finally, the lamrim is more special than other traditions. Since the lamrim is adorned with the instructions of Guru Vidyakokila, learned in the tradition of Nagarjuna, and the instructions of Guru Serlingpa (Suvarṇadvipa), learned in the tradition of Asanga, it is a particularly precious tradition. As Lama Tsongkhapa also said in his Song of Spiritual Experience:
That which is well transmitted respectively from Nagarjuna and Asanga—
crown ornaments of the learned ones of the world,
banners of renown resplendent among beings—
is the graduated path to enlightenment.
Not even Maitreya’s Ornament for Clear Realizations or the king of tantras, the glorious Guhyasamaja, has these three special qualities. The entire subject matter of sūtra and tantra is not contained in either of these two, nor do they mainly explain the steps for subduing the mind.
Therefore, while you have this fortunate opportunity to study, reflect, and meditate on such a graduated path to enlightenment, which is extremely special in terms of its four great qualities and three special qualities, do not remain satisfied with a misguided and partial instruction for practice. It is extremely important that you engage with great effort in studying, reflecting, and meditating on this path. In short, no matter how busy you are, reading the lamrim regularly, even just a few pages a day, brings the mind directly into the graduated path to enlightenment and the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment. Just imagine the benefit of doing that!
I am very pleased that this translation of the meditation instructions of Paṇchen Losang Yeshe is now available to English-speaking students of the Dharma. I have often recommended this text, including to my student Diana, who sponsored the excellent and careful translation here by Szegee. I rejoice in the merit of everyone involved in its creation and publication.
Thank you very much!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Kopan Monastery, Nepal
You can order the Swift Path from Wisdom Publications: https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-swift-path/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche circumambulating the stupa at O.Sel.Ling, Spain, May 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave teachings on how to make offerings and circumambulate holy objects at the sacred stupa at Boudhanath, Nepal, during the pandemic and in a letter to students in Russia who make holy objects. We are pleased to make these teachings available in the booklet form in Create Skies of Merit by Making Offerings and Circumambulating Stupas.
This 32-page booklet explains the benefits of making offerings to and circumambulating stupas as well as how to think when making offerings and how to collect extensive merit.
Rinpoche emphasizes the importance of, first, offering to all sentient beings based on the example of making a flower offering:
“First, we make charity of this flower to every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal—think of just the ants: scientists say there are about 13,000 different types of ants.”
Rinpoche then teaches the importance of making an offering on behalf of all sentient beings:
“When we offer on behalf of all sentient beings, it includes your father, mother, brother, sister, any friends, your enemy, anyone, including whoever has died. Doing puja for those who’ve been born in the lower realms can liberate them; they can get a higher rebirth and meet the Dharma—they get so much benefit.”
When we think this way, all sentient beings collect merit, whether they are our friends, enemies, or strangers.
Rinpoche also explains how the practice of circumambulating stupas with body, speech, and mind are done. We do not circumambulate stupas just for our own sake, but we go around the holy objects to benefit all sentient beings.
When it comes to the action of speech while doing circumambulation, Rinpoche advises not to waste time gossiping while circumambulating the holy object, but instead recite different mantras and prayers. Circumambulating with our mind means that we do it with devotion to our guru and compassion to all sentient beings as well as do visualizations that the light purifies all sentient beings.
Whenever we have an opportunity to circumambulate holy objects, it is wonderful to apply these simple yet powerful pith instructions by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in order to collect extensive merit.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche shopping for flower offerings, Boudhanath, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Additional Audio and PDF Resources
This practice was composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to create the most extensive merit possible when making any kind of offering. This is one of Rinpoche’s heart practices for the accumulation of merit.
Rinpoche gave this advice on how to collect “the most unbelievable merit” when making offerings, originally in relation to offerings to the Boudha Stupa located in Kathmandu, Nepal.
This booklet explains the benefits of offering flowers to holy objects as well as describes how to do flower offerings including the recitation of the flower offering mantra which makes flower offerings vast, transforming them into ten million or more flower offerings.
Clouds of Offerings Mantra – MP3 Download
This audio contains recitation of Clouds of Offering Mantra by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. This mantra is not only for blessing, it also has the power to multiply the offerings. There are numberless buddhas and by reciting this mantra each buddha receives skies of offerings.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche created this offering card as a welcoming and explanatory sign for anyone visiting the gardens of his house in Aptos, California, USA. Rinpoche has said that anyone can use this where there are many flower and water bowl offerings.
Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas
King Trisong Detsen requested Guru Rinpoche to give a teaching on the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. Padmasambhava gave a detailed explanation of the particular benefits and results of different types of offerings, such as the set of offerings and offerings included in the long mandala offering.
Download Create Skies of Merit by Making Offerings and Circumambulating Stupas for your own practice: https://shop.fpmt.org/stupa-offering-circumambulation-pdf.html
Through comprehensive study programs and practice materials, FPMT Education Services nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Rinpoche blessing and reciting mantras for two goats that had just been saved from the butcher and live at Animal Liberation Sanctuary, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling (Kopan Nunnery), July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche compiled a list of mantras and buddhas’ names that are powerful for benefiting animals. We are pleased to make this available in booklet form in Wish-fulfillment for all Animals: Their Happiness and
Rinpoche requested, “These things are so easy to do and have great meaning, and the advice has pure reference, so the intelligent ones should do the practice.”
We also offer the following audio resources:
Recitations for Animals: This audio contains recitations by Lama Zopa Rinpoche suitable for animals to hear throughout their lives – when they are in good health, or when they are sick or dying. Hearing each mantra and text creates an imprint and blessing in the mind that brings the result of good rebirths, liberation from samsara, and ultimately, full enlightenment. Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises that playing them for any animal will bring immense benefit.
The Five Powerful Mantras for Liberating Sentient Beings from the Lower Realms: This album contains Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s oral transmission (*lung) of the five powerful mantras: the Kunrig Mantra, the Stainless Pinnacle Essence Mantra, the Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha Mantra, the Namgyalma mantras (long and short), and the Buddha Mitrugpa Mantra.
Animal blessing, Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.
Book release of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Mr. Gagan K. Thapa from the Nepali Parliament’s House of Representatives, Nepal, December 24, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On December 24, 2022, Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended a book release celebration at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Nepal, for his new book in Nepali, titled The Effects of Smoking and Living a Healthy and Happy Life. The event drew over 600 guests, including dignitaries such as Mr. Gagan K. Thapa from the Nepali Parliament’s House of Representatives.
It was a joyful celebration including music offered by renowned singers Raju Lama and Ani Choying Drolma.
During the event, Rinpoche discussed the evolution of this new book and offered advice about the harms of smoking tobacco, citing Padmasambhava’s advice, as well as modern science.
This book will be released in English in the future and we look forward to sharing details of this publication when it is available.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Effects of Smoking and Living a Healthy and Happy Life”:
https://youtu.be/aAvTq7hWNe4
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 the long life puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 21, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
A long life puja was offered by the entire FPMT organization to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on December 21, 2022 at Kopan Monastery during the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course. This puja was offered in accordance with the advice of Khandro Kunga Bhuma (Khandro-la), and is part of a collection of practices offered for Rinpoche’s health and the well-being of the entire FPMT organization.
During this puja, Rinpoche spoke about the meaning and benefits of the long life puja and how to visualize all the offerings to make it most beneficial.
As a reminder, the FPMT organization will be offering a long life puja to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 24, 2023 at Namgyal Monastery, Dharamsala, India.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “The Benefits of Offering a Long Life Puja”:
https://youtu.be/0S7H6VNUSvA
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
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 the fifty-third Kopan lamrim meditation course, Nepal, December 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s profound wisdom has guided the FPMT organization since its inception and his ongoing topical teachings provide the relevant advice we all need to practice Dharma in this modern world. Rinpoche’s message in this year’s FPMT Annual Review 2022: Rejoicing in a Year of Offering the Methods for Peace and Happiness focuses on the importance of practicing patience, the method for keeping enemies away and obtaining peace for oneself and others. From the opening paragraph:
First I want to say that patience is the most important practice to protect one’s merits. Most sentient beings do not know Dharma; they are very far away from Dharma. Then, among the sentient beings who have met Dharma, even if they try to practice it, anger often arises.
Even if they collect merits, because their minds easily come under the control of anger, sooner or later the merits will be destroyed, blown up, by anger. So you must really make effort to protect and not burn all your merits by giving rise to anger.
Without protecting your merits, there is no happiness and you don’t succeed in fulfilling your wishes. You remain continuously in samsara and in the lower realms. Unless you enjoy that, unless what you want is suffering and what you don’t want is happiness, there is only total loss.
We are so happy to offer a downloadable PDF of Rinpoche’s entire eleven page teaching:
fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/advice_from_our_spiritual_director_AR_2022_a5.pdf
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.
All are welcome to read this year’s FPMT Annual Review 2022 in its entirety:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/annual-review-2022
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery, December 25, 2022.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche began a refuge ceremony on December 25, 2022 from the fifty-third lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery by explaining the importance of relying on Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. By protecting our karma we are able to be free from samsara.
Before the refuge ceremony begins (at 13:33 in the video), Rinpoche explained the Lesser Vehicle refuge and also Mahayana refuge and shared the motivation for taking refuge:
This is one time that I have received a perfect human body, qualified by eight freedoms and ten richnesses. I have met Buddhadharma that shows the Four Noble Truths, I have met Mahayana Dharma, holy Dharma, that reveals bodhicitta, the path to achieve enlightenment, the six paramitas, and so forth. To free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone, I must achieve the state of omniscience. Therefore, I’m going to take refuge.
While guiding those in attendance in prostrations, Rinpoche discussed the significance of holding one’s hands in the mudra of prostration at the crown of the head, throat, and heart, explaining that this purifies the negative karmas collected with body, speech, and mind from beginningless rebirths and creates the cause to achieve Buddha’s holy body, speech, and mind. Rinpoche also discussed what to visualize when doing prostrations and the benefits of this practice.
Rinpoche also explained the benefits of taking refuge in the Guru, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and offered refuge and lay vows.
Please note, the video recording stops just before Rinpoche begins the jenang ritual of Vajrasattva.
We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video below, and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching. An unedited video recording of the live transcription alongside Rinpoche’s teaching is also available to watch.
Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “Refuge Ceremony”:
https://youtu.be/ugnRiDXh8nI
This summary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching is by Carina Rumrill based on the transcript by Ven. Joan Nicell. Editorial input and additions by Justin Jenkins.
This summary is meant to highlight key topics presented by Rinpoche in the recorded video and is not intended to serve as a full representation of Rinpoche’s teaching, which is best received through watching the video.
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.