Lama Zopa Rinpoche News and Advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Richard Gere, Mundgod, India, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The Jangchup Lamrim teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Gaden Monastery have concluded. More than 25,000 people, including 2000 foreigners from 43 countries, attended the week-long teaching event in South India. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was among the many high lamas, rinpoches and geshes in attendance. On Christmas Day, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had lunch with American actor Richard Gere, who was also attending the teachings.

You can find daily summaries and video and audio links of the teachings on JangchupLamrim.org. His Holiness’ website DalaiLama.com also has daily summaries of the teachings and His Holiness’ activities.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting a park in Leeds, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“… Everybody wants happiness and does not want problems or suffering. I think that if you want to be happy, it’s very important to know how to enjoy life. If you know how to enjoy life, whether you are a prime minister or a porter, a millionaire or a beggar, you will find happiness in every situation. If you know how to live your life and you understand the methods to apply, you can make your life happy,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in the featured teaching of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s November 2014 E-letter.   

“Your mind, or mental continuum, has all the potential to apply methods that can make your life really happy, peaceful, and satisfying, but this depends on your actions in everyday life. Whether you are a prime minister or a porter, a millionaire or a beggar, whether you live alone or live in a city with many people, whatever the situation, if you know how to live life, there’s always a way to make your life happy and to find satisfaction and peace.

“It all depends on your daily activities — on what you do and how you think. The main thing is your attitude in life. Everything depends on your own mind. If you create one concept, you will find problems in your life. With another concept, the correct way of thinking, there will be no problems in your life; the problems won’t exist. You won’t find any problems in your life. So, everything depends on your own mind. Problems come from your own mind and happiness also has to come from your own mind. It is not that problems come from your mind and happiness comes from outside. Both come from your own mind. …”

You can read the entire teaching “Happiness Depends on Transforming the Mind” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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 with Phuntsok Rinpoche after the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

While at Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche met with Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the recognized reincarnation of the great master Geshe Lama Konchog, who passed away in 2001. Phuntsok Rinpoche was born in Tsum valley in Nepal in 2002 and was enthroned in 2006. You can read a letter by Geshe Tenzin Zopa about finding Geshe Lama Konchog’s tulku. The story of the search for Phuntsok Rinpoche is also told in the documentary film “Unmistaken Child.”

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the November Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

FPMT International Office is happy to share a newly organized collection of video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teaching events. FPMT International Office is committed to making Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at large events available live as they are happening to students anywhere in the world and to sharing the archive video from those teachings, allowing student to view unedited video footage as well as read extensive unedited transcripts and enjoy other valuable resources the moment they are available.

Today, students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche can access his teaching from the Kopan November Course, which took place in Nepal Novemeber 29 – December 7, 2014; the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat held at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia in September and October; and the extensive Light of the Path 2014 teachings completed in North Carolina, USA in May. 

FPMT International Office is the administrative headquarters for the FPMT, an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha, and based on that experience, spread the Dharma to sentient beings. Your support allows us to continue our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, July 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

“… If you really know how to think, if you really know Buddhism, then you can make Christianity much deeper, with your own view and your own understanding. You will even have a much better understanding, the deeper you understand Buddhism,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote to a student who had become Christian.

“When His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave the Kalachakra initiation in Dharamsala the first time, he said that Jesus Christ is a bodhisattva.

“As His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, all religions that have conduct and views as their main instruction are telling people to have a good heart and love and compassion for the living beings. That is the main focus, and it is the same for many religions. So the conclusion is the same, to generate loving kindness and compassion to others, to not harm and to benefit others. It’s the same in Buddhism and the other major religions. …”

You can read Rinpoche’s entire letter “Compassion for All Living Beings” at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of a Christmas-themed gingerbread monastery, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT International Office wish you warm Season’s Greetings! 

We invite you to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s special seasonal message and photo in the December FPMT International Office e-news.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche after first day of Jangchup Lamrim, India, December 23, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

After the first day of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings on December 23 at Gaden Monastery in South India, Ven. Roger Kunsang, assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, tweeted the photo above and an explanation:

Straight after the teachings of His Holiness, Rinpoche explaining the benefits of the mantras to students.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s assistant and CEO of FPMT Inc., shares updates from the Jangchup Lamrim and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent pith sayings on Ven. Roger Kunsang’s Twitter page. (You can also read them on Ven. Roger’s Facebook page.)

Updates, photos, news and links to live and archived video of His Holiness teaching can be found by visiting the Jangchup Lamrim website. You can also find out about the Jangchup Lamrim on Facebook.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ladakh, India, July 2014. Photo by Olivier Adam.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived at Ganden Jangtse Monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka, India, on December 22 for the Jangchup Lamrim. FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche is also in Mundgod and attending the teachings with His Holiness, which begin December 23. 

This is the third year for the Jangchup Lamrim. The series of teachings on the 18 lam-rim commentaries was requested by His Eminence Ling Rinpoche. The teaching, which go through December 29, are being webcast live. 

For more information as well as updates, photos and video of the teachings, visit the Jangchup Lamrim website. Also visit DalaiLama.com for news, photos and updates on the activities of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Learn more about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Exhibit Hall, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Steve Alberts.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in December as part of the Kopan Monastery November course. On December 7, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: When you experience the real I that ignorance has been focusing on, disappears, then no one can cheat you.

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.

The nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.

Due to the kindness of a very generous benefactor, a full set of robes are being made by tailors in Kathmandu and then will be offered to the 75 nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery and three monks (the abbot, a geshe and a teacher). The robes will be offered during Chinese New Year.

During Lhabab Duchen the nuns offered Guru Padmasambhava Bumstok (100,000 tsog offerings to Padmasambhava). These pujas were dedicated to the good health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, students of FPMT, the sponsors of the 100 million mani retreats, and all the kind donors of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.

If you were Sangha but you didn’t wear robes, then people would not know [that you were ordained], but with robes on there is no question. That is how the robes have such incredible benefit for the mind. It is planting the seed for enlightenment when people show respect to your wearing of the robes, or to the robes themselves: This is planting the seed of liberation, and is a way of benefiting sentient beings.

—Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The geshe of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery sent the following message to Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently:

“On Lama Tsongkhapa Day, the nuns started seven days of Amitabha Bumtsok  here at nunnery. These  pujas organized are dedicated to all sentient beings and particularly for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life and members of FPMT.”

Please rejoice in this offering to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery and also in their amazing practice and dedication to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the students of FPMT.

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, or about the 100 million mani retreats that the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery have offered in alignment with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for FPMT.

“I tell people that the FPMT organization is here to help. I think it is so fortunate that we, the FPMT, are able to provide help at the time of death, because death is really a most difficult, most hard time. So the benefits provided by the organization to help at that time are so good. It’s very good to do, it helps people in the world very much, and especially students. In the world, especially in Western countries, I don’t think there are other organizations who put together all the ways to help with death, to help people who are dying.

Of course those who have realizations, who have good heart, they don’t go to the lower realms, they have happy mind, they know where they’re going. But for most people there’s only suffering.

If you are able to help the person dying, not only to save the person from the lower realms, but also help the rest of the living family, it’s big, it makes them so happy. Wow! Somebody able to help.”

Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s comments about FPMT’s Prayers for the Dead service, made while Rinpoche was visiting FPMT International Office, Portland, USA, in April 2014

Read the full advice

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at night in front of his work table at Kopan Monastery, which has so many statues … another altar! Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in December as part of the Kopan Monastery November course. On December 7, Ven. Roger Kunsang shared on his Twitter page: 

Lama Zopa: The mind is empty of a real mind. This is because the mind exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind. This is buddha nature.

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 teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

During a teaching at the recent November Course at Kopan Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “This life is so, so, so precious. Your death is definite; it can come at any moment.”

Rinpoche has taught many times on the importance of remembering death. Here’s an excerpt from a teaching given at Nalanda Monastery in France in 1995 and published in Mandala May-June 1997:

“Reflecting on impermanence and death in itself is not really a big deal, but thinking about it because of what follows after the death is important. If there is negative karma, then there are the lower realms of unimaginable sufferings, and this is something that can be stopped immediately.

“We cannot be liberated from samsara within this hour, today, this week or even this year, but we can purify negative karma now, this hour today, and therefore stop being reborn in the lower realms if we die now, this hour, today. This is possible.

“By remembering impermanence and death, karma and the lower realms of suffering, the mind is persuaded to use the solution of Dharma practice. Immediately the mind prepares for death. Immediately it purifies the heavy negative karmas that cause one to remain in the lower realms, where there are unimaginable sufferings and no possibility to practice Dharma.

“Whenever there are problems in our lives it is always good to remember the lower realms of suffering. We can’t stand the problems we have now, but the lower realms of suffering are a zillion, zillion, zillion times greater, like the sky. If we put together all the energy of fire, no matter how hot, it is cool compared to one tiny fire spark of hell. All the energy of this human world’s fire put together is cool compared to one tiny fire spark of the hell realm. Like this, it’s always good to make a comparison. …”

Read the entire teaching “Remembering Death” from Mandala May-June 1997.

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.